The moment he touched the tree, Ayanokouji forced all his eyes to open. Even though he couldn't feel exhaustion or pain, seeing in 360 degrees was still difficult to handle.
The ground behind him split open, throwing up dust as a Vowalker leaped out with its limbs stretched straight toward his leg. One of the eyes on Ayanokouji's back saw it happen in slow motion, allowing him to simply shift his leg out of the way.
Despite missing, the Vowalker didn't give up. Its head snapped upward and the slit on its face widened. Abandoning the leg, it lunged straight for Ayanokouji's face. Ayanokouji tilted his head, letting the claw pass by and strike the trunk instead.
The tree itself reacted as a vine snapped toward his neck, moving so fast that it appeared close to normal speed even through his slowed vision.
Ayanokouji leaned back to let it pass. The Vowalker's face-slit was still open from its lunge. He grabbed the edges of the slit with two fingers and pulled, forcing it wider to expose the heart inside. He tore it out, and the creature collapsed.
Another eye behind his shoulder caught movement.
A second Vowalker burst from the ground behind him, faster than the first. It rose in a crouch with arms swinging toward the back of his head.
Ayanokouji dropped low, bending his knees. The claws swept over him and scraped against the trunk.
Ayanokouji's hand flashed into the face-slit, hooking two fingers inside to rip the heart free.
Before the second body could collapse, a third and fourth jumped out from opposing sides. He shifted left, then right, threading between their swings. One tried to catch his legs while the other aimed for his eyes.
Ayanokouji stepped into the gap between them. His fingers slid into the first slit to tear out the heart, then rotated to do the same to the second before either could recover.
As those bodies dropped, he noticed the trunk had shallow, uneven grooves that looked like scars. He used them as footholds, running diagonally across the surface in a rising motion.
The tree lashed out.
Veins snapped from the trunk in rapid bursts, striking like spears. Some were slow enough to avoid easily, while others demanded his full attention.
Moving between them, he twisted as one vein grazed past his ribs. Another came for his face, and he turned his head just enough to let it miss by a hair. The eyes on his limbs tracked every strike.
A claw emerged from the tree, which Ayanokouji dodged. Driving his knee into the creature's head, he forced the slit open further, exposing the heart. His fingers snatched it out, and the creature fell away.
Two more leaped upward from below with unnatural timing.
He saw them in the eyes on his calves first, then in the eyes on his elbows. They aimed for his legs and waist to slow him down.
Ayanokouji ran up the trunk, using a ridge as a pivot to kick off sideways. The first creature's hands grabbed air, while the second reached higher with its slit widening in anticipation. Ayanokouji's hand swept down to remove the heart before it could react.
More creatures came from the ground, the trunk, and the ridges. Each one guarded its slit instinctively, yet attacked with single-minded focus.
A lunge meant the slit opened.
A grab meant the face came close.
A rush meant the organ became reachable.
He ripped them out one after another, leaving a trail of collapsing bodies at the base and along the trunk.
By the time the tenth fell, his vision had grown slightly blurred. The eyes on his limbs strained his brain, threatening to slow his thoughts. He closed half of them, keeping only what he needed for the next few seconds.
Near the top, Ayanokouji could see the feet of the last opponent standing on the flat surface. The man's eyes stayed locked on him without a hint of fear.
The vow repeated in Ayanokouji's mind: the nightmare must end today.
Reaching the top of the trunk, Ayanokouji forced a few more eyes open.
The forest around them was dead. Destruction and the scattered remains of creatures stretched as far as his vision could reach. Even the world beyond the stream lay destroyed.
Most of his eyes narrowed onto the man standing near the edge of the trunk.
The man did not flinch. He stood near the drop with dried blood on his clothes and fresh blood clinging near his eyebrow. Only a slight tremor in his hands betrayed his exhaustion.
They looked at each other.
Ayanokouji ran so fast the distance vanished in a second, bringing him beside the man without warning.
To Ayanokouji's surprise, the man's gaze was already tracking him.
He was not reacting to Ayanokouji's current position, but predicting his movement based on the speed and rhythm he had displayed while climbing the tree. The man's eyes followed perfectly, sliding to where Ayanokouji was about to be, and his body shifted along with it.
The man jumped backward into the air. One of the eyes on Ayanokouji's chin opened wider, watching a wooden slide form from the tree's surface beneath the falling man like a ramp.
The man stared at Ayanokouji as he fell.
Ayanokouji didn't dare leap after him, as his high speed would cause him to overshoot and waste his only chance. The slide was his only path.
As Ayanokouji shifted his weight to launch toward it, every active eye tightened. Another wooden platform generated from the tree, rising to cover the slide at a pace that made it impossible to land on safely.
