As Day relished in the thought of Caster knocking on his door angrily to ask him where his hairbrush was, he turned another corner and arrived straight at the entrance of the Tower of Dusk.
It was just as tall as ever, but the sight of the large towers and the colossal main keep had long grown familiar to Day.
So, without a second thought, he stepped inside the building and went straight up to his room.
He had lost his key a while ago, since he no longer had a need for it. Now, he could simply open the door himself, and though he was quite worried about what Harper may have to say about him losing the key, he had a feeling they could figure it out somehow… Or, worst case scenario, he could find a different way to pay for the trouble.
Now, whenever he came back to his place, he always made sure that when he did open the door himself, nobody was around, as to make the effort as clandestine as possible. He really didn't want to have to explain to some random person why he was sneakily opening a door with a key made of pure light. That seemed like much more effort than it could ever be worth.
He would rather jump out a window and come back later than have that sort of awkward exchange.
After glancing back and forward a few dozen times, he finally shimmied the key in and unlocked the door with a soft click. He swung it wide open, and what met him was…
A new and improved room. Before, it was almost desolate. Now, it had a multitude of things in it…
Such as a dresser next to the bed, and a mirror on top of another dresser…
And that was really it, however, it did delight Day to know that the room that he would be staying in for the foreseeable future did feel somewhat like his room. His room back at his orphanage wasn't particularly fancy, after all.
He likely wouldn't have redecorated it… If one could even call it that– in other circumstances, but with Caster by his side, he could be eternally grateful that he wouldn't have to worry about getting kicked out of his room for quite a while. By the time that they would be set to get tossed away, Day was sure they would have already found some sort of work somewhere that didn't feel too binding.
Day considered experimenting with asking to do commissions of some sort, but he really had no clue what value he could possibly provide in any line of work around here. He could quite possibly put in a worthwhile effort in hunting, but he already knew quite well how the hierarchy worked around here. He'd probably need to give them some sort of reason to not turn him into just another minion before he tried to do anything like that, since he wasn't quite comfortable with being ordered around by the bitter people dwelling in these parts... but he wasn't sure if he would have a choice…
Since, in truth, he probably wouldn't have much value anyway. It was almost a certainty that he wouldn't be useful in a calculated battle with multiple people.
Day just didn't believe he could keep up with years of experience like that within Aya's group, and if he could somehow keep up, would just keeping up be enough?
Day walked up to his bed and sat down with a deep sigh
He sat there, silently, staring up at nothing.
It was silent. Eerily silent… more so than usual in this desolate building.
Day leaned back against the wall his bed was pushed up against and gazed out of the window solemnly.
This was his life now… and this was all it would be for time uncountable.
It lacked excitement. Lacked joy. Lacked hope. Everyone was miserable, and the most miserable of all had nobody by their side. It was a random, fleeting thought that Day had… one that he had many times before, but for some reason, it felt like it rang ever-the-more true in this specific moment. With nothing but a curse in front of him, his eyes had nowhere to rest, and thus, neither did his mind…
But that feeling perfectly encapsulated what it was like here, even though he was in a place of supposed safety. It was just a constant struggle to find new ways to survive past just life itself, and while he did have Caster to bear most of the weight, he wasn't satisfied with such an exchange.
He wanted to do more… He wanted to create something, anything at all.
His eyes locked onto the Crimson Spire piercing the sky above… his head started to pulse, and he could feel his sanity fading away…
But when he tried to look away, the maelstrom of sensations were far from fading.
Day's vision began to spin– then a hurricane of emptiness permeated his mind until there was nothing left but darkness blocking his vision.
'What…?'
His head drooped and slammed into the window in front of him; his arms went limp; and his body slid down the wall slightly.
He was asleep… but his mind wasn't quite able to rest yet.
"..."
Familiar, tenebrous buildings swarmed the scope of his vision. Each of them felt infinitely darker than before, like the weight they held was more vast than Day could ever comprehend… but above all of them, to the right of the scene, was the castle, standing tall as ever.
Suddenly, his sight came closer and closer to a specific spot on this map, and there he saw it.
An ironclad being of stone, standing tall with her rock-hard hands curled up into fists. The seemingly female creature was in a fighting stance, standing up against not one, not two, not even three… but six people and beasts alike filling the rather small area.
There was a deadly exchange going on, and there was the stone being. Light, fast, but explosive and powerful beyond belief.
Each step was calculated. Each turn was purposeful. Each punch was influential. Her form was flawless, like it was practiced for years and years on end…
Like she was born to battle.
