[Chapter 1.2] - Awake, Again.

Ever have a dream where you could remember every little detail?  Some call it lucid dreaming, but in truth dreaming is the mind's way of accessing the ethereal plane.  Some also call it the Shadow Realm, or the Dream World, or the Endless Dream… it doesn’t really matter what it is called though.  It is all the same damned thing.

Still, have you ever been able to pause your dreams?  Reverse them?  Or even fast forward them?  No, I’m pretty sure the vast majority of people don’t have that ability.  Heh.  After all, a dream is nothing more but the mind’s attempt at making sense of something that has no real point of interaction with the mortal world.

Now, that isn’t to say that the Shadow Realm is a chaotic jumble without any point of reference.  After all, the Shadow Realm is the closest realm to the various other worlds.  The problem is is that the Shadow Realm overlaps all the worlds, all at the same time.  That makes things confusing.

The past, the present, the future, alternative realities… Yeah, you get the idea.  What happens in the Shadow Realm is a crazy mixture of just about everything.  If you could get to the point where you could freely move around and see what you want, you could find things long forgotten, lost, or even hidden.

You could watch ancient armies march across barren fields only to clash against each other in a ghostly representation of battles long past.  Or you could view the greatest works of magic the world has ever experienced from up close and personal.

If only you can control it.

Really though, the main thing about the Shadow Realm isn’t what is in it, but where it leads.  You see, the Shadow Realm literally overlaps every other world.  The Heavens, the Hells, the Mortal World, the Dragon’s Realm… You name it, and the Shadow Realm has some connection to those places.

Like a blanket thrown across the individual globes of separate realities.

At that point it can get kind of confusing for those without the mentality to visualize such a thing.  It is even hard to describe to the gods, if you can believe that.  And let me tell you, we are all innately familiar with the Shadow Realm.

Then again, most of the gods are not the bright candles in all of creation…

Enough about that though.  I don’t really want to think about how childish, annoying, and greedy most of the gods are.  Just remembering it makes me want to go hide in some little bitty hole somewhere, far far away.

Which I already am.

Anyway!

The whole point about the dreaming is that mortals, regardless of their species, can only connect to the Shadow Realm while asleep.  Their minds close down and become untethered to their perspective of reality.  Very few of them gain the ability to freely move around in such a state though…

Or rather, very few of them did.  That’s all changed now.

Everything has changed now.

For us gods, however, the Shadow Realm is where our consciousness goes when we meditate.  In this state, we retain an awareness of what is going on around our bodies, but our minds open up in a way that is impossible to really describe.  Like a dream that you can control.

Now, many would wonder what the point would be.  Sure, viewing the past or even into other realms of existence could be exciting on its own; but if it doesn’t offer anything of value, why bother?

Hehehehe.

Fools, the lot of you!

If you are able to control yourself within the Shadow Realm, you gain the ability to control EVERYTHING within the Shadow Realm.  Slow down or speed up time, for instance.  Hahahaha.

It’s the ultimate training space!

You can do anything and everything there, so long as you have the imagination and will to bend the realm to your desires.  Fight dragons and demons, spend years perfecting the perfect fighting technique… even get laid, so long as you’re good enough to imagine something other than a doll…

Okay, so I shouldn’t have mentioned that last one.  Oh well.

The benefits of being able to freely access the Shadow Realm are numerous.  An hour outside can be years on the inside.  It’s like the best play place possible.  It is also, quite honestly, the realm most used by us gods.

Why spend centuries being surrounded by the white fluffy clouds and endless silence of the Heavens when you could literally turn your dreams into reality by simply meditating?  You could say it is my biggest reason for wanting to slack off.

I used to have so much fun in this place.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

But now I have another question for you all.

WHAT THE FLY PURPLE PEOPLE EATING FUCK HAPPENED TO THE SHADOW REALM!?!?!

The whole place is totally messed up!  Nothing but mists and shadows and barren crap all over the place!  Dirt and dust as far as the eye can see!

It is like the place had been totally devastated!

… Ugh.  Totally boring.  Gah!

I guess I should explain that.  You see, even we gods cannot create something from nothing, even in the Shadow Realm.  We have to use what is already there.  And since the Shadow Realm mirrors the other planes that it connects to, you can find just about anything and everything there.  So it is easy to summon what you want and do with it what you will.

But now there is nothing here!  Not a gods damned thing at all!

It makes me cry, like really!

I literally break down in the middle of the desolate nowhere and bawl like a little baby.  My wonderful world of freedom and creativity, gone!  Ruined!

Oh gods… why?!  Why do such a thing?!

Even with my power and senses stretched out to their fullest within the Shadow Realm, I cannot feel anything.  It’s all utterly destroyed.

Grrrrrrrrrgh…

Okay, so it takes me a little while to pull myself back together.  My perfect plan to past the centuries away in my paradise has been shattered.  *Sighs*  Do you know how depressed that makes me?  Shit.  Why did I have to wake up at all?

At least when the seal was still in place I was in a dreamless sleep.  I didn’t even notice the passing of time.

Here though… yeah, there isn’t any way to not notice the passing of time.  Even though I’ve slowed it to nearly 1000 to 1.  There’s not even a blade of grass to focus my attention on.  Bah.

Oh, well.

…

…

…

Like Hell am I going to just sit here in oblivion and do nothing?!  I’ll go fucking insane before the first century has past!

Not to say I’m not already, but that’s beside the point.

Of course, that’s when I finally realize that the Shadow Realm is as bone dry of energy as the mortal world was.  Like, dry enough to make goose bumps rise across my body.  I actually have to check to see how long I’ve been here because that just isn’t right.

Hmm… 137 years.  Barely seven hours in the mortal world.

Oh fuck… I’ve been weeping for over a century.

Even I think I’ve started going insane just a little bit now.

*Sighs again* Well, nothing to do about it.  I bring forth my power and cloak my body in it.  Almost instantly I can feel the entire fucking realm trying to draw it from me.  It’s like a desert, desperately sucking in every bit of water that drops onto its barren surface.

Only then do the dots connect together in my head.

“YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!”

Yes, I scream even as I wake up, and promptly bang my head against the low stone ceiling of my hole again.  So I grab my head and thrash even while cursing.  You’d be surprised just how creative I can be at it.  Heh.

I have no idea why I’m so proud of that though.  Most mothers would murder their sons for some of the shit that came out of my mouth during those minutes it takes for the pain to fade.  Even as a god, I am not immune to pain.

Still, it is majorly messed up.  The whole world is.

I now know why the seal failed as it had, and why everything feels so damned drained of the energy that normally flows through everything.  My idiot family didn’t just seal me into slumber.  They sealed my power along with me.

The flaming idiots.

Okay, let me put it this way for those of you who don’t yet understand what the problem is:

What happens when you seal the God of Magic away along with his power, in a world that requires magical energy to exist?  Huh?  No takers?

Fine, I’ll tell you.

YOU KILL THE FUCKING WORLD!!!

And not quickly, either!  Even the dumbest of the gods should know that!  Their own power is based upon that fact!  Much less things like LIFE!

Shit shit shit shit shit fuck…

No wonder everything feels as brittle and decayed as it does.  They drained a fundamental aspect of creation from the world.  *Grumbles*

And now I have to go and fix it.  Shit.

Well, maybe not, but still.  I’ll end up having to do something, otherwise I’m going to end up being the only thing left after a few more thousand years.  And that would definitely be fucking booooooooooring.

Why in all the realms did I have to wake up now!?