Abner woke up and greeted Arthur. He didn't leave immediately; after all they still needed to make a plan for him to survive the oncoming attack of the Nightmare Creatures.
Arthur sighed and told Abner "Other than giving you some memories, I can't help you too much."
Abner nodded seriously and said "Indeed, divination won't change the course of battle too much considering how outnumbered and overpowered we are, but still knowing the weaknesses of some of the stronger Fallen-ranked creatures and the Corrupted Beast is the difference between victory and defeat."
Arthur scoffed and mocked him "Don't even talk about winning. Do you really think there's any chance?"
Abner nodded seriously "Didn't you kill a Fallen Terror and a tyrant with Kaelen and Glorielle? I should be able to do this much; after all I am a divine aspect wielder too."
Arthur sighed and told Abner "Just remember the priority isn't winning; it's surviving. Don't hesitate to run away from the battle if you have to."
Abner replied confidently, "If there's any chance I could die I will activate my innate ability. Don't worry about me; I won't die."
Arthur looked at him confused "Innate ability? You never told me what it does. How would it save you?"
Abner smiled mischievously and told Arthur "Doesn't a man need his air of mystery? Surely the Lord of Mysteries would understand..."
Looking at Abner failing to stop himself from chuckling, Arthur's lip twitched in annoyance as he thought 'is this pay back for rage baiting him?'
Arthur eventually sighed and dismissed the topic "Anyway, what memories do you want? I could even lend you my Echo for this battle. I don't mind"
Abner thought about it for a bit and replied "Are you crazy? An Echo that grows with you is far too valuable to give away. Keep it! And my new sword is already good enough; it's an Ascended weapon. You know how good my armor is too, so what I really need is a charm."
Arthur sighed and said "As you know, I only have 2 charms One is called Chaos Ring, and the other one is the Amulet of Light."
Abner asked "I can use both thanks to my armor, so what do they do? You rarely use them."
Arthur explained "Well, when I fight groups of enemies with the Chaos Ring, they seem more uncoordinated, but not by much As for the Amulet of Light, it just boosts the intensity of the surrounding light. I thought it was pretty useless. If I knew your aspect would evolve into this I would have given it to you."
Abner smiled "They will be a great help in the coming battle if that's all. I should leave now. Keeping me here, making so many divinations, and travelling alone in the dream realm must be tiring you considering how much you are sighing lately."
Arthur nodded and gave the charms to Abner. Before he dismissed him he said "Ah, wait take this too. You can keep the Charms, but make sure you return this!"
Abner nodded and looked at what memory Arthur gave him; it was called [Nameless Sun] Before he could read the description he was kicked out of the grey fog.
After looking at the runes of the memory, Abner realized, "It's from the Crimson Spire! lending me an Ascended memory of the sixth tier..."
Abner couldn't help but sigh thinking, 'He's too reckless Anyone else would have stolen this! Arthur, that guy, his true name really fits; he's a fool no matter how I look at him! Doesn't he know how valuable Ascended memories are?'
Abner didn't bother trying to return the memory yet not because he was intent on stealing it but because he knew he would need it.
Abner went to the walls where to the awakened were preparing to meet the hordes of nightmare creatures
They were coming from the North and the East, while the Ascended with the City Lord went to the West to hunt the Corrupted creatures.
It would take them time to make it to the city though they had used that time to evacuate the civilians to another city
Although it is unknown if they could make it since there were not many awakened with them,
It wasn't even known if the city they were going to was still standing.
Abner went to talk to some of the Awakened; he knew their names were Tristan, Solarion, and Kayron.
Kayron greeted him "Oh, you finally arrived Just where do you even go to at night? We almost thought you ran away! Maybe you should have"!
Abner just smiled and said "There's no reason to run; we will win this battle. I will make sure of it."
Solarion smiled and said "Of course we will; the Gods are with us!"
Tristan scoffed "Those bums haven't done a thing for us in decades; even now when we most need them they don't respond!"
Before anyone present could do anything, Tristian turned to ash almost instantly from the light of the sun.
Abner was shocked speechless; he looked around only to see nothing out of the ordinary.
There were only other Awakened looking at where Tristan used to be.
One of them muttered "t-the Gods... they are watching! Everyone quickly pray!"
But no matter how much they prayed the gods didn't respond Abner thought to himself, 'Was that really the Sun God? Why isn't he helping then? I had heard the Gods were distant, so why would they smite someone for talking bad about them?'
But immediately after finishing that thought someone descended. It was a white western dragon with many wounds; he was shining with a golden aura.
After landing he transformed into an incredibly handsome man and said with a scowl, "Who still dares to slander the Gods!? Heretics! Without them this world wouldn't even exist! Be grateful for their benevolence and don't be conceited; the Gods know better!"
This was the one responsible for eviscerating Tristian, the Transcendent City Lord of the Fallen City the nightmare creatures were coming from the Blessed of the Sun God Olwen.
Just as the Awakened were about to celebrate at the thought of such reinforcements his next words almost made them curse him out loud.
Olwen said without a hint of pity "Anyway, those who still hold faith listen: I've been followed by 2 Corrupt Tyrants, and I can't defeat both of them."
He sighed and continued "I had thought Nimbus could help me, but it seems he's not even here. Just where has he gone?"
Abner thought, 'If I tell him he can bring the Ascended here, but would they even be able to help him against two corrupt tyrants? My friends would probably go along too, and then all of us would be in danger...'
