Tsuki woke up in an instant, as if having had a nightmare. Her heart drummed in her chest with such strength that it might simply escape at any moment. It was painful and made breathing hard. Although her body had enough energy to go for a long run, her mind was so heavy that she felt like she would crumble the moment she moved.

She was inside a dream world with a giant garden just a moment ago. On that, the people were all still talking and going on about their lives like they were before she fell asleep. Simply put, she was asleep for only five minutes.

She still had no clue what really happened in that world of dreams. It was all too quick and sudden.

Putting her head drenched in cold sweat in her hands, she whispered back the short sentence the unknown person said in the dream: "You have five tries to hit me, and on failure, you will wake up with enough adrenaline in your body to get back to training." It was all. Tsuki didn’t even know if this person was male or female; neither did she even get a glimpse of their shadow.

The scene replayed in her mind. She turned to the voice the moment she heard it, but her movement was slowed down to a crawl. She basically couldn’t move until the stranger was done talking. And once they were done, she returned to her normal speed. Behind her was a mirror whose frame was made of stuffy marigolds. She was surprised to see herself back in her own body, but it was short-lived. In the reflection, she could see hundreds of star-like projectiles all coming at her.

Those iridescent lights spelled her doom, and she instinctively tried to move past the mirror, only for the flowers surrounding it to shatter it. She then reappeared a bit further only to see her last body shattering like the mirror. Her first death. And then the second came as the projectiles crashed into her…

It was simple, effective, and left her no chance to react. When a new body was made for her to incarnate, she thought she saw a shadow pass on her right. It was like someone was hiding from her. She reacted to it by throwing her knife at it… But in the end, it was simply a bait. Her body was cleaved by a wave of light coming from behind that made all the flowers in the garden flutter, with petals dancing everywhere. She only had two attempts left.

Seeing the multitude of colors dancing and raining from the previous attack, Tsuki turned herself into such petals herself. She could only change into a mix of black, white, and yellow, but it was enough to hide in the fluttering storm. Oh wrong was she…

The sky was turned scarlet in an instant, with spears of light cascading downward as if a god had decreed the end of time. The red rain pierced every petal it could. Although Tsuki could move her body in that form, it was too complicated to move every petal individually. She was like a swarm of mosquitoes getting swatted around, with each volley being more fatal than the last. With the petals getting fewer by the second, her movement got sharper, yet a strange and unknown pain was wrecking her ability to think. It was like her soul was shattering with each dying petal.

When only one was left, the spears ceased to target her. Instead, they encapsulated her such that her own shattering soul caused her to die. Luckily, it was only a dream, and a new body was remade. She instantly vomited bile, as the damage her soul received made any unison of mind and body impossible. Most of the time she spent in the dream was spent getting used to this unnatural pain. She wanted to scream and cry, but her body couldn’t even respond to such a simple command.

Still, she managed to get up. Most of her body was lame, as if under anesthesia, but she still managed to get up. She looked forward at the rows of miniature stars waiting for her to get ready. In this state of imminent death, the girl summoned both Halambusha and Sinorous. She then made black and white petals dance around her body to make them act like a shell.

The tiger was surprised to find where he was but somehow managed to get an understanding of what was going on by seeing the mangled bodies of his mistress. He was about to walk in front of her as a guide once the stars would rain, but a warm voice came to his ear to whisper, "Let the chick learn to fly and leave its nest."

Thus, Halambusha backed down to let the girl be his guide. She let out a shout to push away her fear, which became the trigger needed for the stars to fall down onto the garden. The tiger looked at Tsuki to see what he had to do. She was frozen in fear. The scream she let out was simple bravado…

‘Who was his name,’ thought the tiger. He remembered the silhouette of a warrior he used to admire. That man was great, mighty, and didn’t know fear even when facing death. It was on such a day that his life was extinguished… The sky was painted black with arrows as if night had been called with the sounds of bowstrings. Halambusha was but a fledgling at that time, but this great warrior saw something in him. The man he admired for his strength had become a porcupine in an instant to protect the few cubs with great potential. The great warrior then screamed,

"Charge!!!"

