Fourth Nightmare (Event)

More than a year after entering the Nightmare, Effie and Kai found themselves in the vicinity of one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the Age of Heroes, once renowned as a cultural and commercial hub. Formerly ruled by the elderly Supreme known as the Mason, whose Utility Aspect enabled his people to prosper, the city had flourished through its exquisite craftsmanship, hospitality, neutrality, and nearly impregnable walls protected by the Mason's power. Its harbor welcomed ships from many Domains through artificial Gates—stable crossing paths created by runic enchantments, Transcendent envoys skilled in sorcery, and the resources of Supremes—which allowed even mundane people to travel between realms and facilitated trade, cultural exchange, and warfare. However, by the time Effie and Kai arrived, the once-thriving city had been devastated by siege and war, with cracked walls, ruined homes, a harbor choked with sunken wrecks, and a towering pyre of corpses burning before its gates. Standing beside the pyre after another battle, the battered Effie and the exhausted Kai reflected that their latest losses had been minor.^[5]

The destruction of the city stemmed from the changing political landscape of the Age of Heroes. After the fall of the first human kingdom and the sealing of the mad Kanakht, newly risen Supremes typically conquered only a handful of realms to establish their Domains, while humanity remained primarily occupied with fighting the Corrupted. As humanity expanded, Realm Wars became increasingly common whenever a new Supreme emerged. Unlike his predecessors, however, the newest Supreme, Azarax, known as the Plague of Steel, sought not merely to carve out a Domain but to conquer every realm. As the central figure of the Nightmare, Azarax became the enemy whom Effie and Kai had to defeat in order to survive.^[5]

Azarax the Mighty, the King of Kings and Plague of Steel, was a Supreme driven by a powerful Aspect, endless bloodthirst, and an insatiable desire to conquer all the mortal realms, subjugate every other Supreme, and rule all humanity. Commanding the most powerful army in the mortal realms, his horde grew stronger with every conquest as powerful enemies became his thralls and every corpse sacrificed to his ambition increased his strength. His advance was halted only by the peaceful city of the Mason, whose Utility Aspect and mystical fortifications made its walls capable of resisting even Azarax's power.^[2]

At the start of the Nightmare, Effie became the War Maiden, a Transcendent warrior and priestess of War who led the mercenary army hired by the Mason to defend the city. Kai and Morgan served as high-ranking officers, while Jet, Seishan, and Nightwalker acted as independent Saints. For more than a year, they endured relentless sieges and defended the city against Azarax's horde.^[2]

The city's survival rested on five factors: the Mason's fortified walls and Ability to empower champions; Morgan's strategies that weakened the enemy; the combined Aspects of Effie, Kai, and Seishan, which nullified the Dread Warriors' aura of dread while strengthening the defenders; Jet's deadly Aspect, which forced even Azarax to exercise caution; and Nightwalker, who repeatedly bypassed the naval blockade to deliver food and supplies.^[2]

Following another battle, Kai reported that Nightwalker had returned with supplies, delaying food shortages. However, he also revealed that a mundane disease had begun spreading through the besieged city, adding another calamity to its plight.^[2]

For more than a year, the city withstood Azarax's relentless siege through the combined efforts of Effie's mercenary army, the citizens trained by Morgan, and champions from other realms. Although their forces rivaled one of the Great Clans at its peak, every assault came at a terrible cost. Unable to afford a prolonged stalemate, Azarax abandoned direct assaults in favor of more insidious warfare, since his empire depended on constant conquest and his reputation as an undefeated conqueror.^[6]

Azarax's sorcerers unleashed an engineered plague by hurling the rotting corpses of his own soldiers into the city with trebuchets. The disease began with subtle hand tremors before causing victims to rot from within as their blood turned black and viscous, eventually killing them in agony. It spread through personal contact, was difficult to detect early, and could not be cured by mundane medicine. Despite Morgan's efforts to dispose of the corpses safely, the plague spread throughout the city, leaving no practical solution that would not also devastate the defenders.^[6]

Learning that Seishan was struggling, Effie and Kai set out to visit her. As they crossed the devastated city, they were greeted with reverence, having earned legendary status after resisting the Plague of Steel for more than a year. Along the way, they reflected on the city's uncertain fate, with Kai noting that no trace of it remained in the Dream Realm despite Sunny's account that Azarax had eventually been defeated by a War Maiden.^[6]

