With the dreams of desire and illusion shattered. Shaking legs and strength worn thin, unable to stand, they remained on their knees, struggling even to steady their breathing. The lingering effects of the dream still jolted through their minds and nerves, refusing to fade completely.
Even stranger, they were completely dry, yet they had been basking in the rain for hours. Perhaps the rain was nothing more than an illusion or another part of a dream. Nevertheless, Natalak covered his mouth, still replaying the dream in his mind, then glanced toward Chifya. And something about her trousers caught his attention.
He saw a wet patch spreading across the fabric, as water dripped from her nether region.
"Don't look." Still catching her breath, Chifya turned away from Natalak's gaze, face flushed as she hurriedly covered her lower abdomen with the edge of her waist cloak.
"R-right…" Natalak turned away, still covering his mouth. "I think I too need to leak… damn it, my legs won't move, and I can't even hold it, too."
After which, neither of them spoke for two more hours. Somehow, that silence between them made the whole atmosphere even more awkward. And while the surroundings were still visible, Natalak could tell they were trapped for hours, for sunset was already taking its place.
"Marvellous, what an amusing time. I should have put more effort into keeping you two in that dream." Amaragnum did not speak aloud but communicated through Natalak's mind.
"You were watching us?!" Natalak grunts.
Amaragnum chuckles, then begins to laugh.
"So, you set us up?!"
"Set you up?" Amaragnum scoffs. "No, and don't you dare talk to me like that again, because I know you enjoyed it."
"Well, you got a point. But got any reason why didn't you intervene?"
"Fool! Both of you were trapped by Shastra's dream. And I was savouring, siphoning every desire you both produced in that illusion."
"Um, so who's Shastra?"
"Are you really this dumb?"
Natalak didn't reply; instead, he fixated on regaining his strength. In time when silence was his only answer, Amaragnum reverted to his book.
"Ask your half-elf companion; she might answer your query," Amaragnum said before his voice faded away.
After two hours and a few more minutes, Chifya regained her strength; Natalak, however, still struggled to stand, still trying to push the memory away.
"Here." Chifya offered him a small green vial. "Drink half of it… It should slowly recover your strength. And once you feel relief, drink the last half."
"Why didn't you give it in the first place—"
"Because if you drank that vial during your recovery period, you'd be quivering on the ground right now!" Chifya retorts, "Any more questions?!"
"No, madam."
"Good, now let's move on!"
As her elvish form dwindles and the mist begins to thicken, Chifya pauses and slowly scans the surroundings. She gazes through the sky, then, with a thought—
"They're still visible." Chifya murmurs as she fixes her eyes on the three moons.
"What?"
"Do you have some water with you?"
"Should I joke about her wet pants?... Nah, I don't want my head getting ripped off."
"I do have some." Natalak scavenged his bag and handed over a leather flask.
"And a bowl or a plate, if you would."
Curious and ecstatic to see what magic the half-elf would create, Natalak freely gives a wooden bowl no more than ten inches in diameter. And as she brims the bowl, one step away from her Natalak stood frozen, intently watching with a gaze that of a curious child. Awaiting what Chifya would do next.
"Hold this bowl, Natalak." Chifya instructed, but the man was too oblivious to her words. "Natalak!" Chifya exclaimed.
"Oh," Natalak said, looking at her with a completely fuddled face.
"For the love of—hold this!" She said, forcing the bowl into his hand.
Without further delay, Chifya enters her elvish form, and the mark of Hackrash glows in unison with her heritage.
"This should be enough." She mutters, unsheathing one of her twin blades.
With a quick incision of her palm, the ebony blade bites into her flesh. And with it, a thin line of blood welled along the cut, and the blood isn't that of a human but gleams with a mix of purple and red.
In it, Chifya held her palm against the bowl, and as Natalak watched in a daze and curiosity, she squeezed her hand tightly, drawing out more of her blood before dipping her hand into the bowl.
"God dang! This world never ceased to amaze me."
Natalak watched intently as the water changed colour into sparkling velvet, then slowly illuminates when Chifya's blood stained the water.
"This should be enough," Chifya said, grabbing the bowl and scouring the place. "Help me find a level stone." She added, strolling in every direction and searching for any level surfaces, stones, or not.
"I think I may have found one," Natalak called, pointing at a flat stone, no more than the size of a chair.
Chifya sighed in disappointment. "Not that; we need bigger and cleaner surface ones— you know what, hold this for me."
Handing over the bowl, Chifya hastily disappears into the fog, leaving Natalak to wonder by himself. When Natalak sensed Chifya was no more, something erupted in his thoughts.
