I opened my eyes. Am I asleep or am I awake? This looked like the exact same room that Moi told me to sleep in should I wish to visit the "dream world". I sat up and looked around. Nothing unusual felt out of place. I opened the only door and exited the room. Where is everyone? I don't see Moi or Rose anywhere. The fireplace is still brightly lit somehow. Hang on, where is the front door? It's missing? Hmm, where else should I go then? Should I check back the room I came from? Even the stairs to Moi's room are missing.
I opened the door of the room I came from and saw Rose sitting on the bed with her head down. I slowly approached closer to her and thought of waking her up. But as I reached out to shake her shoulder, her head fell off her neck!
"Rose!" I shouted as I rushed to grab her head before it touches the ground.
I managed to grab her head and quickly turned it over. It was just a wooden head with a wig that looked like Rose. Damn it, I was fooled!
I turned to look at her body and… it was no longer there? My eyes naturally wandered to the head I was holding.
"Geez, what the fuck!" I threw the head away as what I saw was a decomposed head filled with maggots that still had her facial features.
The head started writhing on the floor and started regrowing her entire body from the top down. I could only stare at the scene as I did not know what to do. Her body was facing forward towards me, but her head was not. Her head suddenly twisted forward with a loud snap. Her eyes were not focused and seemed out of place. I could see maggots and worms wriggling out of her skin throughout her body and face. She walked slowly to me like some zombie and opened her mouth, which had a centipede that replaced her tongue.
I tried to move my legs, but they wouldn't budge no matter how hard I tried. It was as though I had lost all control of my body. All I could do was glare at this zombie-looking Rose as she slowly walked towards me.
"O… nii… chan…. Time to DIE!!" Her voice suddenly changed to a high pitch, and she rushed towards me and bit my jugular, ripping it apart with her teeth.
***
"Ahhhhh!!" I shouted as I sat up from my bed.
I quickly reached out to check my neck to make sure it was intact and not bleeding profusely. As I was panting hard, I noticed there was a chair at the side of me.
D… Daisy? Her head was twisted sideways and she was bleeding from her eyes, mouth, ears, and even her fingernails.
"D… Daddy?" she asked. Her voice had a male's voice on top of her own, but it sounded like she was scared.
She suddenly leapt towards me and started biting on my flesh. I was holding her back while sacrificing my arm flesh in an attempt to stop her. Everything hurt to the extreme. From the pain of getting my jugular ripped apart to my flesh getting stripped by Daisy, the pain felt real. But I pushed through the pain and tried to pin Daisy down, but she was extremely wriggly and managed to break free of my grips and once again went for my jugular.
***
"Fuck! Fucking nightmare," I woke up and sat on my bed. Bloody hell, that hurts. Who said that dreams are painless? It hurts more than it should.
I heard a knock on the door, and Rose peeked through.
"Onii-chan, are you okay?" she asked me.
"Where's Moi? Is she safe?" I asked her.
"She's sleeping upstairs. I heard you screaming, so I came to check up on you. Are you okay?" she asked with a concerned tone.
"I guess I'm fine. I think I wish to sleep outside now. I had enough of horrible dreams for today," I told her as I headed out of the room.
I sat on one of the chairs while Rose prepared something for me to drink. I checked on my body and neck to make sure everything was fine. Even though everything was intact, I can still feel the pain of having my flesh getting bitten and my jugular getting ripped twice. It was certainly an experience that I do not wish to encounter again for as long as I live. Not to mention my body was feeling fatigued beyond normal.
Rose passed a cup of drink to me, which I accepted. It was her signature rose tea, which I took a sip of. Ahhh, it is still the familiar taste only she knows how to make. The fragrance of the tea, the right amount of sugar, honey, and the perfect amount of time to brew in order to bring out the flavour of the rose itself. All of that, including the wriggling of the worms in my mouth, made it….
puuuuuuuhhhhh!!
I spat out my drink and threw the cup at Rose, which shattered upon direct contact with her body.
"Onii-chan, I made that specially for you," said Rose as she had her back towards me.
"Uh huh. I bet you did. How about you knock it off with all these dream sequences and show yourself?" I threatened it.
"And why would I do that? You are stuck here with me for all eternity. I make the rules here," it said as its voice deepened.
"Who or what are you? Why are you harming these people in such a backwater place?" I asked.
"Heh heh, you don't even know what secrets lie here, yet you are willing to face me directly. I am Baku, a being beyond your understanding. And you will die here, Zen Hawthorn. Along with your wife," it started changing its form from Rose's body into a shadowy figure with glowing red eyes.
I flicked my hand to summon Inazuma. Only to realise there was nothing for me to flick. My right hand was completely missing below my forearm. Great, what Moi said was true. In the dream world, I can only depend on using my mind to combat this entity.
