Chapter 58

A/N: A longer chapter.

Dane rose, his hands biting into the icy barricade. This was madness, he knew, yet he was sick of the endless marching. Why didn't he just fly across the ocean? It would be so much quicker. It would be the death of you, fool. You can't move after your five hours are done, he told himself. He was also sick of holding himself back.

He no longer felt the ice, and he flew. The wind did not roar in his wake, and neither did it fill his lungs or bombard his eyes. He was simply a passing spirit reflecting off the sea. Yet, his passing was not unnoticed. An eel reached out from under him in a splatter of black, baring hundreds of needles that stood for teeth, each arcing with crackling blue splendor.

Dane went through it, and that was the end of it.

He was speedier than before. He was only three times faster than he was when sprinting in his body, just like in the Academy, but he was a Monster now, and his body was faster than before.

The longer he flew, the brighter the fire burned, but it wasn't just the distance…the fire was growing. He left ridges and corals that peeked through the ocean behind, startling Scavengers and other strange beasts that took refuge in them.

Dozens of creatures came forth from the deep, dark depths for him.

One was a massive shark. In its soul, two Fallen cores spread their corruption. It snapped at him, enclosing its terrible maw around him. Another was a squirming pile of molten bones that swirled around him in a hiss of vapor, but Dane left it behind nonetheless.

Laughter was on his lips.

Flying was such a freeing feeling.

Three hours passed as he soared above the water, and now the fire seemed to have consumed the world. Were they already dead? He hoped not.

He crossed a ridge of bone that rose above the water, and Dane saw it clearly for the first time. Fire had caught on a tree that seemed to reach its pitch-black branches into the sky, catching hold of anything with its blood-red leaves…and it just might, with six cores to call its own.

Around it, dozens of monstrous…entities engaged in a bone-chilling battle. Mist hung around the shores, taking terrible, demonic shapes as it clashed with a thirty-foot-tall giant of weeds that rampaged against three foes at once. A serpent that grew human-like limbs let scaled, spindly palms swing and sweep twisted, black bones that gleamed green at its foe, a nightmarish mix between a bird and a fish. His amulet was rattling. The path to safety ended anywhere near that tree.

Dane drew a deep breath and retreated to the ridge. He found footing within the spine of the creature. With chattering teeth, Dane pitied whoever started that fire. No doubt he would find their corpses on the island shore when the sun rose.

Clack. Clack. Something clattered behind him. Dane transformed just before a pincer could crash into his ribs. Dane loosened the falchion from its sheath as he flew at the Carapace Scavenger that ambushed him. The mindless thing didn't understand that clawing at him was useless.

Both pincers cut through the air, and before they could retract, he was behind it. He felt the leathery grip of the hilt cushioning his palm as he held onto its back with his free hand. The falchion sliced its neck apart with frightening ease, and he pushed its corpse into the waters below.

His form flickered into fog for a second, and when he was whole again, his sword had no more blood on it. He sheathed it, satisfied. Dane found himself not feeling as tired as he had expected. He was weary, of that there was no doubt, but he was taking it better than before.

After thinking about it, he concluded that it was [Storm Forged]'s influence on his mind. Before, he would need to sleep after five hours in a transformed state…now he could bring himself to fight, if a little off edge…no, he had only spent three hours as a spirit, he reminded himself. After two more hours, he would only be able to walk.

It wasn't so bad, he told himself. If he lived long enough to become a Titan, he would be unperturbed after five hours. That was a long way away; he only had ninety-six out of the two thousand he needed to fill his cores.

Sighing, Dane sat down after he made sure there weren't any creatures around. There was no need to risk it. The ridge was far enough from those things, and after sustaining his spirit state for so long, he was feeling drowsy. No sooner had he sat and closed his eyes than a bright light burst out from the west. Gasping, he opened his eyes and looked. Far in the distance, behind the blazing tree, pristine, white brilliance sent the sea into turmoil.

Dane glanced at where the first light led him, at the battling monsters. Yeah…Dane was going to sleep. And after he ran his hands over the bones around him to cover them in ice, a habit he started to find necessary, he did sleep.

He was walking down the halls of the Gray Gust…but there was no one there. Why? Where were the Awakened and the servants? Where were Lian and his son Jun?

A door closed in the distance.

Dane headed down and through the long halls, corridors, dining rooms, and antechambers for hosting rooms. He found the elevator and rode it to the third floor.

The metal doors slid open.

Dane heard a door creak open. Then it creaked close. Who was it?

He strode down the hall into Eliana's room and found Flynn and Jeanne seated on the bed, playing chess with his sister.

"Oh Dane! I didn't see you come in," Eliana said, smiling at him.

For some odd reason, his heart was beating so hard he could hear it, and he found it hard to speak. Wiping moist eyes, he said, "Hope I'm not intruding."

