'Hot.'
That was the first word that came to Lucien's mind as they crossed into the desert.
'And bright. Very bright.'
A blinding disc of an incandescent sun was bathing the tall dunes in a flood of immolating heat. The sands of the desert were flawlessly white, and the azure sky above him was deep and boundless like an ancient ocean, with not a single cloud blemishing its silken expanse.
A giant black pyramid rose in the distance, its peak brushing against the sky. It flickered in and out of existence, like a haunting mirage for anyone looking for sanctuary.
After days of travelling through the endless night of the Forgotten Shore, the burning sun of the desert was almost unbearable.
By Lucien's calculations, they should have entered the desert after nightfall, they had been traveling for a whole day before reaching the desert after all. But the sun was high in the sky, and it wasn't coming down anytime soon.
He might have miscalculated just a bit.
But that wasn't the biggest problem, not even close. That would be the amount of corruption seeping from the ground. Lucien couldn't quite pinpoint its source, but it was undoubtedly present.
'Well at least there's no nightmare creatures nearby.' He thought with a sigh. His storm sense was pushed to its extremes, covering a large area around them. If something entered his range, he'd know it long before they could see it.
With nothing barring their path, they continued onward through the scorching desert. Not a word was spoken between them after the conversation last night. Lucien was still unsure why she had chosen to stay behind. The Nephis he knew, would've left Sunny for dead and gone back to the waking world. Not to mention, Sunny would not have simply left like that.
The boy was smart, he could see when he was being played, even if it was Nephis pulling the strings. So then why would he leave her behind. The Sunless he knew would have stayed behind with her.
Glancing back at Nephis, he opened his mouth to ask when something entered the edge of his storm sense.
Lucien screeched to a halt, forcing his companion to stop behind him.
"What is it?" Nephis asked, and raised her blade. Her glaze flittered at the distant dunes, scanning for any sign of movement.
"Some nightmare creatures just entered my range," He closed his eyes, visualizing the profane electricity running through their rotting brains. "There's three in total, all Fallen."
In his mind's eye, three nodes of lightning appeared in the distance, a whispering rot tainting them partially.
Then he suddenly frowned, "No, there's more. Four more approach from the skies."
Two pairs of nodes entered his range, flying a few dozen meters above them. Riders on mounts perhaps.
Black smoke began pouring out of his armour, and the storm blade drank it all up greedily. A thin layer of lightning covered both memories. Wreathed in both darkness and lightning, Lucien looked like a walking storm on the face of the planet.
"I'll handle the ones in the sky, deal with the ones on land."
Nephis simply nodded, and an incandescent white glow began emanating from her body. The Dream Blade grew still in her hands, reflecting the sunlight in a way that made it look like a divine weapon cast down to slay demons.
How ironic was it that it was being used by a demon instead?
In the distance, the first visage of their enemies could be seen. They looked like humans for the most part, clad in a strange rusted armour. Of course their flesh was rotted and their hollow eyes had an eerie blue radiance. Of the three, one of them held two swords, wicked sharp and slightly curved. The other held a pair of menacing twisted sickles. And the last one, the last one had four arms. It held a spear between its lower arms, and a cracked shield and sword in its upper arms.
The three on the ground suddenly snapped their necks towards Lucien and Nephis, a furious madness burning in their eyes. Their leader, the one on the front with four arms, raised one of them and pointed at the humans, a garbled moan coming out of its mouth. And the three began running towards them.
At the same time, two blood-red griffins glided into their view, their razor sharp talons whistling as they cut through the air. Their bloodied beaks opened and let out synchronous shrieks.
Two humanoid warriors rode atop them, each with four arms just like the one below. Two of which held on to the reins, the remaining two held weapons.
"Let's give them a warm welcome shall we?" Lucien said, a surge of lightning flowing into his sword.
"Yes." Was Nephis' only reply, a fire burning in her eyes.
And then, the monsters were upon them.
Lucien shot up to the sky to intercept the fliers, his sword cutting a wide arc in the air, forcing them to stop. He glared at them, his vision shifting as their profane cores came into view. Two orbs of corruption lit up inside the griffins, monsters. Three masses of rot lined the soldiers each, demons. Down below, Nephis had already engaged in combat against two monsters and a demon. She moved like a demon herself, her blade singing as it cut through the air.
One of the griffins suddenly shot forward, aiming to skewer him on its beak. Lucien bent down, dodging the blow and raising his sword, tracing a long shallow cut along its body. A bolt of lightning flowed out of his blade and into the monster.
For a moment, the griffin froze, and began falling. It's rider looked down and smacked it on the head. The griffin cawed and began flapping its wings furiously, slowly gaining altitude once again.
At the same time, the second pair attacked. The griffin flew into Lucien, its talons striking at him with furious intensity. Lucien parried the first blow, dodged the second, but he couldn't avoid the third. The talon cut into his stone armour, leaving a deep gash behind.
As he was reeling from the blow, the soldier atop the griffin jumped down at him, grappling him from behind. It's two hands grabbed Lucien's arms by the wrist, and the remaining two readied its blade to stab through the gap in his armour.
Gritting his teeth, Lucien commanded all of his storm to his armour, supercharging it in a thick layer of purple lightning. The smell of ozone filled his nose as the cry of lightning became almost deafening.
