With calm and soundless steps, Adryan approached the sleeping woman and as he approached he was thinking about how to make the woman allow him to help her.
'Should I wake her up and tell her that I came here to save her... That's stupid as if I am prince charming!'
That idea was quickly discarded, the only thing he would achieve by waking up the woman would be for her to scream alerting the guards outside and he would have to fight to get out of here.
'Maybe if I put my hand over her mouth before she has time to scream... No, that would be worse.'
'That would just make me look like a pervert trying to take advantage of her, how would she trust me if I made that move?'
When he was a few steps from the bed an idea came to his head.
'She's sleeping now... What if I use Flora's ability to impart her the idea that I'm an old friend who came to pick her up?'
He had to try this so stopping a few steps from the woman, he told Flora of his plan.
Flora thought about it for a few moments before sighing and answering
"That's a piece of cake for me, but how do we get into the dream? I haven't recovered enough yet."
Adryan smiled as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a semicircular piece of silver.
"Don't worry my dear worm, I have the invitation right here~" he gently waved the Dream Charm in his hand.
Flora sighed in exasperation.
Of course, the Tomato Princess would have a Dream Charm.
"Come closer and get into her and let's get this over with!"
Adryan nodded, he said nothing more and walked over to the woman's bedside.
He sat next to her, he brought the charm closer, and whispered in Ancient Hermes.
"Crimson..."
The charm became light in his hand as if it had become an illusory weight.
A serene and calm black flame began to burn around the charm.
Guided by Adryan's will, this blackness spread out, enveloping the woman and himself.
Adryan entered a state of Cogitation and saw the endless blackness and an oval-shaped light.
He extended his spirituality towards this object and the world around him changed.
Suddenly, the room they were in vibrated for a few seconds.
'Thanks Klein' Adryan thought grateful, the only reason he knew what to do was because of Klein's story. Without that, he would be dead by now, sacrificed to a Whore.
And for that he was eternally grateful to him.
Slowly a light mist appeared in the room that slowly dissipated as if it were a mere illusion.
The room was gradually replaced by a huge and vibrant garden, beautiful plants and trees of all kinds covered it.
There were several hills and from one of them came a beautiful voice that sang a soft melody.
The sky was a beautiful blue-black color, with the stars twinkling in the distance.
In the center of this beautiful sky was a beautiful crimson moon, illuminating everything with its soft crimson veil and giving the garden a beautiful appearance.
Adryan's blood froze at the sight of this, the semi-Cogitation state he had been maintaining had been broken.
The garden trembled slightly, the mist that covered everything became thicker and more illusory as if it wanted to break.
"You idiot what are you doing? Didn't you want to impart an idea to her? Why do you freak out like a little girl when she hears the thunder of a storm? I didn't take you for a coward!"
Flora's angry voice rang loud in his head and this made Adryan react and he quickly went back into a semi-Cogitation state.
As soon as that happened, the garden stopped shaking, and the mist that seemed to want to break recovered and returned to its previous appearance, illusory and hazed.
Flora let out an exasperated sigh and spoke annoyed.
"What the fuck was that Princess? Looks like you saw death in the face! You almost botched my effort so what's your excuse!"
The corners of Adryan's mouth twitched uncomfortably.
In fact, his entire body now felt very uncomfortable!
'If I told you why you would instantly explode from corruption or worse a monster...'
'And honestly, I don't want to give birth to an amalgamation of worms and become a mother Thank You Very Much!'
Adryan smiled softly quickly hiding his discomfort and chuckled.
"I'm sorry Miss Worm, it's a new experience that took me by surprise, thank you for guiding me on my first time by the way, you are a very gentle teacher." The redhead said calmly, he had accentuated the last one as if he was referring to something else.
Flora noticed this and immediately understood what the man was referring to.
If Flora had a face now she would be going through a combination of disgust, curiosity, doubt, shame, and disgust again.
Disgust, because she understood what he meant.
Curiosity, because the idea caught her attention and she was thinking about it.
Doubt, because she didn't know why the idea didn't bother her.
Shame, because some adult scenarios went through her head.
And disgust again, due to the realization that she had imagined herself with him in blissful settings.
