I stare at the police station, and I have just come from school. Even dealing with the nightmare spell I can't take a day off, I wasn't even believed when I tried to tell someone about it. It's annoying but that's life. I yawn and rub my eyes, I'm really tired, in a really horrible way. I walk in and I look around. It's a police station I don't notice anything that catches my eye.
"Hey kid are you just going to stand there"
I look up, it's got noticed which is nice honestly.
"Uh yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm infected with the spell."
The guy swears and says something about a code black. It's pretty easy to tell that code black is for the nightmare spell.
"Okay kid you know the deal, don't die and all that"
I nod tiredly, is this what people who are awake for days feel like? It sucks honestly, big time.
"Hey kid what's your name?"
I blink a little too slowly for comfort.
"Oh it's ■■■■■"
The guy nods at that.
"Do you want me to call your family?"
I shake my head after a while of thinking.
"No I'd rather if you didn't, I'd be thinking about it in the nightmare. It would slow me down."
I watch the policeman go about his tasks pretty fast, the guy doesn't want to be here when I go to sleep. Fair enough I wouldn't want to be around someone in their first nightmare.
"Hey kid.... don't die"
I stare at him with a annoyed look apparently, not that I feel about it, of course I don't want to die
"We probably can't deal with a nightmare creature"
I of course get fully reasonably slightly annoyed.
"Yeah, I'll try not to. I don't want to die either."
I lean my head to the side and I willingly go to sleep.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the nightmare spell. Prepare for your first trial...]
It starts with the time flowing in reverse on a volcano. It goes from cold and lifeless to just having erupted, lava everywhere ash in the air like snow. A camp not far away from the volcano gets uncovered from the ash, it's very destroyed with a few long destroyed skeletons in the ash.
I open my eyes and it's unbearably hot to the point I'd willingly jump into a freezing lake if that's what I had to do to get away from it. I'm in an old school, maybe, beast hide tent. I sit up I notice there's ash everywhere in the tent and the tent is slightly shaking, and it's really small kinda cramped. I get up and I start looking into the pack of the person's body I'm in. There's nothing useful or even that good in it, I'm not even someone important. From what I can tell I'm likely just some servant or poor hired help for whatever the people I'm with are doing. That's not normal, I heard that most people are like nobles and stuff. Then again, people who aren't nobles likely die.
Someone barges into the tent, an older man from the look of them, a higher up judging from his outfit, I look up at them as they start to berate me.
"Get up, get up, get up! You lazy freeloader you don't get to oversleep!"
I try not to look annoyed by getting yelled at, which tells me that my first assumption was right, I'm some kind of servant. I quickly get up trying to put a overblown embarrassed expression on my face
"I'm sorry sir! I didn't mean to oversleep!"
He scoffs at my words
"get to work already!"
he then leaves looking at me like I'm no better than the dirt under his boots. To him I'm probably not, how annoying, this nightmare is going to suck.
I leave the small tent, looking around the camp. It's even hotter out here and the ash is hitting my face like snow, i could go for anything cold, like a good cold drink or something else eaten cold. Most people I see are also likely servants, judging by their outfits at least, some seem of a higher rank but most don't seem important at all. I start walking, I put in some effort to not be noticed but it isn't hard with how many people are around. I see my target, a maybe 20-year-old man, he's very good-looking with a noble handsome look about him with fancy steel armor who's talking with likely the highest ranking servant around this hellhole.
"Look, I'm sure this hunt will go well!"
He seems rather enthusiastic for someone in this kind of weather.
"My lord I am sure you will do well but would it not be smart to take some guards with you?"
Someone's finally speaking sense around here.
"My family has already hunted its minions down, it should be quite easy!"
God this guy is annoying, he should gain some intelligence.
"Yes I'm aware but my lord the chimera is quite powerful!"
The chimera, like a bunch of animals slapped together? Well I hope its at most a dormant demon. I slink away, its stupid that his hunt is everyone else's problem, I think some of the servants are getting heatstroke. By the vision i saw, all of them are going to die.
How unfair, it is truly unfair for all of those servants to die. This isn't their, no our, hunt. This hunt is just that man's. It's annoying, I sigh to myself and I leave. I find where most of the servants are working and I start working. It's too damn hot, I'm not sure why that man went on a hunt in such a place, or what kind of creature he's hunting. I sigh to myself, and I start paying attention to the surrounding area.
I notice inhuman tracks. It goes from the camp past a very large pile of stones, which is easily big enough for half of all the tents to hide behind it. Their old ones too, old enough for them to be here before the camp was set up but their too new for whatever made them to be long gone. I figure that whatever the noble is hunting is going to come from this direction.
So I need everyone to get to the other side and the noble on this side for the best chance. Even then this is all his fault and problem, he should take responsibility.
I'm aware that I'm probably being horribly unfair to the man but how could I not be, I swear I'm going into heat stroke, I'm sweating to hell and back and the damn ash is covering me. Yet there he was smiling like his actions won't have any consequences at all.
I'd have to do something to get the man to this side, so I'd cause trouble on the other side, it would have to be something unpleasant that the servants would have to deal with. The cooking area is on the other side and nobody likes a ton of pots and pans falling or scraping against each other.
