"Sunless! Guide the way and start searching for the gateway." Sevatar commanded.
Now that the rays of soul-destroying light were led away by Nephis, he could also let his shadow free and send it forward to explore and search for the Gateway.
Hiding his unease deep inside, Sunny projected shadow sense out and started searching for the gateway.
Taking Cassie's hand, Sunny dove out of his cover and dashed toward a wide, spiraling coral root that reached high into the darkness above. He could hear the sound of footsteps following him from behind. Sevatar and Night lords followed behind.
The Dreamer Army was on the move once again.
Jumping on the root, Sunny send the shadow forward and glanced at the approaching sea of coral golems. There was still time.
He ran forward, using the coral growth as stairs. A second later, he yelled:
"Those at the back! Ready your weapons!"
They did so while the first rows of Sleepers followed Sunny up. Almost everyone had time to climb onto the root by the time the first of the golems showed up.
The coral figure stumbled from the darkness, only to be met by a flash of a sword. It crumbled instantly, offering almost no resistance.
But a moment later, several more appeared, and then more, and more.
The Sleepers destroyed the first wave to buy themselves a few moments and then jumped onto the root, then dashed away, soon catching up with the rest of the survivors.
At the head of them, Sunny hesitated for a moment. Thanks to the shadow, he knew that the wide coral growth they were ascending was soon going to twist upward at an almost vertical angle and grow much more narrow.
Luckily, there was another one crossing it just a few meters ahead, separated by a very small gap.
Picking Cassie up, he took a step forward and jumped, landing on the other root, then turned around and moved in the opposite direction to the one they had been going... but still upward.
Behind him, the Sleepers repeated his jump. And down below, the wave of golems was already climbing on the twisting roots to pursue them.
'Damn it. I guess they can climb!'
He ran forward, struggling against the steep incline, then suddenly froze and looked up. There, a few dozen meters away, a wide gallery circled around the empty expanse of the Crimson Spire.
And on it, another mass of golems was surging in the direction of the Dreamer Army. Countless twisted figures were appearing from the chaotic mess of crimson coral and rushing forward, searching for a path to reach them. Many fell off the edge of the gallery and plunged down, to explode into shards once they hit the floor.
But some fell right on the root he was standing on.
Gritting his teeth, Sunny looked back and noticed a familiar tall figure close by. Effie stared at him tiredly and forced out a smile:
"What is it now?"
He put Cassie on the ground and gently pushed her toward the huntress.
"Take care of her for me, alright?"
Effie waved a hand, letting him know that she got it.
Sunny watched the two of them for a moment, then turned around and summoned the Midnight Shard.
A few seconds later, he reached the first golem and slashed it with his sword. The golem's body offered some resistance, but no more than a mundane creature would. It almost disintegrated under his assault, crumbling easily into a pile of broken coral.
'Not too bad…'
Curiously, the Spell did not congratulate him on the kill. Just as Sunny had suspected, these things were not really living creatures.
That was going to make things a tiny bit easier.
Running past the destroyed construct, Sunny soon approached another one and pushed it off the root with one strike of the Midnight Shard's pommel. The golems were not that dangerous…
At least not in small numbers.
He led the Dreamer Army forward, climbing higher and higher. Every couple of minutes, they would have to leave one root and make use of another, sometimes moving across stone galleries that were situated here and there on the walls of the Crimson Spire.
At some point, both the night lord vanguard of the human procession and its rear became embroiled in a rolling melee with the sea of coral golems. Those in the middle only had to keep their eyes on the layers of coral and stone structures overhead to make sure that nothing fell on them.
This battle was not too terrible, however. The constructs were slower and weaker than even the mundane humans whose visage they were meant to recreate, not to mention almost completely mindless. Not a single human had fell to their attacks yet.
…That was not to say that surviving the onslaught of countless golems was easy.
Somewhere high above, meanwhile, the flashes of white light slowly turned into one continuous, radiant halo. Nephis was probably already approaching the very pinnacle of the ancient tower. The fact that none of the annihilating rays had returned to attack the Sleepers served as proof that she was still alive, drawing the attention of the Terror away from them.
'Where are you… where are you…'
At the head of the Dreamer Army, Sunny cut through another golem and suppressed a curse.
Where was the damn Gateway?!
…And just he thought that, the shadow finally found what it had been looking for all that time.
Their way back to the real world.Out there in the darkness, a vast balcony was built into the wall of the tower, reaching almost to the center of the gargantuan structure. On its surface, broken pillars of marble were overgrown by the everpresent streaks of crimson coral. They led to a circular dais, with a wide iron ring submerged into its stone surface.
Around the ring, a beautiful pattern of runes was shimmering with familiar light. They were just like those runes that every Awakened had seen countless times when communicating with the Spell.
