As far as his eyes could see, a carpet - black as soot - covered everything in sight. It was as if the entire area had been burned, and now only ashes remained - extremely cold ashes.
The Malvolent Star stretched his hand and allowed the black crystalline snow flakes to land on it. Unlike normal snow, this one didn't melt when it came into contact with skin. Instead, a frigid sensation cold enough to freeze the hottest of fires pervaded through his body - or that would've happened if he wasn't immune to the cold thanks to his [Frozen Heart].
Then, his eyes moved towards the mass of sprites circling above his four soul cores in a protective formation. He noticed that they were much fewer than he remembered. Considering that they were akin to the defensive mechanism of his soul sea and that he knew what the Abyssal Heart did to the Leonian Prince, the youth could speculate on what happened in his Soul Sea.
His focus changed towards the four floating crystals that made up his soul cores. They mostly looked the same as before. Key word - mostly; as they now had tiny dark veins stretched over them like an intricate lattice.
(Image)
The white-haired Sleeper touched the surface of one of the soul cores, and he could feel the dark lattice thrumming with power synchronously with the beating of his new heart, a strange and unfamiliar feeling.
Leaving behind the quartet of cores, his feet took him towards the two ice statues that stood all on their lonesome in the frozen tundra of his soul.
A semblance of emotion started to rear its head before being mercilessly crushed by cold logic - a result of his emotionally stunted mind - that dominated over his thoughts as he observed the defaced statues. Ugly cracks snaked all over the structures of the two statues; so damaged were they that the slightest disturbance might be enough to fully shatter them.
He tried on multiple occasions to fix them; unfortunately, no matter what he did, the statues would quickly return to their previous ruined appearance. Something was innately wrong with the statues' essences.
What? He knew not.
Moreover, he tried to try and make new statues to replace them. However, the statues that would get created had smooth, faceless features that made him feel unnaturally disturbed
Thus, he ended up leaving the statues of his mother and sister as they were.
He wondered over how much he lost while trying to escape from Leonia. The cerulean eyed male didn't believe that anyone other than him - and maybe Jet - would've survived down in Leonia. That whole place seemed like a death trap for the living. Which begs the question of how he ended up in that dead kingdom...
Before he could continue his ruminations, he felt a change happening in the world outside his Soul Sea.
With a sigh, he gave one last look at the near-crumbling statues before leaving his Soul Sea.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mal stared at the roaring fire as it roasted the meat of freshly slain Carapace Scavenger. Behind him came the sound of movement, indicating that his new female companion was waking up. Undoubtedly, thanks to the smell of roasted crab meat in the crisp morning air.
Unlike his first days in the Dream Realm, he wasn't concerned with the smell of the meat attracting the attention of more nightmare creatures since he was fairly certain that the current him was at the top of the Forgotten Shore's food chain. If more nightmare creatures came, then it was just more meat to eat.
"*Yawn* Morning Mal," said the half-awake brunette, stretching out her words in a drawl while rubbing her eyes. It was already pretty late in the morning, if the sun's position was anything to go by, but considering her condition when he found her, the youth let her have a few more hours of rest - he was in no rush.
It took a few moments for her to fully awaken - he hazarded a guess that the fragrant smell of cooked meat did most of the work.
"It smells really good," she said as she sat across him on the other side of the cooking fire, "but... is this all?"
She looked at the cooked meat, which was plenty enough to feed four people easily, with a look of disappointment and dismay.
"That was all that was left of yesterday's meat," he lied, his flat tone not revealing anything, "it will suffice until we can hunt for more."
Of course, he was lying through his teeth. He had used up all of yesterday's meat for the feast. This was freshly hunted meat with seven other Carapace Scavenger corpses stored in his [Pale Ring].
[8 slain Awakened Beasts. (D100 = 1, 16, 44, 55, 56, 64, 80, 93) (Acquired 1 Armor Memory & 1 Garment Memory.)]
Athena, or rather Effie, didn't share her Flaw with him, so he took the reasonable approach of limiting their consumption to normal 'Awakened' quantities until she opens up about it. One good thing about dulled emotional faculties was that guilt was almost nonexistent, which was good because he was going to be starving the poor girl for the foreseeable future.