After a few moments of thinking about possible scenarios involving acts related to making babies, she spoke heavily.
"Don't ever say that again..."
Adryan laughed in amusement, hiding his discomfort as he looked around again.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
Flora snorted and answered.
"You have to find the woman, implant the idea, and leave the Dream. That's all."
Already having expected that answer, Adryan sighed and looked around.
Everything looked full of life and vitality.
A very beautiful dream.
But this only made Adryan much more uncomfortable.
In fact, there was only one reason why he was still inside the dream and not abandoning the house and the woman to their fate.
And that was the absence of Hunters Hallow.
He used his peripheral vision and looking down at his arm he didn't see the familiar robe.
As long as Hunters Hallow didn't manifest it meant it was safe to continue.
For now he would put up with his discomfort and finish what he had come to do.
'I'll finish this and leave, as soon as I get to my room, no, as soon as I leave this dream I'll enter the City of Calamities to clean up any weird bugs...'
'But Flora's problem still remains, I don't know if she can also catch a bug but I'm not going to risk it. I already planned to have her say my honorific name in the future. This just gives me the perfect excuse to make her say it.'
If she said his honorific name it would be easier for him to purify her of anything weird.
'A dream shouldn't give us a strong infection so the Sefirot should be able to purify us if there is anything...'
Determined, Adryan quickly headed up the hill in the direction where that sweet voice came from.
He quickly reached the top of the hill, looking down he saw how there was a small lagoon with a small island in the middle.
On top of the beautiful green grass was the woman, she had her eyes closed and was singing a soft melody while rocking to the rhythm of it.
"Will she know I'm here?" he whispered.
"You are in a dream, she will simply ignore your presence as long as you don't touch her." Flora said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Adryan just nodded and went down to the small lagoon.
He looked at the water for a few moments and saw that it was crystal clear.
He grabbed a stone that was next to him and threw it into the water.
The water just moved but didn't show much reaction, it just went back to its calm state.
The woman continued to sing completely unaware of the water being hit.
Sighing, Adryan braced himself to step out of the Dream if anything went wrong or he saw anything strange at any moment, he took a step, the water was cold and reached below his ankle.
He walked up to the woman and came to her side, she continued singing unaware of his presence.
"Now do the as I say: extend your hand to her, and let your spirituality flow to her while you send what you want to implant. I will do the rest." Flora explained and Adryan nodded.
He extended his right hand to the woman and slowly his spirituality flew up to her.
The woman was enveloped by a warm aura but continued her song calmly.
Adryan slowly implanted the idea that he was an old friend of the woman that she trusted completely.
His spirituality that covered the woman shimmered for a few moments before slowly entering her body.
"The idea has already been implanted, we can go now. You just have to see yourself returning to your body and that's it." Flora confirmed and Adryan didn't take a second and did what Flora asked...
His vision was dazed for a few seconds but quickly returned to normal.
The dark room welcomed him.
"Thank you Flora." Adryan only allowed himself a few seconds to congratulate Flora and without waiting for an answer he took out Hangover Time.
He held the pocket watch in his left hand and turned the crown to the right while pointing his right hand at the woman.
He Disordered the space around her so she couldn't hear what he was about to do.
"Hey Princess what are you doing?" Flora asked a little confused.
Adryan ignored the question and quickly put up a small wall of spirituality.
He took out of his jacket the red candles, red poppies, and the symbol.
Only as he put everything in place did he allow himself to speak.
"There is a small chance that we were infected by entering that woman's dream.
"Now I am preparing a ritual to pray to my Lord to check and purify us in case it is as I think."
Flora's heart skipped a beat.
"What the hell are you saying? Infected?! But I didn't feel anything strange in that dream!" Flora screamed terrified and confused.
At no time had her spirituality warned her of anything!
"What we saw in that dream are some of the authorities of an Evil God. I'm not sure if they are 'Her' or not but I don't want to risk it" Adryan said heavily as he began to light the candles with his fire.
Flora began to tremble inside Adryan, an emptiness building in her stomach.
'That's why I didn't feel anything strange! It's because it was the work of an Evil God!! Shit shit shit!!!'
