Chapter Twelve

Toong!

As the stone cleaver came hurtling towards him, Diegen braced himself for impact, but a translucent wall flashed into existence in front of him. The sound of the impact echoed through the air, reverberating in his bones. He watched in disbelief as the weapon crumbled into pieces and scattered across the ground. The force of the recoil from the blow was immense, and he could feel the shockwaves pulsing through the ground beneath him. The Astral skeleton, its bony hands shattered, dropped the remnants of its weapon with a clatter.

Diegen and the Astral skeleton looked at each other, both confused as to what had just happened.

“Ivis iknaefris arkana rfis. Hevrena. Jverta,” a voice said behind him, and a spear of light flew past Diegen’s ear and pierced through the Astral skeleton’s skull.

Diegen watched as the skeleton crumpled. Another spear of light embedded itself into the remaining regular skeleton, which dropped like a rock.

As Diegen attempted to turn his head to catch a glimpse of his savior, the movement caused a searing pain to shoot through his back, causing him to groan in agony. The pain was so intense that his vision blurred momentarily, and he had to force himself to take deep breaths to calm his racing heart.

“Grendal hvestas?” The voice asked again. Diegen didn't recognize the language, but he was pretty sure the question was being directed at him.

“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” he said weakly, fighting the exhaustion that was creeping at the edges of his vision.

“Hmm…” he heard, then he felt something cool splash onto his back. He flinched in surprise, expecting acid to start burning his skin at any second, but it didn't hurt. Instead, he felt a soothing sensation spread throughout his body, easing the pain in his back.

Over the course of several minutes, it subsided to a dull throb, and he gradually regained mobility in his neck. He turned to his savior to thank them, but the words caught in his throat when he saw who it was.

The figure behind him was a small cub who couldn’t have been more than a few years old. She seemed oddly familiar to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger on where he might've seen her. Her fur also seemed to be oddly glowing and translucent. An array of vials containing colorful liquids floated around her, and they seemed to have a life of their own as they zipped and swirled around her, like a floating apothecary.

One of the vials flew towards him and tipped over, drenching his face in its contents.

Diegen sputtered as the potion got over his eyes, nose, and mouth. He could've sworn that the little cub ‘tsk’d’ at him, but he was more preoccupied with the feeling of his strength being restored to care. It was as if pure energy had been injected directly into his arteries and veins. He clenched a fist to test how much strength he had recovered and was happy and grateful to find that he could do so once again without issue.

He saw the dagger that he had dropped earlier, and reached for it, only stopping when he realized that the cub was eyeing him warily.

He held up his hands. “Please don’t be alarmed. I was just going to sheathe it,” he said, gesturing to his dagger. He carefully and deliberately tucked his weapon back into the sheath at his waist, and took a deep breath. He tried flexing his shoulders. The pain in his back still throbbed, but it was at a bearable level compared to before.

“Thank you,” he said, looking the cub in the eyes. He bowed his head towards her. “You saved me. I'm in your debt.”

The cub cocked her head to the side and scratched her ear with her foot. That’s when he noticed a small tattoo of a flower on her ear.

“Ah, Anima!” he exclaimed, startling the cub and making her jump. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just recognized that flower in your ear,” he said, pointing to his own ear to try and convey his meaning.

Diegen reached into his pouch to show her the flower he had found in the tower, hoping she could shed some light on its significance. However, as soon as he took it out, the cub seemed alarmed by it and began to speak rapidly while glancing nervously at the sky.

"Eh? What's wrong?" Diegen asked.

The cub hesitated, her eyes wide and cautious as she stared at the flower, then back at him.

The air was thick with the acrid scent of acid pools that bubbled and gurgled nearby. Diegen winced as the stench burned his nostrils and the fumes made his eyes water. He tried to suppress a cough, not wanting to startle the cub, but the effort made his throat ache. Despite the discomfort, he stayed put, trying not to scare her away. But before he could open his mouth again, the cub turned around and bolted away.