They met Morgan beside the city's great river, whose waters had to be purified by sorcery after Azarax contaminated it with corpses upstream. The river passed through the city's walls behind a colossal enchanted iron grate that prevented enemy ships from entering despite the prolonged siege. Morgan agreed to accompany them to Seishan after silently leaving a summoned dagger embedded in the muddy riverbank before they continued on their way.^[6]

After the battle, Effie, Kai, and Morgan visited the former temple that served as Seishan's base and a makeshift hospital for soldiers wounded during the city's defense. The prayer hall was crowded with the mangled survivors of the fighting, while the air was heavy with the stench of blood. Effie herself received treatment for her shattered shield arm, which had been broken repeatedly while blocking Azarax's attacks despite her layered augmentations and the Mason's support.^[7]

In the temple's inner sanctum, Seishan was found gravely weakened by the plague, her grey skin drenched in sweat and black blood seeping from her pores and eyes. Unlike the other victims, she had deliberately infected herself so that the divine blood inherited from Beast God could learn to overcome the plague engineered by Azarax and his sorcerers. Once the process was complete, her blood could serve as the basis for a cure or be used to inoculate others directly. Although her condition remained critical, Seishan believed she would overcome the plague within a few weeks.^[7]

The following day, Effie and Kai found Morgan observing the river outside the city. Noticing that the water level had dropped dramatically, Morgan realized that Azarax's forces were diverting the river, revealing a new threat to the besieged city.^[7]

Morgan discovered that Azarax had spent months preparing to divert the river by digging enormous trenches and artificial channels upstream. Redirecting the river into an artificial lake would drain its original bed, exposing the city's only vulnerable point—the massive iron grate beneath the walls—and allowing the Steel Horde to bypass the impregnable fortifications and attack through the dry riverbed.^[8]

With only hours, or at most a day, before the assault, the defenders had little time to prepare. The city was still recovering from the previous battle, with exhausted soldiers, damaged equipment, depleted Awakened, and Seishan incapacitated. Their only hope was the Mason, whose Ability could reinforce the exposed opening, though the process required more time than they had.^[8]

Effie ordered Kai to warn the Mason and mobilize the city's defenders. Despite her shield arm having only barely healed, she concealed her injuries and prepared to fight in order to inspire the defenders.^[8]

As the Steel Horde launched its assault, Azarax attacked along the entire city wall to divert the defenders while concentrating his main offensive on the exposed riverbed. With the river completely drained, thousands of defenders gathered behind the iron grate and its hastily constructed barricade, preparing for the inevitable breach. Effie assumed her titanic form, inspiring the defenders with her Transcendent Ability, while Kai used the mystical power of his voice to strengthen their courage and resist the Dread Warriors' aura of dread.^[9]

Rather than relying on siege engines, Azarax personally hurled his battle axe from a distant hill with such overwhelming strength and tyrannical Will that it destroyed a trebuchet in its path and overwhelmed Nightwalker's attempt to redirect it. The axe obliterated the enchanted iron grate, melting a vast section into liquid metal. Morgan intercepted the weapon before it could strike the defenders, absorbing its blade into herself and leaving the entrance to the city completely exposed as the battle began.^[9]

As the Steel Horde advanced, the defenders unleashed volleys of arrows and siege weapons, inflicting heavy casualties on the densely packed attackers. Azarax deliberately sent mostly mundane soldiers in the vanguard while preserving his elite forces, having already lost many Awakened, Ascended, and Transcendent champions during the prolonged siege. From atop the walls, Effie destroyed colossal siege towers by hurling enormous blocks of stone, while Kai, the Dragonslayer, used his powerful bow and arrows from the Lord of Shadows to eliminate enemy Saints and Dread Warriors from afar.^[10]

The Steel Horde answered with devastating volleys of arrows, including attacks from its own Saints that forced the defenders to take cover. Effie relied on her Supreme armor rather than her shield to conceal the weakness of her still-recovering arm, while the exchange of ranged attacks continued. Although Azarax's army suffered far greater losses, its advance remained unstoppable. The Steel Horde soon reached the city walls, with a powerful force advancing through the drained riverbed toward the breached entrance, prompting Morgan to move forward to meet the assault.^[10]

