22 Not a Dream Part 1

Pain.

Terrible pain, just everywhere.

And dark.

「 ... 」

*Knock, knock, knock*

" ...?"

*Knock, knock, knock*

「 W-What's...Where am—? 」

*Knock, knock, knock*

*Knock, knock, knock*

"...nngh," a person groaned.

Followed by a faint voice shouting from afar could be heard in a muffled, garbled speech.

"...ake up...anuel...pen the f**king doo—"

"Ugh...go away, Karl-"

「 ...Karl? Wait, w-where am I??? 」

Amidst the heavy breaths and racing heart, a pair of eyes were jolted open, but all the person could see was darkness—no, it was a dark room.

A dark room illuminated by the familiar yellow lights, pouring through the gaps between the curtains of the windows, from the roadside lamps outside.

And the soft bed he laid in was warmly familiar; and the shadows on the walls and the silhouettes of furniture in the dark room seemed like a distorted reflection of his memories.

For a brief, disoriented moment, he wasn't sure where he was.

The throbbing pain in his head only added to the confusion.

"F**k the headache! Wh-what happened..."

*Knock, knock, knock*

"...I swear to f**king god, wake up and open the goddamn door, Emanuel!!!

"Gi-Give me a sec, I'm already awake, Ka—"

「 Karl...? Wait, I'm...here? I'm f**king here here? 」

He sat up in the familiar slightly odoriferous blanket, his eyes now fully adjusted to the darkness of his bedroom.

His face lit up in astonishment.

「 Ha ha...that was some from crazy ass dream, f**king crazy ass dre— 」

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

His sight caught on to the lit-up screen of his smartphone by his bedstand; couple of notifications had popped up on its screen one after another.

A creepy feeling bubbled in his heart—he could almost feel the goosebumps coming at him.

"...no..."

「 T-There's no way, just no f**king way... 」

The dungeon mission, the Shadows, the Flood, Estama—all of it felt like a surreal, blurry and distant nightmare.

But the emotions—the fear, the excitement, the camaraderie—those remained enticingly vivid and fresh in his mind.

「 ...and the Iron Lady too... 」

He reached out to the phone.

*Knock, knock, knock*

"Hello, Emanuel?! Did you fall asleep again? That's it, I'm breaking down this goddamn door! You hear me?!!"

"Co-Coming!"

Emanuel immediately pulled the blanket aside and dragged his body off the bed, and sat himself laboriously into his wheelchair. He glanced down to his paralysed legs—he paused for a bit before let out a small sigh.

Massaging his temples, he veered himself in the wheelchair to the door, pushing aside all of the unsettled thoughts he had at the moment.

Unlocking the door, he pulled it open and saw his buff friend-slash-housemate standing there with his arms folded across his chest—an unhappy expression greeted Emanuel.

"So, morning, Karl?"

"What was that loud noise...?"

"..."

「 ...Noise? 」

"...I heard a loud 'Bang' from your room just now. Care to explain?"

"What loud noise? I don't hear f**king nothing..."

"You heard nothing?! Impossible  leh...I really heard a big sound from your room one..."

"Karl..."

His headache was still pricking, so he was not in the mood to partake in his friend's annoying, early-morning naggings.

"...Karl, are you done? I think you're still dreaming, and I got a headache for waking up so early in the morning..."

"Emanuel, I swear one, I really heard it..."

"Okay, okay, you can leave now. I still have to go to the restaurant for the morning shift."

"...Alright, alright. Ehhh, Hiroshi-sensei texted us in the group that the restaurant would open a bit later this morning, around ten he said? His daughter got a fever or something. Read in the Whatsapp group and reply to your tagged name. Wait—"

Nuel kicked Karl out of the room and closed the door with a soft thud.

He turned his wheelchair around as he massaged his temple with both of his hands—it was aching still.

Not only his memories were jumbled up with lucid bits from the 'dream' appearing here and there, but it also felt like his mind had a huge chunk of opaqueness jammed right up there at the moment.

His eyes turned to his phone again, there was something awfully eerie with everything—the phone especially.

He wheeled towards the bedstand and retrieved his phone that laid there, his fingers trembled for a second when he got to the "blank" sender detail for all four text messages.

He gulped.

「 ...Okay. 」

Nuel opened the text notifications and began reading them in chronological order.

The more he read, the more cryptic each text seemed—the sense of disorientation and creepiness from earlier were slowly getting more intense.

The first message read; "not a dream".

Nuel blinked at the words. And something instantly clicked in his mind.

