Name: Zachary.
True Name: Heaven's Equal. [Unclaimed]
Rank: Dreamer.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Soul Fragments: [600/1000].
Memories: [Ender's Solace], [Witness' Testament], [Antlered Wrath], [Midnight Shard].
Echoes: [Carapace Scavenger].
Attributes: [The Fool], [Mark of Sin], [Conqueror's Soul], [Blasphemer], [Enlightenment].
Zachary's eyes widened as he read through his runes. What caught his attention wasn't the new Memory he had gained—courtesy of the Carapace Praetor—nor the fact that, despite awakening his Soul at the end of the battle, he was still classified as a Dormant human. It wasn't even the newly acquired Attribute.
No —what surprised him was that the Carapace Echo was still alive.
'Ha! You're still alive, you son of a bitch.' Zachary laughed inwardly — genuine, relieved laughter for once.
When he had orchestrated the plan to conquer the Ashen Barrow, he'd fully expected to lose his Echo in the process. And with how chaotic everything had been — the Demon, the desperation, the fight — he hadn't even remembered hearing the Spell whisper its death. It figured he hadn't checked his runes since.
'Hahaha, you're as resistant as a Saudi Arabian passport, my friend.' Zachary snorted before exhaling deeply, letting the laughter fade.
His gaze moved upward, landing on his newest Memory.
The Midnight Shard. One of the Shard Memories—and more importantly, Sunny's signature weapon—was now in his hands. But the thought didn't bring joy; if anything, it filled him with quiet unease. This was proof of absence. Proof that the protagonist of the novel—the one who was supposed to carry this blade—was missing.
There's a saying, isn't there? The greatest act of presence is absence.
Zachary sighed deeply. The weight of that absence now rested squarely on his shoulders. Not only did he need to find a way back to his own home—he also had to fill the void left by the story's true hero.
Muttering a few curses under his breath, he turned his eyes toward the final set of runes — the most important ones. The ones that would show him what had changed within him. His new Attribute.
[Enlightenment] Attribute Description: "You've discovered one of the defining truths of this world, and with it, you've opened the door to infinite potential. You are a pioneer of new ways of power — walk your Enlightened Path and declare your Noble Truths to the skies."
Zachary's breath trembled as his heart began to race. The meaning behind those words… he couldn't help but feel proud. This was the first true step he had taken for the sake of his promises. These words were proof that his vows had not been in vain — more than that, they were a declaration that his conviction had shaped the world around him. This Attribute was the foundation — the cornerstone meant to support his future journey.
But that wasn't all. More runes shimmered beneath the description.
Attribute Traits: [Flow Control]
Trait Description: [Your Soul has undergone a partial awakening. You have paved the path for a new and unorthodox method of Soul Control.]
Finally, it made sense why he was still a Dormant human. Through Enlightenment, he had forged a new way to command his Soul Essence — one that relied entirely on the uniqueness of his self. By synchronizing his Body and Mind, Unity had taken charge of guiding and channeling his Soul.
But even so, his Soul Core remained Dormant.
That didn't change the fact that, in this cursed corner of the Dream Realm, he was likely the only one capable of actively manipulating Soul Essence. And that alone was enough. With this, Zachary could finally stand against the powerhouses that roamed the Forgotten Shore.
'Is that really true?' The thought hit him suddenly, sobering his exalted mind like a splash of cold water.
Zachary stayed silent for a moment before a weary sigh escaped his lips. 'The truth remains the same. Even while commanding my Soul… I almost died.'
There was no sorrow in his tone — only a calm, rational acknowledgment.
'I nearly bled out. I'm still too fragile. Despite everything, my survivability is no better than any other Sleeper's. With Cinder Eyes, I'm more of an evasive fighter — sure, I can dodge all I want. But if I ever meet someone capable of landing a single fatal blow without giving me a chance to move… Game Over.'
That was the truth he couldn't ignore. In a world full of monsters, he was still just a man.
