"Now, what do we have over here?" Asteria murmured, a sharp smile touching her lips as her eyes picked out her next destination through the gloom.
Truthfully, she found herself not caring about her Aspect Legacy or Nether's hidden truths at this exact moment. Why should she? She had just accomplished something she previously deemed completely impossible. She was finally living out her deepest, most closely guarded fantasies — the very scenarios she had spent her childhood daydreaming about.
But that was something she could reminisce about and enjoy to its absolute fullest later. Right now, Asteria had a specific destination to reach, and her primary goal was to ensure the location didn't find a way to kill her.
The intense brilliance she had conjured from the dirt had completely faded, leaving her once more entirely exposed to the darkness. It was True Darkness, a heavy, suffocating blanket that seemed to permanently haunt the Underworld.
Asteria could still feel the weight of those invisible gazes pressing against her skin from the shadows. However, their nature had shifted entirely. Instead of projecting cold curiosity, neutral detachment, or overt hostility, the hidden denizens felt genuinely frightened. They were terrified, deeply fearful of an invader who possessed the rare, volatile power to manifest a light capable of destroying their kind.
The Queen of Nightmare felt an immediate surge of rejuvenation as their collective fear washed over her. She felt strangely liberated, even whilst standing completely alone and feeling infinitely small within the vast expanse of the darkness.
As her boots brought her closer to the perimeter pillars of Nether's ancient city, a violent chill ran down her spine.
The entire metropolis was constructed from uniform, ash-grey stone. Towering structures had been carved from the harrowing rock, appearing to grow naturally out of the dead, ashen soil shifting beneath her feet. The environment was incredibly eerie. Unlike the tunnels behind her, where she could distinctly hear the crunch of her steps or the distant, wet hisses of the creatures of darkness, there was absolutely no sound here. The ruins were locked in a state of absolute silence, save for the shallow, pattern of her own nervous breathing.
No, she was wrong. The city wasn't entirely empty.
There were figures standing in the dark. Statues.
Dozens of realistic forms constructed from the same dull grey stone stood in rigid formations. Each figure held a simple weapon — some grasped long swords, others held heavy bows, whilst a plethora of alternative arms were clenched tightly in their stone hands or secured against their waists. They looked stalwart, sturdy, and entirely disciplined, resembling a legion of flawless soldiers waiting for a command.
They looked almost saintly, in a deeply twisted sort of way.
'Yuck. Looking at them gives me the creeps,' she whispered to herself, consciously trying to steady her erratic pulse. She didn't want to allow her nerves to get get rattled by a collection of inanimate stat–
BANG. BANG.
The sudden, heavy sound shattered the silence. One of the massive stone statues Asteria had been studying deliberately stepped forward, breaking its formation. It raised its grey blade and struck the flat of the stone against its shield twice, the harsh ringing of stone on stone echoing violently through the pristine ruins.
"I really don't want to fight these blokes, they look far too cute..." she muttered, a nervous, dry laugh escaping her throat as she stepped into a defensive stance. "...and they look exactly like the type of monsters that can kill me with a single strike. But I certainly won't go down without a decent fight... I hope."
The stone warrior raised its sword, shifting its weight into a defensive posture. Its heavy grey feet were planted into the soil like the roots of a mountain, creating a stance so solid and unbreakable that Asteria felt cold sweat collect at the nape of her neck. The statue slowly tilted its head, nodding once directly toward her position.
"Are you honestly asking me for a formal duel?!" Asteria's eyebrows rose in sheer bafflement. A Nightmare Creature possessing enough cognitive sentience to understand the concept of martial honor? 'Are they supposed to be some sort of ancient knights?' she wondered.
The Queen of Nightmare had very little reason to refuse the challenge. A single duel would significantly lessen her immediate burden, preventing her from having to fight an entire battalion of stone soldiers simultaneously. She raised the [Sentinel's Heart] in her right hand and manifested a sturdy shield utilizing her [Might of Gold] echo in the other. She braced her weight, telling herself she was ready.
Oh... Asteria was absolutely not ready.
Deciding to claim the initiative, Asteria made the first move. She lunged forward across the grey dirt, driving her blade toward the taciturn statue's throat. The warrior remained perfectly rooted to the spot, its movements incredibly swift as it raised its shield to deflect her strike with effortless precision. However, the stone shield did not emerge from the collision unscathed — a large, jagged crack splintered across its surface from the sheer force of her blow.
"Brute force and ignorance... got it," Asteria murmured under her breath, quickly assessing the visible damage against the statue's otherwise flawless defense.
Her opponent of stone seemed to reach the exact same conclusion. It flipped its stance instantly, abandoning its guarded posture. What had been a perfect, impenetrable defense transformed into a brutal, overwhelming offense — a style of combat that placed absolutely no value on self-preservation, built entirely to crush an opponent regardless of the damage sustained.
Behind the duelist, the remaining stone warriors began to beat their heavy shields against their weapons, whilst others slammed their armaments rhythmically against the stone ground. The collective movement created a terrifying, echoing cadence of battle that filled the empty city square.
These statues were explicitly engineered for the purpose of war.
Asteria intercepted a heavy, downward strike aimed at her chest, her golden shield absorbing the brunt of the impact. She quickly shifted her weight to her back foot, using the momentum to push the statue back a few paces. Spotting a brief opening, Asteria lunged forward with her blade, driving the starlight steel directly into the deep cracks forming across the warrior's stone chest.
With a sickening crunch, the statue fractured into pieces, dissolving into grey dust.
The voice of the Spell whispered in her ear.
[You have slain, Awakened Monster: Stone Saint.]