After a year of calamitous siege, the city's defenses were finally breached when the river was diverted, the great iron grate was destroyed, and the makeshift barricade blocking the dry riverbed was shattered by the axe of the King of Kings. As the Steel Horde poured into the breach, the mercenaries hired by the Mason prepared to fight to the last man. Despite being vastly outnumbered by Azarax's army of Awakened champions enthralled from conquered realms, Effie and her companions held the advantage of superior skill as Saints from the Age of the Nightmare Spell and fought under the Mason's Will, which strengthened the defenders while suppressing Azarax's authority within the city's Domain.^[11]

The moat, now filled with corpses, allowed the Steel Horde to advance siege ladders under heavy fire. Azarax then unleashed the elite Dread Warriors, whose aura of dread weakened the defenders as they scaled the walls alongside other Awakened using their Aspects. The defenders rallied when the Dragonslayer commanded, "Abandon fear! Abandon mercy! Kill them all!", while the War Maiden inspired them with renewed strength. The Dread Warriors failed to seize the ramparts but held the defenders and the Transcendent commanders in place long enough for the colossal siege towers to draw ever closer despite the efforts of Effie and Kai.^[11]

Below the battle for the ramparts, the core forces of the Steel Horde poured through the breach along the dry riverbed, but Nightwalker slowed their advance by twisting space. After a year of siege, however, Azarax countered this power with rune-engraved metal spikes that stabilized the surrounding space, allowing the horde to create a path through the barrier at the cost of countless lives. As the invaders surged forward, Morgan transformed into a Sword Demon, annihilated the vanguard, and engaged the seven Transcendent generals of the Dread Warriors, while Nightwalker fought the lesser enemy Saints. Although the defenders held an initial advantage by fighting from prepared wooden flooring, the Steel Horde's inexhaustible numbers steadily threatened to overwhelm them.^[12]

As the Dragonslayer's command—"Kill them all!"—strengthened the defenders, the battle descended into a bloody stalemate. Nightwalker pressured multiple Saints with his flawless swordsmanship and spatial powers, while Morgan slew one Dread Warrior general and wounded the others with the deadly sharpness of her Sword Demon form. However, the balance of the battle was about to change as the most fearsome force of the Steel Horde—the Plague of Steel, the King of Kings himself—finally advanced toward the battlefield.^[12]

The battle in the riverbed became even more dreadful than Effie had imagined as Azarax committed seven Dread Generals to the assault. Each was a fallen legend who had once ruled a kingdom before being defeated and enthralled by the King of Kings. Morgan held her ground against them despite enduring relentless Transcendent attacks, while Nightwalker continued fighting elsewhere. On the city wall, Effie and Kai prevented the Dread Warriors from overrunning the battlements, but their focus allowed several colossal siege towers to reach the walls. Earlier in the siege, Kai had eliminated most enemy Awakened capable of flight, leaving the siege towers as the greatest threat. This time, the defenders failed to stop them, and their drawbridges crashed onto the parapets, allowing countless warriors of the Steel Horde to flood the battlements.^[13]

As the battle intensified, Effie sensed Azarax, the Plague of Steel, advancing toward the city gate. Although the Mason's Will strengthened the defenders and suppressed Azarax's authority within the Domain, the elderly Supreme remained hidden in his impregnable palace because exposing himself would allow Azarax to eliminate the city's greatest weakness. With Kai left to command the defense of the walls alongside the local Saints, Effie leaped from the battlements into the enemy ranks, crushing countless warriors of the Steel Horde beneath her landing before facing the approaching King of Kings, who greeted the fearless War Maiden with mocking amusement.^[13]

Effie faced the King of Kings, Azarax, across the vast ocean of steel with cold contempt. Over the past year, he had developed an unhealthy interest in the cohort, especially Effie. Known for collecting powerful warriors, Azarax also reveled in subjugating strong-willed individuals. Because Effie led the city's defenses, he regarded taming her as a personal challenge. Although others in the cohort surpassed her as strategist, fighter, ruler, or leader, none inspired loyalty as she did. The city's defenders loved her, drawing hope and strength from her presence, making her the natural leader and the primary focus of Azarax's attention.^[14]

