Second chapter as promised.
..
The fight had made him feel a lot better, scratching his itch for a good challenge.
While he hadn't gone all out, limiting his portals and speed, and not using [Sword of Rupture] until the very end, it had still forced him to be on the tip of his toes constantly.
[You have killed an Awakened Demon, Carapace Tribune.]
[You have gained a memory: Midnight Shard.]
[Your treasury grows deeper.]
So, that's what it was called: a Carapace Tribune. Were there any Carapaces above this rank? Perchance.
Sunny dropped down from the branches of the Soul Devouring Tree.
Moving towards the creature, she nudged it with her leg.
"You made the fight look really easy. I couldn't even see you at times because of your speed."
Sunny turned towards him with admiration in her eyes just as Nephis and the Carapace Scavenger Echo dropped down with Cassie on top of it.
While looking at the red leaves of the tree, he walked up to Sunny. Gilgamesh grabbed her chin and made her look up. Instead of doing anything, he just transferred [Midnight Shard] to her and walked away while she was stuck in her position, blushing.
"Gil, are you alright? I couldn't see the battle, but it sounded very scary."
Gilgamesh walked up to Cassie while Nephis was looking at him, impressed. Gently kissing her forehead, he held her hands gently.
"Of course, Cassie, there's nothing in this world that can harm me."
Releasing her hands, Gilgamesh walked towards the Tree while sizing it up. Nephis moved towards him while he was knocking on its trunk with his hand.
"Well done."
Gilgamesh nodded his head while staring at the tree seriously. He couldn't feel any pressure on his mind urging him to protect the tree or telling him not to cut it. How long did its effect even take to start working?
Either way, he wasn't worried about falling for its mind hex.
"What? No kiss for me?"
Gilgamesh paused, genuinely feeling a little bit terrified for the first time in the Dream Realm.
Turning back, he saw Nephis looking at him expectantly, with what he suspected was a joking look on her face.
Gilgamesh didn't know whether he should laugh or be creeped out.
Still, walking up to her, he kissed her cheek gently without having to bend down too much. Moving back, he looked at the light blush that had spread across her face and smirked.
"You still have a lot to learn about using the correct tone."
Laughing, Gilgamesh turned back towards the tree. He was planning on removing all the fruits it had.
He was planning on sending Sunny to the tree to pluck them so that she could find the egg of the Vile Thieving Bird. Gilgamesh didn't particularly care about getting Weaver's lineage. Plus, he was fairly certain that Weaver wouldn't be very happy if his Ichor fell into someone else's hands.
"A queen does not concern herself with the opinion of the sheep."
Gilgamesh was terrified again.
This time, even more so.
Once again turning back, he looked at the haughty look on Nephis's face, eerily similar to the one he had used multiple times.
He couldn't hold it in anymore.
Gilgamesh started roaring with laughter.
This was too funny. He finally realized why Nephis used to stare at his expressions whenever he spoke. She was trying to learn how to speak properly. From the first time they had started training in the Academy until now, she was studying his face and learning how to interact.
Pausing to take a breath, Gilgamesh stared at the embarrassed look in her eyes.
'She watched too many sigma edits.'
"I... I genuinely don't know what to say, Nephis. Just don't go around saying that to random people."
Once again, he turned towards the tree while wiping the tears that had come out of his eyes from laughing that hard.
Breathing in to calm down, Gilgamesh moved away from the tree. Instead, he started walking towards the western edge of the Ashen Barrow.
While walking, he couldn't help but appreciate his surroundings; it was pleasant to look at.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Gilgamesh finally reached the edge of the mountain-like structure. His walking came to a stop as he looked at what was in front of him.
Beyond the western edge of the Ashen Barrow, the slope of this side of the island was much steeper. At the spot where it was supposed to end, the familiar sight of the flat wasteland was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the ground continued to slope downward at a less drastic, but still considerably sharp angle. It continued far into the distance, making the whole island appear to be standing on the edge of a colossal depression in the earth, one that stretched as far as the eye could see. With its edges slightly curved, it resembled a giant crater left behind by an unimaginable impact.
The crater's diameter could only be calculated in hundreds of kilometers. The roots of the Soul Devouring Tree, which could be seen protruding from the soil far below, seemed like tiny blades of grass in comparison to the sheer size of the abyssal chasm's wall.
Was this where the Nephilim had fallen?
Gilgamesh stared at the Crater in thought. If he wasn't wrong, then this Crater was longer and wider than the one that had destroyed the Dinosaurs.
How did it not destroy everything and everyone in the Forgotten Shore?
The impact of this thing should have caused tsunamis, earthquakes, and overall should have destroyed all life in the Forgotten Shore. Then again, it was stupid to apply logic in a fantasy world.
Gilgamesh himself could make portals appear out of nowhere, throw weapons with them, and store as many things as he wanted inside.
While staring at the its length, he considered how many portals it would take him to teleport across.
If he had to make an estimate, then it would take him roughly twenty portals or so, stretched to their maximum range, to teleport across the whole thing.
Gilgamesh turned away; he still had a tree to cut down, after all.
When he reached back to the middle of the island, he told Sunny to check out the tree and see if it had any Nightmare Creatures hiding on its branches, and to kill them if she encountered them and also bring all the fruits of the tree down. Without a complaint, she darted through the branches, searching for Nightmare Creatures.
Once she was back on the ground, she brought back the fruits she had found.
"Uh, I also found a egg of some bird who stole this guy's eye or something. I also got a drop of Ichor from killing it."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Consume it."
