I felt a new soul enter the edge of my perception.
A familiar soul.
To me, every person’s soul was unique in its own way, as if each one contained a special code that my mind read unconsciously.
So when this new guest entered the black void, I recognized him instantly without looking... and that surprised me for a moment.
That single moment was enough for one of the tentacles to strike my right side and send me flying violently until I reached the unseen end of this black space.
"Damn you." I clenched my teeth.
As soon as I stopped, more tentacles lunged at me, but this time they stopped before reaching me... or rather, they were stopped.
Their movements slowed, gravity multiplied around the tentacles, and a wall of flames rose and burned them. At the same time, the new guest appeared in front of me.
With his golden hair and yellow eyes, Elliot looked at me like a hero saving a damsel in distress, while calmly asking:"Are you okay?"
All I felt at that moment was an overwhelming urge to beat him up... what does he think he is, looking at me like that? A hero in a fantasy story?
"I was better before you showed up." I said as I adjusted my posture.
But how is he here already?
Shouldn’t it take much longer than this?Even if time in this dark space doesn’t move the same way it does inside the dream, this is still way too fast.
Did his new ability awaken earlier than it was supposed to?Is this the butterfly effect I created?
"You know, you could say thank you, or give a normal answer."Elliot’s words pulled me out of my thoughts.
But before I could reply, the tentacles pushed through the flames and attacked us.
Essence surged through my body as I dodged them, while Elliot simply vanished from his spot and reappeared a few meters away, only to find many other tentacles lashing toward him.
He gathered a sphere of compressed white lightning in his hand and fired it at the tentacles.
The lightning struck the flesh and spread along the limbs, while the screech of the Demon of Dreams rose, and Elliot appeared again beside me.
"So this is the Demon of Dreams, a rank 5 monster."He spoke calmly.
I clenched my teeth."Do you think this is the time to show me that you’re knowledgeable about monster types?"
Damn his abilities... I was even starting to feel jealous.
Don’t blame me, look at how much I was struggling with this thing, only for him to show up now and land direct hits while dodging these tentacles with ease.
These damn abilities... don’t get me wrong, I love my ability, but I want more.
I looked at Elliot, who was dodging the tentacles through his movement ability, and asked while avoiding and cutting into the flesh of this monster:"How did you manage to get out of your dream?"
Elliot pressed the monster with his gravity, slowing the attacks a little, and since the monster’s focus was now split between two targets, things became slightly easier.
He hesitated a bit before telling me, but eventually spoke:"I somehow awakened a new ability, and realized that I was dreaming. Then I remembered that purple light that engulfed the train... well, with my knowledge of the Demon of Dreams, it wasn’t hard to guess what was happening."
Yeah, exactly as it should happen... just faster.
Abilities were a mystery to humans; not all Awakened possessed abilities.
In addition, the conditions for awakening abilities were unknown... or perhaps they didn’t exist in the first place.
After all, the Awakened awakened their abilities randomly and at different ages.
But most of them had no more than one ability, a few had two, let alone three.
And our friend here awakened his fourth ability today.
A passive ability that grants him partial immunity to external mental influences.
I leaned my body and let a tentacle pass by me, while the essence blade moved swiftly and cut through flesh, spraying purple blood.
"And you, how did you get here?"Elliot asked.
"Let’s say I have my own ways."
The moment I said those words, Elliot froze in place and was almost struck by a tentacle, but he recovered and vanished at the last moment, reappearing several meters away.
"Are you kidding me? You told me when I asked you!"Elliot’s shout mixed with the monster’s screech.
I replied simply:"Then you’re just a foolish hero."
Elliot clenched his teeth, but before he could respond, I spoke:"Forget this for now, and focus on bringing this thing down as fast as possible."
He clicked his tongue."Fine."
I cut another tentacle."Can you land a direct hit on that mass of eyes, or teleport close to it?"
He replied as he launched another ball of fire:"I’m trying, but it blocks my attacks using these limbs, and I can only teleport in a straight line without obstacles, and these tentacles are in my way."
I already knew that, but there was no harm in asking.
Who knows, maybe he had already gained true teleportation.
"Alright, attack it with everything you’ve got and draw as many tentacles toward you as possible, I’ll handle the rest!"I shouted at him.
"Okay."He agreed easily, then charged toward the sea of fleshy limbs, flames rising around him.
The screech of the Demon of Dreams rose as it paid more attention to Elliot to prevent him from getting closer.
As soon as the tentacles passed through the flames, they met lightning.
The area around Elliot became complete chaos, as the tentacles swirled around him, preventing him from approaching, yet unable to reach him as well.
Slowly, the Demon of Dreams began to focus on Elliot and eased the pressure on me.
I waited until I found the right opportunity.
The essence blade faded from my hand, and instead I gathered my essence into a small sphere, just like I did during the test.
Then I pushed greater amounts of essence into my legs and charged straight toward the mass of eyes.
Most of the tentacles were focused on Elliot, while the others were already damaged or torn apart.
I ran toward it, dodging them one by one, while closing the distance to the mass of flesh and eyes.
One of them lashed at me, but I dodged it and kept moving. They almost hit me several times and sent me flying back, but I managed to survive.
When the Demon of Dreams started to realize what was happening and shifted its attention back to me, it was already over, and I had reached the point of no return.
I pushed myself off one of the tentacles and arrived right in front of it, to the point that I could see my own reflection in its eyes.
I raised my hand and released the condensed essence toward it. From this distance, it passed through without obstruction, reached one of its eyes, then pierced the flesh and burrowed deep into its body.
In the next moment,
The sound of an explosion filled the entire void.