All those fragmented memories and emotions—he could feel that they were being pieced up together at the moment, saturating into coherent memories.

「 ...so I really f**king went inside..? 」

His eyes flashed towards his workstation - still powered to 'Sleep' - as if he was trying to pry something off the machine.

Nuel pulled opened the second message from the phone's notification centre—it was "remember, runes".

His brows furrowed this time.

He could not remember encountering any runes during his dream-like time in Thacon City, so nothing came to mind—well it was only a short twelve hours spent there so far after all.

The closest thing he could think of was the NPC 'Sophea the Mystic Physician'—she used mana to treat him, and mana was the basis of runes, at least that was how it was in the game.

Another puzzle piece that did not fit into the larger picture.

The third message offered the single word, "clarity".

「 Clarity? If I'm not mistaken, there's an Esper ability called 'Clarity Aura', but that's seems like quite a stretch...?

...I only got the Precognition and Delusory Shroud abilities, and the Sense talent and the active Tranquil Aura so far... 」

The final message sent a slight shiver down his spine; "apocalypse, 2024".

The words sounded ominous.

「 2024, that would be about less than two years from now...? 」

Nuel's mind raced as he tried to make sense of it all. He had returned to his old life, but he couldn't deny the realness of his 'dream'.

「...if-if the dream is real, then these texts...real-? 」

The four cryptic text messages stared back at him.

He rubbed his temples.

"Not a dream," he muttered in skepticism.

Just as he was about to dismiss the texts as mere coincidences or hallucinations, something inexplicable happened. It started as a subtle tingling at the back of his mind, like a whisper of forgotten memories clawing their way to the surface.

Then, with a surge of lucidity, strange glowing symbols appeared in his mind.

Like ethereal wisps of light against a dark canvas, runes materialised one after another;

The first rune was circular with a symmetrical design; it featured a central, intricately detailed eye-like symbol, with delicate, swirling lines radiating outward from the central symbol, resembling ripples of water pouring out of a submerged fountain.

Inlaid the lines were shiny patterns - they were precise and geometric, giving it a sense of order and precision.

And together with its deep yet luminescent, azure blue colour, the rune as a whole somewhat carried the concept of-

「 ...insight and perception...? Rune of Clarity?! 」

But before he could grasp its significance - and even relate it to the cryptic text on his phone - it faded away, replaced abruptly by another, more enigmatic symbol.

It was a vertically-elongated and elliptical-shaped glyph - somewhat resembling an almond standing on its tip, slightly slanted.

At its center, a stylized, 'closed eye' glowing in silvern hue was borne, and surrounding it was a intricate web-like pattern of complex interlocking lines and curves spreading throughout within the ellipse.

The lines themselves were patterned with organic and flowing motifs, and with the dark, velvety black colour, it conveyed the vaguely-discernable concept of concealment and hidden knowledge.

「 ...this, the Rune of...Veil?! 」

Nuel's breath was caught as he gazed at it, trying to etch its design into his memory.

But like deja vu, just as the second rune teased him with its secrets, it, too vanished.

「 !!! 」

The third rune appeared and it was more of a rectangular- or diamond-shaped. Embedded in the middle, was an hourglass-like symbol, and radiating outward were branching, intertwined lines reminiscent of tree branches, albeit barely.

The yellowish straight lines thinned and thickened asymmetrically as they spreaded thoughout the runic symbol, as if pulsing and pumping in a lifelike manner.

Staring at the rune in his mind, Nuel could understood the idea of future possibilities and the ever-changing nature of the passage of time.

「 ...Rune of Tomorrow...?  」

But as quickly as they had arrived, all three runes dissipated, fading into the back recesses of his mind, leaving him with only fading impressions of their intricate patterns and meanings.

In fact, not more than three seconds had passed.

"...W-What-"

「 ...what the actual f**k?! What the f**k are those...? Are those the...THOSE are the RUNES?!! 」

Nuel's eyes widened at the sudden sense of lucidity - for the second time.

He grabbed the phone in his hands and began to reread them.

「 It's 'not a dream', then 'remember runes'... 」

Was it a hint, a message or a warning? As mere hallucinations; they felt too real, too...purposeful.

「 ...then the third was, 'clarity'... 」

"Rune of Clarity, huh?"

Nuel slumped in his wheelchair, overwhelmed by the intensity of the moment. His disbelief had given way to a profound sense that something extraordinary was happening to him.

"...but..."

「 ...what is actually going on...? 」