Chapter 14: Dreamworld III

  The snakes finally gained the upper hand. With one last, lightning-fast swing of their powerful bodies, they shattered the remaining rocks into dust, which disintegrated into sparkling particles, slowly drifting away in the dream air. For a moment, the entire plain was completely silent.

  Darek stepped back, eyes wide. “Not bad… I definitely wouldn’t mess with those,” he murmured, half admiring, half frightened.

  The two snakes pulled back for a moment, their movements fluid, almost playful. Then, in perfect synchronization, they lifted their heads, stretched out their long, glimmering tongues, and sniffed the air—their senses immediately detecting Darek and Iris.

  Can they smell us from this far away?

  A chill ran down their spines as the snakes focused on them. Darek felt his heart beating faster in his chest. “Iris… they see us,” he whispered, panicked.

  Iris’ wings trembled slightly, her enormous eye fixed on the two threats, while a tension like crackling energy stretched between them. The snakes moved closer, leaving the ground of the island and rushing with tremendous speed across the expanse of purple clouds. Their scales glimmered with eerie reflections, each movement a display of raw power and the unpredictable violence of the dreamworld.

  Shit… His stomach twisted, cold sweat running down his neck.

  Darek swallowed and briefly looked away—he had to stay calm to avoid panicking. Yet inside, he felt… escape was impossible now.

  I still managed one on Iris. I hope that even works.

  The panic gave way to a single, concentrated thought. And then it happened: two massive, black wings burst from his back, pointed, majestic, yet wild in motion. He flapped them powerfully, launching himself into the air.

  Red dust spilled from his hand like molten fire, glowing and swirling. Darek spread the black wings wide, stretching them as if summoning a storm itself. He extended them to their utmost, trembling with tension. With a mighty beat, he whipped up the wind and sent the glowing particles of his Soulbound hurtling forward, like a projectile from an invisible catapult. The dust shot forward like a blazing wave toward the snakes, carried and amplified by the power of his wings. Whispering with a trembling voice, he said, “Fear…”

  He exhaled, relieved. So I can use the active abilities even in passive Soulbound mode… I wonder what other secrets awakening holds, he thought.

  For a heartbeat, it seemed to take effect. The snakes hesitated, their gaze momentarily confused, the flowing silver reflections of their scales shimmering uneasily. But the distraction did not last long. On the contrary, they tensed their powerful bodies more aggressively than before, cutting through the air and gathering for an even faster assault on Darek and Iris.

  Well, that probably backfired… I just made them angrier.

  The snakes were now on their side of the platform. Darek swallowed, feeling his heart race. His wings twitched, the dust whirling behind him as he made a sharp turn, trying to gain distance while simultaneously confusing the snakes. The game of speed, reflexes, and chaos had begun—a dance of light, metal, and red dust testing the limits of his control. He managed to evade their attacks by mere inches each time.

  I definitely can’t keep this up for long. I need to think of something fast.

  The snakes moved in perfect synchronization, their long bodies twisting through the air, ready to trap Darek. But suddenly, he sensed a subtle change in the air—a flutter, almost like a heartbeat that wasn’t his own. Iris’ voice echoed directly in his mind: “Darek… I can see their movements… their attacks… you just need to follow.”

  “What… do you mean?” he panted, narrowly dodging a dangerous swing from one of the snakes.

  “Focus… I’ll guide you,” Iris replied. “I’ve been here long enough, and I can see the currents of their bodies, predict their movements before they happen. They’ll attack from two angles, left high and right low. Follow my instructions, and you can dodge.”

  Darek nodded, his eyes focused as Iris’ thoughts appeared as a guide in his mind. When the snakes struck again, he saw bright lines in the air, like invisible threads tracing the creatures’ movements. With each beat of his wings, he dodged narrowly, gliding through the gaps and directing the red dust precisely along the attack paths Iris indicated.

  “Left high!” whispered Iris, and Darek rose just in time, as the foremost snake cut through the air with its head. “Right low!” came the next instruction, and Darek maneuvered, flapping his wings and ducking rapidly. His red dust swirled like a barricade between him and the attacks.

  “Sleep!” Darek called out hopefully. Yet the snake simply shook it off.

  The prediction allowed him not just to react but to almost anticipate the snakes’ movements. A new rhythm emerged—Darek, Iris, and the red dust in perfect harmony, a dance of power, reflexes, and precise coordination. He felt the resonance between his soul and Iris’ growing stronger.

