There was a cool breeze caressing Ciel's skin.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked around.
Tall ice buildings were all around him. In the near distance was a staircase that led somewhere underground.
'Where am I?' He thought
Slowly, the memories of the past few days rushed into his empty mind.
'So we did it… we cleared the 10th night.'
'Just 90 more to go…' He thought in slight dejection
The 10th night was only the first one that would have a Blood Forsakened appearing.
'How long have I been out for? Where's Rein?' He thought to himself
He looked around, and saw Rein sitting a few metres away from him.
She had a few injuries and looked slightly pale, but other than that, she looked quite normal.
Although, both of their clothes were all tattered.
"Hey… are you good? What night is it?" Ciel asked
She looked towards him and said with a faint smile:
"I'm good. Still the 11th night. I woke up a few hours before the night began."
"So we have to fight again… damn, I just woke up…" Ciel said
He tried moving, but his body was still in terrible shape. He was in no condition to fight.
"Don't worry. The Starlight Lantern is gonna clear this night for us. At least that's what it said." Rein said calmly
'That bastard… Why is it helping us now? If it wanted to help, it should have done so sooner…' Ciel thought
Just then, there was a faint flicker of light, and the Starlight Lantern appeared before them.
"Hey, what are you doing here? Weren't you going to clear this night?" Rein said in confusion and irritation
"Yeah, I will. Before that, we need to have a small talk." The Starlight Lantern said
"Are you finally going to give us any answer to our questions?" Ciel asked
"I already told you that I can't. One of my abilities is called Soul Contract. I can only make a Soul Contract with a single person, that being you."
"As for regular contracts and Star Contracts, I can make any amount."
"After a Soul Contract is complete, there will be quests that you can complete to gain a reward." The Starlight Lantern Explained
"What is the reward and how is it decided? Also, how are the quests decided?" Ciel asked
"The reward is to truthfully answer a question of your choice. You were the ones who decided that. As for how they are decided… There can only be one at a time, and I'm the one who makes it."
"More like my uncontrolled intuition, so I don't really make the quest."
"You won't be able to complete the quests I made while inside this Special Gate. Therefore, you won't be getting answers any time soon." The Starlight Lantern replied casually
'So the reward didn't have to be an answer to our questions… What other possibilities are there? Also, what's up with this uncontrollable intuition?'
'It feels like we got scammed…'
"So you're basically useless… What is going to happen when all the quests are complete? Will the Soul Contract expire?" Rein asked with a hint of anger
"The Soul Contract won't disappear until one of us dies. And no, I'm not useless."
"Once the Soul Contract is complete, I'll be able to use a bit of my true powers. These can also benefit you."
"Before now, I was just a moving lantern. Right now, I can help you clear this Special Gate faster."
"So… why didn't you help us earlier? Like, we needed help while trying to deal with the Blood Forsakened."
"Even though my Soul Core is at Soul Tier 4, I can't easily handle a Blood Forsakened right now. I'm still a lantern after all. The aura I showed you before was just a bluff, don't take it too seriously."
'This bastard… we should have just killed him… it?'
"By the way, do you have a gender? I've never seen a species of lantern before." Ciel asked
"I'm one of a kind. Also male." The Starlight Lantern replied
"Why does that even matter? So, why didn't you help us defeat the Blood Forsakened? You said you will be helping us from now on… surely you weren't testing us." Rein asked with an irritated glare
"Well, you see… once I made the Soul Contract, I noticed something about you two."
"More like something noticed me. There's a great being in your Soul World… it's quite scary if I'm being honest with you."
"I had to hide myself from its gaze, otherwise, I would have died."
"It took me over 200 hours to lose its attention… By the time I was done, it was already the 11th night. Luckily I was able to warn you about the 10th night when I had some time." The Starlight Lantern explained
'So we spent around 200 hours on the 10th night… that's over 8 days of constant running.'
'Also, the entity behind the Door of Void could influence the Starlight Lantern… maybe the Starlight Lantern knows something about it. We'll ask it once we have a question 'voucher'.
"Well, you better help us with the upcoming nights. Make yourself at least slightly useful. We have to go through all 100 nights because of you." Rein said frowning
The more she knew about the entity behind the Door of Void, the more she could feel its emerging threat.
"Before I finish off this night, let me finally tell you about this Special Gate."
In the end, there wasn't much valuable information that the Starlight Lantern gave them.
They were currently on a massive iceberg.
The interesting part was that this iceberg wasn't from Lumos. It was from an entirely different planet according to the Starlight Lantern.
Usually, when a Gate would be found, the inside of it was meant to resemble the environment around the Gate in the regular world.
Ciel was expecting the Gate they entered to be a massive forest before he entered.
'I guess Special Gates aren't called special without a reason. Still, how is the Starlight Lantern related to this place?' Ciel thought
The last major piece of news was about the final night, night 100.
Apparently, there was going to be a Wretched Forsakened appearing. That was a Soul Tier 4, one level higher than a Blood Forsakened.
'There's no way we're dealing with that… hopefully the Starlight Lantern can deal with it somehow. They are the same rank after all…'
Ciel didn't have his hopes up for that outcome.
The Starlight Lantern itself said he was weaker than the Blood Forsakened. Why would he do any better against a Wretched one?
"Alright, I'll see you on the 99th night next. Good luck for the near future!" The Starlight Lantern said as it suddenly disappeared
"What the fuck is wrong with that thing? I swear I'm going to kill it one day…" Rein said in rage
'Can't really blame her… why is it even disappearing for that long? Maybe the 200 hours of hiding it spoke of was a lie…' Ciel thought
The duo was too tired to move or do anything.
After 10 minutes of sitting in the freezing cold, the night abruptly ended, and it was day once again.
"At least it has the decency to help us clear the nights… let's go in." Rein said
"Right…" Ciel said as they entered the ice building
He summoned their last bit of food and water once inside. They needed to get back in shape quickly.
Their minds were still slightly shaky from all the time spent running and chasing the Blood Tiger.
"I wonder how much Spirit we got. Let's bring back the Forsakened corpses when we're able to move… also, we need a new set of clothes." Rein said calmly
They had a spare set of clothes that were in the Soul World.
The ones they were wearing were covered in blood and filled with many cuts.
"I'll make a new set. If we manage to escape from this place, we'll need a proper set of clothes if we want to enter civilization again."
"We can't go walking around in winter clothes made up of Forsakened pelt, can we?" Ciel said
"Right. Well we have plenty of free time to work on stuff like that." Rein replied
After a few hours of rest, Ciel went outside to collect all the corpses of the dead Forsakened, including the Blood Tiger.
After returning, the duo entered the Soul World to check on their rewards.
Ciel butchered the corpses, removing the Forsaken Cores from them.
After feeding them to the Stone of Eternity, it grew quite a bit.
However, their main reward wasn't the size of the Stone of Eternity.
"We're now at 50% Spirit Charge… that ordeal gave us less than expected…" Rein said dejectedly
Their Soul World was now 100 metres in diameter. The Soul Layer was slowly but surely being pushed back, bringing them closer to Soul Tier 3.
"Well, that's about it for the rewards. I guess the Starlight Lantern isn't planning on seeing us before the 99th night." Ciel said
"He'll provide us with help from now on. Dealing with the Blood Forsakened shouldn't be too hard anymore." Rein replied half sarcastically
They still had a long way ahead in this frozen world.