Dream & City Gate

A set of gray eyes opened.

Isaac had slowly begun to regain his consciousness.

As he looked around in confusion and puzzlement, he slowly began to remember due to his flaw.

All his memories came crashing down like a wave.

The state of grogginess and confusion vanished instantaneously.

Isaac looked around at the alarm.

Many questions flow through his mind that he cannot truly get an answer to at the moment.

Yet as he looked around he saw three people laying on the floor.

One was a young woman with silver hair.

Another was a small cute young man with black hair and a disheveled appearance.

And the other was a young woman as well with blonde hair.

Yeah, unlike the two others who were close to him yet kept their distance.

The blonde-haired young woman was squeezing him like a teddy bear.

Nephis, Sunny, and Cassia.

Yet, as he kept looking, he couldn't find the last person.

'It seems she is dead'.

Electra had been exposed to too much water and her flame body had become utterly extinguished.

She had died before she could truly reach the castle within the forgotten shore.

"Your nightmare is over".

Isaac whispered.

Looking around, it had not been that long ever since he passed out.

They still have it, made it towards the castle, or even met Athena.

All that could wait, however.

The mysterious dream that he had just now made him tremble.

Not only was it completely out of nowhere.

What frightened him the most was the fact that he could not remember all of it.

His flaw which did not allow him to forget...

Became completely and utterly useless.

Some small parts he could remember, but others were too fuzzy.

Isaac sighed.

He was not in the mood of scaring himself at the moment.

He needed to analyze what happened.

How was he able to escape the tentacle creature?

Where did all that power come from?

What should he do from here on out?

He already had an answer to two of the three questions.

The first one was rather simple he had gained the strength to momentarily escape the reach of the creature.

The second, however, was much more innate...

Literally.

He had remembered one of his many abilities or his innate ability.

[Acetic] was an ability that allowed him to store his emotions.

He would slowly accumulate it, and then once it reached its boiling point he could use it.

Before he did not understand what the ability did or how he could use his stored emotions.

But after what happened with the tentacle creature, he finally understood.

He also understood the reason why he had been so cold and distant, willing to use the others and manipulate them to his whims.

Innate abilities are passive in nature.

It was active without the individual's knowledge.

As such Isaac's emotions have been suppressed ever since his First Nightmare.

That is why he was able to calculate everything so ruthlessly.

Even now he was coldly calculating and evaluating how this ability affected him.

And it seemed to overwhelming fear underwater he felt was his true emotion.

That was what happened when  [Acetic] was not active.

As long as [Acetic] was active, he could always think upon levelheaded thoughts.

But when [Acetic] was full.

His emotions would return to normal.

Looking back upon his choices it all made sense.

Why would he not panic after coming to a new world filled with so many monstrosities that could kill him just by a glance?

Why did he not miss his old world where all his friends and family were?

It was all due to his innate ability to suppress his emotions.

And it seems that when it reached its limit, it flowed into his body as the thing he desired the most at that one moment.

Isaac sighed.

Too many revelations had come at one time and he was exhausted.

Laying back down, he began to slowly close his eyes.

As his consciousness slowly began to fade away into the peaceful embrace of sleep he thought of his past life.

Yet it was weird....

His old world where he came from felt like an illusionary dream.

After everyone had slept off their fatigue, they began their journey towards the bright castle.

The journey towards the castle was silent.

They all had to process the loss of one of their cohort members Electra.

Thought that he could have her in the cohort to strengthen their team for the future, but it seemed fate had other plans.

Speaking of fate.

Isaac had noticed multiple things that had made him uneasy.

One of Cassia's dreams had not changed in the slightest.

This made him extremely confused.

As he was a fateless being shouldn't be chaotic or somewhat distorted.

Yeah, when he tried to probe answers from Cassia she repeated that her memories seemed very vivid and had all come true.

Or for the most part, the ones that made sense.

Isaac didn't know what to make of it so he left it in the back burner.