"Wait, come back!" he called out, placing the flower back into his pouch. "I just want to talk to you." He knew he had to follow her, but his body was protesting with every step.

As he hobbled after her, he had to be careful not to stumble over the dead foliage and blasted rocks that littered the ground. It almost looked like the remnants of a battle that had happened long ago. The jagged edges of the rocks scraped against his boots, and the sharp twigs pricked his skin, leaving small cuts that stung.

The air around him was thick with a shimmering haze that obscured his vision and made him feel disoriented. He tried to shake his head to clear his thoughts, but the haze only seemed to intensify. It was as if the very air itself was alive, pulsating with a fuzzy and elusive shimmer.

Diegen panted as he tried to keep up with the cub. He was running on sheer adrenaline, his mind racing with questions. Who was this cub, and why did she look so familiar? How was she able to cast spells despite not being an Astral? How had she survived down here, and were there others? He needed answers, and she was the only living person he had seen in a long time.

But the cub was quick, darting through the landscape with ease. Diegen struggled to keep up, feeling his breath grow ragged and his chest heave. His head was spinning as he followed her, his senses overwhelmed by the strange environment around him. The acidic wetlands were a surreal landscape, with bubbling pools of green liquid that emitted noxious fumes. The acidic mist made it hard to breathe, but it also seemed to muffle sound, making it hard to tell where the cub had gone. Diegen spun around, trying to locate her, but there was no sign of her anywhere. The silence was deafening, broken only by the sound of his own labored breathing.

Despite the pain and discomfort, Diegen pressed on. He scanned the horizon, searching for any sign of movement. But she was nowhere to be seen. He rubbed his eyes, hoping to clear his vision, but the haze only seemed to grow thicker.

Frustrated and disoriented, Diegen stumbled over a fallen tree branch, nearly falling to the ground. He looked up, hoping for a sign, but the landscape around him seemed to stretch out endlessly, an eerie and unfamiliar wasteland that offered no comfort or familiarity.

“Hey, where did you go?” he shouted, but the only response he got was his own echoing voice.

Or it would’ve been, if he didn't hear a soft splash nearby. He whirled around, searching for the source of the noise, but couldn't see anything at first. He heard another splash nearby, and he whirled again, but he couldn’t see anything there either.

Suddenly, a pair of creepy eyes popped above the surface of an acid pool, with yellow sclera and flat, black pupils that stared directly at him. A sour smell hit his nose at the same time as a wave of powerful shimmer washed over him. It felt disgusting, as if he hadn’t taken a shower for weeks.

Diegen cursed and fumbled for his dagger, his hands shaking with fear. It was just his luck to encounter a monster now, of all times.

It had been a long time since he fought against one, and he still remembered how dangerous his last confrontation had been. Even with Asmophel at his side, they only barely managed to defeat it. He had gained some combat practice against the skeletons since then, but he didn't think he was even close to the strength of a true monster.

Still, he didn’t really see another choice here but to fight.

The monster's wet skin emitted a putrid odor that stung Diegen's nostrils, making him feel sick to his stomach. The acidic fumes emanating from the pool filled his lungs, burning and choking him. The sizzling sound of the monster's webbed foot on the ground combined with the bubbling of the acidic pool created an eerie cacophony.

As the monster pulled itself out of the pool, Diegen could hear the sound of its scales scraping against the rocks, sending shivers down his spine. The long tongue that lashed out at him made a sharp whistling sound as it sliced through the air, leaving behind a sickening smell of decay. A pair of skeletal wings jutted out of its back like a swarm of daggers, looking incredibly sharp and dangerous.

Diegen's heart pounded in his chest, his ears ringing with the sound of his own blood pumping. He could feel the weight of his dagger in his hand, slick with sweat, and his body trembled with adrenaline. The intensity of the monster's gaze made him feel as though it was peering into his very soul, and he couldn't shake the feeling of being trapped.

“You wouldn't happen to want to resolve this peacefully, would you?” Diegen asked, his voice shaking with fear. The monster's roar in response only confirmed that it had no intention of letting him go without a fight.

