A city made of glass reflected and refracted in her mind. Clear and see-through, entire structures were made of the unique glass. In the shimmering light of dusk, hues of orange and blue covered the city as the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants saw the end of day. But that was not important.
For the eyes of each of the inhabitants began to glow with a reflective sheen. As though a mirror had transposed itself within their eyes. Like a virus, the phenomenon propagated as more and more of the hundreds of thousands of humans succumbed to the strangeness.
She felt it from their perspective. As their souls were plundered and shattered. Taken over by something else. One by one, they died and came back different.
As the sun set and night descended on the city, it was completely silent. The bustling night of a hot city finally reaching a cold breeze was silent, for everyone was gone.
And they started to move. As one unit, children, mothers and fathers all walked outside of their homes and towards the city centre. With eerily coordinated movements, they congregated into a single unit. Sprawling over the streets and roads like a swarm.
Then and there, the sound of a shattered mirror sounded across the city as a light emerged.
A mirror the size of a mountain came into existence. And with it, a mirrored world. One not inhabited by humans but by nightmare creatures. With each of them also containing a pool of milky white in their eyes.
Like a ballroom, the nightmare creatures and humans joined together. Intertwined in a dance so intimate that it would bring insanity to anyone watching.
A city of madness had been born.
Cassie saw it all.
The loss of life, the bizarre nightmare creatures, the auspicious gate.
She saw it all.
—
"So have you guys decided on your next move? Whether she will hide until she is strong enough to face the second nightmare or whether she will reveal herself as an Awakened."
Aldric asked as he felt a weight press down on his chest. Resting on him was Cassie, her warm body pressed against his own. Her face held beads of sweat that confused Aldric, making him wonder what she was dreaming of.
Cassie spoke as her voice reverberated on his chest muscles.
"She will stay. She will briefly return to the waking world in order to become an Awakened. Between Sunny and me, who are tethered at the Academy, we can easily hide her short return. With her anchored at the Ivory Tower, she just needs to return to sleep with none the wiser."
Aldric grunted in acknowledgement.
"Right now she is sleeping all that stress away. My only concern is Clan Valour. Given what happened at the Night Temple, me, Sunny and, as a result, Nephis all have a lot to answer for. So if she were to return now as an Awakened, I don't know what they would do."
The crux of the matter was revealed. The incident that freed Mordret, that led to the death of a Saint, was all too much for Nephis to bear. Knowing just how much they coveted Nephis, Valour would use this opportunity to its fullest. Aldric remembered that as a direct result of that incident, Sunny was stuck in the Waking World for his safety while Cassie and the Firekeepers hid in the two towers to avoid any retaliation while negotiations were underway.
It was a terrible situation to be in.
It was what fuelled Cassie's guilt. That her machinations put her friend in such muddy water right as she returned.
"The preliminary negotiations will begin soon; however, I know what will happen to us if we don't choose to stay in the Ivory Tower. I was here to say goodbye to my parents."
From Aldric's point of view, Cassie seemed to have accepted her punishment. Wisely accepting the consequences of her actions.
Aldric did not envy her. Having to explain to the large cohort of Firekeepers why they had to hide in isolation. But this was for the best. After all, Nephis would be with them. Training and saturating her core, she could then conquer a second nightmare and be in a better position.
"But you… you are a scary but capable man. After making that offer, you proceeded to offer me the one thing I wanted most. I really had no chance, did I?"
Cassie chuckled. Her finger traced circles on Aldric's filled chest.
Looking down at her, Aldric spoke out.
"I guess so…"
His eyes sharpened as he looked at the woman on him.
The morning sunlight broke through the window and bathed them in its warmth.
—
BOOM
[You have defeated a Fallen Demon: Silken Raven ]
Bael stood strong in an arid wastefield. Remnants of a broken civilisation were spread all around the oath-bound knight. Around him, carcasses of avian humanoids were dead. All Fallen Demons in their rank and class.
The Apostle was in the far reaches of the outskirts. A ruined city that spoke of apocalyptic nightmare. The place where even the outskirt rats didn't dare to live near. And in that place, a nightmare gate had bled into the waking world. A gate that would spawn hordes of Fallen creatures with a Corrupted at the core.
There was no city to protect, no innocents to safeguard. This was pure selfishness. A mixture of testing his ascended capabilities while also keeping away from prying eyes. But more so, it was a way to vent. To exercise his strength over the only creatures that he really could. To his left, a small horde of the avian creatures were fighting against their own kind. Each adorned in a Far Eastern-inspired armour, plates of thin red and black steel covered their form like a tiled room. Held together by twisted branches of what could only be wood.
Standing from his vantage point, Aldric joined the fray.
With [Sundered Sorrow] in hand, black and red littered the memory. But more so, it was his words that were different. Spoken into reality, Aldric wove vows and promises with the void as his witness.
CRUNCH
His foot crushed the hollow dirt in his way. As he marched, the creatures all turned their black beaks towards him. Beginning to run into a sprint, he spoke.
