Being Alive

'Damn system, damn world...'

With a wave of his hand, the golden sand scattered with the wind.

'Rest in peace. Rest in your home; find peace in death...'

Although Cain was sentimental, he could control his emotions. After a brief silence, he took a deep breath and walked over to the core.

Picking it up, he examined it. "This thing's pretty drained. The Realm is starting to break down... it's all or nothing. I'm only speeding things up at this point anyway."

Before he fused with it, Cain could hear the faint words of the Core, "No! You monster... you don't know what you're doing... once... once I get better..."

'Hah, doing something always means wronging someone. Now, I'll wrong millions... fastening the end of their lives...'

Cain tried to cheer himself up. 'But this is nothing! Just a normal day for me, right?'

He was emotional today. Bringing the Core to his chest, it slowly fused with his body as red mist parted and housed it inside.

As soon as he finished the action, he could see a blue screen appear in front of him.

[Error Error! Unknown Anomaly? Core detected, Core unregistered....Entity Registered]

[Entity: Cain. Designation: Missing/Unknown]

[Eliminating Entity!]

Cain could feel everything around him become his enemy. It tried to break him, reaching for his soul.

To his surprise, the core inside him, Netherane, created a red barrier that protected him. He then exerted force as he did once before to break the blue screen.

[Error! Error! Entity....Error!]

[Influence Lost. Core depleted! Authority Lost! Ejection of System beginning!]

[Initiating Tradeoff!]

The blue screen turned off just as Cain broke the screen apart.

'At long last!'

He could feel the core inside his body churn and meld with his very being.

'Problem.... it's so weak! It's like it's empty.....empty....'

His mind flashed with inspiration.

'That's it! The core's energy is spread out, I need to take it back before this place goes bye-bye!'

Indeed, for some reason, the Dream Realm was collapsing without the core. Maybe due to it being an illusionary realm, or maybe it was the influence of the Three. It didn't matter; Cain already felt his status as a Primordial Horror slipping.

'They're taking back their powers....as expected.'

Cain ignored the trick from the Three; he knew it was going to happen. All that mattered now was maxing out the power of his new core; otherwise, everything would be a waste!

A giant suction force took over the realm. Everything was heading upward toward the destroyed Dream Palace. People, buildings, even Horrors from the still lake below the city!

Everything was returning to its origin, the origin of Dream, its core that held it all together!

Trickling in, people were turning to pink dust, Nightmares drifted into black sand, and vibrant shades were constantly sucked into Cain's chest. The screams coming from the victims were incoherent and maddening.

It was like eating at a buffet; Cain kept eating and eating; he was beginning to have a "stomach ache", but he knew he had to continue to get his money's worth.

'Thankfully that fire destroyed part of the barrier; it would've taken so much more time heading back down.'

Cain made quips about the situation while he waited for the Dream to end. There wasn't much to do other than let the manifestation of imagination enter his core.

The grotesque and abhorrent creatures Cain created out of the dead cultists also rose with the rest. As they rampaged through the city, they killed thousands and consumed their flesh. They were now similar to banks filled with imagination; they greatly sped up the process of collecting energy.

"Lord! Lord! Are you in danger? What's with this force pulling everything?"

Coming from below, Leon entered the Dream Palace.

"Leon! I almost forgot; I apologize for not calling yet."

Leon bowed, "No need to apologize, my Lord! It is my honor to be left behind if needed."

Cain kept his cold expression but spoke warmly, "Quickly, return; the Dream Realm is crumbling. Where are your men? Do you need to go get them?"

"No need, my Lord, they are already residing inside my form!"

'I forgot they could do that....'

Leon joined back with Cain, entering his mindscape through the slowly vanishing eye on his forehead.

'That's that; all I need to do now is make sure that guy is close when the Dream Realm ends....'

Time flew; in under an hour, Cain could already see the sky crumbling. A large portal was sucking the remnants of the Realm somewhere.