The monster's movements were lightning-quick as it hopped towards Diegen, who braced himself for the attack. Diegen reversed his grip on his dagger, and with a swift movement, he dodged to the side. The monster's tongue lashed out like a whip, barely missing Diegen's face. Diegen's heart pounded in his chest as he realized how close he had come to being impaled.

With a determined look, Diegen charged forward, his dagger ablaze. He swung his dagger in a wide arc, meeting the monster's flesh with a satisfying crunch. Blood sprayed across Diegen's face as the monster recoiled in pain.

The monster was quick to retaliate. Its wings began to shimmer, and before Diegen could react, bones shot out from it like missiles towards him. Diegen's eyes widened in alarm as he frantically dodged and weaved between the sharp projectiles, feeling the wind whistle past his ears as they whizzed by.

As the bones pierced into the ground around him, Diegen's heart sank. They began to tremble and emit their own shimmer, and he watched in horror as they crackled and popped, transforming into miniature versions of the winged frog monster. They started hopping towards him in unison, their tiny jagged teeth bared menacingly.

With swift but pained movements, Diegen parried and slashed at the miniature monsters with his dagger, gritting his teeth as his back flared. But even as he fought off the small monsters, the original monster was still charging towards him with great enthusiasm.

Diegen knew he had to act fast to end the fight. His hand trembled from fatigue as he prepared for his next move. He ignited his dagger to go on an all-out attack when, suddenly, a burst of gas erupted from a hole in the ground, causing the flames on his dagger to ignite the gas and create a blazing fireball. Diegen cried out as he was thrown backwards by the force of the explosion.

Pain coursed through his body as he landed on his feet and skidded backwards. He quickly extinguished the flames around his dagger, wincing as he nursed the angry welts on his hand. But the explosion had an unexpected effect - the miniature monsters that were caught in the blast vaporized, and the winged frog monster halted its advance with a hesitant look in its eyes.

Diegen held his dagger out in front of him and cried out to them. “You like that? Come here for some more.” He was bluffing, of course. He had no idea when a gas pocket would explode, meaning that he didn’t see any way to use it intentionally to his advantage. However, the monster didn’t need to know that.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He doubted that it could understand his words, but he prayed that it would understand his body language and tone of his voice. It eyed his dagger warily, and then eyed Diegen. As if to make his threat more tangible, a gas pocket burst out of the ground a little ways away from the monster, causing it to turn tail and hop away.

Relieved, Diegen let out a breath and dropped his injured hand to his side. He scanned his surroundings in search of the little cub, but to no avail. He figured he wouldn't be able to catch up to her now.

To his surprise, he felt a tickle on his arm and looked down to see a golden thread wriggling there. It pointed to a seemingly random direction and flicked his forehead.

"Ow! Why do you keep doing that?" he grumbled, rubbing his forehead. The thread disappeared, but he collected himself and followed its direction, sheathing his dagger as he went. At least he was still alive.

✾✾✾

Krellan and Iris were in her cottage, nestled in the center of her dreamspace. The walls were made of twisted vines and the roof was covered in leaves, giving it a cozy and rustic feel. Krellan was observing Iris as she hunched over a pot and began to synthesize a new potion.

“Just why did you help this stranger?” Krellan asked incredulously.

“Because he has the flower, dummy,” Iris said distractedly, measuring the temperature of the liquid that she had begun to heat up. “I’ve been searching for a substitute for it for centuries. If he has it, then I might be able to save years of research and development.”

Krellan raised an eyebrow. "Centuries? Has it really been that long? Time really does fly when you're stuck in this nightmare."

Iris nodded solemnly. "Yes, it has. But that just makes this all the more important."

“If it's so important, then why did you let him keep it?”

“Because that flower is attached to a fairly deadly curse. It looks like he used a Blessed artifact to excise it, which is why he’s still alive, but that’s not enough. I need to make something to neutralize the curse fully. If I take it from him now, he'll never be free from it.” Iris threw several ingredients into the pot that Krellan had never seen before, including some sort of dead-looking fungus and bark.

