In the dim light of dawn, the gates of the castle opened for the last time. A long procession of humans walked through them, leaving the ancient citadel that had sheltered them for so long.
They walked under the swinging skulls, not paying them any attention. In the aftermath of all the strife, strife with the nightmare creatures, no one had bothered to remove the ghastly things from their chains.
It was not like anyone could have forgotten the couple hundred of lives lost in the struggle, and thousands of deaths before that, even if the skulls were removed.
Nearly nine hundred people descended the hill and entered the Dark City. A few Nightmare Creatures tried to attack them, and were eviscerated before managing to do any harm.
These hundreds of humans were not a defenseless crowd. They were a battle-hardened army, one comprised of exceptionally powerful Sleepers… the most powerful Sleepers to ever be born from the human race, perhaps.
They moved through the ruins, cutting down anything that dared to block their path. Soon, the Sleepers approached the western boundary of the Dark City and scaled the ancient wall.
There, they stopped and turned, staring at the silhouette of the Bright Castle in solemn silence.
…By then, pillars of black smoke were billowing from each of its windows. Soon, the whole castle was enveloped by furious flames, which slowly devoured the white stone of its walls. The magnificent marble cracked and melted, destroyed by the terrible heat. The smaller towers swayed and moved, and then fell into the terrible crucible.
The fire was slowly destroying the Bright Castle, turning it into a molten ruin.
In a sense, this was fitting. After all, everything else in the Dark City had been ruined a long, long time ago.
Just like the novel, this idea wasn't suggested by the leaders. But the people themselves.
They wanted to destroy the ancient citadel, because they hated it. They hated these ancient, bloodsoaked stones only a little bit less than they needed them to survive.
And now that they were leaving, they wanted to erase the Bright Castle from existence. Perhaps if it was gone, the memories of all the darkness that they had witnessed there, and were the perpetrators of, would disappear with it.
After a while, the misshapen, twisted silhouette of the dying fortress was completely hidden by the fire and smoke. Slowly, the silent Sleepers turned away from that sight and looked far away into the distance.
They were looking west.
That was where they were going.
To lay siege to the Crimson Spire.
One after another, the Sleepers descended from the wall and left the Dark City behind.
***
In the cold light of dawn, a gargantuan crimson tower was rising from the Labyrinth. From this distance, it looked like a bloodied sword that some primordial titan had thrust into the heavens.
The crimson coral streamed from its walls like the blood of gods, spreading out from the base of the Spire to devour all of the Forgotten Shore. The tower itself seemed to stand on an island, which was surrounded from all sides by black water. Even though the sun was already climbing up, this part of the cursed sea did not disappear.
Caster, walking at the foremost point of the army, looked at it with dread and anticipating in his eyes.
The Crimson Spire looked nothing but twisted, eerie, and utterly evil. It emanated a sense of harrowing power that no human could ever hope to challenge.
And yet, this was exactly what they were going to do.
Turning away, he glanced at the camp of the Dreamer Army.
For the past week, the nine hundred of them had traversed the Labyrinth to reach this place.
And not a single soul had perished.
People here were all busy preparing for battle.
Everyone was making final preparations. Some were checking their armor and weapons for the last time. Some were hurriedly building makeshift fortifications.
Some were praying, begging the dead gods to save their lives.
And some were praying to Caster, to lead them out of this wretched place.
Caster and the lieutenants, on the other hand, were discussing the plan again.
Caster, Sunny, Nephis, Effie, Kai, Cassie, Gemma, Tessai, Harus, Sheishan, Kido... all of them were present.
And all of them were ready.
Very soon, the sun rose higher, and the dark whirlpool surrounding the Crimson Spire became a little smaller. Several bridges of red coral rose from its depths, connecting the island to the rest of the Forgotten Shore.
And out there on the island, countless silhouettes suddenly began to move, crawling out of the crimson mounds. They were the Nightmare Creatures guarding the cursed tower.
All kinds of horrors were among them.
The carapace legion, colonies of carnivorous worms, giant centipedes that secreted corrosive oil, and eerie vines that crawled on the ground like snakes... and so many more that even Caster hadn't fought before.
Thounsands upon thousands of them.
All of them moved together in strange harmony, devoid of the usual territorial aggression that forced the Nightmare Creatures of different tribes to fight each other. They were subjugated by the Crimson Terror and now served to guard the Spire.
Like a terrible wave, the horde of monsters rolled over the bridges of crimson coral and flowed toward the human army.
