EPISODE 8: THE SIXTH RULE: 'FOR THREE DARK HOURS, HE WILL FIGHT TO DEFEND THE GATE THAT LIES AT THE BORDER BETWEEN THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT' PART I: AILEEN ARLENE ATLAS SABREFANG AND CONCORDIA KENYAH; THE CARRIER OF WORLDS AND THE DEFENDER OF THE DREAM REALM'S BORDER WALL
My Dad, Mom, Saito and Ariel appeared at the Dream World's final fortification. They looked around to ensure that we were all present. They noticed that Keiran and I were absent.
"Mom? Dad? Where are San and Keiran?" Ariel asked worriedly.
"San, that idiot! The Mirror Gate's Through And Through Function works by transporting the ones that access it to the location in the Dream World they intend to go to. San's kick made contact with the transdimensional energy flowing from Keiran's Nightbane. If the destinations they had in mind were not the same, they could be transported anywhere" Saito said worriedly.
"Tristran's interference huh? It certainly was unwelcome interference. Way to jinx yourself San!" my Dad clenched his fists angrily.
Suddenly, a girl with long blue hair and green eyes materialized beside them.
"Greetings to you your highnesses. Hello Saito, Ariel" she greeted my parents and sisters.
"Hello Arlene" Saito greeted.
"Dad, Mom, this is Aileen Arlene Atlas Sabrefang, the granddaughter of Fenrir Sabrefang and Aileen Arlene Atlas" Ariel introduced the girl before them.
"You're the spitting image of your grandmother" my Dad said.
"Thanks" the girl responded.
"Why are you here Arlene? Shouldn't you be offering support from the Castle Of Dreams?" Saito asked.
"That was the original plan. However, your brother contacted Concordia just before the rampage of the Nightmares began. We intend to utilize my ability and Concordia's to suppress most of the rampages. According to your brother, by correlating areas in this realm where the rampages of Nightmares are severe with reports in the Real World where reported mob activity seems to be peaking, we can locate the infiltration points where the veil between this world and the Real World has thinned enough to allow the Nightmares to invade the Real World" Arlene explained.
"I see. San sure is impressive when it comes to analysis. You should do what he says but remember, these Nightmares are not evil. They are just rampaging under the influence of the Solar Eclipse so do not use lethal force. I've already relayed this command to the other Dream Knights" my Dad said.
Arlene nodded.
"I'll return to Concordia now" Arlene said and disappeared.
She appeared at the first fortification, the Dream Realm's Border Wall. Concordia stood on top of the massive wall, her tailcoat twirling in the wind and her arms folded. She was surveying the area.
"Hello Concordia, I'm here" Arlene said.
"Thanks for coming Arlene" Concordia said gratefully.
"It doesn't appear the rampaging Nightmares have made it to the border wall of the Dream World yet" Arlene said.
"It's probably thanks to the Nightmare King and his Gamma Knightmares. He must have cut them off before they made it this far" Concordia said.
"The Nightmare King's pretty scary don't you think? The older Dream Knights still get shivers recalling the Battle Of Black Water Bridge" Arlene said.
"Thankfully, he is an ally now. How are the Nightbanes faring?" Concordia asked.
"The Dreamweaver and Princess of Dreams are faring well. Saito and Ariel are with them at the final fortification. I didn't see Keiran though and from the details of their conversation just before I materialized before them, San interfered with their warp and somehow managed to blow himself and Keiran to some unknown location" Arlene reported.
Concordia sighed.
"That San sure is an extremist. Can you locate them Arlene?" Concordia asked.
"Of course I can. The energy that flows within Dreamweavers is very rare and present only in the Nightbane Family. Locating them shouldn't be difficult" Arlene said.
"Then let's get things started before the rampaging Nightmares make it here" Concordia said.
"SUMMONING SIGIL! CARRIER OF WORLDS! CHRISTOPHER! APPEAR!" Arlene called.
In the next instant, a large screen materialized before Concordia and herself.
"Your sigil is named 'Christopher'?" Concordia asked.
"In Christian Lore, St. Christopher is rumoured to have carried God. His tale corresponds with that of the Greek Titan Atlas in Greek Mythology who is rumoured to carry the Sky" Arlene explained.
"Show me what you can do Arlene" Concordia said.
Arlene pointed to the screen.
"You should be able to recognize the Dream World's landmarks right?" Arlene asked.
Concordia nodded.
"Well, the energy flowing within Dreamweavers is predominantly golden in colour" Arlene explained.
"Predominantly?" Concordia asked.
"Well, different Dreamweavers also possess varying elemental affinities so there are slight variations in how their energy is displayed. The inner area of their energy appears golden, however, the outer layer will appear to match their elemental affinity" Arlene explained.
Concordia noticed six golden circles on the screen. Four of them appeared to be gathered in one spot. The other two appeared to be in a different location.
"These four are the Dreamweaver and Princess as well as Saito and Ariel" Arlene explained.
"According to this map, they are at the final fortification just as you said. The other two must be San and Keiran. They appear to be at the Eternal Mirror Gate in Nightmare territory and they appear to be surrounded by Nightmares" Concordia said.
