That her Monster retreated to her old bedroom did not surprise Hannah as that bedroom, in fact, was the very first layer of her Dream Instance, with the hallway and the other rooms representing depth while her Dream Sanctuary represented the center of the Dream Instance.
That was why she was also not surprised when her Monster slithered into her old cabinet before closing the cabinet doors tight, because monsters hiding within the closet/cabinet was one of the oldest cautionary tales all kids are told about to keep them quiet, and Hannah was no exception to that.
It was that very tale that Little Hannah incorporated into her Dream Instance and that was what Adult Hannah was staring at, only as her control of her Dream Instance returned and color flooded her old bedroom, the cabinet her Monster was infesting refused to dislodge its Silver Sheen.
“Hmph!” Hannah grunted at the slight annoyance as that was all it was because her control of the Dream Instance was absolute now that she knew about it. As such, after staring at her old cabinet, she walked right up to it before placing her right hand on it.
Still, she did not immediately execute her desire. No, instead, Hanna removed her hand to position herself beside the cabinet door so her Monster would not ambush her again. When she did, a flex of her Soul, specifically, the Will and Logic part of her Soul, and color invaded the silver-clad cabinet, and it became right from where her palm touched the wooden cabinet.
Like a small tide, her control rippled over the cabinet, instantly removing her Monster’s ability to recluse itself inside.
CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP
Hearing the panicked cries, a smirk unfolded on Hannah’s face as she felt her monster's resistance flail away into nothingness.
Soon enough, it was done, the wooden cabinet was still hers. However, when Hannah tried opening the cabinet doors, they refused to do so. Sensing the discrepancy between what should have been an easily opened cabinet door yet not an occurring event, Hannah wondered what the problem might be before a reasonable answer popped into her head as if just waiting to give her the information she needed.
Blinking her brown eyes, Hannah suddenly realized her Insight was the culprit for that, and had always been since it had never stopped working, only she had trouble listening to it previously.
Now, though?
Now, the whispers were like drum beets hitting her Ego head-on.
Listening to the spontaneous answer, Hannah dismissed her Dreamon Ball for a second to grab the cabinet at the top hinge. With the grip in place, she pulled with all of her current might and control of her Dream Instance. The wooden cabinet immediately tilted to the side before actually dropping to the floor on its right side, of course, only after Hannah got out of the way.
THUD
Chirp Chirp Chirp
Once again hearing the panicked streaks of her Monster, the smirk on Hannah’s face grew bigger, as if drawing from within her something that had long been superseded.
However, before she indulged in it, she Conjured her Dreamon Ball just in case.
Then, right after that, Hannah indulged the desire to spook her Monster more, and so she did by hitting the wooden cabinet door with her foot with no fear that it would hurt her in any way because, within her Dream Instance, nothing could hurt her unless she let it be so.
BANG
Chirp
BANG
Chirp
BANG
Not hearing the cry, Hannah stopped hitting the horizontally lying cabinet door. Nevertheless, she was a bit reluctant because now she could repay her Monster for everything it had done to her over the past seven years.
Only Hannah was also reluctant at that as well.
“For seven years you have tortured me.” Hannah suddenly spoke up all while making a fist with her free left hand. “For seven years I have feared your existence, every day and night, and that has made you what you are today.
No more!
No more will I fear you!
Not only because you can no longer do anything to me but I too have grown from all that Pain and Despair you have inflicted upon me. Yes… Child Hannah who could only ever cry all while hiding her Pain is gone.
She has gone through her chrysalis phase and became an Adult.
Yes, Remember this moment, Monster because Adult Hannah has graced your presence and you will cover in front of her like the younger me had in yours.”
Nodding to her own words, Hannah continued her little speech of victory. “Yes… Now that I have grown up and realized Who and What I am at my Core, you have no choice but to cover in front of me and plead for your life. And you will PLEAD because I know you can. Father’s ghost may not have believed me fully, but I know… I KNOW, you are far smarter and far more Evil than you appear to be instead of an Instinct-filled wild beast baby.
