Click

Click Click

Click Click Click

The sounds of claws clipping on stone arose from outside.

Each click became louder and louder the closer it came. At the same time, the closer it came, the more menacing they became, as if their sharpness dug into Adam’s mind instead of the stone itself. Deeper and deeper, it dug into Adam’s subconscious. And the deeper it dug itself in, the more Fear arose within Adam’s mind.

As if that was not enough. The more Fear arose from his mind, the more clouded his senses became. The more his senses hyper-focused on the cave opening and ignored everything else, like the furiously beating heart and hyper-ventilating lungs, and instead focused on the origin of the clicking sounds, the more Fear arose within his mind.

Like a virtuous cycle, the two results fed into each other's growth with such speed that it would take very little time to reach the apex of a typical human.

Click Click Click Click

Then, for the first time, the clicks stopped echoing into Adam’s mind. Why it stopped, he had no idea. However, somehow, the prolonged pause only grew more menacing, as if a prelude to a storm on the horizon.

Then, Adam’s hyper-focused golden eyes saw something moving in the darkness outside the cave opening. It was small and thin at first glance. But at its tip, Adam finally witnessed the origin of the clicking sounds, claws.

Three very sharp raptor-like claws attached to a limb that appeared harmless yet somehow still gave off the feeling of danger as if already prepared to jump on him.

With his hyper-focused gaze, Adam watched as the clawed limb rose to the air, flexing the limbs like a cat flexed its paws only to abruptly slam it on the floor and rake at the stone with the claws.

Screech

Grimacing from the very sharp sound reaching not only Adam’s sensitive and hyper-focused ears but also his mind. Like a dual package, the screeching sound became a physical and mental attack.

Then, as if that was not enough, the limb rose again, and again, and again.

With his senses clouded, with Fear coursing through his body, and now a mental attack on top, any standard human should have long collapsed from the stress and other multitude of negative effects. Yet, that did not happen to Adam. No, instead of collapsing, giving himself up to the creature to just stop the torture, Adam remained where he was in the corner of the small cave refuge, all crouched down like a little child.

The only thing missing were the tears that should have accompanied said image because that was in fact what Adam was right this moment.

A child.

A very young child of maybe five years. Maybe more, maybe less.

Not that it mattered to the creature torturing him.

On the contrary, a youngling was a treat. Because usually, a child would not be able to resist its might. Hence, when it sensed a very young mind, radiating its tenderness as if freshly hatched yet quite dense for something newly born, it simply could not resist the allure.

Truly. It should have been an easy hunt. But the narrow walls of the cave hindered its movements. Because of that fact, it stalked the young mind through the Darkness. However, right as it was about to pounce, tear, and enjoy the terror-infused flesh and spirit, the target suddenly bolted away, and it missed its prey.

When it urgently rushed to follow it, it came upon its most hated enemy, the Painful Light.

It was weak. Far too weak to chase it away with pain. But it was strong enough to deter it from entering inside and finishing off the youngling prey. As a result, it had taken out its frustrations on the walls.

Yet, regardless of how it vented, the allure was too much.

So, it chose to stay when it realized the juicy prey failed to escape further away. As such, it stayed right outside the cave and the Painful Light.

It stayed and patiently waited for that special moment when it was at its strongest. Because it knew, at that point in time, the young mind would be dragged from its body and enter The Dreamscape, where all Nightmare Creatures stalked with the full might of their strength and skill.

Why it was called The Dreamscape, and why it was a Nightmare Creature, the creature simply dismissed. All that mattered was that, at that point, it was strong enough to overcome the pain forced on it by the Painful Light. Although, just like any other Nightmare Creature, while it could ignore and overcome the Painful Light while in the Dreamscape, that did not mean it liked doing so.

So when the prey refused to leave the safety of the Painful Light, despite the Fear the Nightmare Creature successfully embedded inside the child, it had no choice but to enter the illuminated cave.

When it did, it flinched from the Painful Light, but it did not retreat.

A moment later, it finally witnessed the true body of the prey that it had failed to hunt that first time. At the same time, as the creature carefully inched closer with its raptor-like claws clicking on the stone, it observed the prey.

It was small, yet it was much bigger than a freshly hatched prey. Additionally, the only reason it appeared small was the result of the Fear crushing its Spirit. Therefore, it had hunkered down to make itself as small as possible.

Maybe hoping it would not be seen that way? The Nightmare Creature wondered for a second through pure instinct. Tough, regardless of the reason, the very next second, the wonder in its mind vanished. All that remained was the allure as it stared at the youngling.

Then, just as it took on a pouncing form, with its legs bent and its wings spread out, the Nightmare Creature directed its gaze on the strangely colored eyes. It had never seen such strange eyes before in all of its prey.

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However, that also became the moment when it noticed something shift inside those eyes.

Then, the Nightmare Creature felt its grip on the youngling's mind strain because the Fear embedded inside the freshly hatched prey dissolved with every second that expired. Moreover, the Nightmare Creature had trouble disconnecting its gaze from those strangely colored eyes.

Almost as if it was mesmerized, the Nightmare Creature stared as the last fragments of its mental grip broke away.

At that exact moment, clarity returned to the youngling, and so it did for the Nightmare Creature.

With the mesmerizing effect gone, nothing stopped it from pouncing on the young prey. So that was what it did. It bent its bird legs and stretched its wings as far as possible. Then, it licked its snout and fangs before jumping at the prey.

Unfortunately, what it hoped for did not occur.

The moment the creature, with the mixed appearance of a raven body and a cat head, pounced with the help of the wings boosting its speed, the youngling somehow ducked even further and rolled to the side. As a result, the Raven/Cat Nightmare Creature failed to kill the youngling on the first try. Instead, the youngling, after rolling away, urgently stood up on its stubby legs to slightly tower over the Raven/Cat Nightmare Creature.

