That place was a tunnel shaped like an old palace, illuminated by Helena with the light she created with her imagination. The group members made their way toward the light at the end of the tunnel. On the sides, there were some dark corridors, and of course, who would go there when there's light ahead...
After that, the scene became weird: blue sky and grassy ground with vivid colors, and most notably, this ground was stuck to the right wall, and the sky extended to their left, as if the world had flipped 90 degrees.
Sayorin created a stone with her Egrinoric Energy and threw it outside; it fell onto the grassy wall on the right, just as they expected. Rory leaned on the right wall and rolled out to stand on the grassy wall. Helena followed him, and behind them Sayorin, with an ecstatic face behind the wings on her head that covered her blushing face from embarrassment:
"Ah... I love the feeling of gravity flipping; I feel it in the core of my imaginary bones."
"Beep beep."
Rory made a paper bird with his hand and threw it; it started flying away.
Sayorin smiled and said:
"This dimension is huge!"
Helena, the beginner, said:
"How is all this place inside a tornado?!"
"Forget that tornado; this is a pocket dimension in the Kingdom of Fantasy; it might be infinite. This is virgin land; we're the first to find it."
Soap bubbles floated in the air, and a vague feeling of Anemoia rushed into their senses: winds of nostalgia for a place they'd never seen before, a delicious sadness with saturated colors and foggy details like from an old camera. And in the distance, there was something... a small house with white walls and a red roof. Helena said with a trembling jaw from the impact:
"I think... I think I've seen this before."
Rory replied:
"These details are important; you shouldn't overlook them. The scene isn't right, and this place has psychological effects, which is super dangerous. I think we gotta go back."
"Why?"
"The Dreamers' Guild warns about places like this; these are intrusive feelings, and we're not the ones feeling them. This place is messing with our minds... Didn't you hear the device? What's your reality reading?"
"Yeah, I heard it; it's 67.0005j 39.0001k."
"I expected that... This world is disintegrating; the numbers after the decimal are pulling toward the Far Lands."
They lay on the ground and rolled back inside. Helena stayed staring for a long time at that hut, which now had flames devouring it, and she heard distant sounds of children playing in her ears. Her eyes shed silent tears. In Helena's mind, a distant, barely audible voice spoke:
"Just remember us"
< I will... >
Rory extended his hand and smacked her leg to snap her out of it.
"It's pulling your mind; come on, let's go. [She came down and wiped her tears.] What distracted you?"
"Beep beep."
"The reality is back to its previous level. I heard sounds of children playing and gloomy music, then a voice said to me, just remember us."
Sayorin replied:
"Haha, remember us?! Did you even see something to remember them? You just saw a house and kids' voices; how ridiculous and random."
"But seriously, from the slightly blurry scene, I knew it's a reality in the process of decay. Fragile realities like this are full of glitches, and if a glitch intersects with your body, it'll violently pull you inside to distant unknown lands, cutting your waking cord or destroying your body with errors."
Sayorin created a wall to seal the path to that world, then lit up the huge tunnel they came from with a row of strong electric lamps and said:
"I've heard these worlds are the origin of Hecatyon beings."
Rory replied:
"No... Hecatyons are born inside collective dream worlds created by humans, not in these pocket dimensions. These pocket dimensions were natural but got polluted with thoughts and feelings coming from Noospheres or other xenospheres, with feelings like
Anemoia or Ambedo [1]
... As you know, the dream core is part of the Noosphere."
"Let's change the subject; the light gives the viewer more courage. Now, if a monster with a thousand eyes and a twisted face appears, I'll smack its damn face with my dirty shoe."
"You're right; the real horror is the anxiety that something might betray you more than the monster's face itself. Nothing replaces the sense of sight; even the aura isn't as important, right, Helena?"
"Let's try this corridor."
They followed the corridor that Sayorin lit up, and after a few corridors, they found the exit, which was flipped 180 degrees this time: the sky below and the ground above.
This time, Helena created a stone to confirm the gravity direction, and just as expected, Rory said:
"This time, you gotta be pro at exiting so you don't crash into the ground."
Rory stepped back a bit and ran toward the outside, extending his body to fall on his back onto the grassy ceiling and stand upside down.
On the other hand, Sayorin didn't want to dirty her clothes again, so she grabbed the floor and flipped out, letting herself fall onto the ceiling. Helena was scared of the dizziness feeling and copied Rory.
"Beep beep."
"The reality dropped two digits after the decimal on the j axis."
"No problem; just don't let it become zeros after the decimal; we're safe."
They advanced through the green spaces on the paved road, and in the distance, a castle above the clouds floating in the air, until they reached the edge of a cliff with a dark depth below. Sayorin said:
"I think its depth is infinite."
