Chapter 13: Dreamworld II

  Darek slapped the sides of his head twice with open hands, then exhaled slowly, forcing himself to calm down.“Alright. Let me sum this up. We don’t really have many options left. Either we get attacked and die… or we try to get out of here and most likely die anyway. Right?”

  Iris replied casually, “We could also starve to death.”

  Darek’s expression twisted so clearly that he didn’t need to say a word to show how little he wanted to hear that.

  Noticing this, Iris tried to soften the blow with a faint grin. “I mean, we don’t actually need that much food. It’s not that important. Still, under certain circumstances, it is possible.”

  If Iris had hands, he would have raised a finger in explanation. “I just wanted to contribute to the list of possibilities.”

  Darek said, unmotivated and slightly annoyed, “I suggest we head toward the mountain in the center, avoid everything we encounter, climb up, and try to understand the dream. That—or we die.”

  Iris nodded. “We could also qualvo—” He cut himself off and added casually, “Good plan, Darek. Let’s try it. If there are any clues, they’ll be up there. The mountain is divided into three major levels, and by now I know this place pretty well. On the lower level, we should be able to avoid everything easily—same goes for the first.”

  Darek felt a flicker of hope as the plan slowly began to take shape and no longer sounded quite so overwhelming.

  “Then let’s get moving.”

  Darek and Iris set off. They kept the mountain in sight and moved diagonally northward through the valley, even though Darek was fairly certain that concepts like cardinal directions didn’t really matter in this dimension. For now, though, it helped him orient himself.

  They descended the slightly raised hill they had been standing on and headed toward the mountain at the center, roughly two to three hours away on foot.

  Let’s go over this again, Darek thought, staring into the distance. I fell asleep, ended up inside my soul, my pillow advanced to the second stage, opened a gate to the dream world within my soul—and now I’m here.

  He looked down at his open palms. Technically, I’m the embodiment of my soul. So I shouldn’t even need to summon my Soulbound… but something tells me I could still use it in passive mode. Are these the changes of the second stage?

  Iris floated beside him at head height, as relaxed as ever. Her eye was roughly the size of Darek’s head, maybe one or two centimeters smaller.

  As they crossed the wide plain, they passed the antenna dogs, rolling wildly across the landscape, and the strange giraffe-like creatures with arms growing from their necks—thankfully not as hostile as Darek had expected.

  Since being shaken awake, Darek was once again as calm as he usually was. In this bizarre world, that s

  Seemed slightly out of place, but that was just who he was: composed, thoughtful, and goal-oriented. Even if that goal was usually his bed, it still counted.

  He glanced around, mildly bored. Alright, now that we have a plan, I should try to understand the dream… but none of this makes sense. Everything feels completely random.

  Then he asked an equally random question—not to understand the dream, but simply out of curiosity.

  “Hey, Iris, why do those giraffes have hands on their necks?”

  “Giraffes?” Iris replied. “Oh, you mean those. I call them Stranglers. No idea if they have an actual name—I just thought it fit.”

  “What? Why?” Darek asked, skeptical.

  Iris answered calmly, “Why do you think? With their lower four arms, they grab the antenna dogs while they’re rolling or sleeping, and with the other two, they choke them until they’re dead. Then they eat them.”

  Darek froze and slowly turned his head toward Iris.

  “Fucked up,” he said flatly—and gave the giraffes a much wider berth after that.

  And he’s got a talent for naming things too… great, now there are three of us, Darek thought.

  “And why are the snakes fighting the rocks?” he asked, still a little shaken.

  Iris shrugged—or at least did the closest thing possible without shoulders. “No idea. I think that’s just their thing. But I doubt our existence even registers to them, judging by how focused they are on their fight.”

  “So that’s how it is…” Darek muttered and refocused on the path.

  I think gathering information to understand this dream is going to be harder than I thought. How am I supposed to make sense of all this?

  After roughly forty minutes of marching across the Green Plain—and more than a few questions from Darek about life in this place—Iris suddenly gave him a deep, almost skeptical look.