Zachary remained still, his expression betraying nothing of his thoughts. After a few seconds, a faint frown creased his brow as he lifted his gaze toward the branches above. Higher than where Nephis was climbing now — far higher, hidden among the gnarled limbs of that nightmarish tree was...
Zachary quickly shook his head, dispersing his runes. Before Nephis came back down, he needed to test Flow Control for himself.
He closed his eyes and drew a deep breath, recalling the battle against the Demon — the moment he called his Soul forth, that warmth flooding through his body. He remembered how it moved, how it felt alive. And so, Zachary tried to do it again.
Or… at least he thought he did.
"Huh?" was all he managed to say.
It wasn't that he was having... performance issues — his Soul was moving — just not the way he expected it to.
'What's going on?' Zachary frowned, focusing harder on the faint pulse within him. During the battle, he hadn't noticed it clearly, but now that he was deliberately trying to move his Soul, the sensation was unmistakable.
His Soul felt… present. Everywhere and nowhere at once — like remembering someone's face but forgetting their name. Only when commanded did it stir, reluctant and heavy. When it finally began to move, the sensation was wrong.
Back in the fight, it had flowed through him like liquid light — sharp, efficient, perfectly synchronized with every motion. Now it dragged sluggishly through his body, thick and resistant.
"It's like tar flowing through my veins," Zachary muttered under his breath. And that's when he realized the crux of it.
His Soul Core was still dormant. That meant he couldn't draw from the reservoir of essence within it. What he was actually moving now wasn't his Soul Essence exactly, but the residual Soul Essence absorbed from the Nightmare Creatures flesh, the ones he had been eating and digesting all this time — the power that had already settled in his muscles and bones. It was now answering the call of Unity.
"So that's how it is…" he murmured.
When commanded, that essence coursed through his bloodstream; when left alone, it lay dormant again, nesting deep within him.
'I guess I can't have it that easy, huh?' he thought with a wry smile.
He would have to relearn how to move his Soul from the very beginning. Still, it wasn't all bad. He remembered vividly how it had felt during the battle — that perfect synchrony of Body, Mind, and Soul.
He had a framework now, a direction where to aim his efforts.
As he considered this, another thought surfaced. Excitement flickered in his chest. Summoning his newest Memory, Midnight Shard, he reached out — and the austere black tachi appeared in his hand, cool and silent.
Without hesitation, Zachary tried channeling Soul Essence through it.
Nothing happened.
He wasn't surprised. He had already suspected it wouldn't work. With a resigned sigh, he dismissed the blade and instead summoned Ender's Solace. During the battle, when he had been desperate for strength, he'd managed to channel essence through it. Maybe he could do the same again.
Breathing slowly to steady himself, Zachary focused his Mind on his Soul — and on the hand gripping the blade.
A faint glow spread across the black surface, tempering it with new vitality. Zachary exhaled, relieved. But then another question stirred.
Why this weapon? Why did it work with Ender's Solace and not with Midnight Shard?
He already had a theory, but without fully understanding the nature of the sword, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself for now. Sighing again, he glanced toward Cassie. The blind girl had lowered her staff, enjoying the breeze with a gentle smile. The sight should have calmed him — but instead, it unsettled him deeply.
He didn't have time to waste. Closing his eyes once more, Zachary began channeling his essence again, forcing it to move with intent. The sluggish warmth pulsed through him like molten glass.
He needed to master Flow Control. And fast.
***
Zachary was deeply immersed in meditation when he felt a presence approaching. Opening his eyes, he found Nephis descending from the tree. He was about to greet her with a smile — until his eyes landed on what she was carrying.
Fruits. The cursed tree's fruits.
His face immediately hardened, but before he could speak, Nephis caught the change in his expression and spoke in her usual aloof tone.
"Oh, the fruits? Don't worry — I also brought one for you." She handed a fruit to Cassie, who accepted it with a bright smile.
"Um… Neph, hadn't we said we wouldn't eat the tree's fruits… yet?" Zachary asked carefully. With his knowledge of the novel, he knew that showing open hostility toward the tree would only backfire.
