NOTE: There's a memory description in this chapter that might contain spoilers for ORV. So for those who have not read ORV, please don't read the description.
***
Today is winter solstice.
It had been a hectic eight months for the people of the forgotten shore. Every person on the shore was putting effort beyond anything they had ever done.
Every person was being forged into something more than just a strong awakened. Each person was being molded into an amalgamation of disciplined, fearless, adaptable, nearly detached from pain and patient battle warriors. Even the medics became like the same.
They were not untouched by suffering, far from it actually. Pain had visited them often, lingered long, and carved its lessons deep into their marrow. But the wounds no longer drew cries after all fire does not startle the iron that has passed through it a thousand times.
Where fear once might have found its grip, there was only calm. Where despair might have made its nest, there was only silence.
No one lazed around, no one stopped working. Because Caster wouldn't allow that to happen nor would they themselves. And they all knew that lazing around could be the difference between life and death.
The cancerous group of people were all silently disposed off after all.
All that was left behind was a group of unyielding young adults.
By now, there was no one that remained a 'trainee' each and every combattant was as good as a seasoned warrior.
Each and every medic was also as good as a seasoned warrior.
There was no one who was a liability.
Everyone had only one goal.
Fight.
And escape.
Over the course of the last many months, the preparations went forward at an immaculate pace. People got stronger each day, including Caster.
After Caster reached his titan core, he started hunting with the others, focusing on saturating others over his last core, because he knew he'd reach it eventually. What mattered more was saturating everyone on the shore.
A goal that Caster has yet to reach.
However, there's no one who has less than 800 fragments now, and a majority of them had reached saturation.
When Caster started on the forgotten shore, there were nearly 1100 people there.
Now only 893 are left.
A lot of them were killed by Caster, and a lot of them were killed by the world.
Of the 893 people left, there were no one left with excessive negative traits.
The 893 people on it were no longer just people.
They were soldiers.
While a number of them were greedy, were filled with envy, and almost everyone had prides.
There was no one here who went excessive with it.
All of them were reasonable.
And a lot of them had become the opposites entirely.
While people must have wanted to let out their frustrations and wrath on the world and people around them, the people under him were rather patient.
They were all, somehow, completely united and showed compassion among each other.
And it was all because of Caster.
His communication.
Yes, the second wall of his aspect legacy was related to communication, and for that Caster focused on, well, the clue given to him.
He created methods for people to communicate to each other better.
He made it hard for people to be alone.
He made people get along with each other.
He created a system that molded people into having compassion, humility, responsibility, integrity and most of all... diligence.
This was done to progress in his aspect legacy, but this would also help Sunny. Sunny was a distrusting little guy at the start, but he had grown a lot as a person because of the companion ship he was showed and interactions he has had since then.
It made him a lot more vulnerable to the shadow bond, but also a whol elot of a better person.
In the end, Caster unlocked his second wall through the method today.
Walls: [The Fourth Wall], [The Wall of Impossible Communication]
This new wall allowed Caster to connect to certain people. There seemed to be a limit for now though. Currently he could connect to 7 people at once.
He got a lot of information about the wall instinctively.
Connecting to people would mean quite a few things actually. First, it would allow Caster to talk to any of the seven people from any distance. The connected people would have to will themselves that they want to talk and then proceed to think whatever they wish to say to him.
Caster would get it as a textual form, and thinking about sending a message back would send back whatever they proceed to think afterwards.
It was a convinient method of communication.
Second, it would allow Caster to know the exact location of the people he's connected to in a map, both for the dream realm and the waking world.
It was really handy for him.
The people he was connected to at the moment were: Sunny, Kai, Effie, Nephis, Sheishan, Cassie and... Harus. He had hurriedly connected himself to all he could to test out the limits and to see what all he could do.
This wasn't the end of the rewards for unlocking the second wall though.
He had gotten a drop of ichor. It looked like a smooth golden sphere.
Memory: [Drop of Ichor].
