Chapter 25_Eldritch

At least I think I am there.

But honestly, I don't know where "here" even is.

Because "here" is absolutely nothing!

* Nothing!

Oh, how much I've not missed that.

However, that the voices are back kind of confirms that I am at the right place.

But as I said, this place here is absolutely empty.

Oh no!

* Empty!

"Are these voices really necessary? Do you have to repeat every single word of mine like this?" (I)

This is still unsettling, even more as you cannot see the slightest glimpse.

I am not even sure if there is anything at all, as I, since the beginning, am floating somehow in deepest darkness.

The other part would be that my senses are totally all over the place.

As if I'm anywhere and nowhere.

And this makes it hard to think straight.

Duh! Ground would be nice!

* Ground!

A split-second later I feel a shift around me.

And directly after this, I plummet down.

On the ground.

I am fiddling myself up again.

Yet I am not really sure if this is the right expression since this rather strange place might have all kinds of uncommon rules.

Like perhaps it could be that there is no up and down at all.

In the end, I don't see how I could check this.

At the moment I just know I'm standing on something.

I mean everything is still pitch black here.

It would be really helpful for orientation to have some light.

* Light!

And at once the environment sparks up and just like this, I find myself on some stony highland.

Spiky stone formations are abundant, many are curved and now I can see that the ground has the violet color from my first venture, which because of that leaves a very bad feeling within me.

Also, there are tones of grey and a massive amount of black mixed in.

To say it like this, it looks like the final boss area of some RPG, colorwise.

For the rest?

Well, there isn't much.

Simple stones aren't very appealing to me.

And for a boss level in a game, this place would surely be a bit boring for the players.

There isn't even a castle.

Oh shit!

* Castle!

"Groooohhhrrr"

Out of the surface, rather far away from my location suddenly a castle breaks through the ground rises higher and higher until it stays on a large hill, governing over everything in the vicinity.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I give Zika partly the fault for this, for putting this idea in the first place in my mind.

And now I would wish I hadn't thought about demon lords and such.

Because this is what this thing looks like.

The darkest, most intimidating fortress one can imagine.

I could maybe try going there.

I don't think that there is anything bad waiting for me.

This is because I have a hunch who is supposed to be the demon lord of this dark fortress.

Can I resign?

* Resign?

Really annoying!

The fact that I hear these voices might be related to this place.

Ultimately I am here in my dream, so it makes sense that something like my subconscious, is residing here.

Or simply the billion creepy critters I consist of.

A thought I should dismiss now very fast.

The way to the castle goes rather fast.

Conveniently the gates aren't closed and the drawbridge is down.

The interior looks a little gloomy but overall seems fine.

I make a small tour, which leads me to a kitchen, a throne hall, storages, meeting halls, many different kinds of floors, and private chambers.

This brings me slowly higher.

In the end, I come to a huge door which is somehow in the center of the highest floor.

It is a big door, but not difficult to move.

With a slight push, I stumble inside.

The interior looks quite nice.

More precisely it looks distressingly like my room, or rather like an exact copy.

Also, I find something else noteworthy.

On the other side, the room leads to a truly huge terrace.

And it has a really great sight.

There might be not so many interesting spots around here.

Nonetheless, it's a magnificent view.

Truly great.

* Great!

I should also mention that while there is light, I have not the slightest idea where it's coming from.

Like on a cloudy day there is absolutely no sun to see.

However, the sky above is just an ominous black, so that everything is clad in this eerie atmosphere.

And it's astonishing how well this place is equipped.

This castle is too good.

When I inspected the kitchen and storages I noticed that they were all full.

I mean bursting.

I don't even know what all this stuff in there was, but the food at least would be enough for a feast that lasts the whole year.

And this for a greater number of people.

This brings me to the idea that here somewhere might exist something like the castle's treasury.

I haven't found it anywhere in this huge labyrinth, but my guess is it might be in the cellar.

And there's no way will I explore the demon castle's catacombs!

But it is definitely strange here.

This place could really afford to sustain a large number of people.

Why do I have it here?

The easy explanation surely is because I thought about it.

But this makes it again distressing to think about how far my ideas are pursued by whatever shapes this world.

If it does that, how many more subconscious adjustments are going on aside from that what I actually intended.

Suddenly I realize something.

I look at my clock and fortunately, it shows that time has passed.

So I teleport me out of this place.

And am back in my room!

My reason for hurrying this much?

I've noticed that my thoughts about this place made me think how empty it looks.

The next thought would have been how it would be if the castle was bustling with people.

Yet I was absolutely not ready for this.

Taking what occurred into account there is a high chance it would have happened.

I'm wondering how they would have been?

Would they be real people or just some kind of NPCs?

I am surely not going to find that out directly at the beginning.

For now, I would rather leave it empty, before it gets complicated.

And yes, there's nothing more complicated than people.

That is to say, I think it worked out.

I could somehow spend the night at this place and it wasn't very bad there.

The atmosphere was somewhat troubling, but it was ultimately a safe place to go.

Maybe I could accommodate myself there and have some kind of refuge.

Some video games, mangas, and such, and it would be homey.

Might be problematic, but the best way to go for now.

In the end, the night is now over.

So I can stand up and get ready for another day.

I am somewhat elated, almost daring against whatever this day might have in store for me.

I mean it cannot be more outrageous than what happened until now.

Right?

Chapter 25

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