After the fight, Amon wasted no time scurrying back to the temple. With the speed of a desperate fraudster fixing forged documents, he began adjusting Luna's lore.

She wasn't a Pillar, the God almighty. No, no, no! she only held the Uniqueness of the Hanged Man's pathway. Which meant Adam's honorific name as "Half a Great Old One" wouldn't hold water. Easy fix: Amon just swapped it for the True Creator's honorific name. Perfect, totally not blasphemous.

And he also destroyed Medici's honorific name, leaving only some of the lore. To put it simply, he was giving the entire Temple to Luna, while only a few words about him and Medici's lore remained, which in reality was Alista aurafarming.

Still, uneasiness gnawed at him. Something didn't add up. What Luna told him about noise felt… off. Like it wasn't about Granny at all, but something worse.

And then there was the Dark Sea. He needed to leave, soon. Once that abyss spilled out, it would swallow everything. That was one development he had zero interest in witnessing firsthand.

Not to mention the threat lurking beneath those waters: depth dwellers. Amon couldn't recall much about them from Shadow Slave. Hell, he didn't even think the novel had gone into detail. But underestimating creatures of that magnitude? That was the kind of stupidity that got you eaten alive.

Corrupted, maybe even Great-Ranked Abominations could be lurking down there. Harrowing beasts that wouldn't even bother to fight him, just blink and he'd be gone, nothing left but ripples. If he wasn't cautious, if he didn't slither carefully in their shadows… he was finished.

Scanning the ruined streets, Amon frowned. Too silent... In stories, silence always meant one thing; trouble. First the hush, then some freakish demon jumps out with dramatic music to make you shit yourself.

He climbed the broken shell of a mansion, scanning from its jagged rooftop. His instincts screamed. Something was here. But the streets stretched out empty and deserted.

Slash!

Amon dropped low on instinct. The half-shattered chimney beside him groaned, a clean cut slicing through its bricks. His jian materialized in his grip, blade flashing as his eyes darted around. Nothing... The fuck-

"Shit-"

Pain lanced across his abdomen, shallow but burning. He slashed back at empty air, teeth clenched, but his sword met nothing, only silence.

That was enough for him. He spat a curse, whirled, and did the only sensible thing: run.

Looking back, Amon's stomach sank. Dust swirled into existence mid-air, like something massive had just landed but nothing was there. No shape and no shadow.

A freaking invisible enemy.... Blyat.

He clenched his jaw. His eyes alone wouldn't save him this time. Observation was useless against something that was faster, stronger and more experienced than him. He'd need cunning.

With a sharp snap, his hidden blades shot out. Metal tore into jagged coral, embedding deep. Amon yanked the chain taut and slingshotted himself forward, his body whipping through a shattered window. Glass and dust burst around him as he tucked into a rough roll, the impact rattling his bones.

He came up fast, jian raised to meet whatever he sensed was coming. Sparks flared as something unseen met his blade with terrifying force. Instinct screamed, and he threw himself into a desperate backflip, breath burning in his chest.

Snarling, Amon slammed the door shut in its face, then drove his jian straight through the rotting wood. The blade carved empty space and met no resistance.

Glancing at the sky, Amon felt unease coil in his chest and quickened his pace toward the resting camp. The sun was fading, and with it came the rise of the Dark Sea.

Still… he belonged to a cowardly pathway. But did that mean he had to always run?

Klein, though afraid, had faced the Celestial Worthy head-on. Amon himself had fought Great Old Ones as an Angel, even if Klein had to save him in the end. Bethel had endured millennia of torment so his homeland would not fall and the Mother Goddess of Depravity would not descend.

Cowardly pathways feared danger by nature but courage wasn't the absence of fear. It was acting despite it. Wasn't that true?

If he kept running with this mindset, his life would never be truly lived. He would be nothing more than prey, destined to be torn apart by some lurking horror. But if he had enough madness to embrace sacrifice, to bleed for the sake of his own desires… then he could live freely, without shackles, and without regret.

And wasn't that what he always wanted?

With that thought solidifying in his heart, Amon stopped running and turned around. Brilliant sparks of light flickered in his palm, condensing into a crystal monocle. He raised it with practiced grace, placing it over his right eye, adjusting it just so. Then, with a single step backward, his figure dissolved into the darkness.

A few seconds later, something landed where he had been standing. At first, it seemed as if nothing was there… until the ground itself betrayed it. Footprints pressed into the dirt, slow and deliberate, leaving the outline of something vast yet unseen.

A low snarl echoed, guttural and distorted. The abomination inhaled sharply, pulling air close to the ground. Dust stirred faintly, curling upward in thin spirals, as though the beast were tasting the world, searching for his scent.

