Sunny on top the echo flew across the battlefield, down below humanity was making their stand, carving open the path that Merlin had already paved for them.
Sleepers fell to the nightmare creatures and nightmare creatures fell to sleepers, but currently none of that was his problem.
He made his way through the sky towards the bottom of the crimson spire, no one knew what abominations he would face there, or maybe someone did, Merlin had only given him a hint 'Destroy the dawn shard' whatever that meant.
Sunny could tell that the current Merlin was not in the best state of mind, he couldn't help but wonder if this was who he naturally was but had been putting in effort to change for their sake.
He shook his head from the distracting thoughts as he arrived at his location, the bottom of the crimson spire, as he landed, the echo faded into lights as the owner unsummoned it.
"Guess I'm alone now, you bastards are about to feel the wrath of a divine shadow, after all I can't let Merlin take all the shine" Sunny smiled as he looked up ahead.
Right in his front stood the seven missing statue heads.
The Lord, the Priestess, the Knight, the Hunter, the Builder, the Slayer, and the Stranger.
Their gazes were aimed at the gargantuan gates of the Spire.
And there, on those gates, the image of seven shining stars was engraved into the ancient stone.
Each star had a dark keyhole in its radiant center.
Sunny sighed and summoned his shadow, Saint, to stand by his side, as he approached the seven heads, the air around seemed to change and immediately the corals around floated together and combined forming seven distinct figures.
The seven heroes, or rather golems of them.
Sunny tilted his head slightly staring at the seven figures in front of him then smirked.
"Seven huh, that's not nearly enough… bring it on you bastards"
In his mind he remembered Merlin's words and he thought 'So the bright lord's gotta go first huh… time to uphold my end of the deal then'.
Then he moved, his target, the bright lord, but the stranger moved first, the midnight shard struck the shield.
'Tough' Sunny thought, then changed tactics, Saint moved to confront the stranger while Sunny moved between the hunter and builder.
His training with Merlin had given him a general understanding of the use of a spear and hammer fighting style, so weaving through attacks was not difficult for him, but the problem was that he was making no progress.
He was stuck between two empowered golems with nothing but determination and his trusted shadow to make do with, or so they thought, but on Sunny's Puppeteer's Shroud something was different, on his left hand was a black glove with silver linings, Cuthul's Gloves.
[Pair: This glove comes in a pair, each can be operated by the wearer no matter the distance]
…
On another side of the battlefield, Effie dove straight into battle, her spear in one hand and a shield in another.
"What a good day to kill a few nightmare creatures"
Effie was not really optimistic to leave the dream realm, her condition outside made sure of that, but after a long time of staying on the forgotten shore, seeing hell begin with each day, watching sleepers try and fail to conquer the crimson spire, now that all sleepers had placed their hopes on all or nothing, she couldn't help but fight, fight with the hope to achieve something, the hope to change what her mentor failed to do, hope to see what their predecessors died before achieving, hope to conquer the forgotten shore.
"Come on you sleepers, fight!!, fight for your freedom!!" Effie shouted as she smashed her shield into the skull of an abomination bashing it to splatters.
From the side, another one dived with its jaws open aiming to bite her head off, but she dodged the attack and drove her spear into the throat of the beast effectively killing it in place.
She pushed forward, fighting desperately against the abominations, time slowly crept by, sleepers fell but abominations fell faster, they were advancing, it was slow, it was slow but it was also steady, then the fallen ones began to move.
The nightmare spell had repeated words endlessly in her mind but she was to battle focused to care, but after a while she stopped, what seemed like a pack of grey wolves with darkened claws stood in her path, other nightmare creatures ignored their stances, like the wolves had marked her as their prey.
"Looks like he was right after all" Effie sighed as she remembered the words Merlin had told her during their briefing. 'When you fight the wolves, don't fight like a sleeper, fight like a beast, and summon the memory I give you and use it on your weapon and armour'.
