When the appointed time of Midnight came, Adamu noticed the sensation of falling asleep, and just like every other time, he tried to resist it on his own, but just like every other time, he failed.

Recognizing the Truth, once again, for what it was, Adamu immediately chose to protect himself by activating the Protection Runic Enchantment Pattern on Sun Bearer.

Almost instantly, Adamu noticed the vibrational synchronicity between himself and the spear shaft emerge, thus allowing the innate energy of toughness and firmness of the spear shaft to flood Adamu’s bio-electric-magnetic field, aka Kyrilian Field, which in turn infused his Body, Mind, and Spirit with a layer of Protection that did not exist prior.

As a result of the Protection infusing him, Adamu instantly noticed and affirmed the foreign influence vying to make an idiot out of him. Not liking that fact, Adamu resisted fiercely. Nonetheless, it did not take long for Adamu to realize that Sun Bearer’s fundamental Energetic Protection and the awareness of said foreign influence coming for him, thanks to said Energetic Protection, would not be enough to resist and overcome the Stupefaction forced on him.

So Adamu did what he meant to do when he first got the idea to engrave Runic Patterns on the wine tree stick.

For a second, he concentrated on the Runic Pattern carved near the bottom part of the Sun Bearer. From its reserves, he drew on the stored Ina’s Glory to empower the Protection Runic Enchantment Pattern even further.

This, was only possible because the Runic Pattern, near the bottom of the spear shaft, was an Energy Reserve Runic Pattern, on top of being energized with the Profound Law of Providence naturally contained within Ina’s Glory from the get-go. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to store this type of energy not if one considered its origin in comparison to the origin of Sun Bearer’s spear shaft.

As such, the first conscious use also became Adamu’s first Act of Providence. But that was irrelevant to the current him. The only thing Adamu cared about was desiring not to become an idiot, hence the additional energy channeled towards said goal.

As a result, the Golden Runic Patterns on Sun Bearer began glowing even further, thus illuminating the True Darkness around him.

Since it was Ina’s Glory, the glow left a bigger impression on its surroundings. As such, it was but a matter of time before some strange creature noticed everything going on, thereby noticing Adamu.

In the end, for Adamu, it was a risk worth fighting for.

With the strengthened Protection flooding him, Adamu truly began his resistance against the Illusion. However, not long after, his actions changed from pure overwhelming antagonism to barely hanging on in favor of understanding what exactly the Stupefaction did to him during the Illusion’s summoning process.

That being the case, from moment to moment, he lowered and heightened his resistance to further his understanding.

After about four of those cycles, Adamu roughly understood the gimmick, though he still resisted it and sought a different answer than pure resistance.

For a single moment, he remembered the Compulsion already cast on him, and just like he knew he had to chip the Compulsion away little by little, a similar scenario was a decent solution to his current problem. Unfortunately, just as Adamu wanted to do something extreme yet viable, the foreign influence switched its gears.

No longer did it just draw on Adamu’s Mind and Spirit, but his Body as well.

“Ahh…” Just as abruptly as the shift came, Adamu’s guts protested with a hunch on what was possibly occurring.

However, the shift was too sudden for Adamu to think of a response.

Left with no choice, Adamu opened his golden eyes and noticed the True Darkness vanishing, only to be replaced by Silver Light. Then, what occurred next was something only fairy tales ever talked about because it was one of those effects that very, very few individuals ever chose to do.

As such, Adamu observed the ground before, and the trees around him grow and grow as if everything had suddenly drunk a potion of ten-fold gigantism at the bare minimum. Like that, the world grew and grew, and grew, until the simple forest became an ancient prehistoric site often mentioned in age-old tales filled with monsters and dragons roaming the Realms.

At least, those were the sensations Adamu received and felt as everything around him grew larger, including the sudden manifestation of thousands of ants crawling along the ground and around Adamu in a circle as if he were a magnetic pole around which to crawl.

When everything finished its transformation phase, the tug on Adamu’s Body, Mind, and Spirit ceased to exist altogether as if its main purpose had been achieved, one way or the other.

However, things were not that simple for Adamu because the same Silver Light that allowed everything to grow much bigger than it should have also cast its illuminating effects on this newly formed ancient forest.

