I got to the intersection then up the road to the maze. Squeezing into the maze I recalled the path from the two times I was in here.
My hands went over the carved words in the wood. 'The ashes of a nightmare can only fall when you burn.'
My body got tighter against the wall. Further in it got looser. The path widened out into a trail's width. I saw the bright red sky peering through the leaves from high up.
I went through the maze in record time. Getting to the other end. The massacre I left of marífts was gone. Not a single maríft body was here nor was there a drop of maríft blood. The forest, which didn't have any life, was utterly silent.
I slid down the small hill to the tracks. Then I went over the tracks. Walking a minute down I arrived at the shrine. The day's light dimmed, the red sky becoming replaced with a black starry sky. Out of nowhere the red shrine lit up as well.
The shrine reflected in the pond below it with the stars in the sky. The same way the shrine lit up, a chant started up within the shrine. The chant was so loud and exhausted it sounded like screams of pain. Multiple people inside chanted the same thing repetitively. 'Marine Calamid'.
"Marine Calamid! Marine Calamid! Marine Calamid! Marine Calamid!…" The voices chanted.
"Calamid is a Noxstave word and supposed to mean you're up too late that sleeping would only ruin your sleep schedule. Why are they chanting it with the city name?"
"Yes, that's one meaning. It's also interpreted as 'there is something you think of or a problem unfix that prevents you from falling asleep'." A low monotone male voice spoke.
I turned around searching for whoever talked. I failed to find them. The voice as low as it was still overpowered the voices in the shrine as if it was layered over them.
"Tommorow night you'll kill this town for me."
"Huh?" I took an exaggerated step back and shook my head lightly. "You think I'll do something like that?"
"Oh, I know you can do it. Depends just how much of a reason I need to give you too…"
The voices continued to chant the name of Marine Calamid. Their screaming voices eventually lowered until the faint chanting ceased and silence filled the forest again. The light from within dimmed down to a single source of light in the middle.
A loud thud resounded against the wood in the shrine. The light shook and danced on the wall. The shrine became silent once more. The dim light came closer to the opening of the shrine facing the water. A person who was wearing a whole maríft's skinned body threw the light over the edge of the shrine.
I saw it fall slowly. I took in the sight unmoving. The light was stitched to something else. Brown hair and freckles that puffed out the little girl's mutilated head. Stitches crowned the girl's face connected to a lantern.
My hands became tight and I heeled over and vomited. The vision again disappeared and the light disappeared in the forest. I had only ever seen something like that once. I couldn't stand it was unpleasant the same way Baydí looked at my feet. Her head molded around my foot.
I genuinely couldn't look up, no matter how much I wanted to get away from here. Tears streamed down my face, my hands quivered. My guts felt like they were caught in a moving machine.
Flat white colored legs stood in my vision. I slowly raised my head to take in the man. He looked like a cut out in reality. His body was entirely white with four dark blue eyes floating where they would normally be in his head. He had short hair that was also cut out of reality. Lastly a curved spiralling horn came from the right side of his head and wrapped above to the other side like a halo.
"If you don't want that to happen again. I'd say let's work together."
"Did you do that!" I panted against my uncomfortable body.
"I thought the vision of the candy shop would explain it. That's what happens in this town."
I looked back down. Remembering those kids, the way they turned away at the sight of my horns. The fact some disappeared every time I saw them again.
The figure walked over and crouched down. "It may appear that you were lured into a trap."
He picked me up and brought me to my feet. He was a foot taller than me. His four circles that stood as eyes looked more like planets in the white void.
"Why me?"
"You're the only one here who can, and I'd assume you want to stay unknown and that works good for me too."
"Did they expect me not to kill their marífts? Was that the trap?"
"Only some of the town cares for marífts. They used it to get you here and yes they didn't expect you to kill as much as you have. They also failed at preparing quickly enough."
"Then are you the haloed horns?" I looked him up and down. "The King of Dreams?"
"Yes." Meaning he had a presence.
"What exactly are you? A monster or full dragon?"
"A different type of full dragon. As you can see my magic is not exactly magic."
"Glitch?"
"Hah. Crazy you'd know of glitch but no." He moved his arm and the world shifted around us turning into a flat plain. "This space and its energy I'm made out of."
"Didn't answer what that was." I spoke unamused.
"Doesn't have a name but you can call it deep dream energy."
"Dream energy, so like haunting someone's dream?"