  “Tell me, Darek… what do you humans actually do when you’re not asleep?”

  Darek blinked. “Uh… nothing special. Being awake, I guess… living… eating… that kind of stuff.”

  An astonished silence followed.

  Then Iris breathed out reverently, “Wooow…”

  Darek snorted and shook his head. “You’re really strange.”

  “Me? Strange?” Iris snapped back. “You’re the only being I know who manages to be blind despite having two eyes, you airhead.”

  “Don’t call me—!” Darek began, but before he could finish, he tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. He fell forward but caught himself with both hands.

  Iris looked back at him. “Also, we’re here.”

  “Already?” Darek replied as he pushed himself upright and slowly looked up. He brushed the dust off his pants, then his hands.

  At the foot of the mountain, Darek realized it resembled less a mountain and more an obelisk. It rose before them like the center of the dream itself, its peak vanishing into a vortex of purple clouds.

  With an estimated diameter of one and a half kilometers, the massive structure rose almost vertically, its surface smooth and shimmering like metallic stone. It didn’t feel grown, but intentional—as if the mountain itself had chosen this form. Like an obelisk of the gods, challenging the sky.

  At its base stood trees clinging to the shadow of the colossal mass. Their leaves shimmered in dark violet hues, as did the fallen fruits scattered around their roots and the herbs growing between them.

  Darek instinctively knew it was better not to get too close—let alone taste the fruit.

  Everything in this dream is insane. Either the tree lashes me if I get too close, or I turn into one if I eat the fruit. And honestly, they don’t look appetizing anyway.

  “Be careful, Darek,” Iris warned. “Don’t get too close to those trees. First they whip you, then they eat you. I call them Whippers.”

  Darek’s expression turned as indifferent as humanly possible. “I had already figured that out.”

  “Yeah, they whip pretty much everything—except the snakes.”

  “Snakes? Here?” Darek looked around in alarm and spotted smaller versions of the massive serpent slithering through the herbs.

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  “Yes, but the little ones won’t hurt you. Don’t worry. Right now, their priority is growing. Look over there, at the rock face.”

  Darek followed her gaze and noticed a narrow path, overgrown with thick ivy, winding along the mountain’s surface like a hidden vein of stone. The greenery shifted slightly in the wind, revealing the start of a barely visible staircase carved painstakingly into the rock.

  The stairs ran along the outside of the mountain, narrow but wide enough for two people to walk side by side—step by step, hugging the massive stone wall.

  “This shortcut to the first level should save us a lot of trouble and climbing. We’ll walk for about fifty minutes, then take our first stop on level one—roughly 440 meters above ground. We can rest briefly before climbing to level two. That area lies above the clouds and opens into a wide plateau from which we’ll have to climb the rest of the way. And by ‘we,’ I mean you—I can fly.”

  “Sounds fantastic,” Darek said, more monotone than sarcastic.

  “Maybe we’ll even get some information. There’s another Two-Eye up there on level one,” Iris added casually.

  “What do you mean, another Two-Eye? You might’ve mentioned that earlier instead of talking about Stranglers and Whippers.”

  “You didn’t ask. And we’re basically there anyway. Best see for yourself.”

  Is there another human here? Darek wondered as he looked up. How would that even be possible?

  The spiraling staircase seemed endless, most of it hidden by curves and stone.

  Alright. Let’s climb first.

  He took a deep breath.

  After less than five minutes, Darek noticed the air growing cooler with increasing height—though it felt more like a chill of the soul than of the body.

  They climbed higher. The air thinned steadily, and after forty minutes, it had grown so thin that Darek had to adjust his breathing, making it lighter and shorter.

  Ten minutes later, a hollow appeared beside the stairs.

  It looked like a widening of the path carved into the rock—a semicircular niche roughly ten meters in diameter. Like a space extending into the mountain. No—more like a waiting room or rest area, not meant for permanence.

  It was open only on the side facing the stairs, as if someone had deliberately hollowed it out. Most of it lay in shadow, with faint, shimmering symbols etched into the walls—and the vague silhouette of a figure.