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  I know exactly what Iris means before she even says it. Dodging is easy. It feels more like dancing with the snakes than fighting for my life. It’s only a matter of time before one of them panics or falls asleep from the dust. Unless my soul gives out… I already feel the strain, just thinking about it. The dust isn’t the problem, but flying and maintaining the borrowed power from Iris strains my soul more than I expected.

  After countless evasions, precise movements, and relentless use of the red dust, Darek finally managed to put one of the snakes to sleep. The hissing beast writhed one last time before collapsing lifelessly to the ground of the ring.

  “Finally, one down. At least it’s fair now,” Darek shouted, visibly exhausted and panting.

  But the triumph lasted only a heartbeat. The strain of maintaining the red dust, combined with Iris’ powers and the constant tension of dodging, completely drained him. His wings fluttered heavily, his breathing came in ragged gasps, his body felt like lead. Darek glanced to the side, preparing to target the remaining snake.

  “Darek, watch out!” Iris shouted desperately in his mind, but her warning came too late.

  At that very moment, the snake exploited his moment of weakness. It coiled in the air, tensed its body like a drawn spring, and lunged at Darek. Its strike, faster than the eye could follow, hit him mid-flight with the force of a speeding truck. The impact sent him uncontrollably crashing into a rocky wall. A stabbing pain shot through his chest, and a gush of blood escaped his lips.

  Darek slammed against the rock, sliding several meters down the ring of the mountain, gasping for breath. Over him, the shadows of the snakes circled, and nearby, the clouds over the plain parted, revealing the terrifying depths below.

  “Arrghhgra!” Darek shouted, blood spilling from his mouth. For a moment, everything blurred, but his Soulbound quickly absorbed the damage. Gasping, he forced himself upright, his eyes burning with determination.

  Of course… he thought bitterly. My gift doesn’t just make me strong—it makes me the perfect victim. Born to suffer.

  A rumbling droned above as a massive shadow passed over him. Then a boulder crashed through the clouds with tremendous force, burying the sleeping snake beneath it. Nothing remained to confirm its existence—only shattered rocks and a column of dust filling a gap in the purple sky.

  “Holy crap, Iris, what was that?!” Darek shouted, disbelief in his voice.

  The second snake, which had just lunged at Darek, wasted no time in making a decision: it twisted away, let out a shrill hiss, and vanished into the shadows of the mountains.

  Darek froze. His heart raced as he stared at the rubble. “Where… where did that enormous rock come from?”

  “A rock?” Iris’ voice sounded calm in his mind. “No… that’s a foot.”

  Incredulous, Darek lifted his gaze. His eyes followed the massive lines of stone upward, higher and higher, until the silhouette of a colossal being loomed before him. A monstrous creature, its body seemingly carved from both rock and shadow, towered over him. Its legs—if it had any—probably reached the ground of the plain. This monster was the size of a mountain.

  His breath caught. This was no coincidence. No falling loose rock. This was the deliberate step of a monster.

  Before Darek could comprehend what he was seeing, a deafening hiss split the air. From the distance, a gigantic snake, equal in size to the obelisk and the boulder, rushed forward. With a tremendous impact, it collided with the colossal figure.

  A shockwave hit Darek like an invisible fist. For a moment, he lost balance, the world spinning, everything turning into a whirlwind of dust and thunder. The impact caused the entire dream to tremble, and the massive being swayed before crashing into the depths below, as if the earth itself had reached for it. The fall swept away all clouds. Even a few islands in its path were pulverized effortlessly.

  Falling rocks broke off the obelisk, crashing through the clouds and leaving holes in them, or striking the ring that encircled the tower’s second level.

  Darek dodged a falling chunk rushing down from above, hunching toward Iris. “What the hell is going on? Damn, what are we supposed to do? There’s nowhere left to hide!”

  But that wasn’t all: both giants began to flicker, their outlines warping. Sometimes they seemed smaller, sometimes unimaginably large. Their shapes constantly changed, as if the dream desperately tried to summon a forgotten image—and yet never hit the mark.

  The boulder reassembled itself, drew back, and its fist slammed down mercilessly into the face of the snake. The sound echoed through the void like the roar of a collapsing world. The creature was thrown back, crashing to the ground, and for a moment, the world held its breath.

