Wren suddenly opened his eyes in a different place, a place filled with darkness. Wren felt the same warmth he did when he was embraced by the darkness but, there was something else too, something that didn't like him. It was far away from but he could feel it's insane animosity towards him. Wren gulped.
'I do not want to meet whatever it is. But I also have some few more guests ahead of me.'
In front of him was dark burrow in this space less Abyss and behind it were beings he had sensed, but he knew that they had sensed him too. Sighing he summoned the Slayer of Shadows, and walked in front of the dark burrow. On inspecting it closely he realized it was not a burrow but rather a gateway like thing.
'I don't think, I should enter a suspicious gateway like this one.'
"But who cares? I will survive anyway."
He stepped in the gateway, and then his vision blurred and distorted, his mind was numb and his stomach was feeling nauseous. All this things ended when he had reached his destination, the place didn't changed but there were other beings present their aside from Wren. They looked like human but there bodies were covered with darkness and the sclera of their eyes was also pitch black while the pupils were pure white. They had claws and fangs too, there were also beings with mundane weapons, all of these were made up of darkness. They were no different from Nightmare Creatures.
As soon as Wren reached his destination, he was welcomed by these strange beings. Many of them were using their sharp claws or their fangs while the ones who had weapons were using it to attack him. But all these attacks didn't had pattern, they changed their attacks trajectory immediately. They were like darkness that devour anything in it's sight.
But Wren didn't falter, instead he responded with more furious attacks killing severals. At first, Wren had considered this place as a dream of his but he quickly dismissed it when a beast bit at his leg, Wren was surprised when the beast had damaged the Plotter's Cloak, a Awakened rank memory of six tier.
'This is getting dangerous.'
Wren kicked the beast at face, jumped back to create some distance between the horde and him only to get stuck in aerial attacks, he deflected it then augmenting himself with the darkness increased his speed by ten-folds and appeared in front of a beast who was carrying a spear, startled and losing it's usual cool the beast striked the spear aiming for Wren's heart but suddenly changed it trajectory to his head. But what the beast had hit was an after image as Wren had already jumped in air and had cut of it's head.
He then used the headless body and jumped in a higher position, augmenting him more. He increased his speed more, that he just appeared to teleport from the mid air to behind of several headless monster. He then dashed forward with immeasurable speed and attacked the beasts in front of him. But then something strange happened whip laced with spikes came and hit him on his face, tearing the skin of his left cheek revealing blood, nerves & vessels and muscles on it.
The injury was burning, the attack didn't only injured him but also stopped his rampage. Wren stared at the direction from where the attack had came from only to notice a figure with huge stature almost 4 meter, clad in heavy armor and heavy sword that can change it's shape into whip.
Wren was now once cornered, surrounded by the unknown beasts. While the humongous beast which seems like the leader of this cohort was just staring at him blankly but beneath those blank eyes was hidden a emotion... it was something Wren didn't know about and even if he knew he wouldn't be able to figure it out.
After killing for many hours, Wren was exhausted but the horde still look the same. While Wren was worn out, his attacks had become shallow and he had lost count of the number of best he had killed after one thousand nine hundred forty two.
Exhausted and cornered, Wren had a suddenly a dark thought.
'Should I use my Aspect but then my Flaw would-' "Argh"
Wren had initially disagreed with his thought, but now that he lost his left arm and lost his grip on the Slayer of Shadows. He just sighed and that is when one of the true horrors of Wren's Aspect had revealed itself.
A huge wave of blood lust suddenly burst out of Wren's body, every being there surrounding him to kill suddenly halted. Before they could realize about what was happening, their body was split in middle by a black moon crescent.
In The Abyss, stood a figure surrounded by multiple strange dark human like beings who shuddered in fear. The figure was none other than Wren, it was him and at the same time it was not Wren. It was his split personality, Ark, his First Flaw.
A single long mirthful laugh echoed in the never ending Abyss, Ark stared at the beings with a crazy expression on his face, he was The Maniac.
Ark was not a simple Flaw or personality, he was more like a twin brother of Wren that resided inside of him, in Wren's soul. The only way to distinguish between them is that Wren had grey eyes while Ark possessed pitch black eyes.
The Slayer of Abyss disappeared in sparks of light while a sword made of darkness appeared in Ark's right hand. With a crazy smile, he lunged at the beasts who now had recovered from their fear. A sword thrusted forward trying to decapitate him, but it was blocked by a shield that appeared out of the darkness. The beast wielding the sword saw the world upside down after it's sword collided with the shield.
***
In the Dream Realm, everyone were staring at a spot, the same spot where Wren was meditating on last night before he disappeared without anyone knowing.
Cassie and Nephis were confused, they stared at Sunny for some answers. Sunny stared them back for a moment, then sighed.
"Even I don't know where he disappeared, all I can say is that we need to move forward. To the West."
Although Nephis didn't show any expression on her face, she was doubtful of Sunny as he was the only person who interacted with him the most.
'His disappearance might be a trap, but if he really have disappeared in this cursed place, I worry about us when he appear in front of us, me and Cassie.'
"Let's move."
In the grey light of morning, they abandoned the tall hill and ventured west, retracing their steps from yesterday. Knowing the path, the small party made quick progress.
Nephis was walking in front, her sword arm ready to strike at any moment. A bit behind her was Sunny. This time, the responsibility of holding the golden rope and guiding Cassie along was entrusted to him.
Of course, the actual person... creature?.. leading them was his shadow. It scouted ahead, carefully observing the labyrinth for signs of danger. The labyrinth was just as it was before, confusing and seemingly endless.
