With my bones aching, my body in pain and my muscles feeling like they had been ripped apart by a furious clash, I woke up, Or rather opened my eyes, tired as they were.
I gazed at not the ceiling of my room, one that I had memorized even with my bad memory, I stared at a black sky, starless, lusterless. A disgusting sky, with a cracked sun of black obsidian.
Yeah, a sun. A sun that was cracked like a mirror, a part of it completely broken, raining down a black liquid along with viscera. Scales, shadows, and the black eye of a being drifted down the river birthed from that shattered sun.
“… Timing.”
I muttered, weakly. My body was drained of strength, as usual in these nightmares. Or should I call them ‘prophetic visions’? The terminology can be discussed later.
“… Where am I now?”
What planet was this? I looked up, right, down, but all I saw were shattered buildings…on top of a sea of darkness. Surprisingly, there weren’t corpses that could make entire mountain ranges this time. These nightmares of mine, shown to me by James, most likely, always had those. It was a surprise to not see any corpse this time around.
The scenery was definitely stranger, though. Instead of a concrete surface I appeared to be standing on, there was a black sea of darkness beneath me. It moved like it was water. Bending down, I placed my hand on it, only for it to be submerged.
“Ouch!”
I hurriedly yanked my hand away, the moment it was plunged in that darkness a sharp pain stung me. I looked at my poor hand, the one I mercilessly submerged in the sea of darkness… Or what remained of it.
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There was only a wrist now… The sea had eaten my hand! That wasn’t an easy feat, goddammit! The power of the phoenix as well as the fact that I am a dragon made my body strong, very strong. It had an amazing regenerative factor as well.
“No worries…”
I sighed as I moved my aura, and enhanced the healing effect. I found out I could do this with my aura, producing a blue flame that would instantly heal my wounds. It was costly, but effective. Of course, the natural healing factor of my bloodline wasn’t anything to scoff at either.
“Send me some place normal, at least once…”
I bent down and looked at the Black Sea of Darkness, despite me…well standing over it, I wasn’t submerged in it at all, I tried moving my feet forcefully but no luck, at least, I thought of submerging my feet in this Black Sea, and moved my foot.
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I regenerated my poor foot a moment later.
“Ok…”
So, the sea won’t consume me if I don’t want to be consumed by it, huh… That’s easy to work with. I moved around and touched the black stone of a building near me, one which also stood on this sea. It wasn’t a sea-faring vessel, from what I could perceive, it looked like an ordinary building with supports that would go beneath the ground. It stood perfectly still on this sea, but unfortunately I was unaware of what original glory and magnificence it may have possessed once.
It was nothing but ruin now, like most of its kind. After having a few of these Nightmares, at questionable but beneficial times, I figured some things out.
Firstly, I could interact with the inanimate or dead things in these nightmares. Whatever effect there was supposed to be from touching these strong…but dead beings dissipated. Like it was all an Illusion.
But I know it wasn’t. It was more of me getting early access to something that was bound to happen. The ‘living’ things in these nightmares weren’t anything to scoff at. Fuck, I am downright terrified of anything ‘living’ I see here. Those things, despite being a prophetic vision or whatever bullshit, can sense when I am looking at them.
Stronger beings can always sense when a gaze is directed at them, always! The even stronger beings know when someone utters their name, no matter where they are, how far they are. The truly strong ones…know when someone is even thinking about them.
Thankfully, I haven’t met the latter two types…
“More like I’ve met them, but I’ve met them in situations where they don’t have the leisure to bother with me.”
I’ve had those brushes more times than I would like to count. Fuck you, James, not respectfully at all. Burn in hell, bastard.
I continued to walk around this strange…place. The sea of darkness beneath me moved like it
a normal sea would, which created some difficulty. I accidentally thought of it as a normal sea sometimes and thought of myself being submerged in it…which led to an outrageous expenditure of aura.
I got the hang of it later. I moved inside a building, one that was bigger than the rest and appeared to be a church of some sorts, well, I don’t know to be honest, this architecture is way too different. I guess I could say it felt like one…
The inside sure seemed like a church, I guess. However, whatever deity they worshiped was disfigured now, only a mess of black stone. I moved closer to the center where a statue was supposed to be, but all I found were writings. My ‘gift’ translated them to me easily.
[
O Great Veiled Wyrm of Shadowed Skies,
Bearer of whispered secrets and veiled truths,
In the twilight realm where shadows dance,
We beseech thee, ancient keeper of the unseen paths,
Grant us sight beyond mortal gaze, freewebnoveℓ.com
That we may navigate the abyssal depths,
And rise as shadows clad in your dusk-kissed scales.
With reverence, we offer our souls to your obsidian maw,
That we may be cloaked in the umbra of your wisdom,
And forever dwell in the embrace of your twilight realm.
O Dragon of Darkness, hear our plea, And let your darkness guide us through eternity.
May Shivalkulan rise forth, brought back it’s former glory! Savior of Dark Elves!]
A prayer…and a promise? It seemed to be a prayer the Dark Elves made to worship… Valus, the Dragon of Darkness, and house Shivalkulan.
That was fine, I already expected this ‘nightmare’ would have something to do with the
Dragon of Darkness, Valus himself… What irks me is why they treat him like a god… Granted,
Supreme beings are akin to gods, in a way. The god beasts are even worshiped as gods in their empire. But Dragon’s aren’t like that.
We…don’t like this kind of treatment, I guess I could say. But, I can let that slide, It’s not
something much to think about. With how the prayer is written, The dark elves must treat him like one, I don’t think Valus could do much about it, and as long as it gave them happiness, he
must have let it slide.
What truly irks me is…the last part of this prayer.
[May Shivalkulan rise forth, brought back to its former glory! Savior of Dark elves!]
“… What do you mean by brought back to former glory?”