Chapter 1204 Battle Of The Black Skull (18)
As the gargantuan black tentacles rampage, Sunny and Nephis stand amidst the escalating chaos, watching the destruction unleashed by the beings emerging from the Nightmare Gates. “Ruined… it’s all ruined…” Sunny thinks, struggling to comprehend the unfolding apocalypse while battling the deafening Call in his mind. Dismissing his useless Shadows, he focuses on survival, desperately trying to connect to the Dream Realm. The proximity to the Gates distorts his anchor, threatening to pull him toward one of the Seeds instead of his Citadel. Realizing that any Dream Realm location is better than the encroaching annihilation, he steels himself.
Before Sunny, Awakened, Echoes, and enthralled abominations alike are torn apart by the seething mass of dark flesh. A gargantuan hand emerges from the abyss, grasping screaming humans. To escape, Sunny recognizes he must “succumb to the Call.” After months of resisting its insidious whispers, he hesitantly releases control, a frightening yet strangely relieving feeling. He senses the distorted connection to the Dream Realm growing stronger, the whispers demanding he utilize it. Submitting to their will, he pulls on the connection, feeling the border between worlds weaken. It’s as though something pulls him from the other side, expelling him from this one.
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Sunny holds onto that feeling, hoping to escape before being crushed. The colossal Gates stretch into the broken sky like festering wounds, while the dark tentacles obliterate armies and drag more of the Great abomination into the world. “I think you should take a look at” is all Sunny says as he and Nephis stand motionless, not attempting to run from the horror that unfolds.
Chapter 1205 Into the Fire
Before Sunny stands no longer with Nephis; instead, he finds himself alone in the Nightmare Desert, a landscape of “white sand” and “azure sky” under a merciless sun. The heat is so intense that, even as a Master, he struggles to breathe, his skin burning. This, he realizes, is the same desert Nephis once traversed, a place where danger escalates the further one ventures. Recalling Nephis’s warning, he knows that finding shelter before nightfall is a matter of life or death.
As Sunny sits, five stark shadows betray his presence in the barren landscape. Though moments ago he tasted victory with Dire Fang’s defeat, now only ruin surrounds him. The battle, poised to shift in Valor’s favor, ultimately dissolved into apocalypse. Sunny is crushed by the weight of failure, lamenting how victory always slips away. “It’s useless… it’s all useless…”. The Nightmare Spell has claimed victory as two great clans clash; The Category Four Gates spell doom for the Southern Quadrant.
Armies are annihilated, elites are lost, and the most powerful defenders are gone. Siege capitals are left vulnerable, and swarms of abominations will now roam the continent. Sunny knows everyone is going to die or, at best, struggle to survive in the Dream Realm and this cursed desert. “Curse it all…”.
Chapter 1206 Nightmare Desert
Fleeing across the Nightmare Desert atop Nightmare, Sunny is pursued by an unseen horror. He slashes at a grasping hand erupting from the sands with the Sin of Solace, watching it dissolve into ash. “Curses… that thing is persistent.” Beneath the surface, something enormous moves, tracking him through the shifting dunes, while all around, Nightmare Creatures lumber in the same direction, drawn to the blooming Seed of Nightmare.
These abominations, lost in a hypnotic trance, ignore him unless he interferes, a detachment he finds more unsettling than their usual murderous frenzy. “Crap, crap, crap…” The setting sun casts long, stark shadows as Sunny navigates the white expanse, the threat of nightfall looming. Desperate, he steers Nightmare toward a Corrupted Monster, a massive, ghastly creature with insect-like eyes fixed on a distant point.
As Nightmare flashes past the distracted monster, Sunny cleaves its head with the Sin of Solace. Moments later, countless hands erupt from beneath, dragging the bleeding carcass into the sand, leaving no trace of the beast behind. The unknown horror ceases its pursuit, seemingly satisfied by this macabre offering. “Damnation…” Sunny continues his treacherous journey.
Chapter 1207 First Night
Navigating toward the ruin, Sunny discovers a fallen Ascended of Clan Song, a victim of the desert’s harshness. The Ascended’s Memory armor is gone, leaving only a torn bodysuit on his body. Sunny kneels to close the dead man’s eyes, somber. As dusk descends, Sunny reaches the ruin, seeking shelter from the approaching night. He squeezes through a fissure and falls into an underground chamber.
“What do we have here…” a hoarse voice cuts through the darkness. A steel blade presses against his neck. “Can you not? I really don’t want to have my head cut off… again…” Sunny whispers. He pushes the blade away and is met with a familiar face. Jet and Song Seishan are hiding within, bruised and battered. Jet lowers her weapon and exclaims, “…We weren’t sure if the light would attract danger,” before admitting, “I’m really glad that you’re alive.”
