Clyde woke up at 3 am in the morning, The entity known as Luci had explained many things to him. First of all, Clyde now has access to all three of the dream world. In the Astral world, Clyde is able to connect to the dream of anybody's Personal world and gain Omnipotence in that world. The Akashic world was a place where most people built a new life out of a new law, but the Personal world was where the majority of the people went to strengthen their abilities to become stronger in the Akashic world. Clyde can now enter that training space and make the dreamer see anything and manipulate their subconscious. It was a powerful ability that can debilitate the dreamer.
In the Akashic world, Clyde will not be omnipotent and abide by the laws of the world. But he is fully self-realized and can be as strong as his imagination will allow him to be. Meaning the more he works on his imagination, the more he will be able to manipulate his own abilities in the Akashic world. He still gained an advantage over other dreamers because they are not able to be self-realized. Even the most lucid dreamer cannot just manifest things from their imagination like Clyde is now able to do. In comparison, Clyde is like a god in the Akashic world with the weakness of the lack of imagination.
Clyde picked up the dumbbells off the rack and started to pump his muscles with a newly gained passion. “I will be the strongest version of myself and wake these m-fuckers up from their stupid dreams, and when they do, they will answer to me!!!” Clyde threw the weights down and proceeded to beat the nearby punching bag as if it was an enemy, He ended it with a flying kick which shot the bag to the ceiling. After working up a good sweat, Clyde showered, made food and left the house.
Clyde headed to a bookstore located in downtown. He decided to pick up some fantasy novels and comics for research purposes. He despised the fictional works the most because they offered no substance to a grounded reality. He only read books that help with personal growth ranging from topics such as psychology, philosophy, scientific, or even metaphysics. But never fictions. However, these fictional fantasies will help him develop a more imaginative mind that can make him stronger in the dream world.
The person working at the bookstore was asleep behind the counter. Clyde picked up the books and left the money on the table while giving the finger to the teenager who was slacking off. The world was a very quiet place and it was deteriorating every day. Pretty soon, this bookstore would close down along with all the coffee shops that were already out of business.
Clyde purchased some “natural” sleeping pills from a vending machine and jogged his way back home on the open road. There was hardly any traffic and this was one of the few things Clyde did enjoy out of the chaos.
After returning home, Clyde picked out a comic that was hugely popular among young adults called DragonGem Z. He was able to relate to the protagonist because he also like to train to the limits. But the absurdness of the comic still bothered him and he hated the ridiculous long built up of Loku's special moves. However, he was surprised that he was able to enjoy the comic.
“visualize, create, imagine” Clyde was meditating in his home gym and trying to imagine himself as a powerful warrior able to shoot power ki beams from his hands. After a couple of hours of visualization. He laughed at himself while feeling a little proud of being able to think of the fantastical situation.
“Ok Akashic, I will see what you are all about” Clyde popped a “natural” sleeping pill and drifted into sleep
Like last time he was met by three crossroads. There was the Personal world which was lined in gray pavement, the Akashic, which was laid in rainbow bricks, and the Astral, which was gold. Clyde walked down the Akashic road.
At the end of the road, Clyde came upon a castle that was similar to the popular iconic castle that was the company symbol for children cartoon in reality. He entered the door and saw the sign on the gate that read VANITY CASTLE, gateway to the infinite journey. Inside the castle was countless other doors that had a spiraling vortex of energy in them.
A girl was standing under a giant question mark that was floating in the air. Clyde walked up to the friendly looking girl and asked. “Which of these doors will lead me to the Akashic world?”
The girl looked very surprised and replied “You are in the Akashic world silly, these worlds are all part of it”
“Ok which one is the most important world” Clyde asked
“I don't quite understand your question, there isn't a most important world, it's what you want to experience. Do you want to be at a Sci-fi world, or a fantasy world of dragons and unicorns, maybe an infinite buffet, or perhaps something naughty” the girl smiled mischievously.
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“No, I want to be in a world that is connected to all the other worlds, one that is the most populated, Is there one like that?”
“You mean Eden? Everyone knows Eden, If you don't want anything specific and just explore the whole unknowable Akashic, just walk through the central gate....duh?” The girl was sure that people just took what she said as basic fact. She thought Clyde was messing with her.
“Right Eden, Thanks.” Clyde said seriously.
The girl rolled her eyes but remained looking alert and on duty. Clyde respected someone who worked hard, even if it was in a dream. He walked towards the central gate, which was the largest gate in the castle.
He thought it was kind of obvious that this was the world he needed to go to but he had to make sure. He stepped in the gate and whole world started to zoom past him. He found himself at a huge city that was at one with nature. Trees and building were joined together to make harmonious structures. The scene was quite bizarre because there were buildings that looked medieval, to modern, and futuristic. some looked like it was cut out from a fantasy movie.
