Name: Gwin.
True Name:---
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Aspect: [Ancient Sentinel]
Aspect description: [You are cast from a warrior tribe dedicated to protecting the future of your lords. You are an expert hunter, despite your gruesome injury, and will lay down your life to protect their spawn.]
Attributes:
[Envious]--You are inherently jealous of those better than you which drives you to be the best.
[Sly]-- You are not easily noticed.
[Rugged]-- You do not tire easily and recover quickly.
*****
'Huh….'
He only had access to the description of his aspect and his attributes at the moment. This was normal in the first nightmare. He would only unlock his aspect ability after completing the trial.
'Holy crap!'
He felt like the luckiest man alive.
'The spell must love me!'
Gwin almost jumped for joy. His aspect did not particularly interest him, but his attributes….they were amazing! The spell had almost given him the perfect combination of attributes to run away and hide from any horrible monster he might encounter.
Each person gained three attributes. Two of them come from your aspect. In Gwin's case this was [Sly] and [Rugged]. [Envious] was his inherent attribute. He felt a bit bitter towards it but it was overshadowed by how he let about the other two.
'Who cares if I can't use them to fight!'
He let out a small chuckle and smiled which earned him worried glances from the others. He was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of the serpent hissing.
The noise was deafening and it reverberated in the enclosed tunnel. It stopped a moment later to Gwin's relief. He then turned his attention to his aspect
'Ancient sentinel? That's not vague at all.'
He pondered while laying on the ground who these lords mentioned in the description could be.
'Is that serpent supposed to be one of them?'
He looked back down at the serpent and regretted it immediately.
The serpent's side was currently running along the entrance of the tunnel like a wall of scales. At the part where its stomach scales met the scales on top was the seam where the blades emerged from. Between two of the emerged blades was a glossy and glowing red eye.
'Where di-'
Gwin could not finish his thought though. The tunic on his chest began to turn dull gray before crumbling to dust on his chest. Before he could react the skin on his chest began doing the same thing.
It was excruciating.
Gwin felt like his skin was being pressed against hot iron, his skin melting away under its unbearable heat. He wailed in agony before flailing on the ground. The pain was unbearable, it hurt more than anything he had ever experienced before. It was as if his skin was being boiled by scorching hot oil…..No, it was worse than that. Gwin almost fell unconscious from the searing pain. He desperately crawled away from the serpent.
His "Father" rushed and grabbed his wrist and yanked him. Gwin thought his arm was going to fly off. Gwin soared through the air for a moment before crashing into the rough wall of the root tunnel. He wheezed as the air was knocked from his lungs but thankfully the blinding pain was gone now. That all happened in less than 2 seconds.
He was thankful for the trade in pain. He gasped on the ground, finally able to pull air into his lungs. Thick tears streamed down his dirty cheeks carving dark lines on his face. Strangely a moment later the pain disappeared. Gwin numbly looked down and almost threw up.
Gwin was a scrawny guy. He had trained plenty with his father but it was just that, training. He didn't ever get a chance to build up real strength, so when that horrid serpent decided to turn his skin to stone, he hardly had any meat to lose.
Gwin could see exposed muscle. He saw them twitch and pull tight with each movement he made. It was nauseating. It hurt like hell but thankfully he was alive and not bleeding.. It seemed the wounds sealed themselves during the process of turning to stone. He nearly fainted from the grotesque sight. The dull pain he felt was just waiting for any sort of movement to flare up and cause him untold pain. Safe to say he was not planning on moving for anything.
Being literally skinned alive strangely calmed him down though. Gwin had always felt more calm and at peace when he was hurt. Having a wound that matched his inner turmoil made his mind clear. His severed arm had been a reminder of how he felt for a long time.
Gwin calmed down a little. He was still slumped onto the side of the tunnel. His breathing was beginning to calm down. He cast a weary look at the other survivors curious as to what their stories were. Maybe it should shed some light on what the hell was going on, not that it mattered much.
From what he could piece together these people were a part of some isolated tribe that raised or protected these so called 'lords'. He heard his "father" mention a nursery. The image of an island covered in dust and surrounded by a red sea flash in his mind. He relented the fact the flash back..flash forward? Was not more useful.
'What is going on here? Why would their lord, or lords, turn on them?'
He shuddered at the thought there could be more.
'There's no way that could happen'
The spell made trials not executions. Fighting multiple devils is a death sentence for any awakened let alone a mundane human.
How was he supposed to fight an abomination that could kill him just by looking at him though?!
There was a bend in the tunnel cutting them off from line of sight with the beast. The group was slumped to the ground with the two men sitting against the tunnel's walls with their weapons leaning against them. The girl was panting on the ground next to Gwin. To Gwin's horror the woman did not look very tired.
'She's awakened too…..'
A part of Gwin was hoping that the spell had thrown him a freebie and given him an awakened ally to fight a dormant devil which even then would be dangerous.
'That's fair…isn't it?'
The spell wasn't so nice though. This all but confirmed Gwin's suspicion that that was in fact an awakened devil. This revelation settled like a weight in his gut. Dread began to spread through his body like a weight. There was only one thing to think about.
Surviving.
Now that Gwin had entered his nightmare he felt more drive to actually make it out alive. The unknown is what is scariest after all, well right behind nightmare creatures anyways.
'I have to kill an awakened devil with two awakened allys.'
Now that he thought about it his chances were actually good!
'Thank you spell!'
Wait, wasn't the spell the reason he was here to begin with?
'Curse you spell!'
He felt a tinge of relief at the numbness of his exposed flesh, he had newfound sympathy for the two warriors. Just then the woman stood and approached them. She placed a hand on one man and his face softened. His wounds however remained the same. She approached the next man and did the same, it was then his turn. He was a little taken aback because the others' condition hadn't really changed.
'Is she a fake?'
He was still desperate for any help so he'd take whatever he could get. She knelt down and looked at his wounds. She seemed to hesitate before Gwin's "father" approached.
She placed her hand on Gwin's shoulder. Gwin sighed in relief as the already numb pain faded away.
'She can only make it numb….that explains things'
"He should be able to pull through"
She turned to Gwin's "father". The somber man with the spear nodded and moved to Gwin.
"Can you move?"
His voice was stern and cold. Gwin wanted to get up and dance to show off how fine he was.
"Yes."
He then addressed the group.
"We must move. Our only chance is the nursery"
There it was again. He did not like the sound of this nursery. Something just…..sat wrong with him. He brushed off the strange feeling and tried to stand. His legs buckled and gave out underneath him but he was caught by the young girl. Her body was covered in dirt and grime and she was dressed in the same archaic clothes as the rest of them. Her hair clung to her sweaty face and her cheeks were round and plump.
"Are you okay Dimu?"
Her voice was worried and sweet. She reminded Gwin of his sisters…..he really wanted to see his sisters.
'So that's my name'
"Yeah, I'm fine"
Gwin couldn't shake off the weird feeling he got when the woman hesitated. It felt like she was deciding whether he was worth saving or not. Gwin felt chills at the thought he might be left behind. He put on a tough front. He was good at those after all. He couldn't under any means seem like a deadweight. He had an advantage being the son of an awakened but he didn't want to press his luck, afterall he was already missing an arm and now he was injured too.
The rest of them finished catching their breaths. They turned and faced the dark expanse of tunnel in front of them. The darkness beckoned them further in.
"Let's go