"So um Eclaireuse Ma'am, can I ask you a question?"
"What do you want to know kid?"
"Can you transform into a soul form? I once met an artifact that can transform into a soul form and I'm just curious if you can transform into one."
"I can. But why would I transform for you? For an artifact to manifest its soul form, a part of its soul is needed to create a body, and that results in the artifact weakening. Weak artifacts can manifest their soul form in a short time and the cost in doing so will be their whole existence. I do not see why I should show you my soul form in that case."
"I'm sorry Ma'am I'm just asking."
I sighed, missing the times that I could banter with En. I tried calling for En a couple more times but just like the last time, he did not answer.
"Ma'am, do you know why En is not speaking with me?"
"En? whose En?"
"His a voice I can hear inside my head after receiving power from an unknown being."
"Kid, are you sure you don't have any condition or are a bit insane? If so I would like to return to reality."
"No, I'm not insane."
I carefully put the sextant on the grass and tried to dive into the shadows.
"Watch."
I dove inside the shadow successfully and emerged a couple of meters away from the sextant.
"See! I have powers like this."
"You do know we are inside a dream don't you?"
The sextant started floating towards Phil.
"Look at me, even I can float towards you. What's the difference between this and that superpower you have?"
I was speechless, my mouth was wide open unable to utter a rebuke on what the sextant has said.
"Maybe you're hallucinating kid. Have you ever heard this En while you are in the real world?"
"N-n-no, but that's because he hibernates when he enters the real world."
"Sure kid."
I can picture out the soul form of the sextant smirking at me.
"Whatever you say."
I was angry that Eclaireuse did not believe what I was saying. How dare she treat me like a lunatic, I clenched my fist and tried to deliver a blow towards the sextant, just once, I wanted to hit her.
"Woah, feisty aren't cha."
She dodged easily and returned a punch on my head instead.
I grabbed my aching head and felt a bump on the part where the hit had landed.
How did she even throw a punch at me? I glanced at the sextant and saw a fist made from a shadow with white speckles that were sparkling on it.
"Relax kid. I'm just joking with ya. Truth is, I don't know why that thing you're calling En is not answering you. Maybe it went away for the moment and would return after some time, I don't know."
She was right, I believe what she had said. I know En did not leave me since I still had the power given to me by the mysterious being, and the energy bar that I can see on the bottom of my vision is the proof of that. But where did En go to, and why didn't he tell me that he was going away.
I sighed once more, I decided not to wait for En. I wanted to see if Eclaireuse can really ward off the miasma so that I can travel safely inside of it.
"Ma'am I want to try and travel inside the miasma. I would like to see how big of space can you ward the miasma, I need to write it down to prepare for the next expedition."
"Okay, I like the sound of that. Not too rash to just travel the miasma after knowing he can bring the artifact inside his dream, and careful enough to prepare for his next expedition. My thoughts about you just went up, you are just like my previous owner."
I could hear Eclaireuse's laughter ring inside my head, but I could not help but notice that deep inside her joyful laughter was a hint of sadness. I did not try to ask about her owner, I felt it was disrespectful trying to ask about her past when we just started to converse with each other.
I found myself in front of the miasma once more. My heart could not help but palpitate as I remembered what had happened to me the last time I tried to travel inside the miasma, thankfully someone helped me at that time or I would have turned into a breeding site for those nightmare origins, I shivered on the thought of that.
"Hey, are you chickening out kid?"
"No, I just remembered a horrible experience when I tried to travel inside that without any protection."
I pointed towards the slowly billowing miasma. Screams and growls from different nightmare origins can be heard from where I was standing, I could sometimes see some of them emerge and dive back into the miasma on my peripheral vision. I could feel them staring at me hungrily, waiting for me to go inside the miasma so that they can pounce at me and make me into a breeding nest.
"This place is really weird kid! I haven't seen a place much more terrifying than this. Trust me, I have sailed across the seven seas but this place is the most terrifying of them all."
Eclaireuse's observation did not help me calm down at all, in fact, I was slowly having second thoughts about doing the experiment since I'm not too sure that Eclaireuse can ward off the miasma at all.
"Hey, Eclaireuse, are you sure you can ward off this miasma?"
"Yes I can, I have a strong soul force...maybe."
"Hey, even you are not sure you can ward it off?!"
Ugh, Where was En when I wanted him the most? He would have a rational explanation about now if he was here.
"Let's just try kid. I have never seen this thing before so I'm not too sure, but I'm sure I can protect you for a couple of seconds, enough for us to run away if I can't ward the nasty thing off."
I thought hard about it and felt that what Eclaireuse had said was true. I was here to test how large the area of the effect she can ward off and not dive straight ahead towards the abyss.
"What do I need to do?"
"That's the spirit kid! All you need to do is keep the sextant near you and I will do the rest."
"Okay."
I answered and breathed out. I reached out towards the floating sextant and hugged it with one hand. The sextant started glowing and a bubble of golden aura spread out 10 meters away from me.
I could not help but be mesmerized by the golden bubble, I could see various constellations and cosmic formations on it.
"Woah! This is so beautiful."
"Nice to see you like it kid. This was the night sky I saw whenever I and my owner travel on the seas, the constellations from different seasons as it encompasses our world. Beautiful isn't she."
I nodded. The feeling of fright vanished due to the influence of the golden bubble, the miasma started to dissipate as it made contact with the bubble. I was very happy that Eclaireuse can indeed ward off the miasma.
"Okay let's try heading in and see if the bubble can hold out."
"Sure kid."
I clutched the sextant near my chest as I slowly dove down the miasma.
I watched as 10 meters around me were cleared from the miasma, I tried bumping into some low-level nightmare origins and see what their reactions may be. Small nightmare origins like a floating eye kept their distance from me, while those who had no eyes or anything to use as a perception organ bumped into the bubble, and with a scream or writhing, dissipated into a cloud of black smoke.
I saw some stranded figures floating on the shallow part of the abyss, the corruption was still slowly spreading unto them they were not completely black as some parts of them were still light gray. I wanted to save them by bringing them inside the bubble, but whenever I get close to them, the nightmare origin that had made its nest inside the figure would come out and push the figure out of the way at an astonishing speed. I wanted to chase the nightmare origin intending to save the stranded but Eclaireuse stopped me.
"Stop it, kid. We could not save that guy. This is their domain and not ours, what you are trying to do might bring us to a dangerous predicament leading to our deaths. Remember we are here to know the limits of my abilities and not save every stranded that comes our way."
"I-I-I okay."
I watched as the nightmare origin vanish into the murky waters of the abyss with the partially corrupted stranded in tow. I could not help but think, about how would I save Eric's mother if by some chance I would see her. Her body should be the same or even worse than the stranded I had just seen. What should I do then? Should I try and fight the nightmare origin?
The more I think about it, the more impossible it was to save Eric's mother. I don't even have enough power to save Annie and needed the assistance of an artifact to sacrifice itself just to win with her nightmare origin, and that was just after entering the twilight zone. Eric's mother should have sunk deeper so her nightmare origin should be a couple of times stronger than Annie's. The more I know about this, the stronger my resolve to not tell Eric about using an artifact to travel safely inside the miasma and look for his mother.