Gilgamesh lazily twirled a dagger in his hand, his gaze fixed on the ceiling while laying on his bed.
There was nothing for him to do at this moment, every task was accomplished, though he did plan to give a speech once everyone was assembled.
"Should I go annoy Sunny? Oh wait, I have to give her the Mask and the Echo!"
Springing up from his bed, Gilgamesh headed for the door.
After locking it behind him, he began walking towards Sunny's room.
It had been two weeks since [Stone Saint] had entered his Soul Sea after absorbing the Forsaken Knight's soul. He hadn't found the time to check on it—certainly not because he had forgotten about it—but he was fairly certain it would be fine by now.
Gilgamesh didn't have to walk far, as all four cohort members had rooms close to one another.
Without knocking, he entered and found Sunny sharpening her sword while perched on the edge of her bed. She raised an eyebrow at him, then dispelled the sword and focused fully on him.
"I need to give you something."
Gilgamesh extended his hand toward Sunny, a smirk playing on his face.
She looked at him confused for a second and opened her mouth to say something, but instead decided to extend her hand with anticipation, he never gave anything useless after all.
Once their hands touched, he immediately transferred [Weaver's Mask] and [Marble Saint] to her.
As Sunny accepted the transfer, Gilgamesh walked to her bed and laid down, watching her eyes progressively widen more and more as she read through the Runes of [Weaver's Mask].
"A Divi-divine ranked Memory?!"
Sunny turned back to him, shock etched on her face.
"Why would you give me a Divine ranked Memory?"
"Eh, I didn't have any use for it."
The black-haired girl looked even more shocked by his response.
"How is a Divine ranked Memory not useful?!"
Gilgamesh shrugged and smirked at her. It truly was of no use to him.
That statement seemed to be too much for Sunny to bear; and she stopped processing everything and simply stared at him with wide eyes.
Just a few seconds later, she launched herself at him, her lips meeting his in a fervent kiss.
The had kiss came out of nowhere, surprising even Gilgamesh. Before he could react, she pulled back, her face completely flushed.
"You're so stupid."
Gilgamesh chuckled at her words and pulled her back in for another kiss, this time reciprocated by both of them. After a few minutes, they broke apart.
Falling onto the bed beside him, Sunny looked at him curiously while gasping for air.
"The mask reverses your flaw, makes you hard to recognize, and most importantly, lets you see into the tapestry of fate. Though I wouldn't recommend using it for more than a second; you'll probably die."
Sunny gulped after listening to the last part.
While Gilgamesh had wanted to try looking into the tapestry of fate, he had decided against it, he wasn't sure that even with [Demigod] enhancing his body; he could survive it or not.
[Lost from Light has been conquered.]
Gilgamesh raised his eyebrows at the pleasant notification, though, wasn't the Spell betraying Sunny in a way? If he hadn't known better, he would have said the true name outloud.
Did the Spell have an agenda against both of them?
...
The sound of hundreds of Sleepers speaking nervously to each other filled the airb while Gilgamesh sat atop a castle tower, one leg dangling down, as he surveyed the people gathered below him.
He was aura farming, as always.
Deciding it was finally time to give his speech, he leaped from the tower towards the ground. His armor glowed brightly, making him impossible to miss. While in midair, he activated [Wings of Anu] and hung in the air, arms folded, staring at the assembled crowd with a serious expression.
With the sun directly behind him, casting shadows all over his body, it was the perfect spot for aura farming.
Without him doing anything, the voices of the people below quieted, and they all looked up at him with awe.
When everyone had stopped moving and was staring at him, Gilgamesh began to speak.
"Fellow Sleepers, for years you have been stuck here," he paused, surveying them, "For years people have tried, one after the other, to escape, yet they have failed again and again."
Gilgamesh met each of their gazes.
"You have seen your friends die, again and again, but could do nothing about it. You have lived in constant terror, not knowing whether you would get to see the dawn of tomorrow or not."
Each and every one of them looked up at him, hope shining in their eyes.
