Chapter 16
Scene: Bloodshade Forest – Present
The ground split beneath them as Varnyx the Crimson Fang charged.
Anshi stood her ground, blades out, spirit aura blazing like silver fire.
"You'll have to get through me," she hissed.
The beast was massive — fangs burning, rage boiling, muscles rippling with centuries of bloodlust.
But Anshi's gaze didn't flinch.
"I won't let you hurt him."
Scene: Dream Realm – The Forgotten Memory
Aeren's body lay still, but his mind… drifted through something timeless.
He was floating in a place without color. A void stitched from ancient echoes.
Suddenly, the world shifted.
He stood on a cliff, wind howling around him.
In front of him—
A man cloaked in flowing black and white, face hidden beneath a hood, stood at the cliff's edge.
Below…
Thousands upon thousands of monsters knelt.
Some small. Some titanic. Some bearing ten horns, others breathing storms.
And among them—
Monsters of Level 8, 9, even 10 — beings of nightmare — were shivering, bowing, unable to meet the cloaked man's gaze.
"He… looks like me."
"He IS you."
The voice echoed through the dream.
Scene: Bloodshade Forest – Present
Anshi leapt. Her Moonblood Blade met Varnyx's fang mid-air.
The shockwave blasted through the trees.
She danced through shadows, her bloodline art blooming — the Veil Step, moving faster than the eye.
But Varnyx was a boss monster.
A Level 6 apex predator.
He spun and smashed her into a boulder.
Blood. Pain. But she stood again.
"Aeren… get up. You can't die before I tell you everything."
Scene: Dream Realm – Echoes of Power
Aeren watched the cloaked man raise a hand.
Space bent. Time reversed. Mountains crumbled and rebuilt.
One Level 9 monster tried to flee.
The cloaked man simply looked at it.
It froze in place — mind shattered, body turned to stone.
"You are the heir of the Forgotten Flame," the voice whispered again.
"You hold the dominion over mind, space, time… and dream."
Aeren's heart thundered.
"But I'm weak. I've always been—"
"Because the world feared what you'd become if awakened."
Scene: Bloodshade Forest – Present
Anshi fell to one knee. Breathing ragged. Her aura dimming.
Varnyx roared in triumph and lunged—claws glowing crimson.
Anshi couldn't dodge in time.
Scene: Dream Realm – Awakening
Aeren stared at the cloaked figure.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The man turned slightly.
He removed his hood.
It was himself.
Older. Wiser. Terrifying.
"I am what you become… if you survive."
And then—
His chest mark burned with golden fire.
Time fractured.
Space bent.
Aeren opened his eyes—
Scene: Bloodshade Forest – Present
Varnyx's claw was inches from Anshi's heart—
Suddenly—
BOOM.
The world trembled.
A shockwave pulsed outward.
Aeren stood.
Eyes glowing faint gold.
Hair lifted by unseen wind.
"Get away from her."
Time slowed around him — not entirely stopped, but distorted.
He didn't blink. He didn't breathe.
He simply moved — space bending around him.
One second, Varnyx was about to kill.
The next, Varnyx was slammed backwards, into the trees, howling in shock.
Aeren's hands were glowing. Reality crackled around him.
"I don't know what this is," he whispered, "but I know one thing…"
"You hurt the one person who believed in me."
🩸 End of Chapter 16