  The illusions dissolved. The flickering distortions, the endless play of uncertainty and distortion, evaporated like smoke in the wind. At last, the dream revealed the truth. Darek suddenly found himself alone, without Iris, in infinite height, standing at the edge of a circular platform no more than ten meters across. Only a few steps—maybe fifteen—away, he saw two outlines.

  Their contours flickered, and Darek had to blink to make sense of what he was seeing. His mind desperately sought order in the chaos.

  Darek spun frantically, first left, then right—but all he saw was sky. His gaze fell downward, and nausea struck him immediately. Instinctively, he crouched. There… there was nothing beneath him. Not even clouds were visible. He must be… at the very peak of the mountain. …I’m screwed…

  Slowly, as if emerging from mist, the bodies of the two giants began to take shape. The scales, stones, grotesque protrusions—all of it crumbled until two human figures became discernible. Severely wounded but clearly recognizable, they faced each other.

  The figure of the snake knelt on the ground. Blood dripped from its mouth as it struggled to rise. Darek squinted. On the chest of the dying figure was a broken pendant, a snake coiled around a potion. He had seen it before, in a book at the academy. The emblem of the ruling family over Serphira, the alchemist family Potifera. Serphira Potifera. The thought struck him like lightning.

  Her voice was hoarse, full of pain and reproach: “That… that was your plan from the start… You joined them… and then were corrupted by the tyrant’s influence… Brother… we were heroes, the good ones.” Each word was accompanied by a labored, rattling breath. Blood spattered the ground.

  But the response of her brother—the boulder—remained silent. His lips moved, forming words, but no voice emerged, as if the world itself had decided to swallow his confession.

  Blood-soaked, the snake figure gasped, spitting more deep-red life onto the earth. “My daughter, I… I must leave you… alone…” His gaze suddenly lifted to the sky, as if seeing her there. “Rule… the land… kindly… lovingly, as if it were your own child… and most importantly…” He coughed, his body trembling, yet his voice rose one last time, clear despite its fragility: “… justly.”

  Then he collapsed, and the echo of that word lingered like a vow in the air—heavier and more meaningful than any battle before.

  It hit Darek like a thunderclap—suddenly everything made sense. All the pieces that had been floating like loose fragments in his mind now formed a coherent picture.

  The purpose of the dream… The pendant with the Potifera emblem. A hero whose story had already ended. And most importantly… his daughter.

  Mariel Serphira Potifera—the Just.

  “Yes, exactly!” Darek shouted determinedly, his voice trembling with revelation. “Her father… the hero of the story: Serphira, the Conqueror, who six hundred years ago took most of what is now Serphira under his banner. What was his name again…”

  Whispering, almost reverently, Darek shaped the words: “Sorus Serphira Potifera…”

  And then it happened: the dreamworld began to collapse. First, a subtle trembling, then it grew into a furious quake that made the ground beneath Darek flow like lava.

  Even the obelisk seemed to melt, its tip dissolving into light. The air seemed to tear apart. Cracks of light and shadow ran across the world, swallowing everything in their path. The ground fractured, grasses, stones, entire debris were sucked into blinding whirlpools as if reality itself was evaporating. A deafening scream, a roar of millions of voices rising from the depths of the dreamworld, filled Darek.

  He felt the energy seize him, envelop him, like a storm threatening to tear him apart. His heart raced, his breath caught, and yet, in the middle of the chaos, a clarity struck him: everything was part of the revelation, the manifestation of truth, power, and history. The world around him was dying, consuming itself, and Iris reappeared beside him.

  Iris cried in disbelief and awe: “Darek, Darek! Was that you? What exactly happened? I’ve never seen anything like it! It’s like the forgotten dream is collapsing and destroying itself!”

  Before Darek could respond, he felt himself falling into the void. The fall seemed endless, as if he were plunging forever through infinite, white nothingness. Wind whipped past him, glowing shards of the crumbling dreamworld swirling around, each one like a tiny star exploding in blinding light.

  Then he heard a voice—gentle, yet full of gratitude, echoing in his mind: “You… you reminded me… I remember again. My name… thank you. Now even the last part of my soul can find peace… Here, this should belong to you—you’ve earned it.”

  The light before Darek’s eyes faded, and in the distance shimmered something, like a door waiting for him.