Eventually he decided to ask Arthur once he got away from Olwen; he had a feeling praying to anything that isn't the Six Gods is a bad idea around him.
After 15 minutes, he finally prayed to Arthur "The Fool who does not belong to this era."
Arthur, who was trying to sleep above the Grey Fog, looked at Abner slightly annoyed thinking, 'Didn't you tell me to sleep? Why are you waking me up so soon then!'
He grumpily summoned Abner above the Grey Fog and asked "What is it? Tsk! Didn't you just tell me to sleep!"
Abner quickly apologized and asked "Sorry for waking you up, but a city lord from one of the fallen cities has arrived."
Arthur looked shocked as Abner continued "Should I let him know where the city lord is? Would that put our friends in danger?"
Arthur immediately told him "Don't tell him! You did well to come to me. That wasn't the city, Lord; both of them are already dead. That must be a Nightmare creature imitating him!"
Abner asked surprised "how did you know that?"
Arthur just shrugged "I have nothing to do but walk and sometimes make some divinations for you. Really, I have a lot of free time, and I'm extremely bored most of the day, so is it really that surprising I made some divinations out of curiosity?"
Abner nodded with an enlightened expression "Ah, of course I should have known you have nothing going on in your life."
Arthur scoffed "Bastard, are you still salty I ragebaited you?"
Abner nodded "I spent hours thinking I was going to die! Do you have any idea how stressful that is!?"
Arthur sighed and said "Fine, I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have done it, but aren't there more important things to do than argue right now?"
Abner looked shocked when Arthur apologized "Wait, you really apologized!? Never in the 3 years I spent with you did you apologize for a mistake you've done!"
Arthur had indeed not apologized once for any mistake he had committed in the last 3 years not even when Zane died due to his mistake; he only admitted his fault!
Arthur sighed and scolded Abner "Like I said it's not the time to be focusing on that; you need to find a way to kill the fake city lord!"
Abner nodded still a little shocked that Arthur managed to actually apologize; usually he would bend backwards doing mental gymnastics on levels not even thought to be possible to avoid apologizing!
Abner got over his shock and asked "How am I even supposed to kill that thing?"
Arthur sighed and said "The first step is finding its weakness. Let me make a few divinations about it."
Arthur made a divination, thinking, 'The crucial weakness of the corrupted imposter masquerading as a city lord needed to vanquish them.'
He saw a grotesque-looking worm inside the head of a nightmare creature splitting itself and dropping In class one of the worms went into another body it had just killed—the very same it currently possessed—and took control of it The vision then ended.
Arthur frowned thinking, 'The worm was a Devil class originally; the one Abner saw is just a beast. Is it controlled by the worm that is still a demon class? There's no way it would be that smart if it wasn't.'
Abner then asked him "So what class is it? must be pretty high to be able to talk," Abner sighed. After saying this weren't they meant to be rare? He had met two in just a week!
Arthur told him "In my vision it was a devil, but after splitting itself it became a demon and a beast. The one you saw was a beast."
Abner nodded and said "So what is its weakness?"
Arthur sighed and said "Well, it split..."
Abner just asked him "It doesn't have any other ones?"
Arthur nodded "It's a pretty strong nightmare creature In exchange for losing a core it can copy the abilities of the body it possesses."
Abner nodded and said "Without the support of the other Awakened, I probably couldn't even attack him; they would most probably side with the city lord... Any idea how I could convince them he is a monster in less than a day?"
Arthur nodded and said with an easy smile "Well, I just thought of it, but I know how to help you deal with the city lord. I will just make a Divine Descent!"
Abner blinked, and after a few seconds of awkward silence, he asked "You? divine descent? I thought you couldn't come here..."
Arthur scoffed and explained "I don't need to come in person; that's too pedestrian for me. I just need you to take my Echo and summon it. It can make it seem like a god descended for a moment with its illusions."
Arthur, for once looked serious as he said his next words: "Use that chance to strike; you probably won't get another one."
Abner nodded and sighed then asked "Didn't I just tell you not to give away your Echo, though? You are too trusting!"
Arthur shrugged "I would have died of thirst or hunger ten times over by now if I wasn't an Awakened. The closer I get to my destination the more desolate the world seems..."
Abner interrupted Arthur: "Just get to the point!"
Arthur tsked and said "I'm not even sure I will survive my second nightmare or even make it far enough to face it. Giving you these things doesn't feel like a loss to me, so just take them!"
Abner sighed and accepted the Echo, but not before saying "Fine, I will take the Echo. Just remember the oath we made: Come back to us at any cost."
Arthur's eyes widened a little bit as he remembered, 'I almost forgot about it,' he thought as he nodded.
After that he kicked Abner out of the Grey Fog and sighed as he thought to himself, 'Hmm, should I sleep or see if Abner succeeds? I could always watch it later with divination... nah sleep is for the weak!'
Sighing, he decided, 'On second thought I will just see if he will win now.'
Arthur made a divination, thinking, 'How will Abner kill the fake city lord?'
What he saw shocked him in a meeting room inside the Walls of the City: on an altar surrounded by Grey Fog, his own illusionary form could be vaguely seen.
The vision abruptly ended there.
Arthur, tired briefly thought, 'Did I make a divine descent for real!? And why did the vision just end so suddenly?!'