The Oblivion Core's Souls Accumulated counter was at [7/1000], as expected.

But the Resurgence Core was at an unexpected [8/1000].

He didn't really understand why this happened, since all of the creatures he defeated were of the Veiled rank.

The only deduction he could come up with was that this was due to the effect of the message he received:

[You have acquired a Complete Soul.]

The question left was, what is a Complete Soul? And why had he gotten an extra Soul Fragment for it?

Honestly, he wasn't sure. Nothing else among all of those runes had changed. Everything was exactly the same. No new runes appeared, no runes disappeared, and nothing else was announced.

And yet, he felt it was something important.

Perhaps there's still time before he could understand it.

Ryuji could've used the Scorpion's bodies for food, but they were all made of glass...

He wasn't sure how creatures like that even existed. It was beyond all logic and reason, but perhaps reason wasn't always necessary here... In Elysium. Or hell too actually.

So... The scorpions were all but useless to him.

Wiping the sweat off his face, he kept advancing further. Not even sparing the shattered Scorpions another glance.

**

Ryuji had fought for a couple days and finally reached the top of the tallest dune in the region, the one that was hiding the horizon with its enormous size.

The day was enveloped in a dim Twilight, the sun barely over the horizon. The moon was starting to make it's ascend.

His face was bruised, with a few cuts here and there. His hands were blistered and his hair were a mess. They were starting to look dirty.

He simply didn't have enough water to spare and bother washing himself.

The cacti he was dragging along were gone too. His armour looked torn in some places. His sword was currently resting in his Soul Cores to repair itself after sustaining heavy damage in a previous battle.

Unfortunately, he hadn't even acquired a new Remnant since then.

He expected another large dune to prevent him from looking further up again, but thankfully, he was wrong.

The desert was still vast and incomprehensible.

Tall dunes were spread out all across the region, but most of the taller ones were already too far away.

Far away in front of him, collosal remains of a huge creature laid lifelessly.

The remains were of a large dragon-like creature with a giant maw and teeth that were even taller than Ryuji himself. The whole length of the dragon was probably a kilometre while it lived... It was simply too huge to be ignored. But now... Half of it's body was buried under the sand. Only it's giant maw and a long stretch of it's spine was visible.

It had a wide frame and it's eye sockets looked sharp.

Ryuji could actually notice movement across the skeleton of the fearsome dragon.

A lot of Abyssals had probably made their nests around it.

The landscape was uneven and vast. It was hard to make out every detail from this height, but a few things were too hard to not notice.

First was that somewhere far away, the amount of rocks spread seemed to be increasing.

Second was that he could actually see some terrifying silhouettes from this height...

Some of them were even bigger and more terrifying compared to The Weeping Brother...

He could only hope to not cross paths with one such creature right now.

'Ah... How annoying.'

Ryuji summoned the [Maroon Blade]. It started materializing in his hands. After a few seconds of it slowly getting formed through golden sparks of light, he quickly got up and started walking back.

He rubbed his eyes and sighed.

'So... So annoying.'

Immediately, he thrusted his sword into the ground and the sand beneath him shuddered, and the runes slowly spoke in his head.

[You have slain an Eclipsed Fragment, Cowardly Fang.]

[Your Soul devours a part of their Soul.]

Immediately after that, Ryuji absorbed it's soul.

[You have acquired an Eclipsed Soul, Cowardly Fang.]

Cowardly Fang is a kind of Abyssal that stalked it's prey alone at first. It'd bury itself in sand and follow them silently. Slowly, as the prey moved through the desert, more and more of them would appear until they all can surround and overwhelm the opponent easily.

Ryuji had almost been ambushed by a pack once. He realised he was being followed by three of them together a bit too late. He had accumulated a lot of injuries due to that. He knew he wouldn't be able to handle any more of them easily.

He had absorbed a few more Soul Fragments and souls by now.

He glanced at his runes:

Soul Fragments - [32/1000]

He looked below those runes again.

Souls Accumulated - [24/1000]

The reason his Souls Accumulated counter was lower compared to Soul Fragments had two reasons.

First, He got a single fragment for killing a Veiled Abyssal. But got more for anything higher in rank than Veiled. However, he would always get only a single Soul for killing a single beast, no matter if it was Veiled or Eclipsed.

