Sunless(POV)
It had been quiet for some time now… strangely quiet.
Peaceful, yes, but in a way that felt too perfect. I watched Vasily hand fruits to Nephis and Cassie, his movements slow and gentle, almost… mechanical.
'He has been giving fruits to the whole cohort for everyday.' but hey! I'm not complaining.
I bit into my own fruit.
Warmth surged through me. It too warm. Sweetness flooded my tongue. 'Too sweet.'
'This fruit is… perfect,' I thought, licking the sticky juice from my skin. My fingers wouldn't stop trembling. I told myself it was excitement.
'Yeah.... this fruit is great, the tree is great.'
When I finished, I leaned against the trunk of the "great" tree. Its bark pulsed faintly beneath my back, like the slow beat of a heart.
'I never imagined the Dream Realm could feel this peaceful.'
The thought felt wrong as soon as it formed, but the tree hummed softly above me, and the wrongness drifted away like smoke.
A few days ago we were being hunted by monsters… and I almost "died."
'Those days are gone now,' I told myself.
The tree is protecting us.
The tree is feeding us.
The tree is watching over us.
'Maybe this place is perfect,' I thought as my gaze slipped lazily over the others.
Vasily and Alex sparred, their movements synchronized, too synchronized for human's, almost like puppets tied to the same string.
Nephis sat motionless, her eyes hollow, staring at nothing. Their was not even a hint of her movement, she sat almost like a carved statue.
Maya and Rebecca argued softly, repeating the same lines over and over, as if caught in a loop.
Cassie… Cassie was smiling at something I couldn't see.
Everyone was smiling.
Everyone was calm.
Everyone was obedient.
I blinked confused.
'Obedient...' Why did this word come to mind?
'But… something is missing,' a small voice whispered inside me. 'Something important… someone… something…'
The moment I tried to follow that thread, a sharp pressure clamped around my skull. Not pain—no, the tree wouldn't hurt me.
Just… correction. A gentle reminder. 'Yeah that must be it.'
'It wasn't important,' I thought, the pressure fading. 'If it mattered, I would have remembered.'
THUD.
A fruit dropped from above and struck me on the head. I stared at it as it rolled into my hand. The skin was warm, like it had been resting against a living body.
I raised it to my lips.
Took a bite.
'!!'
Sweetness flooded my veins, drowning the last fragments of doubt.
'This fruit is everything.' This tree is everything.
A shiver crawled up my spine, but I mistook it for joy.
The Dream Realm is full of nightmares.
But the tree… the tree is different.
It doesn't chase you.
It doesn't tear you apart.
It simply waits.
And waits.
And waits…
…until you take a bite.
And by the time you realize something is wrong…
…it's already too late.
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Raizel (pov)
'So this is the egg.'
Raizel hovered above a massive nest woven from thick twigs, gnarled branches, and the deep crimson leaves of the Soul devouring tree. Hidden within the tangled structure, resting in its center like a secret the world had forgotten, was a single black egg.
He descended without hesitation, landing inside the nest with a dull crack as several branches snapped beneath his weight. He moved forward slowly, letting the dim, eerie glow filtering through the leaves guide him.
When he finally reached it, he lifted the egg with a flick of telekinesis, bringing it to eye level.
The thing looked strangely wrong.
'A massive egg that seemed carved from stone,' he thought. 'Its surface shifts like storm clouds, shades of grey sliding over one another… beautiful in a strange, unsettling way. Smooth. Cold. Heavy.'
Beautiful to Sunless, maybe. But not to him.
Raizel remembered the illustrations in the book. He remembered the descriptions clearly, said by Sunless himself but still, the sight before him only made his brows tighten in faint annoyance.
'Maybe I've seen too many dragon eggs,' he mused. 'Gold, silver, crimson, obsidian… each one a masterpiece. Compared to them, this thing is just… ugly.'
A trace of disgust flickered in his violet eyes.
'Not impressive at all.'
He let out a quiet sigh and focused. Beneath the stone-like shell, he could feel it—faint, sluggish, but unmistakably present.
'Alive.'
His fingers twitched as he remember which bird egg it was.
This was the egg of the Vile Thieving Bird.
A creature despised by gods… unknown... and even by his "mother" too strangely.
"It went mad after seeing the reflection of —unknown— forever trapped in the depths of Weaver's pupil."
Those were the words written in the book.
But they were also the words his mother once whispered to him.
He remembered that night vividly, the rain striking the windows like some sharp arrow's.
The memory crawled up the back of his mind like a cold hand.
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Flashback
"Ahh❤️~hm~Slowly~" Raizel let out a moan as he gripped the bed sheets hard, he was now starting to feel his body losing his strength to pleasure and lust.
"M-mother~" he called her out weakly, pleading her to go slowly but it only made her increasing her pace more.
"Ahhh~mother~n-not~n-not~t-thier~"
"W-wait..... p-please❤️.... s-stop...**ahhh**~❤️"
As he felt her tongue harden around his dick, as the wetness and the way she was sucking it with such force, that Raizel could feel his soul leaving his body second by second
But she was also playing with his balls. Not able to handle to much pleasure he suddenly cum, while covering his face not wanting his mother to his expression.
