Letting out a sigh, Wren stood up from the corpse of the Licht. Darkness was still spilling out from the cracks on his skin.
His breathing was ragged, and he felt exhausted. The pain was searing, but within seconds, it healed.
The colours of his iris returned to their normal violet as the power of the darkness left his body. With it, the strength also vanished, and he became a normal dormant again.
Just then, a wide hand settled on his shoulder. Looking behind, the burly awakened was smirking.
"You look pathetic for a king."
Wren couldn't help but chuckle.
"This pathetic king is the one who saved your ass today." He said with a smirk. Baldur laughed along with him.
Riana looked at those two, a small smile formed on her face, before her expression turned serious.
'Why is captain taking so much time? He should just kill the Mad Shadow, now that it's been brought to its knees.' She thought while looking at the two distinctive figures far from where she was.
The dragon was also defeated; however, the noble creature wasn't killed. It was clear that they had captured it and were using some sorcery to keep it under control.
"Just what are you thinking, captain..." She muttered to herself. From the start, their battle seemed more of a personal feud; it was the first time she had seen her captain, the leader of their cohort, this different.
Just then, the Mad Shadow laughed. Its sinister laugh spread across the entire battlefield, driving everyone's attention toward it.
She could see its mouth move, but couldn't hear the words it spoke. But whatever it was, the expression on her leader's face...
It was terror.
Riana saw him raise his sword to finish the Mad Shadow, but it seemed that the Shadowspawn had tricks hidden under its mane.
The space wrapped around it, before sucking the Shadowspawn within it and disappearing from the face of Orion's sword.
For a few moments, silence had taken over the vast desert. But then, a presence fell over—crushing and domineering.
Then, a vast shadow fell over the world.
Riana trembled before her knees buckled, and she fell on the sand, but she didn't dare to look at the source of the vast shadow.
The presence was so vast and terrifying that even a moment of staring upwards would make her mad and fill her soul with defilement.
This was the might of a corrupted Spirit.
***
Abrogation.
A Cursed Titan, who wielded the power of Space and Time. It was a profane deity that had been a resident of this realm from the start.
Despite its abilities, this cursed one never showed much interest in human souls, especially those who were far weaker than its own. There had only been one time when it had ever shown movements, and that was when the Demon of Truth had made his appearance.
Everything about this cursed deity was strange. Its body was made purely from black mist, and where its head is supposed to be, there was a black sun.
What had attracted it, nobody knew. However, its presence was a deadly poison. Just being drowned in its shadow, some of them had driven their swords through their own throat because of the madness.
Wren was on his knees, and the strength in his body waned. Blood streamed down from all of his orifices; the heavy presence was too much for a dormant soul like his.
If this went on any longer, his soul would crumble. Just when hope was dying, a blinding light far brighter than the incandescent sun in the Hell of Ariel was brought down on the cursed deity.
However, it was stopped. As if the space around it stopped it, or as if time was slowed down, particularly for the blinding light.
The cursed nightmare creature used its powers to stop time for the blinding source of light. But that meant the enemy was someone of its caliber.
The blinding light intensified, and then a wave of power engulfed all the people present. It was soothing and healing, pulling away the madness that had ravaged their minds.
Wren felt the heavy presence lift from his body, but he felt very nauseated in this domain. It was as if something very disgusting was touching his body, so much so that he wanted to puke.
'At least it's not like before, I can withstand this.' He thought as he wiped the blood from his orifices. When he looked up, he was blinded by the source of light.
However, he could feel it. It was a presence rivalling the cursed nightmare creature; it was a Sacred. A living Sacred, and he can't miss this moment to witness how a Sacred fought.
He sensed invisible, indescribable forces colliding in the air. The resulting waves cracked the fabric of space itself, distorting his sense of time.
"Is this… Will?" He muttered to himself. The concept of will was something he had only heard from Morgan and his master.
Will was the intent of an Awakened that was exerted on the world, and what he was seeing right now was the clash between the wills of two deities.
