(Written while listening to: "We Evolve" by Aviators on YouTube)
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Laito felt absolutely terrible.
The same moment he heard the Nightmare Spell's announcement his two cores found themselves in two obviously distinct places.
One of them was completely blinded… which was weird, but okay.
The other one found itself in some sort of dark room.
But what he felt from both of them regardless what state they were in…
Was utter repugnance.
Laito's [Guardian Sight] only allowed him to see in his true form. And yet, even without having any ability to smell or taste, everything still "smelled", "tasted" and all-around felt: simply vile.
The reason for such an intense reaction?
Laito clue had no.
He didn't fall into some fleshy, slimy maw.
Nor some sticky rotting Nurgle-blessed pit.
But Laito felt like he did.
But all he actually saw from his two perspectives was: nothing, plus just a dark room.
It was still disgusting… without any apparent reason.
'Yup. I think this is the legendary "Dream Realm" all right… I hate it here. I already wanna go home.' Laito knew that he would be thrown into some random location within the Dream Realm, but he did not expect his own reaction towards it.
It felt… forced and unnatural.
The Laito-orb that was blinded decided to stay as it was. Maybe it was already under attack from some monstrosity. Who knows? But there was also another reason why Laito wanted that part of himself to stay put.
When Laito previously considered all the places he could be thrown into there were some that deserved special attention.
Obviously the first place a novel reader would think of, was the Forgotten Shore, the place where the original cast was thrown into.
But it wasn't by far the only area in the Dream Realm.
Chained Islands, Underworld, Hollow Mountains, Nightmare Desert, Stormsea, areas around Ravenheart and Bastion, and also the regions Laito still didn't know about like Glass Hell for example.
All deadly, all fearsome. Filled with Nightmare Creatures to the brim.
But there was one place in particular where being thrown into was basically an insta-death.
A spawn-kill one could call it.
The surface of Godgrave.
Godgrave was an enormous region designated as a "death zone".
It consisted of two parts: A gargantuan humanoid skeleton, whose separate bones were measured in thousands of kilometers in size.
And ash-filled depths below the skeleton itself.
The depths were populated with the highest rank Nightmare Creatures imaginable. Anyone going there would be instantly consumed. Body, or no body.
The Skeleton itself was also an absolutely deadly area, but survival was relatively possible.
From insides of the hollow bones of the skeleton a constant outgrowth of crimson, blood-sucking "jungle" was trying to reach the surface at all times.
It was stopped by the sky of Godgrave.
A constant assault of obliterating light that erased from existence everything that moved. It could only be stopped by an occasional veil of clouds… but the clouds sometimes didn't appear for days on end.
"Days" as if in time measurement, because there was no night in Godgrave.
It was once part of Sun God's realm after all.
And what Laito suspected was…
That one of his cores was thrown right into the deadly light of Godgrave.
That's why he made sure to maintain the exact spatial position he appeared in. No movement allowed. Laito didn't know if the rules of Godgrave's radiance applied to his immaterial form, but he wasn't keen on sacrificing his only spare core to find out.
Until the blindness passed, his core was as good as dead, from Laito's perspective.
Thankfully, he had the other one.
His decision to enter Dream Realm with two separate perspectives appeared to be the correct one. Otherwise, he could get stuck for who knows how long?
Laito's second core didn't even have any obvious, immediate dangers around it!
He decided to take a closer look at the dark room he was in. He had to soldier on from his unnatural feeling of disgust and do his best to ignore it.
The room was… dark, but not dusty or ruined, made completely from stone slabs.
Some cellar perhaps?
It looked suspiciously… clean.
What Laito would expect from human-made locations and structures in the Dream Realm was for them to be in a complete state of ruin and decay.
With the exceptions of citadels reconquered by the forces of humanity during the span of Shadow Slave novel.
Which also begged a question…
What about the timeline?
Laito had no idea in what era or time-frame he was currently in.
Was Sunny and the band already Sovereigns?
Or if they just entered the Dream Realm for the first time, just like Laito himself?
What if Laito was in a far future and they managed already to become gods?
Or if it's the past and they aren't even born yet?
There was only one way to find answers to all those questions.
Laito started to float upwards.
He passed through the ceiling… and entered another similar room.
'Huh. Let's try again.' He shot up again and passed through another layer of stone slabs.
This time he entered a much larger room.
In fact it wasn't even a room, but a much larger, circular chamber!
And what's more important…
There were people there!
But any spark of excitement that Laito could feel, was doused by that constant, unspecified disgust he felt.
His first thought was to find a way to communicate with the people there so that they could point him towards the nearest Gateway.
But that thought process died mid-point.
Because Laito saw in his 360 degree vision…
The people there were…
Not fine at all.
All of them were young and handsome. Spotless clean, just like the building they were in.
But they did not behave human at all.
They moved as if… they were just things that pretended to be "human".
'No, no. Nope! Not good. Not good!' Laito thought as a suspicion started to creep in about his current potential whereabouts.
In that moment he also noticed:
These "people"...
…were staring right at him.
'Shit!' Laito thought and swiftly moved away from these creatures.
He moved upwards and through the wall.
He left the building just like that.
The building that he had left appeared to be a clock tower.
As Laito flew to the top of it, he finally could take a proper look at his surroundings.
The first thing he noticed was quite a familiar sight.
A giant glowing dome, just like the Incandescent city's dome, was protecting the city below it.
And the city in question…
Was a vast, sprawling, perfectly clean metropolis filled with silver spires that emitted constant light. Huge districts of smaller, but still well-made stone houses were densely packed on islands placed in between flowing rivers and larger canals that covered the city.
And in the centre of it all:
It was a grand palace Laito would call majestic… if it didn't feel disgusting for him.
And the streets… were also densely packed with the same pretty "humans" like the building Laito was previously in.
He has finally come to the terms in regards where he was currently in.
After all, the last chapter of the original novel he has read was taking its action in this very city.
The Eternal City.
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[16 months left until MHA plot beginning]
[Chapter End] The story is not over yet
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