It takes a few hours but I slip away eventually. I slip between tents, going unnoticed, I've always been good at that, when I make it to the cooking area. I move quickly and I knock the pots and pans over as well as the whole tent. I slip out silently coming around the corner with a fake look of shock.
People come rushing over, I keep a lost expression while I look around, I notice the noble walk over then get a slightly annoyed look at all the noise. I also notice him looking at me with a curious expression. That was not a part of my plan. He calls me over, and I fake a shaken expression, I quickly walk over looking around in a way that seems nervous.
"Hello, I've got a few questions-"
the noises of things being cleaned up interrupt him. He gets a mildly annoyed look
"Walk with me it's too noisy here"
I follow him, looking around actually nervously this time. He takes me to the other side of the camp, I got him where I want him but, I didn't want to be here that's for sure.
"As I was saying I have a few questions for you. It's just about small things, nothing important it's just stuff that someone working would know"
I don't look him in the eyes, I'm aware that's probably rude or something it's just that this place is almost 100% going to get attacked. I nod quickly just trying to get this guy to shut up already to let me leave. He starts talking, and I'm mostly filtering it all out. Eventually, I heard a noise from that large rock pile, most wouldn't notice it but I was paying attention. He keeps talking before I finally interrupt him
"I heard something, it sounded like something big walking"
I then point to it with an overly nervous expression. He raises an eyebrow turning around, and he takes a few steps forward towards it. That's when a nightmare creature, it's big really big too, and incredibly strong-looking, it looks like a mix of animals a goat some kind of big cat a snake, and some other things, maybe an awakened devil or worse. This is a shitty first nightmare, an awakened devil or tyrant in my first nightmare.
I take a step back, I see out of the corner of my eye the noble take out his blade and yell something that I don't pay any attention to.
As the thing attacks I dart to the side i hear snapping behind me, i think its the chimera biting at the noble. I look back expecting the noble to die near instantly but he didn't. He held his own for longer than I expected, even got some shallow cuts in the thing but he took some damage.
I start running in the same direction it came from. The nightmare creature snaps its head towards me as it tries to chase me. Noble dashes forward sliding under it cutting one of its legs off. Not enough for the thing to die or even stop chasing me.
It pushes the noble towards me and starts running towards us. It's something out of one of those really bad comedies my parents put on. I run and run and run for a while it's too damn hot and there's ash hitting my face. It ends up with me and Noble together being hunted by the nightmare creature. It's the worst and so very annoying. I tiredly walk with the noble, he had gotten injured on the leg so I'm carrying the guy. By now we had already gotten lost in the sea of ash, god i hate this nightmare.
I walk with him as he paddles on and on.
"You know if you hadn't warned me about the chimera then I wouldn't have been able to react in time!"
I look at the man, I hope I'm not showing how annoying I find him. I know that he couldn't have known that thing was here but still. If I hadn't accidentally led the thing away then all of those people would have died by its hand, or paw or is it hoof?
We keep walking trying to find camp. Ash is pelting us both and there's so much heat, he's doing a lot better than I too. I try to push down my feelings of annoyance at him, but he couldn't have known it isn't his fault.
"What was that... thing, you called it a chimera but I still don't know what it is..."
he looks at me with not even slightly hidden entertainment.
"Of course you don't know. That fiend has been haunting this land for ages. It's said it used to have an army. My father fought against its horrid army but wasn't able to slay the fiend."
That confirms it to me, an awakened tyrant. I'm aware that this is a really bad thing, a horrible thing even. We walk together, I'm pretty sure he's slowing himself down to stay walking with me.
We don't talk much, or I don't talk much he talks a lot about his family's legacy, slowly as we walk the ashes lessens and it slowly cools down. Although sometimes in the very distance I still see the chimera so that doesn't change.
We don't have much food or water, and he has a personal bottle that he lets me have small amounts from. While I walk in use him as a shield for the ash, he's the one in armor after all. He's happy to let me do so at least, he even puts his cape around me.
It quickly gets colder and colder, the ash disappears then is replaced with snow, yet the chimera still sometimes appears in the distance. We're forced to make camp at night unfortunately. He stays up first at my instance. After a few hours, he wakes me up
"hey uh kiddo, its your turn to watch for the chimera, but I'm fine if you don't want to"
i wave my hand
"no no, get your sleep, you'll need it."
I finally look at my runes, trying to find anything useful in them.
Name: ■■■■.
True Name:
Rank: Aspirant.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Memories: -
Echoes: -
Attributes: [cold chill.] [Mark of Divinity] [of the cold]
Aspect: [cold servant].
Aspect Description: [A servant is only good for the work a master doesn't want to do. It's useless for anything else and has no important skills.]
...I stare at the runes with a expression that's probably either dumbfounded or maybe disgusted, i can't see my own face anyways. Cold servant, how completely useless. I focus on the attributes I have.
[Mark of Divinity] [Attribute Description: "You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched by it once, a long time ago."]
[Cold Chill] [Attitude Description: "Your body is cold and deals with the cold better as well as being harder to heat up."]
