The dead forest stretched endlessly beneath the broken red moon.
Sparse wind moved through the dried trees yet there were no insects that crawled across the cracked black soil.
No living thing existed here.
Only rot and silence.
The skeletal trunks of ancient trees rose from the earth like the fingers of buried corpses clawing toward the sky. Their bark had long since decayed into charcoal black husks and their branches twisted together overhead like tangled veins beneath the colored moonlight.
A figure burst through the forest at terrifying speed. The dead ground exploded beneath every step he took.
His body blurred between the trees while fragments of black soil scattered violently behind him. A Grimm mask covered his face completely, its jagged features carved into a permanent monstrous grin.
In his hand rested a magnificent spear.
Its crimson shaft pulsed faintly with flowing runic energy while the blade at its tip pierced outward like the fang of some ancient beast. Strange mechanical segments lined the weapon beneath the surface, shifting subtly as though waiting to transform.
The masked man ran.
Fast enough that the trees themselves became streaks around him.
With Rank 2 strength, he could have charged through the forest in a straight line without slowing at all. The dead trees would shatter against his body like brittle sticks.
But he still dodged around them instinctively. As though trying to break sightlines, trying to escape something.
Or someone.
His breathing sounded ragged beneath the mask. Then suddenly he twisted around mid sprint and his spear flashed forward.
THRUM.
A wave of crimson force exploded outward from the weapon.
Then another and another.
Each thrust launched beams of compressed red energy through the forest behind him. Entire sections of dead woodland detonated apart instantly.
Trees shattered and Black soil erupted skyward. The landscape behind him became a wasteland of destruction in mere seconds.
Yet nothing appeared there.
No visible pursuer or enemy.
Only silence.
The masked man seemed to sense something anyway and panic flared beneath his movements. The spear suddenly shifted.
Metal segments expanded violently outward from the shaft while the blade split apart mechanically with a shriek of grinding steel.
Within seconds the weapon had transformed into a gigantic cannon nearly the size of a tree itself. The masked man immediately aimed downward.
BOOOOM.
The cannon fired directly into the forest floor. A catastrophic explosion erupted beneath him and flames consumed entire sections of dead woodland while the blast wave flattened countless trees outward in a massive expanding ring of destruction.
The force launched the masked man high into the air like artillery. Mid flight, the gigantic cannon collapsed inward again before reforming seamlessly back into the original spear.
Then he threw it.
The spear shot forward through the air like a crimson meteor. Moments later his body vanished.
Space distorted briefly as the man reappeared standing atop the spear's shaft itself while soaring through the sky above the forest like a living missile.
His mind desperately prompted the Nightmare System repeatedly.
[DREAM AUTHORITY EXIT: BLOCKED]
[DREAM AUTHORITY EXIT: BLOCKED]
[DREAM AUTHORITY EXIT: BLOCKED]
"Fuck!"
His voice echoed wildly through the dead wilderness.
"Fuck, fuck, FUCK, he's still on me!"
The spear accelerated even faster beneath his feet.
"How the hell did he get that fucking rune?!"
His masked gaze darted toward the forest below. Then confusion briefly mixed with his panic.
"And where the hell are all the Grimm?"
That was wrong. Terribly wrong. This section of the Dream Realm should have been overflowing with monsters.
Instead...
There was nothing. No movement, growls or eyes lurking beneath dead branches.
Just endless silence.
Like something had hunted everything down in the surroundings as a preparation for the apex hunt.
While he was pondering this, the masked man's instincts suddenly screamed at him. Then, everything stopped.
Not physically but conceptually.
His momentum halted, his thoughts halted and even the flow of runic energy within his body seemed to freeze.
The spear beneath his feet disappeared instantly and his expression beneath the mask went blank. Like somebody had reached into his mind and stolen the thought he had been holding moments earlier.
His body plummeted from the sky.
CRASH.
He smashed through multiple dead trees before finally skidding violently across the black earth. Yet despite the impact, his body remained unharmed.
Rank 2 physiques were monstrously durable.
Still...
He simply lay there staring upward blankly.