"What would happen if I drink this or inject it?"
Natalak stared at the shimmering velvet water as his head switched left and right.
"Hah, better take a sample of this juice." Natalak chuckled, set the bowl on the ground, pulled out an empty flask, and took a small sample of the liquid.
Right after he dropped the flask into his bag, Chifya arrived.
"I've found one." She said, grabbing the bowl from Natalak's hand.
"Um, may I ask, boss, what happens if an ordinary human drinks that kind of water?"
Right after Natalak asked, Chifya paused, then slowly turned around with a cold, dark face.
"Did you drink some of this water?" Her voice acerbic and stern.
"N-no, I didn't," Natalak stammered, stepping back as the half-elf closed in with her ominous presence.
"Did you or did you not drink the water?"
"Look, missy, I have the eye of Adra or whatever you called it. Let's do—"
"Do it, bring it out." Chifya asserts.
"Alright, alright. Sheesh, grumpy old woman." Natalak then brought out the crystal. "I should not have run my tongue. Me and my big mouth."
As it was, Chifya settled down the moment Natalak told the truth.
"I'm just asking, why do you have to be so furious all the time?" Natalak said, jabbering as he stuffed the crystal ball back into his satchel.
Chifya, on the other hand, ignores his demeanour and slowly continues her steps. After ten minutes of walking, Natalak was led to a flat boulder no larger than a tugboat.
"Here," Chifya said, palm wiping the stone's surface, clearing any leaves and dirt.
As Natalak watched the half-elf clear the debris, he couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling between his legs.
"Damn it, this sticky, wet thing." Natalak groaned awkwardly as he stretched his legs.
"Are you going to help?" Chifya said, her voice still cold.
"Right away, madam," Natalak answered hastily as he mopped the stone surface using the fallen branches.
It took time, and in less than an hour the stone's surface was as clean as a hound's tooth.
"W-what now?" Natalak asked, rubbing the dirt off his hand.
"Now we wait for night to come," Chifya answered, watching the mist carefully. "And if ever, try not to rest." She added, securing the bowl with thorn vines.
In their wait for night to come, Natalak brought out dried meat; he offers some to Chifya, but she refuses. In such a passing hour, he wanted to ask questions, but given her emotional state, he hesitated. By the time dusk takes its leave, the thick mist gradually descends to the ground. Even then, the forest grew quieter, save for the occasional rustle of leaves and branches, and the distant calls of creatures and insects hidden beyond sight.
On that boulder, Chifya knelt before the flat stone, her ebony twin blade resting beside her. Eyes closed, her hand resting on her lap, calm and composed. Just a few steps in front of her, Natalak positioned a boulder the size of an infant. Once prepared, he brought out a book and a device similar to a lamp.
He watched her for a moment before opening the book.
'In the dusk of fall, I have encountered something that fills one's desire.' A faint grin appeared on his face as he wrote those words.
He scribbled another line before rubbing his legs. The dream from before still lingers at the back of his mind, its memories refusing to settle into anything he could comfortably ignore. Every so often, his hand would stop moving as his gaze drifted into the thick fog crawling along the ground. And after half an hour of scribbling his history…
'Even if it may be an illusion of the mind, I cannot help but wonder if what I felt is much the same as reality.'
As he wrote those words, he couldn't help but cover his mouth with his hand, trying to muffle his chuckles. At that moment, Chifya opened his eyes, catching him as he tried to hide his snickering. She couldn't help but wonder if the man was on a drug or just plain demented. Nevertheless, she was more focused on what was to come than distinguishing what he was sniggering about.
Patience, like a crocodile awaiting an ambush, and in their wait, the clouds that once covered the sky open, allowing moonlight to reach the land. On that occasion, Chifya's moon and dark elvish lineage slowly amended her human blood.
"It's time," Chifya announced, rising to her feet.
The thorn vines were removed, and when the moon lit the water, it grew brighter. Strangest of all, the water mirrored not a single image of Chifya, but held the image of her surroundings. When she moves, too, the water's reflection moves, matching the place of her every step.
When she pours the water, spilling it and letting it spread across the flat stone surface, the reflection spreads with it, opening a portal.
While Natalak was mesmerised by what he was seeing, Chifya quickly grab his hand before plunging into the portal.
What Natalak experienced was much like diving into water. But when they emerge from the other side, their armour and gear, even their flesh, are not stained with water. And here they enter the Echo of Realms.
"Strange, this is not the same realm that I entered, or maybe not. And why is it so purple and smells much the same as what I've dreamed of?" Natalak looks at Chifya, as if to ask whether she, too, is smelling the same scent.