"I guess," Effie said with a silent sigh before starting to eat her portion of the food.
The white-haired youth wasn't even done with a tenth of his when he noticed that his companion had already finished all of hers and was sneaking longing glances at his portion. When she noticed that he had caught her looking, the hazel eyed girl immediately began focusing on the fire like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
With an inaudible sigh, the young male Sleeper said, "Say, can you help me eat some of the food. It seems I still feel a bit bloated from last night's meal."
Faster than he could blink, the malnourished girl was already sitting next to him while devouring his portion of the food.
"Wow, your metabolism must be really slow, huh?" she said in between bites. It looked as if Christmas had come early for her.
"Yeah, it is," he said neutrally before continuing in his thoughts, 'compared to you, at least.'
Soon enough, the food was all consumed, and the fire was snuffed. Effie was cleaning the last bits of meat off of the sticks used to cook them while Mal was staring at the charred remains of the campfire, deep in thought.
"How long has it been since you entered the Dream Realm?" the white-haired youth said as he turned his attention towards the other awakened.
The hazel-eyed girl stopped picking at the pristinely cleaned stick and threw it away. She shrugged.
"Three days, more or less."
"What year was it when you entered?"
She thought for a moment before answering, "It just became xx48 when our batch entered the Dream Realm."
(A.N: the exact time period of shadow slave isn't really known.)
Then, she looked at the armored Sleeper weirdly, "Why? You speak as if..."
Her eyes widened as a realization dawned upon her.
'It is as I thought, my batch entered during the solstice of xx51. Thus, if my calculations are correct, I've been brought back three years into the past,' the male Sleeper surmised; however, before he could go further down that line of thought, he had some explaining to do. Thankfully, he had already prepared a backstory while she slept.
"I entered the Dream Realm on the Solstice of xx48, and I am not the only one," he said, looking at the girl straight in the eyes that widened considerably in response.
"T-Then..." her pupils trembled.
"I'm afraid that you have befallen the fate of countless others that have come before you," he shook his head, imitating an expression of sadness, "stranded in the Forgotten Shore with no hope of escape."
"Ha...ha ha... haaaa," Athena let out a few self-deprecating, hollow laughs before hugging her knees to her chest, "I never even had a chance, did I?"
'Well, this was not the reaction I was expecting,' thought Mal looking at the depressed girl, 'maybe I was projecting too much of the old Effie on her younger self. Now, what would a person without stunted emotions do in this situation?'
Suddenly, Effie felt a big hand gently pat the top of her head, "There, there."
"What are you doing?" She was genuinely confused at what the armored giant was doing.
"Consoling you?" To Effie, it sounded like even he wasn't sure of what he was doing. The situation inexplicably looked humorous to the sickly teen.
A snicker involuntarily escaped her.
"First time consoling a girl?" she said, a teasing smile on her lips.
"Not gonna answer? Fair enough."
The pale girl stood up and fully observed the environment around them.
"This is the Forgotten Shore, huh?" She turned towards Mal, who was now standing next to her admiring the scenery, "What am I supposed to do now?"
Cerulean eyes met her hazel ones and kept the contact for a few seconds before looking at the scenery again, "Realistically? Grow stronger and avoid becoming monster food."
She eyed his damaged yet still imposing armor and sighed.
"Easy for you to say, all geared up in that fancy armor. You legacy kids sure have it good."
Again, she felt a hand pat the top of her head, but this time, she also felt something enter her soul core.
"These should help keep you safe," she looked at the armored Sleeper with widened eyes asking a silent question: Why?
.
.
.
.
.
"A human life is worth much more than a few measly memories," he said, not looking at the girl. He then shrugged, "I was not using them anyways."
[Kassian's Resolve] began emitting light as it dissolved into a cloud of spinning stars. It had served him faithfully during his fight against the Fallen Prince, and now it was time for it to return to his soul to get repaired.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memory Name: Kassian's Resolve
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: IV
Memory Type: Armor
Enchantments: [Oath of Protection], [Bulwark], [Essence Regeneration]
[Oath of Protection]
Enchantment Description: You can swear an oath of protection towards someone to receive any damage they may receive upon their person. The wearer can also sense the location and life status of the subject of the oath as long as the oath remains valid. There can only be one subject to the oath at any one time.
