The group advanced silently through the cathedral corridors until they emerged under the unchanging moonlight of the sky.
Seres observed how Uriel's behavior had changed. Before, the stone saint was timid, scared, and adorable in a certain way, like a small child discovering the world. But now he seemed different.
He carried a melancholic air, but also a determined one. His body moved with purpose, as if reclaiming his place in the world. The flames that were his eyes burned with greater intensity.
They watched for a minute or two as the stone saint stood motionless until he finally spoke.
"I feel as if a long time has passed. Perhaps decades," he said in a calm voice. "I truly thank you for helping me, dear guests. Hearing only Shade's voice for so long made it difficult for me to maintain the will to live."
"You mean that evil specter in your mind?" asked Lycor.
Uriel nodded.
"Hey, enough with your games. Show yourself already," Uriel said aloud.
At first, nothing happened. A few seconds later, they observed a young man with a human appearance, a beautiful face, scarlet eyes that shone with barely contained madness, and a full smile on his lips. His attire was black and perfectly maintained, like a cloak.
"Useless stone. I'm not happy to see you again. You too, royal cockroach. It seems you managed to restore him before I could devour him. You have my respect. Consider yourself upgraded to 'insect.'"
One of Seres's eyebrows twitched.
"Watch your tone when addressing the princess," said Gaellum, his newfound power as an Ascendant boosting his confidence. He was sure he could defeat him.
"We don't have time to fight," interrupted Uriel. "Since I have regained much of myself, Isis should already be starting to awaken."
"You mean the thing guarding the Fragment?"
"Yes. I have fought against her countless times. But I always lost, over and over and over again. However, this time will be different. It will be our final confrontation," said Uriel.
"What are her abilities?" asked Gretel.
"She possesses no supernatural powers. She is a great beast with a humanoid appearance," he explained.
"A human? But I saw it was a mass of flesh devouring everything in its path."
Uriel sighed.
"That was because she was transitioning from Corrupted to Great Creature. I attacked her mid-evolution, but that only accelerated it." Uriel clenched his stone fist.
"So, how do we defeat her?"
"Before shattering my mind and activating the spell, I made some preparations in case of an emergency. They should be ready now."
Uriel began to walk through the destroyed streets, heading in a certain direction where a procession of several creatures was moving.
"Those are..."
"Walkers," finished Lycor.
"I thought they were dangerous?"
"Yes, be careful," said Uriel.
They advanced for a few hours, with the mysterious specter following in silence without saying a word.
Finally, they saw something that made their eyes widen. It was a titanic tree that rose over the entire city like a black pillar.
Its trunk was massive, almost a kilometer in diameter. Its height exceeded two kilometers. Its enormous branches spread across the dark sky, with purple leaves creating an incredibly beautiful and dangerous optical illusion.
Beneath the enormous tree, there was nothing but a great quantity of corpses and bones. As they approached, they saw huge, delicious-looking purple fruits, totally full, resembling peaches.
"W-what is that?" asked Seres in a shocked voice.
"It's Soul," said Uriel, approaching the enormous tree without fear, traversing the sea of beasts. Reaching one of the tree's roots, he touched it gently, causing the tree to shudder and glow with light, beginning to slowly disappear.
Within seconds, the tree dissipated into a rain of dark and purple sparks like fireflies, leaving only a young woman with purple hair, alabaster-white skin. Her attire consisted of a black blouse with a red flower at the center of her chest. The blouse draped over her stomach and hips, resembling petals. Below were black pants and brown leather boots.
The young woman opened her eyes—they were the same purple color—and then hugged the stone saint tightly.
"Father... so much time has passed, so many cycles," said the young woman, who didn't look older than Seres.
"Hello, Soul. I am well now. It's time to end all this."
"Noble... she's a Noble creature," said Lycor. "A heart-type, it seems."
Soul separated from the embrace and approached the group. "I am Soul. I have been watching you since you approached Father. I thank you for what you have done for him," said the maiden.
"Y-you're welcome," said Seres.
Soul joined her hands, creating four dark peaches.
"Please, eat them," she said.
The group each took a peach and ate it. Their eyes widened as they felt their essence become larger and denser.
"I feel stronger," said Lycor.
"I also feel my essence control has increased," said Gretel, opening and closing her hands.
"It seems you like the enhancement," said Soul.
"What rank are you?" asked Lycor. He was a Noble creature and currently possessed four cores, developing his supernatural wind abilities.
"I have six cores."
Lycor's eyes widened.
"And I am a Transcendent."
The group's mouths fell open.
"Transcendent... a Transcendent Terror." The group felt chills before the entity that could crush them in an instant.
"Soul, rest in my Sea of Souls. I will search for the other two."
"Yes. Oh, right, Father, I did what you asked."
"Thank you." With that, Soul disappeared.
"What exactly did she do? And how can a Noble creature enter your Sea of Souls?"
"There is a bond between us. That's why she can. And as for the first question, she possesses very vast and powerful mental powers. Being a Transcendent Terror, she controls the Corrupted on the sun side to give us an army to besiege the castle."
"I saw it. The castle is protected by an enormous sea of Corrupted creatures."
