Velvet should have woken up in the next moment. She really should’ve done so. Yet she didn’t, finding the danger worth the amount of information she could learn from this.

Andras Apolyon didn’t break the dream open, making a grand, exaggerated entrance like the other Deriliam had done. No, that would’ve broken the seals, releasing the Chained Man, the complete opposite of His goal. Instead, His entrance was almost silent, only foreseen by the movements of the formation’s red lights, the ones opening way for Him.

Formations generally didn’t make much noise, just a low humming sound as they activated, something this one shared, the only difference being the speed as it did so. What had taken Cardomos and her half an hour, and way smaller in size, took Andras less than five seconds.

And, as He entered, no noise was made, no words were spoken.

Andras had no intention of talking things out.

Feeling the Deriliam’s gaze moving across the space, making her skin tingle and twist, she took one single glance towards the shape on top of the dream, far away from her. Unlike the other two Velvet had met, the one with a thousand hands and Lothigern, Andras had no intention of holding back His presence, the sheer energy making Velvet see nothing more than a blur as she took a peek.

Right before her vision got tainted red, warm liquid running down her face. She closed her eyes instantly, raising her hand to wipe the blood off, moving her sight away.

She had seen something in the middle, but wasn’t planning on blinding herself for it, instead moving to follow Cardomos’ actions.

Yet the resurgence of another voice distracted her momentarily.

“You… you…” She heard the Custodian’s raspy utterings from somewhere, low and stuttering at first, followed by a screech. “You, you, YOU! GIVE IT BACK!”

Then, the darkness of the dream, the one that had accompanied her every night, blocking her sight, hearing, voice and even taste, the one that seemed inshackable, unmovable, only reacting under the Deriliam’s names, awoke.

As if the ground on which the dream, the prison, was built started moving, like a beast waking from a slumber.

No, not a slumber, it wasn’t slow nor lethargic, the way in which the dream revolted. It was instantaneous, like a monster lunging at its “prey”. In a single moment, Velvet got pushed forwards, rolling around the “ground”, previously flat and now shattering, immense chains coming forth, each loop bigger than her own body.

She wasn’t their objective, yet that didn’t mean that they made any effort to evade her. If anything, their size was the only reason they didn’t simply stab her, crossing her flesh to reach the Deriliam.

The Custodian screamed once again, a loud, piercing noise that made Velvet ears bleed, the warm, slippery liquid joining the blood from her eyes on her fingers as she touched her face, pushing herself up at the next second, moving away from the Custodian’s voice.

Because, as she expected, what followed was an impact that shook the whole dream again, crashing into the Custodian’s location, cutting her scream short.

And, what followed that was another series of impacts, smaller in size and power, crashing into different points in the dream. Yet those were different, coming after the sound of bells, which made Velvet look towards one of the impact zones.

Moss had appeared into those, growing and expanding in an instant, even across the chains, coming from a pulsating lump, its size bigger than Velvet’s hut.

Several of those moss lumps had fallen across the dream ground, taking root into the dream and infecting it like parasites. And, up above, she saw Lothrigern’s silhouette for an instant, before a sudden green light flashed and He disappeared, evading Andras second attack, which crashed against one of the lumps, corroding it’s surface like acid, yet not penetrating deep enough to break it.

Then, one by one, the lumps opened, blooming like flowers, as a swarm of locusts came out, invading the dream. No, not locusts, some of the bugs had arms and legs, and some had human sizes and bodies. They were fairies, an uncountable amount of them.

And, between them, Lothigern appeared once again, facing Andras Apolyon, who she couldn’t look directly at, but who answered by attacking.

Velvet saw flashes of green jumping around, evading Andras attacks, which pulverized everything on their path, whether those were chains or fairies, both of whom were spawning endlessly, from the black, pitch darkness, or the moss-like growths, the green swarm covering the whole dream.

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Looking intermittently at the Deriliam’s fight, she realized that Lothrigern could only teleport at the locations next to a fairy.

He needs someone to say, or had said His name in order to appear next to them… That must be the difference between Lothrigern Faeries and non-Lothrigern faeries. The latter hadn’t said His name yet.

That meant that Lothrigern couldn’t appear in empty places… and that he could pretty much spawn next to Velvet at any moment. She hoped it wasn’t now, or in the next minutes, since, following Lothrigern’s blinking teleports were Andras’ attacks, and she doubted being able to evade or block those.