The man had already analyzed Ayanokouji's ability after observing it for just a short moment.
Three more eyes opened across Ayanokouji's body, slowing the world further as the mental strain grew heavier.
The wood beneath Ayanokouji's foot began to hollow out, replaced by a rising spike. Putting more pressure into his leg, he planted his foot on the surface before the trap could fully form. The wood held for a fraction of a second, long enough to support his weight.
The pressure and angle were wrong. Something inside his foot cracked, but without the sense of pain, he simply pushed forward.
He did not stop.
Leaping into the air toward the man, Ayanokouji slipped between the veins whipping from the trunk, avoiding them by inches.
He landed on the slide above the man.
The man's expression tightened in slight annoyance. Pressing his palm into the wood, he shattered the slide beneath them.
Both of them dropped.
The tree guided their fall, turning the broken wood into a downward channel along the trunk.
The man's right hand came up toward Ayanokouji's face, while his left went behind his own back.
A vein fired from his right fingers like a needle. Ayanokouji tilted his head, letting it pass by his face.
Then, the man drove a vein from his left palm straight into his own stomach.
Ayanokouji watched as blood spilled out into the air. The man's face tightened, but his gaze remained sharp.
Opening more eyes to slow time further, Ayanokouji watched the man's mouth move as the thin line in his stomach swelled into a wooden pillar, anchoring into his body like a root.
It looked like a mutual destruction strategy.
The man was merging with the tree, using his own body as a root to gain control over its movement.
Ayanokouji's mind searched for escape routes. The surface was closing to the left, veins were forming to the right, the slide above was gone, and the trunk below was narrowing into a crushing channel.
The man's eyes flicked toward the forming wood. Predicting the next movement, he shifted the tree piercing his body to open a thin corridor through the wood, just wide enough for one person to pass.
For the first time, the man's expression softened into something nostalgic, belonging to two boys who had once shared the same space.
His lips moved again, forming clear words.
"Let's consider it a tie."
Ayanokouji realized the man was not fighting to kill him, as Dry Water had already shown him the truth. Instead, he was offering a way out.
The wood shifted, directing Ayanokouji into the gap with perfect timing.
Ayanokouji passed close enough to see the man's blood soaking into the wood. The man's hands trembled, but his eyes stayed locked on Ayanokouji until the path sealed behind him.
Ayanokouji's body shot out of the trunk, tumbling onto the flat top of the dead tree. His damaged foot gave out slightly, but he caught himself.
The man remained pinned to the wood below, held up by the trunk that had grown through him as blood ran down the surface.
Ayanokouji remembered the White Room.
He remembered how Shirou had once stood beside him, the only person who understood what it meant to grow up in that place. He remembered how they used to look at each other in silence when talking was not allowed.
Standing at the top of the trunk surrounded by death, Ayanokouji had eyes that could see everything, but he could not hear, speak, or feel his own hands.
He fell back onto the wood.
'I survived, yet it feels like I lost. I lost myself in the White Room, but you found yourself. It is my defeat, yet I must continue.'
'Luna. Luzi. Perla. Eichiro. Shirou.'
'Spell.'
Nothing happened at first, but as he recalled the words of his friends, he focused on the thought of a status.
Shimmering runes appeared in the air in front of him.
***
Name: Kiyotaka.
True Name: -
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: [Vow of Life & Death], [Whisper of Malice].
Echoes: -
Attributes: [Hated by Fate], [Seeker of Reflection], [Witness of Fate].
Aspect: [Fraudulent Penitent].
Aspect Description:
[A penitent is a sinner who kneels in regret and swears to change. A fraudulent penitent is the same, except your repentance is an act and your shame is a disguise. You do not seek redemption, only survival, and every vow you speak is another lie told with a steady voice.]
Ayanokouji saw what he had sacrificed so many lives to receive.
'The first memory is the one I am currently using.'
He tried to raise his right hand into the air, but no matter how hard he tried, it would not move. It was likely broken.
Ayanokouji touched the Memory with his left hand, and its details spread open.
Memory Rank: Dormant
Memory Tier: V
Memory Type: Charm
Memory Trait: [Growth], [Soul-Bound]
Memory Description: [There was once a King whose word was Law. When the Remorse Eater feasted on his pride, a sovereign was forced to crawl. This is his echo, a vow of blood and silence. Shackled in a Dormant shell, the King's majesty drinks from your life to mend its broken divinity. It grows with your shadow, yet it offers no crown only a thousand eyes to watch your descent.]
