Seele's eyes flickered from one spot to another, watching as the shadowy silhouettes of horrific abominations moved from one point to another. They Nightmare Creatures stayed hidden, not once revealing their terrifying forms of teeth and claws.
Seele tightened her grip on her scythe. She had been in fights before: in the Underworld, battles against the Fragmentum monsters was quite common. Not only that, but she sometimes had to deal with troublemakers that only caused more issues.
However, the enemies she had fought before were predictable. After fighting against the Fragmentum a couple times, learning their patterns wasn't too difficult. It got to the point where even normal humans could fight against them. They all took on similar forms, never taking Seele by surprise.
Unfortunately, Seele had no idea what was inside the jungle before them. Despite her experience, she was only used to fighting a certain type of enemy — to the point of mastery, actually. The only thing that would be carried over now is her understanding of combat as a whole.
Sifting her eyes across the wall of trees and vines, Seele gave her scythe a little twirl. Although she had never used it in a fight before, one of her Attributes made her much more dexterous with her hands. As such, she was able to wield it with a certain amount of proficiency.
"On the count of three, run to the left side of the jungle."
Sunny spoke in a low tone, evidently cautious of the unknown monsters residing in the jungle, preparing to jump them at a moment's notice. For some reason, this island was especially hot, causing a thin sheen of sweat to cover Seele's forehead.
Or maybe she was just nervous.
"3."
Seele bit her lip, snapping herself out of her trance. If she made even a single wrong move, she would die.
All for some flowers!
"2."
[If you don't want to see them, you could just bail out now. I'm sure Sunny wouldn't mind.]
'…You know better than anyone why I can't do that.'
[Then switch with me. I'll deal with anything that gets in your way.]
'…Fine.'
They had agreed to have her other self take the reins. Otherwise, Seele would have only been limited to her Awakened Ability. In that case, it would be extremely difficult to face foes that were much stronger than her.
"1."
Seele activated her Dormant Ability… before finding herself in a sea of flowers, laying on her back. Butterflies fluttered around her, disturbed by her sudden appearance.
Seele sat up, watching as the butterflies returned to her position. They rested on different points of her body, enshrouding her in purple and red. She narrowed her eyes.
"Get off."
Surprisingly, the butterflies listened to her command. They fluttered their wings as they perched on the flowers within her soul sea, with others simply gliding through the air. Seele looked up at the night sky above her.
Above the sprawling sea of flowers, where petals fluttered in the soft, whispering breeze, two moons hung in the sky, their luminous glow casting an ethereal radiance across the land. The first moon, a deep, tranquil blue, hung like a silent sentinel in the heavens, its pale light cool and distant. The second, a fiery red, rose beside it, burning with an intensity that seemed to pulse with life. The two moons, locked in their celestial dance, shared their light in a delicate interplay — blue and red beams crossing, mingling, and bouncing off each other in a mesmerizing display.
Where the light met, the world beneath seemed to shimmer and change, as if the flowers themselves were alive with color, their petals painted in hues both soft and surreal. The sea of blooms stretched endlessly, the flowers swaying in unison as if caught in some ancient rhythm of the earth. Blue and crimson light rippled over them, casting long, delicate shadows that stretched like fingers over the ground. It was as if the very fabric of the night had come alive, suspended in the quiet balance of light and color.
The air was thick with the scent of blossoms, but even that seemed to shimmer in the moonlight, carried by the soft hum of a world that held its breath, waiting. The blue moon offered a sense of calm, a gentle promise of peace, while the red moon brought a touch of fire, a sense of untamed energy that vibrated through the air. Together, they created a world of impossible beauty, where the night was not just dark, but full of light.
Seele sighed, falling on her back as her other self took control of their shared body. She wouldn't be able to return to the real world until her Dormant Ability was deactivated.
Fortunately, she would be able to see the real world from here, which wasn't the case when she was a Sleeper.
Seele just hoped that her Flaw could show a little restraint.
***
Seele(?) ricocheted between trees, dancing between vines and branches. A beast that seemed like a red, striped cat lunged at her as she rushed through the jungle, causing her to avoid it's powerful jaws by jabbing the end of her scythe into the ground — using it as a pole to propel her upwards.
The massive cat landed on the ground, it's head crashing against the moist ground of the jungle — smearing it in mud. Seele(?) lashed out with her war scythe, causing the weapon to rotate at terrible speeds as it hooked under the neck of the tiger, slicing through the lines of death as the beast was decapitated in a flurry of butterflies.
[You have defeated a Fallen Monster, Vermillion Tiger.]
[The boundary between life and death grows thinner.]
Seele(?) felt her one of her cores absorb the residuals of the creatures life, while the other one absorbed the remnants of it's death. She had grown used to this sensation of empowerment, having fully saturated her cores as a Sleeper.