Yes, I have suffered enough under you to KNOW that fact very well.
So listen up, Nightmare.” Hannah declared with Unyielding Will cladding her words, but to make it more menacing, she hit the cabinet door one last time.
THUD
Chirp
Liking the reply, Hanah explained her reasoning. “You have one choice of action before you.
Come out of there on your own and let me Capture you.
Stay inside and I will force you out and KILL you despite my father's stringent plans for my future. Sure, my Great Dream won't become Grand, but I am willing to pay the price just to KILL YOU, because, as you are right now you will never, ever understand remorse for your past actions.
So Killing you is the only mercy I will allow myself to extend to you if you stay in there.
If you come out and attack me, I… Will… Still… KILL... YOU, as that shows you are simply masquerading as a wild beast since I know your True Evil Nature. No… I won't Capture a Nightmare like that because it shows you are not ready to change and learn about remorse.
Yes… You have one option, Nightmare… Come out of there… Nice and slow. Any fast movements and… I… WILL… STILL… KILL… YOU!”
With her ultimatum presented, Hannah took a few steps back to await the moment that would decide her future because, now that she had been aware of her father’s shenanigans behind the scenes, she was even more reluctant to adopt the Beholder Spawn, even if its whole existence would change as a result of her adoption.
No, she would rather kill her Monster and seek some other Nightmare to start from scratch, unless her Monster willingly accepted to be her Summon, because then, and only then, would she be willing to allow its continued presence near her as it would always remind her of what she had been through instead of letting everything remain in the past, especially since her Awakening had removed almost all its traces from her Soul, giving her a fresh new start to life.
Yes… Only this way will I allow its constant presence!
----------------------------------------
“Terrain Disadvantage… Death Threat… Demeaning Bully Tactic plus an Unyielding Will Trait to carry it through for a quadruple stacked Intimidation Factor?” SinDrax noted as he watched his/her niece. “Yeah… that might just do it. Now all she needs is an Aura Skill to multiply those into a proper Aural Debuff and she's good to go on that front.”
“Don't you think so, Anu?”
“Yes!” Heinrich answered, though, he knew there was more to it than that because the way he had set up his daughter's Dream implied a constant negative modifier to all Nightmares near her, and since in this very moment the whole Dream Instance represented her Soul and Dream, it was as if the Aural Debuff was already in place, even if the medium of its delivery was not. “Though what she does after this is out of my hands.”
“It is?”
“Hnng.” Heinrich nodded. “By the time Hannah learns the full truth, I will be long gone from her current life, and since I am already dead to her, it's best to leave it at that. I am sure you noticed the Envelope I gave her?”
“I did.” SinDrax replied.
“That will be your perfect excuse to introduce yourself. Perhaps Master, as well.” Heinrich advised before smirking as well. “Also… You've heard her just now. She's an ‘Adult’ so there is no need to coddle her too much.”
“Ha… Alright… I won't.” SinDrax agreed after a chuckle. “Mmm… Now that I am thinking about it, I have a kid, not a Blank, of course, who's doing alright on the Adept Champions Ladder. How about I have them meet and he can show her the ropes and all that? Maybe even introduce her to some new friends? I think he has some decent people around him. Must admit though, it's been a while since I checked on him.”
“Anyway… Are you fine with that?” SinDrax inquired.
“Go ahead.”
With the go-ahead, another bout of silence ensued between the SinDrax and Heinrich, but as it turned out it was for the best because both of them suddenly heard their daughter/niece speak up.
----------------------------------------
“You have three seconds to come out.” Hannah called out, totally ignoring the fact that her Monster knew not how to count.
Thankfully it was her tone that set the bar.
“Three!”
“Two!”
“ONE!”
Creek
It was small and thin, but the very crack of the wooden cabinet door told of an answer.
Glaring at that very crack in question, Hannah wondered if her Monster was just testing her determination. So when her Monster did not come out immediately, Hannah stretched her Soul and control of her Dream Instance to flush through the gap, instantly flooding the insides of the wooden cabinet, thus forcing her Monster to have no choice but to come out.
