Asteria feels the warm air, the grey soil beneath her feet, the red coral in the surroundings which feels endless, the smell of blood in the air and that same, terrifying, daunting tower of crimson she saw in the vision and when she first entered the dream realm a year ago. The same tower she avoided, which ended up throwing her into a second nightmare.
She wandered around – seeing nothing but sullen and sunken faces – faces full of resentment and exhaustion.
One of them cautiously comes up to her. "Are you new here? Do you not know what's going on right now?!" He began, panicked for a stranger's safety; a stranger they assume is in the same situation.
"Yeah, I am new here, sorry..." Asteria gave a sheepish smile, trying to ease into it.
"Forget it, you're going to die if you keep wandering around." The person snarled and walked away.
"Well aren't you a ray of sunshine," Asteria mumbled and continued on her way, walking through the outskirts until she saw a gate with skulls lined upon it – hollow-eyed skulls of those who hadn't been fast enough to survive.
Her stroll was interrupted by the sound of a scuffle. A group of men had cornered a smaller girl against a pile of refuse.
"Hey! Leave her be. Move on," Asteria called out. She knew it was a delusion to think they would listen, but part of her still clung to the hope of a peaceful resolution.
"What did you say, wench?" One of the men turned, scowling before his eyes traveled over her. He licked his lips slowly. "You're... actually kind of pretty. What's your name?"
Asteria felt a cold shiver trace her spine – not out of fear, but out of a weary, violent recognition. They reminded her of the oafs at the academy, just without the veneer of civilization. "Does it matter?"
"No!" The leader laughed, turning to his companions. "You lot can have that one," he pointed to the terrified girl, then nodded toward Asteria. "This one's mine."
He lunged, his hand igniting with small white sparks as a dagger materialized in his grip. "You're coming with me tonight!" greed flared in his eyes as he charged.
Asteria didn't even blink. 'Were these people always this slow, or is the rank difference really this vast?' she mused.
With a thought, she summoned a relic of her past: the [Obsidian Glass]. The black blade shimmered, its familiar weight settling into her palm. As the man reached her, she vanished into a blur of motion.
CRACK.
The man's arm jerked to a halt. In a flash of black glass, his hand – and the dagger it held – fell to the grey soil. The dagger shattered into white sparks, a destroyed memory returning to nothingness.
"Is that all?" Asteria stood over him as he collapsed, clutching the stump of his arm, blood dark and hot against the ash-colored ground.
"You! Do you know who we work for?" he screamed, his eyes bloodshot and wide with agony. "Do you think he'll let you get away with this?!"
"No, I don't actually know who your boss is," Asteria said, her smile warm and terrifyingly pleasant, as if she hadn't just maimed him. "Do enlighten me."
"Hah! The Bright Lord! Gunlaug! He'll kill you for this!"
"And where is this 'Bright Lord'?" Asteria asked. "I'd like to pay him a visit if he lets his dogs off the leash like this."
"You don't know anything, do you?" The man spat, his skin turning a sickly translucent white as he bled out. "He's dealing with that bitch, Changing Star! I bet she's already dead by now! Hahaha!"
Asteria's eyes sharpened into violet blades. "What. What did you say he was doing to her?"
"Did you not hear me? She's going to die! That bitch rallied the outskirt rats to fight us, and now she's paying the price!"
'Rallying the weak against a tyrant... sounds exactly like Nephis,' Asteria thought. A strange, cold boredom settled over her. This man was no longer a person; he was just noise.
'Disgusting filth. If I wrap this up quickly I should be able to help... Nephis can handle herself for a few more minutes right?'
"I'm bored," Asteria whispered. She looked at him with a gaze that held a flicker of pity – the kind one shows a rabid animal before putting it down. "I wouldn't normally ask this of a lowlife, but do you have any last words?"
"He wi-"
"Yeah, I don't care."
The [Obsidian Glass] flashed. A clean, silent arc of black light separated the man's head from his shoulders.
[You have slain, Dormant Human...]
[Your dream goes stronger.]
'Hoh?' She thought, feeling a massive rush of fragments absorbed into her soul.
Unhurriedly summoning her runes, not expecting much.
[Spell Fragments: [491/2000]
'Oh.. Spell... 93 fragments...' She gained a devilish grin on her face before quickly suppressing it. 'It's so wrong to kill people just for fragments... But it should be okay if they're human trash – right?"
She looked up, gazing at the other three men. "Are you just going to stand there?"
[You have slain...]
...
...
[Your dream goes stronger.]
...
...
Asteria stood amidst the carnage, a surplus of fragments, blood on her blade, breathing steady, but a subtle weight sat on her shoulders. She had never killed a human before today. It was a hollow, empty feeling.
She pushed the thought to the back of her mind and summoned her runes once more.
[Spell Fragments: [787/2000]
"Their only worth was helping me get stronger..." She muttered, trying to resolve her own internal conflict.
"Can..." The girl who was being picked on finally spoke up. "Can I ask a favour?"