She did not have time to think about the announcement from the Nightmare Spell, as another monster lunged at her the moment she killed the last. Hanging from a branch with it's long, slithery tail, a snake larger than a dozen people bared it's fangs at her, threatening to swallow her whole.
Before it could attempt to sink it's venomous fangs into Seele's(?) pale skin, a graceful, female knight made of marble grabbed the snake with it's hands. It couldn't completely wrap her gauntlets around the massive serpent, which allowed it to coil around her body, giving it a chance to crush the knight via constriction.
'Is that one of those Echoes?'
The soul of the beautiful stone knight wasn't the same as the souls of other Nightmare Creatures, tainted and defiled. Instead, the marble knights soul was pristine, with a soul that consisted of those black orbs she had seen from Sunny's shadows.
Speaking of his shadows, two of them appeared from the corner of her eye, wrapping around the stone knight. Suddenly, the snake hissed as it's hold was being resisted. The hands that held onto it's enormous body clenched around it's scales, crushing a chunk of it in a burst of blood and gore.
Seele(?) had no time to ponder about whatever had just happened, as she was being assaulted by multiple creatures at once.
'What a drag…'
She activated her Awakened Ability, suddenly appearing at different places without even moving. Butterflies that seemed to be manifested out of energy fluttered around — the world seemingly standing still. Purple afterimages of herself remained in spots where she had previously stood, unmoving as they stood in a different stance.
The afterimages faded away, reforming into even more butterflies. The jungle was obscured by the fluorescent insects, creating a sense of beauty in this horrific island of natural selection.
The beasts that attempted to eat her alive were minced into several pieces, having been attacked without Seele(?) having ever touched them. Her Awakened Ability allowed her to move from one point to another instantaneously, while being able to attack anything between those points.
It costs quite a lot of essence to use; especially if it was used repeatedly in quick succession on multiple enemies. Currently, one of her cores were only half full despite having not used any essence on anything else.
Seele(?) felt blood splatter on her head, causing her body to tense as she looked up. A broken smile spread across her face.
'This is… insane.'
Time seemed to move in slow motion as the abominations went into a free fall somehow, Seele(?) was able to keep track of everything that happened above her.
Sunny stabbed one in the skull with a stiletto, using it as a platform to avoid a carnivorous plant. The plant clasped it's maws around the creature, eating it in place of the boy. An ape wielding a massive tree trunk tried to crush him.
Just as the trunk was about to crush Sunny's head, he disappeared as a human shadow coiled around the the trunk. Once he reached the ape itself, he leaped out of the shadow, swinging a bat that had violent sparks of energy radiating from it.
The ape's skull was completely obliterated, turned into a mess of blood and brain matter. Sunny threw the bat at a mosquito that seemed to be the size of a human child, ending it's life in an instant.
White sparks danced around Sunny's wrist, forming into a bracelet. With a flick of the wrist, a small kunai attached to a string flew in the direction of a humanoid creature with crimson flowers sprouting out of it's body. Pulling on the string, the kunai wrapped around it's neck as the creature was pulled in Sunny's direction.
The bracelet and kunai disappeared, but the Nightmare Creature was still being flung in Sunny's direction. He threw his stiletto at a tarantula, piercing it's head as it started to twitch, curling in on itself before eventually going still.
Once the humanoid monster reached Sunny, the boy swung behind it by wrapping his arm around it's neck. He kicked off the flower-infested creature, sending it to Sunny's previous position.
Considering the fact that this entire sequence of events was happening in free fall, it was quite difficult to know where his previous position was. Rather, it was more like the monster was sent to where Sunny would have been if he kept falling.
The carnivorous plant from before devoured the monster, allowing Sunny to avoid his fate of being eaten himself. He landed on the ground, standing right next to Seele(?) who stared at him in disbelief. She looked at the lines that red lines of death that littered his body, intersecting much more than the average person.
Despite that, he had dealt with an entire group of abominations with nothing but his mind; all while not being inflicted with a single wound. She looked at the carnivorous plant, which had red puffs of air exiting it's mouth — almost like it was coughing.
In the next second, it fell, dying to whatever poison it had consumed from the flower-infested humanoid Nightmare Creature.
Sunny scowled.
"We caused a commotion. More Nightmare Creatures are coming, so we have to get out of here."
She nodded dumbly, watching as the stone knight dissolved into his shadow. She wondered if all echoes were normally summoned and dismissed in such a manner.
'…Seele, were you watching?'
[Of course I did!]
'Remember what I told you earlier? When you called me a jerk?'
[…I already told you, I don't need protection!]
Seele(?) could practically feel the embarrassment radiating off of the original Seele. Was what she had said really that strange?
'Fine. Don't blame me if you get yourself killed.'
If Seele could read some of Natasha's books, then maybe she would finally understand why this was so important!
[I'm not reading those, you idiot!]
As Sunny and Seele(?) sprinted in the direction that would lead them to the flower field, wondered why she was stuck with such a prude.