CHAPTER 459: NIGHTMARE WITHIN A NIGHTMARE

Prisana walked down the bright corridor. Through the large windows, the sun’s light filled the expansive hallway.

Her combat boots knocked loudly on the red wooden floor while she wiped the sleep out of her eyes.

The 18-year-old woman turned towards a golden-red door. She raised her hand to her mouth, and with an enormous yawn, she entered the lounge room.

Five other members of her team already waited for her inside. Their blurred faces glanced at Prisana. Their greetings sounded the exact same monotone voice.

She nodded towards them and sat on the couch. Her eyes shut the moment the comfortable couch met her body, yet sleep eluded her. No matter how exhausted she got, Prisana could never sleep during the day.

"You haven’t slept again, I assume. Why don’t you try speaking with someone at the infirmary. I’m sure they can help with your nightmares. Who knows, maybe it’s a curse caused by some monster!"

Prisana glanced to the side, at her team leader. A young man, maybe a year older than Prisana.

The two of them were the only Ascended on their team, so the leader paid special attention to Prisana. His monotone voice even had hints of concern within its depths.

However, Prisana just shrugged and ignored the man. She leaned back with her eyes closed until a loud scream echoed inside the lounge room.

The young woman’s stormy eyes snapped open, scanning the surroundings for any danger.

Her vision focused on the four meter tall gray humanoid monster standing inside the room. It held one of Prisana’s teammates within its bloody, clawed hands.

The blurry-faced man wriggled in the tall monster’s hand before the creature cut his throat.

The others ran to kill the monster, but Prisana’s eyes just glanced around the lounge room.

Every piece of furniture, object and even the walls looked blurred. Her teammates also didn’t look real, as if she was still sleeping.

The only reason she even noticed was because of the dark gray monster. While everything seemed blurry, the monster looked crystal clear.

It had no face, but its... No, her body looked voluptuous. On her hand, half meter long claws decimated Prisana’s team.

"What an odd creature. Am I truly dreaming of such beings? Is this even a dream? I can’t tell anymore..."

She let her teammates die. Their haunting screams sent shivers down Prisana’s spine.

The leader soon perished. His remains were nothing but flayed pieces of muscle and bone. However, for Prisana, they looked blurry and unreal.

No sadness or anger appeared in her heart upon glancing at the corpse a few meters away. She didn’t even remember the leader’s name, nor his face or voice.

All her teammates looked the same, pieces of nameless, faceless meat.

Prisana yawned and summoned dozens of airblades while staring at the dark gray monster. She summoned the wind, snapping the large windows open, and floated towards them.

The airblades flew towards the feminine monster, faster than she could react. They cut through her flesh with ease, and soon the monster’s corpse fell over. It turned blurry too.

A small, tired sigh escaped Prisana’s lips as she moved through the window. However, before she could’ve reached open air, her entire body stopped moving.

Something sticky covered her arms, legs and back, immobilising her. She glanced around and saw a giant cobweb covering the entire window.

Her eyes widened further when she saw a dozen large dark red eyes. They reminded her of the spider she had seen in her nightmare last night.

"So this is another nightmare. How bothersome. How do I wake up?"

Prisana glanced down at the hundred-meter fall below her feet. The massive spider began moving towards her when the thought popped into Prisana’s head.

"I wonder if falling to my death would wake me? Since this is definitely a dream, I might as well try!"

She summoned airblades again, which cut through the cobweb. A moment later, Prisana felt the wind rush past her falling body.

With her ability, she could’ve halted her fall, yet she remained motionless and simply stared up at the blurred blue sky.

One last yawn later, she felt a piercing pain along her body, as all her bones broke, including her neck and skull.

The world rapidly darkened, but before disappearing, a light chuckle reached Prisana’s ears. The same robed woman, with blonde hair and a scarred face, leaned above the Stellar’s body.

"D-dream... Dreamweaver..."

Lilith grinned upon hearing Prisana’s last whisper. However, soon the Stellar fell unconscious and moments later, she died.

...

Prisana’s frantic eyes snapped open. She glanced around the war zone where she stood. Fires burned everywhere, illuminating the warm night. Some were monster corpses... Others, scorched human fragments.

Loud explosions mixed with the sound of painful screams. Death surrounded Prisana, but her fearful, confused eyes didn’t look towards the destruction.

"What was that? My old team, they died from an abrupt monster attack years ago... Why did I dream about them? And what were that tall monster and the massive spider?... Also, there was someone else, a third person... Why can’t I remember her?"

It felt like she stood at the precipice of some grand discovery, yet her memory couldn’t answer all her questions.

Eventually, she gave up thinking and instead glanced at the battlefield. The screech of monsters came closer, causing a tired sigh to pass through her lips.

"How did I fall asleep on such a turbulent battlefield? This is a new personal record!"

Prisana laughed at her own joke with self-deprecation, while her hands summoned heavy winds.

All the fires went out from the strength of her winds, and the ashes rose into the air, dancing around Prisana.

She flew a hundred meters above the battlefield, giving her a better vantage. The destruction stretched for multiple kilometers, but they finally pushed the monsters far enough to reveal its origin.

A dark portal stretched a dozen meters above the ground, through which dark creatures flooded into Earth’s Realm. That was the target of this operation, taking control of the Realm Gate!

The job sounded easy, but in reality, their odds weren’t looking good. Most weaker Evolved already perished, leaving Transcended like Prisana to clean up these beasts.