"These filthy Nightmare Creatures have taken away our brothers and sisters from us, but no more! Enough is enough. Today, not only me but you, every single one of you, shall get to see the real world once again. As long as I am alive, all of you are going to reach our Earth safely. You will get to see not only your mothers but your fathers, sisters, and brothers as well, once again."
A pause followed his statement as Gilgamesh let his words sink in.
"So rejoice! This shall be our last day in the Dream Realm. We are all going back to the real world on this day itself!."
The people below erupted in cheers as his speech concluded.
"Gilgamesh!"
"Praise the King!"
"I am finally going back to home today!"
"For glory!"
Gilgamesh looked at the jubilant crowd with a smirk. This was it; the final part of the plan was accomplished.
His statement about every single one of them making it back to Earth wasn't just to spread false bravado. With [Gate of Babylon] and his hundreds of treasures locked inside it, the army of Nightmare Creatures surrounding the Crimson Spire wouldn't be a problem at all.
This entire situation was already set in stone; all Gilgamesh had to do now was execute the plan, which shouldn't be too difficult.
For the most part, there wasn't really anything for him to worry about anymore, unless there weren't any unknown variables added into the mix.
...
Not long after, Gilgamesh floated in the air behind the lines of people assembled to face the monsters of the Crimson Spire. Arrayed in rows, the Sleepers waited for the Nightmare Creatures to attack first.
Gilgamesh, of course, was farming as much aura as he could by not entering the battle until the last moment.
Hiding above the clouds, he watched as the fliths finally noticed the army's presence.
As if awakened from their slumber, the monsters began rushing towards the vanguard of the Sleeper army.
Gilgamesh did not move as the creatures neared the Sleepers. He watched as the army began to panic at the sheer number of Nightmare Creatures.
Gilgamesh could see them turning back towards the castle, contemplating whether to run or not.
Unlike the original novel, they hadn't burned down the city, mostly because Gilgamesh wanted to preserve it. Although he doubted anyone would come here after them, it still didn't sit right with him to just burn it down.
It simply had too much history to be destroyed.
Turning his attention back towards the army, Gilgamesh saw that the people at the front were wavering as the creatures came closer and closer. Due to the war inside the castle not happening, most of these people didn't have the same mentality. Still, they were tough; no Sleeper who had landed in Forgotten Shore was mentally weak.
The front line also consisted only of the bravest and most experienced people like Gunlaug, Effie, Gemma, and the others.
Gilgamesh could hear and see the wavering spirits of the Sleepers as he was nowhere to be seen. They whispered whether he had abandoned them. Even after hearing that, Gilgamesh still did not move.
"Almost. I need to aura farm just a little more."
Everyone knew that the hero showed up when they were just about to be beaten.
However, Gilgamesh wasn't going to break his promise and let even one of these people die.
Waiting just a little bit more, till the Nightmare Creatures were around fifty feet away from the vanguard, he decided to act.
Teleporting himself, Gilgamesh now hovered over the people in the front line.
"Do not fret,"
Hundreds of golden ethereal portals opened up behind him, sparkling like gold. Multiple weapons—maces, daggers, axes, swords, and more—emerged from inside the portals.
With his arms folded, Gilgamesh looked at the filths rushing towards him with a smirk, with his cape billowing in the air.
"For I am here."
The weapons shot out at frightening speeds towards the monsters. Not even a second later, more weapons began pouring through the portals, launching themselves at thousands of Nightmare Creatures before him.
Complete annihilation.
The filths were being destroyed completely, the weapons slicing through them like butter.
It didn't matter if they were Carapace Scavengers, Centurions, or Tribunes; all of them died before him. Their blood and organs splattered across the ground and upon the creatures behind them, covering the area in their disgusting blood and body parts.
The area was a meat grinder, with the creatures being killed before they could even advance. Even the Spire Messengers flying in the air along with other Nightmare Creatures were not spared, their bodies being marked with his portals with pinpoint accuracy.