Creek
Chirp Chirp
Tentacle after tentacle was forced out, however, the way it was done, not too fast nor too slow, signaled to Hannah that her Monster was still testing out the grounds before it.
Not only because the situation was a first for it, but also because it felt its tentacles burn slightly from just touching the multi-colored floor.
Regardless, to the Nightmare the pain was easier to set aside once it grew used to it. What it could not get used to was the situation it was in because things should not be this way. No, it should be the complete opposite, the girl being at the whim of its mighty prowess, not the IT at hers.
Still, the threat it had heard, the message carrying it, the situation around it, and the undeniable tone of surety emanating from the girl told the Nightmare that it would be killed if it did not come out of its nest.
Therefore, left it with no other choice but to come out and face this new version of the girl it had fed upon for a long time, though not as long as it could have been if not for that strange numbness she had induced herself in to hinder its Nightmarish purpose.
No, had it not figured out a way to send its prehensile limbs through the girl's Dream Body, blindly, of course, to wherever it went after every Night, it would have long since turned to ashes from sheer starvation. As such, the one tentacle it managed to push through snapped at every source of Fear it could.
Through those hardships, alongside the thorough control of its hunger, the Nightmare had managed to survive so far, and it had been close, so, so close to actually winning and consuming the girl’s Soul. Yet, now, as its sole eye unerringly stared at the girl in question, it was as if all of its efforts turned futile because the girl in question before him might as well be somebody else.
Not only due to her newfound power but also her Radiance.
Yes, a Radiance that made it want to avert its sole eye from her visage. Only it could not. No, it had this nagging sensation that if it did, it would be over for it. So it gazed at that Radiance as if there was no tomorrow, and there probably would not be if it did not comply with that radiance. Hence, while keeping its sole eye on her, it slowly slithered out of its overturned and cramped nest. Nonetheless, because it was much bigger than it used to be, when compared to when it first slithered outside of what used to be its nest, now barely half a slither brought it before the radiant girl in question.
Once that was done, it simply ceased moving, with its iron-clad control over its body.
Maintaining eye contact between them was hard, and it only became harder the longer it did, but then, all of a sudden, its sole eye noted the girl's left rigid limb move, slowly, of course. Then part of it vanished within the strange skin the girl had put on herself before she vanished within that place it could not penetrate no matter how it had tried. From its insides, she pulled out a different radiance that burned its very sight at just witnessing it.
Luckily, its sole eye saw a lot, so there was no need to center its vision on anything it caught, it shifted its attention back on the girl from its radiance.
“See this?” The Nightmare heard the girl speak, though how it knew what she meant was a problem it cared not one tiny bit. It was just how it was. “Touch it with one of your limbs. If I see more than one limb… I… WILL… KILL… YOU!”
“Understood?” In the same instance, the girl's radiance spiked, just like the previous few times it had heard her utter that threat.
Once again, it was left with no choice, so it cried out once before slowly moving one limb closer to the Radiant Thing. However, the closer its limb moved to the Radiant Thing, the more pain its limb felt. Regardless, that same burning effect could not compare to anything it felt once contact was established.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Chirp
It cried out without any control before recoiling its outstretched limb away from the radiant thing.
“Who told you could drop the limb?” The girl announced as her gaze deepened on its eye. If it could have, it would have penetrated its membrane. “Do it again… This time? If you drop the contact… I… WILL… KILL… YOU!”
Though it choked on the threat oozing from the girl and into it, it somehow chirped back to signal its acquiescence.
Then it extended the same burned limb and touched the radiant thing and managed to hold onto it despite the pain it felt on the edge of the limb.
“Good… Here is what you will do.” The girl said with a grim tone in her voice. “You will grab it and hold it firmly before bringing it closer to your main body. Once it's there, IT WILL STAY THERE. I don't care what you feel while doing it. You Will do it or I will KILL YOU.”
“Understood?”
Choking on the intruding sensating flooding it, it chirped back in reply.
“Now do it.”
