Bari walked for several hours among the crimson labyrinth before he was finally bathed in the shade of the Dark City. It wasn't anything new to himself, its walls were as bland from a distance as it was up close. His eyes made clarity of distance irrelevant to a major extent.
He had been observing the Dark City since the first day he landed upon the dream realm.
It was as much of a depressing sight as it was motivating. The Dark City was a large ruined landscape surrounded by black walls hundreds of metres high. This wall protected everything inside from the dark sea and its ocean like nightmares. Amongst the ruins of the city, a magnificent castle stood on a hill in the middle of the ruins of its dark streets. It looks like something out of a legend. Its walls were built from radiant white stoner, with tall towers and majestic spires piercing the sky. It stands above the city like a symbol of hope, the only thing that seems to be untouched by the darkness.
It was also where hundreds of Sleepers resided within. Bari found it quite intriguing the first time he saw such a visage, who would have guessed that out of all places within the Dream Realm to be lost, hundreds of sleepers would be gathered there.
Bari had been curious about everything concerning the safe haven the sleepers managed to create for themselves, from how they kept their population fed, to their daily activities. However, he had maintained minimal observation of the ongoings of the city, when you can figure everything out at a simple glance, you'll try to create your own opportunity for surprises.
Reaching both hands out to grasp the brick like wall's small edges, Bari pushed himself off the ground and started climbing the wall with little effort. He imagined that if an ordinary sleeper could climb these walls, so could he.
Things started off fine at first, but then the gaps started to widen and widen until eventually, he needed to swing himself upwards with his arms and grasp the gaps he could not reach due to his height. Luckily, the process required both stamina and good reaction time to successfully grasp the small edges, two things he had plenty of.
It took Bari minutes before he finally reached the Dark Castles battlements and finally pushed himself over the wall.
As he stood and looked around, arms slightly aching from the strain of swinging and climbing himself up, Bari spotted a man walking towards himself with a wide grin. Bari's perception slowed to capture the man's visage in full detail, his first ever meeting with another sleeper in the dream realm.
The man stood at an average height of five foot eleven with black hair and big brown eyes. He looked to be in his twenties or maybe younger, he could not tell. The man wore a cowboy hat that did not seem to fit his steel plated armour. The man did not seem to possess a strong aspect, his eyes deeming the man a minimal threat before they even met.
"This is a very pleasant surprise, who would have guessed there would have been any more of ya rookies rocking up so late."
He spoke in a slow and casual tone, his voice betraying the slight tension in his body in which Bari's eyes caught.
Bari digested his words and responded with a slight nod, not knowing how to respond to the situation he found himself in.
"The names Judith, am a member of the hunting party of the Bright Castle."
The man named Judith stopped in front of me and extended a hand in greeting.
Replicating the motion, Bari introduced himself, his isolation reflecting in his lack of many words.
"Bari."
"Well then Bari, I'm sure you have many questions, I'll try my best to inform you about the place and answer any question you may have as we make our way towards the Bright Castle and settle you in." Judith beamed with a bright smile as he motioned me to follow with a motion.
Buri just hummed in appreciation as they walked side by side, stepping into a tower connecting the walls that would allow them to slowly dissent down towards the city streets. This was also the time when Judith decided to start dumping the general knowledge everyone seemed to need to know.
"Well.. the first thing you need to know is that while we are safe from the black sea and the ocean dwelling monsters, we still have quite a few nightmare creatures within this place."
Bari listened attentively as they started going down a set of stairs, his calm tense voice echoing through the tower's unlit space.
"There are tens of dead zones within Dark City, you will become accustomed to them if you ever join a hunting or scouting party."
"But!" Judith raised his voice slowly stopping and doing a spin on his feet to turn my way.
"You need to be and have a strong or reliable aspect, plus…" he trailed off, finger flicking up and down my frame.
"You also need to be strong on your own, which, no offence, but… you don't even look 12, kid."
I deadpanned, however, I did not correct him.
"My bad, my bad" he trailed off, chuckling to himself.
To Bari, Judith came off as a light hearted guy, which he didn't really mind. It was nice to have some social interaction after such a long time.
"That's alright, I got a scouting aspect." My voice brought him back to the main topic.
"That's great! The scouts are in high demand you'know. You could be set if you're any good."
I just nodded with a slight smile.
"Anyway, the Bright Castle is where every sleeper within the Forgotten shore resides. To enter the Bright Castle you need to give your aspect information, name, and speciality. It is recommended to give you a flaw if it endangers anyone, however, if it does not put yourself and others in danger, you can keep it to yourself."
"I see," Bari muttered.