"Ahhhhhhh~❤️❤️❤️"
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After an eventful night, Raizel lay sprawled across the mattress—drained, exhausted, barely conscious. His body begged for rest, but he was too tired to even pull the sheets over himself. He simply lay there, breathing shallowly, limbs heavy and unresponsive.
His mother rested beside him, completely naked, not even attempting to cover herself. She looked far too relaxed for someone who had nearly broken his stamina.
"It seems like you were enjoying it~" she teased, lips curled, voice dripping with satisfaction.
Raizel's eye twitched. He hated that tone. He turned his head away sharply, refusing to look at her.
Of course, Amaris didn't care.
Her hand slid toward his chest, fingers tracing the pale skin—before she suddenly pinched his nipple.
"Ah!" Raizel let out a sharp cry, instantly slapping her hand away and clutching his chest protectively. His glare was sharp enough to stab.
She only laughed. A soft, low, amused sound. Then she stood up and walked toward her wardrobe, still unbothered.
Raizel, gritting through lingering soreness, pushed himself upright. He reached for the glass of water on the bedside table—only for his gaze to freeze on a photograph lying beside it.
A disgusting creature stared back at him.
He picked it up, curiosity stirring.
The picture was black-and-white—grainy, distorted, not fully clear—but clear enough to outline the horror captured within it.
A silhouette far too massive for anything that should exist. Even crouched, the creature towered over a shattered stone pillar. Its anatomy was a twisted mockery of birds:
A head formed of jagged, bristle-like feathers that jutted out like weapons—each strand stiff, hostile, like even the wind refused to brush them. And from the center of that chaotic nest protruded a beak—long, narrow, and viciously sharp. Not like bone. Not like nature. More like a scalpel forged for butchering the weak.
The creature's ribs were exposed—not broken, not torn open, but naturally parted, as if its anatomy had been designed to offend creation itself. Between the skeletal gaps pulsed thick green light—corrosive, venomous, alive. The glow beat like a heartbeat, but whatever was inside wasn't a heart.
The wings were a tragedy. Enormous, tattered, spiked—each feather like a blade. They didn't move like feathers. They shifted like heavy shadows, dragging darkness with them whenever they spread.
And its legs… long, powerful, bent at wrong angles. The talons gripping the broken pillar had dug deep into the stone as if it were soft mud. One squeeze could annihilate bone, flesh, anything.
'Is it one of the creatures from Nereza?' Raizel wondered.
But the picture vanished from his hand before he could study it further.
A large hand gripped his face hard.
Amaris stood before him, dripping wet from head to toe, fresh from a bath he hadn't noticed her take. She was wrapped in a thin white bathrobe, which did nothing to hide the shape of her body.
'How long… was I staring at that photo?'
Raizel's eyes widened. Not in fear, but faint surprise. He had lost track of time.
Amaris' fingers tightened, nails digging sharply into his lips. Blood welled up immediately as small pieces of skin tore.
Her voice was cold. Too cold.
"How many times…" she paused, grip tightening, "…have I told you not to touch anything? HOW MANY TIMES HAS IT BEEN?"
Raizel flinched. A rare reaction. It wasn't every day that Amaris—his mother—shouted at him.
'Just for looking at a picture?'
Now he was truly curious. What was so special about this ugly creature?
But his thoughts vanished the moment she shoved him down onto the bed. In one swift motion, she cuffed both his wrists and ankles to the frame.
Metal clicked shut with finality.
"Get ready for your punishment," she said coldly. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned her weapon.
A long metallic whip.
Raizel recognized it immediately.
Urumi.
The same weapon she used on him when he was five… maybe six.
'For her to bring that out now… I really shouldn't have touched the picture.'
But what was done was done. Complaining wouldn't change anything.
He exhaled softly and asked, voice steady,
"Before you punish me, at least tell me the origin of the picture."
Amaris paused mid-swing.
Silence stretched. Then she spoke, each word clipped and stiff.
"That picture is of a Cursed Terror Nightmare-class creature. Its name is the Vile Thieving Bird. A creature hated by gods, by monsters, by everything."
She frowned deeply, lips twitching.
"It's an ugly bird. And it steals anything shiny."
Her voice wavered. "That thing stole my red necklace. My precious one. Do you know how expensive it was? It was old, rare, studded with diamonds-"
Raizel blinked.
Was she crying?
It looked like tears. He wasn't sure. Maybe exhaustion was playing tricks on him.
Amaris continued ranting—furious, dramatic—about her necklace, its price, its rarity, every diamond, every sentimental detail.
Raizel waited.
When she finished, she inhaled sharply, expression hardening.
"Anyway. You're still getting punished."
And before he could say anything, she lashed the Urumi down on him.
The whip cracked.
Raizel screamed.
She did not stop.
She did not care.
She punished him until her anger was satisfied.
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Flashback end
'Yeah that not a good night at all.' Raizel could still feel the pain between his leg's.
Moving back to the present, he has a question in his mind.
How did Amaris know about Vile Thieving Bird ?
'From what i know is that Sunless was only able to know of these things was because it was written on the descriptions of the "Drop of ichor" memory.'
'So how did she know ?'
As he was thinking about this when someone called him out.
"Raizel what are you doing here ?"