Dream state
Ramiel P.O.V
I floated endlessly through a dark void that I knew was my subconscious. It seemed like seconds since I hit the sheets before I got whisked away to this never ending darkness.
I sighed, it seemed to me that the constant skirmishes between us guards and the thieves of the forest have been taking its toll on me. The fact that I collapsed like a log (or I think I was) proved that, since our first lesson ever was to always keep your guard up even during your sleep.
And yet, these days, the dreams of the same place have been plaguing me. Places that I have never been to, not like I could’ve gone anywhere anyways. I just waited for the same sequence of events to happen again.
"Yes my lord, we have prepared for the first phase of the invasion"
Suddenly, the darkness that surrounded me was gone, replaced with an ominous looking room.Lengths of seemingly red vines crept up the black walls, illuminated by some sort of light. At the center of the room was a throne made of gold, something even a king could barely afford.
I couldn't see anything clearly, but from what I could see the figure of a man that was surrounded with some sort of white light, with eyes glowing a pure white.
And yet, for some reason despite this appearance, all the hairs on my body stood up and I shivered unconsciously.
Something…unnatural
And no, I hadn’t seen any monsters before. The only inhumans I had ever seen were beastmen, but what that “thing” was, something was clearly not right.
He looked like a normal man, minus the glowing white eyes that showed no essence of life yet belonged to a moving individual.
This was indeed the same place that I had been dreaming of for the past few days but…there was usually only the room and nowhere else.
I could in fact assume that this was a raw figment of my imagination or possibly find a paladin or a priest to purge these dreams, but for some reason I wanted to see them.
I felt it,
I wanted to, no- I had to see it with my own eyes like I was possessed by some diabolical creature that forced my eyes on to the scene in front of me instead of going back to reality.
My eyes trailed upwards from the man kneeling to another on the golden throne, I would’ve called it a man but I could only see the shadowy outline of something that was very clearly not human.
“Do not fail me, hundreds of years of preparations have led to this point. You say you control those foul creatures and that foul disease well, then destroy those mortals from the inside then form a proper army. Only then will I give you my support”
“I am grateful for this opportunity…my lord”
Though he was kneeling, the way the man talked was on par with the one on the throne. Yet, I still don’t understand what any of this had to do with me. I just needed to get out of here before things got out of control.
“Do not disappoint me, go now. It starts today.”
“Yes.”
The man on the ground suddenly shifted before disappearing entirely, almost like the fabric of space had morphed around him and swallowed him up. Just as suddenly, the man on the throne’s head snapped up towards me. Though just in my general direction, he knew something was here.
“...I know someone is watching, but who would it be?”
Suddenly, the air started to singe the hairs on my body. I knew this was a dream but it was so…unimaginably real.
I still couldn't make out the face of the man on the throne, but could feel the heat in the area rising by the second. I know it shouldn't be possible in a dream, but I felt like I was starting to be cooked alive.
“Ah, so Cocytus did end up betraying me. GUARDS, FIND HIM AND EXECUTE HIM!”
As the man on the throne yelled his command, masses of clanking armor could be heard outside the huge double door in front of the throne room, where I assumed that the guards were. However, that wasn’t my main concern as the man on the throne finally locked eyes with me.
“There you are you insect”
He suddenly swiped at me, making the scene in front of me fade away as suddenly as it had come, sending me back into the darkness that I was so familiar with.
Hopefully this was all just...a dream.
Unfortunately, however much I may have prayed, it really wasn’t as simple.
"hey sleepy boy, rise and shine!"
"hey sleepy boy, rise and shine!"
I woke with a start, groaning as I flopped off the bed and right onto the floor with a painful THUD.
I winced in pain as I heard the quiet, feminine laughter fill the room.
I swear, I just take one nap and this girl tries to kill me
Though, I really appreciated the gesture. A small town like this really didn't have much going for it other than the usual bandit attacks and even those were excruciatingly rare compared to other areas. The town is located in a snowy area where two out of the four seasons it stays frozen, making this town especially unremarkable due to the lack of produce.
I constantly have to oversee the imports of the town, where traders trek long miles just to reach us and go back with a handful of gold coins while handing us our essentials, though many root vegetables and such are still quite common around this area so we do have something to trade or use.
Quite useful if I do say so myself.
However, that was about it. Not much to rob or loot, not much to stay for. It was just cold.
"Damn it! Abby, why do you have to do this every time!?"
Of course, I wasn't actually hurt too badly. If I was down because of that, how would I ever be able to be a member of the town guards (though the criterion wasn't too high to begin with).
At the edge of my bed that I had collapsed in after my morning shift was Abagail, or who I affectionally call Abby. She had long, ginger hair that ran down her shoulders and back, with quite a slim figure despite the cold and harshness of the climate.
At this very moment, she was wearing a loose red fleece as well as leather pants, compared to the leather armor that I hadn't bothered to take off before crashing into bed I would say she looked much comfier.
Oh yeah, she's also my girlfriend.
I've lived with her family for as long as I remember, from what I was told I was an orphan from the very beginning. Being born from parents that soon died in the war of territories a few years back, I was one of the survivors of the war and Abagail's mother decided to take me in as one of their own. Though I don't think her father was too happy with us starting a relationship, he had to grudgingly agree to it due to her mother's probing.
Thus started my less-depressing life in a small town, though it may have been quite boring, I felt like I had enough of war and terror for one lifetime.
Abagail smirked at my pain, though I can wholeheartedly say that I love her with all my heart, she is quite literally the devil's incarnate sometimes.
"Well, obviously you're a bit lacking if you get scared by just that! Don't worry, if you get carried away by some bandits I'll come save you darling" she said with a wider smirk, patting my head.
