Abyssal Awakening - Chapter 927

Capítulo 927: Plume

Alice stared at the screens. Her eyes darting through the Hunter’s perspective.

They were struggling as expected. Their reactions, even with the boost in strength, was slow. They made mistakes and died for it.

None of them cared and they continued to repeat the same mistakes over and over.

They were civilians to begin with. Sure they may get some power, but that was a trap.

As they return to reality with this knowledge, they begin thirsting for more.

The greed that invades their mind as they dive back into the nightmare with reckless abandonment.

They’ll continue to fight knowing that death was not the end in pursuit of power. Then, without knowing, their consciousness is slowly stripped from them.

Their touch on reality wanes and they become the lurkers that are eventually replaced by nightmare drones. Their flesh made puppet.

“Based on what you said, some of the dreams can’t be accessed. Monika said that these dreams each occupy a great deal of land and that I can’t run into them. But it opens the possibility so long as I can cross this distance.

“Yet you’re telling me that some are impossible?” Alice asked curiously.

Unlike Monika, the girl here seemed… Well, not to be rude but gullible would be one of the words in Alice’s mind.

But that could be a disguise so she had to take the information with a bit of salt.

“Ah erm… S-she’s not wrong. B-but it depends on the type of dream. The route you came f-from should’ve been weird right? A b-bunch of things happening all at once.” The girl tried her best to hold back her stutter.

But even with her best efforts, her eyes wandered from side to side, unable to maintain eye contact for long periods of time.

“M-most hunters are in the second layer. They’re d-dreaming but have control and the environment is stable. What you fell through is t-the first layer. It’s a erm… chaotic mess of dreams all woven together. S-some flashes are yours, some belong to others.”

“So… the impossible ones are those that are in a deeper dream? I’m guessing belonging to those that reject the dream, where reality and fiction blur together. At that point, they don’t know whether they’re in the dream or reality.” Alice mumbled as girl wiggled her ears.

“Then if we follow this pattern…” Alice narrowed her eyes.

“There is probably a subconscious layer where it filters through everything. Their worst fears and even their greatest happiness. Death is the key to how deep one can go I assume… So if I want to find Alyss… It’ll be difficult since my level of dream is different to her.”

With so many theories flowing through her mind, it was better to vocalise them out so she could hear how they sound. Otherwise, if they’re bottled up in her mind, the theory might actually be insane and make zero sense when spoken.

“Death… Death? Hmm… What if each death doesn’t reset- no. With that kind of primal fear being shoved in their faces, people should naturally wake up in a panic since it’s not being diminished at all. I can still feel the aftereffects of… death…” Alice paused.

Her eyes began to widen.

“Is there another mechanism in place that instantly sends them back into the dream? Is that why the main nightmare is constructed at layer two instead of being deeper so it’s harder to wake up?” Alice frowned, walking through the room and scanning the other screens.

If her thoughts are right…

Then the people were being exposed to death on purpose and in its most raw form.

To inject that fear directly into their mind, to turn it into a chaotic storm of thoughts.

Then, when they see that death isn’t killing them but simply giving them another chance, a sense of numbness is applied and attached to the concept of death.

They become fearless.

Only frustration remains at the fact that they died rather than fearing their safety.

And once that happens…

“Once they no longer fear death. They’ll sink further and further into the nightmare until not even death can trigger their senses of panic and wake them up. They’ll forever sleep. They’re not dead physically but they might as well be dead.” Alice concluded.

If that was the case, even if they accept the rules and progress, all of it leads to the same outcome! A blurring of the boundaries between reality and dream!

Reject the world and the nightmare tries to trick you.

Accept the world and the nightmare will try to keep you in the dream.

“A-are you sure you’re just a Hunter?” The girl wiggled her ears in surprise.

She didn’t think Alice would be able to figure out the structure of the dream so easily.

“Why wouldn’t I be a hunter?” Alice blinked her eyes curiously.

“Ah! S-Sorry!” The girl waved her hand in a panic, worried that she offended Alice by that question.

“. . .” Seeing the girl tremble in front of her, Alice truly felt like she was bullying the lass.

*Sigh

“I’m not that scary now am I?” Alice kneeled down as she lifted her own bangs and showed off her face to the girl.

Her split hair, the mismatched eyes.

But overall, not to be TOO proud of her own looks, Alice had to admit that she was a cutie pie.

The most adorable there is.

“Since you know Monika, you know how she treats names right? So why don’t we introduce ourselves. I’m Alice, Alice Agnelia. Your name is?” Alice smiled, trying her best to be friendly.