The Awakened Terror was cautious — cunning in its control. That was why Zachary chose his words carefully: "yet." He wasn't rejecting the idea outright; he was buying time. He needed the girls to stay lucid long enough for the three of them to come up with an escape plan.
"Besides," he added, pointing at the Demon's remains, "we still have enough meat left. We can consider eating the fruits once that runs out."
But the moment he mentioned the Demon's meat, Cassie flinched — and then, almost reflexively, took a hurried bite of the fruit. The recoil she felt toward the Demon's flesh was strong enough to overwrite Zachary's warning.
His heart sank.
Cassie's face lit up with unguarded joy, red juice dripping down her chin as she took another bite. "Oh gods… it's delicious!" was all she said before devouring the fruit with frantic enthusiasm.
Before he could say anything, Nephis — seeing her friend unharmed — took a cautious bite herself. A heartbeat later, her expression mirrored Cassie's delight, and she too began eating without restraint.
Zachary stared, a sick feeling twisting in his gut. To anyone else, their elation would have seemed innocent, but his Cinder Eyes caught something deeper — a subtle change, a faint glow behind their eyes. If before their expressions had been pure joy, now there was something else behind them. Something warmer, heavier… pleasure.
He knew the cause immediately. The Soul Fragments hidden within the fruits had revealed themselves.
'I'll be damned,' Zachary thought grimly.
Nephis turned to him then, red juice dripping from her lips like blood on a predator's fangs. "Are you sure you don't want some, Zach? They're really good."
Zachary froze. ‹Well… maybe a bite wouldn't be so bad.›
A chill shot down his spine. 'That's not my thought!'
He jerked upright, cold sweat running down his back. 'This— what the fuck was that?'
Noticing that Nephis was still watching him expectantly, he cleared his throat and forced a grin. "Ahem. No thanks. I'm more of a carnivorous type, you know?"
Nephis studied him for a moment before shrugging. "Suit yourself."
She turned back to her fruit while Zachary walked toward the Demon's corpse, trying to calm his racing thoughts.
'This bastard… this is going to be much harder than I thought.' He began cutting into the flesh again, jaw clenched. 'I need to stay sharp. One lapse — one stray thought — and it'll get inside again…'
He cursed under his breath.
'I'll have to doubt my own Mind… every damn second.'
The day slipped by slowly. The girls relaxed beneath the shade of the crimson leaves of the Soul Devouring Tree, chatting idly and playing guessing games. They tried a few times to invite Zachary to join, but he was too absorbed in his worries to fully participate.
Finally, night arrived, and Zachary found himself alone in the dark.
A strange drowsiness clung to his mind, urging him to sleep. But with his sharpened perception, he noticed something — just like during the Winter Solstice, this lethargy wasn't his own. It was foreign. A whisper in his thoughts, a stranger's influence tempting him to rest.
The damned tree was relentless in its attempts at control.
Thankfully, the pull was much weaker than what he had experienced during the Solstice. With some effort, he managed to shake it off and refocus his mind in a single, deliberate direction.
'We can't stay near this tree for long. Escaping has to be our top priority.'
Zachary's thoughts were disciplined, deliberate. He had developed an almost algorithmic process to purge foreign intrusions: Is this thought beneficial to me — or to the tree?
If it was his, he kept it.
If it wasn't, he erased it instantly.
The method worked — though it was exhausting. Maintaining constant vigilance drained him, but the strength of his Mind gave him just enough clarity to continue.
'In the original work, they were trapped here for nearly a month. I can't let that happen again… but I also need time to consolidate my newfound power.' He scratched his chin, frowning in thought. 'Once we reach the Dark City, everything will move fast. I won't have much time to train.'
'What to do, what to do…' Zachary sighed quietly. 'The main issue is that I still don't have a plan to escape. Going around the crater is impossible, but sailing—'
He immediately stopped himself, shaking his head hard — refusing to follow that train of thought. The memories of his arrival at the Forgotten Shore clawed at the edges of his mind, dredging up that suffocating fear of the Deep Ones.