Crimson blades of "coral" protruded from the black mud, creating a vast, tangled forest. However, today something about it felt different. It wasn't long before the shadow stumbled onto a mass of hulking, hungry scavengers...
***
After a few days since Wren's disappearance, the group had reached the giant statue. Sunny had grow stronger after getting trained by Nephis, Wren had taught him in combat arts, so Sunny helped Nephis to improve her combat arts.
Right now, Sunny was waiting for the blind oracle who had calmed down after the nightmare she saw in her sleep, to tell him and Nephis about her visions.
"Cassie? Do you feel better?"
Several seconds later, the blind girl slowly nodded.
'That's a relief.'
He shifted and hesitated for a bit. Cassia didn't look too well. Her face was still very pale, with a distant, dazed expression on it. Her body at least was no longer trembling. Sunny wasn't very good at talking to people, let alone placating them. He wasn't sure what to say. He cast a gaze at Nephis and sighed inwardly. Who knew that one day he would turn out to be the most sociable person for as far as the eye could see? What a joke...
"Can I have some water?"
Cassie turned to him and scowled, as though confused by the question. Then, she suddenly gasped and opened her eyes wide.
"Oh! Oh, sorry. Yes, of course..."
She summoned the limitless water bottle and offered it to Sunny. He took it with a grateful smile and greedily drank a few gulps before giving the bottle to Nephis. Eventually, it returned to Cassie.
"You drink some too."
After she did, he awkwardly patted the blind girl on the shoulder.
"Everything seems to be fine now. Uh... did you dream of another vision? You can tell us. If you want."
Cassie hesitated for a bit before saying:
"I... don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare."
Sunny and Nephis exchanged glances. They both doubted that what Cassie saw was a simple nightmare. After all, people usually did not dream in the Dream Realm. The blind girl, meanwhile, continued:
"I don't really remember. It's all in fragments."
Sunny carefully considered his words, not wanting to pressure Cassie too much.
"You can just tell us what you remember. Maybe we'll be able to make sense of it together."
Cassia sighed and tentatively nodded. After a long pause, she finally found the courage to speak:
"At first, I saw a... a boundless darkness locked behind seven seals. Something vast was churning in the darkness. I felt like if I directly saw it, I would lose my mind. As I watched, terrified, the seals broke one after another, until only one remained. And then that seal broke, too."
She trembled a little.
"After that... I don't know. It was as though my mind shattered into a thousand shards, each shard reflecting its own image. Most of them were dark and scary. Some I have already forgotten. The other..."
Cassie fell silent, remembering.
"I saw the human castle again. Only this time, it was at night. There was a lonely star burning in the black skies, and under its light, the castle was suddenly consumed by fire, with rivers of blood flowing down its halls. I saw a corpse in a golden armor sitting on a throne; a woman with a bronze spear drowning in a tide of monsters; an archer trying to pierce the falling sky with his arrows."
Finally, she looked up, her face full of horror.
"In the end, I saw a colossal, terrifying crimson spire. At its base, seven severed heads were guarding seven locks. And at the top, a... a dying angel was being consumed by hungry shadows. When I saw the angel bleed, I suddenly felt as though... as though something so precious that it can't be described with words was taken from me."
Her voice became quieter.
"Then, I felt so much sorrow, pain and rage that what little remained of my sanity seemed to disappear. That was when I woke up... I think."
Nephis and Sunny remained silent for a while, trying to make sense of what Cassie had told them. Even if Nephis had an idea, she didn't show it. Sunny, however, was totally lost. He couldn't even begin to decipher the hidden meaning behind the vision... if it even was one.
Previously, Cassia's vision about the castle was pretty much straightforward.
It showed her a human fortress and even the direction in which it was situated. This time, however, her dream was disjointed, full of weird symbolism and vague, uncertain images, much more like a charlatan's prophecy than a vision gained through an Aspect Ability.
But then once again Cassie said something that shook Nephis and Sunny to their core:
"There was something else too, when the angel was fighting the hungry shadows, a darkness was watching them. When I looked at the darkness, it stared me back and then my gaze shifted..."
"I saw a man similar to Wren but he was different, his usual grey eyes were now filled with complete darkness, he was wielding a blade made from darkness. He wasn't here, he was in a place filled with darkness, he was in The Abyss."
***
Ark was staring at the last being in front of him, who was... sitting on it's floating sword. Ark was staring at the beast dumbfounded, but from what he understood this beast was intelligent.
"I am going to kill you."
Ark controlled by his animalistic instincts, tried to attack the calm beast. But then he felt the figure in front of him upside down, it's sword stained wit blood. Wren's blood.
***
"Ahh!?"
Wren came back to his senses, he touched his neck which was decapitated by the beast in front of him. He looked upwards and met by the same sight, the beast was staring him. Wren stood up, but he didn't take any stance.
"Have you come back to your senses?"
The beast spoke, it's voice was rustic. Wren was shocked when he heard the beast speak, but then again considering it's level of intelligence, it is not strange that the beast possess the ability to speak. Still feeling a bit paranoid, Wren asked cautiously:
"Who are you?"
The beast looked at him, then smirked showing his fangs and said calmly:
"I am Astaroth, one of the four ancient darkness, Young prince."
***
Meanwhile Sunny was bewildered when he looked at his runes, the new attribute he had received unknowingly.
'What the hell?'
Name: Sunless.
True Name: Lost From Light
Rank: Dreamer.
Shadow Core: Dormant.
Shadow Fragments: [24/1000]
Memories: — [Azure Blade]
Echoes: — [Carapace Scavenger]
Attributes: [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows], [Mark of Abyss].
"What in the Spell is this?"