Memory Rank: unknown
Memory Tier: unknown
Memory Type: unknown
Memory Description: [There are three ways to survive in a ruined world. 7 pm. Fiction and Reality overlapped. King of a Kingless world. You should have read to the end. He's my Companion. Life and Death companions. Kim Dojega. Read it again. You saved me once. Now I'm going to save you. It was a great story, isn't that right? Let's meet again Yoo Joonghyuk. Story 'Pebble and I' has begun its storytelling.
There's only one chance; it has always been once for me.
Story 'Demon King of Salvation' has begin its storytelling.
I want to live;I want to die.
I believe in the you from the you of the third round. The 'Oldest Dream' is dreaming the 'Final Dream'.
Go back, you can't save anyone.
Why is it not me, but you?
Saviour of a star.
Because I love reading the most in this world, after all. Reading together.
Enemy of the story.
From now on, our story will be a paid service. Please End the Oldest Dream. The blood was really on my cheek and not on the window.
And I was quietly staring at that scene.
51. 49. I can still see them, right? just like how it used to be, a really long time ago. My endless voyage got underway.
Your ■■ is… Neverending Story. Salvation. Eternity. Epilogue.
Coma. Full stop.
Final Wall. 99%.
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However, one thing's certain. The you who is reading this will survive.]
[You have aqurired a Drop of Ichor. Do you wish to consume it?]
'Whoa... that's a lot to take in. Is this about the Demon King of Salvation I had met?'
After a gulp, Caster finally said:
"Yes."
The golden sphere separated into two streams of beautiful, radiant liquid. The streams flowed through the air, approaching Caster's face. He felt a gentle touch caress his cheeks.
Then, the golden liquid reached his eyes and flowed through them, entering his soul through the pupils.
Soon, it was gone.
Caster was frozen, not knowing what to expect.
A second passed, then another.
He raised his trembling hands to his face, finally feeling something.
In the next moment, Caster opened his mouth and let out a terrible, wailing shriek as unimaginable, blinding pain tore through his entire being.
Caster fell on the ground, screaming, his whole body convulsing in spasms of terrible pain. The unbearable agony radiated through his nervous system, his mind drowning in the endless torrent of torturous, excruciating, harrowing suffering.
It felt as though every muscle, every fiber, every molecule of his body was being torn apart and reassembled, only to be torn apart again. His eyes, especially, felt as though there were two white-hot metal rods inserted in them, making all the other pain pale in comparison. Or maybe they had become searing spheres of molten metal themselves…
He clawed at his face, leaving bloody marks on it. However, seconds later they were already gone, erased by some unknown force. His voice was soon gone, too, leaving Caster without an outlet to express his horrible torment.
His soul felt like it was being crushed and molded brutally.
His mind felt like it was being punctured and refilled.
He felt a part of him break off of himself and then join again, becoming one with something else entirely.
His blood felt like it was being boiled inside out.
The process was the opposite of the gentle rebirth he had experienced after passing the First Nightmare. It was violent, ruthless and unnatural, forcefully reshaping Caster's body into something that it was not meant to be.
The pain was far worse than any pain he had ever felt. Even worse than him advancing in classes. Because at least then he had Fourth Wall's pain diminishing effect.
However, for some reason it wasn't activating itself against this.
Perhaps because their source was the same that it did not reject the other.
Powerless to stop it, Caster had no choice but to endure the agony. All he could do was try not to go mad from pain. Tears were streaming down his face, leaving bloody trails in their wake. There was no end to torture.
…Then, after what felt like an eternity, there was. The pain subsided, lessened, and finally vanished. Caster was left lying on the thick carpet of spiderwebs, utterly drained and depleted.
However, his mind felt immensely sharper than before. His soul felt anew, his blood, flesh and body all felt remade.
His body had not gotten stronger or more resilient, but it did gain a property. A property of unchanging form. His scars started to vanish, all the previous wounds he had all over the body started to close up. It was as if his body was going towards the prime state his body has ever been in.
It wasn't going back in age or something like that. It was like healing.
His mind and soul had also immensely improved, not that he needed this from a battle point of view because of the fourth wall.
The last effect that this attribute had, that Caster won't find out for a bit, is that he would be able to absorb essence by simply killing. It would not expend the soul cores inside it as either.