  “So, welcome to level one. Nothing special, not much going on—just rocks, some scribbles, and that Two-Eye over there.”

  When Darek looked closer, he flinched sharply.

  He had expected many things, but not this.

  There sat a person whose face was obscured by veils of distortion, as if the dream world itself couldn’t bear to render it clearly. He wore ancient, scale-like armor, radiating something serpentine—ancient, as old as the dream itself.

  The man murmured endlessly, desperate, almost pleading, in a tone that would terrify most beings.

  “What… what have I forgotten…? What have I… forgotten…?”

  He sat on the ground with his knees drawn up, rocking back and forth, sometimes clutching his head, sometimes wrapping his arms around his legs. His faintly translucent eyes reflected only emptiness, his voice steeped in torment.

  Iris’s wings twitched nervously. “What a strange existence—to cling so desperately to a forgotten dream.”

  Darek stepped closer, cautiously. “Is he the one this dream belongs to?”

  “No,” Iris replied firmly. “This is a forgotten dream. It belongs to no one but itself. He shouldn’t even exist.”

  Damn, he scared the hell out of me. So he really is human. His armor looks far too similar to the snakes’ scales. He must be connected to the dream—but how?

  Darek was about to ask another question when his gaze fell on the symbols carved into the wall behind the stranger. They pulsed faintly, as if breathing.

  Wait… what are those symbols? I’ve never seen anything like them.

  He reached out carefully, hesitantly, stopping just a hair’s breadth away.

  Then—a spark.

  As if electrified, a spark leapt from Darek and touched the symbol.

  And in the same instant, he was struck.

  A sharp pain slammed him to the ground as if lightning had hit him. Agony surged through his entire body, converging in his head within a fraction of a second, with pressure so intense it felt like his skull would burst.

  He curled inward, clutching his head as countless images flooded him—memories of ancient battles, fallen worlds.

  And among them, one burning vision:

  A being.

  A monstrosity as large as an entire mountain range wandered through a rocky landscape, crushing everything in its path—not just physically, but in something far worse.

  It radiated something unnatural, an aura that drained the life force from every living being. Flowers, plants, even trees withered in its presence. Even looking at it felt as though one’s soul was being torn away.

  Then—darkness.

  Gasping, Darek came back to himself.

  The mysterious man was still murmuring, undisturbed.

  What was that? It happened so fast. Even the pain is gone—just a slight ache in my neck, probably from the shock, not from the… images. Or whatever that was.

  “I didn’t expect you to have such a strong resonance with prophecies,” Iris said, visibly surprised. “That could help us solve this dream. Tell me, Dreamer—what did you see?”

  Prophecy… yeah. It felt exactly like back then, when I dreamed of my brother…

  Darek slowly pushed himself upright, one hand pressed to his temple. His thoughts raced, trying to grasp the fading vision.

  “I saw a being,” he said. “It was enormous—like an entire mountain range. And its presence… it felt like it would devour my soul if I didn’t look away. Like it ended all life around it, as if it were being drained away. A walking catastrophe. Nothing but death.”

  His forehead was slick with sweat, his eyes struggling to focus. He felt cold—like waking from a nightmare that refused to let go.

  Iris’ pupil contracted sharply, her wingbeats turning restless.

  “A being so immense, so terrifying… that sounds like a Tyrant.”

  Tyrant… I’ve heard that somewhere before, Darek thought. But his thoughts and logical conclusions were completely overwhelmed by the sheer flood of data from the prophecy, as if forming clear thoughts were impossible right now. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, yet his mind felt far too exhausted to focus.

  “Unfortunately, this guy won’t tell us anything useful,” Iris continued. “He just keeps muttering to himself… I thought he might become more talkative once he saw another Two-Eye. Well, it was worth a try. Do you want to keep going, or do you need a rest first?”

  Darek’s chest flared briefly with a red glow, and his Soulbound absorbed all pain and exhaustion at once. Iris stared at him in shock as Darek began to stretch.