Azarax also misunderstood the War Maidens and the Red Sect. Believing the War Maidens to be brides of War God, he saw subjugating one as an insult to a god he considered beneath himself. In truth, the Red Sect predated the current male dragon avatar of War God. Its founders had pledged to forge themselves in the image of the original human female avatar of War, not as brides but as her successors. Effie had learned this during her Second Nightmare, but Azarax neither knew nor cared. His obsession with conquering the arrogant War Maiden had grown so great that it became one of the reasons the city still stood.^[14]

Ignoring Azarax's question, Effie summoned her spear as he crossed the battlefield in an instant, attacking with his devastating bare fists. She dismissed her colossal Transcendent form and returned to her normal, though very tall, size, causing his blow to strike the city wall instead. Azarax rebounded and landed before her, splitting the blood-soaked ground. Effie was crushed by the oppressive presence of the King of Kings' Aspect, while Azarax, now beneath the city walls, found his Will suppressed by the Mason King's Domain. Despite the suppression, he remained confident he could crush any opponent. As the steel horde withdrew to leave them space, Azarax smiled darkly and declared that he had finally taught the priestess not to look down on him.^[14]

Effie was empowered by the Will of the Mason King, which imbued her with stalwart tenacity, augmented her powers, and lessened the oppressive weight of Azarax's Aspect. Though unable to consciously wield their own Will, she and her companions were elevated through the Will of the old Supreme, becoming more than halfway to wielding Supreme power themselves. The boon allowed them to challenge Azarax, but he was no ordinary Sovereign, having conquered many realms and destroyed numerous Domains. Stronger, faster, and more resilient than any other Saint, with a body more durable than steel and protected by her Supreme armor, Effie still knew Azarax could break her bones and damage her organs. Unable to rely on enduring blows through her Awakened Ability, and with one shield arm crippled, she fought with agility and caution, drawing on the instincts she had honed while hunting Nightmare Creatures on the Forgotten Shore.^[15]

Azarax attacked with overwhelming speed, but Effie perceived his movements through her Dormant Ability and kept him at bay with her spear. Their clash became a ferocious dance of violence, with Azarax relentlessly pursuing while Effie evaded as prey rather than the huntress. Amused by her faint smile, Azarax declared that he wished to break her spirit before making her his thrall, urging her to abandon her god and accept him as her deity. He promised that if she surrendered, only the royals, nobles, and adult men of the city would be slaughtered, while the women and children would live as slaves. As he grabbed her shield and demanded a reply, Effie answered by exhaling a billowing cloud of eerie, chilling fog.^[15]

The fog enveloped Azarax as a graceful mist wraith emerged, its ghostly eyes burning with ethereal blue flames, and pierced the King of Kings' chest with a war scythe for the second time. Spitting ice and breathing in the cold mist, Effie remarked that Azarax talked too much before raising her shield and charging forward to join Jet in the fight against the Plague of Steel.^[15]

Azarax was too strong and cunning to be killed. Only his arrogance and Jet prevented him from carving a bloody path to the Mason King's palace. Jet's soul-rending attacks bypassed physical defenses, forcing Azarax to block them with the Will, which was suppressed beneath the city walls. Although he could overpower the Mason King's Will or focus on Jet, he could not do both at once. Exploiting this, Effie concealed Jet in her mist form within her lungs and, when Azarax drew close, exhaled a torrent of chilling mist. Jet emerged and pierced his chest twice with the Mist Blade, inflicting more soul damage than he had ever suffered before.^[16]

Jet then unleashed a freezing hex that slowed Azarax, while Effie charged through the mist and struck with her shield after losing her spear. Azarax blocked the blow, but his vambrace split and he bled for the first time in a year. After Effie staggered him with a crushing kick that shattered his breastplate, she and Jet launched a seamless assault, with Effie acting as the ram and Jet as the blade. Despite fighting together and pushing themselves beyond their limits, they still struggled against the overwhelming might of the King of Kings.^[16]

Elsewhere, the siege descended into chaos. Kai and the defenders fought to hold the battlements as enemy warriors crossed the remaining siege towers, while the riverbed became a field of slaughter buried beneath corpses advancing the Steel Horde. Morgan and Nightwalker continued holding back the Horde's strongest Saints, and the battlefield remained locked in a bloody stalemate until a hunched, staggering figure climbed onto the top of the wall overlooking the blood-soaked riverbed.^[16]

