The archers had been shooting arrows constantly, slowing down the hoarde of nightmare creatures.
There was one thing they all saw from the behind...
Caster's lone figure walking towards the hoarde, alone. Hundreds of meeters ahead of the front line.
As he reached the hoarde, dual swords summoned in his hands.
The [Moon Sabers].
Each strike rang a hymn.
A lunar hymn.
Each hymn pushed back the nightmare creatures by dozens of meters.
Each strike pushed them all behind.
If some would go past him, he'd use the same hymn to pull the nightmare creatures.
And like that, alone, Caster stood forward, slowing down the creatures for dozens of minutes.
Killing hundreds of monsters in that time.
The archers didn't stop either. Each one of them continued to shoot arrows, killing hundreds of beasts more.
***
On the outskirts of the Crimson Spire, there were no more passages and tunnels in the coral. It was just a solid red mass, an unbroken surface of the strange living substance that had devoured the Forgotten Shore thousands of years ago.
Effie was standing on that surface.
She was going to lead the rest of the front line.
She looked at the beasts coming towards them with confidence.
The confidence that Caster gave her.
She held Zenith in one hand and Dusk in the other.
Effie seemed like a bastion of strength and resolve in the sea of fear. A mythical hero that had stepped into the mortal realm from an ancient legend.
After a while, Caster couldn't seem to hold back the creatures fast enough anymore.
And so, hundreds of beasts started pouring out finally.
"Get ready, bastards!"
Gripping her spear, Effie cast a sideways glance at the two men standing beside her. One of them was Tessai, and the other one was Gemma. Who would have thought that one day she and the leader of Gunlaug's Hunters and Castle Guards were going to fight side by side?
Weirdly, the presence of her past enemies were now extremely reassuring. However, even on their faces, there were hints of fear.
The only person who could have stayed nonchalant in this situation was probably Doofus. That pale miscreant was either too crazy or too stupid… or both… to be scared of anything. But he was currently nowhere to be seen. Effie sort of missed the tiny menace.
But Sunny was probably either hiding someplace dark or doing something too insane to be entrusted to anyone else. In any case, she wished him luck.
She wished herself luck, too.
Looking at the approaching horde of monsters, Effie waited for a few seconds, and then screamed:
"Second mark!"
Her shout was repeated by Nephis and Sheishan, who commanded the second line, and reached Night somewhere in the third.
The first mark was the onslaught of arrows on the wretched beasts that Caster ordered.
"Third mark!"
Almost immediately, a rain of arrows fell on the monsters, wounding many and killing a few. There were many other projectiles mixed in with the arrows. Some Sleepers used slings, crossbows, or more exotic projectile weapons. Some used their Aspect Abilities, which allowed them to create all sorts of sorcerous attacks, like flying blades made of wind, fire, and ice.
Some could even create bombs filled with soul essence, which detonated in the midst of advancing horrors and ripped many apart.
The arrows, now, shifted their target from the beasts around Caster to the beasts near the front lines.
Caster could handle himself. Right?
Most likely. But that wasn't the reason.
The reason was that the people were still not strong enough to fight thousands of them without the Dawn shard. So Caster had retreated to.
He fought at the forefront like Effie, Tessai and Gemma.
He used the repelling hymn to clear the front lines as often as he could.
He used the burning liquid nature of his armor to burn as many of the creatures as he could.
He used the formless nature of his armor to make transcendent level weapons from it. Effectively killing more beasts.
Each strike from him crushed every creature that got hit.
A strike.
[You have slain...]
[Your soul gets stron...]
Another strike.
[You have slain...]
[Your soul gets stron...]
Another.
[You have slain...]
[Your soul gets stron...]
No one seemed to be his match.
Not the three meter tall mantises, not the blood flowers, not the iron spiders, not the carapace legion... no one.
He looked like a merciless killing machine.
Efficiently killing and viping out everything that dared to oppose him.
All around him though... the first line of the Dreamer Army was slowly buckling under the pressure of the nightmare horde. A few of them were already dead, and more were dying every second. Their bodies were torn to pieces and devoured, disappearing into the mass of monsters like morning dew. That sight was so harrowing and chilling that the mind simply refused to process it.
And yet, the Sleepers of the first line — those who possessed the most powerful combat Aspects and the best Memories — had achieved their goal. They stopped the devastating wave of abominations in its tracks and tied it down with their blades and their lives.
The horde failed to roll over the human army.
Even though the line was broken, the horde had stopped.
Caster, Effie, Gemma, Tessai... all of them made the first line was reforming itself... the survivors of the initial charge rallying around these three champions...
And a king.
With each of them turning into a bastion in the sea of monsters and gathering fighters around them, the advance of the horde stalled. Whatever creatures managed to get past were met and eviscerated by the Sleepers of the second line, led by Seishan.
…And throughout all of that, the archers and the siege engines of the third line never stopped firing.
At that moment, Caster noticed something.
He noticed Kai flying upwards, to fight the spire messengers... like he did originally.
It seems the time for it has already come.
Just then Caster shouted out:
"Second line! CHARGE!"
This was the sign that Changing star needs to join the battle.
And the sign that Sunny needs to go seal the dark sea.
And that is exactly what they did.
[Good luck, Sunny.]
Caster sent him a message through his wall.
[Join now, Nephis.]
A moment later, hundreds of human voices rose in a deafening battle cry, their spirit lifted, their crumbling resolve restored. With Nephis arriving on the battlefield, the balance of the whole battle shifted. The Nightmare Creatures surged to destroy the radiant figure, only to be obliterated by it.