But that wasn't the first reason why Sunny had noticed it. The most unusual thing about the dais was that unlike everything else inside of the Spire, it was utterly devoid of growths of crimson coral. The stone surface surrounding the ring was strangely clean and untouched by it.
Looking at the shimmering runes and the iron rings through his shadow, Sunny felt something move in his heart.
He was sure that this was the Gateway.
They were so close…
As he watched it, the whole Spire suddenly shuddered. Massive pieces of coral broke off and fell down, crashing into other branches down below. Suddenly, the darkness that surrounded the Dreamer Army became less impenetrable.
High above them, the radiant halo of light became several times more bright.
…Nephis had reached the Crimson Terror.
With a somber grimace, Sunny escaped from his reverie and dashed forward, slicing several golems as he went. The frightened Sleepers followed, entrusting their fates into his hands.
As more and more tremors ran through the ancient tower and several enormous pillars of coral completely collapsed, they ascended even higher and approached the vast balcony.
And then, finally, Sunny jumped down and landed on solid stone.
Shattering a few golems, he cleared enough space for others to follow and watched several more people reach the balcony. One after another, the Sleepers jumped off the treacherous coral and joined him. Those who were the first to catch up repelled the attacking golems to let the others come down.
Soon, all hundred of them were on the balcony — and just in time. A few seconds later, a tremendous piece of debris fell from above, pulverizing the branch of coral they had used to get there.
Sunny lingered for a few moments, watching as crimson pieces rained down, and then turned away with a determined expression.
"Come on! We're almost there!"
The remains of the Dreamer Amry cut through the mass of golems and escaped it. Running with all the speed they could manage, the crowd of young men and women approached the Gateway and froze, stunned by the sight of it.
Hypnotized by it.
In front of them... was the hope that they had forgotten for so long.
The torturous promise of freedom that had taunted them every day, hidden away in the terrifying, looming silhouette of the Crimson Spire.
Their way home.
Salvation.
Most of them had spent so long on the Forgotten Shore that the thought of ever being able to escape it became nothing more than a distant dream. Even when they had followed Changing Star and chose to believe her promises, salvation was just a concept. An idea.
Now that they saw it as a real thing, many did not know how to react.
…Well, Sevatar was there to make the process easier.
"What are you staring at, idiots?! move! Battle formation! Protect the rear! Wounded and non-combatants go first, everyone else holds off the damn golems and then follows! One at a time, bastards!"
Coming back to their senses thanks to his angry shout, the Sleepers quickly reorganized themselves. Those who could still fight faced away from the Gateway and formed a defensive line, protecting the wounded with their bodies. Those who couldn't helped the people in the worst condition enter the iron ring.
Sunny watched as the first human was placed in the center of the Gateway. A moment later, the runes surrounding the ring flashed with shimmering light. The body of the Sleeper suddenly shone, too. The ghostly shine was dim at first, but then grew brighter and brighter. Soon, it was hard to distinguish the shape of the human body at the center of that light.
And then, the light dissipated, much like a Memory or an Echo would, leaving nothing behind.
After all these years, all that suffering, all that loss, the first Sleeper had finally escaped the Forgotten Shore.
Looking through the emptiness left by the disappearance, Sunny realized that he had forgotten to breathe.
A second later, an exhilarated cheer rose above the crowd of humans. The intensity of emotion in their voices… no words existed to describe the complicated, overwhelming conflagration of feelings burning in the chests of the survivors of the Dreamer Army at that moment.
Well, at least Sunny had none.
In the next moment, the pursuing wave of golems crashed into the defensive line, and the next human stepped into the Gateway.
The defenders held their ground, throwing the coral creatures back.
Sunny lingered at the edge of the dais, watching the crowd of humans. One after another, they were disappearing into the beautiful radiance of the Gateway, while the others continued to confidently repel the assault of the golems.
They were going to survive.
That meant that his job here was done.
…And, just as he had expected, Caster was nowhere to be seen.
Lingering for a few short moments, Sunny glanced at the Gateway one last time and then stepped away.
As he moved through the crowd of humans and approached its edge, someone suddenly called out his name.
Turning his head, Sunny saw Effie. The huntress was carrying the unconscious body of Kai on one shoulder, and keeping Cassie close to her own under another. The blind girl's face was ashen, confused, and empty.
"Doofus! Where are you going?"
Sunny stared at her for a few moments, and then suddenly smiled.
"...There's just some unfinished business I need to deal with. Take care, you three. I will… see you later. I hope."
With that, he took a step back and disappeared into the shadows. And at the same time Konrad entered the gateway alongside Izanami who was carrying him. Both of them disappeared.