Chapter Text
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]
The last thing Elias expected to be doing when waking up for his First Nightmare was to be coughing up mud.
“Hack!” Elias panted on the ground, weakly trying to stand up. His back burned with pain whilst cold seeped through every inch of his body. His brain felt like it was sucked out of his skull with a straw. Overall, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
“Fuck!” His small arms gave out on him, face planting him right back into the mud. He rolled his body over and spat out the mud in his mouth.
Everything was too loud, too strong, too… wrong. His voice resounded like thunder in his ears with the distant sound of water drops hammering into his ears. The stench of rot and mud shoved itself into his nose. Everything looked too sharp, too colorful. Even the feeling of the mud clinging to his skin felt unbearable, like a thousand tiny crawling hands. His senses betrayed him, and his body didn’t know how to filter it.
Elias shut his eyes, trying to lessen the load on his shoulders. He stopped moving and basked in the silence, trying to get used to the pain—to whatever he was feeling.
In.
‘Submit’
Out.
Taking deep breaths he tried to adjust.
…..
A few minutes passed by before he felt sane.
“Webtoons… lied…to me.” Elias let out his words in short spurts trying to catch his breath.
Being a 15-year-old boy, he was a big fan of Webtoons, especially dealing with the Nightmare spell, he read many stories of people waking up as soldiers, nobles, or comfortable beginnings to survive their first nightmare.
Waking up drowning in mud while being overstimulated wasn’t really an expectation of his. Especially the pure pain he felt. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he had a feeling it had to do with an attribute of his.
A few minutes passed before he felt the confidence to open his eyes again. He winced when he opened his eyes, but he felt like his brain wasn’t frying trying to compute what he was seeing.
***
“Finally, for Spell’s sake.” Elias muttered under his breath.
Staring into the sky, he finally processing where he was. He was surrounded by trees and greenery, most likely being a rainforest. And just his luck that he was feeling the aftermath of the rain aspect. It looked to be around dawn or dusk. He wasn’t positive as he couldn’t see the sun.
He decided to inspect his body next. He tried to sit up and his body obeyed. Stretching his limbs felt like pure bliss, tiny pops erupting through his body. His eyes widened from what he saw.
His body looked unnaturally pale with his veins on full display throughout his limbs. A tunic covered his body, seemingly made of silk. However, it was ripped throughout his body, especially the top half of his body. He shivered feeling the chilly air on his back. He had nothing in his position that would help survive out in the wilderness like this. No food, no water, no shelter, and most importantly, no weapon.
“I wonder what God I pissed off…”
Even though he appeared calm, he felt his heart sinking deeper and deeper in his stomach as time passed by. He was in an unknown forest, in torn clothes, with a nightmare creature somewhere in here.
“Calm down Elias. There’s still hope.” He muttered to himself. The spell would give him something to fight against this. To fight this nightmare. He stood up and swatted the mud off of his body.
‘Submit’
He focused on opening the runes he should possess and after a while it finally did.
Name: Elias
True Name: -
Rank: Aspirant
Soul Core: Dormant
Memories: -
Echoes: -
Attributes: [Prey’s Warning], [Parasitic Burden], [Gift of the Spider], [Spark of Divinity] [Anomaly] [Unwoven]
Aspect: [Fang of Prey]
Aspect Description: The soul of prey beats within your chest, straining against the chains of inevitability. A predator festers within your flesh-one that seeks to claim you. One will consume the other… until only the true master remains.
Elias stared at his aspect in confusion.
“I’m a predator and prey?” He shook his head before deciding to read his attributes. Even if he doesn’t understand his aspect, his attributes should still be associated with his aspect. ‘SIX?!’ His jaw dropped.
The sheer number of attributes shocked him to a high degree. ‘Even in Webtoons where the mc is overpowered, they usually only have 4, maybe 5 max!’ His excitement showed with a wide grin on his face.
[Unwoven] Attribute Description: “You were never meant to exist, and yet you do. The tapestry twists to account for you, but in doing so it frays. Impossibilities gather in your wake — fortune and disaster woven too tightly to tell apart. You may bend the strands of fate, but the strands bend you in return.”