[You have received a memory: Saint's Purpose]
'Whew. That wasn't entirely terrible...' she thought, wiping a smear of dust from her cheek as a wry smile touched her lips. 'Their raw combat experience was definitely superior to mine. I would have likely lost if I didn't possess a rank and gear advantage. At least that memory didn't drain a ridiculous amount of my essence... it cost about a third of a single core.'
She thought back to the structural descriptions she had received when she ascended to the Class of a Devil: "...The overall potency and quantity of your soul cores have been significantly increased." 'That upgrade is definitely making a noticeable difference now,' she noted with a satisfied nod.
Looking around the open plaza, her eyes scanned the surrounding lines of Stone Saints. The soldiers had returned to a state of absolute stillness, frozen solid like ordinary temple statues, exactly as they had appeared when she first entered the square. It seemed they respected the terms of the duel and valued the strength she had shown–
'I definitely got my hopes up too quickly.'
With a series of loud, grinding cracks, seven Stone Saints stepped out of the formation simultaneously, each adjusting their grip on their weapons as they moved into active combat stances.
***
[You have slain, Awakened Monster: Stone Saint.]
[You have slain, Awakened Monster: Stone Saint.]
[You have...]
All around her position, the crumbled, broken corpses of stone soldiers littered the ashen floor. The skirmish had certainly not been an easy victory by any stretch of the imagination. The entities moved as a single, cohesive unit, demonstrating a level of perfect coordination that Asteria had never witnessed before.
It was far better than any cohort tactics she had observed during her training — granted, she had spent the vast majority of her life entirely alone, even after aligning herself with Clan Song.
"That's a remarkably good point, actually," Asteria grimaced, leaning heavily against a stone pillar as she caught her breath. "Why exactly haven't they given a proper cohort to me? Do they secretly hate me, or is there something else going on?"
Shaking her head in disappointment, she summoned her runes to inspect her spoils. She had only forced her soul to manifest a single memory from the lengthy ordeal; forcing the Spell to materialize any more than that would have left her essence in a pitifully depleted state, even with her recent victories.
Memory: [Saint's Purpose]
Memory Rank: Awakened]
Memory Tier: II
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: ["The Stone Saints were the children created by the hands of the Prince of the Underworld. The last child of the -unknown- fashioned their frames from the very stone that surrounded his domain, attempting to quell the seething resentment burning within his chest.
However, that internal fire only grew hotter with the passage of time. The Stone Saints were originally designed to bring peace, yet they were born into an endless war instead.
This stone blade stands as a silent testament to their hopeless, forgotten conflict."]
"Beautifully poetic," she muttered, her eyes scanning the blue text. "Created entirely out of despair. It seemed Nether was the last Daemon."
Memory Enchantments: [Durable], [Failure].
[Durable]: This stone blade is more durable than weapons of its rank.
[Failure]: This blade is one of the Prince of the Underworld's failures.
"Failure... So not all of the creations he brought to life matched his original idea? Interesting." She mulled over the specific wording of the description, filing away the vaguely useful piece of historical information for later.
Unfortunately, her overarching Aspect Legacy prompt remained entirely unchanged.
'I figured this brief skirmish wouldn't be enough to trigger an update, but at least it's a solid start,' the Queen of Nightmare nodded to herself.
She turned her gaze down toward the debris-strewn floor, looking past the ruined fragments of the Stone Saints. Her eyes caught on a texture that seemed entirely out of place among the rock — splintered fragments of dark, fibrous material. Wood.
"There are actual trees down here?" Asteria's mouth fell agape in utter confusion. She stared at the material, struggling to comprehend the prospect of plant life existing within a realm of absolute darkness. "How on earth did anyone manage to cultivate trees in a place like this?"
Reaching down, she picked up a thick, broken branch. She noticed the wood was a dull, ashen grey, its surface so dark it appeared nearly charred black. "This is definitely not a normal piece of timber," she murmured, tightening her grip to test its density. "And it's remarkably strong. Quite sturdy for a random piece of wood, anyway."
An idea quickly formed in her mind as she turned the fragment over in her hands. The piece was roughly the size and shape of a traditional stake.
And the Queen of Nightmare needed light again.
'I never truly understood the immense value of sight until I found myself almost entirely blind,' she chuckled quietly to herself, her voice small in the empty square. 'Life certainly has a funny way of teaching you those types of lessons.'
With a thought, she commanded the [Sentinel's Heart] to alter its shape, shifting the starlight sword into a small, precise dagger she could easily fumble with.
Carefully gripping the cold hilt with her fingertips — ensuring her hold was perfectly secure despite the dust covering her hands — Asteria slowly began to carve into the surface of the makeshift torch. She traced the lines of the very first rune she had ever successfully used.
The True Name of Light.
She kept the inscription remarkably small this time, deliberately choosing not to imbue the rune with a massive amount of essence. Her only objective was to create a small, manageable light source to grant her some basic vision, rather than a volatile, explosive surge born out of a panicked attempt for survival.
Fortunately, the array responded seamlessly to her intent, and Asteria fortunately managed to keep all of her fingers completely intact during the process. A soft, steady golden glow emanated from the wood, casting away the immediate darkness.
Looking further down the central thoroughfare into the space she could now see, Asteria spotted a collection of grand buildings that looked far more significant than the surrounding structures. They were built with incredible precision, perfectly preserved against the passage of time. The architecture reminded her vaguely of the Ivory Island and the Ebony Tower she had encountered during her previous adventures, beautifully blended with the clean lines of her own Glass Palace back in the Nightmare Desert.
"It seems Nether possessed extraordinary taste," she whispered, her eyes widening as she took in the grand silhouettes. "A remarkably good one, too."