Since Arthur needed to wait a few hours for the City Lord to regain some essence, he made him a comfortable chair and talked for a few hours.
It seems he and the city lord had quite a few things in common; both of them were degenerates.
After a Few Hours of Talking, Arthur remembered he should probably go back to traveling now that the city Lord had likely regained some of his essence.
While the City Lord was talking, Arthur interrupted him, "So you also like the type of art works that depict Nightmare Creature's committing acts of Gore to humans of all ages? I thought I was the only one we share so much in comm-"
Arthur said, "I would like to continue appreciating our shared interests, but it seems to be about time you returned to the city"
The Degenerate City Lord with a forever henceforth doomed reputation sighed and agreed, "I suppose that's right. So about that favor I owe you, do you have anything in mind now?"
Arthur thought for a moment but shook his head. It wasn't possible for the city lord to rescue his friends with so many corrupted, Ranked Nightmare creatures near them.
Without saying anything else, he dismissed the City Lord, who quickly transformed into an Eastern Dragon once he left the Grey Fog, flying towards the small city he came from.
The remaining nightmare creatures couldn't do anything to stop him, even if they were still in there, but strangely, they were completely absent.
The City Lord arrived in mere minutes; he breathed a sigh of relief, seeing the city untouched, turning back into a human.
He quickly summoned all the ascended in the city, ordering them to go to other city lords and request backup, seeing as corrupted nightmare creatures were teaming up to conquer the human city.
And he also ordered the awakened to go and escort the people still in the small villages to the city and scout for the position of the corrupted creatures, who had almost killed him.
The city lord sighed after giving out the orders; now all he had to do was wait for the awakened and ascended to finish their tasks.
The City Lord thought to himself, 'For those nightmare creatures to get along enough to somewhat cooperate, something is definitely going on; just who is behind this?'
The city lord made a few guesses: 'Is it a great ranked creature of corruption? Perhaps they are controlled by someone to do their bidding? Or are they just smart enough to collaborate on their own?'
The city lord continued thinking, 'The last one is unlikely, but the first one seems to be the most likely after all. Why would anyone even want to attack this small city and its villages if not driven mad by corruption? It would make more sense if they were trying to assassinate me.'
The city lord sighed and thought, 'Even if someone was trying to kill me, there's no need to go about it in such a roundabout way.'
The city lord continued his musing 'Taming a few more beasts for a bit would make it impossible for the city to survive a direct attack, and I wouldn't just run away from my duties to save my life. Did they think I would?! Just who do they take me for!'
The city lord decided to stop thinking about the last two possibilities for now and think about how to deal with the first.
'If it can command other corrupted of smaller rank, then it's at least a tyrant, but if that's the case, why doesn't it attack by itself? I can't do anything if it involves itself, so why doesn't it? Just what is that vile creature planning?'
The city lord looked in the direction of the village he just escaped from and thought to himself, 'Is that Great Corrupted not coming here because of him? I doubt he's not a follower of Weaver, but there's still a chance he has nothing to do with him, but if so, then why have I heard nothing about him until now?'
The city lord groaned and gave up on making a plan for now; he still needed to know when and how many reinforcements were coming from the other city lords first, and the situation was too confusing at the moment.
3 days later, Abner POV
Abner sighed as he saw the last Ascended, who went to ask for reinforcements by the order of the city lord, return.
He didn't sigh in relief, though; the Ascended returned on his own without anyone else, like the rest.
The other cities nearby were also experiencing nightmare creatures of the Corrupted Rank of Demon and higher classes working together to bring down the cities.
It would take a while for Saints from the capital of the Empire to arrive as reinforcements since there seemed to be some trouble there too; from what Abner heard, a Cursed Beast had almost successfully assassinated the Supreme Ruler of the Empire, ambushing him in his home.
Abner didn't care much about that, though he was just worried about his friends who were still held captive by the mind-controlling corrupted devil.
Abner silently cursed under his breath, "What nightmare even is this? With so many corrupted creatures, there are even mentions of Supremes and Cursed creatures! Isn't this too much!?"
However, since he wasn't talking to anyone, he was met with no response to his complaints.
Abner welcomed the Ascended back and went with him to the City Lord's mansion.
Once there, the city lord didn't even ask if the reinforcements arrived and told them, "You are here? Good, gather the other Ascended; we are attacking the corrupted creatures."
The city lord sighed and explained, "If we keep waiting any longer, they are the ones who will attack, and we can't protect the people of the city if that happens. It's a miracle they haven't done so already."
Hearing this, Abner asked, "Can I join too?"
Hearing this, the city lord laughed, "Do you have a death wish? Just focus on meditation to see your soul sea and improve your Essence Control to become an Ascended. Once you do, I might let you join a similar battle."
Abner sighed and nodded the next moment, though he thought, 'Wait, did he just tell me how to become an Ascended without the spell!? No one in the real world knows that!'
Abner was tempted to ask how to become a Saint without the Spell, but the city lord dismissed him, not giving him a chance to ask.
As the City Lord and the Ascended headed for the corrupted creatures, Arthur was in the Grey Fog watching them and wondering,
'Normally when one gets sent into a nightmare, they are in the body of people who have played a significant part in the conflict of the nightmare, but aren't Abner and the rest way too passive? Was the city lord supposed to die and the city be destroyed for the real conflict of the nightmare to start?'
Arthur sighed and thought, 'If that's the case, was the nightmare about finding surviving Ascended and Awakened to avenge the city? The nightmare creatures must have parted ways after the city lord died; they wouldn't think the Ascended are any threat to them.'