Second, He wasn't successful at obtaining the soul of every single Abyssal he killed.

Sometimes, he'd need to just simply flee after killing one or two of a certain type of Abyssal in case they were in a pack.

So, collecting souls was much harder than collecting Souls Fragments. Plus, he wasn't even sure of the reason he was absorbing souls.

Whenever he absorbed Soul Fragments, he felt he was getting more powerful bit by bit, but that wasn't the same whenever he absorbed a Soul. Absorbing a soul was like absorbing an orb of energy, and then watching it slowly disappear somewhere inside himself.

He wasn't even sure what the Oblivion Core was actually doing with them. The most obvious answer he could come up with was that it was devouring them. Maybe if it was satiated, it'd stop eating away at the Resurgence Core's benefits.

'Ah, It's night. I'll have to go another night without any sleep...'

It was true... Ryuji hadn't slept for two days, his eyes were on the verge of giving up.

The only reason he was standing right now was because it was still not exactly night. It was easy to trick the brain into staying awake during the day. But when the light will disappear, and the world will turn dark, it'd not be so easy anymore...

It was getting harder anyways. Humans weren't meant to be able to stay awake for so long. The only reason he could push himself so far was probably because he wasn't a normal human anymore...

The sun hid itself behind the Horizon, The moon woke up proudly. The stars glistened with happiness.

They looked at peace together. Nothing could devour them. Nothing could harm their presence... They even got to sleep everyday...

Ryuji felt he was the only existence that didn't get to experience any sleep. Even the horrors of the Thirsty Deserts experienced sleep. The night stalkers slept during the day, the day creepers slept during the night.

They all already had their roles and hunting time decided. They all belonged there. Ryuji didn't. He didn't fit in there. That is why, he wasn't allowed to sleep during the day, or at night.

As the weather turned cold, Ryuji's only hope to stay warm were the Abyssal Flames. He enveloped himself in his own flames and adjusted their intensity.

The black flames didn't burn him. They tickled his body with a warm sensation and bought him relief.

The black flames were comforting. They had some kind of a healing effect on him and his mind. He often observed his muscles losing their soreness after he rested them under their influence. His mind also felt calmer and safer in their embrace.

He couldn't make them too bright or too intense, since that would attract the horrors dwelling around and give out his position...

Well, there wasn't anything to give out to begin with actually. He was out in the open afterall...

Ryuji saw some abominations hiding in the night. They were much... much more terrifying compared to the things that lurked during the day. Ryuji wanted to hide somewhere, but he couldn't. There was nowhere to hide.

The ground vibrated rhythmically under him.

Thum... Thum...

He wasn't sure what it was, but by now he was sure it was being produced by something and was indeed not a construct of his own mind.

Was it something he could think of... Or something he couldn't?

Ryuji shook his head... He was about to fall asleep.

'No... I can't fall asleep... I need to... Stay awake...'

He tried really hard to stay awake for long... But sitting idly was only gonna make him bored and sleepy.

The distant sound of bells pulled Ryuji from the edges of his fraying consciousness.

“Huh?”

He sat upright, his head turning sharply in search of the source. The chime was soft, melodic, carrying a rhythm that seemed to reach into the quiet corners of his thoughts. It wasn’t sharp or demanding, but inviting—tender, almost maternal.

Without realizing it, Ryuji got to his feet, his body moving as if guided by an unseen thread. The Abyssal Flames around him dimmed and flickered out; the bells’ resonance seemed to strip their necessity away. The air, once dry and abrasive, turned cool and humid, carrying with it a faint scent—wet earth, blooming flowers, and something faintly metallic.

He walked across the dune, his tired steps steadying as the sound grew clearer. A faint mist began to creep along the ground, swirling around his ankles like playful wisps. The edges of his vision blurred, and the desert seemed to fold inward on itself, shrinking into irrelevance.

Then, faintly, he began to hear voices.

The song was soft at first, a gentle hum that lapped at his senses like a rising tide. Then the words came, carried on the air like whispers too sweet to ignore.

"Come to the waters, so clear, so deep,

Where rivers of peace grant eternal sleep.

Lay down your burden, forget the fight,

Rest in the shadows of endless night."