Several seconds passed. Then suddenly awareness returned and his entire body jerked violently. Panic exploded across his face beneath the mask.
The spear instantly reappeared in his grasp while he leapt backward and pointed it wildly toward the empty forest surrounding him.
The broken moon hung overhead like a watching eye and the dead forest remained silent.
"You think I'm afraid of you?!" he screamed into the darkness.
His spear lashed outward repeatedly and once again, red energy waves exploded through the surrounding woodland in every direction.
Entire sections of forest disintegrated beneath the attacks.
"You think you can just keep fucking following me forever! You can't…"
His voice suddenly cut off as the Grimm mask vanished from his face. The man froze instantly and his hand shot toward his now exposed face in confusion and horror.
Where?
Where did it go?
Panic overtook his features completely now that the mask no longer concealed them. He was brutishly handsome in a rough way.
Strong jaw with sharp eyes. But all of that vanished beneath the raw terror currently twisting his expression.
Then a voice spoke calmly behind him.
"Hmm. Not what I was expecting, truly."
The man spun around instantly and his spear lashed towards the noise reflexively. Or at least it tried to.
Because before he could truly attack, the weapon disappeared from his hands yet again and once more, his face blanked into confusion.
He stared ahead numbly toward the source of the voice. A figure leaned casually against the smoking remains of a shattered dead tree.
One hand twirled the stolen Grimm mask lazily between slender fingers. The other casually played with the magnificent spear as though it were little more than a toy.
The stranger was young, in his late teens.
Shoulder length blonde hair drifted lightly around his face beneath the crimson moonlight while deep sapphire eyes stared toward the terrified Rank 2 with impossible stillness.
Those eyes felt deep and quiet. Like endless oceans were hidden beneath the depths. The young man inspected the Grimm mask briefly before glancing back toward the figure standing across from him.
"It took me a while to find you, …Solec."
Solec's thoughts snapped back into place violently and terror immediately flooded his face. The blank confusion vanished from his eyes and instinct overtook him completely. His body tensed to leap backward through the dead forest.
But the blonde stranger merely waved his hand slightly.
The motion was casual.
Almost lazy.
Solec's thoughts abruptly tangled again and his expression slackened as confusion swallowed the panic once more. The impulse to flee vanished from his mind entirely like smoke blown apart by the wind.
He simply stood there staring blankly.
The young man released a soft sigh. "You know, a little while ago... I probably would've wanted to avenge him."
The blonde stranger stepped away from the shattered husk of the tree he had been leaning against. Black sleeves drifted lightly around his wrists as he walked slowly toward Solec. His sapphire eyes reflected the crimson moonlight faintly.
"But now... it just feels pointless." A small tired smile touched his face.
The young man raised one hand calmly. A rune floated out from beneath his sleeve. The symbol glowed with deep silver light while strange markings rotated slowly around its surface.
Bind.
The instant the rune appeared, the atmosphere itself seemed to grow heavier. The stranger looked at it thoughtfully.
"I took this from one of your friends," he said. "Worked pretty well against me too. Truth be told, he might've actually killed me if the rune wasn't sustained through perpetuity." His lips twitched slightly.
The rune slowly rotated above his palm.
"Really, you guys carry around so many strange runes that fighting you becomes annoyingly hard sometimes."
Then he glanced back toward Solec.
"But that's a story for another time, yeah?"
The confusion in Solec's mind suddenly loosened again and his thoughts snapped back into focus. Panic exploded across his face. He immediately tried to summon his weapon, to move and to attack.
But the moment he did, chains burst upward from the black soil beneath him and wrapped around his arms, torso and legs instantly. They coiled around him like hidden snakes.
Solec strained violently but nothing happened. His Aura refused to answer properly and his Will scattered uselessly against the bindings.
Even his monstrous Rank 2 Body felt worthless beneath the pressure crushing against his body.
Weakness spread through his veins.
Cold and absolute. His eyes widened beneath the bloody moonlight.
"Meta rune..." he whispered hoarsely.
That explained the unavoidable nature of the restraint. But not this. Even meta runes had limits as aura would be able to fight off most of the effects from it. Even powerful bindings shouldn't have rendered him this helpless.
