When Arian became aware of his surroundings again, he realized it was dark. He couldn't see anything, and neither did he feel much. It felt like he was in pitch black darkness.
And something weird was surrounding him, preventing him from moving normally.
For example, to move his arm, he had to push against something, not against a firm object but against something deformable.
It felt quite eerie, and Arian had to hold back himself in order not to panic.
The prince took a shaky breath and immediately regretted it.
Oh damn it!
I can't breathe here!
Alarmed, he spat out the salty consistency.
Liquid, this is a form of liquid, his brain thought at the same time.
And when he realized that said liquid left a salty aftertaste on his tongue, he almost felt relieved.
If he could, he would have taken a deep breath to calm his nerves.
It's just water. Calm down, Arian. It's just water.
I'm moving through water.
Or better yet, I'm UNDER water. The realization hit Arian as all his memories from moments before he ended up in this strange environment flooded his mind.
Right, he had accessed his former powers.
The powers he had gotten through forming a bond with a Quilin.
Of course, now that Sublimus had broken their bond, accessing his powers came with a lot of risks.
Like one of the last people had said, before the prince entered the vision: "He can access the powers, but his former beast can resist it, I don't know how it works. All I know is one can seriously get wounded."
Arian hated it, but what that person said was true. He had only been able to access the powers because he had won against Sublimus's will in a battle for dominance.
It was great to access this magic again, but Arian knew it would aid him only for a limited time. The longer Sublimus and he were separated, the less potent their remaining connection became. At some point, nothing would be left anymore, and Arian would lose access to Sublimus's powers completely.
Even now, he knew the vision he was currently in wouldn't be like those he had when he was still Sublimus's tamer. Back then, the visions could take days, maybe even weeks. He doubted this vision would last nearly as long.
His powers had significantly worn off during the long trip to the academy, and now he was possibly only strong enough to get a vision for maybe a few minutes.
Which meant Arian had to act fast and observe everything as quickly as possible. And after that, he had to make sense of it, too.
There was so much to do, but one thing was more pressing than the rest of them...
... Arian needed air. Immediately.
He didn't know how long he could stay without breathing, but he figured he wouldn't last longer than a minute.
Already, the desire to breathe was unbearable. The prince was tempted to just open his mouth and to just allow the water surrounding him to flow into his mouth.
But he knew this was stupid and suicidal. A few weeks ago, he might have chosen a different path, but today, he was a man with a vision; he wanted to know what was going on. He wanted to overcome his struggles and he wanted to win the throne for himself, be the odds damned!
Arian knew what he had to do. It was rather obvious, really. He had to get to the surface. He also knew how to- by swimming.
It all sounded so easy, and in theory it was. After all, Arian, as a prince, had gotten swimming lessons from a young age on. There was only one little problem: Arian was paraplegic, and since he was bound to a wheelchair, he hadn't worked out physically anymore. His body was weak, which posed a burden for someone who could only rely on his upper body for swimming.
Like so often, in the last couple of months, Arian had a minor crisis. Life was just so unfair to him! His disability felt like a cage, an inescapable prison, that no matter how much Arian tried, would never let him go.
Arian wanted to hit out, to destroy the cage, to break free and...
.. he stopped in his movements.
Did I just...?
Arian instinctively looked down, where his legs should be, but because of the darkness, he couldn't see anything.
Nevertheless, he was sure of what he had just felt.
Crazy, this is crazy, I can move my legs, Arian thought.
Does this mean that at one point in the future, I will learn how to walk again?
But Arian knew this was impossible. Even if the dream of it was beautiful, in the end, it was just that, a dream. Not reality. He was aware that in real life, being paraplegic wasn't just something that passed but stayed. He would be wheelchair-bound for all his life, whether he wanted to or not.
So he restrained himself from getting excited. This is just a vision. Not everything can be taken literally. But still, it was a nice boost in confidence, to know at least in his vision, he could use his legs perfectly.
And without any physical drawbags, getting to the surface should be rather easy.
Orienting himself was rather easy, because after he swam in one direction, Arian realized he had hit the ground.
While the ground was the opposite of where Arian wanted to end up, it also indicated where the hell he was. Arian touched the ground with his fingers and was surprised to feel something similar to the ground of the desert.
Hmm, this feels like sand, so maybe I'm in the ocean?
Why should I be in the ocean, though?
Arian brushed that question off, vowing he would come back to it later. For now, he had to find the surface. By now, he was really struggling for air.
Luckily, now that he knew in which direction the ground was, he knew that the opposite direction must be where the surface was.
Arian pushed himself from the ground and swam upwards.
It was so refreshing to feel the power in his muscles. Arian couldn't help but smile with joy.
He felt refreshed, like he was a different person.
His body, which in the last months appeared so useless and crippled, suddenly was able to do amazing things again.
It was a wonderful feeling. A feeling Arian could get drunk on.
Somehow, he even wished this vision would hold on forever. This vision should be dreadful, but instead, it made Arain feel alive. Something he hadn't felt for so long, he almost forgot how it felt.
But he also told himself to stay focused. All of this was nice and good, but he hadn't found the reason why the girls all had gotten so exhausted.
Until now, nothing had similarities to the incident he wanted to get clarity on.
What a mess.
Maybe his disappearing powers had failed to access the vision. Something like this shouldn't happen to a trained beast tamer like him, but then again, Arian operated under unique circumstances since his beast had rejected him.
Arian tried to brush off the worries. He had already taken the risk of using his powers (even though it was more instinctively than intentionally), he shouldn't waste it.
So Arian pushed on, and three swim strokes later, he reached the surface.
Finally, Arian was able to take a deep breath as soon as his head pierced through the surface.
But even though he could breathe again, not all his problems were solved. He still didn't know where the hell he was, and when he looked around himself, everything remained dark.
Most likely, it's night, he concluded, and pondered the next thing that bothered him: the wind.
It made his upper body freeze. Fortunately, the majority of his body was still in the warm water, so it wasn't too bad.
But still, it carried sand with it, which wasn't pleasant to breathe in.
I could really use my veil right now, Arian joked inside and only then realized he wasn't wearing one.
Almost immediately, he realized something even more scandalous.
I'm naked, I'm actually butt naked!
The only relief in this embarrassing situation was that he was alone.
Of course, this idea had to be immediately refuted when Arian heard loud steps in the bag.
It sounded like hooves, like a four-legged animal.
He hurriedly turned around and watched the large creature coming at him.
Dread fell over him as he realized who it was.
He might not see anything, but he could barely make out silhouettes. And what he saw made his blood freeze.
Oh noooooo... no way...
He would recognize this silhouette everywhere.
"Sublimus", he mumbled, barely audible.
He knew exactly what the arrival of his beast meant:
He had been wrong before. The fight against Sublimus's will hadn't ended.
It hadn't even begun.
Instead, Sublimus had chosen to wait and to battle Arian within his own vision.
What trickery, Arian thought bitterly, as he realized in what a bad situation he was in. Naked, in an ocean, and surrounded by an unknown environment, were clearly not the best requirements to win a fight for life and death.