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"My sister desires to help you pass to the Nightmare Realm." Dream's voice was soft, distant, as if he were speaking from the other end of a very long corridor. "You do realize that place is extremely dangerous."
Jason met his gaze without flinching. "Yes. But I have no choice. Whatever loophole the Empty Hand is using to attack me, I'll close it."
Dream studied him for a long moment, his pale eyes unreadable. "Quite bold of you. That place isn't one to accommodate mortals. Your greatest fears will turn to reality there."
"I still don't mind."
A flicker of something crossed Dream's features...not quite a smile, but close. "I suppose it is as expected of my successor."
Jason raised an eyebrow.
"Hell," Dream clarified.
"Oh." Jason nodded slowly. "Yeah. I suppose I do count as your successor now."
"Indeed." Dream tilted his head, regarding Jason with fresh interest. "But you are peculiar. I think I should scratch my earlier statement." He paused. "Your fears won't turn to reality inside the Nightmare Realm. It seems you either have no fear whatsoever...which is extremely foolish....or..." His voice trailed off.
"Or?"
"Or you are special."
Jason allowed himself a small smirk. "I bet it's the latter. Death wasn't able to reap my soul either. Something about me being from the Beyond or whatever."
Dream's eyebrow rose....a rare display of genuine surprise. "Ah. I see. So you are the one Lucifer brought over." He considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Interesting. Admirable. But don't get complacent. Your fears can't be made there, but everything else can." His gaze sharpened. "Are you ready?"
Jason blinked. "Oh. We're going. Now?"
Dream didn't respond. He simply looked at Jason, his expression utterly serious.
"Okay. Okay, got it." Jason pressed the button on his desk...a signal to his people, a warning that he would be unreachable...then turned back to Dream. "Let's go."
Dream nodded. He moved his hand slowly, gracefully, and the air in front of him split open. A gate formed...not the jagged darkness of the Empty Hand's portals, but something smoother, older, made of shadows that seemed almost gentle. Dream stepped through without hesitation.
Jason followed.
....
They stood inside a long, massive circular tube made of something transparent. Jason could see the outside clearly—and immediately wished he couldn't.
It was chaos.
Worlds collided with worlds. People...if they could be called people...drifted past, their forms shifting and melting and reforming. Monsters the size of mountains crawled across horizons that didn't exist. Creatures of impossible beauty danced alongside things so ugly that looking at them felt like a wound. Rubble floated through the air....buildings, cities, entire civilizations reduced to debris. Everything and anything, the most beautiful of things and the ugliest of them, all converged into an endless, screaming panorama of existence without order.
"Don't look at it too much." Dream's voice was calm, measured. "That is Darkness."
Jason's eyes went wide. "What?"
Dream glanced at him. "Oh. Did you think Darkness was some sort of endless black void? Endless and empty?"
"Yeah. I guess so."
"Well, you wouldn't be incorrect." Dream gestured at the chaos beyond the tube. "This is merely a part of Darkness. Its utmost edge, where reality and it collide. All things that exist, and all that will, come from here."
Jason forced himself to look away. His head was already starting to ache. "And where are we going?"
"To the very edge of that Darkness." Dream pointed toward a distant point where the chaos seemed to grow thicker, darker, more hostile. "That is where the Nightmare Realm resides. Because it is at the edge, the Empty Hand can... somewhat influence it."
"Shouldn't it be yours?" Jason asked. "The Nightmare Realm?"
"Naturally, yes." Dream's voice carried a rare note of frustration. "But this is not a normal Nightmare Realm. This one is different."
He continued walking, and Jason fell into step beside him.
"Inside here are things that have been deemed deleted. Erased. Retconned." Dream's words were clipped, precise. "Things that life itself rejected. Mostly, it is filled with entities of the Dark Multiverse....a realm that none of the Endless can cross. A world opposite to ours."
Jason processed this, his mind struggling to keep up.
"It was created long ago," Dream continued, "by a very ambitious creature....or entity, whatever you'd like to call her. Named Perpetua."
Jason stopped walking. "What? Perpetua?"
Dream turned to face him, his expression sharpening. "You know about Perpetua?"
"Yes. Well, nothing much." Jason shook his head, trying to piece it together. "Just that she tried to take over Hell using Neron's help. But I defeated him, and she... disappeared."
Dream was silent for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was lower, more serious than Jason had heard it yet.
"Perpetua lives." He said it like a statement of fact, not a question. "Interesting. I thought she was dead. With her world." His eyes met Jason's. "If she is alive, then the multiverse will always be threatened by her."
He turned and began walking again.
"Keep your eye out for her. I have no idea why she would want Hell. But whatever she wants..." He glanced back at Jason. "It is no good."
They walked in silence after that, the chaos of Darkness pressing against the transparent walls of the tube. Finally, Dream stopped.
"We're here."
Jason looked ahead. The tube ended at a small opening...barely large enough for a person to squeeze through. Beyond it, the chaos seemed to darken, to twist, to become something actively hostile rather than merely indifferent.
Dream turned to face him. In his hand, a small pouch had appeared...made of something that looked like cloth but moved like liquid.
"These are the Sands of Sleep." He pressed the pouch into Jason's palm. "If you are in danger....a great one, one you cannot escape.....spread them around you. You will sleep. And you will teleport back to your office."
He held up a finger.
"However. This is a one-time use. And I will not be able to bring you here again. This entrance is unstable. It will close the moment I put you inside." He gestured toward the darkness beyond the opening. "Look for the massive dark gate in the middle of this place. I believe that is what the Empty Hand is using to influence this realm. Destroy it, and he will not be able to do anything to the real multiverse." A pause. "At least, not for a long time."
Jason closed his fingers around the pouch. The sand inside felt warm, almost alive.
"Thank you for your help," he said quietly. "I truly appreciate it."
Dream inclined his head. "Don't thank me. My sister is the one you should thank. She used a significant favor for you." His pale eyes held Jason's. "Do not disappoint her."
Jason nodded.
He turned to face the opening.
The Nightmare Realm waited beyond....dark and chaotic and full of things that should not exist. Somewhere in its heart, a gate needed to be destroyed. Somewhere in its depths, the Empty Hand's toys were waiting to be killed.
Jason jumped.
The opening swallowed him.
Dream stood alone in the tube, watching the darkness close around his successor. Then he turned and walked away, the Sands of Sleep already reforming in his pocket for the next mortal who would need them.
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If you Like this story! Check out my other story ! Shadow Monarch in Danmachi!
AND
If you wish to read more or simply support me just because ? than check out my patréon at
"https://www.patréon.com/Riadooo"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want !