With that command, and unable to resist the girl's radiance because it simply grew the longer the current situation went on, the Nightmare did as commanded and wrapped its tentacular limb around the Radiant thing before bringing it closer to its main body. Along the way, the pain the Radiant Thing made it feel only became stronger, and when its main body touched it, it felt like the world was collapsing. Only, when a red light zapped its whole body, the world truly did collapse since it suddenly vanished from where it had been only to appear within a pitch-black space that contained nothing but it.
Were it not for the Radiant Thing it held onto, it would have felt very comforting, but since it did, it did not matter at all.
After that, in one moment, the Nightmare sensed the new world around it resonate with the Radiant Thing it held. As a consequence the burning sensations were no longer on its limb, or the membrane of the main body, but everywhere, and all at once since the pain penetrated into every inch of its existence.
The only good thing about its current situation was the sudden loss of feeling the multiple limbs it possessed as if something was eating them all while slowly traveling inwards toward its main body to deliver a similar loss of sensations.
In the end, even its main body suffered that loss and what happened after, it knew not.
----------------------------------------
“Brother… Is it just me, or was the Nightmare a bit too obedient?” SinDrax posed a bit unsure. “I know the quadruple intimidation factor was there, but… something does not align. Especially after it came into contact with the Dream Gem…” Shaking his/her head, SinDrax continued. “No. The amount of pain a Dream Gem forces upon Nightmares should have made it drop instantly as its first reaction showed.”
Not replying instantly, Heinrich observed as the Nightmare brought the Dream Gem to its main body when Hannah suddenly pointed her Dreamon Ball at it, causing a red ray of light to engulf the Nightmare before drawing it into its insides.
Almost instantly, Heinrich saw the Dreamon Ball vibrate left and right before actually emanating a DING! sound alongside a glow of the silver belt line around its midsection and around the sole button in place. However, there was no actual need for the button to be pressed since it was technically the medium that projected the red ray of light and nothing else.
Right after the first DING! sound, the Dreamon Ball ceased vibrating for a moment, but only for a moment, because only the First Domain, the Capturing Domain, had so far executed its function to completion, hence the DING!.
At the same time, the Dreamon Ball projected a multi-colored light into its surroundings, but that was usual since part of the Great Dream had just proven its concept of existence. As such, with the proof of functionality, the Great Dream was once again pushed closer to its ascension to becoming a Grand Dream. However, with how simple the First Domain was, it was almost as if there was no improvement with it already being so highly ranked.
Right after the glow withdrew back into the pink ball in Hannah’s hand, a second vibration ensued as the Second Domain manifested, the Containment Domain. Here, Stats and Effects were compared between the Nightmare and his daughter to determine the success of the containment process.
Naturally, the Beholder Spawn Nightmare was at a disadvantage since it also had to contend with the Evocation - Illusion of Serenity making it feel very welcome within its current residence.
Strangely, as Heinrich observed, the second stage happened much faster than the first.
DING!
Just like the first stage, another glowing event ensued since the Second Domain had proven its Proof of Concept. Nonetheless, there was still no upgrade because the Containment process was too fast, hence there was too little to prove.
Scowling internally from the anomaly of his daughter's Awakening, Heinrich set it aside as this was not the first one he had come across ever since he began plotting his daughter's Awakening plan.
No, the first had occurred right after his Divination through passive interactive methods about the very nature of his Daughter's Nightmare.
The second one had occurred as he was attempting to create a Template for his daughter's first Dreamon based on a Beyonder’s inherent features.
It had taken months and lots of drawing and theorizing the different iterations, but there was no doubt that the Template had come about with remarkable ease, considering he was blindly going at this to provide his daughter a reasonable anchor upon which to settle her imagination since she was the key for this and not him.
And now… the third anomaly comes about, with how easily his daughter shoved the Baby Beholder into her Dreamon Ball, or the method of her attempted success because the Dream Gem should not have been involved as it had been. No, at most it would have been used through Hannah’s guidance as its purpose was power guided into the Great Dream and the Nightmare trapped within.
No, there was no mention of making the Nightmare hold the Dream Gem in any of his tailored recordings left for her.
