The sky parted, sliced through by a narrow vertical rift. Behind it, the fabric of reality made way for a dark, harrowing abyss of nothingness — both light and darkness seemed to be twisted and changed near the Gate, breaking as they were destroyed.
The rift dwarfed the entire battlefield, stretching for hundreds and hundreds of meters into the shattered sky. The abandoned outpost, and the black fissure of the Nightmare Gate that led to the vicinity of the Black Skull, looked tiny and insignificant in front of it.
An invisible shockwave rolled outward from the point where the gargantuan rift touched the ground, exerting an almost irresistible force. Sunny braced himself, but still staggered as the wave pa.s.sed through him, barely managing to stay on his feet.
His mind was drowned by the deafening, cacophonous howling of the Call — it was many times louder, more unbearable, and maddeningly demanding than it had ever been before.
Sunny desperately resisted the overwhelming desire to submit.
All around them, the Awakened warriors screamed as they grabbed their heads and fell to their knees. Their eyes were wide open, but unseeing. Some were bleeding, and some seemed to be crawling toward the Gate. Some were thrown to the ground by the shockwave.
The invisible force made no distinction between those serving Valor and those serving Song — they were all the same in the face of the harrowing rift.
Mundane humans, if any had come to witness this battle, would have been outright killed by the pressure of the Gate.
Sunny staggered back and looked up at it in terror.
His lips moved.
"Four… it's a Category Four Nightmare Gate…"
And, just as he said those words…
The world shook again, and another rift tore through the sky.
The world convulsed, and one more sliced the fabric of reality apart.
Like three dark pillars holding up the heavens— or three vile spears cruelly thrust into the flesh of the world — three colossal Nightmare Gates surrounded the battlefield, cutting out all paths of retreat.
Not that there was a way to escape them.
The three armies — the valiant warriors of Clan Valor, the fearless soldiers of Clan Song, and those Awakened of the Evacuation Army that had come as escorts of Saint Cor —were trapped between the abhorrent black rifts.
...And then, something vast moved in the abyssal darkness of the first Gate.
Those who had enough presence of mind left to see witnessed something s.h.i.+ft within the Nightmare Gate. A moment later, giant fingers suddenly pushed from it into the waking world, each as large as a tower. There were dozens of them, all dark and strangely human-like, with black, broken fingernails and torn, calloused skin.
The fingers felt around blindly, then grabbed the edges of the vertical rift and strained, as if trying to pull it wider.
The most horrifying part of it all was…
That they succeeded.
The world trembled, and a net of black cracks seemed to spread through the sky. Then, the gaping wound of the Nightmare Gate was torn open, and a seething ma.s.s of the same dark flesh flowed out of it like an appalling avalanche.
The flesh expanded, turning into gargantuan black tentacles, which then shot forward with stunning speed.
Sunny took a step back. His eyes widened.
Somewhere far away from him, on the opposite side of the battlefield, the towering tortoise Echo was ripped apart with a single swing of a black tentacle. The Awakened sheltered in the stone fort on its carapace were thrown into the air, and the Transcendent creature instantly exploded into a whirlwind of sparks.
Someplace else, the tentacles reached the ma.s.sive figure of the t.i.tanic worm. The t.i.tan rose its repulsive body into the air to meet them… but a moment later, it was torn to shreds, destroyed, and consumed, disappearing without a trace.
A scrawny figure jumped onto the back of a black steed, who then raced away. A split second later, the Reflection of Silent Stalker disappeared under the tide of dark flesh, and a faint sound of breaking gla.s.s rang quietly.
Most shocking of all…
Not too far away from the Gate, Beastmaster suddenly staggered back from the vague figure outlined in front of her, blood flowing from her mangled face.
A moment later, a black tentacle whipped through the empty air with terrible speed, and a fountain of blood suddenly bloomed where the vague figure had stood a moment ago. There was no time to react, and no chance to escape.
Pieces of torn flesh became visible as they splattered all around, unrecognizable as parts of a human being.
Just like that, Saint Madoc, the Whispering Blade, brother of the King of Swords and an elder of the great clan Valor, was no more.
He was dead.
Far away, Sunny and Nephis watched the world end in stunned silence.
'It's a Great… a Great Terror? A Great t.i.tan?'
Sunny s.h.i.+vered, hypnotized by the terrible sight of a Great Nightmare Creature forcing its way into the waking world.
Everything he had known seemed meaningless in front of it. The mere thought of trying to resist felt futile.
That was when the darkness within the other two Gates moved, as well.
He considered his chances of outrunning the tide of Corrupted and Great abominations that would enter the waking world in mere moments. Even with Nightmare and Shadow Step… the chances…
Were zero.
If even the Saints were obliterated in seconds, a Master like him had no chance at all.
Nephis suddenly shuddered, and then grabbed him by the shoulder. Her lips parted:
"...Realm! Escaping into the Dream Realm! That is the only way!"
He stared at her with hollow eyes, trying to understand the meaning of these words.
'What is she on about?'
Then, with tremendous effort, Sunny forced himself to calm down and regain his composure.
He could... barely... think again.
Escaping into the Dream Realm?
That was indeed a chance.
No one knew what they would find there, but it could very well be better than being trapped between three Category Four Nightmare Gates.
At least, that way, there was a possibility of survival.
Here, there was only death.
Or something much worse.
The problem was that the process of traveling between worlds was not instantaneous. It took time to open the door between the waking world and the Dream Realm, and even more time to step through.
Would they be fast enough to escape?
'...There is only one way to find out.'
Staring at the Great horror slowly pus.h.i.+ng its vast body through the broken abyssal rift, Sunny took a deep breath, and tried to feel his Dream Realm anchor.