Now also said the tiger riddle with holes. He protected the girl, whom he saw charging while gritting her teeth. She rode onward with the help of Sinorous. The past was rising back as Halambusha watched a strangely colored star kill the rider’s mount outright without giving it a chance to evade it. The girl was thrown to the ground and left powerless as another volley was aimed at her. Halambusha saw it: he was now the old warrior, while she was him.

He let out a bestial howl and tried to rush toward his past self, but the unknown voice whispered back an order his body couldn’t go against, "Down…" So, he watched on as the rain of stars fell onto his past self. They crashed with such power that the ground was upturned, but in that decadent display of light and dirt, he saw it. The girl clashed with one of the stars directly aimed at her. She didn’t put up much of a fight and was killed directly after. Yet the tiger knew. She wasn’t like him, who had cowered in fear while thinking he could now see his brother…

Then, Tsuki was forcefully awakened. This crushing defeat made her realize she wasn’t that strong at all.

Her foot kept jumping up and down, her hands trembled with fear, and cold sweat dripped down her forehead. She was both scared and angry at herself. Then she saw the Kappa-soji that had thrown a tomato at her, and a wicked smile appeared on her face. The fish-like creature was loved by most kids, but Tsuki sadly had a bad meeting with him. She changed her clothing and aimed to annoy the creature. This in turn caused someone calling herself 'Crescent Petals’ to be antagonized by younger kids while seen warmly by some adults who only saw kids enjoying themselves. Hoomaikai, who saw this from a distance, wanted to hurl insults at Tsuki…

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*

Back at the forest of Dreams, the giant woman who had been put to sleep by Aria was still sleeping soundlessly. Too soundlessly at that. This goddess simply died like that. Her minions tried as hard as they could to bring her back, but this was useless. For someone else rose from the body. Their skin was completely blue and lacking nutrients, such that bones were showing. She erupted from the giant's back in a fountain of blood by ripping the flesh apart with her four arms.

The undead tried to fight back but were eviscerated by a scimitar. The blue demon picked their corpses to lick any drop of blood only to realize they were as dry as paper. She instead turned her sight to the giant’s body, from which she appeared, and, like a snake eating its own egg, drank every drop of blood available.

Every single living animal in a hundred meters radius started chanting at once:

Aum, Her ten hands are holding a scimitar, disk, mace, arrows and bow, lance, club, a skull and a conch shell. She is a three-eyed goddess, Her body is covered with ornaments, and Her countenance with the brilliance of blue diamonds, with ten limbs. We offer our service to mahakali, She who Brahma praised for protection from the demons madhu and kaitava, when Vishnu was in sleep.

(An English translation of Maha Kali Mantra)

The new goddess ripped everything that came to her apart and drank their blood as if it was water. Doing so, she regained some weight, but there was a long way to go before she was back to what she used to be…

Once she had her fill, she saw a message that was left for her. For most, it was simply a random arrangement of stones and twigs that were laid out and about on the forest floor like every other forest floor. A small pebble above a healthy leaf, a flower blooming from the bark of a tree, a shrub with removed leaves… it was all simple and inauspicious things, but this bloody goddess named Kali knew what to look for. It was a message left by Dhumavati, the old lady.

It said: Wake up the others. We shall have our revenge. They drowned in ambition and lost their way.

The goddess, who was more akin to a demon, smiled at this. She thought with glee at how much blood would have to flow in the future. A vision came to her where she would rip her consort Shiva apart, and this brought her great joy. She saw the battlefields that turned the ground a rose-like color… She smiled and disappeared to go find her sisters. One was already being reborn below her feet – inside a box of hard stone…

*

A new day had come, and Tsuki had a dark complexion. She hadn’t slept at all. In total, she failed the impossible training five times. Every time, she was forcefully woken up.

She looked on at the civil servant guiding her inside the slum – which was where the city’s lord decided the survivor would live for the moment. It wasn’t because he wanted to punish everyone but simply because it was the only place that could accommodate more than a hundred people at once. At the very least, they would be able to sleep inside the city’s wall.