'Although I want to take the experience, I don't like being thrown around like a ragdoll, and this has been happening since I entered the first nightmare.' He thought as he was thrown back like a ragdoll.
He groaned.
Suddenly, a large shadow covered his face. It was a peculiar shadow. As he looked behind, he saw pitch-black scales and two red eyes staring directly at him.
The fearsome dragon, once a harbinger of terror, now seemed more like a docile, overgrown lizard, inexplicably fawning over him.
Then the noble creature snorted, or whatever it did before lying beside him. Wren looked at the peculiar creature for a few moments and then just shrugged his shoulders.
He was more interested in the battle taking place in the skies. The clash between the will was far more difficult to follow than he had thought.
He couldn't see a damn thing. The Sacred being was just standing in front of the cursed deity, and the same could be said for the nightmare creature.
Even though he could look at the cursed creature, his senses were distorted, giving him an eerie feeling that forced him to stare at the blinding source of light.
Wren diverted his attention towards the dragon who was resting beside him, then he looked at the others, or rather, he looked for others.
Except for him and the awakened cohort, all the other troops from his army were dead. His attention shifted to Riana, who was resting beside Baldur.
The two of them were just resting. His attention then shifted to others, apparently, as they were all resting, including their serious leader, Ascended Orion.
It was only him. The only person who didn't feel this urge to rest, and the more he thought about it, the more he realised what his innate attribute really meant.
Divinity.
It can't affect him.
But then, what about the corrupted? Was he… His eyes widened slightly. The appearance of this cursed, ranked nightmare creature might be due to him.
Then, why didn't it attack or do something to him? He had the answer for that, too.
The answer was darkness.
"It was a good thing, I didn't use that attribute any further." He muttered to himself. As much as he wanted to take experience from the battle taking place in front of him, he had already grasped whatever he could, and the ability to peer further would be only there for him after he reached that level himself.
For now, he should see the spoil of this war.
The ascended memory of the fifth tier was waiting for him.
He opened the runes that read:
Memory: [Reaper of A Starless Void].
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Type: Weapon.
Memory Description: [Litchs were the servants of death, but their greed for souls had made them betray the Shadow God, who doomed them to an oblivion. Those who survived the wrath of Shadow God were taken under the protection of a Spirit, the Evernight.
His benevolence had saved the dying species, and learning from their mistakes, the Litchs now served Evernight. Losing their connection to Shadow God, the once reapers were now hollow; however, their benevolent protector had helped them reveal another power hidden in them, the power of the undead. Wielding this new power, and the weapon their new master had created for them, Litchs grew stronger.
However, the wrath of the Shadow God never left them, and soon he wrote their deaths with the blood of their new master. The Litchs fell, with only one of their kind surviving, who was met with a fate worse than death, corruption and madness.
But the grudge against the Shadow God was what had kept it in a lucid state; it was cunning and devious. Yet, its cunningness, strength, and nothing worked against the king, who in the end broke its core.
This scythe was one of the eight scythes forged by the Evernight.]
After reading this description, Wren was excited to test the weapon. Suddenly, he felt one of the heavy presences disappear. When he looked at the air, only the blinding source of light floated; the cursed-ranked nightmare creature was nowhere to be seen.
'What the hell?' He thought, before his gaze averted back to the sacred who was… descending.
The sacred descended, and the blinding light began to change and mold in a form that closely resembled a human except for the four horns that twisted around the head like a crown.
The intensity of the light dimmed, revealing a woman possessing silver-white hair and grey eyes that looked like cold steel despite the smile on her face. She was wearing a white robe that flowed despite there being no wind. Her body was slender, and her movements were refined with elegance.
One moment she was beside him and in the other, she had already walk past.
When he looked back, she was already in front of Orion, who was somehow standing upright, considering how he was lying on the sand with no care.
"It must have been a rough journey." A voice that echoed from all over the place, sounding like a myriad of voices mixed into a melodic song, spoke.
Orion bowed in front of her.
"Ascended Orion of the fourth elite cohort, greets the commander." Just as he said, everyone bowed, including Wren.
It was a Sacred, after all.