"Ah… It's hard to explain." The man looked around. "It's a dream so let me paint it for you." His hand moved leaving a trail of white where it moved. "Twenty years ago before the trains were introduced, this town had tons of visitors for the town's main attraction. The challenge. It no longer exists, but the one who grants them does. Milians moved, Noxstave immigrants stayed, for they were the ones offering the challenge."
As he spoke what looked like him but no white and a larger maríft with two more of everything floated. The maríft had six eyes, six ears, six horns and six arms on the chest where a normal maríft had none. The wool didn't fall into a tail but more a giant black cape on the back of the maríft.
"Whats the challenge? I've been hearing challenge gives this and this but never what this fucking challenge is?" My eyebrow twitched.
"To enter this dream, but a special part of it. To dig deeper, the deeper you dive the more power you can draw on in a dream. Get to the bottom and concur it, then to return with inner strength, the one who offers the challenge gets the dream energy and grows stronger within the dream."
"Why does the strength of the dream matter?"
"Those who control the dream, can swap it with reality, as I'm sure you know with the last cultist you fought."
He showed an image of my home then another with a red sky. The red sky photo had buildings that didn't age, rust, or had dust on it but looked abandoned. It didn't look like my home but a house in Noxstave this way. Less detail in the housing, more flat colors, less life to the house.
"Why does this challenge even matter to this?"
"Because if you fail the challenge, you don't simply wake up. You aren't able to just rechallenge it, you're stuck there and will die there. Once the people realize you didn't pass you'll be executed."
"What about all the people who came before? Wouldn't it have been so obvious that people were dying in the dream?"
"Before they weren't killed, they weren't even trapped. But Marine Calamid is desperate for control over the dream for which I've governed for thousands of years."
He showed visions of people walking out of the town sad. People walking out right next to those like Flamé.
"Why not just kill it, this Marine Calamid?"
"I banished it outside the dream with my power then I myself was trapped in the dream. So we are both unable to attack each other unless Calamid can get back in."
He showed a vision of Calamid howling loudly. Its arms punched the forest area before it was a forest.
"Ok…"
"The only ones who can control the dream and really stand a threat against it are Calamid and I. Well America's ruin has control over it but I'd never have to worry about that man."
"Did you just say America's ruin? How does he have a connection to this? And are you implying the guy is still alive?"
He showed the sketched image people thought he looked like. Blonde hair just like the Hero of Chaos. His clothes were ripped and covered in rocks and dirt. He had distinctive red eyes that pierced the world. His features were sharp and intimidating looking. He looked like a wild human.
"I'd say he's long dead. The control he has over it is as innate as Calamid and I since we were there for its creation."
"Gods this is confusing. Explain Calamid first."
"Well, have you heard of the Kalmic tail of the first animals?"
"They claim that the first of every monster and animal came from Kalmic and the firsts to be born willingly served Kalmia as separate deities of praise."
He showed those depictions of the beasts worshiped in Kalmic. Even a weather eater spiraled its way around the red haired olive golden skinned Kalmia.
"Right. The first maríft is Calamid. An ancient beast that was born within the awakening right in the middle of a fight between me and America's ruin."
"I think I understand that? So Calamid is somehow trying to get into the deep dream from the outside. Using the town's people to give them dream energy through these sacrifices?"
"Yes, and through them just sleeping and conquering nightmares they have."
"Then I'm immediately out. I'm not joining in killing townspeople who don't even know they're being manipulated in a fight between you two. In cults it's unlikely everyone is willing to participate; their families and community probably pressured them into it. Which would put more pressure onto people."
"Well you can't kill Marine Calamid so we're nowhere."
"Seems like it." I held my ground against killing the cultists.
"Can I strike a deal then?"
"Go ahead?"
"If you do, I'll deal with that nightmare of yours. Make sure you never have it again."
I, who was focused on the images, turned to him. My hands struggled to make their own decision. My thoughts racing, staring at the outline of a man.
"I mean it's a horrid thing what you did. So bad it's haunted you since then."
"..."
"You even forgot some of those terrible memories. You forget the exact reason for the way you act all the time. I can help you remember."
"Remember what!" I yelled.
My eyes flashed the rune of universal destruction. The ancient King of Dreams hopped back, freezing for a few seconds.
"That I…"
The world around us started to fade. The red sky returned. The light from the visions disappeared into the black forest.
"Looks like you'll have to make the decision by yourself. I'll give you my control over the dream temporarily to aid you against the cultist if you choose to fight. If you don't I'll simply take it back."
"Your name?" I asked softly.
"Chimere." He faded away leaving me in the forest outside the shrine.