Juno was dreaming. He found himself high above the clouds. Below him stretched a vast city, easily housing hundreds of thousands of people. In the center of that city stood a tall castle. It was incredibly picturesque, like straight from a fairytale. White walls, red roofs, and tall golden spires on top. Looking at the scene, Juno couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
Soon, Juno's attention was drawn elsewhere. The sun began to race across the sky, day collapsing into night, night into day, time accelerating beyond comprehension. Shadows stretched and vanished, seasons seemed to flicker past in seconds. And then—just as suddenly—it stopped.
Juno looked down again.
The city had changed.
What had once been vibrant and full of life now lay in decay. Buildings sagged under neglect, streets emptied into silence, and the warmth of civilization had vanished, leaving behind something hollow and abandoned. It was as if centuries of decline had passed in mere moments.
Only the castle remained.
Untouched. Unchanged. Watching.
Before he could process it, Juno felt himself pulled forward.
He was moving—no, falling.
The wind roared past him as he plunged toward the castle, faster and faster, until the towering walls filled his vision. Just before impact, his body flickered, turning insubstantial, and he passed straight through the stone as if it were nothing.
Inside, Juno glided through the opulent yet empty halls. Sure, it was grand, but as a European he had been inside many castles for school tours so he could tell that the owner of this particular castle was only a minor monarch.
The ground was covered with plush red carpets, the ceilings had large light fixtures that resembled chandeliers, and the walls had a painting every now and then. Overall, it was quite pleasant to be inside.
After a couple more minutes, Juno passed through one final wall and came into a large room, the throne room. There were several people there, some sitting and some standing. As Juno drifted toward the ceiling, he saw the far end of the room and the thrones themselves. Upon them, sat a very old man and woman, the King and Queen.
For some reason, none of the people were speaking, or even moving for that matter. Now, slightly confused, Juno looked to where he was going and it turned out to be toward a chandelier. Just as he was approaching the thing, Juno's world suddenly went dark and his head exploded in pain.
"AHHH-ISSS"
Juno yelled, and then failed to yell. Just as quickly as the darkness and pain came, it vanished and was instead replaced with a bizarre feeling of wrongness. All that Juno knew, from standing to sitting, was gone. When he opened his eyes, he found himself atop the chandelier—and no longer in his own body.
As he moved his head, he noticed how much larger everything seemed, whereas before the chandelier looked about the width of his thigh, it now seemed to be multiple times wider than him. Opening his mouth, he tried to say something but it all failed. Instead, all the words came out the same.
"Hissssss."
A Snake's hiss, a very bad omen of what was happening.
'Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit, what the hell is happening!?'
Trying—and failing—to stay calm, Juno frantically twisted his head, searching for his body. He was careful to try not to fall to the ground, but as time went on he started to care less and less.
Finally, after a couple dozen frantic seconds, Juno was able to turn his head well enough to see what he was. The sight was not reassuring.
A small body of scales greeted him. It was pure white, and instead of legs, it ended in a long, tapering tail.
He was certain now.
He was a snake.
…
'Calm down, this doesn't mean anything. This is just a dream. Yeah, a dream! What the hell else could it be!?'
Several minutes had passed since Juno had realized what was happening, but having time to think wasn't helping him at all.
'Ok, maybe this isn't a dream. Well, maybe I can't remember it, but I got into some hallucinogenic drug like Salvia and now I'm here? No, that doesn't make sense—people don't lose their memories from Salvia. What the fuck is happening?'
Completely lost, Juno shifted his focus to his surroundings. As a fan of fantasy novels, he knew that information was crucial for surviving dangerous situations, so he tried to listen to the group of people below. Snakes could hear to some extent, and he was relieved to find that he could as well.
What he heard, however, was not good.
A small, portly man knelt before the thrones of the King and Queen while everyone else listened intently. Suddenly, the man looked up and threw his arms into the air.
"Your Majesty Barax, there is no good news! The priests- they have failed to hear Heart God's whispers again! The blessing of our God… it's disappearing!"
Heart God. Juno had heard that name before.
Hearing it here, however, was a very bad sign.
'There's no way… is there?'
Without wasting another second, Juno stopped listening to the shouting below and focused on a single thought:
'Runes!'
Instantly, his Runes appeared.
Name: Juno
True Name: -
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories: -
Echoes: -
Attributes: [Dream's Spawn], [Flame of Divinity], [Anunnaki], [Malicious], [The War]
Aspect: [Judgement of Battle]
Aspect Description - [A Divine Judge sent by the War to prosecute whom she believes guilty. As a Judge, you possess incredible divine power. It is to be noted that War herself does not know she has a Judge.]
Staring at his runes, Juno figuratively paled. He wasn't wrong. This wasn't a dream or a drug trip. This was something much worse.
'I've… Transmigrated to Shadow Slave…'