Lumian killed several winged beasts that had perched on the back of the massive moving statue. Looking around, he noticed more creatures climbing the colossus in great numbers, forming a line of monsters stacked on top of one another.
"Lumian, I'll handle things up here! You deal with what's below!" shouted Asael, still cutting down the winged monsters. He used his essence to slay them, his speed a blur as he continuously leaped, slashed, kicked, and struck.
"Agreed," Lumian replied, leaping onto a wide, spiraling path that led downward.
He stopped and observed the monsters: primates covered in dirty, gray fur, with broad, strong arms and sharp teeth capable of tearing flesh.
Lumian cleared his throat and activated his Domination aspect. His presence grew stronger with each death provided by the awakened demon, making him more powerful.
"Let go!" he commanded. His Domination aura invaded the nearby monsters, forcing them to obey his order and release their grip, plummeting into the void.
[You have defeated an awakened monster. Blood flower.]
Soon, the spell continued, whispering each death he caused by ordering the monsters to let go and fall onto the coral, dying from the impact.
Lumian repeated the same word over and over, wiping out dozens of those monsters. His fragment count increased alarmingly. His core counter, which had previously been around three hundred fifteen, had reached six hundred after a brief glance and was still climbing.
While ordering the monsters to fall, Lumian also occasionally had to deal with locusts that descended like high-speed projectiles.
Faster, he thought, dodging a winged insect before cutting it down with his sword.
He knew that red pollen was lethal; without the definitive blood tissue, he would die. So he decided to avoid letting them get close at all costs.
Soon, the flying monsters noticed the primates and lunged at them, initiating a large-scale, chaotic battle. Lumian felt a moment of relief, but it was only a moment.
He looked around. Asael, despite his incredible resilience, had several bleeding wounds all over his body. His expression showed the strain of expending so much essence to maintain the wind and lightning surrounding his sword and body, strengthening them.
On the other hand, Lumian saw his subordinate, who continued his slaughter, cutting down monsters. The red mist never reached his body due to his speed and movements, which generated strong wind waves that instantly dispersed the pollen.
Lumian cursed mentally before calming himself.
"Fall!" he ordered the monsters. A multitude of them fell toward the coral ground, killing several dozen awakened beasts and monsters.
His fragments began to arrive less frequently once he reached the threshold of eight hundred fifty, reducing the amount he received.
Still, Lumian continued. Although the locusts and primates were still fighting among themselves, some tried to climb, but Lumian ordered them to fall using his aspect. His energy drained incredibly fast each time he used it, but he had no other choice.
He looked ahead and smiled: the storm was about to arrive.
The furious wall of darkness had devoured the entire world and was advancing rapidly in his direction. Lightning bolts illuminated the furious depths of the clouds every second.
Soon, the swarm of winged beasts abandoned the fight, fleeing the dark storm. The primates controlled by the blood flower had won the encounter, but their numbers were greatly reduced.
"Fall!" Lumian ordered, and a good number of them fell into the void, dying from the impact.
Finally, Lumian finished dealing with the remaining ones. Once the area was cleared, he quickly climbed back up to the platform where Asael was breathing heavily.
Shortly after, the shelled demon climbed up as well. His armor remained imposing, though his scythes and pincers were covered in the blood of the monsters he had eliminated.
"Good work," said Lumian, returning the beast to his sea of souls to recover.
"What do we do now?" asked Asael after catching his breath.
"Going down is suicide, and the dark sea will cover most of the statue," Lumian replied.
He knew he couldn't summon his aquatic beast due to its weakness. During storms, sea monsters were varied: from demons to corrupted beings roaming freely.
Lumian drove his sword deep into the rock to ensure it wouldn't come loose by accident. Asael did the same.
"If we get out of this, I swear I'll tell you you're a madman," said Asael.
"Yeah," Lumian replied, forcing a smile.
Soon, raindrops and saltwater fell upon them. The enormous colossus advanced undeterred, facing the darkness.
The strong wind battered their bodies, forcing them to hold on with all their strength to avoid being blown away.
The dark sea crashed against the colossus, making the entire structure shake terrifyingly.
***
The dark water surged higher up the massive stone statue, rising from its abdomen to its shoulders. A towering wave crashed against the colossus's neck, drenching the platform. Lumian and Asael were soaked from head to toe in saltwater.
The furious howl of the wind, the violent drumming of the rain, the blinding flashes of lightning, and the deafening cacophony of thunder would have shattered the nerves of any ordinary person—but Lumian remained calm, his fear suppressed beneath a layer of cold indifference.
He and Asael clung to the statue's neck like stubborn ticks, refusing to be swept away.
Then, a sudden sense of foreboding gripped Lumian. His eyes pierced the darkness, seeing clearly what lurked beneath the black waters. His heart shuddered.
He glanced at Asael.
"Hey—no matter what happens, don't let go. Things are about to get rough," was all he managed to say.
Before Asael could ask what he meant, a colossal geyser of seawater erupted dozens of meters away. From within it, a massive black tentacle descended toward the giant.
The tentacle was so immense it resembled a pillar tearing through the sky.
It coiled around the colossus, its bulbous flesh contracting as if to strangle and drown the stone giant.
The colossus seemed indifferent, as though the tentacle were nothing more than a nuisance. One of its enormous hands rose from the sea, seized the appendage with terrifying ease, and snapped it in two.