Sayorin opened her wings and flew in the air. Rory thought and said:
"No need; your imagination is superficial. Look."
Rory created a rocket the size of a palm with his Egrinoric Energy and threw it like a rock with all his strength; then the rocket launched into the air, breaking the sound barrier until it disappeared... The rocket took some time, and Sayorin landed and stared at him with a provoking face as a sign of his plan failing, and suddenly they teleported to the castle's cloud. Rory mocked her.
The castle was still far, and only more grassy plains revealed themselves. They advanced through them until from afar they saw a monster ten meters tall with a huge mouth, arched back, gray skin, and a long row of eyes on the sides of its head.
They dropped flat quickly before it spotted them. Rory crawled to look at it and said:
"From its stability, muscle strength, and size, I think it's B-level."
"Should we fight it?"
"I'm still at level C-9, and Helena's C-0."
"That's enough."
Rory stood up and charged; the monster saw him and ran toward him. Rory smiled and teleported, striking the monster's eye, then yelled:
"First eye!"
The monster flinched in pain, and Rory teleported several times to distract it until his friends arrived... A wrong teleport, and the monster hit him away and ran toward him.
"Come on, hurry; I'm dying here."
Sayorin made a grumbling sound and created a huge rifle, starting to shoot the creature from afar. Her bullets, despite their large caliber, were just like needle pricks on the monster's skin and only caused scratches.
Helena pulled out her huge sword and rushed to stab its belly... The sword shattered into pieces. As an instinctive reaction, she grabbed her necklace to wake up. The creature turned to her in a fraction of a second, grabbed her, and slammed her down to crush her on the ground. She pulled the safety trigger to exit, but strangely, it became rubbery. Her eyes bulged out from sheer terror, and her pale face turned blue.
It was over for her.
But Rory, with a quick charge, cut the tendons of that hand, so the monster dropped her, and she escaped, then knelt on the ground gasping for breath. Rory said:
"Haha, you should've seen your face when you messed with that necklace."
Even Sayorin, who didn't want to stain her white clothes, mocked her.
The exit trigger is the item that connects the person to the dream kingdom they chose. Getting rid of it or destroying it leads to the person automatically and instantly exiting the collective dream world inside the dream core, so the dreamer returns to their own dream or wakes up directly. This feature made dreamers bolder to take risks.
In the end, Rory got bored and shot the monster with a bullet that exploded inside its body and grew in a fraction of a second, blasting its body into huge chunks, and its blood splattered everywhere. Sayorin said after her clothes got dirty:
"Damn."
Rory said to Helena:
"Haha, I love mocking beginners."
Helena laughed at his sarcasm and said:
"Haha, very funny... I'll get you back."
"Next time, change that trigger; your enemy, if a dreamer, could kill you the same way. Make the trigger something you can really get rid of; no need for drama like ripping that necklace as if you're pulling a parachute."
Sayorin said:
"Share the coins with us."
"Whoa whoa whoa [mocking her words]; I killed the monster, but you two didn't fight seriously; you were just playing."
"Didn't you see me?! I shot it with a rifle."
"Hah, a rifle; don't joke with me. You were scared to stain your clothes; your skills are way better than that. I saw you fighting today. Next time, we'll all fight, or I'll look for another group and..."
Sayorin interrupted him:
"Fine, go; we don't..."
He interrupted her in turn:
"Wop wop... and I'll stain your records and say you're not cooperative, and no one will want to join you. Come on, choose. [No response.] That's good; let's continue the march, girl and futa."
They continued their march toward the cloud castle from which waterfalls poured.
"Beep beep."
"The reality keeps dropping; it dropped 5 digits when we reached the shadow of the castle's cloud."
After two hours of walking, they reached the base of the giant tree holding the cloud above it and started climbing the path that wrapped around it. After another hour of walking, they reached the grassy plains at the level of the huge castle, which was still far. The castle's height looked like two kilometers tall and ten kilometers wide; its size made Helena dizzy. Rory said:
"That's what I call a palace."
"Beep beep."
"An extra zero appeared this time."
"No problem."
After a few kilometers of walking and usual chatter, Sayorin spotted something with the winged eye flying above her head and pulled Helena to lie flat on the ground; Rory copied them. Sayorin said:
"It's a disaster; that Hecatyon is back."
They crawled on the ground to climb the hill to see it. Helena said:
"Should we withdraw?"
Sayorin looked at the excited Rory, who was letting out intermittent sighs while holding his breath. Sayorin said worriedly:
"No no no, don't get excited; Hecatyons are at least S-level..."
Rory stood up, spread his fists apart while armor enveloped his body, and yelled at the top of his voice:
"The first to die is a son of a whore!"