Judith continued, "The Castle is ruled by the second lord, he is among one of the strongest sleeper within the bright castle, but also the most resourceful and respected. This allowed him to get the vote of all 5 lieutenants of the bright castle, earning the role of Lord."
"He is the one who allocates every sleeper to their positions, that's why you need to give your information when you enter the Bright castle."
Bari nods in affirmation as Judith points a finger up as if raising a point.
"He is also the one who leads the sleepers in the takeover of the Dark City." he finished off with a smile.
Their steps stopped at the set of stairs and were met by a pair of the doors that led to the exit of the tower.
Scratching the back of his hair, Judith smiles sheepishly before looking at Bari. "Im not the best at traversing the Dark City, I mostly rely on the height of the walls to occasionally remind myself of the safe passages through the Dark City, so if your any better than me it would be best if you take lead."
"Afterall, you did say you possess a Scouting aspect right?" Judith's eyes gleamed with interest."
Bari sweat dropped, "This guy's shameless, we barely know each other…" He though to himself.
"Alright, in return, you own me one." Bar spoke, side eyeing Judith.
"Ill do you one better, I'll give you a good word in for the scouting regiment if you manage to get us both to the Bright castle."
Bari blinked, that was more than he could have asked for, especially for such a trivial matter. But then again, the guy probably didn't know what his aspect was capable of.
Nodding, Bari spoke as they opened the set of old wooden doors filled with dust. "Stick close and don't wander off."
The Dark City sprawled before them like a corpse too large to bury.
Collapsed towers leaned against each other like broken ribs. Stone bridges hung cracked and crooked over empty streets. The stillness felt wrong — not peaceful, but expectant, as if the city was holding its breath.
The streets were a maze of decay and forgotten grandeur. Broken signs written in dead languages hung from rusted frames. Statues eroded into faceless sentinels lined the main avenues, their blank eyes turned toward the horizon. In places, faint drips of black water leaked from cracks in their faces, pooling in gutters that led nowhere.
Bari moved quietly, his boots whispering over layers of dust and grit. Every few steps, he scanned the streets ahead, his eyes piercing through hundreds of walls searching for motion, any pulse of life. There were many, however, most were too far to worry.
Judith followed close behind, the clink of his armour unnaturally loud in the silence. His hand hovered near his weapon, his gaze flicking between the shadows, clearly paranoid.
They passed the remains of a marketplace — shattered stalls, torn canopies, and half-buried wares turned to stone. A skeletal carriage lay on its side beside a dry fountain, its wheels half-fused into the cobblestones. A child's doll rested nearby, its porcelain face cracked into a jagged grin.
"Point out any death zones if we walk by any." Bari murmured, voice low and even.
Judith was slightly behind, got into step with Bari before giving a shaky thumbs up.
They crossed into a wide boulevard, faint distant sounds rolled through the ruins, wet dragging noises, too slow and deliberate to belong to wind.
Bari stopped.
As his gaze pierced several buildings before landing on something vast shifting a few streets away. A creature covered in shadows, its form constantly reshaping as it crawled. Long limbs scraping into the buildings like claws of tar. Its movements were jerky and unnatural.
His gaze focused, and the world narrowed. The faint shimmer of its two soul core shimmered to life— an Awakened beast, weak, but he could not fight it while taking care of a sleeper.
Without a word, he turned away and gestured for Judith to follow down into a side street.
Judith obeyed immediately, tension tightening his shoulders. His earlier light-heartedness was gone, replaced by tense shoulders and a silence of someone who knew how fragile luck could be.
They passed beneath a series of collapsed archways, the air colder here, heavy with the scent of wet stone. Every sound they made seemed to echo for too long, vanishing into the dark.
The deeper they went, the stranger the city became. Buildings stood at impossible angles, stairways leading straight into broken rubbles. Doors opened into hollow rooms where nothing but dust waited. Some windows swayed in the wind, giving the view of emptiness, and yet, Bari's eyes foretold a different conclusion, old broken mirrors reflecting nightmare creatures cloaked in shadows awaiting an ambush, their faint movement never gone unnoticed under his gaze.
As they continued walking, the dangers of the city streets became ever more apparent when Judith raised a hand, pointing toward a cathedral that loomed in the distance — its structure cracked and hollow, as though abandoned long ago.
"That's a major no-no," he said, voice low. "Marked as a death zone by several Sleepers in the past. Nobody who wandered inside ever made it out. Except the First Lord, of course — and that, from what I've heard, was barely."