[Bulwark]
Enchantment Description: Increases all the wearer's defenses exponentially.
[Essence Regeneration]
Enchantment Description: The gems on the armor allow for increased rate of essence regeneration for the wearer.
Memory Description: The Sword Saint Kassian, second-in-command of the great army of Leonia, was but an orphan roaming battlefields for items to pilfer from the dead and then sell for mere scraps when King Lionhart Leonin von Leonia found him and took him under his wing due to the talent the young king could see in the scavenger. Over the years, under the king's tutelage, the battlefield vulture grew to become a Saint of the Sword whose name resounded in all the realms.
For this great favor, Kassian devoted his life towards serving the royal bloodline of House Leonia and considered their life of greater value than anything - even his own. Thus, when the Lionhart ordered the suicidal march into the heart of the underworld, Kassian wordlessly matched his steps with his liege's as they walked into the maw of despair.
Against all odds, they had succeeded in getting the objective of their campaign but had suffered terrible losses. Kassian's soul had been heavily damaged when he defended his liege from an attack using his own body as a shield, which resulted in him being cripple and his soul regressing in rank.
Yet, misfortune seemed to continuously hound them since not long after they returned from their campaign, riots and uprisings began appearing all over the kingdom. With the king mortally wounded and the palace blocked off from all entry after the prince had his incident, it fell to him to try and keep Leonia from falling apart under its own weight. Yet, even as the darkness subtly corrupted his soul over the decades, he never wavered from his duty and kept a silent vigil over the royal palace in hope that one day he bloodline of House Leonia would again exit from its gates and usher them into prosperity again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The cloud of spinning stars immediately began being reconstructed into plates of pitch black armor. If one looked carefully, they could see a very thin black layer covering the armor like an aura. As if the presence of the memory itself absorbed the light of its immediate surroundings.
A few seconds was all it took for him to exchange armor memories.
(Image)
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Memory Name: Dark Knight Plate Armor
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Armor
Enchantments: [Hardened Plate], [One with Darkness], [Faded Glory]
[Hardened Plate]
Enchantment Description: The armor provides formidable physical defense.
[One with Darkness]
Enchantment Description: Allows for the wearer to seemlessly blend into darkness as long as they stand still.
[Faded Glory]
Enchantment Description: When the armor is at the brink of destruction, essence can be used to return the armor to its pristine condition for a limited amount of time. After the time limit passes, the armor is destroyed.
Memory Description: Armor of the formidable Leonian Knights who charged into battle with narry a fear in their brave hearts. Alas, when the darkness sank its fangs into them, the brave knights lost much of their sanity and faith in the God of War signified by their armor changing from vibrant crimson to pitch black.
Yet, even when their sanity and faith abandoned them, these knights continued to serve their duty in the depths of their long dead kingdom; shown by the faded gold markings that resisted the degradation of time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was not much, but it would serve him well in the Forgotten Shore, where the strongest nightmare creature was the Fallen Terror.
The cerulean eyed youth turned away from the scenery of the Coral Labyrinth and saw Athena looking at him with a strange expression.
"Gear up. We have to hunt if we want to eat tonight."
When he mentioned food, it was as if a switch was flipped inside her mind.
She forgot whatever reservations she had in regards to her newly received memories.
The rag she was wearing deconstructed into a cloud of spinning stars and reconstruncted into a set of leather armor consisting of a chest covering and dark pants that left her abdomen and arms exposed. On her left shoulder were covered with thin shoulder guards; the left one was lined with dark fur while the right one was topped with the skull of some sort of creature. Thick reddish gloves covered her hands up to her elbows and had a skull shaped forearm guard attached to it. Around her waist formed a leather battle skirt held firmly in place by a thick-buckled belt that wrapped around it. Encasing her feet were sturdy thigh-high steel-tipped boots.
(Image)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memory Name: Beast Hide Armor
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: II
Memory Type: Armor
Memory Enchantment: [Vehemence], [Grit]
[Vehemence]
Enchantment Description: Increases the wearer's strength.