Memory Enhancement: [Crown of the Fallen King], [The Weight of a Promise], [Hundred-Eyed Gaze], [Tribute of the Martyr], [The King's Sustenance]
Ayanokouji kept his eyes on Tier V, contemplating if that was the weakest tier.
'If the Great Spell had been lenient enough to grant even the weakest rank five enhancements, it would not have demanded the slaughter of everyone.'
Ayanokouji felt his vision shake because his body was trying to move while being broken.
'A memory about regret, how fitting.'
'Could this one have belonged to the ruler Dry Water showed me?'
Ayanokouji crawled across the wood, dragging his broken body. As he moved, his brain formed countless theories about the memory before finally stopping. He could no longer feel dehydration, but that did not mean it was not affecting him.
Memory Description: [Crown of the Fallen King: (Passive) The authority of a suppressed ruler dwells within. This Memory's logic is absolute, its effects cannot be suppressed by those of a lower Rank.]
'This memory tells me that there are other memories capable of suppressing abilities.'
Memory Description: [The Weight of a Promise: (Active) The user surrenders four of his five sense for seven days. In exchange, the body is flooded with ancient vigor, granting either Enhanced Physical Strength or Speed.]
Ayanokouji looked at the description, understanding that he would remain in this state for the next seven days.
He crawled further, sliding his useless hand along the trunk.
Memory Description: [Hundred-Eyed Gaze: (Active) Dozens of eyes manifest upon the user's flesh. You possess 360-degree vision. The more eyes that open, the slower the world moves.]
Ayanokouji did not stop crawling.
Memory Description: [Tribute of the Martyr: (Passive) This Memory cannot be fueled by Soul Essence. Instead, it consumes the user's life force. Each day the Vow remains active, one month of the user's vitality is devoured, The more you activate this memory the more it eats away your vitality.]
Ayanokouji reached for his head, though he had lost the sensation of touch. He closed most of his extra eyes.
'According to the description, one week will cost me seven months of vitality. If I activate it a second time, it will probably cost fourteen months.'
Memory Description: [The King's Sustenance: (Passive) The user is sustained by the Memory and does not need to eat or breathe while it is active. However, if the user's vitality is depleted before the seven days end, the Vow will begin consuming the user's Internal Organs to maintain the Gaze.]
Ayanokouji studied the Memory carefully. 'Can this be transferred the way a Memory was given to Eichiro?'
Night was approaching.
Ayanokouji could not waste any more time staring at the runes. He had to move. He had to finish this nightmare today.
He lowered himself from the tree, landing directly on his broken limbs.
Tears, or perhaps something thicker and strange, escaped his eyes. He did not care whether it was saliva or something else, nor did he question it.
A stick lay a few steps away. Crawling toward it, every movement tore his skin, but he reached out and grabbed it to push himself up.
Using the stick made carrying his broken body manageable.
He eventually reached a stream.
Ayanokouji looked down into the water. His cheeks stuck tightly to his bones, his body was covered in scars and extra eyes, and his main eyes were deep red with dark circles.
Crossing the stream, he entered another ruined territory. Strands of wet hair clung to his face.
He walked forward, feeling a faint wave of nostalgia, though the land had completely changed.
The ground seemed violated, broken in impossible patterns. Some craters were deep enough to bury a person upright, while others were shallow, spreading like ripples of past destruction.
The world had been used and bent into collapse. The deaths of so many had emptied it, and he was the one who had brought it to this state.
He had not intended to destroy everything, yet destruction was all that remained.
The only way forward was through ruin.
Only one untouched path remained beyond the nightmare, but he wondered how long it would last.
Every step he had taken behind him was gone, erased by the decimated ground.
Landscapes lay ruined under his gaze. Wherever he went, destruction followed.
The weight of it pressed down on him, and he knew the world beyond would likely bear the burden next.
He could not walk much further. One eye glanced back, noticing his broken leg had gotten caught in a small crater.
He tried to free it, using his hand first and then his stick, but the crushed remains of Vowalkers blocked his movement.
He fell headfirst into the crater, blood blurring his sight. He did not care. Pushing himself back up, he continued forward. Searching for a sharp edge to sever his useless limbs proved futile.
He walked with his stick through the ruined world until a colossal structure appeared in his sight.
A gargantuan tree grew from a central well, thousands of Vowalkers forming its roots while light poured from its depths. Normally, he would analyze its scale, but he chose not to.
It did not matter.
At the base of the tree sat a child. The Remorse Eater had taken form as the embodiment of everything Ayanokouji had fought and lost. The child was Ayanokouji himself.
As the baby-shaped Remorse Eater crawled backward, memories surfaced with every inch it moved.
First came the memory of him swimming down the lake while thousands of Vowalkers fell.
