Dreaming of Demons (Dream x oc)

[45] It Just Might Work

Sapnap's hand landed on my shoulder, making me jump. "What do we do about Dream? How do we stop him?" He asked, only speaking loud enough for me to hear over the chaos.

I knew there was an underlying question to his words, I could feel it in the way his hand was tense, translating the thought to me perfectly.

Do we kill him?

I stared at him, my chest tight as my head spun. I really had no idea. We had tried everything we could, and everything had failed. It had now come to the point where I had to choose between my friends' lives, or Dream's—essentially the Demon's life.

I was so sure the rituals would work. I was so sure we were on the right track. But it had only taken one ritual to mess it all up.

And then I remembered something. There was still one last ritual we had left untouched. The one we hadn't tried because I thought we had done it, that we had solved it with Ranboo. Every single potion and every single phrase hadn't worked. All except the last one.

I grabbed Sapnap's shoulders, feeling like this plan just might work. "We still have the last ritual to try."

His eyes darted between me and the battlefield, a panicked look on his face. "You don't even know if that'll work!"

"But I have to try, right? And if it doesn't work then..." I shook my head, not wanting to complete the sentence. "Just let me try this." I told him firmly. "I'll feel better knowing that we tried everything in the end."

He looked around again, and I could tell he was itching to move, to fight and help. "Okay, fine—"

I caught a glimpse of a Wither skull shooting in our direction, and Sapnap cut off as we scrambled away in opposite directions. The fight was suddenly upon us like a tidal wave.

I whipped my sword up to slash away another skull. Everyone had at least some armor on, even Sapnap. But I hadn't expected the fight to be here now. I didn't think to put armor on before I left the house earlier, and I felt far too vulnerable without any protection. I needed to get out of here as quickly as possible. Leaving the battle would give me enough quiet to figure out the last ritual, and I could try grabbing armor somewhere as well. I just needed access to an ender chest to get the demon book.

I spotted one farther down the line of trees, closer to where the battle must have begun. The area there was riddled with craters and some fallen trees, left forgotten by the path of destruction the Wither's led strongly.

I darted under the cover of the trees to avoid catching anyone's attention. Luckily, the criss-crossing branches and leaves shielded me from the view of the Wither's, and they quickly turned on the others in the open sun.

The explosions were loud, and paired with the shouts and cries across the battlefield, they created a constant buzz in my head. The burnt air stung my nose and throat and I coughed. A loud snap sounded to my left and I turned just in time to see a tree falling towards me. I sprinted away, the direction of the falling tree pushing me right back out into the open field. The ground dipped suddenly, and I almost tripped on a jagged crater in the dirt, regaining my footing just in time to slip out of the range of another blast from a Wither skull. The ender chest was still a good distance away and I pushed myself into a run.

An arrow shot into the ground right in front of my feet. I instinctively hopped away from it, catching myself against a tree. A shape appeared at the side of my vision, moving so fast I barely had enough time to raise my sword and block Dream's axe.

I breathed hard, the bark on the tree digging into my back. Dream's broken mask revealed his darkened expression, a severe look in his eye as he pushed against my sword.