act49side

Risky. Are you not concerned It may awaken?

Does it really make a difference, whether It awakes in seventy years, or seven days?

What if I offer not my help?

I'll find a way.

Might this way have something to do with me? Such as, stealing something from me?

I will take that as a 'yea'.

...*sigh*.

Give me your word, you will not do anything too foolish in this dream.

If I violate my oath—

Stop.

There is no need for oaths between family.

But please, do not break my heart.

Yes.

Now then, drink up. You may take the goblet with you.

Just drink?

What more do you need to dream? No ritual necessary.

The elder proxy takes the cup and downs its contents.

As vertigo overcomes him, he attempts to support his body with his arms.

The stone table beneath his elbows had turned into a mountain boulder covered in moss.

He has never seen such scenery, be it in the chaos, or after he came into the mortal realm.

He is It, but Its dreams are too complex to be closely examined one by one.

Where am I...?

A battlefield.

A battlefield of void and emptiness.

The proxy hears Feranmut roar at Feranmut, humans swing their weapons at other humans, humans swarm Feranmut, before they are suffocated, crushed, and devoured.

He hears the pained trembling of Feranmuts, as massive human weapons are locked and loaded...

But he sees nothing.

Invisible Feranmuts walk across the ground. Vegetation disappears where they tread, revealing black and yellow soil.

Invisible entities strike the mountains, cracking them and causing avalanches.

But It remains still.

It is in fear, angry, in pain, but It cannot fight back, cannot avoid it, not even let out a whimper.

Is this Its... nightmare?

After the twelve of us left, Its dreams lost their visible image...

The proxy takes a step back, but even the mountains are trembling in the nightmare.

He can hardly keep himself upright—

Just because you're in a dream doesn't mean you shouldn't watch your feet.

Who's there?!

How did you get here?

Ju wanted to come personally to help you, but His brain has a hard enough time dreaming for Himself, much less entering another's dream. I'm more suited to these things.

Lamentable, is it not, that Sui's dream has become so torn and broken... fortune and misfortune are truly two sides of the same coin.

You are in Its nightmare, and you have drawn its lines, like it or not.

Look.

Hou points in the distance, where heaven and earth melt into one. Suddenly, a black silhouette emerges from nothingness.

Feranmut.

Humanity.

Weapon.

It all seems utterly unreal, like the picture books that some Yanese soldiers carry with them.

Flip through the pages rapidly, and the pictures begin to move, as though they have been subject to Dusk's touch.

I'll awaken It?

Quite the opposite.

A nightmare does not last long. Anyone trapped in a nightmare only seeks to wake up. This silhouette at least allows It to sleep a little longer.

Then, what do you mean by fortune and misfortune being two sides of the same coin?

Hou says nothing, but Wang sees it.

At first, the images are awkward and stiff, but soon they become smooth.

Not much has changed, except for a white shadow appearing within the black silhouette.

What is that?

All twelve of you took something from Its dream. When It let Yu go, Its old dream gradually blurred, and the new dream became empty.

But what was left behind was not a void. It was a mirror, waiting to reflect the first thing that enters this dream.

That thing... that man, is you.

What is this?!

You are seeing Its nightmare, and now a reflection of you—the you who filled the void in Its dream.

You told me about the strange things that happened to your family a century ago. Now, they have all come together... but in your image.

This is Its creation, Its puppet, and... the reflection of a reflection, which It is loath to face.

It's time to go.

Go?

What else? Do you intend to kill It?

If this is the shape of the void, then killing it might destroy whatever consciousness It still retains in the dream.

Your mind is sharp, but your words are terrifying.

You could not kill Sui outside the dream. What makes you think you can kill It in the dream?

I suppose, you could try it, if you are confident that you will be able to escape unscathed.

I'm confident... that I can take it down with me.

You don't listen to what people say, do you?

I suppose I'll have to fetch someone whom you care about.

Wang?

He wants to sacrifice his own life to kill Sui in this dream.

Have you abandoned your word so soon, my second-oldest brother?

Such opportunity...

Will not come again—

That's quite enough. It's time to bring your brother out of the dream, girl, or we'll all be in danger—

In this dream, this time.

I glimpsed the dream of your slumber, and my own reflection.

You saw the reflection, and the price was... to create an inexplicable foe for yourself in the centuries to come.

Having to face this again, you must be filled with regret.

What a terrible error. If I knew this reflection of yours could leave the dream and enter reality... I would not have left so easily.

Where are you hiding?

No matter... I will find you.

Yes. It's time to go.

Clearly unwilling to stay any longer, Hou waves His stick, and the three figures disappear...

But neither He nor Ling realizes that they have simply taken one of many weiqi stones.

The stone will shatter when they depart the dream, and Hou and Ling will not find the same hill when they attempt to return to the dream.

Don't try to find me again.

It's not worth it.

A black aura suddenly surrounds the proxy. The next instant, he has leapt from the cliff, into the formation of thingless things.

At the horizon, the beast-shaped silhouette seems to have been hit by something, letting out a wail that shakes the earth.

The grey-white tide of humans outlined by black lines quickly swallows the Feranmut's silhouette and rushes toward the proxy.

In the distance, it looked like a thin line; up close, the raging tide obscures the heavens.

Black armor, plain robes, iron swords, pale bows.

Yanese equipment from a thousand years ago in black and white, like an uncolored draft, surrounding the proxy.

The first soldier charges at the proxy. A spear carrying the afterimage of Arts rushes towards the proxy's throat. The proxy cleaves it in two.

Bring it on!