  “W–what was that? How did you recover so fast?” Iris asked, his eye still wide open.

  “That’s a Two-Eye thing,” Darek replied in a mildly mocking tone, finally getting a bit of payback for Iris’ teasing. “Come on, let’s move on. To be honest, that guy creeps me out.”

  Darek followed Iris for about fifteen more minutes along the rock face. At the end of the staircase, they climbed a short distance upward and finally reached a wide platform where the path ended abruptly at a massive cliff. The edge cut the way off completely.

  Opposite them lay a narrow ledge, perhaps fifteen meters away and slightly higher. The abyss between them seemed bottomless, mist drifting up and down like sluggish ghosts.

  Iris snorted softly. “I can get across… but you—”

  Darek raised his hands defensively. “Then let’s find another way up. I have no desire to become the first human in this world to plunge to his death.”

  Iris stopped. He really does have a good soul, he murmured to himself, his gaze more serious than usual.

  “Darek,” he said quietly, “let’s form an equal pact. I’ll allow you to use my abilities—such as flying. In return, you’ll have to tell me something astonishing from your world every single time.”

  Darek raised an eyebrow. “So basically, you get my power, and I get to bore you with weird stories?”

  “Bore me?” Iris’ eye flashed. “I think your world is crazier than any dream layer. So—are you in?”

  Darek hesitated only briefly before grinning. “Deal.”

  Darek scratched his head and gave a crooked smile. “Where do I even start… You know, every day we set an alarm, even though we still want to sleep.”

  Iris’ wings twitched in disbelief, his eye wide. “So you willingly set a loud noise to rip you out of sleep, just to get up even though your body isn’t ready?”

  Darek nodded. “Exactly. And it happens every single day. I don’t know why we do it either.”

  Iris hovered silently for a moment. If he had a mouth, it would have been hanging wide open, as if he were trying to process the logic of this world. Then he snorted softly, a sound like amused static.

  “Wooow.”

  Iris hovered beside him, his eye glowing deep blue. Then he said calmly, but firmly, “Close your eye… uh, I mean, your eyes.”

  Darek obeyed, inhaled deeply, and let his lids sink shut. Immediately, a strange calm washed over him, as if the chaotic dream world outside faded away for a moment.

  Within his mind, the endless black expanse opened once more—the interior of his soul, just as he had seen before. There, floating in the darkness, was his pillow, surrounded by a light that felt as though it came straight from the depths of the universe. It pulsed as if it had its own heartbeat, the energy around it intense, majestic, and soothing all at once. The door he had seen before was gone, as if it had never existed.

  So I’m back in my soul again… it feels exactly like last time.

  Suddenly, Darek sensed something new. At first, it was only a gentle pull—then a distinct thread, almost like a rope of pure energy, slowly extending outward from his chest. A connection formed, warm and alive, as if the dream being were reaching out to build a bridge to him.

  Darek opened his awareness, let the energy flow, and felt Iris’ presence move into him and through him. It was as if their souls vibrated in perfect harmony for the briefest moment—a connection stronger than anything he had ever felt.

  I can feel Iris’ presence—no, his entire being. This feels completely different from my connection to the pillow. I can barely interpret all the information.

  “Do you feel it?” Iris whispered directly into his mind. “This connection—it’s our bridge. It will help us understand the dream, and maybe—just maybe—conquer it.”

  Darek nodded, still deep in meditation. The tether of their connection tightened and glowed faintly, and he instinctively knew this was only the beginning of something far greater—that this bond would lead him deep into the secrets of the dream world.

  Iris’ wings fluttered lightly, his eye gleaming with amusement. “You’ve already paid twice. Now try it—just imagine wings growing from your shoulder blades,” he said dryly before taking a step and suddenly gliding off the cliff. “Come on. Your turn, Darek.”

  Darek gasped, heart racing, panic flashing in his eyes. Instinctively, he dove inward, reaching for the connection to Iris and feeding his own energy into the bond between them. He closed his eyes again, exhaled sharply, and focused on his shoulder blades.