So this would essentially double his speed of absorbing essence.
In the silence that was broken only by the hoarse sound of his ragged breathing, the Spell's voice whispered:
[You have acquired a new Attribute.]
[You have acquired a new Attribute.]
[You have merged an Attribute with another.]
'What? I lost... merged one of the attributes?'
Hurriedly, he summoned his runes.
Name: Caster
True name: Opposer of Miracles.
Rank: Dreamer.
Class: Titan.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Soul Fragments: [3412/7000].
Memories: [Green Jade Jian], [Hourless Charm], [Book of Books], [Vivienna's Armor], [Spark of Light], [Bundle], [Cloak of night], [Moon Sabers], [Aquifer's Gift], [Celestial Cord], [Silent Chest], [Resonant Flute], [Dawn Shard]…
Echoes: [Evermelt]
Walls: [The Fourth Wall], [The Wall of Impossible Communications].
Attributes: [Below Speed], [Sorcerer], [Stormsong], [Apostle of Eternity], [Flame of Divinity].
Aspect: [Lies of the Omniscient Reader].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Abilities: [Acquired Haste]
Aspect Legacy: [Fragments of the Final Wall].
Flaw: [Strength is death], [Satisfaction's Plague].
Flaw Description: [Lifespan shortens every time aspect is used.]
Flaw description: [You will never feel satisfied.]
His knowledge usurper attribute seemed to have been fused with his new attribute.
He had gotten yet another boon.
[Silent Chest] and [Resonant Flute] were two of the dozens more memories he had in his soul sea. Silent chest was the storage memory that Harus kept on him. Caster took it back. It was kind of like Effie's memory. It didn't allow for dimensional travel of items through the soul sea, but it was useful nonetheless.
Resonant flute was a memory that allowed Caster to make a sound barrier of sorts. It also allowed for very loud sound to be made out, whatever that would be useful for.
Caster had also helped Sunny advance in his aspect legacy faster. Only by giving cryptic clues though. Spoon feeding him would only lead to a weaker version of him.
All he did was facilitate his growth further.
Sunny was too good though.
He recently unlocked his first step, giving him the shadow serpent. He unlocked it while battling Nephis.
While the pace wasn't much faster than the original novel, only faster by three weeks, it was still an incredible achievement.
Sunny and Nephis both had become demons as well, so they were by far the strongest on the shore after Caster himself.
Sunny also happened to get Saint pretty early on.
Caster was worried that he changed the canon too much and Sunny wouldn't get it, but luckily he did. Sunny said that he had killed half a dozen stone saints, more than how many he killed in the novel.
But it wouldn't change much, right?
Because of that, Sunny got himself his first shadow. He also seemed to have figured out that he could strengthen Saint by feeding her memories.
But because Caster was specifically getting useless memories for Sunny, he sold them to Sunny for a cheap price.
He could have just given it to Sunny, but Sunny would be distrustful of that. So he sold them.
The shards he got from Sunny were later given to others.
But because the collection of memories were massive, Stone saint evolved to Marble saint immediately. And Marble Saint went from a monster to a demon after killing the dark knight of the cathedral.
Sunny didn't have something against him this time, but Caster insisted on hunting it.
In short, now they also had an ascended demon for the fight.
She would definitely be very useful.
All the preparations had already finished completely.
The cohort had left the Castle at one point to go to the edges of the forgotten shore to get the [Dawn Shard] as well.
They had killed the Lord of the Dead as well a bit ago, getting all of the shards.
Zenith Shard, Effie's Spear.
Dusk Shard, Effie's shield.
Starlight Shard, Effie's cloak.
Midnight Shard, Sunny's sword.
Moon Shard, Sunny's dagger.
Sunlight Shard, Seishan's battle hammers.
and the Dawn Shard, Caster's Crown.
He had given the oath key's to Sunny, to lock down the dark sea through these shards.
He had also been preparing for post forgotten shore, for all the different plans he had, like making a close relationship with Sheishan.
She was an adopting daughter of Song, and he needed a good relationship with them.
Other preparations had been finished as well.
It was almost time for the Siege of Crimson Spire to begin.