Fierce stars of multitude shades burned in the inverted sky, Forever at dusk.
Under the dusk-tinted sky, an endless sea of Crimson blood, silent and still, pooled.
Nothing moved without permission, nothing spoke without intent.
Deep within the still sea lay the souls of countless, trapped even in death.
The eyes of the once tyrant silently observed the figure standing upon the still blood sea.
They observed Rael.
Gasp!
He gasped for air upon waking from the nightmare.
Immediately the memories caught up.
Barf!
First, he doubled down and started barfing.
'He..I..killed....Beverly..Doctor...what?...ah..no..' incoherent thoughts ran through his mind. His mind and body were in shock. The nighmare taking toll on his psychology.
'Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?' He repeated like a broken record, confusion and fear overtook the mind.
How did it know him. Why did it all feel familiar. Why was the 'doctor' wearing his armor. Why was that monster talking to him in that tone. Why was august-
Then came the pain, cutting his thoughts in many peices.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"
The phantom pain of being burned by the flames of Augustus.
Rael had experienced being decapacitated, being burned alive, cursified, drowned, and many more horrible death in his nightmares throughout the years.
But ....this flames...they transcended their pain. They felt like past, her's felt like present and future. They seemgly breached a boundary he didn't knew existed.
The pain was beyond unbearable. Rael felt like he could feel every cell of his body being burned and reborn again and again, stuck in an endless cycle. Seconds felt like Eternity.
Beyond the agony that was slowly corroding his mind, Rael's eyes met the rotten skulls below.
Their mouths were moving endlessly, chanting in synchrony.
Silence of the realm morphed into unending roars, as their pleas or was it a prayer fell on his ears, bleeding into them, gwaning at his sanity.
"O, Mercifull Death, grant us our wishes..."
"O, Black Saint, guide us away....."
"O, Doctor, treat us from this pain...."
"O, Sufferer, suffer besides us..."
"O, punisher, be murciful on our crimes..."
"O, Overseer, you see what that none can't.."
"O, Architect, you build us kingdom of suffering...."
"O, Emperor, who united all...."
"O, Old king, that committed Fallacy against the light and dark...."
"O, Defyer, you who overtook the heavens...."
"O, Origin of Sins, heed our calls...."
The various chants and titles twisted his mind. As if they weren't ment to be heard by him. Something that shouldn't exist.
Rael glanced at the eyes of the once tyrant, of Swee'cher'lar.
They were looking greedly but also warily at him with a hint of visible fear in their eyes.
No, they weren't looking at him but beanth him.
Following the gaze, Rael looked beneath.
That was a mistake. As immediately the pain disappeared, replayed by far worse agony. He felt like his mind was blooming, tearing itself appart. His body was liberated from pain but the mind and heart took the weight.
In his iris reflected a vague, inky figure. It looked humanoid but that wasn't the highlight.
It looked out of place. Rael's mind screemed that it shouldn't exist. His eyes said otherwise.
The figure walked the thin line between existence and non-existence. Something that was erased but still exists somehow. Something outside of known bounds.
"O, King of kings, Emperor of Emperors, Heaven's Defyer, Fate's victim, Origin of all virtues and sins, heed our calls!"
The voices grew, Chorus ringing through the realm.
The figure had an murky silver crown in its grasp.
It was the shadowheart of Swee'cher'lar, it's Sovereign Authority over Somviore that was once ripped from it.
The voices sang again.
Looking at the crown, Swee'cher'lar eyes wavered. Yet it did not laugh not moved, it feared unknowningly. Fear so deep that it felt maddening.
Rael did not know why but he could read the figures lips, even though he couldn't physically see it.
It read-
"I, █████ Solar Agenis, Command you to remember."
With that the figure, Agenis, crushed the crown.
"Noooooooooooooooo" Swee'cher'lar screemed out.
Meanwhile Rael mind felt invaded, bloomed, fractured, rearranged, surfacing. Not being able to handle the sudden changes, he lost consciousness.
Crack!
The Realm started to morph, cracks appeared in its 'Ceilling'.
Boom!
A bright pillar of scorching white light invaded the Trial.
In center of that Bright pillar stood a beautiful figure of a lady with long luscious forest green hair, wearing a smooth loose white robes.
One of the Sanctus of the mining city as arrived.
The one closest to Sovereignty.
Velera, The City lord has arrived on site.
✧✧✧✧✧
"Uwaaaa.." Velera yawned.
'This is getting on my nerves...' she grumbled in her mind.
She gazed at the Mass of eyes and laughter.
She frowned with disgust evident on her beautiful face.
"You are the one who caused me to act? Disgusting." She openly presented her disgust.
She looked around the broken trial. Finding everyone still stuck in their illusion, light syphoning out of them by black tandrels.
Most were dead, few smart ones survived, barely hanging on.
'who broke the Trial?' she thought to herself.
The Trial broke from the inside, that she was certain of.
She quickly found the culprit, a man in broken silver armor passed out. He wasn't in an nightmare.
'A Lantern? No, a Acolyte.' she read his light, it was unstable but clearly at Tier 6.
But what got her full attention was when she saw what was beneath the helmet.
"!" Her eyes widen followed my a laugh.
"Aahahaha, to see myself find such a day! Aahahaha" she was over joyous.
"And you, I don't no which tyrant let you live or which sovereign failed to fully kill, nor do I care. Fuck off."
She said why hurriedly turning towards it, speaking like it's a unwanted pest.
With that she opened her Sanctuary.
The pillar of light expanded and shoot up.
In the city, people took notice of the bright flaming pillar over merkwood and knelt to it. Worshipping it's light and praising the city lord continuously.
Within the sanctuary, greenery spread. Black tendrils dissolved, replaced by vines.
Grass and trees grew at miraculous rate, overflowing the realm.
A false blue sky appeared, followed by false sun.
In the middle of it, a Tree grew for hundreds of meters then thousands. It's ancient bark bearing marks of past.
It was the world tree of Velera, her core of Sanctuary.
She, gestured her hands and the forest of her creation obeyed.
Swee'cher'lar[1] was left with no escape. He didn't even have the time to retailate. He lost when the trial collapsed, when his crown was forever lost.
The forest consumed him. And with that-
Swee'cher'lar, The overseer of nightmares, was pulled out of his dreams forever.
The Merkwood Expedition has came to an abrupt and unexpected end with many casualties.
[1] Somviore Demon