Bari listened closely, his gaze drifting to the cathedral's weathered stone walls. The first thing his eyes caught was the desperate movement of a nightmare creature — crawling away with only its torso intact, its legs severed cleanly by what must have been an impossibly sharp blade.
A flicker of confusion crossed his face. He slowed, peering deeper into the ruined cathedral.
As the mangled creature clawed at the ground, Bari searched for its assailant. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see it. Only faint traces of what his sight recognized as True Darkness lingered within the cathedral — a living void, blending seamlessly with the shadows themselves.
Then, the darkness shifted.
What had seemed impenetrable began to thin, the pitch-black abyss turning almost transparent. Through it, Bari finally glimpsed the truth.
Something stepped out of the darkness — a towering figure, its presence heavy enough to still the air. It stood shaped like a knight of the abyss, emerging as if rising from liquid night as the true darkness melded around its figure just like water. Its sword blazed in motion, cleaving through the nightmare creature that had dared to trespass into its domain.
The creature stood over two meters tall, its gothic armour forged from lustreless anthracite steel. Every plate was etched with intricate engravings that told tales so horrifying they threatened to unravel the sanity of anyone who looked for too long. Upon its helmet, curved horns jutted out — remnants of wings that might once have soared. And within the narrow fissure of its visor, two ghastly red flames burned with indescribable menace.
A Fallen Devil.
Name: The Forsaken Knight
Attributes: [Strength V], [Regeneration IV], [Swift IV], [Durability IV]
He did not get a chance to further inspect the nightmare creature as Judith was already pointing out another dead zone.
"That is another one, it's filled with hundreds of Awakened Monsters, bird-like fiends that are the most troublesome in a group."
It was a toppled clock tower, frozen in time — its broken gears scattered like the bones of some long-dead titan across the entrance. The air around it hung heavy, stale, and silent, as though time itself refused to move within its shadow.
Inside, hundreds of nightmare creatures nested among the ruins. They were birdlike in form — twisted parodies of ravens and crows, their feathers slick with shadow, eyes glowing like faint embers in the dark. Their talons scraped against the metal wreckage with a rhythmic, grating screech, mimicking the ticking of a clock that no longer worked.
Though each creature was merely of the monster rank, their sheer number turned the place into a living storm. The flutter of wings and the whisper of feathers against steel gave the tower an eerie pulse, as if the clock's heart still beat — powered not by gears, but by nightmares.
Bari hummed in appreciation for Judith's keen information.
They turned another corner and found a plaza split open by a crater. The edges were scorched and glassy, melted by something unimaginably hot. At the bottom lay the remains of a statue — a winged anger figure reaching upward, its arms shattered, its face erased by time.
Judith swallowed. "This place always gives me the creeps," he muttered under his breath.
Bari said nothing. His gaze constantly flicking from left to right, scanning for any lurking nightmare creatures.
The streets narrow again as they continue walking, forcing us between leaning walls and broken roofs. The smell of rust and dust hung thick in the air. Somewhere in the distance, something scraped against stone — slow, deliberate, searching.
Bari stopped.
Far ahead, something vast shifted across the rooftops. A creature hunched over the side of a building, scanning for its next prey. Long limbs dug into the buildings, its fingers the size of Bari's head, it was covered entirely in a black hood which shifted and moved as if hands were reaching out trying to escape its insides. Its movements were jerky, almost uncertain, as if the act of existing pained it.
His gaze focused, and the world narrowed. The faint shimmer of its soul shards came into life— a fallen monster, powerful and far too close.
He could most likely take it on alone, but that was the problem, he wasn't alone. It pained him to miss out on its tempting attributes, but he reasoned he could always target it later.
He adjusted their route once more, taking narrow alleys where the shadows swallowed them whole. Judith followed in silence, his breathing shallow, his hand never leaving his sword.
Minutes passed by as they continued walking. The noise of different nightmare creatures fading after every turn.
When they emerged, the ruined streets began to open up. The cracked cobblestones gave way to dirt, and the horizon widened into a barren stretch of field.
At its heart, bathed in dying sunlight, stood the Bright Castle — its white towers gleaming above the ruin like a dream refusing to fade.
Judith finally exhaled, his shoulders relaxing as tension drained away.
"Damn," he muttered, voice shaky with relief. "That went smoother than usual. You are definitely an alright scout in my books, a deals a deal, I shall spread the word of a promising scout named Bari" Judith slapped Bari's Back as he laughed, all tension leaving his body.
"Lets go on, the road ahead is smooth sailing, you must be tired of your journey in reaching the city, we can grab a bite as you tell me of your journey." Judith smiled expectantly.
"That... doesn't sound so bad." I agreed.