Minutes passed with the pile of creature carrasses continuing to be stacked upon each other, making it difficult for the other ones to cross over, slowing them down and making them easier to kill.
Screeches and shrieks of the dying creatures filled the air, making everything else difficult to hear. It was hell in the Dream Realm, for them. After years of terrorizing humans, it was their turn to watch and be killed, too powerless to do anything.
Though most of them would barely even understand the situation they were in, considering that their intelligence was worse than even normal animals on Earth.
The onslaught of his weapons continued, firing and getting picked up by the portals again and again in a continuous and endless cycle.
"Is this the power of a god?"
"How can he even be a Sleeper!?"
"Even most Masters would fail to do this; how can he just do this alone?"
"Our King is just built different."
At the same time, thousands of notifications were ringing inside his head.
[Sleeper Aldric has been conquered.]
[Sleeper Keter has been conquered.]
[Sleeper Raphael has been conquered.]
[Sleeper Asher has been conquered.]
[Claim Legacy Relic?]
Multiple other notifications from the spell filled his head as the creatures continued to be annihilated. After rounds and rounds of his portals firing again and again, the barrage finally eased.
All the Nightmare Creatures of the Crimson Spire were dead.
Instantly, Gilgamesh opened all two hundred of his portals below the Sleepers, teleporting them away from their current position, past the moat.
With a few more rounds of teleportation, they were all past the bridges, on the Island where the Crimson Spire resided.
'Damn, that was easy.'
Looking around, Gilgamesh found the coral golems of the statues created by the Crimson Terror. Just as they were about to rush towards the Sleepers, he killed all seven of them with [Gate of Babylon].
It really was even easier than he had thought.
Next, Gilgamesh found the wide gates of the spire where he was supposed to insert seven keys. Of course, he wasn't going to do that. Flying towards it while the assembled army watched him, he struck the doors with his full power.
Nothing seemed to happen.
But just a second later, the doors burst inwards, flying to the opposite ends of the spire and crashing against its walls.
Immediately, Gilgamesh flew through them and looked around as the Sleeper army followed him.
Once, the entire tower must have been hollow, but now there were growths of coral everywhere inside. They resembled frozen waterfalls of blood, as if rivers of it had once streamed from the top of the Spire and then suddenly turned solid. Because of that, it was hard to see what hid in the depths of the cyclopean construct. Further away, the interior of the tower was shrouded in cold darkness.
It was truly a magnificent structure. Unfortunately, Gilgamesh did not have the time to admire its build; he still needed to find the gateway and kill the Crimson Terror.
"Stay here till I am back."
Flying upwards after saying that, Gilgamesh examined the nooks and crannies of the spire, trying to locate the gateway. It didn't take long with his enhanced eyes.
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 ever-present 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 shimmered 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 primary reason why Gilgamesh had noticed it. The most unusual thing about the dais was that unlike everything else inside 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, Gilgamesh felt something stir in his heart.
The moment he had found it, the Crimson Terror launched itself towards him from its position at the top of the spire. Before it even had the chance to come close, it was killed, a dagger traveling through its grotesque skull.
It felt more like he was giving it mercy, due to the agonized looks on the countless faces on its monstrous body.
Immediately, he began teleporting the people to the gateway, telling them to head inside. Just as the last person was about to travel through it, Gilgamesh dumped a Sleeper out of [Gate of Babylon].
The person was none other than Caster, whose eyes were wrapped with a blindfold.
"We will forever be grateful for your sacrifice, Caster."
Nodding his head at Caster, Gilgamesh stepped inside the portal. At the same time, a portal opened up in front of Caster with a sword flying out.
The next moment, he was teleported out of the Dream Realm.
...
[Volume two, First Step, complete.]
...
I honestly wanted to write a lot more about this arc m, but due to burnout and school, I had to rush it. Hopefully in the future, I wouldn't have to face this problem.
I also included the names of the other Shadow Slave fanfiction MCs if you didn't notice.
Word Count: 2500