Sunny summons a luminous memory to illuminate their surroundings, revealing the extent of their injuries. Jet’s armor is torn, and Seishan’s dress is ripped and stained with blood. Sunny assures them that the light shouldn’t attract the Nightmare Creatures. “…As long as we’re out of sight, we should be safe.” However, the nightmare battlefield within the desert, a horror too terrible to cross the Category Three Gates, may now spill into the waking world.
Chapter 1208 Newcomer
Sunny, Jet, and Seishan immediately brace themselves as sand falls from above, revealing Ascended Xu. Seishan relaxes, relieved a fellow Clan Song member survived. “Ascended Xu… you have survived, as well,” she says with a pale smile. Sunny, however, feels a chilling dread as he studies the newcomer. Xu, unarmed and clad in a torn bodysuit revealing gruesome injuries, is the same corpse Sunny encountered earlier. Seishan, oblivious, inquires, “Master Xu! Thank the gods… have you seen any of my sisters?” Xu hoarsely replies he hasn’t seen anyone else.
Sunny, utilizing his unique perception, peers within Xu, finding only an unfathomable darkness where a soul should reside. The Sin of Solace trembles, sensing the immense danger. Jet remains wary, questioning, “How did you survive being outside during the night?” The creature wearing Xu’s corpse shivers, responding, “…Barely, my lady. Just barely.”
The creature then smiles, asking, “Are there more people nearby?” Its perfect imitation of human behavior unsettles Sunny. This Nightmare Creature, capable of controlling a corpse, speaking flawlessly, and surviving the desert night, is unlike anything he’s ever encountered. The group faces a terrifying threat, concealed within a familiar face.
Chapter 1209 No Way Out
The Sin of Solace nearly shatters upon contact with the creature wearing Ascended Xu’s face, forcing Sunny to abort his attack. Simultaneously, Xu sends Seishan flying into the chamber wall, shattering stone and revealing more sand. Jet attacks with her glaive, but the enchanted steel cracks and explodes as it connects, disrupting her balance. Even Seishan’s precise strike to the creature’s neck proves futile as the wound immediately heals. “W-what…” she murmurs, sending a mental plea to Sunny: [What do we do?]
Realizing that fighting is suicide, Sunny dismisses Saint and shouts, “Run!” as he makes his decision. He summons an Echo of Saint Dire Fang to create a distraction. The monstrous figure explodes into being, pinning the abomination against the wall, but Sunny knows it won’t hold for long. The Echo, barely enough to buy them a moment, proves to Sunny that he “actually managed to receive the Echo of a mighty Saint. A Saint, damn it! But it’s barely enough to slow the enemy down for a moment…”
Jet takes the lead, climbing into a narrow fissure. Seishan quickly follows, her trust placed in Sunny’s judgment. Wasting no time, Sunny teleports above ground and grabs Jet’s hand, helping her escape. The roar of the eternal battle, muffled until now, engulfs them as they emerge back onto the desolate battlefield. They face a choice between a hopeless fight in the chamber or a desperate run for survival in the deadly Nightmare Desert.
Chapter 1210 Dead Soldiers
Nightmare gallops through the chaotic battlefield where undead servants of dead deities wage an endless war, heedless of Sunny’s presence. As Sunny guides them in shadow form, giants of bone clash, their furious blows creating shockwaves that threaten to collapse the world around them. “Crazy, crazy… this is crazy!” Sunny thinks, his mind races to find a path through the carnage, hoping the dead continue to ignore them.
He witnesses a black skeleton cleaving a behemoth in half with an obsidian sword, and armies of the dead colliding in a star-extinguishing clash. A giant sword, flung from a battle between titans, hurtles towards Sunny. He dives into the shadows, barely avoiding annihilation as the blade vanishes into the darkness. “…We won’t survive here for long,” he realizes, the desert echoing with the echoes of unimaginable power.
Sunny knows that the Nightmare Desert was the site of a cataclysmic battle between gods and daemons, now a battleground for their undead armies. Sunny recalls Nephis’s warning and knows the true horror lies in the heart of the desert, yet they are like ants in this place, one wrong step and they risk complete obliteration.
Chapter 1211 Until Dawn
Sunny, struggling against the primal terror of the battlefield, leads Jet and Seishan toward a ruined structure, hoping to find refuge. Inside, the stench of burned flesh assaults them. The spherical chamber is partially buried in sand and ravaged by an explosion, with a blackened corpse lying in the center. A split second later, Sunny finds Nephis. She is unconscious amidst the black stones, her armor nearly destroyed, and white flames flicker from her wounds.
Relief washes over Sunny as he confirms Nephis is alive and healing. Jet studies the charred corpse and states, “No… the body is too damaged. However, it gives me the creeps.” They wonder if Nephis battled a survivor or another being like Ascended Xu. “It doesn’t matter. We need to destroy this corpse. Otherwise, there’s a chance that it will rise and start talking to us again,” Sunny declares. With the corpse disposed of, they gather around Nephis, waiting in silence for dawn.