Still, Tsuki was the only one being guided. It was decided she would go to a part of the slum that had a greater concentration of inhuman people living in it. It was a decision that was difficult to make. The girl did look like any other person, but her strange tail and arm wrapped in flowers worried a few officials. There was even one of them who proposed to take care of her but was rejected. Such complications were because of a strange form of racism born of fear among those who had survived 25 years ago. A lot of people had been transformed into monstrosities, with some losing control. Some families welcomed their sons, who miraculously survived, only for them to go insane and cause a carnage…

Thus, Tsuki was put somewhere that might be safer until people got used to her.

Tsuki then passed by a large mound of flesh, from which millet and other food grew. The civil servant paused for a moment, realizing it might be bad to see for someone her age. He was the same one who questioned her and also the man who proposed to take care of her. "We can go around, but it’s a long detour," said he.

Tsuki tried to return a forced smile before saying that it was fine. She looked scared, but it wasn’t because of the strange sight but because her vision was going crazy. She was so tired that the curse that hadn’t done much lately was now fully operational. There was no way for her to distinguish between what was real and what wasn’t.

She looked atop the mound to see someone screaming in pain. This person's features were so bloated that there was no way to know what they really looked like.

"This is an idol of food," said the man. "The old emperor found this strange sculpture inside a temple and gifted it to us in exchange for the hand of the now late empress… With the surrounding lands barren, this idol is our most important source of food and heat. We divide equally what it gives us to merchants around the city. If you ever want cheap and good-quality food, I recommend buying from the markets around the idol. The downside is the smell…"

The man pointed at a few restaurants in the area; Tsuki could only see them serving crying fetuses, which they weren’t. She looked at the screaming idol one last time before pushing her guide to move from there. As she left, she could have sworn she heard, "Help me," from the unknown being…

Finally, the man guided Tsuki to a somewhat large building. There was a large court where men fought one another with wooden weapons. It was strangely clean, with multiple buildings linked together by stone paths.

"This is where you will stay for the time being," added the man. "It serves as a military school that focuses on individual force as opposed to our own military. Such schools can be found in most large cities, and they exist in the hope of creating adaptable forces. Some well-known heroes trained in such places."

"Want me to kill something or what?" responded Tsuki.

The man laughed at her response and said it wasn’t necessary, "If that’s what you want, then you can. But this place is slightly better than an orphanage, which always lacks founding… They’re also always in need of someone to do minor jobs. You’ll get food and a place to live as long as you help around."

Tsuki was then introduced to an old lady who owned this place. Lastly, the man gave a small pouch of coins to Tsuki before leaving. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.

Following the old lady around, Tsuki learned that she was the widow of the previous master. She took care of all the cleaning and cooking while her only son took care of training the students. The building itself was old, with the wooden floor cracking with every step. She was finally guided to a room of her own.

"You can rest for today; some food will be delivered to your door later in the day," said the old lady, who hadn’t given her name to Tsuki yet.

Once she was alone, Tsuki fell face-first into the bed in the room. She then summoned Halambusha, whom she ordered to make sure she didn’t fall asleep. She simply wanted to stay lying down to rest and not risk dying five times in a dream.

*

Gupta’s report of the week

Gupta has been locked in a war of attrition with the monsters inside the temple. His resources are lacking to kill everything, which requires him to go procure more. But because he has failed to kill the monster acting as king, leaving the protection of the medical wing filled with traps is dangerous. If he leaves it unprotected, it will be destroyed, making the production of substance A35 impossible. But not going out to get more material means the production of A35 is also impossible. Stuck in a dilemma, Gupta awaits a chance to do something.

While waiting, Gupta found out how to kill the immortal sludge once and for all. He found out that, while finite, the liquid produced by their deaths displayed unnatural properties. With only a bucket of it, Gupta realized that the liquid tried to move by itself and imitate his movement. He now hopes to obtain enough of the sludge to create a sort of clone of himself – if it’s even possible.

Mission: reach the medical wing and make it usable. Make venom.

Resources needed: 50 units of wood. Lockpicking tools.

Research: (90 -> 100)% sludge. 5% walls (paused).

Map explored: 10%

Mine discovered. Substance A35.