Severely weakened by the powerful enchantment of the Mist Blade and suffering from a deep soul wound that left his soul core covered in fine cracks, the King of Kings still overwhelmed Effie and Jet at the city gate. On the battlements, Kai inspired the defenders and fought to destroy one of the two remaining siege towers, but he could not stop the Dread Warriors everywhere at once. In the dry riverbed, Morgan battled the six remaining Dread Generals while Nightwalker kept the Steel Horde's Transcendent champions from reinforcing them. Despite the plague ravaging her body, Seishan climbed the wall and watched the battle unfold. Her crimson-clad elite warriors moved to destroy a siege tower, preventing the Steel Horde from advancing on that section of the rampart and giving Kai time to deal with the other tower. However, Seishan had come for another purpose.^[17]

Empowered by the rivers of spilled blood, Seishan used her Aspect to intensify bleeding. Azarax's small wound reopened, but her true target was the six Dread Generals, whose countless cuts began bleeding heavily, steadily draining them. Realizing that continuing the assault would cost him his treasured thralls and inflict grievous losses on the Steel Horde, Azarax chose not to risk everything in one battle. Since the city wall was already breached and could not be repaired quickly, he decided future assaults would eventually wear the defenders down. After taunting Effie about how many such battles they could survive, he ordered the Steel Horde to retreat. The battle ended with the city still standing.^[17]

Afterward, the exhausted defenders tended to the wounded, counted the dead, and cremated the fallen, with Awakened using their Aspects because there were too many bodies for ordinary fire. That evening, Effie visited the temple of Beast God, now a hospital, where Seishan was struggling against the plague, black blood flowing from her pores, lips, and eyes. Although Seishan said she was slowly progressing toward a cure, Effie, convinced the city could not survive endless assaults, told her not to heal the plague, but to make it stronger.^[17]

After nearly two years of siege, the city had been devastated by war, famine, disease, and the relentless assaults of Azarax's Steel Horde, while its last Supreme, the Mason King, was dying and the city's fall seemed inevitable. Witnessing the hopeless state of the defenders and fearing for her family in the real world, Effie resolved to end the war herself by defeating the Steel Horde and Azarax before it was too late.^[18]

As dawn broke, Effie passed through the overcrowded Stone Castle, where the city's remaining civilians had taken refuge as the Mason King neared death, reflecting on the immense losses, the strength she and her companions had gained through the Nightmare, and the uncertain value of their sacrifice. Before leaving, she shared a heartfelt farewell with the prince, reassuring him that the Mason's true legacy was his people, and silently wished for him and the survivors to one day find peace and prosperity.^[19] As the last civilians entered the Stone Castle, Effie entrusted Nightwalker with protecting the survivors before departing into the abandoned city to carry out her dangerous plan against Azarax. Along the way, she reunited with Morgan and Seishan, whose lighthearted banter and companionship briefly lifted the grim mood as they escorted her to the city gate, allowing her to momentarily forget that she was likely walking toward her final battle.^[20]

Effie walked through the ruined city to the gates, where her battered soldiers silently honored her resolve and Kai made one last desperate attempt to convince her to abandon the plan, though she refused. As the city gates opened for the first time since the siege began, she stepped alone onto the blood-soaked battlefield, intending to surrender the city to Azarax as the first step in her plan to end the war.^[21]

Effie reached Azarax's camp and, despite the humiliation it caused her, surrendered the city and begged him to spare the women and children and allow three days to bury the dead. Although Azarax agreed to keep some of his promise, he refused to delay the assault, mocked Effie's submission, and immediately ordered the Steel Horde to storm and plunder the city.^[22]

After surrendering, Effie was shackled and humiliated before Azarax, who believed he had finally broken her spirit and intended to use her submission as proof of his superiority over the gods rather than kill her immediately. However, everything unfolded according to Effie's plan, as she had spent years studying Azarax's pride, obsession with power, and hatred of the gods, correctly predicting that he would keep her alive, making her apparent defeat the crucial first step in her strategy to ultimately defeat him.^[23]

Effie reflected that, for the Steel Horde, victory meant plunder, with soldiers being allowed to ravage conquered cities, enslave survivors, and claim their possessions according to their rank. The Dread Warriors and other elite forces entered the fallen city first, advancing toward its wealthiest districts and the Stone Castle while Azarax's Will expanded into the city as the Mason's influence was forced back. As the Steel Horde's forces filled the city and moved deeper inside, Effie hinted that they would soon hear the expected cries of their victims, only for the city's massive stone gate to suddenly close shut.^[24]