  Wings, then…

  And then it happened.

  Two massive, black, razor-edged wings burst from his back—slow at first, then all at once. They were so immense that the air around them vibrated, and aside from their size, they were nearly indistinguishable from Iris’ own.

  “Wooow! That was way easier than I expected, Iris! Hahaha!” Darek shouted, his voice overflowing with euphoria.

  With an unsteady flap of his new wings, Darek lifted into the air. At first he was clumsy and uncontrolled, veering wildly. “This feels really weird!” he yelled in panic, pushing against the air to avoid plunging straight into the abyss.

  But by the second flap, a feeling of freedom seized him. Over the deep, dizzying chasm, he shouted joyfully, “This is amazing! Haha! I can fly!”

  Iris hovered beside him, his eye half amused, half skeptical. “These Two-Eyes… truly strange,” he muttered dryly as Darek soared through the air with a wide grin.

  After several minutes of flight, they landed on the far side of the chasm, climbed a small ledge, and stood on a massive platform with the mountain at their backs. What lay before them seemed to have little in common with the world they had left behind just five minutes earlier.

  The mountain—or rather, the colossal obelisk—still towered upward, so vast that its end vanished into the distance. It seemed to have no true destination, no summit—only a single direction: upward. And it appeared endless.

  Above the clouds, a massive “crown” had formed—a ring-shaped platform encircling the mountain, as if the obelisk had rooted itself within the clouds. Darek and Iris now stood upon this ring, the mountain behind them. If orientation still mattered in this dream world, Darek would have guessed they were now north of the mountain, as though they had traveled halfway around the colossal structure.

  Before them stretched a landscape more surreal than anything they had seen so far. Darek looked down, but the view of the grasslands below was obscured by dense, purple clouds now drifting beneath them. From below, only a few floating islands had been visible—but up here, they were everywhere. Twenty, thirty—no, there had to be more than forty islands.

  Each one did not simply float but hovered high near the obelisk, drifted atop the purple clouds, or lingered just above them, as if they had found refuge on islands within a vast, violet sea of mist.

  Darek studied the islands. Some drifted in the distance as if carried by a current. Others resembled gigantic mushrooms, their stems sinking into the fog below. From some, water poured endlessly from every side, as though they were perpetually flooded. On others stood simple—or even elaborate—castles and structures.

  “Are we really supposed to go even higher? This never ends,” Darek said, mildly annoyed by all the climbing.

  “I don’t really know either,” Iris replied, shrugging his nonexistent shoulders. “We don’t even know what we’re actually looking for yet.”

  Then something caught Darek’s eye—whether fascination or intuition, he couldn’t tell. One island, about two to three kilometers away, floated at eye level within the clouds. It was the size of a small city, and at its center stood an imposing fortress—pitch black, as if built from obsidian. Its battlements and towers were crafted from a material that seemed harder than the rest of the structure. Blinding light spilled from its windows, causing the walls to glow from within.

  “Incredible,” Darek whispered, absorbing the sight.

  Suddenly, movement flickered in the air near the dark fortress. Two of the massive snakes they had encountered before turned toward each other—this time not titanic, but roughly the size of cars, perhaps slightly larger. The silver of their scales flowed illusion-like, like liquid metal constantly reshaping itself.

  Is that… a fight?

  Between them moved six hulking, rock-like monsters, rising from the ground of a floating island and from scattered debris. None resembled another. Their sizes ranged from one to five meters, their colors from earthy browns to obsidian black. Some had short arms; others bore limbs over a meter long, packed with immense strength.

  The snakes slithered elegantly through the air, weaving around the stone limbs before lunging at one another in lightning-fast strikes.

  Darek felt his heart begin to pound. “Wh–what are they doing?”

  Iris watched intently, his wings tense. “It’s a battle—one of countless battles in this place. Watch closely, Darek. Every movement, every pattern matters. Scenes like this can offer clues on how to understand the dream—or at the very least, how to survive it.”