Everything was dark.
There were no walls, ceilings, or floors. Angor found himself trapped in this chaos, which appeared similar to his soul space. He couldn’t sense directions or anything for that matter.
He did not fall into the dog’s stomach as he imagined. The dog’s mouth was like a portal that sent him to this unknown realm. No warmth, no blood, no gastric juice. There was only darkness and nothing else.
In fact, it was more than the concept of “darkness”, which was caused by the lack of light. It seemed the strange atmosphere around him could absorb and remove all light.
Angor couldn’t even see his own soul form. The only thing he could do was to “think”, since he still had his consciousness.
He tried touching himself and was glad to find out that his soul form was solid and steady, which meant his spirit was not ripped from his form.
Also, Toby’s presence helped him confirm that he “existed”.
Toby also fell into the dog’s mouth along with him. The bird was huddled against his neck while mumbling something.
And it made Angor feel safe. In the worst case possible, they could ask for Greya’s help since Greya was currently resting in Toby’s Snowy Feather.
However, his plan was utterly snuffed out when Toby told him that an unknown power had sealed up Snowy Feather. They could no longer use it.
It wasn’t a rare thing to happen since there were many ways to temporarily disable a space storage from working. But how in the world did a dog do such a thing?
Angor grimaced as he tried to think about something else.
But how? He had no idea what the strange dog was or where exactly this place was.
Judging from everything, the dog was a very special being in this place.
Angor wondered if the dog was the mysterious “Yorkshire”. He tried to call its name, curse loudly, and beg for help, yet no one answered him.
Anyone with a fragile mental state might break down pretty fast in this absolute desolation. But Angor believed he could still hang on since both Toby and Sunders’ blood sphere provided him with comfort.
Speaking of the sphere, the professor is going to look for me, right?
But he wasn’t going to put all hope on his teacher.
He tried moving around in case he could find something. This area might be enclosed by a wall or a boundary. If he could find it, he could think of a way to breach it.
But something else soon caught his attention.
He sensed something familiar.
The main reason why so many wizards came to Sleepless City was that they heard of a Mystery item hidden somewhere. People believed that the darkness was a sign that suggested the birth of such a treasure.
Angor also sensed the scent of a Mystery item before entering the outer city. Compared to others, he also felt that the scent appeared to be similar to the “Mystery spirit”, which showed up outside Dark Castle.
He felt it strange that he could no longer sense the Mystery energy once they entered the outer city.
That was until now.
He found it again, inside the weird animal that just “ate” him.
Is that Mystery item actually inside the dog? Or... is the dog Yorkshire, who carried a Mystery item from the Nightmare Realm?
For now, he would proceed by following this clue.
Treasure hunting was not among his tasks for coming to Sleepless City. But if the treasure was just within reach, he would gladly go after it.
The “scent” grew thicker as he moved toward its source.
It wasn’t long before the emptiness around him was entirely replaced by Mystery energy just like when he was attempting to craft Prelude to Rebirth.
The energy was stronger this time.
Something told him that he would soon witness the very treasure that attracted so many mighty wizards here.
However, he felt sleepy all of a sudden, and he found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open.
“What’s... going on?” Angor couldn’t understand why his soul needed to sleep.
Soon, he lost the fight against the encroaching drowsiness and shut his eyes.
...
When he came to, he found himself floating somewhere completely different.
There was still emptiness around him, but the darkness had been replaced by pure light.
Also, Toby was no longer with him.
He heard a distant voice echoing around him.
“I can give you a drop of water. Will you accept it?”
“Who are you? Where am I?” asked Angor.
The strange voice repeated its phrase without answering him, “I can give you a drop of water. Will you accept it?”
Angor considered his options.
“Accept or not, what difference will it make?”
No answer. The voice repeated the strange question for the third time.
A drop of water??! What does that mean? And who am I talking to?
To make sure he didn’t cause unnecessary troubles, Angor chose to remain silent.
But it seemed the unknown voice insisted on pestering him until it got a proper response.
“Okay, I accept your water,” said Angor. Something told him that he had to make a “change” in this situation, whether it was a good or a bad one. Compared to denial, accepting the unknown gift might allow him to see a way out of here.
The voice finally spoke differently.
“Let it be that way. One drop of water, for you.”
A crystal clear droplet suddenly showed up in front of Angor’s face, which looked extremely shiny when it reflected the bright light in the area.
“Uh, that’s it?” Angor observed the “water” and realized that it was just water. Purified, drinkable water. Nothing special about it.
“I can give you a fragment of power. Will you accept it?”
The voice came again.
“What kind of power?” Angor asked out of instinct.
And when he thought he would get no answer at all, the voice suddenly said something else, “Unknown power.”
What the heck is unknown power??!
Angor hesitated for a moment and decided to accept it again. He wished to find out what this stranger was going to do to him.
After hearing his reply, a second droplet, which looked like a gray lump of condensed gas, appeared beside the water droplet.
Angor checked the “unknown power” and only felt chaotic energy hidden within it.
He reached a finger into the “power drop”. His movement pushed the gray droplet aside, which caused it to crash into the water droplet nearby. The two different-colored droplets began to mix with each other. Angor suddenly saw more water spreading below his feet, and it grew as large as the vast sea.
Did the “unknown power” just create the sea out of a drop of water? This is incredible!
As he wondered if the sea would give birth to wildlife, several ancient-looking fishes hopped into his view. That was not all. A giant tree rapidly grew up from the seawater until it covered most of the sea under its large leaves.
There were more creatures showing up on the tree. Soon, they developed enough intelligence to create a small colony.
A brand new civilization based on a tree and the sea was presented in front of Angor.
“Did this all happen when you mix the ‘unknown power’ with water?” Angor frowned as he failed to comprehend what was going on in this strange place.
The creatures living on the tree suddenly started a war and wiped out most of their population. A plague soon followed, which slowly killed the tree as well.
The tree crumbled into the water below, while the civilization was no more.
Everything went backward. The broken tree slowly disappeared in the water, and the sea gradually shrank into one single drop of water, which then became two, until Angor was looking at two droplets of different colors again.
But not everything reverted to its original state. Angor noticed that the “gray droplet” was tainted by some black and green traces.
And he could tell that the “black” represented death and destruction, while the “green” meant life and continuation.
The two extra colors swirled around and finally joined with each other until the gaseous gobbet regained its gray hue.
Once again, two droplets remained still in front of Angor.