Effie's plan with Morgan, Seishan, Kai, Nightwalker, and Jet had been designed to trap the Steel Horde's elite forces inside the city after the gate was closed and its mechanism permanently destroyed. From the inner keep, Kai, Morgan, Seishan, and Nightwalker prepared for the next stage of the battle while Kai watched the Steel Horde spread throughout the city and worried about Effie, knowing the plan was necessary despite its cost. Kai then called upon his Aspect and commanded the city to "Burn", causing the entire city to be swallowed by flames.^[25]

The defenders had prepared a secret plan in which Morgan, Seishan, the Mason King, and the city's remaining sorcerers created and concealed thousands of barrels of highly incendiary liquid throughout the city, connected by a vast runic array. When Kai called upon his Aspect and commanded "Burn", the array activated the caches and detonators simultaneously, causing pillars of fire and burning liquid to engulf the city, trapping and killing the Steel Horde forces inside. As the inferno spread, Kai entered the flames to hunt the surviving Transcendent warriors, while Effie mocked Azarax for failing to conquer the city before he struck her down.^[26]

The second part of the plan involved Jet, who had secretly traveled behind the Steel Horde's lines and attacked a major supply caravan carrying food, weapons, medicine, and other essential provisions at the same time as Effie's surrender. The attack forced Azarax to choose between rushing to the burning city to save his Dread Warriors or protecting the supplies essential to sustaining his vast army, and he ultimately chose the latter, leaving the trapped forces to their fate. Effie then recognized that the outcome of the remaining battle depended on Kai.^[27]

During the burning of the city, Kai moved through the inferno in his draconic form and used his Aspect to command the flames to devour the surviving soldiers of the Steel Horde. As he fought two Dread Generals at the city wall, the Spell granted him an Aspect Legacy, causing the True Name of Fire, along with several other Names, to take root in his mind and fuse with his spirit. Kai then invoked the Song of Fire, unleashing a vast pillar of radiant silver flame that annihilated the Dread Generals and expanded into a sea of immolating fire across the city, after which he continued his hunt for the remaining survivors.^[28]

The first part of Effie's plan had succeeded in destroying the Steel Horde's elite forces inside the city, with Kai and Morgan spearheading the assault, while Jet accomplished the second part by ambushing the supply caravan and leaving Azarax's army with severely reduced provisions. Despite the destruction of the city, the Stone Castle and its surviving inhabitants remained safe, while the Dread Generals and most of the Dread Warriors had been killed, leaving the Steel Horde severely weakened. The final part of the plan was to destroy the Steel Horde and kill Azarax, and unlike the first two stages, that task was left entirely to Effie.^[29]

Over the following days, Azarax systematically tortured Effie in an attempt to break her physically and mentally, carefully keeping her alive because he intended to eventually make her a thrall and possibly a new Dread General. Although the torture gradually reduced Effie to a fearful and battered state and eventually forced her to beg for mercy, she continued to refuse to submit to him. When Azarax allowed his soldiers access to her, Effie remained chained and weakened outside his tent, but the soldiers who attempted to harm her were killed by her instead.^[30]

Effie initially expected Azarax to publicly crucify her, but instead he chained her to a wooden post, where she killed several soldiers who attempted to attack her despite being wounded, shackled, and drained of essence. While the Stone Castle continued to resist and Jet remained a threat to the Steel Horde's supply lines, Effie secretly endured the effects of a plague that Seishan had transformed into a highly virulent mystical curse capable of affecting even a Supreme. Effie had deliberately made herself the plague's delivery system, allowing the curse to spread throughout Azarax's encampment through her blood and contact with infected soldiers, with the plague's coming outbreak intended to complete the third part of her plan.^[31]

The plague gradually began overwhelming Effie's body, causing persistent pain, darkening blood, and internal decay while her Transcendent physique struggled to heal her faster than the disease could destroy her. As the plague's long incubation period ended, its early symptoms began appearing among the weakened Steel Horde soldiers, who initially mistook their fatigue and trembling for the effects of hunger and exhaustion. The Steel Horde only recognized the severity of the outbreak when soldiers began vomiting black blood, and its healers discovered that the number of infected was far greater than expected, prompting them to realize that the plague had already spread extensively throughout the encampment.^[32]

