(Take A Slice- Glass Animals🎵)
Gwin was still falling to what would most likely be his eminent doom however he did not panic. Instead he was smiling and giggling through clenched teeth. Satisfaction coursed through his very being making him giddy and excited.
'You tried for so long to kill me and almost got me several times! Now look at you! A burnt corpse while I'm the victor! You didn't see that coming did you?!'
Gwin maneuvered out of his limp jaw and crawled to his chest where he plunged his hands into Vlad's scorched chest like two spears. He aimed for the faint glow of the three soul shards that rested in a triangular shape in his chest. He felt them in his hands before crushing them right there in his chest.
He returned to normal as he dismissed the [Scorched Aegis] while summoning the [Dark Wing] and the [Mantle Of The Drowned]. He was still falling into the dark abyss below after all. He needed to get out of here quickly or else he might gain the attention of another horror. He hesitated to look around in fear of his gaze waking something truly awful however whether by curiosity or his excitement dulling his critical thinking he decided to look around.
'Is that…sunlight?'
There in the depths of the abyss was an incandescent hole in the darkness. The hole was no bigger than a coin from here but Gwin could tell it was truly huge and even deeper into the abyss he could see a myriad of faint red lights glowing like distant stars filling him with a cold dread. Gwin was falling fast, the wind whipped around him making his messy hair flail wildly. His eyes were wide and frantic and his teeth were bared in manic thought. They soon grew focused and grim.
'I'm already too deep to go back without something following me. I can't deal with dozens of abominations hunting me like Vlad did.'
He spared the scorched corpse of Vlad a look remembering how fearsome their fight was even when his trap had severely evened the odds. In a head on fight it was clear he would not have won.
'There is no time like the present!….I've always wanted to say that.'
He chuckled bitterly as he prepared for what he was about to do. He clutched tightly to Vlad's corpse as the incandescent circle of light grew larger and larger. As it did Gwin witnessed something utterly eerie. Down there illuminated by the pale sunlight were hundreds and hundreds of [Sanguine Gardeners] identical to Vlad. They hung from the cave surrounding the exit like leaves from a dying tree. Gwin's stomach dropped into his feet seeing the sight of them. Surely they would hear his escape and slaughter him. Was there any way he could get by?
On the verge of panicking he made a decision and prayed. A whirlwind of sparks surrounded him before forming into a black cloak inlaid with silver trim. A hood with a pointed lip formed over his head and two leather straps hung from silver clasps that resembled full moons and ended with intricately laced points. He smiled widely as he guessed what this cloak did. Given what he had gotten it from it seemed obvious. Gwin was hardly a hundred meters from the start of the hole. From there he could see that it led into a long tunnel however he couldn't see where the light entered from. He waited in intense silence for the moment to act.
Just as Vlad's corpse became illuminated by the pale sunlight he leaped from his corpse silently as two more wings sprouted from his back. His aspect and [Dark Wing] worked in tandem to propel him forward like an arrow. Despite their obnoxious beating they were silent as if muffled under tons of cotton. He flew forwards at dire speeds and quickly approached the ring of [Sanguine Gardeners]. As he did he saw one's ear twitch before its head turned straight towards him. It unhooked from the stone and shot towards him. Gwin veered to dodge it and kept going. Fortunately the bat did not turn and give chase, instead the sound of ripping flesh and hundreds of barely audible beating wings filled the air as they converged on their torched brethren.
'Holy crap I really thought that was the end for me..'
Ahead of him Gwin saw that the tunnel extended far into the distance into even more abyssal darkness; however that was not what his attention was focused on. It was on the large crack in the roof of the tunnel that spilled pale sunlight down. Gwin soared higher and breached the crack. He dipped, swerved, and rolled to avoid outcroppings of stone. The higher he moved the narrower the crack got until he was barely able to beat his wings.
Just as it seemed he wouldn't make it he burst through the narrowest point and emerged into the world above. Gwin had almost missed the muggy and depressing sky of the…wait he had never asked Umo if this place had a name…he would just call it the dread tides for now.
He would have to wait to ask though because as Gwin took his eyes from the sky he did not recognize his surroundings. That was because he was no longer in the city. To his right was an inconceivably huge crater and to his left was a gigantic cliff that served as the edge of this section. The only thing that broke the even surface of black mud as far as he could see was a gigantic statue standing at an odd angle. It appeared to be a priestess of some sort with both hands raised towards the sky with open palms. Well it would have been both hands but it was missing a few parts, namely its head and one of its arms. To his relief he recognized this statue as the one that stood right outside of the city. It took him a moment but he recognized it from their run from the swarm of black locust.
Not wanting to waste the last of his essence he shot upwards to the colossal walls of the dark city. He made sure to keep as low as possible in fear of drawing the attention of something else lurking in the skies. He passed by the corpses of several gigantic leviathans that resembled translucent jelly fish. Their bodies were hundreds of meters long, painting a truly harrowing picture. Upon reaching the top of the wall he fell to the ground in an exhausted huff. He smiled once again at his situation.
'This is ridiculous. How the hell am I still alive?'
He had truly believed that those bats would rip him apart and yet their target had been Vlad's corpse instead.
'If I make it home I'm getting a lottery ticket.'
Gwin belatedly scanned the horizon looking for the infamous citadel. That was where he would have to go to get out of here after all. His eyes met the distant silhouette and grew wide with panic. It was colossal. It easily dwarfed the walls of the city and pierced the clouds. The very sight of the black stones that made it up filled him with dread. Crimson coral covered it like an infection making it seem like a living creature. Suddenly his idea of conquering the cyclopean citadel seemed impossible.