Entering Annie's dream once again, Phil found himself deep inside a cave, the once beautiful house was nowhere to be seen only a deep cold cave was left behind.
'The nightmare is getting stronger.'
Phil jolted hearing a childish voice inside his head.
'Who are you?'
Phil asked.
'A part of you, although incomplete.'
'You were the power given by that being aren't you?'
'Well yes, and no. Yes, I was the power given by that being, and no since I was here with you ever since the beginning, the being just awakened me.'
Phil furrowed his brows, confused about what the voice told him.
'Do you have a name I can call you?'
'Enthymema. My name is Enthymema, you can call me En to make things easier.'
'Then En, what is happening here? Why is the house gone? And why are we in a cave?'
Looking around him, Phil was filled with questions since the environment drastically changed right after he escaped.
'The simplest answer is that the monster's power is getting stronger. While the technical answer is that, the girl, Annie's influence over her dream is shrinking. The closer we are towards the abyss, the girl's tolerance with the miasma worsens making the nightmare even stronger. The beautiful house was Annie's influence and her dream, now that the nightmare has taken over it changed into this, a deep dark, and cold cave. In a sense we are not in Annie's dream anymore, we are in the nightmares domain.'
'I advise you to take caution. Those spiderlings you easily stomped before should have increased in size and that monster Vicky should be stronger than before.'
'And one more thing, my powers are limited since I am just partially awakened. Whenever you use your powers you will be in a weakened state, remember that.'
'How can I save Annie?'
'Find the origin of nightmare and destroy it. Listening from Annie's story, the origin should be inside the porcelain doll, Vicky.'
Phil took a deep breath and readied himself, he crouched down ready to sprint when he remembered something important.
'Do you know how to find Annie's location En?'
'Concentrate and think of her and you will find the rough direction of where she is, but I must warn you, if you ever do this there is a chance that the nightmare origin can trace your location. It's like casting light in a dark cave, you can see where you are headed but others can also see the source of light.'
Standing still and calming himself down, Phil took a deep breath and sensed his surroundings. Like a sonar, his senses spread out slowly mapping the cave.
'I found her. But we have a problem, I alerted the monster.'
'I expected that to happen. Well, you can use your power to hide in the shadows if necessary, but it will slow down your speed and will drain some of your energy.'
'How do I even replenish my energy?'
'You can rest and it will naturally fill, or you can devour and that will replenish your energy depending on the thing you devoured.'
'Devour? What do you mean devour?'
'To eat, simple. Depending on what you eat, you can get an equivalent amount of energy from it. An example of it is those spiderlings that you have devoured, if you haven't eaten them then the mad sprint you did as you escaped will be interrupted midway and you will enter a weakened state due to lack of energy. Although that power did not come from me but directly from the being and the voices you heard, it still works in the same principle.'
Phil grimaced at the memory of eating the spiders, he remembered how they taste and he would rather not eat them ever again.
'Are there any restrictions in this ability?'
'Yes and no. The you now can eat almost all of the normal earthly things, for example, normal foods and everyday objects. And no since the stronger and complete you are, the stronger the ability will be.'
'Can I eat the miasma then?'
'You can but it will certainly make you insane, losing yourself quickly and turning you into a spawning grounds for nightmares.'
Shivers ran on Phil's spine, the thought of being the spawning grounds for nightmares made him remember those who were stranded in the abyss, he remembered the cancerous growth growing all over them as they slowly deformed and corrupted even more.
'What is the miasma anyway?'
'I cannot answer that for now. You either need to look for the answer yourself or someone will tell you when the time is right. Anyway, you need to focus on the task at hand.'
Faraway where Phil is located, a large cavern space filled with web covering its walls and hanging on the ceiling. Vicky noticeably back in her girl form although the spider legs are still on her back, was hanging upside-down waiting for her birth noticed Phil's tracking, she slowly woke up and smiled.
'Interesting, big brother returned.'
She glanced at the cocoon where Annie is encased and then ordered her spiderlings.
"Bring big brother in front of me. And I will reward the one who captured him by having a taste of his flesh. Go and do not disappoint me this time."
The spiderlings crawled out in droves coloring the walls black due to their numbers.
Vicky's eyes turned from sky blue to now a crimson red as she fantasizes about what Phil might taste. Drool came out of her mouth and the floor beneath her where the drool touched sizzled and smoked as it slowly melted.
Phil quickly ran as he traversed the cave, he was quickly heading towards where Annie is located when he used his senses. Then suddenly he heard tapping sounds coming from in front of him.
'Spiderlings in front of you, there are droves of them.'
'How do I hide again?'
'Just go into a shadow and remember the sinking feeling you felt when entering the plains of sleep, it's just like that.'
Phil quickly hid in the darkest part of the cave he was in and concentrated. He slowly sank into the shadow and found himself floating in a dark space; he could still see the part of the cave he was in and the quickly approaching spiderlings.
Phil was reconsidering calling them spiderlings since when he saw the spiders they have grown in size, they are now as big as an adult human head and that is just their body.
'What do I do now?'
'Just move to where you want to. I advise you to move like you are swimming underwater if you find it difficult to walk inside the shadows.'
Phil tried walking first but find it hard to do so, he felt like he was walking on a treadmill, in the action of walking but not moving in place. So he decided to swim, although difficult since he felt like he was swimming in treacle.
Phil slowly progressed and witness the spiders heading towards the location he was in when he used his senses. Spending an amount of time in the shadow, Phil was quickly getting tired.
'Can you tell me why I'm more exhausted walking in the shadow for a shorter distance than running from the entrance of the cave towards here?'
'Simple, you are using more energy if you tried moving in the shadow than standing still, and running from the entrance until here did not cost you any energy points.'
'Can you tell me how much energy point I have left?'
'Sure, I can even have it like a UI in a game if you like it.'
Phil's vision was gone for a moment but came back again, but now he can see that there was a number as well as a yellow progress bar at the bottom of his left peripheral vision.
'15/20'
'Is this my energy count?'
'Yes. A word of advice, the energy count can go to zero and you will only be exhausted like running without resting for hours. Having the energy bar in the negatives though leaves you in a weakened state. In the weakened state, you cannot move your body and you will be assaulted by intense pain.'
'I see. Is there a cap for negative energy or will it just get lower and lower?'
'There is none, but for your safety, I advise you not to go lower than your current energy, what I mean is, for example, your energy which is 20 you should go no lower than -20 if you go lower than so it will bring an even more lasting pain resulting on permanent damage or worse your death.'
'Why is my energy so little, and I am using 1 energy point per meter of my travel inside the shadow.'
Phil glanced back at where he started and estimated the distance he had covered inside the shadow.
'Because you were not ready yet, this is one of the main reasons the being was reluctant in giving you power since it is easy to overdraft your power and end up hurting yourself.'
Phil stopped swimming and holding his place, he was trying to see how much was energy he is using when he is stationary inside the shadow.
After 30 seconds the bar lowered by 1 point.
'14/20'
Knowing that he had a small amount of energy, Phil chose to wait and have the spiders pass his location, and if there were stragglers from the herd he will devour them.
5 minutes later, Phil exited the shadow. He was sweating heavily and gasping for air, he was angrily looking at his energy bar.
'2/20'
I need to hurry up and proceed; I will be in trouble if the spiders came back since I don't have energy left.