Then, in one of the abandoned houses, a door creaked open and shut by itself. Wood splintered faintly as the building groaned, shifting under some unseen weight. But it wasn't only the abomination, the earth itself trembled as the Dark Sea began to rise from the colossal crater at the center of the Forgotten Shore.

The creature studied the bleak room. Time had long since claimed everything, leaving only crumbling stone, but the scent of Amon lingered, leading the beast inexorably toward its prey. It had injured him before, marking his smell and making the hunt far easier.

Slowly, dust rose along the stairs, accompanied by soft, deliberate steps, barely audible over the encroaching spread of the Dark Sea. The creature checked each room methodically, until at last it reached the final door, where the scent of blood was strongest. The door creaked open and shut on its own.

Its gaze fixed forward, and it saw the silhouette of its prey: Amon, perched in a shattered window, scanning the streets below. Driven by hunger and instinct, the creature lunged, crashing toward him with terrible force.

But something was wrong. Its claws met not flesh, but a mere scrap of cloth. It tumbled from the shattered window, slamming onto the ground.

A low growl rumbled from deep within the beast. Then, as its eyes snapped upward, it unleashed a shrill, piercing shriek, vile and unnatural, echoing across the ruins, a sound meant to unsettle all who heard it.

Its skin began to peel away, thrashing violently against the ground as a green liquid rained down, soaking its body. The creature struggled, but it was useless, this was no ordinary liquid, but a potent poison. Gradually, its invisibility faded, the mixture of blood and toxin revealing the beast's form. Half of its body still shimmered with faint transparency, but its camouflage was broken. Its invisibility had been a special property of its skin, and now that it was gone, so too was its advantage.

When the creature lifted its gaze again, it saw only darkness and the faint silhouette of a figure standing before it, crystal monocle gleaming over the right eye, completely naked.

Slowly, the scrap of cloth it had pierced dissolved into faint, white sparks. The same sparks then gathered around the figure, coalescing into the Assassin's robes that enveloped his body. The strange jar in his hands vanished into the sparks, dissolving entirely into his soul sea. A glowing, otherworldly crown appeared atop his head, completing the transformation.

The creature's lone, uninjured eye narrowed with pure hatred as it rose to its full height, rolling in the sand to scrape off the lingering acid from the Jar of Hundred Poisons. Watching its prey hunt it like a predator stoked its fury. It lunged, but Amon had already vanished.

The Chameleon's Cloak had a single, subtle enhancement but a useful one. Its effect was obvious from the name, and Amon used it to his advantage. Against a monster like this, though, it was almost irrelevant. The beast could still track him by the scent of blood, and Amon was still wounded, bleeding faintly which was a dangerous liability.

As the creature crashed into the house, Amon leapt from the debris, sliding down the coral before using his jian to intercept the claw.

Realizing its claws were no match for the weapon's sharp precision, the beast abandoned the direct approach. It grabbed jagged bones resembling daggers, slashing at him from strange, unpredictable angles. It wasn't exactly skilled in combat but then again, Amon wasn't a battle master either.

There was another similarity between monster and human, though. Both were cowards, but cunning as well.

They clashed across the ruined city, Amon deliberately leading the beast toward his camp. The dark sea was already rising, creeping through the ruins and covering his feet, giving the creature a slight advantage. That's why Amon fought on the rooftops, seeking a decisive edge over the abomination.

He kicked into its stomach, ducked, and slashed upward. The beast dodged, but in that moment, Amon twisted his body. His jian vanished into white sparks as he dropped it, intercepting the beast's dagger with a hidden blade from his left arm. At the same time, another hidden blade sprang from his right arm, piercing the creature's neck.

The abomination let out a deafening roar and grabbed Amon, trying to tear him apart. Amon resummoned his ghastly jian, slashing down and severing its arm before it could crush him.

But that also came with risks. While Amon possessed superior observation and combat skills from Marauder and Swindler, he was still a beginner. That lack of battle IQ meant that if he were truly experienced, the fight would have ended long ago. Instead, the creature managed to pierce his arm with its bone dagger, twisting it through his flesh before ripping it out, and Amon screamed in agony.

He continued to scream, yes, but more importantly, he scraped the wounds inflicted by the acid, which damaged his fingers but inflicted unbearable pain on the creature, enough to make Amon grin darkly.

The beast, however, quickly shook him off, slamming him onto the roof and knocking the air from his lungs. Amon gasped, coughing, his vision blurring as blood poured from his mouth and his arm was further mangled by the creature's dagger.

The same dagger now plummeted toward his neck. Amon's monocle reflected the flash of lightning as the blade descended… but in the next moment:

"KRRNKW!"

The creature stumbled backward, clutching its head, its remaining good eye the source of its pain. Slowly, Amon rose, staring down the screeching abomination, and let out a soft sigh as he adjusted his monocle.

