The cold concrete tiles of the poorly lit alley did not do much to comfort Rayne in his final moments. Despite being well accustomed to these desolate streets, he felt as if it was his first night on them once again.
Though perhaps it was the freezing snow burying him that made it so much worse.
His once coal hued hair now dotted with the white glint of snow only made him begin to blend with the floor faster. It did not help that his pale skin was already covered in snow, freezing him.
Maybe today was the day after all.
He was finally going to die in this forsaken alley.
What would become of Verre?
'Ah, it would have been nice to share one last meal with him.'
Closing his fatigued eyes, Rayne let out a long winded breath. Then a laugh, one that grew more hysterical each passing second. How had things gone so wrong? Was he truly fated from birth to live a life of miserable struggle for a mere seventeen years?
It all seemed so rigged. So... wrong.
Setting his unfocused gaze on the bustling street at the entrance of the alley, Rayne's lips curved into a smile. He had been on those streets a few hours ago, in fact he had been in another alley not even a day ago living with his brother.
But the ruthless exhaustion of his infection had finally defeated his efforts to stave it off. The Spell was about claim its next victim, whether through its machinations or the elements themselves, it mattered not.
Rayne had no formal training, let alone any preparations to face the First Nightmare. The odds of his survival there were as rich as he was.
He had no money to his name to speak of, so he was fucked.
And yet, when he felt as if he could no longer keep his steel grey eyes open, his consciousness did not fade away into oblivion. Instead, he heard an oddly comforting whisper slip into his mind.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
It seemed that his nightmare was not yet done.
***
Rayne dreamt of grass infatuated hills, with an overbearing mountain standing proudly in the distance. Eyeing a simple small wooden cabin nestled on a hill contrasting the natural landscape, it was oddly... serene, for a first Nightmare.
From what Rayne knew about the Nightmare Spell — which was very little considering he had no formal education, let alone access to any genuine information — the First Nightmare was supposed to be the entry way to becoming an Awakened.
Though, Rayne did not particularly trust the government's propaganda soaked antics to inspire the less than fortunate masses from despair of the Spell.
Taking in a crisp breath, he realized he had appeared physically in the picture worthy land. Looking down at his hands, as well as the rest of himself Rayne noticed he looked essentially the same as, well... the waking world.
The only real difference was his clothes, wearing a simple brown leather tunic paired with trousers and boots.
'This is a little weird? Mm, maybe disorienting is a better word.'
Going from absolutely freezing to a temperature that Rayne had never experienced was definitely off-putting. Growing up in the South Quadrant, or rather Antarctica, was no paradise by any means.
Snapping out of his short lived reverie, Rayne took in his surroundings properly. All around him was grassy hills, dipping down and rising up at differing lengthy intervals. No creatures of any kind in sight to be wary of so far.
Actually, Rayne couldn't spot any wildlife for that matter.
However, what did stand out to him aside from the very solitary wood cabin, was a lone oak tree towering over him, a mere few feet away.
Walking cautiously around it, Rayne could not help but be flabbergasted at its sight. The slums of Falcon Scott held no such luxuries as a tree, let alone one this healthy. To add to things the air itself here was natural, unpolluted by human intervention. It was the most clean air Rayne had every breathed.
How nice things were already for him!
At least he thought so anyways.
Noticing an engraved symbol of a simplistic eye on the sturdy trunk of the tree, Rayne lightly traced it with a finger. It appeared to be carved by a knife, but nothing jumped at him as important.
After finishing his inspection of the tree, Rayne confirmed nothing else was unusual about it aside from being the only tree in sight for miles — excluding the massive mountain towering behind the cabin — and decided to move on.
Mentally taking a note of his origin point at the tree, he began to wade through the hip high grass towards the lone cabin.
'Isn't this whole Nightmare thing supposed to be dangerous? Did the government and all those webtoons lie? Hell, did all the Awakened lie too?'
Shaking his head in trepidation, Rayne made his way to the single door of the wooden structure, and slowly twisted the steel handle. With a slight creak, he pushed the door open and hesitantly peered inside.
All he was met with was an barren interior, fitting a single bed and table in the far corner from the door. The place was relatively small to begin with, but to Rayne it was massive. After standing at the entrance for a moment, he finally gave in and cautiously moved to inspect the interior.
Expecting the worst, Rayne found nothing hostile waiting to pounce on him from the shadows, nor the single window within the space. Sitting down on the side of the simple hay bed — at least what Rayne imagined was hay, he had never physically seen any before but had heard of it in web novels growing up — and prepared himself for the most important part of the Nightmare; his runes.
Having limited knowledge about the Nightmare Spell due to his unrelenting struggles to survive each day, all he knew to pray for was a combat related Aspect.
With a deep breath, he imagined his runes through concentrating on words like "status" and sure enough, wispy words began to fill his field of view.
Name: Rayne
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Attributes: [Stalwart], [Exiled].
Aspect: [Trial of the Void Walker].
Aspect Description: [Born to inherit the mantle of the Void Walker, you are a mere novice in spatiality.]
'Huh. Neat.'
Taking a slow winded breath, Rayne couldn't hold it in any longer.
"I have no idea what the fuck is going on."