[Grit]
Enchantment Description: Increases the wearer's endurance.
Memory Description: An armor favored by the various ruffians and thugs of Leonia due to its cheap price and functionality.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(A.N: A friendly reminder that most awakened don't know how exactly the enchantments on their memories work, or if there are any useful enchantments at all. They either take it to an appraiser of sorts or just ask the person they got it from in case they bought it - at least, that's as far as my information goes. If anyone has anything to add, for the clarity of their fellow readers, feel free to do so in the comments.)
The small girl didn't exactly make for an imposing figure just yet, but she had time to grow into her potential.
Next, similar to how the armor memory formed, two other memories materialized, an azure-colored spear and a ram-faced metal shield appeared in her right and left hands, respectively.
(Image)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Memory Name: Azure Spear
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Enchantment: [Warforged]
[Warforged]
Enchantment Description: Forged for war, this weapon is slightly tougher and sharper.
Memory Description: When the Fallen Legion fought, the spears were the first weapon to draw enemy blood.
Memory Name: Ramming Shield
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: II
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Enchantment: [Stubborn], [Ramming Speed]
[Stubborn]
Memory Enchantment: Provides minor protection against mental attacks.
[Ramming Speed]
Memory Enchantment: Increases the speed and force of the user when they are charging with the shield in front of them.
Memory Description: What is the natural defense mechanism of an incensed goat? Ramming their foes with their horns.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With all her new gear equipped, Athena finally felt like a proper awakened. It also helped that upon wearing the armor memory, she felt stronger and more energetic than she had felt in years since being born.
She looked up at her companion with an excited expression only to see him staring down at her with his cold cerulean eyes - the only feature of his face that she could see through the eye slits of his black helmet.
"If you are done admiring yourself," he said, his voice not betraying any emotions or thoughts, "we have to move while there is still sunlight to burn."
The lack of reaction poured cold water over her excitement, "Spoil sport." She sighed and looked down at the distance they had to climb down to reach the ground. "So how are we going to get down? I was barely able to climb up yesterday."
Instead of a reply, she felt an armored hand wrap around her waist, and before she knew it, she had air blowing past her face as they both were falling down to the muddy ground below.
"Maaaaaaaal! You ass-!"
Before she could finish screaming, her mouth was covered by his other armored hand.
Splat!
They contacted the ground and splattered mud all over the surrounding area, but luckily, none of it landed on them.
Once they landed, the white-haired youth let go of Athena, who stumbled forward as she tried to gather her bearings.
She suddenly turned and started pointing her finger at him, "Why the hell did you do that for? We could've broken every bone in our bodies!"
"But we didn't."
He shrugged and said, short and to the point.
"And it was the fastest way down."
She stared at him, her mouth opening and closing several times before finally letting out an exasperated sigh. "I can't fucking believe that I am stuck with this nutjob for a companion."
Athena scratched her head for a few seconds before looking at the taller Sleeper, "Look, I know you have experience under your belt from surviving here for a whole year but can you at least tell me before pulling another stunt like this?"
.
.
.
"Okay."
"Good enough, I guess," she said, a before turning towards the imposing Coral Labyrinth.
"So? Which direction do we go?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Squelch* *Squelch* *Squelch* *Squelch*
The mud squelched beneath their feet as the duo walked through the confines of the Coral Labyrinth. It has been a good while since they left their camping site and began exploring.
Unfortunately, the cerulean-eyed youth didn't spot any distinctive landmarks to determine their location.
"Hey," those were the first words his companion had spoke since they entered the Labyrinth, "I never said thank you for saving my skin yesterday. Sooooo... thank you. For the memories too, I'll find a way to repay you - if I stay alive long enough."
He moved his head momentarily to glance in her direction. She seemed to be trying to cope with her nervousness through small talk; something that he was willing to go along with if it helped her better acclimatize with her new environment - after all, she was going to live here for the foreseeable future.
"No thanks needed, it was natural to help another human in the Dream Realm," he said, facing forward again, "this place is hostile enough for humanity without us trying to kill off each other in petty squabbles."
She hummed as she nodded her head in acknowledgement.