The soldier holding him made a strange gargled noise as a lethal amount of lightning flowed through its body. Its grip on Lucien slackened for a moment, and he capitalized on that. Twisting his arms, Lucien broke free and immediately turned around, and grabbed its throat.
By then, it had regained enough control to begin clawing at Lucien's hand, intensifying as his grip tightened. Behind him, the griffin had started to move towards him. In front, the other pair was almost at them.
Raising his other hand, Lucien stabbed it with the storm blade and at the same time pulled with all the force he could muster. Vile green blood spewed out of the monsters neck as its throat was ripped out and it was pulled into the storm blade.
[You have killed a Fallen Demon, Draugr General.]
[Your Spirit surges Brighter.]
Lucien wasted no time and dashed to the side. Just in time, as the bloodstained beak of the griffin grazed past him and into the monsters corpse. The griffin turned towards him midair, the body skewered on its beak. Hatred burned in its eyes as it opened its beak to screech, ripping the body in half.
Now that he was closer, Lucien could see the rows of sharp yellow teeth inside. Chunks of rotting meat were still stuck between them.
By then, the remaining pair had finally reached them. The riderless griffin shared a glance with its companion, and an understanding passed between them. Glaring at Lucien once more, it lowered its beak, and dove down with startling speed.
Right towards where Nephis was still fighting the rest of the draugr.
Lucien's eyes widened and time slowed down as he dove into his soul sea. He couldn't warn Nephis, she'd never respond in time. He could dive after it, but he couldn't guarantee that he would stop it. Maybe he could kill it? Shoot it dead?
Back in the real world, a whirlwind of sparks signalled the summoning of a memory, the sparks moved to form the frame of the bow. In his other hand, an arrow was also slowly forming. It usually took a second or two for a memory to be summoned. It wasn't usually a problem, but in the heat of battle, that second could cost him dearly.
Down below, the griffin had almost reached Nephis, its freshly bloodied beak ready to skewer her and rip her in half just as it did with its old rider.
'Goddamnit it's too slow!'
Left with no other choice, Lucien swapped his grip on the storm blade and raised it high above his head. An entire cores worth of storm essence was poured into the blade, the crackling of thunder screamed into existence as the blade was engulfed in it.
The storm blade roared through the air, like a stray bolt of lightning in this cloudless land. The griffin turned its head just in time to come face to face with the tip of the blade. A startled shriek was cut short as the storm blade ripped through the monster.
[You have killed a Fallen Monster, War Gryphon.]
[Your Spirit surges Brighter.]
As soon as he heard the message, he summoned the blade back to him, but that would take a precious few seconds. He'd be left defenseless against an armed enemy.
But then, the Iron Warbow finally wove itself out of sparks, and the bone arrow appeared alongside it. The remaining griffin had already started to fly towards him, leaving him little time to shoot.
Alas, time was one thing Lucien had plenty of. Lightning trailed his movements as he notched the arrow and drew the bow, taking a moment to adjust his aim, and released.
The bone arrow flew through the air, above the head of the griffin and right at the head of its rider. Or it would have, had the draugr not batted it away with its sword. The arrow turned into sparks, returning to Lucien's soul sea.
When the monster looked toward Lucien again, he was gone. The roar of lightning was coming from behind it.
The griffin shrieked and tried to turn around, but it was too late.
Lucien shot through the air, a dark crystal in hand, infusing a small amount of storm essence into it. Instantly the crystal flashed purple as a tiny bolt of lightning struck inside it, then another, and another. The frequency of lightning kept increasing.
The draugr slowly turned to him, its mouth open in a roar. Lucien grinned and raised his hand. Left in an awkward position, the monster couldn't raise its blade to parry the blow, still it tried. Its rotting arm twisted at an unnatural angle as it tried to deflect the blow.
Lucien struck the weapon, forcing its arm away for just a moment, and a moment was all he needed to stick the glowing shard inside the monster's mouth.
As the storm shard reached critical point, Lucien shot away from the monster, far away. A moment later, the cacophony of lightning shook the world, drowning the white sands in purple light.
[You have killed a Fallen Demon, Draugr General.]
[Your Spirit surges Brighter.]
[You have killed a Fallen Monster, War Gryphon.]
[Your Spirit surges Brighter.]
Down below, Nephis had already dealt with two of the draugr, and was locked in combat with the third.
As Lucien watched, Nephis struck the monster across its ruined chestplate, drawing blood with the tip of her blade. Such a wound should have been trivial to the monster, but it visibly weakened, its strikes grew weaker.
Curious, Lucien flew a bit closer and shifted his vision. He could see the parts of its body highlighted in black, unlike Nephis' gold. The three nodes of corruption within it had dimmed noticeably.
Nephis struck again, drawing just a bit of blood, and the nodes dimmed even further. Lucien narrowed his eyes and stared at her blade. Near instantly, the information flowed into his mind.
The Dream Blade was a dormant memory of the first tier, there was nothing special about it. Nothing that should have allowed it to do what it was doing.
At the same time, information about another memory entered his mind. The Nameless Sun, an ascended memory of the sixth tier. One of its enchantments was to enhance other memories, and the other was to strike at souls. It wasn't a physical memory, rather it acted as an overlay atop another memory. With each strike, it would chip away at the soul of its opponent, until finally it destroys it.
'Interesting, wonder if I can replicate it.' Lucien thought just as Nephis dealt the final blow and the body of the Draugr crumbled.