"I've got to report this to the Dreamweaver and Princess!" Arlene said and communicated telepathically with my Dad and Mom. "There, done" she said.
"You can communicate with other Dream Knights telepathically as well?" Concordia asked.
Arlene nodded.
"What of the Nightmare King? Where is he now?" Concordia asked.
Arlene chuckled.
"Well…he's a bit of a special case. He's never shown up on my radar before" Arlene said.
Concordia seemed surprised.
"I've never been able to read his energy on my radar, however, there have been times when I've been able to detect his activities" Arlene said.
"How?" Concordia asked.
"See this region in Nightmare territory?" Arlene pointed.
Concordia looked and saw numerous dark spots.
"There's a vast number of Nightmares in that territory" she said.
"Exactly, but they are stationary in contrast to the wild movements of Nightmares in other locations" Arlene said and pointed to other locations on the screen where the dark spots were moving wildly.
"The implication therefore is that the stationary Nightmares have somehow been hemmed in on all sides cutting off their ability to move to other locations. Either that or they've somehow been immobilized. If we correlate that fact by measuring it against Nightmares capable of such a feat, the only answer is the Nightmare King and his Gamma Knightmares" Arlene explained.
"I see, makes sense" Concordia realized what Arlene was getting at.
"The Dreamweaver said the Nightmares currently rampaging are not really evil. They are merely acting under the influence of the Solar Eclipse so we are not allowed to utilize lethal force" Arlene said.
"I'll switch my sigil to stun and immobilize mode then" Concordia said.
"You know how to do this?" Arlene asked.
"Of course. It was a technique taught to my parents firsthand by the Dreamweaver himself. Apparently, a sigil only slays whatever its wielder wishes for it to slay. If I alter my intentions from slaying Nightmares to stunning and immobilizing them, my sigil will only inflict these stats upon the Nightmares without actually slaying them. I'll adjust the time length of the stun and immobilization effect to three hours" Concordia said.
"The length of time the Solar Eclipse will be rumoured to last? Fine then, it's about time we put San's plan into action" Arlene said as she made sweeping motions with her hands over the screen.
Her screen split in two. One screen displayed various reports from the Real World coming in from various News Broadcasting Corporations.
"This screen displays hotspots in the Real World where mob activity is reported to be peaking. By comparing reports, we can sift out rumours from actual hotspots" Arlene explained.
Concordia stared at the reports coming in from various News Agencies. As she watched, Arlene's sigil began to match multiple reports that were synonymous and assigned verifiable ratings to the reports. The greater the synonymy amongst the reports coupled with the number of reports concerning the same topic, the higher the rating of verifiability was. Reports with low verifiability were gradually eliminated.
"There are currently ten verifiable hotspots. According to these reports, all nine regions of Dream City are undergoing simultaneous attack by mobsters which we know are actually Nightmares. One more attack appears to be coming from the sea" Arlene reported.
"Wow, that was really impressive!" Concordia said with a look of admiration in her eyes.
"Next, we'll locate all areas within the Dream World where rampaging Nightmares are rampant" Arlene said as her sigil displayed incoming reports from Dream Knights regarding various battlefields within Nightmare territory.
"There are nine areas within the Dream World where rampaging Nightmares are rampant. The Eternal Mirror Gate is the area where the largest amount of Nightmares are infiltrating the Real World from" Arlene reported.
"They must be utilizing the Omega Gate" Concordia explained.
"The Omega Gate?" Arlene seemed surprised.
"It's one of the two facets of the Eternal Mirror Gate. The Omega Gate is where Zanfar was sealed until roughly twenty three years ago" Concordia explained.
"So there are ten areas in the Real World where the Nightmares are attacking and nine areas here where they are escaping from?" Concordia asked.
"Actually, I excluded the area where the Nightmare King and his Gamma Knightmares appear to have immobilized the rampaging Nightmares. That area should correlate with the area in the Real World undergoing minimal attack. Here are the final results once I overlap the images and correlate the data" Arlene said as the screens merged.
By matching the scale of rampaging Nightmares in the Dream World to the scale of reported mob activity in the Real World, Concordia and Arlene could now clearly see which areas in the Dream World had a portal of infiltration linked to a corresponding area in the Real World.
"According to my data, the coastal regions are suffering the worst of the attacks. The attacks appear to decrease in scale as they move further inland. The Nightmare King and his Gamma Knightmares appear to have contained the worst of the attacks. The infiltration point on his end should be linked to the area in the Real World where reports of mob activity is the least. The second greatest point of infiltration is the Eternal Mirror Gate. That area must correlate to the coastal areas in the Real World suffering the worst of the attacks" Arlene explained.
"Relay this info to all the Dream Knights" Concordia ordered.
"One step ahead of you. My sigil also has the ability to generate countless mini representations of itself. I've assigned a representation to all the Dream Knights" Arlene said.
"Then it's time to commence our counteroffensive" Concordia said as she tossed her briefcase into the air.
It opened and her bow and quiver began to fall out.
"I'll relay the images of all hotspots directly to your mind" Arlene said as images of all the hotspots appeared in Concordia's mind.
"KRAKEN ANDROMEDA! COORDINATED ASSAULT MODE!" Concordia roared as countless arrows materialized in the skies surrounding all the hotspots.