As morning arrives, the sounds of battle fade. Sunny sends a shadow to survey the outside world, finding the desert tranquil and pristine. He is exhausted from the previous twenty-four hours, which included intense battles, traversing the desert, and facing the harrowing creature wearing Master Xu’s corpse. Although it had been terribly cold in the desert during the night, now that the sun has risen, the unbearable heat is returning.
Chapter 1212 Pursuer
Sunny, Nephis, Jet, and Seishan swiftly evacuate the ruined dome, driven by the chilling possibility of a pursuing Category Four Gate Guardian. Even if it is not the Guardian, the being who possessed Master Xu’s corpse is undeniably powerful, perhaps a Great Devil, Tyrant, or worse. Sunny recalls his past, artificial “kill” of a Great Devil and realizes just how threatening these beings can truly be. They flee into the desert, moving away from the last known location of the monstrous entity.
As they run, Nephis recounts her recent ordeal, sharing how she had teamed up with one of the Valor Ascended after entering the Nightmare Desert. However, the Ascended acted strangely, refusing her healing and arousing her suspicions. Then, as the dead rose, he attacked her. “The strangest thing was that… I don’t think he wanted to kill me,” Nephis says, frowning. “It was more like he wanted to… spread. Into me.” Sunny is struck by a chilling thought: was the Ascended trying to corrupt Nephis? The idea of corruption raises deeper questions about the true nature of Nightmare Creatures, beings consumed by a vile darkness long before the Spell was cast.
Chapter 1213 Search & Rescue
The group continues fleeing, soon encountering Kai, who appears tired but relatively unscathed thanks to his fire-dragon armor. Sunny feels an immense wave of relief at seeing his friend alive, knowing the government forces were caught in the chaos. Kai explains he’s been searching for survivors, using his farsight and flight abilities to locate and assist them. “‘Kai… you really know how to make an entrance, don’t you? Where’s Effie?'” Sunny asks. Kai assures him Effie is safe with a sizable group of survivors who have banded together for safety, due to many of them entering near the desert together.
Nephis, Jet, and even the usually reserved Seishan greet Kai warmly, reflecting his unique position as someone detached from the clans’ conflicts and familiar with Bright Castle residents. Seishan then asks, her emotionless voice hinting at desperation, “‘The group of survivors… are there Saints among you?'” Kai’s expression darkens as he reveals that Saint Cor had been with them, ensuring their survival, but has now returned to the waking world to combat a crisis in East Antarctica.
Kai confirms that Madoc and Dire Fang perished, and the fate of the other Saints remains unknown. The news visibly affects Seishan, dimming the light in her eyes. The survivors have found a reliable shelter for enduring the night, hinting at a refuge amid the deadly desert. This discovery creates a beacon of hope amidst the despair of the Nightmare Desert, but the absence of powerful Saints paints a grim picture of the dangers that still lurk in the sands.
Chapter 1214 Source Of Nightmares
Mordret, beaten and shackled, stumbles through the Nightmare Desert, his one-eyed, half-faced visage a testament to recent brutal encounters. An Ascended of Clan Valor shoves him, prompting Mordret to sarcastically quip, “I’m trying… really now, is this how you treat a prince of Valor?” His captors, Masters of the fallen clan, force him onward, their fear palpable, driving them to seek refuge in the Black Skull Citadel. They desperately need his knowledge to navigate the treacherous landscape and escape the horrors of the desert.
The Masters’ sole reason for keeping Mordret alive is his knowledge of the Citadel’s location. The terrain changes, and they are forced to traverse on foot. One of the woman Ascended, pulls him up and demands “Lead the way. Your life depends on reaching the Black Skull, too. Where is it?!” The group presses onward, their urgency fueled by the looming threat of the Skinwalker, a creature that has already decimated their ranks. He manages to guide them through ancient ruins, his knowledge of the desert proving invaluable.
Finally, after hours of grueling travel, the imposing Black Skull Citadel looms into view. While the Masters exude excitement, Mordret silently takes a step back, a sinister smile forming on his lips. He reflects on the key question they failed to ask, a question far more critical than the Citadel’s location: What has he done with the corpses of the Awakened inside the Black Skull Citadel? The answer, chillingly, is nothing.
Chapter 1215 Steel Tower
Lookouts, haggard Masters from fallen clans Valor and Song, and government factions, guard the Black Skull Citadel, momentarily united against the desert’s horrors. They’ve cast aside former feuds, driven by the ruthless Spell. As Mordret’s captors lead him inside, Sunny senses the presence of about twenty survivors, some scavenging, others mapping the area, led by Morgan, the Princess of War. Her armor is gone, replaced with a black tunic. Her eyes, dulled, light up when she sees her sister. “My sister is alive.”