"Way to kick me when I'm down, literally! But seriously, did you have to wake me up this way?"
At this, she glanced out the door she just came through. My room was on the second floor of the two floor house we bought. Her parent's paid for most of it, especially because we were living right across the street from them. Though we felt kind of bad for making them pay for everything, we were better off than most of the farmers or peasants because her mom was a carpenter and her dad was a general merchant, we were middle-upper class despite where we were living.
But where Abby was looking at was the main entrance, which was right below my room. She poked her head out to check something before coming back in.
"A few of your co-workers are down there waiting for you. I passed them on my way back after I finished my shift, they said that Dillon was still recovering from that wound the bandits gave him on the last raid so they need a back up and you were the closest one. You going or should I tell them to find someone else?"
I groaned at this. If someone really couldn't take a guard rotation that meant one of the off-duty guards needed to fill in their place until they could return, which was really a pain.
See- I could turn it down but whoever agrees to fill in the spot get's paid double the wage by the hour soooo
"Alright, it's fine I'll do it. It's not like I do much after the morning shift anyways so I'll do one more. You might actually have to drag me out of bed tomorrow though haha"
I dusted myself off before grabbing my sword and leather tunic. This village wasn't as well equipped as larger cities so the guards could only afford to wear leather armor instead of the shiny steel that those guys in the capital cities wear but leather get's the job done and it's a whole lot lighter, you win some and you lose some I suppose.
Abby put a hand on my shoulder before lightly pushing me towards the door.
"You'll be fine, I was out there at noon and literally nothing was going on. Not even a deer or something came out, it's all clear"
And yes, Abagail was also part of the guards. I was part of the group that guarded the roads and outskirts of town while she was one of the sentries up on the tower. Unfortunately, she didn't like using a sword or spear which really sucked, we could've been partners in crime if that were the case. (We pissed a lot of people off)
She pressed a soft kiss to my cheek before patting my back, I headed towards the door before looking back just to see her winking at me. I sighed at her behavior, but I would be lying if I didn't think that part of her was cute.
"Dude, you really have to stop showing off in front of us..."
"The hell you mean "showing off"? What did I even do!?"
"we're all single, while you're being all lovey-dovey with your girl all freakin day!"
We were making our usual routes around the town, I was with a group of three but I could see other groups going around in the distance. The town DID have an attempted raid a few days ago but there were no casualties that we knew of, the only one that was down was Dillon after he got his ribs bruised from a shield bash, which really winded him.
"Not my fault, blame yourselves. Anyways, we only need to make one more round before we swap with the other's right?"
The other two people in my group were Jacob and Charles, the former being a darker skinned, tall man while Charles was a bit paler and was a bit skinnier but could still use a sword quite well.
"Yeah, unless something actually happens we're just going back home after this one."
We made our final round near the northern forest, an area that was inhabited by a few types of monsters but mostly dire wolves which are large, ferocious wolves that actually hunt solo instead of in a pack.
Oh and also, they're cannibals.
I just think that's a pretty important part that may be the cause of their solidarity. Normal dire wolves stick together in packs, but some weird stuff has been going on in that area. So much so that even bandits and brigands have gone out of their way to avoid the forest, despite it being possibly the best vantage point that they could ever ask for.
Or maybe, it was the increase in undead presence. Zombies, skeletons, wraiths. Things like those existed of course, when someone dies but they are not buried with the proper burial rites and holy blessings, they have a chance of transforming into an undead. I have been bitten by an undead before and let me tell you, it wasn't pleasant.
I ended up getting a fungal infection around the wound and was hospitalized for a week. They weren't that strong and couldn't do much, but they're so full of bacteria and rot that they'll give disease to anything that it comes into contact with so in terms of long-term danger, they were probably more dangerous than anything in those woods.
"WE'VE GOT A SITUATION!"
Ah great, just what I needed
One of the groups off the trail had been the ones who yelled. They were patrolling partially into the northern forest so it was more likely that something would happen to them compared to the other groups. We were the closest ones to them, so I pulled my sword out of it's sheath for the first time today, making the sound of sharp steel grinding across the sheath as I did.
For obvious reasons, we didn't keep the swords unsheathed all the time since it was guard duty and we would only need it during a fight, however this seemed like a decently appropriate time.
"Holy- Dillon? What the hell are you doing here, I thought you were out cold?"
On the ground was the , supposedly, sick Dillon that I was filling in for. He was in his casual wear, despite being in the monster-infested forest. He was on the ground with a dusty shirt and cloak on, most of it having bloody rips along the sides. He had a knarly gash across his legs and left arm, but none of them looked like monster wounds.
A few more guards started to show up after hearing the commotion, crowding around the motionless Dillon.
"Guys, let's haul hi- OW!"
The guy from the first group that found him was going to lift him up and take him back to town but was suddenly stopped as Dillon took a bite out of his leg, making the man kick at him to force him to let go.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
"GAHRRRR"
His eyes snapped open, giving us a frantic gaze akin to a wild dog. But his eyes, instead of the usual dark brown, held a bloodshot glowing red.
I wasn't having any of this anymore, so I raised my sword above my head and smacked him with the flat side of the blade, knocking him out.
Everybody glanced at me, to which I just shrugged my shoulders.
Thanks to everyone for reading my first chapter for this story!
I don't know if it will get as popular as my other one, but I really want this to go far. This is actually based on one of my favorite youtube series from back in the day that's still going on, I actually left small hints throughout the story.
Anyways, this one'll probably be much more somber compared to the other ones. Less about being the lord of everything and more about loss, death, victory and sacrifice.
See you guys next chapter, hopefully I get on trending!
W.O.V
