On a battlefield, heavy with the smell of blood and surrounded by fresh casualties, a figure stood at 1.8 meter, looking about 16 years old. He was dressed in a compression long sleeve shirt, with an AK-47 slung across his shoulder. His attire was completed with standard military boots and jeans. The grim setting and his demeanor made it clear that this young man had been a part of the harsh reality of combat, having taken many lives.
A voice, emerging from seemingly nowhere, targeted the young man amidst the corpses. "It's amusing really, considering that apathetic look of yours, any of these soldiers had more to live for than you. So why trample over them, war or not? Unlike you, we can both agree they had more of a right to live than you!" The voice carried a tone of accusation and scorn, piercing the heavy silence of the battlefield.
Suddenly, a blood moon appeared in the sky, surrounded by a serpentine outline. The serpentine opened its eyes, filled with scorn and baleful hatred towards the young man below, who still had a casual expression as if he had experienced this exact moment hundreds of times.
On closer inspection, the serpent coiled around the moon revealed more details. Its scales were a deep purple hue, contrasting with its azure pupils that narrowed into slits, exuding a menacing presence. The enormous body wrapped tightly around the moon, emphasizing its massive size. Additionally, it possessed a set of sharp, jagged teeth, adding to its fearsome appearance and reinforcing the sense of danger it posed to the young man below.
The serpent spoke again, its voice dripping with contempt. "You know, I truly despise you immensely. You have no yearning for life, yet you callously trample on the lives of those who do have something to live for. You're nothing but a slightly larger rock on the road of life, obstructing the path of those who deserve to live!"
After a moment, the young man responded, his brows furrowed in curiosity. "It's weird. You put me in this dream-like world once a week, in the body of a stranger who admittedly looks a bit like me, but not exactly. Let's see, he's taller, more muscular, not to mention the scars all over his back. But you still try to convince me I'm this fictional person? Yeah right." His tone was skeptical, questioning the serpent's assertion and the reality of the surreal situation he found himself in repeatedly.
The serpent went quiet for a moment.
Ignoring the silence following his words, the young man continued, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield. "There's also the fact that you've always wanted me to kill myself because of the actions of this fictional character, which is even weirder." His voice carried a tone of bemusement mixed with disbelief, highlighting the absurdity he felt about the serpent's intentions and the bizarre, recurring situation he was thrust into.
Sunny felt a sense of helplessness regarding these dream-like encounters with the strange serpent. These dreams had been a part of his life since he was around 8 or 9 years old, occurring once a week. For several years, his ability to interact within the dream was limited; he was essentially trapped in this other body, unable to exert much control or influence over the dream's events. This recurring experience had become a perplexing and unsettling aspect of his life.
Needless to say, for a young Sunny, being trapped in a body over which he had no control was deeply traumatizing, especially considering the body's striking resemblance to his own and its involvement in war scenarios. Even now, Sunny remained astounded by the vivid realism of these dreams, the intensity and detail so profound they left a lasting impact on his psyche.
Sunny often contemplated the possibility of the dream being real, but several glaring inconsistencies made it too far-fetched. Apart from the appearance, the most obvious discrepancy was the age inconsistency. He had determined multiple times that the body in the dream was 16 years old.
However, as far as his own reality was concerned, when he was 16, he was living a typical high school life, far removed from the war-torn scenarios of his dreams. This stark contrast between his actual past and the experiences of the dream character reinforced his belief that these dreams were purely fictional, albeit disturbingly vivid.
From another angle, the reassurance that the dreams were fictional unnerved Sunny more than he cared to admit. Deep down, the persistence of the serpent in pushing the narrative that the dream character was actually him raised unsettling questions.
If it was clear that the character was fictional, then what was the serpent's true objective in insisting otherwise? This lingering doubt created an undercurrent of fear and confusion in Sunny, as he grappled with the possible motives behind these bizarre and recurring dream encounters.
The serpent squinted its eyes and flashed a menacing grin. "I know your deepest fears, brat, and it won't be long before it's time," it said, its voice echoing as if reading Sunny's thoughts, adding a sense of foreboding to the dream.
"Before it's time for wha—" Sunny began, but before he could finish, the world around him started to fracture like glass. The blood moon shattered into pieces above him. His expression turned to one of terror; clearly, this was an unprecedented occurrence in his recurring dream.
-Thursday 8am-
Sunny abruptly sat up in bed, his forehead covered in beads of sweat, knuckles clenched tightly. He muttered to himself, "It's been a while since that damn snake managed to get one up on me!"
Meanwhile in the abnormal dream world....
A woman emerged from the void, a striking figure with waist-length green hair. Her golden eyes, featuring red slit pupils, gave her an otherworldly appearance. She wore a blue robe, which contrasted with her white, somewhat baggy pants, and her feet were adorned with light, blue feather-like boots. Her expression was serious, her lips downturned and brows furrowed.
Upon noticing the woman, the serpent's previously gleeful expression vanished, replaced by a more guarded demeanor. The shift indicated a significant change in the dynamic, possibly due to the woman's presence or influence.
The woman's eyes narrowed into slits as she addressed the serpent with a fiery tone. "You goddamned snake, you just love getting beat up, don't you?"
Sensing the situation turning against its favor, the serpent snorted dismissively and made a swift move to burrow into the void, attempting to escape the impending confrontation with the woman.
The woman extended her hand, which was large enough to eclipse a moon, demonstrating her immense power. Despite the serpent having traveled a great distance in its attempt to escape, it found itself only meters away from her, as if space itself had bent to her will. Held firmly within her grasp, the serpent was squeezed effortlessly, like a plush toy, showcasing the woman's overwhelming strength and control over the situation.
With a mere wave of her hand, the woman transformed the environment, conjuring a vast starry sky around her. In this celestial space, she appeared as a giant, her size immense enough to overshadow planets. After crushing the serpent, she hurled it towards a planet. Then, she unleashed a barrage of meteor-like fists upon it, each blow landing with the force of a cosmic event. This display of power emphasized not only her physical strength but also her ability to manipulate and reshape this dreamscape.
The serpent, under the relentless assault, finally yelled out, "That's enough! You've had your fun, so let's stop here this time. Don't push me too far."
The woman, floating in space with her arms crossed, snorted dismissively at the serpent's plea. "I better not catch you messing with the kid again, or even if I have to use all of my aether, I'll seal you away so thoroughly you'll never even have the chance to enact your petty schemes to leave Earth earlier," she warned.
The serpent swiftly tunneled into the void, eager to exit this part of the dreamscape. As it retreated, its thoughts were deep and calculating. 'Damn, as expected of the transcendent. Though she's weakened, even in a bizarre place like this universe, she can wield so much aether. It matters not, it won't be long until I kill that brat and we leave this bizarre realm,'