He asked himself if their deaths mattered.
They did not.
He moved forward.
Then came the memory of Perla after Luna and Luzi died. Did her suffering matter?
It did not.
He kept walking.
Two memories appeared together, showing his first conversation with Eichiro and then the moment he killed him.
Did his son's death matter?
It did not.
He moved on.
Perla was dead.
He did not stop.
Memories of his time with the boy from the White Room surfaced.
His closest companion, the one who had sacrificed himself to force a draw.
Did that matter?
It did.
Yet it was not remorse he felt. If required, he would make the same choice without hesitation.
He walked on.
Standing face to face with himself as a child, he wondered if his past mattered.
It did not.
Everything that had shaped him into this person did not matter either.
The Remorse Eater was the source of all this suffering. It had forced him to kill, turned humans into monsters, and ruined countless lives. Did it matter?
It did not.
Hatred?
Anger?
The stick tore through the air with a sharp crack, splitting the silence like a whip.
The force behind the swing was so violent that the skin along Ayanokouji's palm split open, tracing a line of red across his knuckles.
The blow struck the Remorse Eater directly in the throat.
Bone and flesh collapsed under the impact. Blood burst from its mouth, and the creature staggered backward, clawing desperately at its neck.
A broken, gargled plea slipped past its ruined vocal cords as it dropped to its knees before him.
Ayanokouji met its eyes and brought the stick down again.
The Remorse Eater had been perched atop layers of memory, feeding upon them, and each impact cracked through those layers.
Ayanokouji saw himself sitting beside a quiet stream, the water flowing gently over smooth stones. It had been one of his rare moments of peace, a fragile piece of himself he had never intended for anyone else to see.
The stick descended, and the memory shattered into fragments of light.
Another blow followed.
This time, he saw a conversation he had once shared with the original owner of this body.
He continued striking without pause.
With every hit, another memory cracked apart.
The battlefield echoed with the relentless rhythm of wood striking flesh, accompanied by the sound of something deeper breaking beneath it.
The Remorse Eater could no longer beg. Its throat had been crushed completely beyond recovery.
A dark red mark split the center of its neck where the final blow landed, and the creature's body went limp.
A message then surfaced before his fading vision.
[You have Slain an Awakened Terror, Remorse Eater.]
The heavy weight that had pressed against his mind for so long finally began to lift.
The battlefield blurred as the ground tilted beneath him. Only after the creature was dead did Ayanokouji allow his eyes to close, the tension in his shoulders finally easing away.
[Wake up Kiyotaka! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for Appraisal.]
***
As Dry Water departed from Ayanokouji, he drifted into the void, slowly disappearing.
He called back the eyes that had been spying on them, using his powers.
Thirteen 𓁹𓁹 appeared. They widened as they witnessed how someone from Ayanokouji's past had perceived their existence.
Dry Water simply stared at them.
"Why are you prying into his past?"
He fell silent for a few moments, contemplating everything.
The void was filled with laughter as Dry Water spoke again.
"So this is it? You decided to recover his first nightmare using thirteen people, each carrying a fragment of his suffering? Suffering divided into thirteen parts, I see."
He scanned each of the eyes in turn.
"He is a demon, and his ending is already destined to be a tragedy."
Then he disappeared.
And the eyes were left to question everything.
*******
The first nightmare has finally been rewritten. It took so long.
There was some really confusing narration in the first NM, so you probably have a mountain of questions and criticisms.
Let me assure you that everything you might be confused about, including the narration and the whole Awakened Terror thing (I wrote the ending while I was half-asleep, so excuse the little blunder), will all connect later. Just trust me on this.
Why did I rewrite the first nightmare? (A question new readers might have.)
Simply put, the old version was painful to read. I wrote it over a year ago when I barely knew how to prompt AI, so it was filled with those repetitive "Not X, but Y" structures. Ifykyk.
You might still feel a bit of that AI influence throughout the rest of Volume 1, mostly in paragraph breaks and a few random one-liners the AI added on its own. To take responsibility for my earlier writing, I spent the last few days rewriting the entire first nightmare from scratch. Now that it is done, I plan to do the same for the rest of Volume 1.
You still might catch a hint of that old style in this nightmare because I kept a few coherent paragraphs to save a bit of time.
One last thing, if you decide to keep reading, you will definitely run into some puzzling moments. I promise everything will make sense by the end of Volume 1.
I guess that's about it.
Peace.
(I mean, volume 1 is actually pretty decent to look at, so don't quit thinking it's going to be shit. I can assure you the reason this work is considered good isn't the first nightmare, but what comes next that low-diffs the first NM in writing. I am just negative with my work..)