[I sacrifice all help from my Apostles, in exchange I am absolute.]
With intent and will, a buzz washed over his body. Immediately, both Amon and Bael were forcibly reduced into a small puddle of darkness that returned to Aldric. Aldric knew to not even try to summon them. His mind and soul were locked out of that action.
A rush of power poured through his body. His essence grew stronger, darker and more controlled. But it was not just that: mind, body, spirit, and all aspects of his being gained a quantifiable shift. Aldric felt as though he was working at over one hundred and twenty-five per cent of his potential.
Yet he could feel it, the rules that were imposed on him. That if he were to exit this battle, whatever he gained would be lost just as quickly.
At a breaking speed, Aldric pierced through the remaining elite horde of ten Fallen creatures. Each at the class of Devil at the minimum, his blade cut and cut. With each beast wielding a spear fashioned out of an unknown black metal, the horde screeched and retaliated. In a bestial form of combat that incorporated both their instincts and their weapon in hand.
But it was too late.
After the opening attack, one second later, spikes of darkness broke out of the ground. Trapping each creature in place with grievous wounds.
And in their moment of stillness and anguish, before they could break out of the hold, Aldric attacked. He threw his blade straight at the Raven furthest from him. Spinning in the air, it lodged itself in its throat.
CLAP
Aldric slapped his palm together and pointed towards the horde after jumping back to reposition himself.
'Dark Burst'
From the tip of his fingers, darkness converged and compressed in a split second before firing twelve beams of darkness like a shotgun. Through manipulating the ever-changing states of darkness, Aldric achieved pressure levels akin to a sniper rifle. The deadly beams pierced and broke the formation of the horde. The recoil pushed each creature metres backwards, and the ones closest to Aldric collapsed dead.
A move that he had theorised but could never seem to work. With the combination of ascending and this boost in battle from [Ephemeral Mandate], it was instinctual.
He felt like a brand new person.
The hunter steadily walked towards the avian creature that held his blade. With a rough tug, the blade exited its neck with a fountain of blood following. And for the majority of the creatures that were still alive, Aldric simply strolled towards them and ended their existence.
The sound of the nightmare spelled echoed.
'Damn, that took more than I thought.'
Aldric exhaled deeply. Fighting at this pace and at this level was not something he was used to.
If Aldric were more aware, he would have noticed that in his entire time of being an Awakened, he had never seen such a coordinated, humanoid horde of nightmare creatures. Each adept with weapons and samurai-like armour.
His moment of respite was interrupted by a large charge from the nightmare gate before him. A figure adorned in white armour crashed through as it unfurled its wings. At roughly one and a half times the size of its kind, it was clear that this was the guardian of the gate.
It made no sound as it looked directly at Aldric with eyes of killing intent. There were no signs of intelligence; however, the core of a warrior was something that corruption couldn't wash every trace of. Interestingly though, a familiar crease was on the creature's forehead. Signalling a meaning that Aldric could not understand.
'A Corrupted Tyrant or maybe even higher—'
BURST
The tip of the spear appeared centimetres before his face. With a duck and a twist, Aldric moved out of the way.
Aldric was not dumb enough to not notice. The humanoid nature of the creatures and the fact that it was magnitudes smaller than any other corrupted guardian that Aldric had learned of.
Something was off.
Turning his mind off, Aldric entered a state of combat. Where his concentration was at its maximum, but that was not enough.
It was a brutal battle. This was not the time for named attacks but pure combat. Slashes and cuts, thrusts and feints. For each attack he blocked, the force of the blow rattled his body. For each that he parried, he would receive some semblance of damage from another. Its wings created gusts of wind that disrupted Aldric's attacks, and its huge spear created distance that only benefited it.
And worst of all, the creature had not made use of its ability, and that had the human worried.
The creature was too robust and too defensive. It did not fight like a beast but like a warrior who lost his way.
'Fuck! Something needs to change. I can't keep this up.'
His mind went to Bael, but now that was not on the table. A small pit formed in his stomach. He had feared that the gain was not worth the cost at this moment.
He needed more. This was not the time for half-hearted measures. It was do or die.
[Following this battle, I will not draw on my aspect for the next twenty-four hours.]
Aldric spoke from his soul. He did not ask for a direct gain or attempt to allude to what he desired. While Aldric was learning more about this ability, he knew that this was not one where he could simply ask for what he wanted. This was not a game. It was a brutal transaction in which he had no leverage. And so, he put his trust in his aspect, as while he had yet to understand the source of these vows and its powers, Aldric knew that this was his power at the end of the day.
A foreign yet familiar feeling erupted within him as a spark of red collapsed within his soul sea.
'I see…'
The deadlock was now over…
***
Thanks for reading.
Sorry for the delay, had a break for a personal reason. But I'm back.
What do you think of [Ephemeral Mandate]? I really wanted something unique and not just darkness related, how is it coming across?
Get ready for the next chapter, where Aldric will have a surprise ?????.