Asher looked around him, clearly in a trance.
Then, all of a sudden, he began to laugh. Not giggling—no. A full-blown, hysterical laugh. "I—I did it!" he gasped.
He touched his chest—no hole. He checked his thigh—it wasn't profusely bleeding. He looked at his hand—it wasn't mangled.
Asher laughed again. "I beat it! I beat the damned trial! "His voice dropped low as he slowly kneeled down, gazing into the endless cosmos below. He clutched his knees as a few tears streamed down his cheeks .
"I—I lived."
There had been a moment when Asher genuinely doubted he would survive. Yet, against all odds—he did.
[Prepare for appraisal…]
The spell finally whispered again as Asher looked at the runes in front of him
[Lost in the desolation of the nightmare desert, an interloper from another world stood between realms. Hunted, chained, and bled by those who called him kin, he endured. One betrayed him, and still he followed. When the terror rose, he stood among the last. There was no justice in his blade—only reckoning. He did not win. He made sure it ended.]
[You have entered from an Outer Realm.]
[You have defeated an Awakened monster: Stone golem.]
[You have defeated an awakened human: Eurys of the Nine.]
[You have defeated an awakened human: name unknown.]
[You have defeated an awakened terror: Skinwalker.]
"..." Asher looked at the runes with anticipation.
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: Marvelous! Your pettiness truly is Ineffable.]
"Eh?" He blinked at the runes before snapping, "DAMNED SPELL!" he yelled, "I was petty ONCE in the whole nightmare! You base my entire appraisal on my pettiness? PETTINESS??"
He raged as he tried to touch his runes. After all the blood and sweat he went through, this 'thing' assessed him based on his pettiness??
[Dreamer Asher, receive your boon!]
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Singularity.]
Asher's anger slowly receded as he looked at his true name. Slowly, his lips curled upward a bit, as he tried to hold a grin. "That's a pretty cool-sounding True name..." He looked at his true name again, his smile widening. "I may forgive the spell.."
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
Asher couldn't hold back his grin any longer. "Yes."
[Awakened Aspect Weight Manipulation is evolving...]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Sacred.]
[Aspect Name: Falling Star.]
Asher sighed in dejection. Alas, he tried. No, he really did try his best yet it wasn't enough to earn him a Divine Aspect.
Aspect: [Falling Star]
Aspect Rank: Sacred
Aspect Description: [You are a fragment of a boundless force, a fallen echo of the realm's law. Gravity bows to your presence. Your existence is defined by descent—into ruin, into power, into truth.]
Innate Ability: [Event Horizon]
Ability Description: [The weight of the world hums, and you listen. Where mass gathers, where space trembles, where silence bends beneath unseen force—you feel it. Nothing heavy moves unnoticed. Nothing immense hides from your gaze.]
Asher stared at his Aspect, so it seemingly transitions from weight to gravity..?
He sighed, still disappointed in not receiving a divine aspect. But he received a true name. So it seems he was very close to Sunny in terms of performance, Except Sunny's nightmare was simply, much more unfair.
Still, Asher smiled. His aspect was to his advantage as he was a physics student in his past world.
His past world...
Asher thought broke as the spell spoke again.
[The First Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
Asher suddenly felt a sharp pang in his chest. It was not painful, yet it wasn't pleasant. Asher felt his body change. His soul changed. Empowered even. Asher felt.. masochistic. The sensation was addictive. With a blink, Asher felt as if a cold breeze passed through him as he shivered. He looked around him to realize he wasn't in the inner networks of the spell.
'My Sea of Soul…'
It was as if he was in the middle of a nebula. Stars all around him. Asher's bright core stood still at the center. 'Better than the 7 wonders of the world…' Asher mused as he enjoyed the sight him front of him.
[Awakening Aspect Ability…]
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[Aspect Ability Name: Unbound]
[Aspect Ability Description: The force around you seems more malleable.]
Asher still looked at the space around him, mesmerized.
[All power has a price.]
[You have received a Flaw.]
Asher suddenly flinched as he heard the word 'flaw'.
His thoughts were interrupted as he felt an invisible force kick him out of his Sea of Soul.
[Your Flaw is: Emotional Amplification]
Flaw: [Emotional Amplification].
Asher's face went pale. He shook his head slowly. "No..."
He rubbed his eyes, hoping—praying—the runes would change. They didn't. His heart raced. The flaw was already in motion." Please don't do this…" he whispered, dread curling in his gut. Not now. Not when he was just starting to break through his introversion.
"I'm dead."
He was dead. A cripple.
How could he talk to people now? His social anxiety—already bad—was now doubled.
Twofold.
TWOFOLD!
"Ah…" A strange sound escaped his lips, somewhere between a whimper and a gasp. Before he could even process the panic rising in his chest, a familiar orb appeared—hovering silently in the air.
Then, it shattered. Loud. Violent. Echoing through the spell like a bell tolling doom.
[Your Memory has been destroyed.]
"Huh...?" Asher stared at the shards. From between them, a small, barely visible dot descended, pulsing with energy.
The dot absorbed the fragments, swelling—growing—until it towered over him. Asher's eyes widened as his mind tried to make sense of it. His jaw slackened.
Then, the sound. Shackles. Clinking, heavy.
From the center of the expanding mass, an arm reached out—inhumanly large. Somehow, impossibly, it felt larger than the spell itself, as though it stretched through dimensions. A hand made of void. Cold. Endless.
It reached toward him.
Asher gulped. He couldn't move. Fear rooted him in place.
And then—
[Wake up, Singularity!]
The void cracked.
Fractures split across the darkness like shattering glass.
A deafening roar followed, and the world around him burst apart—splintered into a thousand shards, vanishing like sand in the wind.
And that was the moment he woke up.
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[A/N: Sup everyone, I hope u enjoyed the first nightmare! I wish for your thoughts and feedback.
Also, donate some power stones if you got any.]