As such, the Compulsion inside Adamu flared up with convicting purpose so fast that Adamu had no time to even consider resisting because the Compulsion had already been present inside Adamu, unlike the Illusion’s Stupefaction effect.

Luckily, the recent draw on the Sun Bearer fortified Protection Enchantment allowed Adamu enough sanity to sustain a part of his sense of self, if not his actions. Because of that, it was no wonder Adamu immediately noticed what it truly meant to be inside a forest during the Illusions summoning.

Naturally, the first to be noticed were the large ants because they had been already crawling around Adamu thanks to the Tree Field Resonance Waking Trance kept all that time in the darkness. On top of that, Adamu’s awareness during this vibrational state had yet to become sensitive enough to recognize something as small as ants. Additionally, Adamu’s Kyriliain Field still remained small enough that it only attracted crawlers from the tree by which he chose to hide in the first place.

Thus, the only thing crawling around him were the tree weaver ants.

Still, because of the large numbers, the nature of the Illusion, and the nature of the golden pattern on the ant's brown chitin, the ants had gone from thumb-nail-seized crawlers to hand-sized ones in a matter of seconds. On top of that, their numbers created a pretty big circle around Adamu, causing him to have to jump over them before rushing in the southern direction.

Either way, with the ants growing in volume, everything that hunted ants became naturally much bigger. The result was a large gathering of crawlers that fed on ants, then cralowers that feasted on crawlers feeding on ants, and so forth, until the first mammals appeared, only bigger than they should be.

Like a chain reaction, Adamu’s still sane mind took note of that the moment he circumnavigated past the giant bugs and the first giant tree.

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By the third giant tree, the first mammals appeared in the form of tree-dwelling and ground-sniffing rodents.

By the tenth giant tree, Adamu recognized the noises reaching his ears as the first signs of a flesh carnival coming into fruition.

Luckily, as Adamu ran south, the feast was left behind, at least for the moment. Only it was a matter of time before bigger things came for Adamu.

So Adamu did the only thing he could.

He repeatedly chanted within his mind.

I can not run if I am eaten. I can not run if I am eaten.

The first negotiation had worked its wonders, so the second negotiation appeared much faster, allowing Adamu the control he needed.

As a result, he instantly ceased running and hugged the first giant tree with his body.

A second later, his eyes shifted around and above him because humans had a nasty habit of not peeking upward in search of possible predators.

Noticing the true heights of the trees, the first thought had him compare himself with the squirrel colony he had found near his last ‘residence’. Specifically, his mind approximated his current size with regular-sized animals' comprehension of a forest while in their normal-sized bodies.

Shaking his head, Adamu admonished himself.

Ignore the mechanics.

Focus on survival.

A few chants later, Adamu nodded and truly focused on surviving.

Observing the treetops once again and his surroundings on top of everything he had witnessed so far while reaching his current place, Adamu noted the lack of the hybrid creatures that had bothered him near his cave.

This contradicted his theories so far, but it could mean that no such creatures existed in the forest. However, the most likely answer would be the wings, hence hunting practices in the treetops, only Adamu simply could not notice them at the moment.

Either way, Adamu was certain of one thing. If some existed in the sky, then some had to exist on the ground, so caution was the name of the game. That and the flesh carnival he had left behind allowed a tad bit of freedom, which was bound to not last as bigger and bigger predators came.

As such, Adamu noted the sensations of the Compulsion and the direction in which it desired him to travel and slowly made his way forward by hugging the trees as much as possible.

In the end, as much as Adamu desired, combat was inevitable when the first Nightmare Creature noticed him when it sniffed the ground he'd already passed by.

This Nightmare Creature was entirely landbound, unlike the first one Adamu met. However, just like the first one, it was a mix of two creatures, a rat and a cat.

As contradictory as it sounded, the mix somehow worked because the rat part brought forth the numbers, while the cat part helped hunt down anything it wanted. As such, when one Nightmare Creature with a rat’s head and a cat’s body squicked, multiple squeaks responded in kind, and together as one, these rat/cat Nightmare Creatures rushed for Adamu.

Halting, for one single moment, Adamu heard the squicking behind him.

Sadly, by the time Adamu heard the first squeaks reaching his ears, almost all seven of them were upon him.

Urgently turning his back toward the giant tree, Adamu’s spear shaft faced the oncoming enemy.

