Balding gray hair, tattered clothes and a starving physique. The man leaning on the corridor was none other than my killer, the Dreamer. Possessing the body of some poor soul, at least according to my theory.

"What do you want from me?!" I ask, anger boiling up from the pit of my stomach.

The silence I receive enrages me, to the point where I can't just sit obediently and ask questions. I raise the Sunsword, swinging it towards my killer. The light crescent crashes into the wall behind him, making another hole in the ‘house’ I’m trapped in. His body is cut horizontally, but it turns to smoke as soon as the two parts of his body disjoin.

[An illusion?] I think to myself before turning around frantically.

I see no one standing there, but I hear laughter coming from every direction. A subtle laughter echoes out, growing more and more prominent as I stand in my spot. Suddenly, it is cut away as the house shifts again. The ceiling starts lowering itself, eating the joined rooms on each end. I slowly walk into one of the hallways. The ceiling wasn't an immediate threat, as it wouldn't crush me like a hydraulic press. I had the possibility of cutting through it, but the falling debris would obscure my vision.

If I want to fight him on equal ground, I have to have a clear line of sight.

I stop midway as the house shifts again, positioning me in a way of standing between 2 sides of an infinite hallway. A slight ripple in the manafield makes me instinctively turn around, slashing at whatever's hiding there. My light is avoided by the agile body of the female soldier. It shifts into the older version of Oliver, the one I faced before my death. The transmutation process is quick, as it perfectly mimics a human body after shape-shifting.

"Adam..." it speaks. This entity wasn't human, and wherever it came from, it's not normal.

The voice of Oliver is mixed with the female soldier, morphed a bit by a third voice. The concoction only adds to the eeriness that it carries.

Walking at an angle to it, eyeing its abilities, I carefully calculate every step. "You want my mark??" I ask, taking my shirt off as a symbol that I'm prepared to fight. "Here, come and get it!" I yell out as the blue mark glows.

"H-h-hah," it tries to laugh, but sounds like a broken record, its speech cut in pieces and morphed. "Child..."

Oliver's body tears apart, as many hands exit its body, revealing a glowing rose-colored mark that slightly differs in shape from mine. This was a revelation I didn't want to see. It also has a mark, meaning it is connected to my past. As soon as these two marks are revealed to one another, they glow with extreme brightness, plunging us into a sea of light.

-

I wake up in a knee deep sea, which doesn't seem to have a bottom. I appear to be standing on nothing, as the dark depths of the sea below gaze at my uncovered soul. It was only darkness below, reflecting the uncertainty I felt while striding through the Dreamer’s territory.

"The mark you were given is one that is neatly tied to my existence..." The booming voice reverberates through the dimension, coming from a place I couldn't pinpoint.

"Why do you need it?!" I ask loudly, searching for answers from my killer.

It tilts its head. "You needn't know that, child. You are an offering to me, made to fuel my life, so I could blossom," it says as I'm plunged into the depths of the ocean, drowning in the vastness of the cold and merciless oblivion. I couldn't resurface, as there was no buoyancy. I screamed, but my voice couldn't be deciphered. I focus my mind and access the power of my magic, trying to wake myself from this nightmare.

I'm jolted awake in the infinite hallway, just before my lungs got completely filled with salt water. I can breathe. Disoriented, I shake my head to clear my senses. My eyes lay on a being of indescribable features. Not knowing what I was looking at, I extended my blade between us, the only thing that offered me protection. Its arms melted into the legs, the face split and warped, its body best described as existing in a different dimension. It screamed of the unknown, causing an instinctive repulse towards it. Constantly shifting, it was a mass of flesh and darkness that made every hair on my body stand up.

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Firing a beam of energy from my hand, I decided to use ranged attacks, not wanting to get close to it. The bright light illuminates the imperceptible horror, one that extends further than my own 6 senses can bear witness to.

After forcing me to visually glimpse its disgusting features, an explosion destroys the wall of flesh—but I'm sure it doesn't kill it.

As I try to escape the impeding doom of this entity, the house warps yet again. I'm back in the giant room, this time welcomed by the balding homeless man that the Dreamer masks itself into. It stands in the middle of it, its arms slightly raised.

"You're not escaping me," it says.