What she didn’t see was if Lothigern’s attacks were doing anything to Andras. She couldn’t look at Him directly without her eyes bleeding, but she didn’t hear any sort of complaint or collision from His side.

Not that Lotrhigern made any noise either, aside from the bells. Since the start, both Deriliams hadn’t interchanged any words before starting to attack each other.

Velvet kept on running through the chains, sidestepping around them. She didn’t find any sort of order on Lothigern’s teleports, but she noticed that He didn’t teleport two consecutive times in the same zone. So, to evade Andras’ impacts, she ran in the direction those same attacks happened once they died down, their after effects quickly replaced by growing chains.

It was the first time she could “move” inside the dream, feeling her surroundings change.

All the living things Lothigern is putting in, and Cardomos’ formation are blurring the line between dream and reality of this place. What was purely a dream before is now materializing. Velvet thought, looking at the dream’s center.

The Chained Man’s shape was becoming less and less shrouded, giving Velvet details of his body previously unseen.

None of which could currently help in her predicament.

Andras attacks were fast and continuous, crashing down one after another, forcing Lothrigern to teleport constantly, making Velvet doubt the latter’s possibilities of counterattacking. She knew that Andras was stronger on the Deriliam’s hierarchy, yet she didn’t expect the difference to be so… overwhelming.

Don’t get her wrong, she could never hope to attain the speed at which Lothrigern acted, and, if Andras simply looked at her, she was as good as dead. Just like the tens of faeries that fell under each one of His attacks, unable to defend themselves, either being erased by taking His attack headfirst, or quickly having their bodies turned into dust by touching it.

Into dust, or Miasma, Andras Apolyon magic being so corrupting none of them had any chance of stopping it, instead becoming magic waste.

Yet fairies kept appearing, recovering their losses and even more.

Velvet looked at the tumor-like growths. Deriliams were makers of life, so Lothrigern could continue creating faeries endlessly, keeping Andras busy.

Yet a standstill was a standstill, even when Velvet was running around constantly, dodging chains and faeries alike.

Cardomos is hiding, which means that he is waiting for something. Andras hasn’t approached the Chained Man, even when that would make keeping him sealed easier, and instead is standing with a foot at the door He opened.

Lothrigern hasn’t approached him either, which means that the possibilities of something triggering upon close distance with the Chained Man are high. Is Cardomos waiting for them to misfire? … No, he wouldn’t take such a gamble.

Is he waiting for the Chained Man to react? They were causing quite the chaos, and he was still chained down, unresponsive.

As Velvet pondered, a sudden tug to the side made her stumble, almost falling down. A chain was pulling at her, just that this one wasn’t the Custodian’s, but Velvet’s. And she knew what was on the other side, pulling on it.

Fur made by flesh tendrils, three heads, joined at the maw's corners, and a wolf body towered over her, its six eyes looking down at Velvet’s own two.

“I didn’t call for you.” She said, her eyes opening slightly as she turned around, looking at her surroundings.

From all over the dream, monster-like beings started crawling out, their sizes bigger than the fairies, even when less in number. A giant made of piled up stone statues of agonizing heads with an eye in the middle; a half-woman, half-spider of gray skin taller than Frenese; a burning man, flesh constantly charring like a lit pyre…

Devils. Andras chose to play the same game as Lothigern by using His creations, which meant…

Velvet checked her Deal with Frenese. The Devil’s Deal was made under Andras Apolyon’s name, so, if someone could undo it, it was the one currently on top of her, trying to kill all of them.

Yet the Deal remained untouched.

“Why?” She asked in a low voice. Clearly Frenese had been dragged partially by Andras, yet his Deal with Velvet meant that he had to help her, which was against what Andras wanted by summoning the Devils. Helping Andras right now would mean trying to harm Velvet, which would kill him.

Velvet hadn’t tried to call him for the same reason. Trying to make Frenese go against his creator was equal as trying to harm him, which would kill her.

And, since she didn’t summon him, she couldn’t send him back, putting Frenese in a tight spot. If Andras didn’t remove the Deal, Frenese HAD to go against His wishes, unless He expected Frenese to simply give up and die.

Yet Velvet stun got cut short by a crunching noise behind her, as Frenese ripped off one of the half-spider woman’s legs, who had sneaked closer to them without Velvet noticing, making the Devil jump back.

“He would never erase a Pact, even if it meant betraying Him. Nor will He punish me for keeping my side of the Deal.” Frenese said, the ground and chains next to his feet becoming flesh, his own hell taking shape. “Yet this counts as a petition.”

“Of course.”