Chapter 75: Into the Nightmare Realm
Azriel
Seraphel’s skin was growing paler by the second, losing whatever faint color he had left since I last looked at him a few hours before the meeting.
Just how much was he suffering in that dimension?
"I know you want to stand there staring at him forever, but if you don’t move right now and enter Odomos, you won’t ever look at his face again," Thamiel pointed out, his voice solemn as he spoke.
Letting out a heavy groan, I leaned down and pressed a brief kiss to Seraphel’s cold forehead before straightening up. I turned toward Taizel and Uriel, who were standing in the center of the chamber alongside Anomas, right in front of a swirling, glowing portal.
"Don’t worry, your little lover will be waiting right here when we get back," Taizel cooed, kissing the air with an exaggerated, high-pitched mwah, mwah!
I glared at him, shaking my head immediately. "He is not my lover," I lied, keeping my expression entirely cold.
I tried to convince myself that I felt nothing for him—that this was purely about protecting our vessel.
But deep down, beneath all the pride and denial, a heavy knot of worry was twisting in my chest. I cared for him far more than I wanted to admit, even if I refused to call it love.
I was never going to fall in love with anyone. Ever. That was the last thing a lust should do.
"Why are we even stepping into Odomos with our physical bodies?" I questioned, walking over to join Taizel and Uriel at the portal’s edge. "Why can’t we just travel through the dream paths?"
Uriel let out a long sigh, lazily stretching his arms over his head. "Because unlike Seraphel, we aren’t cursed to be here. We are going in to pull his soul out, and we need our physical strength if we want to fight off whatever monsters are guarding that dimension. Besides, trying to cross dimensions purely through dreams is useless. You could easily get lost and end up somewhere completely different."
I nodded, acknowledging the logic. I turned back to look at Seraphel lying motionless on the bed, my feet pausing before I walked back to his side.
"Uh, what the hell are you doing, Azriel? We don’t have time for this," Anomas warned, his brows furrowing.
Ignoring him, I reached up, unclasped one of the crimson gem necklaces from around my neck, and gently draped it around Seraphel’s throat. The blood-red stone rested against his pale skin, glowing faint with my energy.
"Hold onto this for me until I get back," I muttered quietly, pressing one final kiss to his forehead before turning back to the portal.
Taizel offered me a playful wink the moment I reached them. "Ah, the things we do for love," he hummed softly.
I rolled my eyes, refusing to give him a reaction, and stepped into the light.
"Both of you, take my hands," Uriel instructed from the center, holding his arms out.
I gripped his hand firmly while Taizel took the other. We gave him a single nod, signaling we were ready.
"I just hope we aren’t too late," Uriel murmured as the portal began to collapse around us.
"Anomas!" I yelled over the rushing noise right before the light closed completely. "Take care of Seraphel until I return!"
Before I could hear his answer, the portal sealed shut, swallowing us whole.
We hurtled through a shifting vortex of blinding colors, holding tightly to Uriel’s hands as the dimensional currents pulled at us. Moments later, the exit opened directly in the middle of a dense, shadowy forest. We were thrown out into the open air, but instead of crashing into the dirt, we landed smoothly on a floating, woven mat that Taizel summoned beneath our feet just in time.
"So, where do we go from here?" I asked, scanning the endless line of dark, silent trees. I expected to see Seraphel’s soul hovering somewhere nearby, but there was nothing.
I couldn’t even feel his presence. The mate bond felt completely hollow, like shouting into a void.
There was no trace of him at all.
"I can’t feel him," I said, turning sharply to Uriel. "Are you sure we landed in Odomos?"
"I need absolute quiet if I am going to track him down," Uriel replied, his tone sharp and completely commanding.
I didn’t flinch.
In the physical realm, Uriel was a lazy, sleeping sloth, but inside dream dimensions, his focus was razor-sharp and entirely active. This was his true domain.
"And how are you going to locate him?" I asked.
Uriel sank onto the floating mat, crossing his legs in a meditative stance. "I am searching for his soul’s echo. I need to find it fast, or the shifting nature of this realm will hide him from us completely."
"I—" I started to ask another question, but Taizel quickly put a finger to his lips, shushing me. He pointed toward a nearby tree dripping with strange, glittering purple fruits, a light chuckle escaping his lips.
"Do you think those are edible?" Taizel asked, his eyes practically sparkling.
"Really, Taizel? Right now?" I snapped. "That is what you are focusing on?"
Taizel shrugged casually. "What do you expect, brother? Travelling all the way from Katula to this dimension completely drained me. I need to replenish my energy."
Without waiting for an answer, he stretched his arm forward. His limb extended unnaturally, growing longer and longer until his fingers wrapped around one of the ripe fruits. He pulled it back, holding it up with an excited grin.
I rolled my eyes and looked away, but within seconds, I noticed the sky above us violently darkening, turning into a bruised, pitch-black color the exact moment Taizel plucked the fruit.
I looked back at the tree and watched as its trunk withered and rotted in real-time.
My eyes snapped to Taizel, who was just about to lift the fruit to his mouth.
"No!" I roared.
In a flash of speed, I vanished from Uriel’s side and reappeared beside Taizel, kicking the fruit right out of his grip before his teeth could touch it.
The fruit hit the mat, turning jet-black in the blink of an eye before crumbling into a pile of ash that blew away in the wind.
"What the hell, Azriel?" Taizel yelled, stumbling back. "I was just trying to—"
"Look at the tree!" I cut him off, pointing at the withered bark. "Your gluttony almost got us killed."
Taizel stared in shock as the entire tree dissolved into mist. The dark forest around us began to warp and fade away, the trees melting into thin air until the illusion shattered completely. Suddenly, the three of us were standing right in front of a gigantic, ancient stone wall that stretches infinitely into the dark sky.
A loud, booming laugh echoed from behind the stone, followed by another, until a chorus of mocking voices filled the air, speaking in unison.
"I thought I was going to trap a few Deadly Sins and seal them in this dimension forever... but you are far too sharp," the voices echoed, repeating the words over and over.
And stopped after ten times.
Taizel whirled around, glaring at the empty air. "Who the hell are you? Show yourself if you think you’re so powerful! I dare you!"
"That is the Guardian of Odomos," Uriel said quietly, rising from his seat and rubbing his eyes. "You almost fell directly into their trap, Taizel, because you couldn’t control your hunger." He let out a soft sigh, turning his gaze toward me. "Your instincts are as sharp as ever, Azriel. You saved us from being trapped here."
"I did what I had to do," I replied, my eyes fixed entirely on the massive structure in front of us.
The stone wall began to groan, a massive crack splitting right down the middle. Heavy dust poured from the fissure as the wall slowly parted, crumbling into nothingness until the path ahead was clear.
"Oh, wow..." Taizel breathed, staring at the landscape on the other side.
The sky above was a deep, blood-red hue, casting an eerie glow over a barren, cracked wasteland that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Did you locate Seraphel?" I asked, turning to Uriel.
Uriel nodded solemnly. "I know where he is, and I can get us to him quickly. Hold onto my hands." He paused, looking at me with a serious expression. "But you need to be prepared, Azriel. His mind is severely fractured right now. He can no longer tell what is real and what is part of the nightmare. Convincing him that we are actually here to save him—especially you—is going to be nearly impossible."
I took a deep, heavy breath, the weight of his words settling into my chest as I stared into the red wasteland, wondering what kind of nightmare Seraphel was currently suffering through.
And it was all because of me.