Far away, Saint crouched, lowering herself to the surface of the river, and then leapt into the air. Wreathed in darkness and mist, her towering figure soared above the shattered stalagmite and landed on what remained of the ancient amphitheater's arena.

She rose slowly, ruby dust spilling down the tattered surface of her black armor. Her eyes burned with crimson flames, regarding the world with cold intensity.

She turned slowly, struggling to contain the ferocious tempest of annihilating forces raging in the depths of her lightless being, and glanced south — where, in the distance, the remnants of her silent army were making their last stand against the legion of fallen Stone Saints who defended the city. Without their commander, the Tainted Saints had lost some of their flawless cohesion. However, they still fought unlike other Nightmare Creatures, maintaining strict discipline and adhering to proper strategy. They still were a lethal threat, eradicating the shades with ruthless swiftness.

Not all of them were, though.

Now that the Jade Titan was dead and they had escaped his authority, some of the Tainted Saints slowed down and fell away from the battle formations. Now, they were all facing the heart of the city... they were facing Saint, looking at her across the vast distance, just like she was looking at them. And under her gaze, they slowly lowered their weapons and knelt.

In the next moment, Saint turned into a torrent of crushing darkness and rushed south.

Reaching the battlefield, she assumed her tangible form and immediately brandished her tenebrous sword.

The kneeling abominations fell to its sharp edge first, slaughtered without mercy or hesitation. They accepted their depths calmly, stalwart and unflinching until the very last moment. As they perished, a vast field of annulment enveloped the battlefield. Then, Saint plunged into the battle formation of her fallen kin like a whirlwind of darkness, sowing death and devastation everywhere she went.

When she appeared, the remaining shades surged forward with newfound strength, as well. It was as if they regained a spark of their former glory, pushing the adversary back despite being few in number.

The Tainted Saints were still strong and numerous... but Sunny felt a peculiar confidence that all of them would fall to Saint's blade.

The defenders of the city were being cut down one after another. The Jade Titan was dead. The abyssal horror...

Shuddering in terror that he could not control, Sunny wiped the blood off his face and threw a fearful look toward the great chasm.

“It's not dead."

Neph's voice sounded hoarse.

Having regained a semblance of composure, she rose from the ground, swayed, and then steadied herself by leaning on the Blessing. The two of them looked into the boundless darkness, still reeling from the harrowing encounter. Sunny hesitated for a few seconds, then asked:

“How do you know? Because the Spell did not announce its death?"

That could mean something, or it could mean nothing. Creatures of Darkness did not seem to possess shadows, after all — they existed outside the cycle of life and death.

When Sunny and Nephis killed the motes of darkness hiding inside stone shells, the Spell had remained silent. It could have been because they had never been alive, to begin with... or because those pieces of darkness were merely tiny parts of the abyssal horror, not independent beings.

In any case, there was no guarantee that the Spell would announce the death of that terrifying thing. Nephis did not seem to rely on the Spell at the moment, either. She shook her head.

“Those tendrils were merely its limbs. They extended from the Abyss, but we never saw their source... so even if the tendrils are destroyed, the source still remains."

Looking in the direction of the great chasm, Sunny paled.

Not only because the thought of that thing still being alive was chilling, but also because he felt something.

He was drawn to the edge of the chasm.

It was not a mundane feeling, but it was not some kind of outside influence, either. Instead, it was the familiar, vague sensation he had experienced a few times before — the sensation of his very blood being pulled in a certain direction. That only happened when another piece of Weaver's Lineage was nearby.

So... either Shadow Weave was at the very edge of the city, or Broken Sword had somehow made it into the Abyss. If it was the latter, then the last part of Weaver's Lineage was either still inside the Abyss or below it.

As the name suggested, the Underworld was located below the world — and below the Underworld, there was the Abyss. And what was below the Abyss?

It was the Shadow Realm, the realm of Death.

Sunny doubted that Shadow Weave was there, though, because he would have sensed something otherwise. Granted, even though he had been on the outer reaches of the Shadow Realm, he had never made his way to the precise area where its dark sky connected to the Abyss. Why would he, if that was where the Dark Drifters came from?

So, chances were that Shadow Weave was much closer.

However...

‘If it's in the Abyss — where that damn thing is, as well... I'll just give up on completing the Lineage.'

Sunny did not hesitate to make that decision.

He was not going to fight an Unholy being. Before, the abyssal horror had almost killed him by merely looking in his direction — there was no prize in the world valuable enough to voluntarily crawl into that thing's den.

In fact, the mere fact that Sunny was not running away without looking back at the moment was already the height of foolishness. The smartest thing he could do was abandon the expedition immediately and flee the Underworld.

But, well...

He had brought two incarnations to this dark realm. One of them, currently with Saint, used his gloomy shadow as the avatar. The other used the insane shadow... and perhaps because of that, Sunny felt like he could not leave yet. He had to check, at least.

He hesitated for a moment.

“Even if it's not dead, it has to be seriously wounded, right?"

Neither Sunny nor Nephis were strong enough to wound the abyssal horror. The sky of Godgrave, though? He knew that the terrifying being had sacrificed a lot to banish the merciless light from its dark domain. It destroyed the Dream Gate — something Sunny had not even known was possible — effortlessly, but reaching the Gate had cost it a lot.

So, Sunny and Nephis probably had a bit of time before the terrifying creature sprouted new tendrils to reach for them from the Abyss.

Sunny stared in the direction of the great chasm for a short while, then looked at Nephis.

Saint was still in the throes of evolution. There was Nether's citadel waiting to be conquered, as well.

“I want to check the edge of the city. I think... I hope there is time."

Nephis studied him for a few seconds, then nodded.

“Then let's go and see."

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