[Of the Cold] Attitude Description: "You are a being of cold, snow and ice do not think of you any different than itself."
So all completely useless, or maybe not, at least I won't freeze to death, maybe I can but it will be a lot slower at least.
I look over at the noble he's probably going to freeze to death faster than me. I'm not happy about it but I don't feel that bad about the idea of his death. I keep watch no matter how useless it is.
In the morning I wake up noble. We gather ourselves and we set off once again. It gets colder and colder, I get colder as well it's so very uncomfortable but I don't get any of the normal symptoms that come from it being so cold just very very uncomfortable. It seems I still feel the cold but I won't get any of the consequences that a normal person would.
At least my aspect isn't letting me freeze to death. Nobles' talking has slowed down a lot at least. I should probably learn nobles' name.... but if I ask he will probably say something about a family name and start talking again.
We walk for another day, and I still sometimes see the chimera in the distance. I finally decided to ask a question I've had for a while
"I heard you were hunting something.... what is it?"
He looks at me with amusement and quite a bit of condescension.
"It's the chimera of course. My father started this fight and I will end it"
I look away, he's a fool, an absolute fool. A whole cohort of awakened would normally be needed to kill a tyrant yet he thinks he could do it alone? He could be the cause of so many people's deaths for pride.
What's worse is I'm so very aware that he doesn't even harbor that many feelings of malice or hate towards the servants. He thinks himself better but not so much that he loses sight that their human as well.... if he lives what other kind of hunts will he go into, will more die for his honor. Empty pride that's all this is and it's unfair. Only he should face the consequences of his actions not them, not me.
At one point he smiles at me giving me a small hunting knife.
"Why?"
He shakes his head
"I have a sword you need to be able to defend yourself as well."
I look at it
"but i won't be able to do any damage to the chimera with it"
he shakes his head as he pats me on the head
"its my job to fight it, your job is to survive."
I look away, isn't he the one who doomed all of those people to death for his own wants. It isn't fair, why can he not see how unfair this all is. No matter how rude they were to me they shouldn't die for this man's ego.
We keep walking for some time before we get to a canyon. Would it be right, would it be fair, should I push him? By all means I shouldn't if I'm thinking about myself but...how many people might die because of his stupidity? Too many too many. I step forward behind him as he looks into it trying to figure out how to get to the other side.
"Hey.... if you knew you couldn't do this alone, would you still have gone on this hunt?"
I ask, I hope, and hope that he will some some kind of intelligence.
"Hm? Of course I would, it is the honor of my family after all"
I look at him
"would you have still taken all of the servants with you?"
He waves his hand
"yes of course isn't your job to take care of me?"
that.... that was the answer I hoped he wouldn't say. I move forward and I put my whole weight into it and I push.
"Hey- what!"
I watch as he falls, I didn't even get to see the look in his eyes as he fell. I bet he thinks it just as unfair as I do. It's already done, I already did it, i can't take this back now. I don't know if I would, or even if I should want to.
[You have slain an awakened beast, prince of ash]
[You have received a memory: Armor of ash]
I didn't know he was awakened but it doesn't shock me too much. He held his own too well against the chimera. That's another problem the chimera.
Noble might be, might have been, quite the chatter box. His armored body hitting the inside of the canyon made a lot of noise and 100% gained its attention. Should I even run, I killed him after all. Yes I should, I shouldn't put the policemen in danger because of my own guilt.
I start moving, going down the canyon slowly. It might be frozen over but I don't slip or fall at least for a while. I get to the bottom finding his body.
I didn't even know his name, I only knew him as noble. His body is mangled and broken, i think he lived for a little bit and he simply bled out. He doesn't look like a noble anymore, I barely recognize him. It wasn't fair, it wasn't a fair thing for me to do but, he had too much power and little to no foresight, it would only cause more death.
I'm not really in the mood but as I walk in check my runes to look at the memory.
[Armor of Ash: A prince of a land of ash promised to go on a hunt for his family honor. It protects from heat and cold]
I summon the armor, watching as it weaves itself from sparks around me. It's a light set of armor from somewhere cold oddly enough. It helps with the cold even if it won't kill me.
I notice a cave, I figure it's better than nothing to hide. I walk in keeping my eyes out for anything that could jump out to get me. I'm not able to see much as I run my hands on the wall.
I start hearing noises from the caves behind me. The chimera has to be. I keep on the move to not get caught. After a while, maybe a few minutes maybe a few hours, I see light blue light.
I start moving faster when I get close enough I grab a blue torch. I walk into a hollow that was human-made. I walk forward noticing a crown, or I assume it is. I of course walk over and I grab it. The crown is made of ice. It looks pretty damn cool.
I lift the crown and I put it on. I'm probably going to die soon so a little stealing is okay. I feel something happen but I don't know what it is. The blue fire flickers in my hand I hear noises at the entrance, I see the chimera stalk in.
It sees me and starts shambling towards me. Before it can even get fully into the room the ice around it moves and spears it killing it. It's death cries are that of every animal its made of screaming out in pain, i think there's human mixed in there.
[You have slain an awakened tyrant chimera of snow and ash.]
[Wake up, ■■■■! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal...]