Chapter 66: Dream 2
Raiden stood motionless in the middle of a misty field. The dark, smoky miasma rose to his waist as spectral corpses emerged from the haze, their ghostly hands reaching to touch his body and drag him down. But he paid no mind.
His head tilted upward as he gazed westward. A full moon hung in the sky, its light mostly blocked by a towering mountain. Upon the mountain’s peak stood a smoky figure, becoming more spectral as the moonlight intensified, its gaze fixed on Raiden below.
He stood motionless for a while, head still tilted upward. But before long, he snapped from his daze and noticed the corpse beside him, its spectral hands clawing at his body, trying to drag him down. Fear crept in, and he leaped from his position as his heart began to pound.
He stood there with confusion washing over him, goosebumps surging through his body. He whipped around to face the mountain again—the figure was gone.
His mind began spiraling as he ruffled his dark hair repeatedly. He felt like he had been there before, but couldn’t remember when—and that gap in his memory started to drive him nuts. Though he had dreamt about this place before, it remained just a distant, elusive memory.
He couldn’t dwell on his thoughts for long before the corpses began to reappear beneath him. Without sparing a single thought, he broke into a run. Even though he would have preferred to kill them, his body moved on its own.
He sprinted toward the distance, but with each step, the smoky atmosphere grew thicker around him. It was as if the earth itself was made of darkness. Before he knew it, he was swallowed by the darkness, his movements growing sluggish as he lost all sense of direction.
He paused, his heart racing as he bent over his knees to pant. Suddenly, the corpses burst from the ground, seizing him as his eyes widened in shock and dragging him down into the darkness below.
He jolted upright, breathing heavily, his entire body soaked in sweat as if he had run a marathon. He clutched his head in agony while his eyes darted around in confusion. It had been a dream; a nightmare, perhaps.
He turned to his left to see Ash sleeping beside him, her face serene with a gentle smile as tendrils of smoke curled from her nostrils and darkened the sheets.
The sight sent a sharp pain shooting through Raiden’s head. "What is this unusual feeling?" he thought, suddenly overwhelmed by the need to take a shower.