“But he's a stranger. Why do care if he's cursed or not? And by Oculus, just where did you learn all of this stuff?” Krellan reached out to touch one of the ingredients, but Iris slapped his paw away.

“You know this is all self-taught,” she said, rolling her eyes. "I'm hoping we can make a trade without getting into a conflict. His flower for my solution to his problem."

"If you're trying to negotiate with him, leaving him out there to fend for himself doesn't seem like a good opening tactic," Krellan said.

“It's not like he'll die. Not permanently anyway.” Iris stirred the pot, and the ingredients seemed to clash with each other, causing the contents of the pot to turn one color, then another, then back to the original color. "If he does gets hurt out there, then it'll just make the point that he needs my help."

“I see. Makes sense."

“Now shoo, I have work to do.”

Without being given a chance to reply, Krellan was unceremoniously and abruptly kicked out of Iris's dreamspace, leaving him with a sore rump and bewildered about what had turned her into such a violent person. Despite her current demeanor, he had always regarded her as an older sister, especially during the early days when they had first learned to conjure dreamspaces.

Returning to the nightmare of the Cavern of Dreams brought back unpleasant memories for Krellan. During those early days, they had been forced to hide and live in constant fear from the terrors that lurked within. These creatures were unrelenting and took every opportunity to tear them limb from limb. Krellan had been at the receiving end of several unsightly experiences himself, and the memories of those chilling moments made him shudder.

Fortunately, thanks to the Great Reset, nothing, not even death, was permanent. At the beginning of each reset, everything was returned to its original state. The only thing that remained was their memory.

Their dreamspaces were an oasis in this nightmare, providing them with a sense of continuity from the previous day. They could conjure anything they desired within their dreamspace, including its previous state prior to each reset.

The only downside was that none of it was real. Even Iris, one of their most powerful spellcasters, could not make any part of her dreamspace real. She had to gather ingredients from the original nightmare outside her dreamspace to concoct her potions.

Despite this limitation, Iris had worked tirelessly for centuries to find a way for them all to escape this place. She was the only one of the 108 who were still trying to do so. Krellan supported her efforts, because he wanted her to be as happy as this existence could offer.

But the appearance of this Astral and his flower was a new factor he hadn't been expecting. Krellan cast a stealth skill to remove his presence and watched the stranger from afar.

He was unsurprised to find that the young Astral was confronting one of the creatures that once terrorized his people. Monsters were commonplace in the original nightmare, and if what Iris was saying was true, the Astral was cursed with misfortune, making an encounter more likely. The Astral seemed to be struggling quite a bit as he fought.

Krellan could've stepped in to help, but he didn't have any obligation to help this stranger, nor did he want to. He wondered why Iris even cared to negotiate with this stranger if the flower was something she needed. If he was in her position, he'd probably just have taken the flower and let the stranger meet his fate.

Especially a stranger who was... so weak. Krellan was puzzled how an Astral could struggle against this monster. Even as a non-Astral and nowhere near as powerful as Iris, Krellan could take down a monster by himself, and the Astrals of old could crush several monsters such as these in mere seconds.

The stranger also moved sloppily like an untrained cub. Krellan watched in contempt as the Astral got blown away by a gas pocket and managed to scare the monster away by sheer chance. He scoffed and decided that it would be best if he took the flower from the stranger by force and told Iris that he had taken it after the stranger had met his end. It wouldn't be that far off from the truth anyway.

Just as Krellan was about to reveal himself, he sensed a strange shimmer coming from the stranger's direction. It wasn’t anything powerful by any stretch of the imagination, but it still cut through the dream-aspect shimmer of the cavern like a knife.

He paused and watched with curiosity as the Astral seemed to get annoyed by something and stormed off towards Iris’s dreamspace. The strange shimmer vanished, but Krellan changed his mind, his interest now piqued. He decided to stay hidden as he watched from a distance. He could take out this stranger whenever he wanted, but he wanted to know what that ability was.

