Just Another Beginning After the End | TBATE

Asceticism Journey (6) - Dreams

He hunted around the hill, seemingly made by massive boulders stacked on top of each other, though the back half of it had been blown out. Finding the small crack, he descended the cave, just as he had done in the dream.

Finding it easier to drop down, he landed on the ground gracefully.

"?"

The place looked like a battlefield... of one person. Like just a single person had been casting magi—

"AH!"

With a yelp, Asher clutched his head. Something, something foreign, was entering his brain.

—Pop!

And with the sound of an artery popping, he was suddenly in a different place.

The cave... was different.

Rather than half of the roof, only a small hole had been made, and there were mysterious glowing plants.

"Lady Sylvia!"

"...?"

Asher turned at the sudden voice.

"I advise you to stop your stubbornness and hand it over. You've already caused us quite the trouble after hiding yourself! If you submit, the Lord may even heal your wound."

Lord—?

When the dust cloud finally began to clear, Asher almost passed out.

"A-a dragon—!"

He barely managed to spit out the words.

From her snout to the end of her tail, the beast was clad in a pearl white coat of shimmering scales. Beneath its iridescent lavender eyes were glowing golden runes that marked her neck and ran down to spread around her body and tail like a sacred engraving. They branched out harmoniously and with purpose like carefully placed vines. The dragon's wings were pure white adorned with white-bladed feathers so fine and sharp that they could put swords forged by master smiths to shame.

"But dragons are...!"

Alea told him. Virion told him. Aya told him. Sophus told him. Everyone had told him dragons were legends, a thing that did not exist anymore, so what was...?

At that moment, the world changed. Everything's colors but the dragon's inverted, and all the world came to a screeching halt.

The boy flicked his eyes up and finally noticed the entity.

"That guy..."

It was dressed in sleek black armor and a blood-red cape that matched its eyes. The figure's pale grey skin matched the clouded sky in the background. The horns were different, though, as this entity had two horns that curled down and under its ears, lining its chin.

...He was eerily similar to Sarunam, the grey being, and had too mentioned a "Lord."

"NOO!"

Suddenly, the shrieking of a child entered Asher's ears.

Alarmed, the boy flipped my head to the source.

"I don't care about all of that! I'll say it as much as you want if you come with me! Grandma! Grandma! You can't! Not like this!"

"Ah, uh..."

Speechless, Asher did his best to comprehend what he was seeing, but all he could say was one word.

"Grey??"

Why was he here!?

Asher tried to move but found himself incapable of doing so like he was fixed in this one spot to watch the scene before him unfold.