But before Day could become completely enamored in her graceful dance of death, the scene cut to something more terrible.
Standing above four humans were two terrible creatures. Large, mighty, imposing, and inhumane in every sense of the word. They were baring their fangs at all. Each other, the humans they couldn't quite catch, and even the stone saint, who was like a lone-wolf fighting against an ensemble of dread.
Day wished to put his eyes back on the perfection he witnessed, but his fading subconscious was fighting against his psyche's wishes, and he knew where his eyes had to land.
And thus, on the humans his slightly wavering gaze stopped.
Time passed fast, but slow. Day captured each and every moment of their endless struggle for survival in his omnipresent eyes. They jumped, they split up, they even tried to fight… but it was no use.
First, the stone beast tore one of them apart by the limbs.
Then, one of the two mighty creatures shredded two of them to pieces.
And finally, the jaws of the second grasped onto one of the humans and split them in half.
Writhing on the ground and dying, the four humans watched as the stone beast and the two creatures exchanged blows and bites until they all drifted into the embrace of nothingness.
But when it was all but over for the humans, and the creatures were in a deadlock, that was when Day saw it.
One last creature appeared through the buildings in a cacophony of booming noise. It smashed clean through two of the buildings flanking the three creatures' exchange with a dastardly roar that shook the grounds and displaced pieces of rubble beneath their feet.
When this creature appeared… Day's vision shattered, and all Day could think was that perhaps…
Whatever that nightmare of a beast was– It had to have swallowed the battlefield whole.
And what he also knew was that this scene he feasted and poisoned his eyes upon– It was going to be happening very soon.
Except he could tell this time around, that the amount of time he had was shorter… perhaps a mere few hours, and that it may not be enough.
"..."
Day woke up in a cold sweat. His head was ringing as his ears were constantly invaded by the sound of incessant banging.
He shot up from his bed and stumbled. He was on the far side of the bed, so when he attempted to step off, he fell just short and slammed into the floor with a loud bang. When he fell and groaned loudly, the knocking suddenly slowed and then eventually came to a complete stop.
Day began panting, not in pain, but in panic.
The scene he saw this time… Was infinitely worse than the first time around, where he merely got a glimpse at what would happen.
This time, he saw in full detail exactly what was going to happen to each and every single victim, and now that he was out of his deep slumber, it definitely wasn't a sight he was looking back on fondly.
With his new, alert state of mind came the terrifying realization that there were multiple people this time, and also multiple creatures.
More things to deal with, and more people to save.
Would he be able to prevent the exchange like he did the first time? He didn't know for sure, but time was already trickling by, and thus, each and every moment brought the world a step closer to that terrible fight he saw in his vision.
Day stood up and covered his eyes with his hand as warm, radiant light piercing and streaking the sky shined down into his room.
'Damn it… How long has it been since I fell asleep?'
He had long mentally acknowledged the person who was outside, whoever they were, so he yelled out:
"Coming!"
But his mind was still racing.
'Think back to the scene… Where were they? Buildings… Buildings… Castle? Castle! The Castle was on the right! They were on the right side… Damn it all, there's not… "
Day immediately ran to the door and tore it open. Right in front of him was Caster, standing tall with a slightly worried face, more than usual…
When he saw Day's outline appearing from the door, however, he calmed down completely and opened his mouth to speak.
"Day, why didn't you come meet me? Did you sleep in?" He said with a very small smile dancing on his lips.
Day was deathly silent. He had no idea what his face looked like, but if he had to guess, it probably wasn't very pleasant… because the moment Caster got a genuinely good look at him, his brows furrowed deeply and his demeanor shifted drastically.
"What's wrong with you? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Day, for a moment, considered giving a witty response like, 'actually, I saw four of them.'
But he didn't, instead, he spoke urgently, and completely casted the thought of a joke out of his head.
"Caster, I absolutely hate to push this on you, but I have to go do something right now."
Caster tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow.
"Push it on me? Hold on, let's slow down… Where could you possibly be going?"
There were a few moments of grim silence. Day almost decided to choose his words carefully, but he didn't.
"Outside of the walls."
It was a sudden realization, but Day knew that if he wanted to deal with three Nightmare Creatures… journeying there alone wasn't going to do.
Would he be able to convince Caster? He didn't know just yet, and maybe it was useless to speculate so soon, but as his faded consciousness returned, and his logical mind returned with it, he started to weigh his options– and this one, presented right in front of him… he wouldn't let it escape his grasp without a fight.
Time was not unlimited, but failure was not an option.
Not just for him, but for the people he saw in his vision.