The truth was simple: he was terrified.
Defeated, he exhaled and settled cross-legged once more. If he couldn't plan, he could at least practice. So Zachary closed his eyes and began working on Flow Control.
Morning arrived, but the gray sky of the Forgotten Shore brought no joy to Zachary's heart. It only meant that his mental battle against the tree's control was going to continue — today, tomorrow, and the day after that.
Nephis was climbing again, picking fruits from the lower branches of the Soul Devouring Tree. She still took one for him, of course. Shaking his head, Zachary turned to the fire and began roasting strips of the Demon's meat.
"You sure you don't want one, Zach?" Cassie asked between bites.
‹Well, the sweetness of the fruit would go well with the saltiness of the meat.› His thoughts faltered for a second.
‹…Only a bite will be enough.›
He clenched his teeth and frowned deeply. 'Get out of my head, bastard.'
Forcing a weak smile toward the blind seer, he said tiredly, "No thanks."
He went back to filtering his thoughts, but to his dismay, Cassie didn't stop.
"You really should try it, Zach — they're to die for."
A chill crept down his spine at those words. Raising his eyes, he caught the serious expression on Cassie's face — too serious, too still. His throat went dry.
"Fine," he muttered. "Leave it here. I might take a bite later, okay?"
Cassie brightened instantly, her usual smile returning as she turned back to Nephis.
The girls chatted softly while eating, their laughter echoing faintly under the red canopy. Zachary barely heard them. His focus was entirely inward — studying every flicker of his own thoughts, dissecting each one with surgical precision.
When they finished breakfast, Nephis decided to explore the Ashen Barrow again, leaving Zachary alone with Cassie. Once he was sure she wasn't paying attention, he picked up the fruit she had left beside him.
The sight of the black, ripe fruit made his mouth water. His heightened senses caught a faint, syrupy sweetness in the air. It promised something beyond flavor — an experience between sweet and sour, a taste he could only understand once he gave in.
Just a taste...
He bit his lip hard, shaking his head to banish the thought, then walked to the edge of the Ashen Barrow. Without hesitation, he dropped the fruit into the abyss below.
'This kind of temptation… these fruits are far more dangerous than the book ever described,' he thought, running a hand through his hair.
As he turned back toward Cassie, a grim determination settled in his eyes. He needed to talk to her.
Zachary hadn't come up with any real plan to escape their situation yet, but he had already promised the girls that he would rely on them for his next moves.
He doubted the tree would allow them to host such a thought, but Zachary could only try.
"Ahem, Cass?" he coughed awkwardly, sitting down beside her.
"Yes, Zach?" she asked with her usual sweet tone.
"Well—haha, you know…" Zachary began dancing around the bush before finally blurting it out. "How do you think we should leave the island?"
Cassie frowned slightly. "Why would we leave? We should rest here."
"Yes, yes, we'll rest for a little bit. But after that?"
"Let's rest first and worry later," she said, closing her eyes and enjoying the breeze.
Zachary clenched his hands and forced a smile. "That's… indeed one way of seeing things. But there's no harm in planning ahead, right? So, how do we leave?"
"Why would we even want to leave?" Cassie repeated with a deeper frown.
Noticing he was getting nowhere — and feeling the tree's influence tighten around her — Zachary changed tactics.
"You're absolutely right, Cass. So let's do this, okay? Imagine a hypothetical situation where three completely new Sleepers arrive on this island. They're good people and mean no harm."
"Good, good," Cassie said softly, her expression easing. "It's nice seeing new people."
"We even share some food with them, because as fellow humans surrounded by monsters, we should help each other, right?" Zachary said, his smile strained.
"Right, right. Helping each other is good."
Seeing her calm down, Zachary added quickly, "They even praise the tree a little bit."
Cassie smiled. "Good, good. The tree is good."
"But unfortunately," Zachary said with feigned sorrow, "one of them has a strange constitution that makes him incredibly attractive to Nightmare Creatures."