Then he charged with force that shattered the ground and uprooted it with him in less than a blink of an eye, speeding up several times faster than sound. He clenched his muscles and exploded his armored fist into the creature's face. The explosion made the creature hit the ground and bounce into the air. Sayorin got excited, teleported to it, and struck its belly with her heavy glowing sword, sending it back to Rory. Then Helena launched with her black wings at 300 kilometers per hour, extended her long sword that she fixed toward the creature's crotch; it shattered again when it penetrated the crotch and collided with her armor against the creature's body, which was still processing. She grabbed it by the foot and with a professional spin, threw it to Rory, directing the shattered sword parts to stab it.
Rory exploded the ground and propelled himself up, but his eyes met the creature's; all that adrenaline power vanished. Rory panicked when he realized the creature had processed what was happening, so he teleported it to the decaying reality that Sayorin had sealed, which had distorted severely since they left it; the creature tore apart from the amount of glitches there.
Rory fell to the ground, gasping for breath and laughing:
"Wow, that was terrifying."
"Haha, we smelled the scent of death and came back; each of us landed our own strike."
"Haha, for me, the one I liked most was Helena's; she literally took its virginity."
"Where did you send it?"
"I sent it to that world you sealed; it was the first that came to mind, and luckily I left a reference marker there. It's my way to cheat, so my advice: surround your body with an aura that prevents foreign will from affecting you."
In the end, the palace's metal gate, 100 meters high and 30 meters wide for each door, of course they couldn't open it, so they squeezed themselves under it.
"Beep beep."
"There's the second zero after the decimal in the values of the imaginary constants j and k."
A old red carpet and a design that looked like a hotel, and the weirdest: corridors at a standard level. The gate that was 100 meters high now looked normal, about three meters tall. Rory tried to open it and succeeded, but on the other side, more of that place's design; they're stuck. Rory said:
"I hate these traps; let's find an exit."
"Beep beep."
"I think we're in trouble."
"Don't make me anxious, Helena."
"We've left the Kingdom of Fantasy."
Rory said tensely, pulling out the guide:
"What's the value of j and k?"
"345j 321k."
He searched in the guide:
"Hmm, we're in one of the Satan worshippers' forums."
Helena tore the necklace, but nothing happened.
Rory hit his head:
"Don't be stupid; that's a safety trigger linked to the Kingdom of Fantasy."
Sayorin spoke:
"My form looks like an angel; what's the demonic item I'm even carrying?!"
Rory said:
"Instant teleport doesn't work outside the kingdom with the reference markers. And I've never fallen into a trap in all my years entering the dream core... But no need to panic; the guide has ways to handle situations like this... Annn [reading]... Surreal and weird core kingdoms... no. Glitch and low reality kingdoms... no. Horror and meat core kingdoms... no. Secret organizations kingdoms... Hmm, Satanic religions kingdoms are secret organizations, right?"
Sayorin replied:
"We didn't know the devil before Earth's scum brought it to us; they practice their worships in secrecy and shame, so I think they're mostly secret organizations."
"Don't worry; I found it: secret Satan worshipper organizations. The guide says... Solution 1: Search for an exit..."
"Wow, what useful info."
"I didn't finish. Solution 2: Search for the safety trigger and pull it. [They wanted to interrupt him, but he said] I know, I know; I swear I'm not joking; it's written here... Solution 3: If you're a group, the safety trigger in one of you is what connects you to that reality. The final solution: split up or... hmm."
Suddenly, Sayorin said:
"Goodbye."
"Hey, wait; we haven't even tried solution one. Hmm, I think I get it; the safety trigger is my and Helena's forms; we look like Satan worshippers."
"But the goth look has nothing to do with Satan worship."
"Well, the goth look is from Earth; Satan worship is also from Earth; I think the connection is clear. Change your forms, and we'll get out."
Rory changed to his original form: a fat guy starting to go bald. Sayorin said:
"Pff, is that your real form? Failed unemployed guy."
"Hmm, no; I'm just trying to get out."
Helena changed her form to a Furry, and Rory said mockingly:
"Is this one of your kids? Haha."
"That didn't work."
Rory went back to his form, and so did Helena. Rory stared at Helena from behind the curtain of hair hiding his eyes, then said:
"I suggest we split up."
Helena said:
"No, why split up?"
"I need to get out fast; you two just entered today, but my body hasn't woken up for three days, and I live alone."
Sayorin said:
"No, Rory, focus; don't rush; I've never known you like this. Let's wander the place first and search for an exit..."
Suddenly... they heard a voice:
"Yes, yes, someone's talking over there."
"Damn."