The people on the street were equally bizarre, there were people who looked like various fantasy characters to aliens and beast people. Clyde was told that people couldn't pick what they looked like and took on their true face in the Akashic world but he believed their human form was their “true face” not in some dream world.
Clyde looked at his reflection in the reflective glass on a building, He was just as tall as he was in the real world at around 6''6, but he had snow white hair and golden eyes. His features seem to be more feminine and he had two small bulges on his forehead that resembled horns, just like Luci. He would be considered more beautiful than handsome, which Clyde did not appreciate. He turned around to inspect his back for wings but found that he had none.
Clyde was in slight awe of the logic-defying architectures within the city. He spent a few hours observing the environment and the richly imaginative structures around town. People were turning their heads to admire Clyde's “true face” but he paid them no attention. There was even a harpy girl who landed in front of him to try and greet him but he just gave her a fake smile and avoided conversation.
People in the Akashic world didn't just teleport to places, most of everyone still walked and although there were people running at the speed of cars, only those who took on the form of a winged humanoid could fly in the sky. Although people looked more distinctive and varied greatly, Ironically the city seems to be more civilized. People were more friendly and seemed to genuinely care for one another. In ways, the place reassembled a Utopian world. However, Clyde was only interested in studying the status quo and social behavior for manipulative purposes.
Clyde unconsciously stumbled upon a massive building in the form of a helix spiral. There were letters on the door that read : NIGHTMARE VANQUISHERS. Underneath it was a slogan that read : Be an Akashic hero. Clyde was immediately drawn to the building because he wanted to know about the nightmares in this world. He pushed open the door and saw the place was crowded in sketchy looking people. There was a giant man with a claymore on his back, an elfin cowboy with twin revolvers hanging by his waist, a group of skinny men with futuristic armor and energy swords and even a petite little girl in a black dress with a massive scythe in her hand. They all turned to look at Clyde as he walked in through the door, but Clyde didn't care and walked straight to the reception desk.
“would you like to make a request?” The receptionist was a blond nymph girl who wore glasses.
“No I would like to sign up here.” Clyde had decided he wanted to know more about nightmares.
The receptionist checked Clyde out from head to toe and looked skeptical. Clyde did not look like a warrior nor was he carrying any sort of weapon. “you will have to pass a competency test to be a vanquisher.”the nymph informed Clyde
“that's fine with me” Clyde did not know his abilities in the dream world, but he was confident he could pass any physical test.
The receptionist lead Clyde down the hall to a large Colosseum(the building was huge) All the misfit warriors in the lobby had followed to spectate the event.
“Defeat the nightmare and you can join” the nymph had a haughty smile on her face as she pointed at the creature behind the iron gate.
It was an atrocious beast with a rotting humanoid face, the eyes were hollow and the skin was peeling off, the body was of a large black lion with rough scales, and it had a giant rat tail. The nightmare stood over twenty ft tall and was the largest beast Clyde has ever seen in his life.
“no way, she expects him to beat that alone!” The elfin cowboy was whispering to the crowd.
“I don't think we can beat that thing even with our whole team!” The leader of the energy sword group replied.
Clyde had no weapons and no experience with dealing with large beasts. He could kick a man's ass in hundred and one ways but he had never seen anything so spine-chilling and dangerous as the beast behind the gate. But he had decided to fight the nightmare and that was what he was going to do.
“Raise the damn gate” Clyde shouted.
From above the stadium floor, the nymph raised the gate. The beast Howled. The whole stadium vibrated to the power of the roar. The beast leaped at Clyde with so much speed that it appeared as a shadow across the field, with it front paw it swiped at Clyde and sent him flying towards the wall.
He hit it with so much force that he felt all the bones in his back crack and break. Pain! He could feel pain in the dream, and it was as real as actually breaking his back. Clyde howled and tried to get up but his back was broken.
I need to calm down. Clyde thought to himself. He knew this was only his dream, he is in control of his body. He focused his attention on his back and visualized himself healing. He pictured his body being completely recovered. Almost immediately, he heard his back start to crack and snap back in shape. Clyde got up and dusted himself off casually.
On the spectator's zone, the group was in awe at how he was still able to get up after receiving a fatal blow. Even though this was technically the dream world, people still hurt when they are hit like that.
I can do this. Clyde thought to himself. He concentrated on the fibers of muscles in his legs and visualized it being pumped with electricity. The beast dashed at him again but Clyde leaped 50 ft in the air. The beast quickly turned it's' head to follow Clyde's movement.
The audience was amazed at Clyde's sudden show of strength. But they were puzzled at his movement in the air. Clyde had cupped his hands by his waist and his body was twisted to the right. He was muttering something under his breath.
“HameHHAAA” All of a sudden a giant beam of light shot out from Clyde's hands and blasted the beast. It completely obliterated it while leaving a seemingly endless pit in the ground.
Everyone was wide eyed. They couldn't even force themselves to blink.
“was that from Dragongem z?” someone from the crowd asked.