"Yes. Before, I had to fight my way through to reach the castle and face Isis, as Soul wasn't strong enough to control large numbers of Corrupted," explained Uriel as they advanced to another location.
"Stone Saint, what rank are you?" asked Gaellum. "Are you perhaps of Demon or Devil rank? Maybe Terror?"
"I am an Ascended Titan," he revealed as if it were nothing important.
The group was surprised once again.
"That's impossible," said Lycor. "It took me nearly 100 years to become a Demon, and now I am a Devil. It would take you at least five hundred to..." Lycor's eyes widened.
"The cycle," he murmured.
"Correct. By repeating the same day thousands of times, killing countless Corrupted creatures and consuming their cores, it took me only a dozen cycles to reach Titan rank, and another 20 to achieve Ascension. But in the end, nothing changed. I was still weak, and I repeated the day over and over again. Outside, time passes normally. But here, because I used the forbidden enchantment so many times, time became distorted. Time here flows faster than outside. A year here can be a week outside."
Gretel furrowed her brow, making calculations.
"If a year inside is worth a week outside, and considering that this city has been destroyed for 100 years outside... that means you are 5,200 years old."
"Yes. I am old. Incredibly old. And add to that the fact that I repeated the same day an uncountable number of times, and you get this result."
The group didn't know what to say in response to this revelation. It was simply too astonishing, too overwhelming.
They advanced for a while until they reached another part of the dark city, from where darkness emerged, revealing black armor. Beneath the armor were dark clothes ending in a black hood and, beneath that, a helmet.
The aura transmitted by the armor was terrifying to the group. They felt like prey before the creature.
"Fallen," Uriel said to the assassin-like warrior, who looked at him before nodding silently and vanishing, just like Soul.
The group said nothing, not wanting another revelation that would shatter their natural understanding of the world.
To them, Uriel, or the stone saint, was like an entity that destroyed the logic of the world with his impossible feats.
The group hadn't advanced far when a Titan landed from the sky—or rather, a black and gold dragon, about 60 meters tall, which stopped before the group.
"Gunlaug, I see you achieved Transcendence. Congratulations. Now, return." Before the dragon could snort, it disappeared.
"How many allies do you have?"
"That was the last one. There are only three," revealed Uriel.
"Well, let's go to the castle. It's time to fulfill an ancient promise."
Approaching the boundary between night and the beginning of day, they left the darkness, feeling the heat of the sun, which dissipated the night's cold from their bodies.
Ahead, the imposing castle could be seen a few kilometers away.
The group advanced in silence, with Uriel guiding them through streets free of Corrupted creatures. They watched curiously as the evil specter simply walked at their speed, unaffected by anything.
They advanced and advanced for two hours until they finally saw it. They stopped at one of the walls, observing the sea of Corrupted creatures. Among them was the vulture Titan that had attacked them, flying over the castle with countless spirits wrapped around its body. On the ground, there were also creatures of different appearances—some large, some small.
Uriel summoned Soul, who transformed into a tree. Soon, an avalanche of creatures attacked the horde guarding the castle, clashing in a fierce, murderous confrontation.
Uriel then summoned the dragon, which rose into the sky, beginning a confrontation against the Titan in the heights. Their clashes generated huge shockwaves that could be felt clearly even from where they stood.
"Let's go," said Uriel, starting to walk along a path opened by the creatures controlled by Soul, leading directly to the castle.
The group looked at the fight among the creatures and then at the battle in the heights between the Transcendent beast and the corrupted vulture Titan.
Upon entering the palace, they expected to encounter some terrifying creatures, but there was nothing but emptiness and dust.
"Where are the creatures?" asked Seres.
"In the entire castle, there is only one, and it is the most terrifying of all. That being Isis," explained Uriel.
"Since you fought her for thousands of years, you must have an idea of how to defeat her?"
"Only one. Despite having no supernatural powers, she possesses rapid regeneration provided by the Sacred Fragment. We have to snatch it away and eliminate her with a single blow to the heart."
"That was the only time I discovered her weakness before escaping defeated and repeating the cycle."
When Uriel finished speaking, he stopped before large doors, which he opened, revealing an enormous hall about 100 meters in diameter, immaculate. At the end of the hall, seated on a throne, was a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes that remained closed. Her only garment was a white dress covering her body and a kind of bright crystal embedded in her chest.
The creature opened her eyes as if awakening from a long sleep.
Her gaze fixed on the group before settling specifically on the stone saint.
One moment she was seated on the throne; the next, she was upon Uriel, throwing a punch that the stone saint blocked using darkness as a shield, though his body was thrown against the wall, leaving a huge crack from the devastating force of the blow.
Immediately, everyone moved away from the great creature, who looked at them silently for a moment before lunging at Lycor, who invoked the wind, creating a wall of air that the creature passed through.
Before the creature could launch another attack, she received a kick that sent her flying several meters. This was thanks to Fallen, who had been summoned.
Both—a Transcendent Devil and a Great Beast—stared fixedly at each other and, without saying a word, launched into a brutal contest of physical prowess.
Every impact shook the great hall, creating shockwaves that would disintegrate Corrupted beasts.
Uriel transformed into darkness, adopting a formless shape that wrapped around the dark creature, making it stronger and gaining ground.