"You really should understand your enemy's abilities before engaging in combat. I wasn't that injured… it was just mental disruption…"

He coughed again, blood trickling from his mouth, and wiped it away with the back of his hand, groaning as pain radiated through his injured arm. On the surface, he looked calm, calm enough to fool anyone but deep down, chills raced along his spine. He had been a hair's breadth from death.

If he hadn't stolen the dagger just in time… that would have been it. His life would have ended, snuffed out by something as elusive as luck. The mental disruption had worked, but barely. He hadn't used it too much, he needed the creature to remain oblivious to the hallucination. Controlling it wasn't easy; in fact, he could barely control it at all. He was still a sleeper, incapable of manipulating his soul essence properly. That's why the qualitative change of awakening mattered so much. Even so, he had managed to release just enough essence to exploit his own limitations.

Taking a step forward, he gritted his teeth and used Theft once more. His Jian, lying on the ground, shimmered into existence in his hand. He leaned on it as he advanced, every motion was struggle. Not exactly the style of a cowardly pathway but the Marauder and Swindler had granted him weapon mastery and heightened combat senses for a reason.

Shit… he was exhausted, every muscle screaming, every wound throbbing. Glancing at the shrieking creature before him, Amon let out a ragged sigh and shook his head. Well, Spell? he thought. It's my first desperate fight. Where's all that clarity and bullshit they talk about? Hey, give some of that to me too…

He forced the thought into a half-joke to distract himself from how utterly screwed he was. The dark sea had already crept onto the rooftop and would swallow him and the Abomination soon. He had to finish this, now.

Dragging himself forward, he coughed up more blood and toppled into the cold, dark water, shivering. Still, a grim, almost humorous smile tugged at his lips as he wiped the blood away.

"Ahh… yes… only a true cultivator can cough blood. Fang Yuan must be proud."

The laugh was brief, immediately drowned by a deeper sense of foreboding. The spine of the colossal Abomination exploded outward in jagged shards, raining down from above as lightning cracked and thunder rolled, and the dark rainwater swelled around him.

Amon's eyes widened slowly, disbelief stiffening his expression. His heart skipped, without a doubt, it was his camp. Medici and Luna…

What the hell… Amon trembled, heart hammering in his chest as he wiped the water from his face. What the hell was that…?

Breath coming faster despite the cold, sweat mixing with the rain, he stared upward. The colossal leviathan rose from the shattered spine, its enormous bulk casting jagged shadows across the ruins. Dark tentacles writhed from the sea, stretching like black serpents across the storm-lit ruins. Lightning flashed, illuminating the monstrous scene in stark, blinding bursts.

Amon's throat tightened. Shock, fear, disbelief, despair, all collided in his expression. Luna… shit!

He ignored the searing pain in his wounds. The creature was already half-dead, and the rising dark sea would swallow it anyway. Gritting his teeth, he dragged his broken body forward, summoning every ounce of strength to climb the jagged remains of the shattered spine, his eyes fixed on the camp above.

But it was almost too much. Exhaustion gnawed at him, pain lanced through every muscle, and the storm showed no mercy. Amon's gaze drifted toward the crater, a hollow as vast as a continent and his stomach twisted as a titanic wave rose, towering like a skyscraper, reaching for the heavens before beginning its slow, inevitable descent.

Blinking, he shut his eyes and pressed himself into a narrow crack between jagged bones, bracing for impact.

"Argh!"

The water slammed over him, swallowing his scream, ripping the air from his lungs. The wave flung him against protruding bone shards, his back screaming under the blow. One rib cracked with a sickening snap, and a strangled groan escaped him, but the jagged bones shielded him from worse.

Coughing, blood and seawater mixing, he dragged himself out of the narrow crevice. The storm tore at him, the dark sea roared beneath him, yet he kept moving, climbing with every ounce of strength he had left. Above, the ruins were alive with cataclysm, Leviathan and sea intertwining in a battle that threatened to devour everything in its path.

The Leviathan, its two muscular arms propelling its serpentine body across the wreckage, lunged toward the Kraken. Six eyes glowed a sickly green as it spat corrosive acid into the water. The Kraken sank, swallowed by the dark currents, and the sea began to twist violently, swirling like a colossal vortex. Amon could have sworn the Kraken's writhing tentacles were stirring it.

Then, from the darkness, the Kraken surged upward and Amon trembled. The gargantuan beast, nearly half the size of the ruined city, crashed down on the Leviathan. Its countless tentacles wrapped and twisted around the creature, crushing it, bending its body painfully as it let out a scream that echoed across the ruins. The Leviathan was trapped, being dragged mercilessly toward the Kraken.