✾✾✾

Diegen sensed something odd after walking for a short distance and came to a halt. He noticed that the shimmer in front of him was different from the chaotic and fuzzy shimmer behind him. The shimmer ahead had an order to it, and it gave off a warm feeling like the one from Anima, but visually, he couldn't see anything unusual.

As he took a few steps forward, the environment changed dramatically. The previously acidic air cleared, and he breathed in fresh air, free of any discomfort. The sky turned into a rich, deep blue, and the hills in the distance were green and lush with vegetation. Diegen felt the warm sunshine kiss his skin like a long overdue massage.

“Oh my god. That’s so good.” He closed his eyes, enjoying the experience immensely. He only let himself do so for a little bit though, and soon collected himself. “Just where am I now? This is such a weird place. One second, I’m in a stone village, then the next I’m in some sort of nightmare world, then… heaven?”

The grass rustled under his feet as he made his way towards the hills, behind which he could see several plumes of smoke rising up into the sky. Perhaps he could find the cub from earlier, or the community she came from.

His hope surged as he crossed the grassy plain. He climbed the hill with excitement building in his chest, wondering what he’d find. Was it possible that there was an entire civilization still living here, in this strange and crazy place?

His expectations only grew when he saw a cottage from where the plumes were coming from. Before he could go down to investigate, however, a large shadow was cast over the land. He looked up, expecting to see a cloud blocking the sun, and froze when he saw a giant eyeball in the sky instead.

He recognized it immediately as the Watcher.

It was staring down at the land from an impossibly high location, its tentacles moving in rhythmic waves around itself like long eyelashes.

So much for heaven.

Diegen bolted towards the cottage, desperate to find some cover before the Watcher located him, wondering why in the world it was in the sky.

It felt like ages for him to reach the building, but he burst through the door and closed it shut behind him.

He panted heavily and leaned against the door, hoping against all hope that he hadn’t been seen. His only consolation was that he didn’t receive any notifications that he was being judged by the Watcher. If that had happened, he had no doubt he would’ve been screwed, especially since he lacked any stealth charges on his ring to escape the attack.

As his mind was racing as he tried to figure out what he could do if he had to confront the Watcher, he heard a scratching noise in the room. He put a hand on his dagger reflexively as he tried to locate the source of the noise, and he relaxed when he found himself face-to-face with the same cub that he had met before.

She was dripping wet and sitting in a puddle of a white liquid that looked to have been spilled from a pot that had tipped over recently, and she was shaking violently.

“Oh hey, are you okay?” he asked concernedly, thinking that she was either crying or scared of him.

Diegen was took a few steps towards her before he stopped in his tracks, realizing that she wasn’t shaking for either of those reasons. From under her wet fur, she was giving him a death glare that could’ve sent him to an early grave. She looked absolutely livid, and Diegen gulped. Remembering the spears of light she had used to kill those skeletons earlier, he wondered if being in here was really safer than being outside.

“Uh… hi,” he said, waving to her. “It’s nice to see you again. Let me introduce myself. My name is Diegen.”

She continued to give him a silent death glare, and he felt sweat building on his forehead.

“I-I’m sorry for barging in like this. I have a good reason-” he began, and shut up when her eyebrow twitched. His mind whirled as he tried to think of an excuse he could give. Thinking about it from her perspective, he didn't know what he could say. He was a complete stranger who had not only broken into her house, but from what it looked like, frightened her so much that it had ruined whatever she had been working on.

Before he could come up with a solution to his predicament, the cub began to chant something in her own language, and Diegen was alarmed as he felt a tremendous amount of shimmer gather in her chest area. It was so powerful that Diegen’s knees buckled, and he gaped as that huge amount of shimmer condensed so much that he could see it visually. It was the first time he’d felt such a dense ball of shimmer. Even the Gulatroxian Prime’s shimmer couldn’t reach this level. A sphere of light formed in front of the cub, and Diegen braced himself for the incoming attack.

