Carlos hesitantly followed Ayume across the train platform, moving towards the source of the screams, all the while protesting, "I am not going near her. Can't you just find her and end this?"
As they drew closer to the screams, Ayume responded, "That's not how this works. You need to come with me. Besides, there's nothing to fear; you can't be hurt in your own dream."
In front of them stood an 8-year-old girl, her eyes reflecting fear and pain. She was dressed in ragged clothes, and her face bore visible marks from being hit.
Ayume, facing the girl, asked, "Mr. Carlos, who is this girl? You need to tell me how she got into your dream."
Carlos, peeking out from behind Ayume, stammered, "No, I don't know this... witch." He paused, a memory surfacing, "Wait..."
"She was on the train. I saw her in one of the compartments with a man." He paused again, his voice trailing off, "And yes... after I passed that compartment, I heard a scream for help."
Suddenly, Carlos' expression turned to one of shock; he dropped to his knees. "She's haunting me for this? Kill her, you kill demons, right? Kill her and end this."
Carlos, his voice shaky, asked, "How? How can I help her?"
"We need to delve into her dream to learn more about her. Did you see the face of the man? He's the only link between you and the girl."
As Ayume helped Carlos to his feet, he placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, urging him to concentrate. "Think about that man, Carlos. Try to visualize his face clearly. This should open the dreams of those who have seen him."
Carlos focused, and the image of the man materialized: a bearded figure with a sinister look. Around them, several portals emerged, varying in size, their colors bleeding shades of white and grey. One small portal, set apart from the others with dark black fumes, caught Ayume's attention.
Ayume, his face etched with anger and disgust, strode towards the dark portal, thinking, "So much evil... The demons have completely overtaken this young girl's dream. What kind of horrors has she experienced at such a young age?"
Stepping into the girl's dream, Ayume found himself enveloped in oppressive darkness, the air thick with malevolence. Shadows, more tangible and menacing than the mere absence of light, twisted and screamed around him – these were the demons, their forms fluid and terrifying.
Amidst this chaos, he spotted the little girl. She was curled up in a corner, her small body trembling, hands clutched tightly over her eyes in a vain attempt to block out the horrors around her.
"Hang on, kid," he said, with determination in the engulfing darkness. "I'm going to destroy every last one of them."
Ayume pulled out his weapon with his right hand, a chakra with a grip in the middle and sharp edges tapering to two pointed ends on opposite sides. He raised his left hand in front of him and positioned his right hand, ready to cast a spell, when he noticed a scared Carlos stepping in from the portal.
"Carlos, you need to get out of here. This is a nightmare. There are more than a dozen demons here. If even one reaches your subconscious, your dreams will turn into eternal nightmares. Get back now."
Carlos, looking alarmed, quickly retreated back to his dream, exclaiming, "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"
As Ayume prepared to cast his spell, a shadowy demon twice his height appeared before him. The demon, with its grotesque, twisted form and a grin revealing jagged teeth, taunted, "That stance, a light caster? Now, that's a surprise. It won't be fun to haunt your nightmares, so I guess I'll just have to kill you here."
A look of suspicion flickered across Ayume's face as he scanned the demon. "That seems like only a level 3 demon, but it's unlikely to be the leader given the amount of evil and darkness here," he thought.
With all his strength, Ayume shouted, "Light of....Innocence!" In response to his call, a pulsating orb of light, intertwined with shimmering blue lines, materialized near his left hand. He then swung his right hand, slashing his chakra through the newly appeared light, "Power my weapon". The blade began glowing with the same luminous energy, radiating a powerful aura.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
[https://i.imgur.com/tDsuMX5_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand]
Slowly, the lightball orb began to grow, dispelling the darkness around it. Ayume thought to himself, "I need to protect the light. But I expected it to grow faster!"
The demon, seeing the growing light, called out to the smaller demons circling around, "Attack him, destroy the light!"
Demon shadows of various sizes began to encircle the lightball. Ayume, wielding his light-powered chakra, fought them off with relative ease. His movements were fluid and precise, ensuring that the demons couldn't coordinate their attacks on the lightball. Despite their numbers, the battle seemed almost too easy for him, his chakra cutting through the shadows like a blade through smoke. When the demons overwhelmed him, he skillfully boomeranged his chakra, slicing through the encroaching shadows. The demons shrieked in pain, not from the chakra itself but from the purifying light it carried.
