As much as Daru wanted to watch the battle again — this time from a closer point of view — he didn't, opting to prioritize safety and his mission.

And so he simply waited inside the alcove.

Many clangs, snarls, hisses, howls, laughs, and heavy thuds later, it ended, replaced by the familiar eerie noise of Saphoros' hurried crawling.

The nightmarish ghoul was escaping to the other ridge again.

He then heard Rocante's unholy, triumphant chuckle, and then silence for a few moments…then the familiar, heavy footsteps.

The hulking horror was finally on the move again to seek out the opponent that would defeat him.

Daru waited for Rocante to pass the alcove, ready to explode into action in case he was detected.

Thankfully, he wasn't, and the monstrosity merely continued on his way, one heavy, energetic step after the other.

The hulking horror's footsteps were fading in the distance.

So, Daru began to move, swiftly storing his camouflage cover back in the inventory and tailing his target.

He already had some experience following Rocante, which was why he was managing fairly easily, despite the deceptive cadence of the monstrosity's rapid advance.

Daru carefully maintained a safe distance, scurrying from one hiding spot to another — dead trees, shrubbery, and stone slabs.

The hulking horror and his little golden tail advanced like so.

They journeyed on gentle ridges most of the time, but sometimes, they would climb cliffs, only to jump down from the other side.

Well, at least Rocante did.

Daru's body didn't allow him to do the same, and there were more than a few times he got left behind.

Still, the heavy footsteps were like a natural navigator, allowing the poor little tail to find his way back.

The stone castle seemed close to Altar Mountain.

However, it was, in fact, not. It was just the high vantage point from the plateau of the Stone Altar that made it appear that way.

The journey took hours, and exhaustion was beginning to settle in.

Daru could continue for a while longer, but there was a chance that he would be totally spent by the time they reached the stone castle.

'Ah…maybe I should've just taken a nap for an hour or two earlier?' he mused, peering from behind a dead tree.

He was getting more and more accustomed to Rocante's intense pace, so a bit of mental capacity was freed, allowing his mind to wander a bit.

Daru wondered whether there were regions in Valmaris, or perhaps the central continent of Vigrheim, where sleeping meant death.

If there were, then how were the bladeborns of his race surviving there?

He, for one, had not encountered such problems until he got trapped in Limbo.

Daru knew very little about how to move in such situations, though he was forced to learn now.

He was deep in the mountains, tailing a monstrosity who could snuff his life out with a single, casual strike, sleepy and exhausted.

Yet he could not stop.

Daru was starting to run low on sustenance reserves, and he would still have to journey back to Egress to report his findings.

He couldn't take his sweet time too much.

The risk, however, was that he didn't know what to expect upon arriving at the Stone Castle.

Would he be forced to fight? Flee?

With how tired he was, would he be able to?

Were there consumables out there that would help in such situations?

Can humans stay awake for two or three days in the Myriad Sword Realm and still fight in a decent enough condition?

There were so many questions in his mind, but no certain answers.

Strangely, merely thinking of them boosted his energy a bit, mostly due to the excitement of eventually knowing the answers.

There was still so much for him to learn and so much space for improvement…

But one day…one day for sure, he would be a veteran himself.

It was rather ironic that he was so full of hope in this hopeless underworldly realm.

As much as Daru wanted to indulge in his thrilling train of thoughts, he couldn't.

A Stone Castle had appeared on the horizon — or rather, its stone walls crowned with battlements every few dozen meters on its vast stretch.

It was a daunting sight that made his heart grow heavy.

Now, it was Rocante who would siege this menacing fortress alone, and he would fail to conquer it…over and over…

But if The Crown was indeed inside, which was highly likely, given that Rocante was heading to the Stone Castle and the timeline of the horror's routine suggested that he was about to be defeated soon, then it would mean that Daru, too, would have to mount an assault on it.

Alone would be an impossible task, for sure.

But with his comrades from Egress…

They probably stood a decent chance, and he had long figured out how they could cross to the other side.

Perhaps old Nando simply didn't dare attempt, which was why he said that The Damned simply couldn't cross the Underworld River, but the castle's drawbridge suggested otherwise.

After all, weren't those warrior wraiths condemned, too?

Yet they were ravaging a settlement on the other side and bringing their scourgely gains back to the castle.

Why couldn't Egress do the same?

Such thoughts were for the near future, though, and the best thing to do right now was focus on his mission.

They were dangerously close to the castle now.

Daru couldn't help but wonder how Rocante, who was empowered by the eerie black aura he gained after defeating Saphoros, would break in.

Would he scale the castle walls at an abominable rate?

Would he destroy a part of it with a single, powerful kick, or a strike, perhaps?

All the ideas Daru could think of were based on the hulking monstrosity's aggressive tendencies — in its current, lively state — and an unconsciously exaggerated impression of the horror.

This was why Daru was surprised when they arrived at a massive, open, reinforced stone gate…and Rocante simply entered like a gentleman.

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