Effie immediately unsummoned the shield, leaving only the spear, then in her hand she summoned a small green bottle that contained a white liquid that bore a striking resemblance to regular milk, Poison Bottle.
[Random: Every time the memory is summoned, it produces a random deadly poison with unknown effects.]
[Immunity: The holder gains partial immunity to poison that originates from the memory.]
Effie opened the bottle and downed it on her body, drenching her armour and weapon in deadly poison.
"Come on then' let's see which of us is the deadliest hunter here!!" Effie smirked at the pack of wolves in front of her and the wolves as if responding to her provocation moved in response.
The soon to be Raised by Wolves vs a pack of true wolves.
…
On the side, away from the nightmare creatures battle, Cassie held the hilt of her echo Quiet Dancer in place, her mind was working through what she could tell by her sense, she couldn't witness what Merlin did earlier, but she had no doubt that he had done something no one else on the forgotten shore could do, he promised her he would change her vision after all and he had been doing so since then, the takeover of the bright castle was without much bloodshed, they retrieved the shards without too much time and now the sleepers were advancing without much casualties, her only regret now was telling out Sunny's true name, but still she trusted Merlin to find a way that wouldn't end in tragedy.
"Um lady Cassia, the spear launchers are all set, should we fire?" One of the artificers under Kido who was in charge of their long range weapons asked.
Cassie turned to face the sound of the voice and replied.
"No, Merlin said that those weapons are for the spire messengers, so aim it at the sky, and tell them to deploy the net immediately after the spears are fired"
"Understood Lady Cassia" the artificer nodded and left to relay the message.
Cassie turned to face the battlefield and her looks became solemn.
"Guys please be safe"
She stood and listened, listened to the sounds of the battlefield like a song, a song of the fallen.
…
Nephis stood on the hill, she held her longsword in her hand, according to Merlin her time to enter the battlefield had not arrived.
She remembered his words clearly 'You will be on standby, right now the soldiers are fighting on their own because of the vigor of my speech, by the time that runs out, your flames will be the one to reignite that feeling, so stay till you feel it is needed…'.
She looked down at the battlefield, the people she once planned to sacrifice to overcome the forgotten shore are now fighting, and are doing so willingly, witnessing the sheer sight, she couldn't help but think if her method of destroying the nightmare spell was really ideal.
'One person might not be enough, but what about two, what about a hundred, what about a thousand, how long will the nightmare spell survive if the world is against it' She pushed the thoughts back, it was her journey, but it didn't mean she would stop them if they offered to help, but before then…
"Dealing with those three ghouls comes first…"
No matter what she would accomplish this plan, she hadn't told anyone about their true identities, but she knew that even if no one knew that Merlin did and he also had a way to defeat them, but she wouldn't ask, this was her fight and her fight alone.
Nephis pushed away her thoughts as she witnessed the tide of the battlefield changing, the sleeper's march was beginning to falter.
"Guess this is it…"
She grabbed the hilt of her blade and raised it to the sky, immediately a dazzling light filled the battlefield, Changing Star had joined the battlefield to retake wall shina… cough… retake the forgotten shore.
The lost energy of the sleepers was immediately renewed, and they advanced with vigor.
Nephis moved along the battlefield like a white angel of destruction, every abomination she met fell to her flames and sword, along the way she healed the sleepers that could still be healed and they advanced.
The sleepers were now overcoming the battlefield with their might.
…
Effie stabbed a wolf in the eye, and it fell limp and died, he armour and body was already riddled with scratch marks and bite marks, plus her body felt numb due to the poison that she wasn't completely immune to, but still she fought on, the wolves lunged at her, she avoided and attacked then a scratch mark embedded itself on her armour, the wolves were really hunting as a pack.
As she regained her footing and prepared to attack, somewhere behind her, a dazzling light brightened the battlefield.
"Looks like the princess is finally making a move, I can't fall behind anymore… come on let's finish this"
As she attacked, she noticed that the wolves had begun to slow down and their lunges were now weaker, the poison was beginning to take effect.