The 23-year-old floated for a moment longer, but soon the beasts began shooting projectiles in Prisana’s direction.

The wind pressure increased around her body, and her skin turned smoke-like. The projectiles passed through her without causing any harm.

Behind her, the usual airblades appeared, but they grew dozens of meters long. Each of them flew towards a congregation of monsters, faster than the speed of sound.

The battlefield exploded, dust and earth flying up into the air. They rained back down, and as everything settled, the groups of monsters disappeared.

The airblades left deep gashes in the earth. Blood and gore filled each, as all the monsters turned into minced meat by her wind power.

Prisana didn’t even glance at the destruction. She simply flew closer to the Realm Gate while killing every monster she came across.

A few minutes later, she cleared a path to the Gate, and she landed before it. The break in reality led to a dark place. Even her nightvision eyes couldn’t pierce into its depths.

She wanted to approach and even pass through, yet something deep within her brain stopped her.

Instead, Prisana glanced around the Gateway, a strange feeling appearing in her heart.

"Where did all the monsters go? They were all pouring through just minutes ago. Did the other Realm finally run out of enemies?"

As Prisana mumbled to herself, a flicker went through the Realm Gate, and another creature entered Earth’s Realm... A very familiar creature...

Four meters tall, with dark gray skin. A faceless humanoid. Large hands with half meter long claws. A feminine, disturbingly voluptuous and attractive body.

"You’re the creature from my last nightmare! What the fuck is happening?"

A shiver went down Prisana’s spine. Her memories of the past nightmare only appeared in vague, blurry form, but as seconds passed, she started remembering more.

The feminine monster continued walking towards her with measured steps. Ten giant, hairy, spider-like legs grew out of the empty space behind the creature.

"You! I fought you before! I killed you before... In my last nightmare... Or was it the one before that?"

Prisana glanced around with frantic eyes, searching for signs of a dream. Everything looked, felt, smelt and sounded real, yet she wasn’t sure anymore.

The young Stellar stared at her trembling hands in confusion. The memories of all the past nightmares flooded her mind, gradually breaking it in the process.

"Nightmares, nightmares, nightmares... Everything is a nightmare... I can’t wake up... Hundreds, thousands, millions... I don’t even know anymore... How many lives I’ve lived? How many times did I die? Will the nightmares ever end?"

Her trembling hands reached up and grabbed the sides of her head. She took a deep breath while staring at the monster, standing only a few meters away. The shaking of Prisana’s hand caused her to hesitate.

Suddenly, a dozen dark red eyes opened in a circle on Lilith’s face. They all stared into Prisana’s soul and screamed straight into her head.

"KILL YOURSELF!"

All hesitation left Prisana’s body as despair filled her heart. Her firm hands grasped the sides of her own head and twisted it. Her neck broke, and moments later she died again.

The next nightmare ended the same. The one after, suicide again. And again. And again...

Prisana kept killing herself hundreds, thousands, ten thousand times...

At some point, simply remembering the past deaths caused her to turn suicidal. She lost all her touch with reality until she couldn’t even remember what’s real or just another nightmare.

...

Prisana’s eyes opened again. Wind and rain whipped her body, while thunder echoed around her. The lightning illuminated the dark skies she floated in.

Her body shook, while her insane laughter resounded even louder than the constant thunder.

"Really Dreamweaver? This is the best you have? At least make your dreams more real next time! What even is this place? A storm? Why would I float inside a storm?"

The Stellar’s shouts echoed in the night, reaching everyone’s ears nearby. Soon, a figure with dark green smoke-like wings, wearing a strange gothic dress, appeared.

The woman’s pale face revealed immense confusion, but still she twirled the black scythe in her hand, and flew towards Prisana.

The madwoman just spread her arms with a wide grin. She continued to laugh and shout as Lucy’s weapon approached her.

"Come on, whoever you are! You can end this nightmare! I’ll give you this privilege!... Do better next time, Dream—... weaver..."

The scythe entered Prisana’s abdomen. Pain spread through her withering body, unlike anything she had felt in those nightmares.

A light chuckle echoed in her ears, and as Lucy pulled her scythe out, Prisana turned towards the familiar laughter’s source.

Through the storm, Lilith appeared transformed. Her dozen dark red eyes stared at Prisana with hidden glee.

She took another step and disappeared into the storm clouds, only to appear right before the dying Stellar.

"I’m happy to inform you, Prisana, that your nightmares have finally ended! Congratulations on escaping to reality, isn’t it beautiful!"

As realization settled in Prisana’s stormy eyes, Lucy’s scythe moved again, beheading the Stellar.

However, as her head fell into the dark abyss below, a relieved smile appeared on her miserable face.

Everything grew silent around for a single moment as Prisana’s headless corpse fell after her head.

Lilith remembered all the woman’s memories. While the Stellar’s life was sad, she also did plenty of horrible things, like killing her own teammates because they didn’t let her sleep in the lounge room, or killing all her companions on multiple missions.

Prisana’s sad life made her have constant nightmares throughout her entire life. This caused her to be exhausted, irritable and uncaring about anyone and everything.

A living husk of a human. A killer without purpose or leash. In some ways, Prisana was worse than Madness’s monsters. At least they followed the will of their master, which in a way excused their behavior.

While Prisana felt relieved the nightmares finally ended, Lilith felt relieved since another powerful monster left this world!