They heard them and started running in the corridor. Suddenly, the wall in front of them exploded and blocked the path. Sayorin struck that person with a light sword in the belly and killed him, then hurried into a corridor to the right and struck the ceiling to seal the path in front of Rory and Helena so they couldn't follow her, and continued escaping alone. Rory punched the wall with all his strength and flew through it at top speed.
Helena understood: they want to get rid of her because she's the exit trigger, and she'll be stuck here forever.
< I won't be stuck alone. >
She followed Rory with her wings; if the place was open, she'd break the sound barrier and escape.
Suddenly, Rory encountered the cult members while blasting walls and hit some of them. He landed, restrained himself, and changed his course. Helena came out of the hole, landed on the wall with her feet, and followed him.
The cult members released their wings and chased them. Helena pushed herself with her hands to speed up and catch Rory to prevent him from escaping. He took the other turn and didn't disappear from her sight. Suddenly, Rory found the exit; he charged and blasted the place at the speed of sound, killing some inattentive cult members.
The moment he exited, and a leader of rank spotted him, his face obscured by a black glitch.
"Drop."
One of the cult leaders hit him with what's called an absolute command, which are enhanced orders that secret groups have to capture spies, enhanced with Egrinoric Energy from level A and higher, as it's collected from the group's Egrinoric Energy.
Rory froze in place and fell from the sky. Helena saw that; she knew it was the end.
But...
She saw his smile. Rory instantly teleported with a thought from him to the palace center and succeeded in waking up like Sayorin, leaving Helena alone in the dream.
Then Helena was also frozen with an absolute command, and the guards coming from behind grabbed her. One of the cult leaders approached, lifted her head while she was scared; she'd heard about horrific things these people do. One of the leaders said:
"What a great day; the futa herself honored us."
Helena was tied to a table with hands and feet spread apart, completely naked. One of the cult members looked at her dick in awe; he hadn't seen a Futanari in reality. He grabbed it, and it started swelling in his hand. Helena forgot the fear, and her breathing grew warmer and sweeter as it grew bigger. The member's pupils widened in awe as if her dick was hypnotizing him magnetically, crawling toward him; he'd never seen one its size before... He wanted to milk it from the depths of his heart, but he was under the cult's eyes.
After a lot of time, the Aeons began gathering, the highest ranks in this cult, with opaque bodies.
One of the leaders said, pushing away a lower-rank member:
"What's this; were you messing with our lady's dick?!"
"Sir, this is the filthiest I've seen; I felt it shaking something inside me."
"Get out of here, you fag."
The Aeons arrived in that hall, and everyone shrank in submission. One Aeon said:
"How's the sample?"
A follower replied:
"My revered sir, her mind was affected by radiations of feelings coming from xenospheres, but that won't affect the entanglement with the event horizon; the operation success rate is 80%."
"Where does she live?"
"From analyzing the precise levels of the reality fingerprint with the Nanoontometer, her real number value approximates the reality levels recorded in the capital Tauredia."
"Hmm, Aeon Sophia, then it's your specialty."
"Fine, then it seems I'll be the one to create the monster."
An ice pick tool shaped like a T formed in her hand, and a follower handed her a small hammer.
Helena couldn't move or speak; her whole body was paralyzed. Nothing but two bloodshot red eyes tearing up and crying, saturated with the urgent desire to wake from this disturbing dream and regret every second she slept.
Helena's head was fixed with a device, and her eyes forced open. The Aeon started hammering the ice pick behind her eye to penetrate her brain, and Helena felt every hammer strike but couldn't scream. Unbearable pain with each strike... and on the sixth strike, the pick slipped into her brain. The Aeon moved it with calculated motions.
With each motion, she felt her brain twisting, kneading, and destroying.
With each motion, the scene distorted, and their shapes and colors twisted.
With each motion, the pain oscillated between extreme and numbness.
With each motion, her aura felt non-existent things.
With each motion, she smelled and tasted non-existent things.
With each motion, she heard sounds like flipping radio channels: talking sounds, sounds from the past, other distorted sounds like searching for some reception frequency, then left the pick.
Then came the time for the other eye socket; this time, there was no healthy half-brain to compensate for the damaged half; the effect was more violent: hallucinations of non-existent entities, complex patterns, and communication from outside the world... All this brain destruction put Helena on the edge of death from the pain.
The Aeon climbed onto her chest and said in an improvised incantation:
"From Terravasta, O Baphomet, we call you.
From the womb of dream core, our souls beseech you.
Awaken your existence from the chains of darkness and pains,
O Baphomet, appear and shine on all beings.
With the power of faith, and unyielding resolve,
We revive you anew, O leader of demons.
In the name of power, and the ancient covenant,
Return to us, O our great liberator."
The Aeon grabbed the handles of the two ice picks and turned them in opposite directions, making Helena's body gradually disappear from existence.
[1] concepts from The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows