The five Sleepers then rested on the giant stone hand for an entire day, mainly because of Senrix who had spent far too much of himself fighting the tentacled abomination beneath the Dark Sea, his reason being simple.
"Even using Crimson Engine is already taxing enough, imagine when I have to use that gigantic mode, it fucking hurt like hell."
Nobody argued with him.
After all, they had all seen what happened beneath the water.
They had seen the gigantic armored form tearing through countless tentacles while dragging the abomination into a direct confrontation, buying enough ti for everyone else to escape.
Even Nephis didn't have anything to say about it.
So they rested.
Then after a day had passed, they finally traveled toward where the seemingly human castle was located.
Eventually, the Five reached the massive granite wall surrounding the city.
It towered high above them like an unbreakable mountain of stone, ancient yet completely intact despite surviving countless years inside the Forgotten Shore where even entire cities had fallen into ruin.
After resting, they decided to climb rather than waste ti searching for a gate that might not even exist anymore.
Using their swords to find purchase between the massive stone slabs, Sunny and Nephis slowly made their way upward, carefully climbing toward the top of the wall one step at a ti.
anwhile, Senrix simply summoned Crimson Engine.
Crimson flas erupted around him as chanical wings unfolded from his back.
Then he flew straight to the top.
Elysia imdiately looked at the wall before looking at Senrix.
"I'm not climbing that."
Senrix stared at her for a mont.
Then grabbed her shoulder.
"Hey!"
Without saying anything else, he carried her all the way to the top while completely ignoring her complaints.
Cassie was eventually helped up as well.
Once everyone finally reached the top of the wall, the blind girl imdiately grasped Sunny's shoulder.
Her voice was bright and filled with anticipation.
"Sunny? What do you see?"
He licked his lips.
Then looked ahead.
Beneath them, an enormous city lay in ruins.
The beautiful stone buildings were broken and shattered, many of them having collapsed into nothing more than piles of rubble scattered across the streets.
There were no people walking along the roads.
No voices.
No movent that belonged to humanity.
No sound capable of driving away the oppressive silence.
Under the cold gray sky, the ruined city looked dead and mournful, like a graveyard abandoned countless years ago.
It was impossible to say what terrible disaster had happened here, but it was clear that it had not been natural.
Many of the collapsed houses were blackened by fire.
Others were covered in deep claw marks that had been carved into the stone walls by sothing unimaginably powerful.
Here and there, gigantic bones protruded from the ground, remnants of ancient horrors that had once fought and died upon these streets.
Looking closer, Sunny suddenly felt cold sweat running down his back.
There were shapes moving throughout the ruins.
So wandered openly between broken streets and collapsed buildings.
Others hid within the shadows of ruined structures.
Everywhere he looked, there were signs of life.
Unfortunately, none of it belonged to humans.
The ruined city was teeming with Nightmare Creatures.
"There is... a vast ruined city built from weathered stone. And there are nurous monsters wandering its streets. Just like you said there would be."
Cassie quietly nodded.
The wall they were standing on was as wide as a road.
It stretched endlessly in both directions, surrounding the entire ruined city in a strangely perfect circle.
Every so often, large towers were built directly into the wall, serving as defensive bastions against any enemy foolish enough to attack it.
Who would have thought that one day this massive barrier would not keep monsters out...
But instead keep horrors trapped inside?
However, Sunny wasn't paying much attention to the wall.
He wasn't even paying much attention to the countless monsters below.
Instead, his eyes were drawn toward the massive hill standing in the center of the ruined city.
And on top of that hill...
"There is a magnificent castle standing in the middle of the ruins."
His voice beca quieter.
"It looks like sothing straight out of a legend. Its walls are made from radiant white stone, with countless towers and majestic spires reaching toward the sky. It stands above the city like a symbol of hope, the only thing in this entire hell that sohow managed to remain untouched by the darkness and... and..."
A wide smile imdiately appeared on Cassie's face.
"Yes! This is the castle I saw!"
However, Sunny barely heard her.
His eyes had already moved beyond the castle.
Then he froze.
Fear imdiately gripped his heart.
Far behind the bright castle stood a colossal crimson structure piercing the sky itself.
The Crimson Spire.
Even Nephis stared at it for several monts before slowly looking away.
Elysia's expression had also darkened considerably.
Neither of them spoke.
Rather unusually, Senrix didn't pay attention to the Crimson Spire at all.
Instead, he simply leaned against part of the wall and rested.
"The final stretch will be dangerous."
Nephis finally broke the silence.
"Let's find a way down first."
Everyone nodded.
Rather than imdiately climbing down, the group decided to investigate one of the towers built into the wall first.
If sothing went wrong later, it could provide a safer route of escape.
As they approached the nearest tower, Cassie suddenly grabbed Sunny's shoulder.
He imdiately stopped.
The other four Sleepers also froze.
Their hands moved toward their weapons instinctively.
"What is it, Cassie?" Sunny asked.
In so situations, the blind girl could notice danger before any of them.
Her hearing and sense of sll often allowed her to perceive things ordinary people could never detect.
Now, a deep scowl appeared on her face.
Turning her head slightly, she whispered.
"Listen."
Sunny imdiately held his breath.
Following her advice, he strained his hearing as much as possible.
Soon enough, he heard sothing.
A strange sound coming from inside the tower.
Chomp.
Chomp.
Crunch.
Chomp.
Sunny's expression imdiately twisted.
It sounded like sothing was being eaten.
Flesh being torn apart.
Bones being crushed between powerful teeth.
The nauseating sound made his stomach turn.
The five Sleepers exchanged glances.
Then they summoned their weapons.
Nephis and Sunny drew their swords.
Senrix summoned the greatsword variant of Crimson Engine.
Elysia quietly nocked an arrow onto her bow.
Like usual, before any of them moved forward, Sunny sent his shadow ahead to investigate.
The shadow silently glided across the stone floor.
Then it slipped into the darkness of the tower.
Soon, Sunny was able to see through its eyes.
The first thing he noticed was blood.
Several dead monsters lay scattered across the stone floor in massive puddles of dark blood.
Judging by the bloody trails left behind, their enormous bodies had been dragged here by sothing incredibly powerful.
They had been butchered apart and completely eviscerated.
It looked as though an enthusiastic butcher had personally prepared them.
Then Sunny saw a large pile of gnawed bones.
So still had scraps of at attached.
Others had been split open and emptied of every last bit of marrow.
The next thing he saw was a fire.
A genuine fire burning inside a crude circle of stone fragnts.
Above it, several skewers of monster at slowly roasted.
And sitting beside that fire, casually munching on a perfectly roasted rib while producing the chomping sounds they had heard earlier...
Was a human.
Not a monster.
Not a Nightmare Creature.
A human.
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