"Like yourself?" Cassie asked with a raised brow.
Zachary flinched. "Yes! But it's not me, okay? This is just a hypothetical scenario, hahaha." He forced a laugh before pressing on. "Anyway, they have their own goals and their own destination, they can't stay in the Dream Realm forever, right?"
"That makes sense to me," Cassie said lightly.
"So… how should they leave?"
"Why would they even want to leave?"
'Ahhhhhhh!' Zachary screamed inwardly, dragging a hand down his face. 'Fuck, it's Spongebob all over again.'
Before he could try again, a familiar voice sounded behind him.
"What's going on?" Nephis asked, one brow raised.
"Zachary wants to leave the tree," Cassie replied before he could speak, a smug grin across her pretty face.
'Traitor!' Zachary cursed inwardly, then turned toward Nephis with an awkward smile. "Well, I was just… considering our future moves. Nothing more, hehehe."
Nephis frowned slightly before saying, "I still think it's for the best that we use this moment to truly rest." She then pointed toward his abdomen — the gaping hole in the Witness' Testament.
"And shouldn't you be the one wishing to rest the most?" she asked, shifting the momentum of the conversation toward him.
‹She's probably right, though… I haven't really rested since the fight with the Demon.› Zachary briefly considered Nephis's words before shaking his head firmly.
He looked at the girls but decided to drop the topic. Without saying anything, he walked away. A heavy thought began to take shape in the back of his mind — a vague suspicion that the Soul Devouring Tree was beginning to influence the girls' actions, using them to chip away at his defenses.
'If… if this suspicion is true, then…' Zachary sighed inwardly. 'Then it means I can only rely on myself to get us out of this damned place.'
He isolated himself with a heavy heart and resumed practicing Flow Control. He wasn't making much progress. While he was growing accustomed to the new energy — his heightened perception detecting a faint improvement in speed — the change was too small to be worth praising.
Night eventually fell, and Zachary stood at the edge of collapse. His Mind was exhausted — not only from the tree's constant whispering, but also from his own fatigue. Keeping constant watch over his thoughts had taken a heavy toll. His Mind allowed him to endure immense stress, but it came at a cost.
'The moment I fall asleep, I won't be able to defend against the tree's enthrallment,' Zachary admitted to himself. 'But I still have to sleep. A tired Mind is just as weak against control.'
He turned his weary eyes toward the girls. They were sleeping peacefully, completely oblivious to the danger surrounding them. Shaking his head, Zachary walked toward the Demon's remains. He wasn't making progress with Flow Control, but he needed to keep his Mind occupied — so he decided to process the Demon's body.
Using the knowledge passed down by Teacher Julius, he began separating the lustrous carapace, the meat, the bones, even the fat. Eventually, he found the Soul Shards. He was surprised the girls hadn't collected them, but considering his injury and the chaos that followed, it was understandable.
Zachary thought about his trade with Nephis, but knowing he had finally achieved Balance — and considering what was still to come — he decided to keep them.
'Finders keepers,' he muttered as he slipped the three Shards into the inner pocket of his battered mantle. He didn't absorb them yet, placing them alongside the two he'd collected on his first day.
When he was done, Zachary returned to his usual spot. He didn't practice Flow Control again; he simply sat there, focused on his thoughts.
Morning arrived, and as the girls stirred awake, they immediately noticed his condition — heavy bags under his crimson eyes, pale skin, and lips bitten raw.
Genuine worry appeared in Nephis's eyes, the tree's influence flickering for just a moment. This wasn't how Zachary was supposed to look.
"Are you alright, Zach?" Cassie asked, while Nephis added,
"You should rest, Zach. You can rely on us too."
Zachary looked at them softly before shaking his head. "You know… I'm something of a workaholic myself," he said with dry humor.
Seeing their worried faces, Zachary sighed — a tired, heavy sigh. But even in his exhaustion, his eyes still burned with defiance.
"I'll rest," he said quietly, "...the day I die."