Damian and Jasper had lost count of the days since they found the broken wreckage of Prophet's fleet. It was a strange feeling, it felt like they had only been passing through these much denser sections of the woods for only a few days, a week at most.
Yet the remnants of their supplies and the state they were both in were telling a different story altogether.
Weeks' worth of food was missing from their supplies, and the state of their memories as well as their bodies suggested that they had been in dire combat several times, and yet neither of the men could remember having drawn their weapons.
Their tension and paranoia were at an all time high, as every little noise could be a potential threat, waiting to devour them whole.
For the moment, they made a small camp in the middle of the misty woods. The trees were much darker than the ones closer to Bastion.
Their green leaves were large with razor edges which could cut even awakened steel with ease. The bark was horribly twisted, bending in ways unseen anywhere else in the natural world, back in their reality.
Time held no meaning in these woods, as no light could shine from the canopy to illuminate the first floor. Instead, the fog itself held an eerie glow which never seemed to change.
Their camp was small and practical, using large stones to form the edges of a campfire and filling the centre with loose wood to fuel it.
Even the fire's warmth failed to fully dispel the chill in the air as the two men stared at the flame, fear creeping into their hearts, filling them with a slow, insidious poison.
Removing some rations from one of the packs, they prepared a silent meal as they contemplated their situation.
From what they could remember, they knew they had entered the forest in search of any remaining survivors of the other half of the sleepers transported to this region of the Dream Realm. They had followed a trail of destruction up until the border of this strange stretch of woodland shrouded in strange mist, or so they thought.
In the next moment, they were completely surrounded by it and truly lost as they tried to find a way out. That is all they knew. To them, it felt like they had been wandering for only a day or two in the mist as they searched for a way out, yet more and more things changed as they walked.
Their memories collected scrapes and damage they did not remember. They had become stained with blood, yet they did not remember spilling any. Covered in wounds they had never received and seemingly growing a thicker facial hair every time they blinked.
To them, they had never stopped searching for an exit from the moment they had entered. In fact, they never remembered sleeping in this dire place, but they must have.
At first, Damian had thought it was a trick of the light, but as they walked, it seemed the passage of time was being skipped, as if their cause were removed from the effect.
That was why he decided to make camp for now, yet he had a sinking feeling this was not the first time he had made this decision.
///
Jasper's mind was in just as much turmoil as Damian's. The strange effects the lack of sunlight could do to a person's mind, even over a short time, were astronomical, so he could only imagine what it was doing to them in here.
Yet he had no idea how to fight back against whatever force of nature was doing this to them.
He didn't know if it was some type of demented Nightmare creature or a natural phenomenon, but would that truly matter in the end? Either way, they would end up being devoured by the forest, so he didn't really care about which it was.
His eyes fluttered as he looked into the flames of the fire. He felt so tired, more than he had ever felt before, to the point where he felt like he could pass out right there and then, but he was trying his best to hang on.
He knew that the moment he closed his eyes, he would forget again, and the day would seemingly start over. Another loop in an eternity of suffering, maybe.
He ate his rations silently as he stared at Damian. The older man looked rough, to say the least. His once-bulky frame was diminished, his skin pulled tight and a bit paler, making him look sickly.
His hair and beard had grown wild and unkempt, with dried blood and sweat, making them matted and clinging unnaturally to his skin.
Jasper was sure he was in a similar state himself. He could feel the stubble growing unevenly over his usually clean shaven face. His hair was untainted, flowing like a river of gold behind his back.
He trusted that Damian would come up with a plan, as he frankly had no idea what they could do in this scenario.
Sure, Jasper could simply run away at frankly ridiculous speeds, find the edge of this strange veil clouding their minds and continue on their mission alone. Still, he wasn't about to leave Damian with the unknown dangers lurking within the fog.
He knew Damian would do something, come up with some insane plan like he always did. He just had to hold onto that hope, and he knew he would survive.
///
Damian was at a loss.
He didn't know how to fight whatever was affecting them without finding its source.
To find its source, he would need time, something he desperately lacked at the moment.
He knew that if he slept, everything he knew would be reset to the moment they entered the fog, which meant there was no way to think about what he had learned about this strange ability affecting their minds.
He knows himself well enough to know he would have noticed the strange happenings many loops ago, so why hadn't he left himself a message?
The answer was simple, he did.
He had left a message. Somewhere in the nothingness of the fog, it held a clue to the nature of what they were facing, and yet he had no way to find out what it was.
The fact that he and Jasper were both in their current state meant that, at least physically, they were not being sent back. The effect was purely mental, which meant whatever he left must have been an object of some importance.
However, he had already looked through all their supplies and found nothing out of the ordinary. The only anomaly was that the notebooks Warden had given to them to catalogue what they uncovered had not been updated since they entered this place.
The odd peculiarity struck Damian. Why would he not leave himself anything in these pages? It had been a habit over the past few days, before entering the fog, to write down what they had seen, regardless of whether it was new or not.
The simple answer was that he would. Which meant that whatever was doing this was most likely alive, and somehow erasing all traces of itself without being noticed.
A creature like that would have to be powerful enough to ensnare them and smart enough not to kill them immediately, for they were most likely a source of food for the creature.
Damian's face twisted as the possibilities came to mind.
With strange abilities like this, the creature was at least a devil, hopefully of the Awakened or Dormant rank.
For if it was anything stronger, their chance of making it out alive was slim to none.
He watched Jasper silently for a few moments. They didn't need words by this point to know that the other had figured out their minds were being messed with, yet they had nothing to share with each other.
For if they did, they would have already left this place long ago.
A bold idea crossed Damian's mind as he looked at the young man. More accurately, he stared at the hypnotising dagger, nearly falling out of his grasp. With a deep breath, Damian finally spoke.
"Jasper…could I see your dagger for a moment?"
The young man's eyes were nearly shut before he shot up at the sudden question.
"Huh…wha..yeah sure. Knock yourself out."
Raising his hand to pass Damian the dagger, the older man accepted it with a look of discomfort covering his face.
He had thought of a way to send a message that wouldn't disappear, but it would hurt.
He readied himself mentally as he dismissed the left armpiece of his armour to carve a message into his own flesh.
Yet when he dismissed the armour, a message was already waiting for him. The message was short yet simple,
'The Other'
He was confused as he stared at the wound on his arm, it looked fresh, probably only a day or two old by now.
How many times had he already been through this exact thought process?
Yet the message itself was curious. It was different from the one he intended to leave, which could only mean he had already tried and failed with his current idea.
Thinking on the advice a previous version of himself left behind, he delved into his soul sea as he tried to bring forth the Other from within the depths of his soul. Yet there was no answer. He could not feel the presence of the creature with his soul.
He panicked, thinking about the meaning behind this. Fear made his blood turn cold as he frantically looked over his runes to hopefully soothe his suspicions, but what he saw was not what he expected to see at all.
He was confused for a moment, puzzled by what he saw before the pieces of a much larger puzzle completed in his mind.
How long had it taken for Damian to come to this conclusion? Even he wasn't sure. Being able to fool whatever creature this was was an impressive feat on its own, but this was pure insanity.
His face contorted as he couldn't help but smile, making him seem less human than he had been before, but that was only natural.
For he wasn't human in the first place, as the Other handed the dagger back to Jasper, it wasn't long before the two of them fell asleep at their camp.
A creature appeared from the fog.