Something from that sphere shot towards him and pierced him through the heart, causing him to gasp in surprise. But strangely, it wasn’t painful like he was expecting it to be. It filled his chest cavity and felt incredibly warm and made him feel connected to something, as if he was in the presence of a long-lost friend.

Suddenly, he found himself beginning to understand what the cub was chanting. It wasn’t like he understood the words themselves, but the meaning behind them instead. It was hard to put the feeling into words, and the things the cub were saying were conceptual in nature, far too complex for him to really understand in pieces. But he caught glimpses of their overall meaning. It seemed like she was trying to construct a bridge between their souls.

Streams of light flowed out from his chest and connected themselves with the sphere of light in front of the cub, creating a multicolored matrix of interweaving lights. He was mesmerized by the sight as it spun faster and faster, creating more and more connections before slowing down and gradually fading into nothingness.

“Wow, that was incredible,” he said.

“Incredible, he says.” The cub smirked, licking the white liquid off her fur. “That was a fifth-level spell, for your information.”

“Wait, you can understand me? I can understand you?” Diegen asked incredulously. “How is this possible?”

“Simply put, I built a window between our souls that allows us to glimpse into each other’s soul, allowing us to communicate despite our obvious barrier.”

“I’m not sure I understand. How can being able to glimpse into each other’s soul allow us to communicate?”

“I’m guessing you don’t know much about souls,” the cub said, cocking her eyebrow.

“Nope, not really,” Diegen admitted.

“No wonder you were struggling with those skeletons earlier. I thought it was odd that a sacred Astral could be so weak.”

“Hey, who are you calling weak-” Diegen was about to say, but he guessed she might view him as such, since he was considerably weaker compared to this mysterious cub, who could dispatch the skeletons he’d been struggling against with ease. “Never mind. I’m just glad that I found you. I wanted to thank you for helping me back there.”

“No problem, but I didn’t do it for you entirely,” the cub said. “I only did it because you have something that I need.”

“Are you talking about the flower?” Diegen guessed.

“Yes.”

“But if you needed the flower, why did you run away from me when I tried to show it to you?”

“Are you aware that extracting the flower will curse the person who did so?”

“Yes, but I used an artifact which was supposed to keep me safe.”

The cub shook her head. “There’s no way to prevent it completely. You will be affected by remnants of the curse until you forcefully purify your core. If I had taken the flower from you before you did so, you'd never be free from those remnants.”

“What do you mean? What kind of curse did the flower give me?”

“Anima is a powerful, naturally occurring artifact that is vital to the health of the world itself. Picking one is a sin that leaves a blemish on your soul that will cause the world to try and destroy you by delivering you misfortune.”

“Ah,” Diegen said, his smile crackling. “I guess taking it was a really bad idea after all.”

“Well, you guessed right,” the cub smirked.

“Is there anything I can do to stop it?”

“Like I said, you need to forcefully purify your core. I was brewing a potion to help you do that, but someone ruined that plan.”

"You're a potion master?" Diegen asked, taken aback. This cub didn't appear to be more than a couple of years old. Then again, she had also demonstrated some incredible power earlier. Clearly she wasn't your average cub. "Just who are you? Actually, I have so many questions. The biggest one being whether you know about that giant eyeball in the sky."

The cub laughed. “So, you're already aware of the All-Seeing One's existence. That's good. But you don't have to worry. That's not the real one. It's just a part of this nightmare. If it was the real one, you wouldn't have been able to escape its notice so easily."

"Nightmare? Real one?" Diegen asked, cocking his eyebrow. "I'm not sure what you mean."

The cub paused, and studied him up and down. "Don't you know where this place is?"

"...No."

"Then why in Oculus's name would you come here?" The cub asked quizzically.

“I didn’t really have a choice,” Diegen replied, which was a half-truth. The full truth was that he didn’t have a choice after he reached the gateway to this place. It was his choice to go there in the first place, but he mostly blamed his path-related ability for that.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. I suppose I should welcome you to the Cavern of Dreams."

"Cavern of Dreams?"

"Yes. I'm Iris, by the way. Nice to meet you."