"Shoot, what is it?"
"Please save Lady Nephis!" She fell to her knees, hands pressed together like a prayer. "She's helping all of us! Please save her from that tyrant called Gunlaug!"
"Of course, I have a debt to repay her, after all."
Asteria began to walk at a leisurely pace toward the center of the shore, where a castle of dirty, reinforced white stone rose above the slums. It was scarred by a thousand sieges, a fortress of greed in a land of starvation. As she reached the throne room doors, she felt a heavy, oppressive presence radiating through the walls.
She finally made her way to where the Bright Lord was supposedly in. She could feel a heavy presence through the walls, 'Yikes. Maybe she can handle this herself...' She smiled then instantly twisted into a grimace, 'You're a master! You can deal with a strong sleeper...' she had to scold herself at the foolishness.
Five broad-shouldered guards blocked her path, their armour caked in dried blood. "The Bright Lord is handling a traitor. You will not disturb her punishment."
"I don't have all day," Asteria sighed. "Open the door."
"You dare?!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, are we going to fight or are you going to move?"
'I bit off more than I can chew I think.. ' She lampooned as she saw all five of them lunge for her.
Thankfully, with her ascended physique making up for her extremely lacking experience, she could hold her own against the men double her size.
Their blades clattering against each other, neither giving enough room to budge – that was until Asteria sidestepped, trying to imbue essence into her muscles; especially in her leg, to get behind them.
It worked, fortunately and like that, two of them died by her hand, their throats slit by the flashing blade of the [Obsidian Glass].
[You have slain, Dormant Human...]
...
[Your dream grows stronger.]
...
'Yeah, I can't get to grips with essence at all, it's so foreign to me...'
"Will you still not let me pass? I really don't want to fight, I'm on a tight schedule." Blood was covering her mantle, her hands and even on her face, making her look almost like a nightmare creature herself.
"You! I'll kill you!" One of them shouted before storming towards her, his face flushed in rage.
But even that wasn't enough to deal with the Queen of Nightmare.
[You have slain...]
[Your dream...]
"Are you sure you want to do this?" She gave the two remaining a pitying gaze, her lips twisted into a frown. "Can I pass?"
They did in fact – not let her pass.
[You have slain...]
[You have slain...]
[Your dream...]
[Your dream...]
"Fools! Absolute fools!" She laughed, the ecstasy of the power flowing through her veins almost like a drug. "You saw your comrades get slaughtered and still thought you could win! Oh the stupidity, it's laughable! Hahaha!" Her voice was like a maniac, echoing through the nearby halls and most likely through the castle itself.
Smiling with a grin filled with greed, she summoned her runes once more.
[Spell Fragments: 1285/2000]
"And to think I was hardly into my second core yesterday... I can't just slaughter humans for my own strength..." She lamented at the thought of doing such cruelty. It would make her no better than the other tyrants in this world.
Covered in blood like a villain and her mantle repairing itself, she steadied herself, hoping for the best outcome after she opens these doors, still chuckling to herself.
"I should make an entrance right?"
Asteria summoned two memories.
[Crown of Golden Glass] appeared on her head, nearly sending her head spinning due to how – expansive – it felt compared to before. The golden laurel lighting her oil-coloured hair up like a sun; her own presence darkened even the deepest shadows of the room like a weighted blanket was forced over them.
In her hand, she dismissed the [Obsidian Glass] and instead replaced it with a much, much better blade. [Sentinel's Heart]. The blade formed with its familiar starlight material, the same red pulsing vein through the centre – and yet the blade changed.
The blade's length increased, the handle changing slightly. The starlight jian was now a longsword, a beautiful longsword. The shape exactly how Asteria wanted it to be, and the weight even better than the [Obsidian Glass].
"Time to get started, eh?" She steadied herself, still reeling in the pleasure of the new-found strength and kicked the door open to the throne room with all her might, the door sent flying and cracking into thousands of pieces.
The silence of the room was broken by the shattering of the door and her maddening maniacal laughter. Asteria stepped through the dust, her iridescent hair fluttering, her face splattered with red. The golden crown on her head exerted such a weighted presence that the men-at-arms in the room visibly buckled.
Even Gunlaug, the Bright Lord in his blinding golden armor, seemed to sink an inch into the floor, struggling to maintain his posture.
This was the Queen of Nightmare.
Asteria's smile was seductive and sharp as she scanned the room.
"I found you, Changing Star."
Her crystalline eyes locked onto the ivory-skinned, silver-haired girl standing in the center of the room. Nephis stood face-to-face with Gunlaug, her own blade drawn.
Nephis's mouth pulled into a small, rare smile.
"Queen of Nightmare," Nephis said calmly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Asteria smiled, warmly this time, at Nephis – her eyes softening a touch. "I owe you a debt, remember?"
"You do."
"I'd like to pay it off." Asteria smiled, baring her fangs at Gunlaug and his soldiers behind him. "May I?"
Her response?
A shrug and a small smile.