Confusion turns to excitement as the other scouts recognize Nephis, “Lady Changing Star!”. Effie, robust and clad in steel, rushes towards them, greeting them heartily. “Doofus! Princess!” She claps Sunny on the back and then hugs Nephis, who manages to rasp “Wha… uh… Effie, I can’t breathe…” The huntress releases Nephis, declaring “Thank the gods. You are Masters, after all! I was afraid that the two of you pale apparitions would be all red and burned by the time you got here…”
Sunny’s usual playful mood vanishes as his gaze sweeps over the Ascended. While their souls shine brightly, a disturbing darkness clings to seven of them. Cancerous corruption festers within, revealing them as vessels of the same creature that once wore Ascended Xu’s skin. A wave of grim realization washes over Sunny, and he stares at Effie, silently thinking ‘…We are all going to die, aren’t we?’ The Black Skull Citadel, once a refuge, now threatens to become their tomb.
Chapter 1216 On The Run
Sunny despairs as he realizes the possessed Masters share knowledge, crushing his hopes for subterfuge. The seven corrupted Ascended begin encircling the unaffected, eerie smiles plastered on their faces. Facing seven Great abominations in disguise, Sunny, Nephis, Kai, Effie, Jet, Seishan, Morgan, and eleven others prepare for a desperate stand. Sunny shares a plan with Morgan who calmly draws the uncorrupted Masters closer, feigning concern for rations and supplies. “You there! Come here. I have questions about our rations and water reserve… you, too. How many tents can we make from that hide?”
Confusion ripples among the gathered humans as they sense the shift in atmosphere. The uncorrupted Masters begin assembling into a loose battle formation, weapons drawn. Time grows short. “Lady Morgan? What, uh… what is going on?” one Ascended asks as she heavily looks at her subordinates, then says evenly: “Come closer.” The smiling corpses mirror their actions, taking a step forward. Sunny barks an order, “Kai, now!”
Kai unleashes his Ascended Ability, his voice enveloping the tower and shattering the silence. “Stop,” he commands. The effect is immediate and crippling. Though Sunny’s mental defenses protect him somewhat, a crushing weight descends, making even the simplest movement a monumental effort. The others struggle similarly, battling Nightingale’s compelling will. But will it be enough to stall the abominations and allow them to escape the citadel, or will Kai’s command be broken by the force of the Spell?
Chapter 1217 Bone Tired
The weary band of survivors flees into the Nightmare Desert, trading one peril for another. “I’m tired,” Sunny thinks as he conserves his essence, knowing that even a fight against the Gate Guardian is a losing battle. Thirteen remain, each haunted by the knowledge that countless abominations, even stronger than the corrupted Masters, roam the dunes. The sun beats down mercilessly, and the once-mighty Masters resemble walking corpses, their armor and hair caked in sand.
Their desperation intensifies as they realize their hope of reaching the Black Skull is futile. Mordret’s slaughtered Awakened, now vessels for the Gate Guardian, have turned the Citadel into “the gates of hell.” Faced with a horde of Great abominations, they are aimless, driven only by the instinct to survive and the terror of the pursuer behind them. Escape the pursuit, find a place to wait out the night – that’s their immediate goal.
Sunny and Nephis walk together, his shadows scouting ahead, as one of them glides alongside Kai’s flying shadow. Sunny uses the Blessing of Dusk to communicate telepathically. “[Up ahead, behind the crooked dune.][…Yeah. I sense it,]” Kai replies. A tall figure in onyx armor emerges, unleashing a barrage of arrows that pierce a slumbering Nightmare Creature. The abomination falls, silenced by the combined might of arrows and the relentless pursuit of survival.
Chapter 1218 Hunted
Thirteen survivors become twelve as one of the Masters succumbs to a dark possession, her soul core replaced by spreading darkness. “S-split up!” someone cries, a desperate plea for survival as logic clashes with the nature of the Great abominations. While some cling to the hope of unity, others scatter, a fatal error as one is swiftly cut down.
Morgan, mounted on her Echo, hesitates before sacrificing her steed, while Seishan prepares some unknown defense, “What are they doing?” Jet wonders, far ahead. Nephis briefly touches Sunny’s shoulder, and he felt the nurturing warmth of her flames pour into his soul and body, granting him increased speed. But even that is not enough when a swift attack approaches, forcing Sunny to prepare to use Shadow Step.
Then, Seishan conjures a drop of crimson liquid, a manifestation that evokes a sense of awe and dread in Sunny. The drop of blood swirled, and then, the whole world was suddenly painted in shades of red. He feels something vast and terrifying pass him, enveloping the desert. Screams erupt as the creature lunging for Sunny slows, veers off, and stills. Morgan unleashes a whirlwind of swords, and Sunny and Nephis reach Seishan, the shadows wrapping around them.