I simply cast a sphere of light which detonates in the center of the room, shrouding the entire mansion in the bright energy. The explosion causes the walls to collapse, the ceiling to start falling down, yet I'm still pent up on ending this once and for all.

An entity that transcends my journey back into the past is too dangerous to be kept alive, so I will stop it, without suffering another resurrection if it's possible.

"Sleep," it orders.

The spell it casts almost manages to shroud my consciousness in the land of dreams, but my rage and emotions carried the wakefullness enough to start dispeling his magic.

"You've got to be kidding me?" the Dreamer's voice echoes, as it is surprised by my ability to understand the fundamentals of magic and dive into the intricacies of casting a spell. I strike my forehead with the dull part of my sword, drawing blood. "I'm awake!”

I break into the magic, completely negating it. I can feel the arrangement of mana particles, and how they behave when his spell is formed. It is something I've picked up while fighting, and first used against the man I fought before succumbing to this trap. As his dream spell is negated, I return with one of my own.

"Light of Dawn"

I quickly craft a light spell which disables the effects of dream magic, stopping the entire house from shifting again. Every spatial, dimensional, time and other abstract effect it had was gone, replaced by the shining glow of my sword.

I rush forward, slicing into the Dreamer. His arm is almost cut off completely, hanging off by a single string of skin.

Its other arm extends, with magic condensing in its palm. "I've underestimated the prophesied messiah it seems,” its voice echoes. “When I win this battle, I'll be waiting for you near your home, preventing you from evolving like this again. I'll drain your life dry and take the mark for myself, harnessing the power which will finally make me free!!" It reveals its intentions.

The prophesied messiah? I feel like I've already heard that somewhere...

No time for thoughts was left as I saw the house closing in on me again. I have to finish this now! I can't let its words become the truth, as my life will be over.

I try to attack it again, but it disappears further into the house, escaping my bloodlusted slashes. I use ice magic to freeze the walls and ceiling from warping, casting the interior along with every furniture in shimmering ice.

"Here," I hear from my right.

"Or here?" another voice reverberates from my left.

I stagger, not knowing where to move. The voices surround me, as many holes open up in the house, in a kaleidoscope pattern.

When I realized what was happening, it was to late.

"Hypnosis: Induced Dream"

This spell obviously had requirements which I've met again. If I ran in any direction, I would've been fine.

My head dozed off for a second, but I managed to react just in time, cracking the spell again. As a sudden reflex jolted me awake, I was face to face with my past killer. The homeless man's body which had shining rose-colored glowing eyes. The dream magic was oozing out from them, the same way it did from his new wound.

I managed to pierce his gut with the Sunsword, reaching the other side. The problem was, a sharp piece of transparent material also protruded from my back as well. In a twist of events, we both dealt a lethal blow to each other at the same time.

His pinkish glowing blood dripped down the Sunsword, while my own human blood leaked out onto the thin glass-like object he stabbed me with.

"I've got you... you son of a bitch!" I exclaim while my mouth fills up with a familiar liquid that tastes like metal. The unbearable pain is handled by adrenaline and magic which is leaking out of my body.

It smiles, the voice growing more inhumane as its life force is drained.

"Might have, but we'll see each other again..."

I rush what remaining magic I have through my sword, burning the entity severely. Whatever I do, doesn't matter. I'll die in the matter of a minute, but at least I'll have peace of mind knowing that this thing is gone as well.

"We were... fated... to meet," it utters, taking my consciousness away as it tries to hold onto its life for a bit more.

If I die, it dies with me.

As the bloodloss slowly shuts off my brain functions, I'm struck with an epiphany.

Memories of the carving on the desk flood my mind, as I connect the dots.

'Beware of strangers'. Might this be what it was referring to? If I'd known sooner, I would’ve questioned that female soldier's demand. She called Lucidel 'general', which she didn't do during the ride here. She called him by his name, so I could've suspected something. Although, I don't know her well enough to jump to any conclusions. Didn't know her enough, meaning she was a stranger to me...

Whatever the matter is, she's probably dead now, judging by the Dreamer imitating her body.

It's not just her, my lights are shutting off too. This entity is a troublesome one, smarter than it looks. However, it is reasonably defeatable, which infuriates me. I could've done so much more, made better decisions. My mind let's go, embracing the soft cushion of death.