The citadel they chose was Moonriver Plain; it was quite dangerous due to being near the Hallow Mountains, but as long as they don't go to the territory of some powerful Nightmare Creature, they should be fine.
They were taken to the citadel by the Saint of Sorrow of the Song Clan in charge of the citadel, a man with the transcendent ability to turn into a gargoyle. He was the leader of the Sorrow Clan, who served the Song Clan.
As they arrived, the sight of the Camion near the Citadel impressed them quite a bit, but after that, Abner asked the saint of Sorrow, "So what areas should we avoid here?"
The saint answered, "Just don't wonder off too far from the citadel, and you will be fine."
Abner and the Cohort nodded as they left the citadel to find nightmare creatures to slay, and it didn't take them long to find one, an awakened devil.
The Awakened Devil was quite grotesque, having arms sprouting from everywhere on its body, and it too noticed them, soon charging at them but not blindingly.
It made sure to not run straight at them to dodge the Arrows Brave Shoot at it, but what it couldn't dodge was Abner's light attack; it was at light speed, so it wasn't the Tyrants fault.
The moment the light touched the awakened devil, steam started coming out of its skin as it screamed in pain but didn't stop charging at them, this time not bothering to dodge the Arrows.
Glorielle's expression turned zealous as she swung her glowing War Hammer at the awakened devil, screaming, "GIVE ME GLORY BATTLE TO YOUR LAST BREATH!"
The awakened devil was sent flying like a broken doll; its skin burned off, revealing pink flesh and a little white where its bones were. Since it was thrown out of Abner's light, it finally stopped burning.
But that was only for a moment as Abner quickly targeted it again and charged at the awakened devil.
Abner was glowing to the awakened devil; he seemed like a merciless, cold, and unfeeling murderer; the sight made it shiver slightly.
But to his friends, he seemed to radiate a sense of protection, giving them comfort.
As Abner got closer to the awakened devil, the light he radiated seemed to do more and more damage.
The awakened devil couldn't even run, as Brave shot more and more arrows at it, further damaging the devil until Abner finished it off by cutting its head off.
Abner soon heard the voice of the spell whisper into his ear
[You have Slain an Awakened Devil: Hundred Armed Devil]
Abner sighed as he announced, "No memory or echo." They quickly took the soul shards and distributed them equally, leaving only one since there were only three of them this time.
As they continued wandering around near the citadel, they encountered a few fallen Ranked creatures, but they were dealing with them as sleepers before; as awakened, they didn't have any problems with them.
Abner sighed after he got back to the citadel and waited before he could use the gateway again, thinking,
'I thought it would be more dangerous around here. This is one of the more dangerous places, after all, but the strongest thing we fought was a fallen demon.'
Abner's sense of danger was skewed, since his only experience in the dream realm was spending three years in a death zone.
Abner made some small talk with some other Awakened of the Sorrow Clan as he waited until he could use the gateway.
"Wait, so you killed a fallen demon already? But there's not a scratch on your armor or on any of your friends for that matter!"
Abner just nodded casually and said, "The monsters here are a little weak; we didn't have much trouble dealing with them."
The Awakened of the Sorrow Clan's lips twitched as he muttered, "Too weak..."
To him, what Abner was saying was lunacy for an awakened cohort of just three to defeat a fallen demon was not impossible with some preparation, but to do so without knowing anything and come out without a scratch?
That's impossible for regular Awakened! The Awakened of the Sorrow Clan knew that Abner and his cohort were from the Forgotten Shores, but he still couldn't help but be impressed by their strength.
As Abner and his cohort got to know the people of the citadel, their reputation spread as real geniuses in the Sorrow Clan's citadel—not that they weren't known as geniuses before, but now the world could see their results for themselves.
As night approached, Abner and his cohort entered the gateway and left the Dream realm.
Abner had some food with his family as they made small talk.
His father asked him, "So what happened to your hair and eyes? They weren't golden like this before; is it a cosmetic memory?"