Could be a spontaneous action based on her inherent feelings towards the Baby Beholder. Heinrich voiced in his head as he observed the second withdrawing of the glowing phenomena all Dreams were met upon after being established and proving their Proof of Concept.
Right after that, Heinrich saw his daughter take out the Template he had made for her before quickly unfolding it and placing it on the floor only to place her palm right on it. As if meant to, the moment she did, her pink Capturing Device began shaking again, only this time, it was so fierce that it forced her to hold tightly onto it.
Maybe her Great Dream guided her to the possibility? It's not like it's unusual or anything like that considering the grade.
However, if it's not her Great Dream, then it can only be one thing.
Craning his neck upwards, Heinrich ignored his daughter, for a moment, because it would take a bit of time for the transmutation process to occur since this would be his daughter’s first-ever transmutation.
Plus, considering what was being attempted, there was no doubt that it would be difficult, not only for Hannah but the Beholder Spawn as well since it was transitioning into a new type of existence. Oh, it was not that new since others had attempted and succeeded in this as well. Regardless, it did not matter one whit that it had occurred before because a Dreamon had never existed before this moment since no creature Heinrich had seen in all of his lives, inside and outside Gaia’s Rift or all the other Rifts for that matter, carried the name Dreamon.
The reason for that was simple.
Very simple, in fact.
Names carried Power, and as such Names defined something just as much as they explained something, and since no creatures carried the name Dreamon, due to the local language favoring the term on top of everything so far, any Dreamon his daughter acquired in the future would be a completely new type of creature to exist.
Moreover, it would continue to be so until that very moment she passes her Last Nightmare Tribulation and establishes her own Rift.
Then, and only then, would Dreamon become regular creatures usable or tameable for other Dreamers, and even then, it would only be possible inside the Rift from which they spawned and nowhere else because Rifts were singular, meaning Unique and would remain Unique as such for as long as their Creator lived to tell the tale of their existence.
Only after their Creator was gone, for whatever reason, would a Rift have to prove its worth of existence as an Independent Rift within an endlessly expanding cosmos where everything was Consciousness seeking its own growth and expansion, hence why most Rifts collapse alongside their Creator.
The only exception to that was if a Summoner managed to cultivate their Rift to the Endless Grade, since, at that point, a Rift turned into a self-sustaining existence.
A side effect of that, however, was that a Summoner also became an Endless existence, hence why Gaia’s Womb was such a coveted Rift to Explore and Challenge. Thanks to her ministrations, during a span of time that few could even contemplate, her Rift contained numerous mysteries to be explored and numerous adventures to experience if you were brave enough to enter its depths.
And Heinrich had been, though, even he had not traveled its very depths and everything it contained. Nor did it matter in this very moment as he stared at the huge bulge in the sky that only Dreamers, or Dreamwalkers, could see.
“Jesus Christ…” Heinrich heard his brother produce in a high voice thanks to Melinda’s Shell he was borrowing. At the same time, Heinrich saw his/her brother make a spontaneous cross with his/her fingers. Yet, just as he/she recovered from the unconscious action of the Shell, his little brother snapped his/her face at him, all wide-eyed with disbelief.
“Please… Please, Anu… Please, tell me I did not just pray to a Godling?”
----------------------------------------
“Don’t worry.” Heinrich replied only for a smile to reach his face in simple schadenfreude. “You will be fine. I met Jeshua in one of my earlier lifetimes. He helped guide me back onto the right path. Though, I imagine it's not the path he intended for me. Then again, perhaps it was for the best considering how our… parting ensued.”
“Anyway… You will be fine.” Heinrich added. “I imagine, Melinda, your current Shell, had a much harder time transitioning from her Faith since it seems some habits are lingering behind.”
“Right… Speaking of her. What should I do with her? After all, you chose her for a purpose? Right?” SinDrax asked, pointedly staying away from the Godling topic, not only because of his brother, but his own experience with them. “She mentioned Grade A Sponsorship, but not what kind. Also… What the fuck is causing that ginormous Veil Pressure Front?”