Now, Caster was going to go all out as well... all out with lightning strikes.
Each second, more and more lightning strikes fell onto the horde of beasts.
The thunder was calming for the army.
Just like how the flames exuding from Nephis were calming them too.
Back across the whirlpool of black water, the Dreamer Army was still furiously resisting the horde of Nightmare Creatures. By now, all of the monsters had left the coral bridge and descended upon the Sleepers, consumed by the mad desire for human flesh.
There was no distinction between the first and the second line now. All those still alive were engulfed by the bloody chaos of the slaughter, desperately trying to survive in the midst of absolute chaos.
Caster was at the center of it all.
Nephis being the other focus.
If Nephis was a battle saint then Caster was a deity.
***
Cassie was simply standing atop a cliff, totally helpless.
She had sent her echo to Kai... she couldn't see anything.
A liability, she felt like.
But then...
A moment later, her face paled, and her lips moved slightly.
'No!'
Left alone, away from the battle and anyone who could have heard her, Cassie closed her eyes and whispered into the nothingness:
"A storm… there is a storm…"
A storm different from Caster's.
A storm more terrifying.
As it drew closer and closer, the surface of the black water that swirled around the island of the cyclopean tower suddenly trembled.
And then, it began to crawl upward.
First slowly, and then faster and faster, the black whirlpool swelled and moved forward, swallowing the crimson coral meter after a meter, its dark vastness rising and seething.
The cursed sea was coming to devour the Forgotten Shore.
And the monsters that guarded the Crimson Spire, however, did not react in the same way as the usual Nightmare Creatures would have.
Instead of scurrying away to find shelter, they howled and shrieked in eerie triumph, and then crashed into the Dreamer Army with renewed fury.
Expressions of terror and despair appeared on people's faces. But there was nowhere to retreat, nowhere to run.
All they could do was stand and fight.
They continued to fight with doomed determination, abandoning all fear and doubt. Even though the black water was already high enough to reach their knees, the humans continued to resist the horde of the frenzied Nightmare Creatures, slaying three for every one of them killed by the terrifying abominations.
Illuminated by the radiant light of Changing Star, and the thunderous clap of their Miracle, not one of them tried to run.
The water was steadily rising...
***
As the Dreamer Army was drowning in the rising waters of the cursed sea and the insatiable tide of monsters, Sunny approached the crimson tower.
Far away from the rest of them, completely alone, submerged in roaring darkness, he struggled against the seething mass of black waves and the hurricane winds to cross the last few meters that separated him from the shining star sigil engraved into its gates.
Finally, his hand touched the cold surface of the ancient stone. Wiping the rainwater off his pale face, Sunny stared at the radiant shapes of the seven stars.
'This better work…'
Summoning the first of the Oath Keys, he lingered for a moment, and then carefully inserted it into the black chasm of the keyhole.
***
Separated from him by the vast expanse of the swelling sea of darkness, the surviving Sleepers desperately fought the advancing horde of monsters. The black water had already reached their waists, making it hard to move. The army was trying to retreat up the slope of the crimson coral, but the pursuing sea was much faster than them.
…Suddenly, an almost imperceptible ripple ran across the surface of the black water. A gust of cold wind blew over the Forgotten Shore, sending a shiver running through the hearts of countless creatures.
The whole Forgotten Shore trembled.
Out on the battlefield, the surviving humans froze for a second, startled by the sudden change that rippled through the world.
The furious onslaught of the wind died down. The torrential flood of rain stopped. The continuous, deafening roar of the thunderstrikes grew quiet.
The terrible storm seemed to have ended as suddenly as it had appeared, dissipating into nothingness like a fragile mirage.
Even the Nightmare Creatures attacking them stumbled and paused for a moment, staring at the sky.
…And then, the dark veil of clouds was broken by a blindingly bright ray of sunlight.
As soon as it happened, the restless black water stopped rising, and then flowed in reverse.
The cursed sea was retreating.
'Thank god... Sunny did it in time!'
The storm died down, and the impenetrable veil of clouds was torn apart, allowing sunlight to illuminate the world once again.
And in a few minutes…
The cursed sea was no more.
Unfortunately, the battle wasn't over. The horde of Nightmare Creatures was not defeated yet.
…And somewhere in the Spire, the Crimson Terror itself was not defeated, either.
And worse... blood started flowing from the bodies of many... many sleepers.
"Everyone! Final charge! The beasts are slowing down because the Sea is gone. Hide from the sun! Now! It is attacking our souls! Enter the Crimson Spire!"
The survivors of the Dreamer Army had reached the island and dashed toward the life-saving darkness of the gargantuan tower. Soon, they crossed the distance separating them from the gates and dove into their shade.
Sunny was there the first.
He saw Kai falling from the sky and caught him.
Soon Caster also reached it.
Followed by the hundreds others.
And among them were Nephis and Cassie too.
Looking at them and at the small crowd of Sleepers gathered at the border between darkness and light, Sunny was finally able to exhale. They made it.
Over five hundred of them had survived the battle.
From all the lieutenants... Kai, Sunny, Nephis, Effie, Gemma, Seishan and Harus made it.
Tessai and Kido died.
Still... the battle for the Crimson Spire was over.
Now all they had to do was find the Gateway hidden somewhere inside the ancient tower.
…And survive the wrath of its master.