Arthur felt a little guilty as he thought to himself, 'Did I make a mistake by saving the city lord? Those nightmare creatures will be much harder to deal with together, even if there's a Saint with the Ascended. They have better odds without him if the Nightmare creatures are alone!'
Arthur just sighed and apologized to Abner inwardly as he watched the City Lord, now in his dragon form, and the Ascended on his back arrive where the corrupted creatures were hiding.
Arthur was the one who informed the City Lord of their location, disguising his intention by saying it was a small gift in appreciation of their pleasant conversation.
He still talked to the city lord occasionally, even though he knew he wouldn't see him again once the nightmare ended; they were just too similar to not get along! Maybe it was because both of them are degenerates.
Arthur had even found out what happened to the city lord's wife, an Ascended woman, during one of their conversations. Apparently, she left him because she got fed up with his weird fetishes. Saying she only ever got together with him for his good looks and status.
Arthur dismissed these useless thoughts and watched the battle unfold.
Before even letting the Ascended down on the ground, the City Lord fired a Breath Attack and roared, summoning clouds that would soon arrive and give him an advantage over the Corrupted Creatures.
His Ascended Warriors had relics that let them see in true darkness so they wouldn't be blind like the corrupted creatures.
While the corrupted tyrant and monkey Devil fell over due to the city lord's attack, all the Ascended 10 of them jumped from his back and landed on the ground, teaming up on the corrupted koala-like demon.
The City Lord immediately attacked the corrupted goblin-looking Devil while he still had the mind-control-resistant relics his Ascended warriors didn't, so he had to quickly deal with him.
Biting the corrupted Devil's leg, who barely avoided becoming the City Lord's lunch, the City Lord used another aspect ability of his.
His dormant ability was called Rain Bringer; by roaring, he could summon rain clouds and weaken light by producing True Darkness.
His Awakened Ability was Bringer of Darkness. It was his breath attack; although he could also use it to coat himself in true darkness, temporarily making himself invisible, it was extremely useful in combat.
His Ascended ability, though, the one he was about to use, was called Change Bringer.
It shifted the power of a being he had consumed some part of to a random element for a few minutes maximum. This made the Mind Control Devil become useless for a while since it was so physically weak.
The City Lord's transcendent ability was quite obvious; it was called Storm Bringer, and it not only made the City Lord into a dragon but also enhanced his other aspect abilities while transformed.
Summoning Rain Clouds became Summoning Storm Clouds; when surrounded by True Darkness, he could briefly become intangible by fusing with it, and eating a part of a creature in this form made it more likely for the change of elements to occur to his enemy, and it lasted longer too, about 3 times as much.
Since the City Lord's Ascended ability affected the Corrupted Devil, the cohort held captive by it escaped from the mind hex.
Arthur noticed this and briefly sent a message to the city lord: "There are captives hidden here by the corrupted devil. Protect them, and your debt is settled."
The city lord nodded, not questioning the request; he didn't have the luxury to wonder why some hidden Transcendent or Supreme wanted those captives safe.
He didn't plan to kill them anyway; he, too, wondered why the Corrupted didn't kill them. They didn't seem to be corrupted themselves since they were kept in a mind hex, and although the city lord heard of nightmare creatures disguising themselves as humans,
He was sure these weren't corrupt since they never joined the battle even when he was so close to dying in the last battle. If they were just pretending, then they were really committed to the act!
although he would, of course, have them inspected before going anywhere close to the city or another village
The Tyrant was again the first to get up as he tried to attack the Ascended, but the City Lord didn't let him and intervened. Both of them roared, one making everyone else tremble with unnatural fear and submissiveness while the other sped up the storm clouds and made the light of the surroundings dimmer.
The Monkey ignored their clash and headed for The Ascended. The city lord was already busy holding back the tyrant and couldn't help.
While this was happening, the Awakened cohort woke up startled in a forest, watching the battle that was taking place and feeling the rain suddenly start as the sun slowly seemed to disappear into the thick dark clouds.
Brave couldn't help but shout, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"
The cohort looked at him, only now realizing that there were others who just woke up like them.
He clenched his teeth and continued, "I was so popular and strong, but now all of that is gone, replaced by this! What even is this!"
Kaelen noticed that their numbers were almost the same as his companions, who entered the nightmare, and asked, "Are all of you from the waking world too?"
If they were from the waking world too, then they would understand his intentions; if not, then he would just brush it off as him asking if they are awake.
Kaelen introduced himself and asked for their names: "I'm Kaelen, and you all are?" As they introduced themselves, the surrounding area turned completely dark, and they started deciding what to do.
One of the Awakened said, "Abner is likely not missing. I saw there's a Corrupted Devil that looked similar to the Gate Guardian but stronger, a Corrupted Devil."
He continued, "It's almost certainly the one who put us in a mind hex, but it's injured now, and in a strange state, it seems its powers became completely different, and it doesn't know how to use them anymore."
He said his next words resolutely "I can use my aspect to determine its general location. We should seize the chance and kill it before it traps us again! If we don't, we will definitely get trapped in its mind hex again, and it's likely we won't be lucky enough to escape then!"
Brave complained, and the other 2 awakened; those who did not survive the Forgotten Shores agreed with him, "This nightmare is such a pain! I have to wake up from a wonderful long dream to go and hunt a Corrupted Devil!? I'm just an Awakened!"
Glorielle mocked him, "Get over it. Did you expect a vacation when you entered the Gate? Be grateful you are even alive right now. Let's go already!"
Arthur watched all of this as he cursed out loud, "The City Lord still hasn't fully recovered from his injuries! Don't go courting death, you bastards; he can't help you if you want to die that badly!"
Indeed, the City Lord had his hands full fighting a corrupted tyrant and a corrupted devil; he couldn't do anything to help them at the moment.