Capítulo 26: 25 - Beginning of the End
A large amount of people can be seen walking towards the Crimson Spire. At the front, the Nephis and her cohort led the way. Shirou wasn't truly apart of the cohort, but he walked alongside them anyways.
Around 500 Sleepers had to traverse the labyrinth to reach the Crimson Spire. Some had perished along the way, but most had made it nonetheless.
Shirou had learned from Sunny that there was a Nightmare Creature known as the Crimson Terror. It was a Fallen Terror and had subdued all of the creatures near the Crimson. He didn't know what such a creature would look like, but he hoped that he would never find out.
In the cold light of dawn, a gargantuan crimson tower was rising from the labyrinth. From this distance, it looked like a bloody sword that some primordial titan had thrust into the heavens.
The tower itself seemed to stand on an island, which was surrounded on all sides by black water. Even though the sun was already climbing up, this part of the cursed sea did not disappear.
Instead, it lingered and moved endlessly, forming a whirlpool. Unclear shapes can be seen moving under the surface of the black water, drowning the hearts of humans who dared to approach the crimson tower with dread.
The Dreamer Army had slaughtered countless Nightmare Creatures in the past week. They had managed to avoid the dwellers of the deep, and saw the many wondrous and terrible sights that the Forgotten Shore had to offer.
Of course, Shirou obtained many sword fragments during the march.
Sword Fragments: [967/3000]
They had almost reached their goal.
Grim determination and resolve spread through the Dreamer Army as they gazed upon the great, crimson tower that now loomed so close. They set up fortifications, checked their equipment, and some had even approached Shirou to thank him for the weapons.
Shirou sat down with the cohort as they sat down around the fire. They had discussed the plans for the upcoming battle quite a bit. As Shirou listened to their conversation, he ended up making eye contact with Caster.
The green-eyed boy narrowed his eyes at him.
…Did my plan from back then actually work?!
Back in the academy, Shirou had made a plan to create false information about himself in order to make Caster see him as a threat. Of course, he did not tell the truth of his Aspect rank and having a True Name, but making himself look better than Caster was quite important.
Caster was going to try to eliminate him before going after Nephis.
He had never interacted with Caster before, so he decided to make quite the impression.
Shirou glanced at Nephis and Sunny, who just nodded at him. They had been watching this whole exchange, and decided that Shirou was the best option to deal with Caster.
He hid his hand in a way that no one else could see.
He raised a finger.
Caster narrowed his eyes even more. Poorly concealed rage could be seen in it's depths.
…I guess it worked pretty well.
Caster would now focus all of his attention on Shirou. He would try to kill him in order to eliminate his biggest obstacle to Nephis.
Shirou looked away and pretended to be listening in on the conversation.
After awhile, most of the cohort had left, leaving only Nephis and Sunny. Shirou was there as well, but he didn't really count.
Sunny was going to destroy the dark sea.
It seemed like quite the feat to Shirou. The sea had been there ever since he had first arrived on the Forgotten Shore, and might as well have been what made it what it was.
"Uh… good luck doing that, I suppose?"
"Don't wish me luck. Did you forget my attributes?"
"Oh…"
Can't even wish somebody good luck in this damn Shore.
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Very soon, the sun rose higher, and the dark whirlpool surrounding the Crimson Spire became a little smaller. Several bridges of of red coral rose up from it's depths, connecting the island to the rest of the Forgotten Shore.
And out there on the island, countless silhouettes began to move crawling out of the crimson mounds. They were Nightmare Creatures guarding the cursed tower.
All kinds of horrors were among them. There were members of the carapace legion: scavengers, centurions, and demons. There were colonies of carnivorous worms, giant centipedes that secreted corrosive oil, and eerie vines that crawled on the ground like snakes.
There were creatures that looked like black masses of rotten bones, and creatures that looked like humanoids made of rock, with terrible maws filled with jagged fangs. There were swarms of translucent insects that devour anything in their path and massive spiders clad in iron armor.
There were beasts that could shoot deadly bone spears from their bodies and beasts that could turn their prey to stone with their gaze.
There were corpses with red flowers growing from the holes in their flesh, and giant abominations that resembled praying mantises, if those were made of glass and bloodred clay.
…Did we all sign up for our deaths?!
Shirou gaped at the countless monstrosities due to both their appearances and sheer numbers. They were just Sleepers after all! It would be extremely stupid to fight an army of Nightmare Creatures being controlled by a Fallen Terror!
Even more so when they were all at least Awakened Beasts.
Shirou stood at the front of the Dreamer Army alongside Effie, Caster, and Gemma, someone who had stood alongside Gunlaug. He stared blankly at the Nightmare Creatures moving towards them in an orderly fashion. They were no longer driven by instincts, and were moving in harmony due to the Crimson Terror.
"What's wrong, Metal Brain? Feeling threatened by those Demons over there?"
Effie had tried to get a rise out of him, and surprisingly, it worked.
