The Dreamer's Epilogue-Chapter 24: Life lives on Life
Chapter 24 – Life lives on Life
Max and Emmie stood outside of the Catling Tribe, the two wearing modern clothes from past Earth coupled with traditional weapons.
Max stood tall, Caucasian skin, with dark-brown hair and hazel eyes. His face was embarrassingly plain, his build receiving the same fate.
A spear was wrapped around his white-knuckled fist, a tremor coursing through him as he heard the sound of the air slashing in waves.
"What kind of monsters are they?" Emmie asked, her voice like a muffled sound.
She was short, standing at 5 ft, with an objectively fat shape. Her hair was black with matching eyes. A whip rested on her belt.
"Whiteblooded Bat." The catling beside them, a humanoid with cat features named Gary, meowed, "It’s a beast that uses echolocation to control your blood and kill you from inside."
The words made Emmie’s face twist into one of deep worry.
"Max, chéri, I am really afraid of fighting." Emmie said directly to Max, uselessly trying to use a cute voice with her mockery of cheeks, "I only have one skill and I am not used to it."
Max looked at her, his face flat, but the Catling could see a hint of disdain appear inside his eyes.
And he couldn’t be any more right.
Max was increasingly regretting the fact he had used Oceane as a bait to enter the portal and not Emmie herself. Every single second with Emmie was a chore, and he was growing weary of her antics.
"Then if you don’t fight, does it mean I will do it alone?" His voice was cold.
Emmie didn’t seem to catch the tone. She smiled widely, making her cheeks fold upon themselves like piled clothes, and pointed toward a spot — toward a rat.
The rat stood on his two legs at 6 ft, wearing bright golden pants and jacket, letting his hairy chest show for all to see.
"Use this disgusting rat, Max!" Emmie cried, "The Tribe don’t like him anyway. Even if this thing dies, they will not care. They might even give us something. A New Achievement!"
The rat, who named himself Rator after gaining awareness thanks to the awakening, looked at Emmie with a grin, showing his two pointed teeth.
"Suck my dick. Suck ’em balls, even." He cracked, pointing at his lower body.
Emmie’s face flushed red. However, whatever she wanted to say was swallowed back as Max spoke.
"Don’t tell me what to do." He snarled at Emmie, causing her to flinch.
"And Rator, we already discussed it." He looked at the rat next, "You need to go out and scout for other opponents. We need the keys. Me and the tribe will take care of this."
Rator looked at him, locking his eyes for a long while, watching Max’s expression.
Then he peeled his eyes away from him, and swept them towards Emmie and all the Catlings around.
There was no mistaking in their eyes — they all loathed him.
Max and Emmie because they looked at him as nothing but a disgusting creature who gained awareness without right.
And the Catling simply because he was a rat, a species they didn’t hold dear inside their hearts. Doubtlessly, he would have died long ago if it was not because of the Tutorial quest going on.
Rator smiled thinly, eyes twinkling as he cracked a laugh.
"I am nothing but a damn rat, goddamn right! I will do them jobs then as you wish!"
He turned away without waiting for an answer and ran on his four legs.
At that instant the Whiteblooded bats were close to them, and Emmie retreated slowly behind the Catlings. They watched her with scorn, but were soon distracted from her cowardice by the loud squeal of the bats.
"Huro! Fire!" Max bellowed, voice trembling but steady, as he ran forward. Wind picked up around him in a small gust.
Behind, atop the wall of the Tribe, the Catling named Huro let his hand down. And his squad of dozens of subordinates fired their crossbows.
Rain of arrows swept down.
...
Thick, swirling black smoke curtained the surroundings, drowning the steeled lizards into complete blindness. The poor beasts were tracking around wildly, yelling and growling nonstop.
Emrys was within the same smoke, at the entrance, his face covered by a mask given by the blacksmith of the Tistis.
Victoria was at the far end of his left, her purple eyes narrowing into deep focus. Beside her stood her black hound with deep purple eyes matching the intensity of its mistress.
Emrys noticed something weird about Victoria. For all her shyness in talking and imposing herself, the girl did not act one second like a girl whose world just got destroyed.
’Or is she just strong mentally?’ He wondered, but then again, where did the black-colored hound come from now that he thought about it?
It looked too special to be something from Earth, or even awakened.
There were many things strange, but all that was just Emrys trying to keep himself busy and not think what this event truly meant.
It didn’t only mean he would kill beasts and succeed in the tutorial — hopefully. It meant that from now on, he would have to bear in mind and accept that to survive and grow stronger to protect those he wanted, he must be willing to kill.
Oceane had killed for him in order to enter the portal. And they had killed many Red Spawn to get there in the first place.
They had seen death, and unfortunately were slowly growing accustomed to it.
Earth was no more, Emrys knew. But it hurt to realize that the one he was must be no more. He needed to be one who must learn how to kill.
’As long as I stay Emrys Frost in the process.’ He added.
He had been reborn, {Mother} had said. But his mind was still lagging behind.
However, this event would strip away all the leftover hesitation he had.
"Life lives on life, Emrys." He muttered to himself, as he took his stance. His needle-like weapon raised, his body crackling with grey lightning.
"To survive, I must kill. To protect, I must kill. To be strong, I must kill."
Killing had now become fundamental. But Emrys was no mindless killer, and he didn’t plan to become one.
Indulge too much in something...and you would eventually lose yourself in that something.
His father would not be proud.
"Kill only when there is no other choice; only when you must."
And today was that kind of day. Once again.
So with resolved eyes, and as the lizards’ bodies became sluggish because of the poison of the Tistis in the smoke, Emrys’s body flickered as he tore open the smoke in a straight grey line — the air crackling and sizzling — arriving in front of a dazed lizard immediately.
The lizard’s slitted eyes dilated as it used its spear to pierce Emrys.
Emrys halted his step just an inch from the beast, leaning his body backwards just to evade the pointed tip at hair’s breadth.
His right hand then snapped like a biting snake, his needle penetrating the gap between the steel helmet and breastplate.
He touched the internal jugular vein, the sound like a popping balloon, causing blood to splutter out and the lizard to fall on the ground with a gurgling sound in its mouth.
Emrys lowered his head staring at the body, before suddenly staggering back one step in surprise.
Something formed in front of him.
[The Gift of Dream has activated.]
[You have killed a being. You have cut short its dreams.]
[Fragmented dreams flock toward you.]
His eyes widened, feeling a dull but fleeting sensation at the back of his head. All of a sudden, Emrys began to remember...something?
"W-Wait what—!"
His words were cut short as he instinctively ducked, feeling the wave of GeumGeum churning, evading a cutting slash.
Shaking his head to focus, Emrys put aside his worrying thoughts as he stabbed the lizard between the knee guards.
It shrieked. And he continued by giving her a furious blow on its chin. It broke, bending inward like steel, the head whirling 360 degrees, causing the lizard to fall.
Dead. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
And once again...
[The Gift of Dream...]
He had no time to ponder as the lizards’ attacks grew fiercer and more desperate.
—End of Chapter 24—
