"Get... dy... ate... ing!”
Death Singer's shout was drowned in the deafening roar of the Weeping Goddess. The great waterfall stretched into the distance like a gargantuan white wall, and far below, the Lake of Tears glistened under the sun. The city on its shores was mostly empty now, the people who had populated it just days ago gone. So escaped northwest toward Ravenheart, so were carried by enormous barges southward, embarking on a long journey down the River of Tears.
But many were still waiting for their turn to be evacuated, and so, the forces of the Human Domain could not surrender the Great Waterfall just yet.
Death Singer moved nimbly across the cliffside, using her serpentine body to cling to the rocks. Her Transcendent form was that of a half-human, half-serpent, with the lower part of her body resembling a snake's tail.
Rushing across weathered stone and water with incredible speed, she reached Seishan and yelled again:
"Get ready! The Gate is opening!"
She straightened her enchanted cape and added just as loudly:
“We're all going to die!"
Seishan winced.
The Citadel clinging to the cliffs above the Lake of Sorrow belonged to her now, so she was naturally one of the Saints ant to hold the enemy back until the evacuation was over. However, she was not the only one here.
Soul Reaper Jet and the Night Garden were currently on the Chained Isles, helping the White Feather clan hide their people in the Sky Below. Here on the edges of the Moonriver Plain, however, it was the Song sisters and Nightingale who had to hold the line.
Seishan, Beastmaster, Moonveil, Loneso Howl, Silent Stalker, and Death Singer — today, they were going to fight side by side for the first ti since Godgrave. Only Revel was missing, but since the radiant sun was shining high in the sky, she would not have been able to join this battle, anyway. Instead, a few more Saints from Ravenheart and the basin of the River of Tears — those who could be pulled to the Weeping Goddess in ti — were going to fight in her place. Bliss, Hellie, Ceres, Siord... and, of course, there was Saint Kai, the Steward of the West himself.
Looking down upon the lake, he sighed and said in a solemn tone:
“It used to be that we only feared Gates opening in the waking world, unleashing Nightmare Creatures upon humans. But now, here we are in the Dream Realm, full of dread because of an imminent descent of a Gate... which will unleash a human."
He ant a Dream Gate, of course, not a Nightmare Gate. Still, the irony was not lost on Seishan.
Suddenly, it struck her how odd the situation was. She had known Kai for a long ti — the first ti they t, she was the custodian of the Bright Castle, while he was a Sleeper paying the tribute to find safety behind the castle's walls.
Both of them had co a long way.
Seishan gave him a brief look.
"I wouldn't call that man a human."
The King of Nothing was coming, and they were the only ones who could stop him... or at least stall him. The Lord of Shadows had bought them ti, but that ti was running out now, and neither he nor Changing Star was coming to help them. Seishan still couldn't believe that both Sovereigns ruling the Human Domain — one openly, the other from the shadows — were missing, having placed the heavy responsibility of defending humanity against two dented Supres on the shoulders of their subordinates.
She knew that they had a good reason. But, still... Seishan could not help but feel like she had been swindled.
It did not seem quite fair, to expect a group of Saints and an army of Awakened to stop a Supre. But at least Mordret would hold his main vessel back — he had to in order to protect himself, since throwing his most powerful assets into the battle risked luring a different, far more frightening predator to the Lake of Tears — the other sinister Supre, Asterion.
Seishan had never expected that the Dreamspawn would one day serve as a deterrent against a different Sovereign who aid to obliterate the Human Domain. Sadly, even that abomination was not fearso enough to scare the King of Nothing away completely.
‘Is this what they call fighting evil with evil?’
Then again, Seishan herself was far from a good person.
Even without his original vessel, Mordret was a fearso adversary. He had already been trendously perilous after attaining Supremacy and quietly absorbing nurous Nightmare Creatures around the Hollow Mountains, but not that he conquered the Glass Hell and feasted on the great swarm of the Hive, he was simply a walking calamity.
Much worse than the scale of his power was its nature. He was a tricky opponent to fight — his ability to open portals between reflections made it impossible to build reliable fortifications against him, and even sothing as fundantal as battle formations was of no help.
So, the forces of the Human Domain were arrayed both atop the towering plateau, above the Weeping Goddess, and below it, on the shores of the Lake of Tears. A dozen Saints, hundreds of Masters, and countless Awakened — all waiting for the enemy to reveal himself.
Mordret did not make them wait. long.
A cold wind blew across the lake, and the Mirror Gate descended upon the world.
It did not split the fabric of reality like a vertical scar left on the world by an invisible blade, though. Instead, the restless waters of the Lake of Tears rippled and then turned still like a vast mirror.
“Archers, nock your arrows."
Nightingale's voice resounded above the lake, easily drowning out the cries of the Weeping Goddess.
Far below, the still waters foad, and grotesque silhouettes rose from them, rushing at the loose phalanxes of Awakened warriors and swarms of enthralled Nightmare Creatures guarding the shores. Smaller abominations followed the imnse champions of the Mirror Domain, and the transparent monsters of the Hive moved under the water, unseen. There were too many of them to count, and more and more vessels of the King of Nothing escaped the Mirror Gate every mont.
"Loose!"
Far above the Lake of Tears, the warriors of the Human Domain... and the Hunger Domain, too... released the strings of their bows, sending a stormcloud of arrows plumting down upon the flood of soulless vessels.
The world quaked. The foaming water exploded in great geysers, and was then painted red.
The hopeless battle against Mordret of Nowhere had begun.
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