Rolling from side to side, Hildebrant felt an oppressive feeling coming from old, wet walls that began to be covered with crimson blood vessels.
They crawled on the floor from behind the doors and pulsed as if blood still flowed through them, filling the room and taking roots in all gaps and crannies they touched.
In this small space with one bed, something began to slither from under his bed and when his eyes shot open, a faceless crimson figure with a thin body, four arms, and a long bestial snake tail watched him from above with fury and madness.
"Why did you run away Hill? Why!? We were so close to being together for eternity why did you need to destroy my efforts? Why!?"
Crimson's hands grasped his shoulder and lifted him from below the sheets. The grasp was not soft but hard and murderous breaking his bones and flesh in the process but not going deeper.
It was as if the creature feared letting him slip through his grasp.
"I tried so much, and they destroyed it. But don't worry I will find you and we will be together forever."
The faceless face that entered his vision was a blank slate of nothing but flesh. It was an unrecognizable and maddening image that would make many children cry but it did not stop here and face that before had nothing began to split in half.
When it finally opened like doors it exposed rows after rows of sharp teeth, but what stunned Hildebrant was ethereal crimson light that moved as sound came out.
"And no one will take you from me."
With struggle, Hildebrant eyes shot open and with raged breath sat down on the bed and grasped his chest.
It hurt.
His entire being, his bones, flesh, and skin still hurt even though all his wounds were already gone, healed in merely two days.
If he said such a thing to his teacher no one would believe him.
No normal human was able to recover from such injuries in such a short time but as an ascender, it didn't look to be a problem to even regrow limbs, eyes, or orgasm.
His body was extremely durable but not immortal.
Lowering his head he gazed at his lower abandonment that was not exposed and without any clothes.
His body was thin, devoid of any muscles or fat.
In a sense, he looked like a skinny skeleton.
Healthy skinny skeleton.
But at least my skin is no longer pale.
He pondered and then knowing he would be not able to fall asleep again took a book from the drawer and opened it.
The darkness surrounding him and shadows cowering his body were not a problem for a person like him, a person who lived in such an environment for a long time.
His eyes easily adapted to low light and then he read the title of the book.
Bible of Almighty.
Opening on the first page he began to read and ponder at the same time.
Chapter Two of the book of Mother.
Man stood still and gazed at the destruction, chaos, and death and the life his existence brought. He observed it all but as he watched the thing above him darken when he finally woke up and quickly hid under the dead body of the monster.
Heavens trembled and long-standing darkness cowered entire lands and submerged first man into its embrace, burrowing him, blinding him, and binding him under the monster.
At first, nothing happened.
Then, however voice whispered to the first man's ears.
"What a weak creature you are. Born from the blood of a monster, raised by the sunlight of death divinities and then attacked by primordial living. What a pity of a creature you are."
"Who are you?"
The first man asked with a whisper, afraid of speaking too loudly in this realm of silence.
"Who I am? I am your insecurity, your fears, and your cowardice. Let's run now so we do not need to be afraid of what you wanted to do from the beginning, didn't you? To run."
It hammered its answer to the first man's heart, but he refused with a weak tone.
"No."
He said and his insecurities and fear began to laugh.
"How can you say no when you don't know even your name? You call yourself you because you don't know better, you look at the world with nothing, but disappointing eyes and your body is weak aren't you worthless?"
The eyes of the first man shined in darkness as he stared into the distance. Even while blind he did not lose his senses and used his hands and feet to try to reach the corpse of the monster he remembered being not far away.
On his progress, insecurities laughed.
"Is this all you can do crawl on the ground?"
"I will crawl now, but when I learn how to run, will your mouth still be so open?"
On that, all insecurities did was laugh even more.
"If that is so, let's see who is faster, my mouth or your legs."
Hildebrant closed the book and contemplated the text he just read with closed eyes.
What did darkness represent?
Was it darkness in human hearts?
Insecurities that haunted all people from the depths of their souls?
From a normal human perspective, it was just a legend that mothers read to their children at night. For clergy, it was a partially holy text, but for ascenders, it was a manual holding many secrets.
Opening his eyes again he gazed at the cover of the book.
"What are you hiding?"
He muttered and then without his knowing night became day.