"I would have been able to manage if this place was like anything that they taught back in the Academy. That nightmare creature was far too strong."
"I can't blame you since an Awakened Beast would give most Sleepers a run for their money."
This made Athena stand stock still for a few seconds in shock before recovering and running back next to her companion. He noticed that she stuck closer to him than before.
"A-Awakened Beast?" she said, looking at him incredulously while unconsciously holding her shield closer to her body, "you're joking, right?"
"I'm afraid not," he said before his [Soul Sight] picked up the movement of a few souls up ahead, "the nightmare creature that tried to kill you was an Awakened Beast called Carapace Scavenger. Its apparently at the bottom of this place's food chain. Now, stay sharp. We have company."
True to his words, the next second, a group of three Carapace Scavengers emerged from around the corner ahead of them. Both the nightmare creatures and the humans stood silently for a moment as they gazed at each other - well, one human did.
A dull thud echoed in the silence as the biggest of the Carapace Scavengers fell under its legs unceremoniously with a black spear lodged into its face. Suddenly, as if possessing a will of its own, the spear pulled itself back from the dead nightmare creature's face and returned to the expecting hand of its master.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D100 = 18)
[Your soul grows stronger.]
"One down," was all the armored youth said as he held onto Frostmourne which was in its [Black Spear] form.
Essence moved in his body and entered his left heart. He exhaled, releasing a chilling mist from his mouth and pointed the index and middle finger of his left hand pointed upwards.
Immediately under the feet of the nightmare creature to the left of the dead scavenger, rose numerous frozen spears that easily pierced through the nightmare creature's softer underbelly. Then, he spread his hand open and thousands of smaller needles erupted from the ice spikes and ravaged the mushy innards of the scavenger. It continued thrashing for a few more seconds before it stopped and died.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger.] (D100 = 99)
[You have acquired a memory, Soldier's Insignia.]
[Your soul grows stronger.]
"Two down." His grip closed and the ice pillar that were puncturing the nightmare creature shattered away causing its corpse to fall to the ground.
Having lost both its leader and one of its kin in such a short span of time, the last (and smallest) Carapace Scavenger simply stood there, its twisted beastly brain trying to make sense of what just occured.
"Give me a moment," the Malevolent Star said as the spear in his hand morphed, returning Frostmourne to its original appearance. Then, he lunged at the sole remaining Carapace Scavenger.
Noticing the advance of the armored human, the nightmare creature raised its pincer in a commendable effort to squash the meat bag into mush.
Bam!
Mud spurted everywhere once the scavenger's pincer came into contact with the ground. Thanks to his heightened reflexes, the cerulean eyed youth could see the nightmare creature's actions and trajectory of motion as if watching a slowed down video. This allowed him to easily sidestep the blatant choreographed attack.
'Typical of a mere beast,' he thought before slicing at the upper part of the attacking limb with his mourneblade. Frostmourne cut through the tough chitinous membrane of the Awakened Beast like a hot knife through butter. The cut was so immaculate that the creature didn't feel that it lost its limb until blood began gushing out of the severed area.
Then, he began the process of systematically de-limbing the nightmare creature until only its torso remained. He didn't kill the scavenger as he had other uses in mind for it.
Like a puppy denied its treat, the mourneblade complained in its own way in being denied the soul of the wounded scavenger, which prompted the Lich King to desummon it.
With a thought, the black-blood painted ice penetrating the nightmare creature shattered and vanished causing the held corpse to fall into the mud unceremoniously.
He was lucky that the mud had enough moisture retained in it that he could easily use his [Frozen Heart] with minimal essence expenditure. Otherwise, doing a similar feat in a dry environment was not something he was able to do at his current level - in the end, being a Dormant ranked awakened was his limitation.
He sighed, once upon a time, these monsters used to be a geniune threat for him; however, so much time spent fighting against Fallen nightmare creatures changes a man. He moved towards each of the scavenger corpses and promptly stored them in his [Pale Ring] so as their smell doesn't attract more attention to them.
Turning back towards his brunette companion, he found her still in her place, holding her spear and shield with a look of awe stuck on her face.
"Hey!"
Mal's loud voice broke Athena out of her trance.