Squinting, Cain could see dangling roots. They looked like clusters of the earth that were being pulled down by gravity. Looking at the roots, he could see numerous round beads hanging from their ends.

Below it all... there was a vortex of black, no, it wasn't a color but nothing. It seemed to be the jaws of the end; Cain could see an orb fall into it as the rotating razors of nonexistence crushed the object to dust. It all seemed so grand; it all seemed so..... magnificent. But in that magnificence, was a deep instinctual repulse.

This portal led to the End, that was what Cain felt. He didn't know what such an end was, but he knew it was dangerous. Far more dangerous than the Three.

'So many mysteries and secrets.....'

With the Dream Realm's destruction beginning, Cain quickly found his unconscious half.

'He's sleeping like a baby. He'll sleep for days at this point. Does this mean I get control for a while once we're out? Amazing! The returns this time were worth it!'

Slinging the unconscious Cain on his back, the prior Horror of Unknown got up and focused as his form shredded, revealing a naked man with red eyes.

It was going to be hard leaving since Cain had the literal core of the Realm. But with its connection severed and a little elbow grease, he successfully opened a gate to leave using the last remaining powers of Unknown. 

Cain turned around and looked at all he had done. The burning endless city, the millions dead, the end of a world. 

"This is it..... I must say it's been fun! Goodbye Dream Realm, have fun in that thing's jaws!"

Stepping through the gate, Cain once again saw pinkish gas envelop him; his vision turned black like he was falling asleep and he lost consciousness.

...

Opening his eyes, Cain felt the blistering heat of the desert.

He immediately closed his eyes and slowly sat up before slowly opening them, letting the light register.

'Damn it, I'm still in the desert!'

Looking around, Cain saw other people also slowly waking up. There were no more than 30 of them.

'So this is what's left. Out of countless people, only this many escaped and held onto their lives..... it's sad. Disappointing would be another word for it. Hah, that Nightmare Marko and the rest of those guys Cain knew are most definitely dead. He's going to take it hard; I should get ready for a whole spiel.'

Waking up, one of the survivors began screaming, "Ahhh! Ahh! Monster! Don't eat me!"

Another person spoke up to yell at the crazy old woman, "Hey! We're alive! The Dream Realm seems to have sent us out. Thankfully, we all didn't waste our entire lifespans..."

While the survivors conversed, Cain checked his surroundings.

'Aha! My Yurombi and Maul are with me. Nice! I have to repair them when I get the chance.... they're are starting to rust...'

Suddenly, a portal opened in the sky, and out came three shadows flying so fast they were only in Cain's sight for a moment before reaching the horizon.

'They escaped.... for better or worse. I hope I don't run into them for a while.... one deal was enough.'

Cain was exhausted; he sat back down to stretch as he checked his body for any problems.

'The core is still digesting; while it is, I should spend some time influencing it. Who knows if influencing it helps in the process of escaping the influence of the system; but it also helps me specialize the core to complement my powers..... hmmm, that guy is still sleeping so I'll be the one in charge of getting us out of here.'

"Hey! Hey, you!" One of the survivors called out to Cain.

"What?"

"You coming with us? We're leaving this place."

Cain thought for a moment before responding with a sneer, "No, you guys are just going to die anyway."

Some of the survivors gave Cain a stare but ultimately ignored the fool and left.

'Ah... alone at last. Back in reality.....Right, I have to feed the mist again..... shit.'

Cain let his finger turn hazy; he could feel his control over the foggy crimson was weak; it signaled he did indeed need to feed it.

'Just why did it come alive; I don't want a pet! The good news is I can still fly, as long as I keep the half-mist state I can make it out of here in a day or two!'

Sending some bright red mist to one of the survivors, Cain swiftly killed them. No one noticed, and before they did, Cain was already flying away. He was going North.

'Hopefully, I can reach a settled territory. Ah, it's so good to be free at last!"

Like the three Horrors, Cain escaped into the horizon, the destroyed Dream Realm far behind him. A chapter closed, a Dream gone.