Back in the Nightmare Forest, Kai awoke to the sound of howls. As he got up disoriented, he glanced at his unfamiliar surroundings.
"Right, I was kidnapped…" he quickly recalled the whole situation.
"Okay, so now I need to get out of this forest… wait… foggy sky, huge trees and monster howls… this… this is the Nightmare Forest!" Kai said to himself.
He felt a surge in energy, got up and started to try and find the exit, or at least the ruins of an ancient civilization.
After he traveled for about fourty minutes, he came across some bandits. The bandits were transporting something and there was faint breathing coming from the cart that they were pulling.
'Kidnappers', he thought, and when the night fell, he decided it's time to intervene.
He took a thorn bush, with thorns the size of needles, and assassinated the first bandit.
This was the first time he killed someone else, so he felt nauseous, but suppressed his feelings.
For some reason the mark on his arm reacted to the kill, and he gained more Qi. After taking down two more bandits, he was discovered by the other three.
Before they could even hurt him, he went into the First movement of the Dream Stance: Dream domain: Nightmare. The domain appeared again, painting the whole scene red.
And in a matter of seconds, he took down all of the bandits. When he checked the cart he found all sorts of loot, but what he didn't expect was to find a celestial girl in the back.
Her hair was white with purple strands. And her beauty was otherworldly. This was the Third Princess of The Celestials, from the Sea of Clouds - Julie.
Though, Kai never even gave her so much as a glance of admiration as he was more interested in the loot.
After finally gathering enough loot, he took notice of her and struck up a conversation.
"So~ why are you here? Where are your parents?" He asked.
The girl who was very wary of him then answered.
"I don't know… I'm from the Sea of Clouds…"
"Wait! You're from the Celestial Realm!? Damn, you're a long way from home."
"Whaa~?" the girl looked confused.
"To be exact you are currently on the Spania continent, how did you even get this far?" Kai asked in a calm tone.
"I- I stepped into the teleportation gate back home and somehow ended up here…" she replied.
"Haa, welp let's look around to see if there are any ruins with teleportation runes inscribed on them." Kai said as he started walking deeper into the forest.
The girl started to follow, albeit hesitantly.
'Is this boy really my age? How can he be so calm in this situation? Isn't he lost like me? Just who is he?' these thoughts flashed through her mind, before getting distracted by the boy's tail.
'Wait, a tail, dark hair with red strands, and a dark-ish complexion… he is an Abyssal! But… where are his horns?' the girl thought to herself as she examined Kai.
"Wait!" Kai stopped her and put his finger on his lip, to geture that they should keep quiet.
Suddenly a bush rustles, Kai ever so slowly approached it to see what was behind it.
And what he saw was a creature that would give you nightmares.
A Big Snake with fangs the size of swords, and scales as hard as rock. It seemed as though they were already spotted.
"Run!!" Kai shouted as he grabbed Julie's arm.
As they ran, Kai noticed Julie getting tired, so he threw her forward.
"Keep running, and don't look back!!" Kai shouted at her.
As Julie ran deeper into the forest she heard clashing sounds.
'No way is he fighting that thing! Isn't he also scared?'
As her curiosity outweighed her danger sense, she turned back to take a look. As she claimed a tree to see what was happening, she saw, Kai fighting the monstrous snake, evading fatal strikes, and landing even more deadlier strikes.
'How, how can someone move like that?'
←—- Kai's Point of View—--->
'Crap my Qi is running low!'
The snake Infront of him keeps getting faster and faster. And the blows keeps getting harder and harder.
'Okay, I'll finish this with the Seventh movement of the dream stance!'
The world turned red but this time, Kai's whole body changed, the mark on his left arm seems to have grown to cover his arm neck and a part of his cheek, hand he grew a pair of horns. His power also doubled.
At first he was bewildered but remembered what the old man said: "you will only gain access to all the techniques when you reach the realm of True Void Aura."
"So this is Void Aura? That means I unlocked the first technique…" Kai looked at his arm in amazement, it was there, but also not there, like a Void.
'With this I can win!' his sword now covered in the black-purple Void aura pointed at the snake.
"VOID STANCE: FIRST SWORD MOVEMENT, ONE STRIKE!!" And so, with one strike he beheaded the snake. His aura turned into a condensed sharp projectile, which smoothly slashed through anything.
As the snake was beheaded and left there lying, gushing blood out, Kai felt weak, and the mark returned to it's original form.
"Damn, that took way too much Qi…." He said before falling down from exhaustion.
Julie who saw this happen was in awe, but rushed over to him, to help him.
The last thing kai saw, was Julie's face as she was dragging him, before he fell into Qi depletion.