As the Steel Horde's supplies dwindled and Azarax prepared for another assault on the Stone Castle, the situation deteriorated further when the sorcerers discovered that their cure for the plague was ineffective. The failed cure plunged the encampment into panic, but Azarax restored a measure of order through punishments, executions, and a fearsome speech, after which the soldiers redirected their fear and anger toward Effie as the suspected source of the plague. Effie then found herself surrounded by hundreds of hostile soldiers, far more than she could handle in her weakened state, and realized that she was in serious danger.^[33]

Effie confronted the hostile soldiers by revealing that she was infected with the plague and warning that anyone who approached her could become infected, causing the crowd to turn its fear and suspicion toward one another. She recognized that this mutual distrust, fear, and hesitation was the true weapon she sought to unleash against the Steel Horde, as soldiers who feared their own comrades would be less capable of fighting their enemies. However, an unseen attacker threw a javelin that wounded Effie, leaving her chained, weakened, and surrounded by hundreds of increasingly hostile soldiers while she lamented the loss of her essence and the powers that would have allowed her to defeat them.^[34]

Azarax intervened just before the Steel Horde soldiers could kill Effie, dispersing the crowd and ordering them to prepare for the assault on the Stone Castle. He then took Effie into his tent and restrained her, while Effie realized that the siege and her role in the Nightmare would likely be decided before nightfall, with the Steel Horde facing the combined threats of hunger, disease, death, and war. Effie remained confident that the spreading plague and the cohort's continued resistance would make Azarax's defeat inevitable, and she looked forward to his return, knowing that if he finally lost control and killed her, it would mean that his own days were already numbered.^[35]

Effie revealed to Azarax that she had effectively orchestrated his defeat, causing him to lose control and repeatedly stab her with a dagger before leaving the tent. Outside, Azarax saw his returning soldiers exhausted, hungry, sick, and defeated, while Effie remained alive despite her wounds. She then pulled the dagger from her chest and used its blade to begin cutting through the leather cord binding her wrists.^[36]

Effie escaped Azarax's tent and fled the Steel Horde's camp amid the chaos caused by Jet's attack, but she was severely wounded, infected by the plague, and pursued by the Horde's soldiers. After reaching a lake with her pursuers closing in, Effie fought to survive despite her weakening body, awakening her Aspect Legacy, receiving a fragment of Life's Domain, and creating her Soul Garden, the Garden of Prosperity. Just as she was overwhelmed by the pursuing archers, Jet arrived through the icy mist, rescued Effie, and carried her away from the battlefield.^[37]

The Steel Horde endured hunger, a vicious plague, fear, and the mounting pressure of the prolonged siege, while repeated assaults on the Stone Castle failed despite the King of Kings’ relentless commands. Meanwhile, the remaining population of the destroyed city lived safely and abundantly within the Garden of Prosperity, where they had plentiful food and clean water while the defenders of the Stone Castle also benefited from its resources. Effie, recovering from her grievous wounds, reflected on her Garden of Prosperity as a physical space within her soul, a miniature mortal realm infused with the vitality of the Life Domain that she could use to shelter and summon people.^[38]

The Steel Horde's commanders gathered in a war council while Azarax, weakened and infected by the plague, faced growing unrest among his officers as casualties, hunger, and the destruction of his elite forces eroded their loyalty. One general urged Azarax to abandon the siege and return home to replenish their forces and find a cure for the plague, but Azarax angrily rejected the suggestion and declared that the siege would continue until the Stone Castle was destroyed and the Mason King was killed. As the generals struggled to find a way to persuade their king, they turned to the quiet Saint among them, who studied Azarax carefully before stepping forward and choosing to use his spear rather than words.^[39]

Effie and the others discovered that the Steel Horde had mysteriously abandoned their siege, leaving behind an empty, plague-ridden camp. They found Azarax, the King of Kings, dead on his throne—betrayed and slain by his own generals after being weakened by the plague—marking the apparent end of the Nightmare and bringing Effie a long-awaited sense of closure.^[3]

Effie and her companions celebrated their victory as the survivors of the fallen city prepared to leave and start anew, while the Mason King finally died after ensuring his people's safety. As the world began changing, Effie reflected on the kind of Supreme she wanted to become, and their Nightmare ultimately came to an end.^[40]