"Just as I suspected," Chifya whispered, eyes scanning the surroundings.
"W-what exactly are we dealing with, if you don't mind me asking?"
Chifya glanced at Natalak but quickly averted her eyes.
"I can't say… but I have a hunch that we are dealing with a powerful practitioner. Someone who makes deals with the demons."
Before they could step forward, Chifya seized the handle of her blade and, ten seconds later, she turned around, eyes locking on the distant horizon covered by purple mist.
"There." She spoke.
This time, Chifya didn't run; she moved carefully, still holding the blade's handle. Natalak trailed behind, likely believing the blade was leading Chifya to the source of trouble.
"What about the portal?" Natalak said.
"No need; it will repel any spirits that seek to enter the material world."
Chifya stopped the moment both her blades began to shake.
"I got a bad feeling about this."
Treading carefully, the two. And upon entering where the mist begins to fade, a gnome in an ebony mask stood holding a sharp, dark obsidian crystal. Embroiled in golden filigrees, the mask radiates powerful magic, which Chifya can tell.
"Ah, so you've come at a right time." The gnome said, his voice echoing a second voice, a woman's.
"Are you perhaps Laneth?" Chifya implores.
"And what of it? Perhaps I am not… But names are not much of any meaning when death is upon your life." Laneth said, before plunging the crystal deep into his chest, piercing his own heart.
When the pulsating crystal merges with his flesh and blood, it bursts out a roar of cries. Screams of trapped souls and the faint essence of dreams gathered from the mortals.
Frankly, Natalak noticed his dream before its image blurred, then turned into a mist of energy.
The gnome's mask cracked, shattering its illusion and revealing a material made of strange dragon scales and distorted dark metal. Clashing with the crystal's fetid energy, the mask detached from Laneth's face and shot toward Natalak.
Without hesitation, Natalak quickly picks up the mask and stores it in his artefact. He looks back at the gnome to see his face without skin; his clothes disintegrate as his flesh melts into a slurry of blood.
The crystal hovers for three seconds, and with that time, the grume of blood rises towards the crystal, encasing the gemstone. Endlessly, the red curd begins to take shape, not of a mortal form but of a creature of the abyss.
Six arms sprout like a bird unfolding its wings; its shape grows, reaching beyond the size of a two-story house. Natalak watches in awe and fear as the creature takes form, a form of a woman and a snake combine.
"Holy… mama," Natalak said, his jaw dropped.
Bare and unadorned, lacking garments or armor. Once the blood is gone, the creature's skin appears smooth and elegant, though some patches resemble snake skin. In the lower part of her body, her feet merge to form the body of a massive snake.
In her upper arms, she holds spears; in her middle arms, she holds swords made of bones. But in her last third arms, she holds nothing, though one could see a faint glow of magical energy swirling across her hand.
"Boss?"
Natalak looks where Chifya stands, but for some reason she isn't there.
"Boss!"
He looks back at the creature, and before he can react, the demon lunges at him with great speed; her spear is already a meter away from skewering Natalak's head. Too fast for Natalak to react, too swift for him to dodge and when death was ready to take his life, time paused, and there Amaragnum emerged in the form of a burning, murky black shadow.
He waves his hand in front of Natalak, and immediately he can blink, as do his mouth. Conversely, his body remained frozen, unable to move.
"Oh, how unfortunate of you," Amaragnum said, circling Natalak.
Natalak looks at the spear and sigh. "Get to the point."
Amaragnum looks at the giant demon. "You already know what I want. Either way, you're the only person who can save you."
"So why didn't you take possession of my body when—"
"Cause I'm ploughing weak. I can't even cast any of such magic in this blasted form, thanks to you. And even if I force my way into your body, I need much amount of energy just to rip your soul out from your flesh."
Natalak hesitated, yet after ten seconds, he noticed time had shifted. The spear that had once frozen in time began to inch toward his head.
"Fine! Do it."
"Much obliged."
When Amaragnum's tainted form sips into Natalak's body, it is nothing more than being electrocuted. But then, as Natalak tries to resist the electrocution by strengthening his will, mind, and muscle, Amaragnum's essence begins to flush out of his body.
"YOU FUCKING HORSESHIT—"
"Alright, alright. I'm just curious."
Strangely, after the entity was given permission, Natalak felt no sensation in his legs; Amaragnum had taken his left torso and even half his head. He could speak; he could move his head, but an unseen force quickly took hold.
"Ahh… Finally! Flesh and bones! Oh, how I longed for this sensation!" Natalak spoke, but Amaragnum's voice mixed in. "Now for the feast on the table."