“The first? I can tell you easily. The second?.” Heinrich replied. “It's been there for a long time, but it's only recently that it started growing. As for Melinda… Well… You're a Summoner now… Stop relying on your Elder Brother so much. Just be nice to her”
“Pfft… Fine” SinDrax affirmed before glancing up and using the tiny bit of his Summoner power he could push through his current Shell to study the phenomena. “Can't tell anything concrete. It's as if it does not exist, yet I can see it. Mmm… It's not disturbing the Veil… No. That would be more obvious from my experience… Oh… Since this is Gaia’s Rift, there is no way anything can force itself through, so whatever is trying to enter the Rift, and this layer specifically, it is happening on Gaia’s terms.”
“You're right, Little Sin.” Heinrich confirmed. “Try looking around the city.”
Hinted at something, SinDrax did just that exactly.
The first thing he/she noted was the giant…oak tree in the center of the city, but that was nothing unusual for every city on Gaia’s Rift had one since the giant trees functioned as the local headquarters for the Local Protectorate Foundation governing the various Diving Factions within Gaia’s Womb.
Most importantly, though, only Mortals were allowed to be recruited for its staff which would have been a terrible choice if not for all the other Unique Gifts Gaia had stashed within the Shells everything living used in her Rift.
With no obvious answer, SinDrax used another part of his Summoner power on his/her Shell.
This one in particular dealt with Souls in general as it allowed him to search for viable Souls to Summon to his Rift if he so chose to, and Gaia allowed it since this was her Rift.
Almost immediately, the buildings and everything non sentient vanished from his view. In its stead, tiny sparks manifested from every single part of the city.
Some were small, some were bigger.
Some were grouped, and some were alone.
However, what all of them had in common was that they were Mortals, those who had not Awakened to the Truth, or better said, those who had not Hatched yet.
As such, SinDrax observed a rather unusual sight since there were far more bright sparks than a typical city should have. At least if he compared it to the few times he visited Gaia’s Womb. Admittedly, it was a different Layer, but as far as he/she knew those were the norm.
Not this.
No, it was as if they had migrated here in preparation for something big, totally unaware that they had been led here on purpose by none other than Gaia, because only she had the right to shepherd that many Mortals to one place.
“I think I understand where you're going with this.” SinDrax said before something clicked in his/her brain because it took a few moments for the truth to pass from his Shell to his actual True Body and back to this Shell that was emulating his personality. “My niece's Hatching will be the final nail for whatever is coming through the Veil?”
“Something like that.” Heinrich nodded before sharing his theory. “I think that initial Divination I did ten or so years ago, poked whatever existence was surfing Gaia’s Veil at that moment. So with its curiosity peaked, it's now attempting to descend to see who or what poked it. Only, because it's so BIG, it's taking like nine years or so to pass through the Veil to not anger Gaia.” Ceasing there, Heinrich waited a moment before sharing the final crux of the currently revealed Logic. “It would explain the strange confluence of events on this Layer, because it's not just this city that is filled with Mortals, but the whole Layer since there are close to six billion Human Shells on this Layer.”
“Six… Six billion?” SinDrax stuttered out. “Common… I know Gaia’s been around for a long time, but six billion Human Shells on just this Layer?”
“Been to a few with multiple times that number.” Heinrich replied offhandedly, shocking SinDrax to his/her core since his/her Rift was barely a tiny fraction of this layer. “It would explain the sudden rise in population numbers for this Layer in the last century alone, much less the last few decades where it truly boomed off. Whatever is coming through will have a massive impact in the near future on the Wildling numbers for this Layer since we both know Time Ripples in both directions so it's not particularly hard for Gaia to make use of this event.”
“Still… That's… I get the Logic, and it makes sense…But… I am having a bit of an existential crisis at just how small my Rift is. I mean I knew it even before. But. The way you present it? It just makes me feel that much smaller.”
“Embrace it, Little Sin.” Heinrich advised. “Best one be humble then overripe with arrogance so typical of Summoners. Remember me? Peek of arrogance… No. Supreme arrogance as an upcoming Summoner without ever becoming one.”
“Makes sense, I guess.” SinDrax responded by not finding a proper comeback to his/her brother's Logic since his/her brother was perfectly in the Right. Arrogance was very common above the Master Rank, much less the Grandmaster and Summoner rank. “Then the only mystery is what is coming through?”
“True!” Heinrich affirmed before extrapolating from his knowledge. “It's not a Summoner considering its sheer presence resulted in Hannah spawning a Beyonder Nightmare instead of whatever should have been there.
Though, in this case, it is a bit of a stretch since I am also involved.
Either way, IT has to be related to them somehow. Or maybe it's the other way around, with Beyonders being related to IT?
Anyway, it's not Evil since Gaia’s Veil is letting it through. At the same time, it is not Chaotic as well since the entry point is far too thorough for something that big. No… those lumbering giants care not about grace or consequences.
So it has to be Law or Good, or both?”
“Tell me, Little Brother.” Heinrich inquired. “Do you know of any Great Existences tied to either Law or Good? Yet also tied to Beyonder’s? If you do? Do tell me, because I know of only one.”
As if he had timed it, Heinrich ignored the shell-shocked expression his brother Shell made to focus on the multi-colored light exploding from his daughter's Great Dream. It exploded from the confines of the Dream Instance to flood into the outside as it enveloped the neighborhood with the final proof and success of the very first Dreamon coming into existence. In the very same instance, the multi-colored light of the Grand Dream stretched Gais’ Veil further, and similar to a moth attracted to a very bright bonfire, the sky rippled.
The bulge that had existed there before, burst out as something ginormous poked it from the other side.
A moment later, something dark, silvery, and scally entered this side of the Rift, and when it did, it wiggled a bit as if widening the entry hole without disturbing the overall Veil structure around it.
Naturally, it looked like wiggling, however, it was anything but that since precision, coordination, and Time were required for the entry, Time which seemed not to pass right this very moment. No, the wiggling he and his younger brother were seeing was but a long strip of frames forced to be cut down until only the bare minimum remained for their Souls to process.
Regardless, as both brothers watched the wiggling, another dark-silver-scaled prehensile limb appeared only to be followed by another.
Together, the three prehensile limbs stretched and the entry hole became circular and through its circular hole a ginormous Eye could be seen descending down onto Oaktown City and right above him, the Shell his younger brother borrowed and the building his latest partner and child lived in.
The giant eye was crowned with black and silver scales as they trailed around its circular shape bearing a silver-slitted iris around which numerous Sparks seemed to expand and contract in a never-ending fashion of growth and decline until some of those Sparks bloomed and burst into multi-colored light unique to the Hatching/Awakening process witnessed in every single part of EDIN.
“MIRROR OF TRUTH”
Heinrich heard the Shell, his younger brother borrowed, utter right before the same Shell urgently increased its breathing pace like a mirror reflecting the wearer’s state of mind.
“TYRANT OF LAW!”
After the second Title rang from his/her brother's mouth, Heinrich was sure that his younger brother's True Body was having an epileptic shock since his Summoner Status got reflected within that Grand Silver Eye.
“GRAND ARBITER OF BALANCE!”
Luckily, after the third Title rang true, his younger brother, and the Shell he was wearing for just this moment, recovered somewhat.
“Damn it, ANU!” SinDrax bellowed out. “Why do this to me? It's barely been a few centuries since I established my Rift… I… I… I am not ready for Old One Eye!”
Smirking with glee, Heinrich burst into a laugh before quickly smacking the Shell his little brother was borrowing, naturally not too hard.
“Haha…”
“SURPRISE!”
“Congratulations on your Ascension, Little Brother.” Heinrich cheerfully added. “You remember that old saying? It might be late, but it's better to be late than never be there at all. Consider this moment my Ascension Gift for you, by helping you book an Appointment with Old One Eye.”
“Common, don't make that face, Little Sin. I am sure you will pass Old One Eye’s Riftspection all while shaving centuries of careful guidance for your Rift.”