I took a deep breath and focused my mind. This is definitely a dream. I just need to calm myself and focus on what I need. I opened my eyes, and Tengu-kaze was floating in front of me. Better than nothing, I guess. My left hand was still intact, so it is the best weapon for me now. Let's see if my mind is strong enough to fight this entity in its realm.
I grabbed Tengu-kaze with my left hand and unsheathed it by biting the handle and tossing aside the scabbard. At least I have something to fight with. The formless being was wriggling as though it was trying to morph into something. I started to gather powers in my left hand and swung wind pressures at the entity. The wind pushed aside the formless shadows to reveal someone in the middle.
W… who… who is that? She had long red hair and a face that I had seen before.
"M… mom?" I asked.
"My boy, how have you been? I missed you so…" I sliced her vertically in half before she finished her sentence.
"You're joking, right? I had never even met my mother nor did I interact with her before in real life. You think showing her in my dream is suddenly going to make me all emotional?" I spat as I continued to attack the entity.
"What a naughty boy. To think you would actually slice your mother in half. I should teach you a good lesson that you shall never forget!" shouted the entity while maintaining my mother's form.
Dark shades of thorny objects homed on me. It was difficult to see them as the surroundings were dark in the first place. One of them hit my right arm, but I ignored it and swung wind pressures at the entity, but it just went through without causing it any harm. Damn it, it seemed that physical attacks were not harming it whatsoever. What else can I use?
My right arm started stinging and upon inspection, dark particles was creeping up on it. I placed Tengu-kaze on my elbow and sliced off my bottom arm. Eouch!! I thought I would looked cool by doing that but it hurts like hell to slice off your entire arm!
But the dark particles did not stop and continued creeping up on my body. Damn, what else is going to happen next?
"You may think that dying in your dream is nothing. But you know very well that dreams can become reality," warned the entity.
"How nice of you to warn me, but I'll be fine," I mocked the entity.
Truth be told, I am not fine. I had no idea what I was going to do to combat these dark particles enveloping me. I can feel that I am losing control of my entire body. Damn it, what can I even do now?!
A bright light shone high above that made the entity writhe in pain and morphed back to its shadowy form. The dark particles that almost enveloped my entire body were being pushed away by the light. Why did this light suddenly appear? I regained all of my body parts due to the light. Nice, I should take advantage of this opportunity given to me.
I summoned my gauntlets and Inazuma with a flick. I thought of activating Focused Meditation, but it didn't seem to work. No matter, I should use whatever I can for now to deal some damage to this entity. I lifted my right hand, expecting to summon lightning, but nothing came. Damn it, what can I even use?! I unsheathed Inazuma and saw that it was sparkling. I hope I can use this well without Focused Meditation active.
I sheathed Inazuma and got ready to strike. The entity was still in pain from the light, but it was trying to attack me by shifting its formless body into a large giant hand, wanting to squash me flat. It's now or never; I hope Kirin's power works here.
I slashed Inazuma towards the giant hand. Streaks of lightning sliced through the hand. The entity roared in pain but continued its attempt to slam me. But I am not done; whoever told you that lightning only strikes the same location once is lying to you. I gripped Inazuma two-handed and swung it downwards with all my might. The second thunderbolt was much stronger and obliterated a huge chunk of the hand. I call it Twin K Thunderbolt.
The hand started disintegrating before my very eyes. Did I do it? Did I win?
Another hand grabbed me from behind without me noticing. Shit! I can barely move now! The hand lifted me closer to its face and stared at me with glowing eyes.
"To think you were capable of harming me in my own world. Your mind is strong, but I am stronger. You will not win against me," said the entity.
"Really? I think I'm doing just fine. You have met your match, whatever you are. Just you wait," I said while struggling to free myself.
"You really think I am going to release you? You will die by my hands today," said the entity as it tightened its grip.
A rather bright light came upon my vision as I was struggled to free myself. Am I dying? But it seems like it was the same light that saved me earlier. Perhaps it is trying to help me or something. I sure hope it does as I feel that I am being squeezed of the life out of me. More and more of the light engulfed my vision until I could barely see anything but white throughout my entire vision.
***
"Gaaaaahhhhh!!" I shouted as I sat up on my bed.
"Onii-chan! You're okay, you're okay… I'm so glad you're able to wake up," said Rose as she came to my side.
"R… Rose? Stay back. I still don't know whether you are real," I told her.
"Hey… hey, I'm real. I've cast Mind Fortification on you. See? This is real, Onii-chan," said Rose as she tried to calm me down.