'Why is this happening to me!!!" Flora was about to panic but she barely controlled herself in time.
She couldn't feel anything wrong with herself no matter how much she checked.
But that did not reassure her at all!
Her condition was still bad so she couldn't check herself as deeply as she would like!
She had no way of knowing if she was infected or not!!
'I doubt I'd even notice if I am… It's an Evil God after all….' she thought in defeat and despair.
At that moment Adryan finished lighting all the candles, he joined his hands but before praying he spoke.
"I will pray for both of us so that my Lord purifies us but the effect will be better if you pray too."
Adryan didn't give Flora time to think and continued.
"Just repeat what I say and it will be enough"
"The Scarlet Monarch that burns depravity;
You are the Calamity of the Old Days;
You are the Closest to the Oldest One;
Your devoted servant prays for your attention;
I pray for your help and salvation;
I pray for you to clean the infection that is in our bodies!"
Adryan heard the whispers in his ears and quickly began to draw the sphere of light.
...
He opened his eyes in the City of Calamities.
He looked at his body from top to bottom, behind and front, right and left but found nothing.
Nor had the City reacted as it did to cleanse the True Creator's corruption months ago.
But for Adryan this was not enough.
He found the lonely floating flame and immediately formed a connection with it.
The gate of flames formed and he saw himself kneeling.
He quickly actively his Spirit Vision and scanned himself from top to bottom.
He saw nothing in himself, no shadow coiling around him like a snake, no strange or foreign aura.
The only thing he found was what would be Flora living close to his heart.
He could identify her by her light blue aura that blinked weakly.
He still did not trust it, but controlling the power of the Sefirot, he sent a wave of purifying smoke to his body.
...
With Flora.
I could feel my heart beating desperately.
The emptiness in my stomach just kept growing.
'You want me to pray to your Lord?!'
What Adryan asked me was ridiculous!
To save myself from the infection of an Evil God, I have to give myself to another Evil God?
'Fuck Fuck Fuck!! I should have never parasitized this idiot!!'
Every day I regret what I did, and I always think that it would have been much better to continue being a rat!
Before I could continue lamenting, the altar that Adryan had prepared vibrated for a few seconds, and the door of flames formed in front of my eyes.
The magnificent City and the strange figure standing in front of it appeared.
I quickly lowered my head, terrified.
This was the second time that I had almost looked directly at that God!
'Why is this happening to me?!'
Before my despair could grow I watched as yellowish smoke billowed from the door of flames and quickly engulfed Adryan.
'Are we infected? Shit shit shit!'
Surely what the God was doing was purifying 'His' Blessed!
'But Adryan prayed for both of us! Why don't I feel like I'm being purified?!'
The despair just kept growing and I felt myself slipping into an abyss.
After a few seconds the smoke disappeared but the door was still standing.
My skin crawled and I felt my spirituality go crazy.
'He' is looking at me! 'He' is looking at me!!'
What does 'He' want?!
...
The emptiness I felt grew much more.
'Do you want me to pray to be purified?'
I felt like dying would be a better idea...
I looked at Adryan's face, he had a calm and faithful expression.
'He's never shown any strange behavior, he may be a jerk but he's still sane and has good morals...'
'Despite all the times I saw him pray and receive an answer, he always remained the same idiot, even when I tried to treat him as a Blessed of a God, he flatly refused and asked me to treat him as I had been doing...'
Maybe it wasn't so dangerous to pray to this God...
Letting out a soft sigh, I began to pray.
"The Scarlet Monarch that burns depravity;
You are the Calamity of the Old Days;
You are the Closest to the Oldest One;
Your devoted servant prays for your attention;
I pray for your help and salvation;
I pray for you to clean the infection that is in my body"
I almost got stuck on some words but managed to keep my composure and completed the prayer.
As soon as I finished I felt the gazed coming from the door soften.
More yellowish smoke came out of the door and I could feel myself being purifying.
At no time did I look up.
____________________________________________
Ok this is officially the new longest chapter I have ever written.
They are more than 2,600 words!
Wow the inspiration really hit me hard in this one!
Tell me what do you think?