They were already half the way to the city entrance.

The outer city was already in view.

Isaac looked at them scanning them thoroughly to make sure they weren't endangered.

Though it seemed like fate hadn't changed much he still didn't want to take any chances.

Sunny was also observant using his shadow to check the surroundings.

'This should be where they meet her'.

Sunny and the others were supposed to meet Effie near the outer city while she was on the hunt.

But Isaac had different plans.

He already knew they needed one soul shard per person to enter the inner city.

At the current moment, they only had three just like he planned.

He was going to stay in the outer city for a few different reasons.

But the most important one was so he could make first contact with Effie and gain her trust.

This would effectively put another protective barrier on him in the future.

Though he was certain he had lost his connection to the Spell that did not mean he could not make contingency plans for the future.

So Isaac slowly leads the cohort through a detour towards the city gate.

And through this the cohort effectively missed Effie.

And then they reached the gate.

As they kept walking a man in Armer appeared from behind the gate.

He smiled at them as he spoke.

"I am sorry entirely through here is not for free".

The cohort stopped as they looked at each other.

"How much".

Nephis spoke first.

Sunny on the other hand had a hand behind his back ready to summon a weapon.

The man smiled.

"One soul shard per person".

Nephis and Sunny furrowed their brows.

They both knew they only had three shards.

That meant one of them could not enter and would have to sleep in the outer city.

Yet before anyone could say anything Isaac spoke out.

"You guys go I will stay out".

Nephis looked at him with a neutral expression.

Yet Isaac could see the worry in her eyes.

Sunny on the other hand had a confused expression.

In his mind, it would be idiotic not to go into the city.

Why would he sacrifice himself thereby putting himself in danger?

Sunny had already seen the state of the outer city.

In his professional opinion, it was no different from the dregs.

So Sunny could not comprehend Isaac's choice.

Yet weirdly Sunny felt uncomfortable going in without Isaac.

He wanted all of them to be inside the city walls.

Sunny could not place this emotion anywhere.

He was also confused about why he felt it.

It's not like he had not tried to make friends before.

But no matter what he seemed to never fit in.

Like something that was inside the minds of others was not in his own.

Yet within this cohort, he felt weirdly at peace.

He had let his guard down a few times which confused him.

Of course, he knew no one could survive in the dream realm alone but still.

He trusted them to a certain extent.

So seeing that one of his companions was going in danger of his own will brought a weird feeling in his chest.

Yet before he or Nephis or even Cassia could say anything Isaac spoke again.

"This is not up for debate".

After a few seconds, the cohort finally had one of its members separate.

This brought about a weird feeling among the members.

However, it seemed that the one most affected by this separation was Cassia.

"D-do you have to go".

Her face was sullen as she spoke.

Isaac pulled her into a hug and spoke.

"Only for a week or at least till I get a soul shard".

He patted her back giving her a reassuring smile.

Cassia then left with the others.

Isaac then turned around and he began to walk towards the outer city.

And with that six months had passed.

Many things had changed.

Yet that was not important at the moment as Sunny was currently running for his life.

The doglike creature leaped towards Sunny who using his two shadows to augment himself was fast enough to dodge.

"Now".

The dog-like creature froze for a moment as it sensed something coming towards it with tremendous speed.

Yet before it could move its body, something crashed into its left side.

Cracks could be heard as the bones immediately collapsed on themselves.

Its organs are pierced by the shards.

The doglike Nightmare Creature, let out a whimper before breathing gets last breath.

A man stood next to the dead abomination.

He had smooth, milky white skin.

He had dark black hair that reached slightly under his ears, close to his jaw.

He had calm, striking gray eyes.

He was a handsome young man with a chiseled figure.

The man's looks were unnatural for a mundane human.

And so was his herculean strength.

No sleeper should have these kinds of looks and power.

Yet the man was not a sleeper.

He was Awakened.

To be more precise he was an Awakened Monster.

And this man was Isaac.