When it seemed that Ayume was winning this battle, he was shocked to spot Carlos in the corner, Ayume murmured to himself"Idiot, what the hell is he doing here."
The biggest of the demons, towering over the rest, locked its gaze on Carlos. With a menacing grin, it taunted Ayume, "I may not defeat you, but your friend seems like a perfect new host." It then charged towards Carlos with a thunderous roar.
"No!" Ayume's voice was laced with panic. He dashed towards Carlos, his chakra gripped firmly in hand, positioning himself as a barrier between the demon and Carlos. His stance was resolute as he declared, "I have never been defeated. I've battled and conquered greater nightmares than you. You and your kind are mere trifles to me..." hinting on a bit of arrogance.
Behind Ayume, Carlos's figure started to warp and swell in a nightmarish transformation. His shape grotesquely expanded, morphing into a colossal demon that loomed five times Ayume's size. Ayume sensed the malevolent aura surging behind him, the air growing dense with a palpable, dark energy. A shiver coursed down his spine as he slowly turned, an unsettling realization hitting him – this was not Carlos but merely his projection. His suspicion was confirmed; the true master of this nightmare, a far more sinister and formidable demon, had revealed itself.
The giant demon moved right through Ayume from behind, like a ghost passing through a wall. As it did, Ayume felt a sharp, deep pain, as if something inside him was being pulled out.
Struck by this invisible force, Ayume fell on the ground, feeling weaker. As he looked up he saw the lightball being overrun by the other demons. They were all over it, ripping and tearing it apart. The light that had been so bright was now flickering out, getting swallowed up by darkness.
The larger demon now loomed over Ayume, its form a terrifying spectacle. With elongated, gnarled limbs and skin that seemed to writhe like a nest of serpents, it grinned maliciously, reveling in its apparent victory. "I first manifested when the little girl's uncle succumbed to gambling addiction. I grew within him, spreading evil, convincing him to kidnap his niece, this innocent child, and sell her. In her nightmare, I found fertile ground, a place where I could grow unchecked."
"Light of Innocence? I made this girl kill her uncle. There's no innocence left here," the demon cackled wickedly, towering over Ayume who lay on the ground, gripped by pain, his thoughts racing.
Ayume wasn't shocked; he was well aware of the depths of evil these demons could drive people to, the seeds of darkness they planted in human souls. It reaffirmed his resolve to eradicate every last one of them. Gathering his strength, he struggled to rise, his voice a mix of determination and strain, "I can't lose."
"Give up, light caster, it's over. No one is strong enough to cast a light twice and survive. Remember, you're not in your dream. Here, you'll simply die of exhaustion," the demon taunted, towering over the weakened Ayume.
Ayume knew the demon was right. His arrogance and overconfidence had gotten the better of him. On the verge of giving up, he glimpsed the scared girl in the corner, a sight that sent him back in time. He saw himself as a child, cowering in a corner, scared of a demon, while a woman stood between him and the demon, brandishing glowing swords in both hands.
This memory ignited something within him. Summoning all his strength, he stood up. "Even if it kills me, I'll free this girl from her nightmare, from you," Ayume declared, taking his stance. "You may have stripped her innocence, but there's one thing common between us, one thing that makes us strong."
"The Light of Pain."
Suddenly, a massive flash of light erupted, and a lightball appeared near Ayume's left hand.
He slashed his weapon through the lightball, proclaiming, "Power My Weapon."
The demon lunged forward to attack. Using the last of his strength, Ayume spun in a windmill motion, throwing his chakra before collapsing to the ground. The chakra, now infused with the light, spiraled around the lightball, protecting it and slicing through any demon trying to get close. Rapidly, the lightball grew, its brilliance engulfing the encroaching darkness like dawn dispelling the shadows of night. As Ayume's vision succumbed to darkness, he glimpsed the girl rising and walking toward him.
He felt a hand nudging him, an attempt to rouse him from unconsciousness. Ayume had triumphed, but he sensed the victory came at a steep price. A flurry of images flickered before his closing eyes: demons from his past battles, the woman who had trained him, chasing a younger version of himself playfully running through a park.