The girl in front of her was nervous but the information she’s given thus far has been very helpful.

“Ah! R-right. Names! Names… Erm… Your na- No! I mean my name is…” She took a deep breath. “Plumeaelivressandoria Sorynthel-Nessaevor.”

“The f*ck?” Alice cursed out of instinct hearing a string of unfamiliar pronunciation, tones and simply the size of this name.

“Hiii!!! I’m sorry!”

“Ah no- I wasn’t cursing at you.” Alice massaged her eyes.

The girl in front of her was an easily startled rabbit. If she spoke too loud, the rabbit will get startled and scurry off.

“I-If it’s too long… You can call me Plume. That’s what Monika calls me even though she likes names a lot…” Plume peaked

“Okay Plume. I won’t hurt you okay? I don’t know why Monika sent me through this path but I don’t plan on leaving behind a trail of destruction. I promise. I’m not going to scold you either, why would I? We’ve just met.” Alice comforted as Plume peaked her head out from under her blanket.

Starting at Alice for a moment before averting her eyes, Plume had a downcast expression.

“R-really? B-but… People start hating me a-after a while. Aren’t you going to be the same?”

“I won’t. I just want to talk okay? Can you tell me a little bit about your boss, this Nightmare and why he’s keeping you here?” Alice shook her head.

Hearing this, Plume’s eyes began to sparkle as she hobbled over to a corner of her room, still covering herself with her blanket.

*Pita pata pita pata

Her footsteps echoed out in this silent room. After a moment, she came back dragged a bag of snacks.

“Monika always gave tea and snacks t-to her guests. I-I don’t know if you’ll like these.” She offered her food to Alice.

“Since Monika sent me out this way, I’m not sure how much time I have.” Alice smiled apologetically as Plume seemed disappointed.

‘F*ck, my heart.’ Alice winced upon seeing Plume glance down with tears in her eyes.

But Alice didn’t really want to accept free food in the Nightmare, not after Monika and her tea.

“Instead, I can treat you to some food in reality, how’s that? It’s real food after all. Things like mead, spicy skewers, soup and so on.” Alice offered.

“R-right! You must be short on time. Erm…” Plume spun her body and tossed her food back where she got them in one fluid motion.

Ignoring the crashing noise in the distance, she sat down and thought deeply.

“The boss is scary. I dunno what goes on in his mind b-but when he does his thing. The thing where he sits down and crosses h-his legs and smiles. *shiver* That thing creeps me out. He j-just tells me to make sure people aren’t breaking rules too much.” Plume explained.

Alice wasn’t too surprised by the fact that Nyer was being secretive.

“And erm… You kind of figured out the Nightmare thing yourself.” She scratched her cheek.

It could’ve been the perfect moment for her to practice speaking more but Alice figured out the things herself, leaving her with nothing to say.

“Is there a way for me to find you even without Monika? I don’t think she’ll keep sending me through this path and I’ll be honest I don’t really want to travel through the weird layers again.” Alice asked.

Just thinking about what she had to go through to reach this place… Alice shivered.

“Erm… I sense that you h-have the guide’s privilege. S-since that’s the case…” Plume shuffled over to the side for a bit and placed her palm against the ground.

The creaking of wood sounded out and a branch slowly appeared. There were no butterflies on it but Alice could tell it worked similar to the other checkpoints.

“You should be able to come here now with your power.” She smiled happily as Alice resonated with the branch.

Closing her eyes, she could sense that, if she wanted to, she could travel back to the second zone if she wanted to and vice versa.

“Thank you.”

Hearing Alice’s thanks, Plume smiled happily and nodded her head.

Just as she was about to say something, Plume’s ear wiggled and she looked around for a moment.

“Ah! Erm someone’s coming. I don’t know if it’s the boss or someone else. Monika wanted you to run right?” Plume started to panic.

“I’m not sure what she wanted but I assume she wanted me out of the Nightmare.” Alice shrugged.

“H-here. T-this door will wake you up. You’ll visit again won’t you?” Plume showed a nervous smile as Alice nodded.

“I will, promise.”

Pushing against the door that Plume summoned, Alice found herself disappearing in a veil of darkness.

###

“Plume~ I’m back~”

“Ah welcome back.” Plume sighed in relief. She had dressed herself up and pretended to work in case it was the boss.

“I should’ve sent little flame-” Monika paused.

She stared at the branch on the floor.

Her smile twitched.

“Plumeaelivressandoria Sorynthel-Nessaevor. Why is there a branch on the floor?”

Plume paled.