The sleepers at the foremost line trembled and took a step back, involuntarily.
Caster was at the forefront of it all.
Dozens of meters ahead them all.
Alone.
He heard something from behind.
A mutter.
"Are we fighting to certain death?"
Another mutter.
"Why are we at the forefront? We'll just die..."
Another one.
"I don't want to die..."
The despair among the army steadily increased as the huge wave of nightmare creatures got closer to them.
"Yes. Many of us will likely die. Perhaps even me."
"T-then what are we even fighting for?"
"Freedom."
"What freedom?! If we're dying anyways, why should we die fighting messed up creatures!"
It was an outcry.
'You're loosing your composure right now?'
Caster sighed. His voice turned somber and heavy.
"You're precisely right. Everything that you thought had meaning... every hope, dream or moment of happiness... None of it matters as you lie bleeding out on the battlefield. None of it changes what a thousand nightmare creatures would brutally do to you. Most of us will likely die from that..."
Gasps. Hundreds of them.
Caster continued, his voice having a tinge of anger.
"...But does that mean that our lives are meaningless? Does that mean that there was no point in us being born? Would you say that to our slain comrades? The hundreds that died fighting the nightmare creatures of the dark city... the thousands that died before I even came to this shore? What about their lives? Were they meaningless?"
With a pause, Caster completely changed his tone. It was loud, sharp, heavy and... powerful.
"They were not! Their memory serves as an example to us all. The courageous fallen! The anguished fallen! Their lives had meaning because we, the living, refused to forget them! And as we rise against our fears to fight against near certain death, we trust the people who remember us to do the same for us!"
After that Caster took powerful steps forward, opened the [Book of Books] to the lightning strike page and used up 500 awakened shards.
'Lightning strike... 500 shards...'
"Leodero!"
Clouds split open with furious light, and a storm of lightning rained upon the forgotten shore. Countless spears of brilliance hurled earthward in ceaseless succession. Each stroke shattered the air with a report that shook the marrow, each flare carved brief day from the shroud of storm.
Below, the swarm writhed... tens of thousands of gaunt, nightmare-born beasts, their hollow eyes and gnashing maws lifting toward the storm. They shrieked and clawed as lightning tore into their ranks, bodies scattering like ash in a gale.
Each stroke of lightning carved a wound into the earth, and the bodies of the wretched creatures burst apart in showers of ash and smoke, their howls swallowed by the crack and roar of the heavens. Thousands perished in an instant, limbs charred to black ruin, eyes glazed with a final flash of fire.
It was not something any sleeper should be capable of. Never in a million years. But Caster was capable of it. He was the miracle.
Yet for every rank obliterated, more pressed forward, crawling over the corpses of their kind. Their carcasses smoldered, their twisted forms still twitching, until the tide of flesh became indistinguishable from the smoke that cloaked the spire. It was a battle whose multitude was too cursed to retreat.
After that Caster continued his talk.
"Because my soldiers do not buckle or yield when faced with the cruelty of this world!"
After that he shouted.
"My soldiers push forward! My soldiers scream out! My soldiers... RAGE!"
As if this turned on some switch, every single person at the front lines, everyone behind them, all of them started got ready to fight.
The archers from behind let out the thousands of arrows, creating a barricade of nighmare creatures carcasses.
"Remember! I am the Opposer of Miracles, Fate and the Divine! As long as I am here, the fates of near certain death is not certain at all! Because I will fight fate itself to give us all certain victory!"
Everyone of the army returned to their sense of fearlessness.
Almost as if they had blind trust.
A thousand throats opened at once, and the plain shook with their defiance. The cries rose like a single tide, raw and ragged, yet bound by one will.
Effie got near him, standing next to him.
"It has begun..."
Caster spoke, grimly.
"Yeah, you don't sound so passionate about it up close though? Like you did a moment ago."
Effie gave a chuckle before pulling Caster closer and hugging him, right at the forefront of it all, hidden by Carcasses of a few nightmare creatures.
"Remove your helmet, will you?"
Caster complied, and hugged her back.
He knew how Effie felt after all.
However he couldn't respond to those feelings.
Once his helmet dissolved away, Effie kissed Caster.
It was a somber kiss.
After a few seconds Caster pulled back.
"Effie, I-"
Effie put her finger on his lips, stopping him from saying it.
"Shush, tell me about it after this is all over."
Caster simply smiled at her.
"Okay."