"Merlin you sly bastard, guess you have more to you than a pretty face"
With a new found strength she was now on the attacking side against the weakened wolves, her movements lacked grace and finesse, the fought the wolves like one of them, the ferocity in her movements would make anyone who saw it feel like she was raised by wolves.
…
Merlin stood staring at the fight below with indifferent eyes, his gaze turned and peered far ahead the battlefield, from his Innate ability 'Connection' he could feel Sunny struggling slightly, he decided to ignore the feeling 'Sunny will push through it'.
Then he turned to Kai who stood on standby and walked to him.
"Kai, order the archers to prepare their arrows, we're about to have company"
Kai looked up to the sky and saw the approaching numerous spots of darkness and nodded.
"I understand"
Merlin turned back to stare at Sunny's location, then he sighed and summoned his echo and took to the sky, around his hand was a bow he borrowed from Kai.
He flew straight upward into the sky, then he put his hand into his pocket and brought out a piece of paper he had prepared earlier with a light gum, he placed it on the body of his echo and it stuck there, then he jumped down, leaving the echo flying towards the other spire messengers.
Merlin who was falling down steadied himself and summoned the Formless, but this time he changed it into an arrow, he knocked it on the bow and aimed, his target, the diamond on the head of the bright lord's golem.
He drew the arrow trusting his training and intuition and fired it, he didn't watch it fly as he immediately snapped his fingers, and ignited the paper on his echo, he flame jumped and resumed his flight towards the herd of fallen monsters approaching. (Our MC has gone mad.)
…
Sunny was locked in a fierce battle with three golems, they had made it their very purpose to keep him from attacking the bright lord, on another side Saint was facing off against the other three golems and she wasn't faring any better than him.
The three golems had kept him on the defense leaving him dodging and blocking attacks, he was holding his ground but he was still pressured.
Well that was to be expected, Merlin had told him that each of the monsters he fought would be an awakened, and now coupled with the dawn shard empowering then, he was holding his own against three battle hardened fallen beasts.
'I need to find a way to take out that bright lord''
Whoosh…
Sunny felt a breeze blow past the battlefield, then…
Clatter…
Turning to the location of the noise, Sunny saw it, a black polished arrow, embedded in the forehead of the bright lord, right where the coral diamond that empowered them had been.
'Merlin…' his friend had pulled through again for him.
Taking advantage of the slight distraction, Sunny stole the thoughts of the builder blocking his path, then he rushed forward, just as the arrow dissolved into sparks of light, Sunny was already on the bright lord, with a swing of his sword, the bright lord's head fell.
"One down… six to go… wait, make that two down, five to go" Sunny changed his words midway because Saint had taken that small opening to behead the idle builder whose thoughts were stolen by Sunny earlier.
Sunny stood beside Saint as they faced the now weak golems.
"Five against two… not a good match up, you guys will need at least twice that to bring us down" Sunny said with a smirk as he lunged at the five awakened beasts.
…
Kai after receiving Merlin's order immediately went to where the archers stood and shouted.
"Archers!!, Ready!!, Aim high!!"
The archers responded to his call and pointed their arrows at the incoming mass of darkness.
He left them and moved towards the artificers.
"Prepare to attack!!, And prepare the net!!"
The artificers responded in kind, standing by on the operating position, waiting for the final order.
Kai took his arrow and stared at the sky, there he saw it, approaching the mass of fallen monsters was one sleeper.
"Merlin…" Kai contemplated whether the firing sequence would hurt him, despite knowing he's strong, just as no one would shoot a gun at a friend just because they're wearing a bullet proof vest.
But he was snapped out of his thoughts by a voice that seemed calm despite the situation.
"It's alright Kai, trust Merlin he'll definitely survive" the voice belonged to Cassie who stood with the artificers.
Kai nodded and turned back to the sky, a few seconds later as the messengers were in range he shouted.
"Spears… Fire!!"