"How are you doing this?" Solec demanded. "What do you want from me?"
The blonde stranger shrugged lightly.
"The how is easy enough to explain."
Another rune appeared beside Bind.
Then another and another.
Five in total floated around him slowly in synchronized orbit while faint streams of energy connected each symbol together into a complex flowing pattern.
"Rune synchronicity," he explained calmly. "Five imbued runes that are working together with my own. That's why you can't really do anything right now."
The chains tightened slightly and he smiled faintly.
"Consumes a ridiculous amount of Aura though."
Solec stared at him with growing disbelief. Who the hell was this monster? The stranger continued walking slowly around him.
"As for what I want..."
His fingers reached into his sleeve again. This time he pulled out a crimson rune that was jagged looking and sharp.
The symbol radiated an oppressive feeling that made even the surrounding air seem heavier.
Inhibit.
The blonde man examined it with mild curiosity. He looked up toward Solec.
"This one took me a while to find. Not every Sleepless member carries one."
Then he waved his hand casually and another identical rune appeared beside the first.
Solec's face paled, because he recognized it. The second rune was his. The stranger had taken it from him without him even noticing.
"I thought it was a meta rune initially," the young man admitted thoughtfully. "But apparently not."
He spun the crimson rune between his fingers.
"It's just an absurdly specialized normal rune. A rune created purely for blocking Dream Authority exits. It literally can't do anything else."
The young man tilted his head slightly while studying the rune.
"Such a strange design philosophy."
Then his expression turned faintly amused.
"I have to admit, you people might be insane but your creativity with rune construction is genuinely impressive."
He glanced toward Solec again.
"I doubt even LUCID has this kind of imagination."
Solec grit his teeth hard enough to hurt.
"You bastard. You might be strong, but if you think I'm going to spill information just because you torture me, you're dead wrong."
The chains rattled slightly as he struggled. The blonde stranger looked mildly surprised. Then he sighed softly and shook hsi head.
"Don't worry. I'm not barbaric. I'm not going to torture you."
Relief instinctively flickered through Solec's chest. Then the stranger continued.
"I can just take the information whether you give it willingly or not."
The relief died instantly and ice spread through Solec's stomach. The blonde stranger's tone remained calm.
Matter of fact. Like discussing the weather. Solec's breathing grew heavier.
"You're bluffing. If... if you could do that, why haven't you already done it, huh?" he spat.
The stranger slowly circled around him.
"Don't get the wrong idea," he said quietly. "I'm not toying with you or anything like that. I just wanted to remember you first."
He stopped directly in front of Solec again.
"After all... it was because of you that I first saw someone die."
Solec froze. The blonde stranger tilted his head slightly.
"I wonder if you remember me? From Ansel?"
A strange unease crept through Solec's mind.
Ansel.
The name struck him like a distant echo. Solec's thoughts scrambled backward through countless assignments and operations carried out for Sleepless over the years.
Cities, targets, murders and dream Realm hunts.
Experiments.
Ansel...
He remembered going there roughly a year and a half ago. But the details blurred together with everything else.
Then suddenly his pupils shrank.
No...
Wait.
That assignment.
That kid.
The impossible scenario where some Rank 0 brat was able to escape from his assassination. At the time, the kid might not have been the target, but he was still a witness. And unfortunately, he had escaped. He remembered getting chewed out for it by his superior.
Recognition slammed into him.
"You..." Solec whispered, eyes widening in horror. "You're that kid!"
The instant the words left his mouth, confusion abruptly swallowed his expression again. His thoughts scattered and the memory slipped away like water through fingers.
The blonde stranger nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Looks like you really do remember after all."
His voice sounded strangely distant now but he sighed softly.
"Well... I suppose it doesn't really matter anymore."
The young man stepped closer. Until he stood directly in front of Solec. Then he slowly reached forward towards Solec's face.
"While I might not be doing this for revenge anymore... maybe Raymond can finally rest easy now—knowing the man who killed him..."
The world around Solec suddenly felt colder.
"…will never kill anyone ever again."
The final word Solec heard was soft. Almost gentle.
"Plunder."