While size was not the primary indicator of strength, that was all the Raven/Cat Nightmare Creature knew. So when it recovered from its failed pounce, it realized the prey might be more challenging than it first thought it would be despite being very young.

Either way, the thought appeared too late because child-sized hands rushed forth and grabbed it by its throat, only for the same hands to tilt back somewhat before slamming the Raven/Cat Nightmare Creature very hard onto the stone of the small cave.

Thud

At least as hard as a five-year-old human child could. However, the Nightmare Creature’s misfortune did not end at just that. Instead, the small boy began repeating the action.

Thud Thud Thud

After the fourth slam, the boy stared at the almost dead raven/cat creature in his hands and went for the finisher by grabbing with his left hand on the head and beak to twist the neck of the attacker that had caused it so much Fear.

Once the neck broke, the Nightmare Creature also broke. With the broken neck, it died seconds later, and with its death, a very common scenario occurred as the Raven/Cat dissolved into smoke. However, within the smoke, a very small radiance could be witnessed, for one moment, before rushing out of the smoke and into the boy.

Feeling the sudden intrusion, the golden eyes clouded over once again, only this time not out of negative emotions forced onto him. No. Instead, it was confusion that did the work. Plain and simple confusion of a situation that somehow made very little sense. Not only had the thing that attacked him dissolved into smoke, but it had also given him if he did not mistake the feeling, Essence in return for its death.

On top of that, the boy recognized that his mind and body conflicted as though one did not fit the other.

With multiple vectors of conflicts reaching the boy's mind, a rapturing occurred within the boy’s Spirit. However, unlike how one imagined it, this was not a bad thing. No, this was a good thing. The moment the rupture broke, the illusion draped over the boy’s Spirit, like a tight-fitted cloak, dissolved into smoke as well.

After the smoke dissolved, the five-year-old boy started to glow somewhat golden, and with the golden glow, the boy began to grow. In seconds, the years washed over his appearance, and from the five-year-old boy, a fifteen-year-old teen emerged.

With the teen’s appearance came the full awareness of the mind.

For a few moments, Adamu went over everything he just experienced.

It was bizarre and truthfully unexpected.

Not only had his Spirit Body been Altered into a child, with a child's reasoning, but he had also been Dominated by Fear. And all that without him even recognizing it had been done in the first place.

Yet.

The strangest truth stemmed from the fact that both actions were done by separate Magical effects.

The origin of the Fear came from the hideous raven/cat creature. However, compared to the creature, becoming and behaving like a child took most of Adamu’s attention. After all, multiple effects were inlaid in said effects on him.

Dominion? Deluded his Spirit through perceptions and reasoning.

Enchanting? Anchored the delusion within his Spirit Body.

Altering? Transformed his Spirit Body into that of a child.

On top of that, Adamu’s past experiences hinted at the Conjuring and Evocation elements involved as well.

Flexing his palms and fingers, Adamu nodded and stared at the light originating above him.

“As expected, The Orb of Rebirth could not be reproduced,” Adamu noted, only he wasn't surprised at that fact. Very few Spells could replicate its true form. Even if one knew the form and functions, very few individuals could carve its complicated Spell-Core inside a Spell. “Mmm… Considering I am probably inside a mountain, the Evocation range has to be super large. Otherwise, it would not have affected me with nobody knowing of my presence.”

“Though, thanks to the super wide range, the Conjured… Illusion, I guess, could only replicate my current surroundings.”

“Still… That is Penta Spellcraft of considerable skill, considering I am an innocent bystander of its effect.” Adamu theorized. “Moreover. Didn't my future self mention something about a corrupted Realm Grid? Therefore, making Magic unusable?” For a moment, Adamu considered his knowledge and came to one very simple solution. “Guess Spellcraft Skill can overcome the corruption? Then again. That still denies me Low-End Magic and Magic Enhanced Growth.”

“Either way. That leaves me with only two mysteries, no three mysteries, to be solved.” Adam voiced out his thoughts. “That hideous raven/cat creature itself? Essence spilling inside me after its death? And the Illusion being present after overcoming the stupefaction effect?”

Done contemplating, Adamu moved closer to the cave opening and looked beyond. Nodding at the obvious nothing, he once more made his way outside.

Regardless of the stupidity of said action, Adamu needed to know what was happening.

On the plus side, since the creature is ‘most’ likely dead, there should not be another one… Probably?

Shrugging his shoulders, Adamu continued.

Regardless, it did not take long to notice an obvious difference from before.

The absolute darkness, where he could not see anything, was gone. What remained was regular darkness, and that one was much easier to navigate through if still slow. Hence, it did not take too long to actually leave the narrow passageway behind and smell the outside world.

I am closer to the surface than previously imagined. Adamu noted.

Moments later, his surroundings turned brighter with silver light making his path forward much easier. With that being the case, it took very little for Adamu to reach the cave entrance. And when he did, he was treated to an enchanting sight of silvery light descending upon a mountain valley, a river passing through its middle, and a forest embracing its sides.

Nevertheless, as enchanting as the fairytale-like sight was, Adamu ignored it altogether.

Instead, his sight focused on the extremely big moon in the sky.

The only reason he even ceased staring at it was because of the sudden shivers his Spirit Body manifested in this Illusion. It was clear those shivers were a manifestation of Adamu’s subconscious warning him he was witnessing something he should not in his current state, and if he continued, stupefaction would be the least of his problems.

Understanding that fact thoroughly, Adamu bolted back inside the cave with only one line of thought echoing inside his mind.

Did not see anything!… Did not see anything!… Did not see anything!