Eliana stood from her bed, sliding her knight into a fork between Flynn's king and queen, and walked over to him. It appeared Flynn had a bishop lined up to take the knight. Flynn smiled as he set his hand on it. Jeanne struck his hand.

"Her rook is pinning it to your king," she spat disdainfully, "just resign. You can't win."

Flynn said something, but Dane could not hear him over Eliana.

"When did you get back? I've been waiting," she said, hugging him.

"Only now." He hugged her tightly, wondering why he felt so odd.

"Uncle's been waiting too, heh, he's been worried sick. He visited you a lot, you know, at the academy," she told him.

Lancel had? That was nice to hear. He shrugged as he broke away from her, an action that sent a spear through his heart. Why did it hurt so much?

He looked at Flynn and Jeanne. "What are you three doing?"

Jeanne smiled at him. "Eliana was teaching us battle command with chess."

Dane remembered when she did the same with him. Fun times. "I take it you want to pull your hair out?" he japed. If there was one thing Dane could never boast about, it was beating Ellie at chess.

Ellie slapped his back. "Don't discourage them," she said.

They sat down on the bed together. Flynn tipped his king over. "I resign," he announced. His sister was not pleased. "Then we'll play again. Surrender is no option, Flynn! You play to the end. Win or lose," she stressed.

Flynn rolled his eyes, just as Dane had done a thousand times over.

Jeanne giggled, "He'll win only if hell freezes over."

Flynn's face soured. "You really do hate my guts, don't you?"

"No. I hate the rest of you as well," she said, breaking into hysterical laughter. 

Ellie looked at him. "So Dane, tell us about your journey in the Dream Realm," she said. Her auburn hair seemed on fire. Her green eyes seemed to quiver.

Dane ignored it and started, "Well, it all started in a horrid desert. Horrid, I tell you! It was so hot that when I once wore my helm, it almost melted my face off!

"Well, when I arrived, monsters were everywhere, so I hid underground and found these two. We formed a cohort and began west…and…and we fought a Fallen Beast…we escaped…and then…" Why was it so hard to remember? He paused for a moment, thinking. Ah, there it was. "Then we came across this ruined town with a tunnel system underground…and then…" Then he killed them both.

The moment he had the thought, Jeanne had lost her head, and it was in her hands, her eyes shut tightly as she shivered. Flynn was burned and beyond recognition, and he whimpered as if in the throes of hellfire.

His eyes fell on Eliana, and the fire in her hair consumed her. All that remained were her footprints, ingrained into the floor. Dane woke.

Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as his fist smashed the ice apart. "Damn it," he cursed, "Is a dreamless sleep too much to ask for?" The pale light of dawn sent rainbows coursing through the shards of crystal. He caught his reflection in them.

Sunken eyes, blackened from set into a thin, almost bony face mottled by a scraggy, wispy beard that met his roiling gray and green eyes. Where there was once an optimistic, strapping youth, there was now nothing but a sad travesty of who he was. A ghost from which all life had been drained.

The legacies fought echoes, killed criminals, and trained from birth to help them survive better in the Dream Realm…but what could prepare them for that creature?

Dane sighed and dove into his Soul Sea. High above were his soul cores. Two of them superimposed on the other, working as one. He often found himself here. It was comfortable and didn't change much regardless of what went on outside. He was addicted to that unabating consistency and grateful for its peacefulness.

He sat there on the clear, cold waters as freezing mist wisped across his soul, finding an inkling of solace in the pale gray light as the dark sea receded. Yet, he was startled when he saw just where the ocean crept off to. Dane took to the skies and floated high above the tree, and watched the sea sink in on itself in a whirlpool, disappearing into a crater that spanned as far as the eye could see…and with no high surfaces in sight, it was not safe to traverse.

However, his amulet was insistent. West was the way to safety. He decided he would fly once more. If he saw no end to it in two hours, he would return and try to circle the crater.

He felt hungry but utterly lacked the motivation to eat this fine morning, so he flew. Maybe he would eat later. Below him, he could see the dark sea, hiding from the sun within the craterous hole.

Finally, when Dane saw, his concentration slipped, and he fell for dozens of seconds, utterly shocked.

First, a dark expanse of land rose over the slope of the abyss. And on it, a tall wall shielded a city…it was a human Citadel. Though he did not know which one it was, it must have been.

And second, right below him, on the slope of the crater, slightly tilted to the side was a statue of a slender woman in a light, flowing robe. One of its arms had been ripped off at the shoulder, and its head too, and on the other arm's palm…he saw three humans. He knew them all.

Cassia from the Academy, the blind girl, wore a simple tunic and a cloak. Her hair was drenched and stuck closely to her face.

Sunless, his friend, was clad in gray and lusterless leather and looked even more haggard than Cassia did. He stared at Dane's elevated, foggy figure with dark apprehension, sword in hand. He muttered something to Cassie, but Dane did not understand.

…and Changing Star Nephis, armor torn and broken, lay half-dead on the stone.