They walked among the trees and ended up on a beach with white sands, coconut trees ahead of them, and a beautiful ocean behind them.
The sun was high in the cloudless sky, perfect weather for beach fun.
"That way."
Dio pointed to a path between the coconut trees.
Constantine couldn't take it anymore after walking for a few more minutes in silence.
"You know, I'm almost summoning a demon just to have a conversation. I don't like silence much."
"What you like is the sound of your own voice."
"That's true."
Constantine laughed.
"I thought you wanted to get home in time for the game; silence would be faster."
"Ah, you don't know yet."
"Know what?"
Dio stopped to look at him.
"The Mad Witch was telling me before you arrived that each dream here has a different passage of time from the others. How long did it take for you to find me?"
"A few hours."
"For me, it's only been half an hour, so I didn't come looking for you."
"Great!"
Dio sighed, then started walking again.
Dio was used to the different passage of time from Earth because of his trips to the underworld.
But since each zone here has a different passage of time, it will be hell to estimate how long they have been here, and losing track of time is not advisable when traveling through another dimension.
On the other hand, they could leave here having spent only a few minutes on Earth if things go their way.
"Do you have any spells to locate us in these passages of time?"
"No, and I don't recommend doing that either; it's just an extra headache. It's better to just keep going and find out how much time has passed in the end. Trust me, I learned the hard way."
Dio nodded to him, and they continued forward with the coconut trees and tall bushes on the ground without finding anything different.
Luckily, the island was very small, and they saw the exit from the forest up ahead, with a beautiful and natural beach of blue waters in front.
However, they were moved again when Dio stepped onto the sand.
"It seems we've fallen into our first nightmare."
Constantine said the obvious.
"It was an icy mountain."
The next dream they entered is a classic example of a nightmare.
A cemetery was built on a hill with several ancient stone tombstones and a church on top of the hill.
The uneven ground made each small tombstone stand out, and there were also tombs and other similar constructions.
There are statues of angels on some of the tombstones.
The only light in the sky is from the full moon, which was positioned perfectly behind the church, which made everything more dramatic.
There was thick fog on the ground of the cemetery, completely covering it.
"Let me guess, the compass is pointing to the creepy church up there?"
"Where else would it point?"
Dio replied and continued walking.
As soon as they pass through the cemetery's iron gates, they enter the fog, which reaches his ankles.
"CREAAK"
Dio couldn't see what happened on the ground because of the fog, but Constantine definitely felt it.
"HAAAAAA!"
Constantine shouted and fell backward to the ground.
Dio turned around and stomped his foot hard on the ground to create a small shockwave that dispersed some of the fog around his feet.
Then Dio saw a half-buried zombie grabbing Constantine's feet and trying to pull him toward its open mouth.
"You just gonna stand there and watch!?"
Constantine asked Dio while kicking the zombie's hands with his free leg.
The zombie was quite different from the undead he saw in the underworld.
It was dressed in an elegant but time-worn suit, its hair and nails long, and its flesh rotting, with chunks missing from its face and some worms crawling out of its ear.
"Seriously, a master wizard asking to be saved from a zombie?"
Dio asked while finding it all quite amusing.
"Do I look like I'm in a position to do magic?"
Constantine shouted back.
Dio approached the zombie while laughing, drew his sword from his back, and quickly struck its head.
The zombie immediately stopped moving and fell while releasing Constantine, who stood up rather ungracefully.
"I hate zombies!"
Constantine shouted and kicked the dead zombie's arm.
Dio ignored him, and he was more interested in his own dilemma now.
Normally, when he killed something, his sword stole the soul for him to leave it under his total control, but that didn't happen.
This zombie might not be real, but it is just a realistic construct in this dream.
This would make sense since the Dream is made up of all living beings' dreams and isn't strong enough to create real life in every dream.
This rule doesn't apply to everything. Dio was sure some beings were truly alive in this place.
"What are you two thinking over there? Let's go before..."
"CREAAK"
"CREAAK"
"CREAAK"
Then other similar noises sounded around them.
"Bloody Hell!!!"
Constantine cursed while taking his silver flask from his coat and opening it.
It didn't take long for several creatures to rise from the fog.
There were zombies everywhere, and they were all dressed very nicely in old suits and dresses that were falling apart.
"Ideas?"
Dio asked Constantine.
The zombies—more than forty of them started to slowly walk towards them with their arms outstretched, like in those old black and white movies.
"Of course, run!"
Constantine shouted and ran uphill while holding his silver flask.
Dio joined him on the climb while keeping his speed equal to his.
It sucks, but Dio had to do it.
The intelligence and knowledge that Constantine possesses will surely be factors that could decide his return home.
Then, more zombies managed to emerge from the hard ground.
There are many graves around them, even though they move slowly. Finally, Constantine faced some of them.
Then Constantine overdid it after what happened earlier.
He took a sip of his drink without stopping and opened his mouth while spitting flames at the zombies and setting them on fire.
Unfortunately, he forgot that zombies don't feel pain, and the four burning zombies kept coming at him.
Before Dio decided to act, Constantine spat again after another sip of his drink, this time a small fireball that hit the ground in front of the zombies.
"BOOOM!"
It was a small explosion, but enough to blast the zombies into pieces of flaming debris flying everywhere.
He lit his drink on fire in his mouth and used a little mana to control and speed up the fire.
This shouldn't be a real spell, but it takes a lot of skill to use because he had to keep himself safe from the flames inside his mouth and use just the right amount of magic to keep it from blowing up.
It's a neat trick.
Their run finally came to an end.
An iron gate stood in front of the one-story wooden church at the top of the hill.
In front of that gate, a small army of zombies stood ready to attack.
The same muscular, bald, green man he saw in the icy landscape was behind the zombies near the gate.
"Is that one of the green men you mentioned?"
Constantine asked.
"Yes."
Dio confirmed.
The zombies behind them climbing the hill won't take long to reach them, and they'll be surrounded.
"Ideas?"
Dio asked.
"Just burn the bastards!"
"I can't, I'll end up running out of energy."
Dio told the truth.
Dio still struggled with AoE spells.
He could cause significant destruction in a straight line, but nothing is as effective as a large explosion that works quickly.
"Leave it to me, just light it all up!"
Constantine didn't give him any more details.
When the zombies in front of them began to move, he brought the flask to his mouth while taking a long gulp before leaning forward to spit again.
This time, it wasn't a fire.
It was white smoke, which merged with the fog on the ground, disappearing from his sight.
Dio didn't understand what he was doing until he smelled the strong scent of alcohol in the air.
Constantine used his magic to turn his drink into pure alcoholic vapor to strengthen it and somehow make this vapor concentrated in front of them.
"SNAP!"
He snapped his fingers and released a small spark that flew up and slowly fell in an arc, hitting the fog.
"BOOOM!"
It was a beautiful and unique explosion, smelling of alcohol.
The only uncomfortable thing was the smell, which changed from rotten flesh to burned rotten flesh.
Constantine began to cough beside him.
"I hate how my throat feels after doing this trick."
Constantine explained during a brief pause in his coughing.
"One left."
Dio warned him.
The Brute rises unharmed from the fog.
"He's definitely tough but doesn't have much power beyond that."
Dio then did the same trick he did with the first one he encountered and symbolized him using the skeleton hand.
"Let's go."
Dio said this to Constantine, who chose to relieve the pain in his throat by drinking more.
They passed through the frail wooden door of the church, and the scenery changed again, this time to something very unexpected.
...
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