The first moment one of the rat/cat creatures reached his eyes, he stepped forward and stabbed the front part of the shaft at the first victim. Unfortunately, there was no spearhead on it, so all it did was knock the rat/cat, the height of his hips, back somewhat.

Squeak Squeak Squeak

However, the attack did help stem their small tide of seven from suddenly appearing in front of Adamu and jumping on him. On the other hand, just as Adamu wondered how to best face the now hip-height creatures, more squeaking reached Adamu’s ears.

The high-pitched sounds made them slightly unbearable, but what made them even more dangerous was the Fear funneled into Adamu. The only reason the Fear had not already stoked and sent his body into a flight response instead of a fight response was Sun Bearer’s Protective Ruinc Enchantment Pattern.

The Protection worked its wonders as it quickly focused itself on Adamu’s ers and isolated enough the incoming Fear-infused sound vibrations.

Still, Adamu did get a hint of what kind of Fear this rat/cat creature wanted to portray, and if any of it held true, then Adamu bore no desire to see it manifest into his reality. That being the case, Adamu concentrated on Sun Bearer, specifically on the Storage Runic Pattern at the bottom of Sun Beaer, and called forth Ina’s Glory before sending it to the top of the spear shaft.

Unlike the simple but large Energy Reserve Runic Pattern, the topmost part of the Sun Bearer held three complex but smaller Runic Patterns carved in a triangular fashion around the shaft itself, Condense, Channel, and Disperse.

Around them were a few Minor Runic Patterns that would come into existence once a spearhead was attached to the Sun Bearer, but for this moment, they were useless.

Regardless of their existence, it was these three Runic Patterns that Adamu needed anyway.

After drawing from Sun Bearer’s Energy Reserve, Ina’s Glory was put into the Dispersal Runic Pattern. Under normal circumstances, it would be a wasteful action because Adamu had no infinite source of energy to waste away.

But this mode of action still proved to be the correct one due to multiple facts.

First, Adamu was aware of how the creatures hated Light.

Second, what was presently held inside Sun Bearer was Ina’s Glory. Hence, it was not ordinary Light but True Light.

Third, even without Ina’s Glory, the three runes at the top of Sun Bearer were energized by the Profound Law of Purification. Meaning. Any energy using them would actually attain a positive vibrational modifier to its attributes, hence doing extra damage to these creatures.

Although, with Ina’s Glory that fact was useless. However, what was not useless was the flaring effect the Dispersal Runic Pattern manifested. As such, the sudden and bright flare of True Light stunned the rat/cat creatures briefly, causing them to squeak with pain and uncomfortableness.

Capitalizing on the opportunity, Adamu willed the Disperse Runic Pattern to cease its effect and instead activated the Condense Rune. Instantly, the golden light show contracted at the top of the shaft. Then, not giving the ugly creatures a chance to react, Adamu rushed forward a few steps and brought Sun Bearer’s top part of the shaft right on the closest rat/cat creature's head.

THUD

CRACK

Recognizing the result, Adamu retreated one step, twirling the spear shaft around him and behind him, switched the carrying right hand for the left one, and stepped to the side one step before swinging the glowing end of the shaft horizontally at another rat/cat head.

THUD

CRACK

Slightly amazed that he'd already immobilized, if not already killed, two of his enemies, Adamu ditched defense and went full-on offense with Sun Bearer twirling around him.

With careful steps forward and to the sides, but never back, Adamu gave up on being defenseless from all sides. Only that was a trap because once Adamu got surrounded, he had the creatures under control because of the long range of his weapon instead of just plain stabs and downswings.

This way, Adamu could swing the shaft unpredictably at the creatures.

Another reason was the Runic Protection Enchantment.

Since the rather sharp obsidian pocket knife had not cut into him, Adamu bet that the claws of these rats would not either.

Though, that did not mean he allowed them to do so in the first place.

Whatever the case, Adamu actually ended the rat/cat creatures quite fast since they had not run away when their numbers dwindled by the seconds. Once all of the attacking ones were dead, Adamu went around finishing off those he had incapacitated with one strike.

With their deaths and smoke vanishing act, Adamu noted the Pure Essence rushing into him, only this time it was directly absorbed by his body instead of passing and cruising on his Spirit to reach their destination.