One half fell into the water, sending up another column of spray that drenched Lumian. The other writhed, trying to coil around the stone giant once more—but the titan's hand shoved it down into the dark depths.
For a few seconds, the sea grew still. Then everything shook.
After the first tentacle, six more emerged.
They slammed against the stone statue with terrible force. Four plunged into the water, wrapping around the colossus's legs. The remaining two slithered toward its free arm.
The statue continued advancing, ignoring the monster.
One tentacle coiled around the giant's wrist and pulled, causing the colossus to stagger sideways.
The flesh of the deep-sea horror strained against the unyielding stone. Slowly, cracks began to form across the giant's body.
But at last, the colossus reacted. Its gigantic hand seized the tentacle and crushed it with devastating force.
For a moment, the two titans struggled—stone against flesh, ancient will against primal rage. Finally, the colossus prevailed, its superior grip reducing the tentacle to pulp.
Lumian looked down and saw the remaining four tentacles holding the colossus's legs, its other arm, and the massive hammer it carried, preventing it from being used.
He could feel the statue trembling under the unimaginable weight of the monster.
The furious storm grew even wilder, as if magnifying the battle between these two primordial foes. Asael watched in stunned, fearful awe—but Lumian remained impassive, his eyes analyzing every detail with cold focus.
Soon, the great colossus leaned forward—a sign it was being dragged beneath the dark sea.
"Hold your breath," Lumian told Asael, his voice cutting through the storm's roar.
Moments later, they were submerged in the black water. Lumian's vision remained clear, and he soon located the source of the tentacles: a nightmarish creature with a massive skull bearing three dark hollows, from which the appendages sprouted.
With detached interest, Lumian watched as the colossus broke the remaining tentacles, then reached out and seized the monster itself.
Once it had a firm grip, the statue rose again, breaking back through the surface of the dark sea.
It lifted the squirming horror into the storm. Lightning flashed, illuminating the creature's grotesque form in stark clarity.
The colossus's freed arm rose, letting rivers of black water cascade off an enormous stone hammer.
The hammer, clutched in the giant's fist, lifted toward the sky and became enveloped in a ghostly light.
Lumian recognized it—it was the same hammer carried by the Builder of the Nine, whom he had slain in his first nightmare.
Now that he thought about it, this forgotten shore felt familiar because it was the setting of that first nightmare—only recreated thousands of years before the darkness had become the Dark Sea.
The illuminated hammer drew dozens of lightning strikes, blazing with an intense light that pierced the gloom.
It glowed with a deep orange-red hue, and in the next instant, it descended.
The impact against the skull was catastrophic. The hammer's spike shattered ancient bone and sank deep into the monster's hidden flesh.
A deafening, profane scream echoed across the waters—a sound so horrifying it could shatter sanity.
Lumian watched as streams of true darkness began to bleed from the deep horror's body.
A wall of that darkness now surged toward them.
Lumian summoned a memory to conjure fire—he couldn't let that corruption touch them.
Activating the memory, he released an intense jet of flame that illuminated the statue's neck in bright light. The true darkness dissipated instantly upon contact.
Once the threat was gone, Lumian extinguished the flames and summoned his beast—the Cannibal Dolphin.
"Find the horror's cores and bring them to me," he ordered.
The dolphin leaped into the black water, vanishing into the depths. Lumian wouldn't waste this chance to obtain transcendent cores and absorb their massive fragment yield.
With indifference, the colossus withdrew its hammer from the monster. The tentacles twitched and spasmed before slipping from the giant's arm.
The titan dropped the lifeless horror into the depths without a second glance.
Then it continued its march south across the Dark Sea.
Lumian still clung to his sword, anchored deep into the stone, as the storm raged on.
An hour later, the Spell's voice whispered to his surprise:
[You have slain a Fallen Terror: The Depths Stalker.]
[Your core grows stronger.]
[You have obtained a Memory: Sword of Terror.]
A tremendous flood of fragments rushed into Lumian all at once, nearly causing him to lose his grip.
His fragment counter skyrocketed, surpassing 900 and settling at 990—just shy of evolution to a higher class.
Another hour passed before Lumian felt his beast returning, mission accomplished.
He summoned the shelled demon and ordered it to retrieve the fragments from the dolphin and bring them to him.
Minutes later, the demon returned holding six transcendent fragments.
Lumian dismissed the Cannibal Dolphin—he would examine its runes later—then stored the fragments and sent the shelled demon away.
After several hours, a new day finally dawned. The storm ended, and the Dark Sea receded completely, leaving behind only the memory of the horror they had faced.
Lumian collapsed onto the cold, wet stone.
Beside him, Asael fell unconscious, his immense endurance utterly spent in a dreamless sleep.
Lumian was certain he wouldn't wake until dusk—which left him plenty of time to do what he needed.
He summoned his runes, focusing on his Memories.
Memories: [Fisherman's Garb], [Assassin's Blade], [Igneous Rock], [Blood Lance], [Aquatic Pearl], [Dark Wing], [Blood Flower], [Sword of Terror]
Lumian's eyes widened slightly at the two new additions.
The first—Dark Wing—allowed controlled aerial gliding. But the sword was something else entirely.
It was a Memory he'd received because his monstrous subordinate had been inflicting minor wounds on the terror to reach its core. The Spell had attributed the final blow—and thus the kill—to Lumian.
Though he would have preferred the Fallen Terror's Echo, the sword was a worthy consolation.
Without hesitation, Lumian entered his Sea of Souls and summoned the newly acquired blade.