It seemed that the shock of literally being on death's doorstep in the hellish snowed in alley, to magically entering the Nightmare Spell — though Rayne had already recognized he was infected a week prior, he had not expected to survive to see the infection come to fruition — and landing in this serene world had caught up to him.
It felt like a surreal dream really, and yet it was real. Well, at least Rayne hoped so.
After a moment he tried calming himself half-heartedly, and refocused on his runes.
'Well, it seems that I have something useful at my disposal. How do I uh, use it?'
Flexing his wrists, something intuitively pulled at him. Something so primal it felt as if it had always been there inside of him. What was it?
Following the beckoning of his instincts, Rayne subtly flicked his right wrist to the closed door of the cabin, and a wispy white dart shot out from his finger tips at lightening speed. With a light thud, it stuck to the door and melted away as if it never existed.
But Rayne still felt it, something not unlike a tether between him and the dart. He felt himself within the dart. It was as if part of his soul had split off from him and manifested onto that door.
'Now what?'
Furrowing his brows, he pondered on what the hell was happening. Then a few moments later, a wave of primality washed over him, driving him to refocus onto the tether-like object.
Suddenly, he was no longer sitting on the bedside.
He was standing at the door.
"What in the hell..."
Looking down at his hands, then back to the bed where he was sitting seconds ago, Rayne felt something solidify inside of himself. It was the raw emotion of possessing something. Something that was his own, unyielding to anyone else.
Letting out a gasp, Rayne grinned proudly.
While he may have not inherently understood what he just did, he did grasp that the tether he shot out was able to move him from wherever he was to the tether in an instant.
Snapping out of his euphoria, he peeked through the small window in the cabin, watching the odd crimson sun set over the hill dotted horizon line. Suddenly, an eerie feeling of discomfort settled over him.
How had time passed so fast?
Maybe a mere thirty minutes had passed since he first woke up, and the sun had been centered directly above him at the time.
Did that mean days only lasted an hour here?
'Odd...'
Then, all traces of the crimson light died out, leaving the world to be engulfed in darkness. The eerie feeling continued to nag at Rayne, growing stronger by the minute.
As if to punish his earlier thoughts and hopes of peace, he saw it.
A distant figure began to crest over the horizon line of the hill, and was approaching him. Barely able to make out his details Rayne squinted his eyes. The figure was walking at an even pace to the cabin, the pale moonlight shining over it revealed the figure to look... just like Rayne?
"Oh hell no. Hell the fuck no I am not doing this."
Backing away from the window, Rayne scrambled around the cabin interiors in search of anything that could ward off whatever was approaching him. With a stroke of madness, he scratched at the hay bed tearing it to pieces. It was not all for nothing however, as underneath the layered hay revealed a small hunting knife.
'Well, at least its something.'
A somber smile filled Rayne's pale face as he came to terms with the fact that whatever that thing was, was most likely going to kill him.
He had seen a horror film once, when his brother had earned enough working in a factory to treat the two of them. The film depicted a similar scene to his, a copy cat of the protagonist chased him and his friends the entire movie, killing them gruesomely one by one.
After that day, Rayne had sworn to never watch films again.
So, this creepy guy? Yeah, Rayne was taking no chances with him.
But before he could devise any schemes, a simple knock echoed from the wooden door. A heavy silence permeated the air as Rayne refused to move from his spot by the bed. Then, an idea warped through his mind, taking hold of him.
Something clawed at his attention since first arriving. From what he knew about the Spell, usually there was a goal to complete within the first Nightmare. When Rayne first arrived, one thing that stuck out was the mountain.
It was a lone mountain off in the distance behind the cabin, maybe that was his goal?
Or was it to kill whatever horror awaited him at the door?
With out any further hesitation, Rayne darted to the window opposite to the door, revealing the expansive hills and the towering mountain behind them. Smashing the window, Rayne flicked his wrist like he had before and sure enough another wispy dart shot out.
At the sound of the window breaking, the door crashed down. Turning to meet his feared killer, Rayne was taken aback from its appearance. Or rather, its lack thereof. The thing had no facial features, instead a single eye with a depth of hatred he couldn't quite grasp centered itself on it's forehead.
Whatever it was, it still looked the same as Rayne excluding the odd face.
'How creepy!'
Making eye contact briefly, the creature lunged at Rayne. However before it could reach him, Rayne vanished. A few dozen meters away, Rayne appeared staring at the cabin. His eyes widened and a gasp elicited from his lips, before he quickly took hold of himself again. He sprinted in the opposite direction of the cabin.
As best as he could Rayne tried to navigate his way through the dark fields. With a daring glance, he looked over his shoulder for a moment.
And in pursuit of him was not one, not two, but over a dozen of the same creatures.
'Ah. Okay.'
Looking back to the massive mountain, Rayne flicked his wrist and out shot the dart, landing in the dirt somewhere ahead. Then, focusing on that tether to his soul he blinked, appearing a few dozen meters away again. It seemed that the range was not too restricted, maybe a total of twenty meters of range?
Pushing his thoughts aside, he continued to run. A few seconds later he attempted to flick his wrist again, this time to no avail.
"Dammit!"
'Why didn't it work?'
Furrowing his brows in frustration, he shook his head in dismay and continued his sprint to the mountain. However it was this frustration that obscured his awareness momentarily, and one of the copy creatures intercepted him and tackled him down to the grass covered grounds.