Shrugging her shoulders, she summoned the memory of the ichor, which appeared as a radiant, golden-colored spherical in shape in her hand.
Sunny stared at something in the air—probably her Runes—before the golden sphere separated into two streams of beautiful, radiant liquid.
The streams flowed through the air, approaching Sunny's face.
Then, the golden liquid reached her eyes and flowed through them, entering her pupils.
Soon, it was gone.
Sunny stood frozen, while Gilgamesh looked on curiously. Wasn't something supposed to happen?
A second passed, then another.
Gilgamesh watched as she raised her hand towards her face with a distant look in her eyes.
In the next moment, Sunny opened her mouth and let out a terrible, wailing shriek.
Cassie and Nephis both got up and rushed towards them as Gilgamesh held her from scratching her face off.
"What happened to her?"
Both Cassie and Nephis looked anxious as Sunny writhed and twisted in his arms in pain.
"She consumed an Ichor of some Daemon, which went into her eyes after it was used."
A sudden white glow appeared in Nephis's hand as her face twisted with a grimace while moving forward to heal Sunny from whatever had happened to her.
"Healing her with your flames might make it worse."
Nephis backed off when she heard that. Something was telling Gilgamesh that the flames of the Sun God's lineage and Weaver's lineage interacting at this time would make the situation even worse.
For a minute or two, Sunny continued screaming in pain before calming down. Soon, she was brought back to her senses as her eyes finally opened. She found herself lying in Gilgamesh's lap with Nephis and Cassie looking at her with a worried expression.
Getting up, she looked around and paused before looking at her [Puppeteer's Shroud].
Both Nephis and Cassie asked her whether she was feeling alright, while Nephis stretched out her hands to heal her, which
stopped her trembling.
At this time, Gilgamesh was standing a bit away from them while looking at the sky.
When Sunny was writhing and screaming in his hands, he had found himself a lot more worried than he should have been. It had been at that moment that he realized that he was starting to worry a lot more about them. At first, he had just considered them to be nothing more than a few characters from a book. But as he held Sunny in his arms, Gilgamesh had realized that he couldn't bear to lose them. He didn't know when, but he had stopped thinking about them as just characters from a book.
Gilgamesh moved towards where Sunny was talking to the other two members of the cohort.
"I hope that you're doing well now, Sunny."
She looked at him with a sheepish smile while rubbing her head. Suddenly, she looked at his armor and winced. When he asked her what happened, she replied that she couldn't see the weaves of his armor because it was too bright.
...
Once everything had calmed down, Gilgamesh finally moved on to the task he had to do as quickly as possible.
Bringing Ea out of [Gate of Babylon], he walked towards the Soul Devouring Tree.
Weirdly enough, he didn't feel any pressure forcing him to turn away or distracting him.
When he finally reached, he looked at the giant tree in front of him, Gilgamesh didn't waste a second. Raising his hand with Ea, the huge tree that was standing just a second ago fell down to the ground with a thunderous sound.
The others looked at him at the loud sound, surprised because even though it had been only a few hours, they had already forgotten about the mind-controlling tree and remembered it only now.
...
Once it was nighttime, Gilgamesh removed the food and sat down on the ground.
"Since tomorrow we will be reaching the castle, let's feast!"
All of them instantly got happy at the thought of returning to the real world and dove into the food without waiting.
Except Gilgamesh, who looked at them with an indescribable look on his face, knowing the shock they'd be getting tomorrow.
...
It was midnight, and everyone except Nephis, who was on guard duty, was sleeping. Everyone but Gilgamesh. For some unknown reason, he couldn't make himself go to sleep today.
Walking towards Nephis, who was meditating, he sat down beside her. Nephis, feeling his presence, paused her training and looked at him.
"The sky looks good today, doesn't it?"
Looking up, Nephis stared at the sky before turning her attention back towards him.
"It looks the same to me."
Gilgamesh chuckled at her response. Falling on the ground, he laid his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. Appreciating the silence.
"Being in your presence makes me a lot more calm for some reason."
Nephis looked at him with an indescribable expression as he said that and nodded her head while looking at him.
When Gilgamesh was sleeping, he felt someone's hand intertwining with his.
...
They woke up early in the morning, excited to go back to the real world as quickly as possible. All of them their had breakfast while discussing the things they would be doing when they returned. With as much speed as they could manage, they ate their breakfast.
As Gilgamesh put the food and bed back into [Gate of Babylon], he couldn't help but think about the shock they'd be experiencing when they reached it and realized that it wasn't actually a Citadel.
Once everything was back inside, they walked towards the edge of the Ashen Barrow and stared at the giant Crater.
"Alright everyone, jump into [Gate of Babylon]."
Knowing that they wouldn't be able to cross it without the help of his portals, they all jumped inside.
Finally opening a portal beneath himself, Gilgamesh opened another one as far away as he could.
Then another, and another, and then twenty more. In total, it took him twenty-three portals in total before he was finally able to cross the Crater.
Once he was close enough, Gilgamesh teleported all of them to the top of the wall outside the Dark City.
Looking solemnly at the abandoned houses of the dark city, he removed the other three of them.
The cohort stared at the castle that was exactly as Cassie had described it to be.
They had done it.
They had reached the Dark City.
...
I honestly apologise if the writing was subpar or rushed in both of these chapters. I was feeling rather burnt out after writing atleast four to five thousand words everyday.
I might not upload tomorrow because I need to read the forgotten shore arc to remember everything because I have forgotten alot of things and the Shadow Slave Wiki is trash, with barely any useful information inside of it.
Word Count: 2214.