The Kraken's dark, leathery skin split apart, revealing rows upon rows of jagged fangs, thousands of them glinting in the stormlight. Just as it was about to strike, the Leviathan's throat expanded unnaturally, releasing a sonic boom that shattered some of the Kraken's fangs. Its cheek sacs inflated, spraying another stream of acidic, foul-smelling fluid from hidden glands.

The Kraken let out a strange, alien sound. It wasn't a roar, not in any sense Amon had heard before. Yet the tremor it sent through the air and water spoke volumes.

The Kraken's tentacles smashed into the water with terrifying speed and force, sending towering waves cascading toward Amon. Instinctively, he held his breath, bracing himself as the water slammed him again. He clutched a massive bone with all his strength, nearly anchoring himself… nearly.

At the last moment, something collided with him, ripping his grip from the bone. Spinning around, his eyes narrowed in spite and there it was: the same relentless Abomination, still hell-bent on ending him.

Suppressing his shock, Amon struck, plunging his hidden blades into its chest while the creature's claws raked across his back. The battle teetered on a knife's edge, neither able to land a decisive blow. Then, as if the ocean itself were conspiring, the waves calmed, tossing both combatants atop the shattered spine of the Leviathan.

Gritting his teeth, Amon slid down the slick bone and delivered a precise kick to the Abomination's half-invisible face. Using the moment of imbalance, he yanked the creature downward, catching a sea vine mid-fall. At the last instant, he twisted the vine, slowing their descent, and they slammed onto the bones of his camp, gasping for air or whatever the Abomination used in place of it.

Neither willing to yield, both leapt again into the fray. Amon's grin darkened as he severed the vine in one swift motion, yanking himself forward and grabbing another strand. He crashed onto the camp floor, but instead of groaning from the impact, he let out a deranged laugh, filled with glee. Pulling the vine taut, it snapped into place around the Abomination's neck, choking the invisible predator.

The creature thrashed violently, gasping for air. It was alive, still required sustenance, just like any other being. Despite its power, it was not a Corrupted or Great One. Merely an Awakened or an ascended monstrosity.

Amon didn't know how it had survived, and he didn't give a damn. That monstrous little shit had been a thorn in his side the entire time. After fighting it among the ruins, he'd come to a simple conclusion: it had been tracking him and his friends the moment they stepped foot there.

"Predator, huh? Let's see who gets absorbed by who!" he muttered, a dark grin spreading across his face.

He lashed the vine around a jagged shard of crimson coral, then dashed toward the Abomination. Sliding down the broken bones with fluid precision, he leapt, landing atop the shattered bone.

Glancing at the vine, he noted it was held firmly in place, tied to the coral. With a flick of his wrist, he reached out and stole the section of coral the vine had been bound to.

The tension snapped instantly. The vine, meant to choke the nightmare creature, loosened instead, releasing it entirely.

The Abomination's half-visible maw widened in vicious delight. It twisted its body with predatory precision, aiming to annihilate Amon in a single, brutal strike.

But before the Abomination could strike, Amon tensed every muscle in his body. His abdomen throbbed, his mangled left arm barely responding, dangling like a puppet's limb. After the relentless fight, every wound screamed in protest. His left arm had been overused from fighting mid-air and along the jagged spine. Still, his right arm remained steady, and he relied on it completely, gripping his weapon with all the strength he had left.

Lightning flashed across the darkened camp, illuminating the ruins in jagged, brilliant bursts.

"Bleghr!"

With a single, decisive motion, Amon threw his weapon with all his might. The slender jian pierced the Abomination, glowing with ghostly, green light as it slammed back onto the bone. The creature roared violently, a sound that shook the ruins, before falling silent. Its body went rigid, finally still.

[You Have Slain Fallen Beast, Specter Of Slayer.]

[You Have Received Memory, Moonlight Shard.]

***

[A/N: Okay, guys. I'm on a hangover, so I don't really know how this chapter turned out. It's long as hell, three thousand four hundred words. Anyway, we don't have much information about the Moonlight Shard or the guardian of the Slayer Statue. But we do know it's located south of the Dark City and on the west side of the Forgotten Shore, where they are right now. Bones of a colossal creature were on the Slayer Statue, so he actually touched the statue to get the Moonlight Shard. I'll explain more in the next chapter. Also, the Specter can heal its injuries, which is why the eye that wasn't damaged by acid also healed along with some of its other injuries.

Amon currently has the Dusk Shard, Moonlight Shard, and Dawn Shard. And yes, Marauder gives him weapon proficiency, so the cowardly pathways can fight too but I tried to fit it into the combat style that Marauders usually show: acrobatics, strategy, cunning, and stuff like that.

Well, enjoy the meal, fellas, and see you again.

Oh, by the way, I don't really like this chapter, so you guys decide: was it good or not?

1. Yes

2. No

***