[Prey’s Warning] Attribute Description: “Your soul was born trembling before the jaws of predators. You were not given strength, nor claws, nor armor. Instead, you were given the one chance all prey must cling to – the ability to feel death before it strikes. Your heart beats faster when shadows stir. Your skin prickles when fangs draw near. You are the hunted, and yet… that same instinct makes you impossible to catch.”
[Parasitic Burden] Attribute Description: “A foreign will coils along your spine. It is not yours, and yet it feeds you power. Before long, you will be remade into a Dormant Beast.”
[Gift of the Spider] Attribute Description: “Your body twins with uncanny grace, bending and leaping like the spider that clings and stalks.”
[Mark of Divinity] Attribute Description: “You bear a faint scent of divinity, as though someone briefly touched it once, a long time ago.”
Elias’ face couldn’t help but cringe up like a turtle. The sound of [Unwoven] alone sounded bizarre. He wasn’t meant to be born, and defied fate by doing so. Maybe it explained why he woke up face forward in mud? But as he kept reading, he knew it was worse than he thought.
“PARASITE?!” He hurriedly looked trying to see his back before seeing something. On his back, he could see green veins stretching out like broken glass. Even without his pale skin making the veins as visible as day, the veins were glowing emerald. Touching his back, he felt something like closed wound. It burned when he touched it, like it was healing. His already pale face managed to become moon white.
Fate was already trying to kill him. His body hosted a creature that’s currently taking over his body before he comes back as a nightmare creature.
A sharp tingling resounded in his head distracting Elias from his runes.
Watching Watching Watching
Rustle
Elias’ head snapped to sound of the rusting of leaves. His eyes locked onto a tree, staring at it.
Something stared back.
Its skin was pale as chalk, stretched over the thing’s trembling frame. Green veins crawled across its body like cracks in shattered glass, glowing faintly in the gloom. Eight eyes dotted its face, each one burning emerald, sharp and merciless. When its jaws opened, massive fangs jutted outwards, glistening with saliva. It looked as if its body was shedding, trying to shed what was remaining on its human visage before showing its real self.
It was perched sideways on a tree, impossible by human standards.
‘Submit’
Eli’s instincts screamed at him before a thought crossed his mind. He dashed to the side as the monster leaped from the tree to him. His heart beating in his chest like a drum.
Left. Right. Face.
The monster lunged at him crazily, trying to chew on him like a piece of bacon. Every where it swung, he read it easily, instinctually. He back pedaled right into a tree before…
“Whoa!” He was now looking at the ground. Both his feet were sticking to the tree…just like the creature. He was defying gravity.
A dark sense of realization hit him, a pit forming in his stomach.
The creature following right after, crawling towards him on all fours. With no time to think he turned around and ran up the tree. Turning around, Elias faced the monster. He was 20 feet off ground. His feet unstuck from the floor instinctively as he willed it do. With gravity taking hold, he viciously knee the monster in the face.
“RAHH!”
His leg slammed its head onto the ground like a hydraulic press, causing a screech of pain.
Maybe if he was in more solid mind, he would wonder if he hurt his body, but he didn’t care in this moment.
Scrambling on top of the monster, his fists flew with the ferocity of a frightened animal. With each punch, he felt his skin splinting, his hands dyeing in the blood of the monster, taking a shade of red too unnatural to be human.
“Pant…pant…Pant...”
‘SUBMIT’
[You have slain a dormant beast, Brood King’s Spawn]
[You have received a memory: Silent Cocoon]
He stared at the monster’s face, bashed in like ground beef. It’s remaining glassy eyes gave him shivers. He looked away, back into his bloody hands.
The sun receded, confirming it was previously dusk now night. Even with-it being nighttime he could still see quite well.
The moon shone off his hands, reflecting his face. Emerald eyes reflected back.
“I was right…” Even how bad Elias wanted it to be false; he couldn’t deny it. Not only was he infected, but he’s infected with the spawn of the Brood Lord. Meaning that he would have to beat an awakened creature that was a Tyrant at minimum.
It wasn’t a god that Elias pissed off, it was Fate.
A tingle went down his spine, with his hair standing on edge.
Watching Watching Watching