"What place is this?" Leon whispered as he felt his feet touch solid ground.
A speeding wind swirled past him, clearing the fog of light and bringing a massive sentinel into view.
He swallowed hard as sweat trickled down from his temple—both on the dream body and the real one lying on the hospital bed.
Tiny sparks coiled around his arms, scorching the bedsheet it rested on.
Leon's dream body stood there, waiting, watching. But nothing moved. When the howling wind's speed increased, the sentinel, a cracking sound tore in the air.
One step at a time, the sentinel crept closer. Leon tried moving back, but the harder or further he moved, the heavier he felt something pulling him forward.
The sentinel resolved from the swirling light as it drew closer.
Through the light that seemed to be parting aside, Leon saw the unearthly height it was, and the armored plates that shimmered around it like the sun in its prime.
The more the pull dragged him forward, the more he saw a strange light radiating immense power that felt ancient.
Though it wasn't scorching him in the dream, the bed his body lay on became drenched as more sweat seeped out of his body.
Leon's dream self froze, unable to look away, the moment his eyes locked onto the sentinel's.
His mind rolled in his head as he stumbled onto a path that seemed to be pulsing with a golden light, which instantly redirected to his chest.
A stone-cracking sound erupted when he tried breaking the invisible force that pulled him hard onto the ground, almost as if merging his skin with the stoned ground.
There, a shadow stretched long from behind the sentinel's immense leg, snaking on the ground and pausing when it reached the position Leon's head lay.
Spotting the dark humanoid shadow tilting sideways, Leon shoved himself up and stared in the direction the shadow stretched from.
At first, he saw only a tiny object bounce at the side of the sentinel's leg.
'What is that?' The moment the thought echoed in his head, a chorus of laughter shot through the air.
Leon clutched his ears as the sound pierced through his eardrums like sharp, unshaped claws.
He closed his eyes and frowned, hoping to put in much effort into detaining himself from hearing much of the sound. But then, visions, faces, and human voices struck his mind.
In the visions, he saw a man walking through the center of a fire parting like a sea, smiling. Then, immediately after the first one ended, another followed.
This time, he saw a woman who had been chained at the neck and was being pulled by a young lady whose smile seemed to scorch like glass cut into his mind.
The second vision ended when Leon took two steps back and shook his head.
For a second, he exhaled deeply and opened his eyes, only to be struck with a third vision, in which he saw a young lady with tiny pink sparks screaming for help in the midst of five broad-shouldered men.
Leon's eyes widened while his mouth forgot how to close as realization struck him like lightning.
One face after another, he remembered the face of the man walking in the fire, the voice of the woman being dragged, and the distinct sobs of the lady shouting for help.
The moment all the memories and faces stopped reeling in his head, Leon lifted his gaze to the cloudless sky and screamed.
Debris fell from the sentinel's closed arms as the sound erupting from Leon filled the space around him.
At that instant, his body, which lay on the bed, twitched and fell, slamming his head hard on the hardened floor.
…
When his dream body stopped screaming, he saw an inhuman stature standing in front of him. No face. No mouth. No eyes.
All he could see was an endless space that kept on spiraling where those vital parts should have been.
Although he couldn't see the vital parts, he could hear voices echoing from the being in front of him.
The voice didn't come as one person; it was that of many—from children, ladies, dead soldiers, and creatures.
"WHAT… ARE… YOU…" Leon asked, stretching himself away from the being, as if trying to flee.
Grinding and blasting sounds echoed as the being moved its arms, behaving in the same movements Leon portrayed.
'How come it's moving in the same direction as me?' Leon said low in his thoughts as he saw the being continuously replicating his stances.
And when Leon stopped for a second, he saw the being standing right in his face.
A strange force slammed onto his shoulder, forcing his body to reject his movements.
The being's limbs raised and landed on Leon's shoulder. "I… am… you…"
Another set of voices echoed from the being, as the spiraling space at the center of the being's head zoomed in, almost as if wanting to swallow Leon.
In that instant, a sharp pain surged through Leon's body, snaking in his veins and piercing his heart.
…
Outside the dream, the wound that kept on oozing blood began to thin. And within a second, it zipped itself closed.
Bright light flickered around the wound, then vanished the moment the last line zipped, stopping the blood from flowing out.
In the dream, Leon tried to pull himself away from the being, but no matter how hard he tried, the being remained clinging to him as if it were now his shadow.
Strangely, the being's structure swallowed Leon's dream form, transforming it into a blinding yellowish light.
When the light dimmed, a new form stood there, half-human, half-god. A ring of golden light flickered above his head for a second, then vanished.
There, the huge sentinel lowered its stoned hands, stretched them toward the new form, and flicked him aside with a whip of its index finger.
Leon's dream body was sent flying through circular energy doors that seemed to appear as he moved backward.
Entering through a blinding mixture of gold and blue doors, his vision turned reddish as a feeling of his skin peeling off struck his mind.
…
"HHHHHhuh!"
Leon's breath came in heavy pants, while his chest heaved as his physical body jolted awake.
For a second, relief fell on him like water. But as he spotted the red liquid he was in, his breath locked in his throat, suffocating him.