Ren expected to see a panoramic view from above, a descent just like in his first nightmare.
But this time, everything was completely different. The moment Spell's greeting ended, Ren quickly realized his situation, he was sinking into water, his body crushed by the pressure of the ocean, making it hard to breathe.
The salty seawater forced the air out of his mouth. Worse still, he couldn't see anything.
His eyes were completely paralyzed.
Where was he?
The sharp taste of salt suggested one thing, he was in the sea.
There was only one sea Ren knew of: the one at the edge of the Dream Realm, a sea of storms and stars. A slight pressure lifted from his chest, but maybe that was just an illusion.
If this was the Stormsea...the place ruled by the House of Night with its floating fortresses, his next task was to escape and search for the nearest one.
But within his line of sight, there was nothing. Only darkness gnawed at his sanity while his lungs burned in pain.
"How deep am I right now?"
"Which direction leads to the surface?"
Disoriented in the pitch-black ocean, Ren relied on physical endurance to hold his breath for about one more minute.
With a desperate effort, he thrashed about and swam in the direction his instincts told him was up.
Among all his survival skills, swimming was his weakest. He swore that if he lived through this, he'd improve it.
Each second passed like a weight growing heavier, binding his limbs and his courage.
Thankfully, after swallowing enough seawater, he finally broke the surface.
"Breathe. Breathe. You have to breathe."
Only after his collapsed lungs filled with air did Ren calm down. He tried to orient himself by scanning the space around him.
"I just need to align myself with the strange constellations of this world… the House of Night's fortress should be...."
But…
There was nothing.
All he could see in his blurry vision were pitch-black waves pushing him along.
Above him stretched a void, dark, empty, terrifying...as if the world itself had flipped upside down.
What loomed overhead wasn't a sky, but an abyss trying to devour the fear of any who dared look at it.
Pure darkness. No moon. No stars. Only a crushing black veil.
Ren blinked rapidly, trying to clear the water from his eyes. The icy sea didn't just soak his skin, it gnawed at his heart.
"Where… is this?"
A terrible thought crept into his mind, breaking his composure. He shook it off and let the waves carry him, hoping to find land or something like it.
The ocean was vast and full of secrets. In the space between waves and silence, Ren swam.
He didn't dare make noise, using the current to drift along.
And he prayed that his movements wouldn't alert any predators...or worse, awaken some ancient demon that had slumbered for centuries.
As panic threatened to consume him, Ren suddenly heard something behind him.
He turned to see a vague shape, slightly lighter than the surrounding dark.
It was large. As big as a small car.
His heart stopped for a split second. His mind raced with visions of death.
But… after a moment, the shadow merely swayed like a lonely boat.
"Is that… a living creature?"
Ren wouldn't allow himself to be deceived. That thing could be bait, something meant to lure the unfortunate into a trap. Get too close, and a mouth full of fangs might greet you.
Looking around, everything was still pitch black. He wanted to swim toward safety...but what even counted as 'safe' in this hellscape?
"Damn it."
Gritting his teeth, his blue eyes flashed with hesitation before he began swimming toward the shadow.
It didn't feel alive. The waves seemed to be pushing it.
"Something that floats… like a raft."
Without another second of doubt, Ren swam with all his might, as if his life depended on the distance between them.
Because it did.
The ocean would kill him. Drowning from cold and exhaustion would be the most pathetic death for a Sleeper.
And even if he survived that, what guarantee was there the sea monsters wouldn't tear him apart?
The ocean, vast and deadly in both worlds, was already claimed by monsters.
Humans didn't have the advantage underwater.
That explained why no one could stop the invasion of sea beasts in the waking world.
They simply couldn't.
Finally, as his muscles cramped from fatigue, Ren touched the mysterious floating object.
His first sensation was that it was dry and soft...like silk...and shaped like a massive crab shell, wide enough for one or two people.
He climbed onto the slick surface, feeling the unstable roll of the waves.
Gripping for support, he found thin strands, tough and sharp like tempered steel.
The pain slicing into his palms kept his mind alert.
Ren drifted atop the sea with the strange object for several minutes, then several more. The dark ocean remained eerily silent.
Once confident nothing was surfacing to devour him, at least not yet...Ren looked upward to find stars.
But the darkness remained indifferent.
Nothing surrounded him but the void and the sea. In discovering this, he also realized he was soaking wet and completely naked.
To be fair, clothing was something he couldn't bring into the Dream Realm right now. He didn't own any Memory in the form of armor or outfits.
Still, the cold bit into him like knives. He pressed into the soft surface he clung to, it felt like steel silk.
Firm but warm.
Ren tried to recall anything that matched this black sea, but nothing came to mind.
He didn't dare move further. He lay against the raft and let the waves carry him into the night.
Blind in the dark, he closed his eyes and listened, the waves still lapping softly. Minutes passed. Then dozens. Then hours.
Suddenly, Ren noticed a slight shift in the rhythm of the sea. The long-repeating pattern had changed...something was moving.
He opened his eyes. This time, it wasn't completely dark.
A corner of the sky was turning gray. Faint rays of sunlight flickered on the horizon.
A new day, marking Ren's first moment of time in the Dream Realm.
And with it, the Dark Sea began to rise.