"Of course not! However, don't you think that the people here aren't up for the task? They probably have never seen an Awakened Demon in their lives, some of them."
Indeed, the people in the front line had taken an involuntary step back. Somebody had even dropped their weapon. Effie turned around an shouted at them.
"Stand your ground, wretches! If anyone runs, I'll kill you myself!"
They seemed to have had the fear in their hearts torn out of them. They stood resolutely as they stared towards the horde. Effie turned back towards him with a smirk.
"I'll ask you again, are you worried about those Demons, Metal Brain."
Shirou sighed before a bloodthirsty grin appeared on his face. At some point, he had actually begun to enjoy killing Nightmare Creatures.
It had helped to save others after all.
"No way. It would be unsightly for a Demon to be scared of his own kind, right?"
"Huh? Is that a part of your Aspect name or something?"
"I'm sure you'll understand it one day."
With those words, he rushed forward to the approaching Nightmare Creatures. They all simply watched as he blitzed through tube horde, slaying abomination after abomination.
He disappeared into the horde. However, they could still see the glint of steel flying through the air.
Effie just stared perplexed before screaming out:
"Uh… what are you waiting for! Go help him, you bastards!"
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Once he had made contact with the enemy, he had immediately sent Ingvild to search for the gateway. This will make it much easier for the Dreamer Army to reach it.
Shirou dashed around attacks from all different kinds of Nightmare Creatures. He didn't specifically try to kill a single one, but instead swung the [Gargoyle's Blackblade] to deal as much damage to as many abominations as possible. Of course, he still killed quite a lot of Nightmare Creatures during the process.
Shirou was mainly trying to weaken their forces for the frontline to pick off. This would also disrupt their formation, as the amount of crippled Nightmare Creatures would rabidly increase.
If a Spire Messenger was in the air, Shirou would shoot them down with a sword.
It was quite difficult for Shirou to keep up with such a large-scale battle, and he did take a few injuries. He was able to stitch himself up with [Fleshforge] however, so he didn't have to worry too much about it.
[I've found the gateway.]
[Good job. Can you help me out over here?]
[Of course.]
After around a minute of fighting the horde of abominations, the Dreamer Army had started to catch up to him. It seemed that his efforts had actually been worth it, as they were able to pick off the crippled Nightmare Creatures, while being able to cooperate against the uninjured ones.
Shirou decided to move deeper into the horde, and had found Ingvild along the way. She moved across the battlefield with terrible speed, gusts of wind blowing behind her.
The few Sleepers who had caught sight of her would go on to say that she was as disastrous as a storm.
Shirou dismissed his sword and summoned the [Gandiva]. Once he had gotten close to her she crouched held her free hand out. Shirou stepped on her hand and felt both the strength of an Awakened Monster, and the force from [Galebreathe].
Shirou was thrown into the sky at insane speeds, feeling nothing but the wind pass his face. He aimed his bow to the ground and summoned swords around him.
Although he was Dormant, the time he had spent as an Awakened had taught him how to use his forge essence.
Shirou was able to now able to use the active enchantments of all of his Memories.
Shirou shot three arrows at once from the bow, hitting random Nightmare Creatures and setting them aflame. The swords he had summoned around him fired to the ground, before exploding in flashes of cyan.
He had used both [Bound Blades] to summon the weapons, and [Sword Trial] to trigger the explosions.
The carnage on the crimson bridge was gruesome. Abominations were deformed, burning, or had parts of them in completely different locations. Above them was a man falling from the sky.
Shirou felt a gust of wind slow down his fall, before he was caught by Ingvild. She had jumped into the air to catch him away from the Nightmare Creatures.
Nobody had been caught up in the explosion, as they were all further back.
Shirou sensed the weapons that he had forged for the Dreamer Army. It seemed that they had reformed themselves around Effie, Caster, and Gemma.
He felt the bows he had created fire off into the distance. Killing off some of the airborne creatures.
Shirou used this sense to keep up with the state of the battlefield. He couldn't see the location of every Sleeper, as a good amount of them used their own Memories, but he was able to get a good understanding.
The worst weapons that the Sleepers wielded were of the Awakened rank, while any Memories were enhanced thanks to Nephis. She wore the [Dawn Shard], which increased the effectiveness of all memories. Unfortunately, Shirou's weapons did not count as Memories.
As he continued to fight against the horde of horrors, he was quite surprised by how well things were going. Many had died, but they hadn't been overwhelmed.
After awhile, Shirou caught a glimpse of Sunny running to the Crimson Spire. They made eye contact before nodding towards each other.
They will complete their roles in this war for survival.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Type_Sword
Type_Sword If you see any inconsistencies in this chapter, I would appreciate a comment detailing it. Anyways, the whole battle against the Crimson Spire will only last for another chapter or so. In canon, it showed multiple perspectives during the course of the battle, but I’m only going to show what Shirou himself sees. This volume might end up being only a fourth of the previous volumes length lol.
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