"Get over here," he said, now standing next to the limbless scavenger. He motioned with his hand for her to come closer.
"B-but that thing's still alive," she pointed her spear in the direction of the abused nightmare creature.
"Exactly the point; now, come here."
Deciding to trust the apparently more experience awakened, the hazel-eyed girl took tentative steps forwards until she was standing next to her companion, a few meters from the amputated scavenger.
"Alright," he said, his black gauntlet's finger pointing at her spear and then at the nightmare creature, "practice using your weapon on this scavenger."
She looked at the male Sleeper as if he had just grown a second head, "What?"
"You need to start learning how to fight somewhere since you apparently didn't do so at the academy," he said critically, "now, you have a prime target for practice - alive too. I'll reiterate, practice using your weapon on this scavenger."
Her cheeks reddened a bit at his remark, "It's not like I didn't try..."
She bit her lip as she looked at the pathetic looking monstrous crab. It was not an orthodox manner of training but she wasn't exactly in a situation to be picky.
"Fine... How do I do this?"
Mal mentally summoned two Darkspawn Knight echoes to secure the perimeter while he attempted to teach Effie the spearmanship.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a void beyond space and time, an unimaginably tapestry of golden strings floated peacefully in the great emptiness. Out of nowhere, violet lightning struck in the void shattering the peaceful, serene atmosphere as the void began moving against its will.
The strings at the ends of the tapestry began unweave themselves and then weave in join together in an entirely different weave.
The lighting increased and the void roiled even more by the change in the ever constant tapesty.
A large lightning bolt struck an empty space causing a portal of sorts to open from which a string, one that seemed to be encased in shadow formed from ou of nowhere and moved towards the tapestry.
It moved and joined with another strong, one that was eerily similar to it with the only difference being that shadows merely formed faint stripes over it.
A conflict arose between the two similar yet very different strings that ended in the shadow covered string's victory.
After absorbing the other, the new string inserted itself in the tapestry exactly where the previous one was.
When this process was finished, the void returned back to its previous peaceful state.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunless' POV:
Sunless gasped, his eyes opening wide like saucers.
"Where... am I?" he said, his voice low, dry and raspy as if he had just come back from a draught. He looked at the darkness surrounding him.
The sound of waves crashing reached his ears, 'Water?'
Thanks to his aspect, he could see perfectly well in the dark, which allowed his to witness the massive mass of black water that surged all around him.
Then, his ears picked up a rustling sound. With a snap, his head turned towards the sound where he found three figures soundly asleep.
'It- It can't be!" he couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. 'They couldn't be here, I saw them die with my own two eyes!'
He clearly remembered when his friends had died in the hands of the Undead Scourge.
Looking at the blind girl who looked much too young and delicate for a warrior, an image of a brave young woman fighting against a horde of undead beings with the firekeepers came to his mind which quickly transitioned to a memory of an undead version of her leading a similar horde while attacking an awakened cohort.
His eyes moved to the dark skinned, exotic beauty who was lying on the ground with a dissatisfied expression on her face. His features softened as he remembered how she sacrificed herself to give him the opportunity to strike against the Scourge Lord in a final suicidal attack.
Finally, he looked at the final figure. Nephis laid with her back to a massive trunk while holding a sword in her embrace in a guarded posture. An image immediately superposed over her figure; one in which the ever brilliant light in her eyes dimmed as she was run though by the Scourge Lord's wicked weapon.
His hand reached towards his heart where the Scourge Lord had plunged his blade. A shiver ran down his spine when he remembered the cold, indifferent look in those cerulean eyes - as if his existence itself was not even worth noting.
He now felt the thick film of sweat that had formed over his back. His mind raced as he tried to rationalize his situation. Then, his mind came to a halt, 'Wait...'
Shimmering runes formed in front of him from out of thin air. A brief glance confirmed his suspicions, which only served to further confuse him.
'I'm back to being a Sleeper again... How? I was certain that I died.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A.N: Hello, gentlemen and the sole lady that may or may not be reading this, I hope you enjoyed the new chapter.
Leave a review for future readers, would you kindly.
Until next time, I hope you all good physical and mental health.
Sincerely,
John_Doe_777