Chaos was everywhere around Ragna, Layla and Cera as they continued riding the beasts back while Ragna controlled its movements with the Crimson Strings. Since they were almost at the summit of the horde, they didn't need to worry about whatever the beasts were running away from.
They needed to worry about the dormant and awakened creatures that were running just behind them but Layla and Cera took care of them, protecting Ragna's back.
"Hold on tight, we'll separate from the other creatures soon !", he called out loud so both of them could hear as they slowly drifted off to the left.
Since the way now not following the path of the creatures, but moving horizontally, directly through them, Layla and Cera had a harder time fighting them off.
They Creatures still ignored them, being way too scared to attack something right now but because of their hurry, they just stomped forward, even if something was in their way.
They were burried in beasts, just somehow getting through, thanks to Cera using her Blood Manipulation and Layla the Mirrorblade from Ragna.
As they pushed their way through, mostly because Layla used her ink to make creatures behind them go weaker, they slowly started to drift apart from the horde but they still needed to do everything to push through.
Sadly, they randomly met a fallen creature on inside of the horde and it actually decided to attack them.
Ragna just saw Layla and Cera attacking it over his shoulder.
He couldn't help them right now, atleast without sacrificing their personal transport beast.
He just tried making the beast run faster but the fallen creature was adamant on following them, wanting to kill them.
"What an annoying bastard"
Layla and Cera would have maybe had the chance to kill it but not in a situation like this, where they were standing on a moving beast.
(Do you two have it under control ?)
(Y-yeah, for now. Fighting it in this position isn't really great. I don't think we'll be able to fight it for much longer)
Thankfully, Layla, was way more coolheaded than Ragna and Cera right now so she did something seemingly very obvious, blinding the fallen creature with her Aspect.
As blindness overtook the creature, it started randomly turning around, clawing everywhere while screaming and getting ran over.
Ragna would've felt sorry if that bastard hadn't tried milling them just a few seconds before.
And so, after some more minutes of fighting their way through, they left the horde, running away from it and leaving them all alone.
Ragna made the controlled beast ran further, even tho they were already gone because he was scared, that whatever scared the horde, would somehow want to attack them because of Ragna's [Obvious Blood] Flaw.
After thinking that they were far enough away, he released the strings from the creature, making it fall down dead again and then climbed off, finally touching the ground again.
"Oh god, that was way too much. Why does shit like that always happen to us ?"
Ragna knew the answer since it was because of his [Fated] attribute, but Layla of course didn't need to know.
"I'm not sure. I guess we are just unlucky and this place is full of Nightmare Creatures so it's only normal, I guess"
They rested for a bit before randomly walking into a direction again on the soft and white sand.
'Why didn't I use the Crimson Strings on the beast again ? Am I dumb or something ? We wouldn't have needed to walk now.'
***
On a different part of this hellhole was a boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, sweating profoundly. He doesn't know why he did that but he found himself in an underground cave right now.
The ground under him was hard Magma but it still felt hotter than anything he had encountered before.
The only thing that kept him sane was the water that he could produce with his Aspect.
As he continued marching through, he walked into a huge chamber of sorts, pillars of dark red stone supporting the cave. In the middle stood an altar, protected by a magma knight of the fallen rank.
Beating a fallen creature like that would have been hard for Caspian but he had a natural advantage, his Aspect. It had helped him against many creatures of this hellish place since water naturally countered the beasts here, especially the ones directly connected to heat or fire.
Long story short, he had pretty much used his water to push the Magma beast against the wall, the strength of it making it unable to move and slowly drown.
[You have slain a Fallen beast, Magma knight].
...
'Never expected to kill a Fallen creature this easily, especially as a dreamer. The benefits of having a True Name and being blessed by the Storm God, I guess.'
Caspian approached the Altar which the Magma Knight was guarding.
Ingrained in the stone was written
"Only those worthy to survive this Trial can harvest the heart of Ignis."
'Who's Ignis ? And which Trial do they mean ?'
He looked at the Altar a little bit more thoroughly and realized that there was a stone plate he could press on it.
'Should I press it ? ... I can't really leave anyways and I really want to know what ai obtain from surviving.'
As Caspian pressed the stone plate, the pillars started opening slightly and now poured fresh Lava into the cave, starting to fill it up.
***
And the last person in this place, a purple haired girl with yellow eyes, actually had it the worst right now.
She wasn't really in danger put she didn't have the privilege of food and something to drink, like how Ragna, Layla and Caspian had.
She was walking around in the normal dessert,the heat making her life harder.
'I'm thirsty ... and hungry . How long haven't I had something.'
As another Nightmare Creature approached her, she looked at it annoyed and made all of the gravitational power she had push down on it, crushing it slowly.
[You have slain a Dormant Monster, tomb rat]
'Fucking bastard. Should've left me alone.'
As Layla continued, she suddenly saw a pond of water in the distance.
She hurriedly and happily ran toward it but the more she ran, the further it got.
She was under a mind spell and she realized it too late.
Her legs continued to run, wanting to reach the water but she never did
'Water ... Water ... Water ..'
But then she suddenly stopped and whispered quietly
"Do you think that works on me, you bastard ? The moment I saw the water, I summoned a charm against Mind Attacks. Now come out !"
Unfortunately, it never did tho, hiding somewhere in the weight of the sand.
***
A few days later, while continuing to aimlessly walk on the pearly sand, Ragna, Layla and Cera stumbled upon a white tower, completly smooth at its edges and spanning many dozen meter into the air.
There was literally just a normal door, leading them inside and then up with a staircase.
The walked up hundreds of spiraling stairs till they arrived at the top, which was just a large room with a bed, 2 chairs and a table.
"Something like this inside of the Dream Realm ? This must be man made but who could construct such thing, especially in a place like this ?"
Layla looked around for a few seconds before answering in a calm tone.
"I'm not sure but defenitely happy. We should probably rest here for a day or two. My legs already hurt from all the walking around. Especially because of the bed, I want to experience a good sleep again."
Cera instantly just flew around the room before laying her small body down on the large bed.
(Nmhnp. Sleepy .. exhausted . I'll go to sleep.)
'Such a sleepyhead but she's still young so I guess it's normal, even if she's the "Princess of Blood".'
"We should probably also rest, we haven't slept in a few days.", said Ragna while yawning and moving towards the bed.
'I feel so sleepy all of a sudden'
"Yeah, I agree. My dizziness is killing me."
As both of them slowly laid down on the bed and fell into their slumber, something invisible in the corner of the room started to grin.
——-Author's Notes——-
Words: 1400ish
Nothing much to say. I wanna sleep.
Peace ✌️