Abner shook his head and answered calmly, as if talking about the weather: "No, it's been like this since my aspect evolved to Divine rank. Ah, please don't tell anyone about that."
His father nodded as if his son didn't reveal he just had a divine rank aspect before he nearly choked on his food a second later.
His brother was looking at him wide-eyed, and his mother's jaw nearly dropped.
None of them said anything as they just looked at him; they knew he was talented since he had a sacred aspect, but to already evolve it to a divine one was no joke!
Abner seemed oblivious to their shock, though, as he kept eating and asked his brother, "So Julien, how well are you doing in your acting classes?"
Abner's delinquent brother, who wanted to become an actor, avoided his gaze and answered, "None of your business!"
But their mother didn't share his sentiment and snitched instantly! "He's doing fine when he's playing a villain, but whenever he acts like a good guy, he looks like he would burst a blood vessel from anger!"
Hearing his mother ousting him so fast, Julien blushed from embarrassment slightly as their father joked, "Well, with a face like his, he would always play the villain anyway."
Except for Julien, all of them laughed a little at his expense and continued chatting as they ate.
Abner went to his room after finishing his meal and prayed to Arthur again, not expecting a result, and indeed, nothing happened after waiting for a while, so he went to sleep thinking, 'I hope Arthur's doing well.'
Meanwhile, Arthur was above the Grey Fog making a divination: 'What are my friends doing'
He saw them. Abner and Brave were sleeping, Naamah was writing her book on her laptop, Kaelen was training with some master despite it being so late, Glorielle was up watching a drama, and Alec had just arrived after keeping watch of a sleeper who failed their trial.
Arthur sighed as he thought, 'I'm glad they're doing well.' Although he couldn't summon them above the Grey Fog since they are so far away, he was thankful that at least he could watch over them like this.
Arthur existed the Grey Fog, and as he continued his journey, he sighed, saying out loud, "I think I'm Gonna go insane soon; I can feel it."
Abner woke up and had breakfast with his family, making some small chat, and after eating, he went to the basement and entered his Dreamscape pod.
This time, he wasn't planning on using the private server Kaelen let him use; instead, he wanted to battle some other Awakened, and since Brave wanted to be more proficient with the sword while using his essence, he joined Arthur too.
They soon spotted each other, and Brave greeted him, "Hey Abner, who do you plan to challenge? I hear that streamer guy is apparently pretty good."
Abner asked, "Streamer Who?" Brave pointed to a guy named '6Absurdly handsome Demon9'
Abner looked at the streamers name and then at Braves 'Demon Slayer9000' and joked, "Aren't you more fit to challenge him or are you afraid you would fall for him?"
Abner laughed a little seeing Braves exasperated look.
Still, he went to challenge the streamer, who accepted the challenge.
The streamer knew that Abner was a survivor of the Forgotten Shores, and a Sacred Ranked aspect battling him was sure to bring in views!
The streamer talked to his chat before they exchanged blows.
"Chat, this is Abner, someone who survived a death zone for three years, a companion of The Fool who does not belong to This Era! Someone who saw the legend, known as the first Divine Aspect Holder of Humanity!
He witnessed firsthand how The Fool brought them here by discovering the secrets of awakening without the spell, and sacrificed himself by staying behind so they could escape! Although not to his level, this is someone who is very close to him in talent chat; am I cooked?"
By now, Arthur was being used as a propaganda tool by the Government, who constantly gassed him up as the Perfect Awakened
The chat was already spamming F and praying for his peaceful passing, not having a shred of hope that the streamer would win.
And indeed, not even five seconds after the battle started, the streamer lost without Abner even using his aspect; the skill gap was just too big.
As the streamer praised him for his skill, Abner wasn't listening as he looked at his armor's runes [3217/6000].
Abner thought to himself, 'It increased! I wasn't wrong last time I defeated Brave on the private server!'