I looked around and it was the exact same room that Moi had asked me to stay in should I wish to confront the thing that is causing nightmares to the people in this city. I noticed that the room was brightly lit and that Rose had cast Holy Light in the room. Moi opened the room door and peeked in while holding her teddy.
"You're awake, Mister Zen. I'm impressed. Welcome back to the land of the living," said Moi.
"W… what do you mean by that?" I asked her as I tried to stand up and noticed that my right hand was bandaged.
I checked my neck and it too was bandaged. What the hell? Did I seriously almost die because of the dream?
"W… what happened? Did I self-inflict harm on myself when I was sleeping?" I asked Rose as I started to panic.
"Let us head to the living room. I don't like the atmosphere of this room. It's giving a bad vibe," said Rose as she stood up and pulled my arm.
***
I sat on the couch while Rose was preparing some hot drink for me. It was starting to feel like deja vu to me right now. I warned her not to put worms in my drink, and she chuckled, thinking I was joking. I responded to her with a serious face, and she assured me that she would make a proper drink. The only thing different so far was that Moi was sitting next to me, hugging her teddy bear. Come to think of it, none of my dreams had Moi in it somehow.
I checked my wounds and realised that there was no pain at all. Should I remove the bandages? I began to unwrap the one on my arm. As I unraveled it, there was certainly some blood in them, but… there was no wound on my arm at all. What is going on?
"Here you go, Onii-chan," said Rose as she passed me a drink.
I stared hard at my cup, making sure it was safe. Rose came over and placed both her hands on her hips, assuring me that she had not poisoned my drink. Should I wish not to drink it, then she would. We can't afford to be wasting precious resources in this freezing weather.
I took a sip as my throat was getting parched. Oh well, bottom's up. Ahhh~ This is certainly reality. No worms in my mouth for sure. Moi started chuckling from my reaction.
"Rose, mind telling me your side of the story about what happened? Were you the one who bandaged me?" I asked her while showing the unwrapped bandages.
She was surprised and quickly inspected my arm.
"B.. but, I was certain you were bleeding," she muttered.
"Rose? You okay?" I asked her.
"R… right. Let me explain about what happened," she began.
***
She told me that she could not sleep as she was worried about me. When she came to check, the whole room was extremely dark and it felt as though light sources could not enter even with the door open. She couldn't even light a match in here as it was too dark. She decided to cast Holy Light to brighten up the room in order to check up on me. Once she did, she noticed that I was bleeding from several places. She rushed to the door to take her healing gel but the door was suddenly locked. She scoured the room and luckily enough she was able to find some bandages. She did her very best to wrap all the parts that I was bleeding from, despite my body being as heavy as a rock. She made the call to cast Mind Fortification on me when my body started convulsing all of a sudden.
I had no idea that things were that bad for me in real life. Is what is happening in my dream occurring in real life as well? Does this mean that if I were to die in my dream, then I will die in real life too? But all my wounds were gone when I woke up. Does this mean that my body perceives what is real depending on the situation? But according to Rose, my wounds weren't that bad as what I had experienced in my dream. Perhaps it is cumulative instead? Hmm.
I thought back about the incident that happened to me 15 years ago, where I dreamt of Lily and Rose choking the life out of me in my dream. But the strangulation marks from that dream retained in real life even after I woke up. Is this the same case? No, it feels different somehow. That one felt stronger in terms of intensity. Perhaps something stronger than even Baku.
The more I think about it, the more it doesn't make sense. I decided to check my pocket watch. It was about midnight now. I only slept for about an hour or so, and those things happened in that short period of time? Maybe we should let Moi sleep, seeing as it is late night now.
"Moi, you should sleep. It's getting late now," I told her.
"No. We shouldn't sleep tonight. It is a dangerous day to sleep when the full moon is up," she said.
H… how does she know? I didn't even realise it was a full moon tonight. Well, I guess it is an all-nighter tonight then. Moi is way smarter than she looks, which I am really surprised by. I guess she had to grow up fast when she is living all alone here.
***
Holy shit, why am I so sleepy? It was close to 3 a.m. now, and my eyes are drooping and shutting on their own. I tried to shake it off, but it just kept closing. I was not the only one, if that's what you're thinking. Both Rose and Moi were struggling to keep themselves awake. As a matter of fact, I think Moi was already asleep now.
I stood up to walk it off, but I heard Rose sliding and fell flat on the couch. I wanted to wake her, but I fell to my knees, struggling to keep myself up. This is not normal; it must be Baku trying to force us to sleep with its spell or something. Damn it, I am losing consciousness here, trying to stay awake.
I quickly summoned all my weapons and gauntlets and hugged them. I hope they can help me when I am in the dream world. I reached out to grab Rose's hand before I fully lost consciousness on the floor.