Today was the day.
Elias thought to himself after waking up. He didnt seem much serious but tired due to thinking about Selene all night.
[The Sin Of Lust is excited.]
Mathilda barges into his room, with a bright cheerful smile.
"Get your fat butt up Mr. Elias!"
She said in a playfully cheerful tone.
"Okay okay Im getting up."
Elias sounded tired almost as if he didnt get any sleep. Of course, he didnt but Mathilda doesnt know of it
"Well the entrance exam might be a little tough for you Elias."
She sounded concerned.
"If you die on your first day, I'm not dragging your corpse home." Mathilda said, tossing his bag to him
"Thats fair." Elias replied, catching it with one hand.
"I'll haunt you instead."
They both laughed.
Then the door creaked open again.
"Lets get going Elias."
Selene's voice was calm, as always. Unreadable.
Elias nodded.
After they arrived to the academy Elias stood at the edge of the road, the sky above the academy already turning silver with morning mist.
It should have felt like a new beginning. But all he could think about was how fragile it looked, this place where he'd be expected to someone greater. Someone more dangerous.
[New location discovered: Dreamers Academy]
[Dream Sequence layer: 1]
[Participants: 312]
[Survivors (Estimated): 88]
May luck be with you, Bastard Son Of Fate.
The courtyard buzzed with tension. About 300 first-year applicants stood shoulder to shoulder.
But one figure stood apart—at the front, facing them.
He wasn't a student. He didn't look like one either.
Cold eyes. A sharp suit. Authority wrapped in skin.
The man raised a megaphone.
"Silence, participants of the Dreamers Academy's 1963rd Entrance Exam," he said with a grim expression.
"My name is Adam Schwein. I am the organizer of this year's test."
"You will all be teleported to a random location within the world. Each of you will be supervised by a second-year student."
"You may find yourself near other participants, or you may be alone with your assigned senior."
"All locations are guaranteed to be beginner zones."
"Your sole objective: survive and return here."
He paused.
"May God bless you all."
The moment the gates opened, the world split.
A flicker of light, blinding, sharp, unnatural washed over the courtyard. Elias had barely exhaled when his vision went white.
Then black.
Then cold stone under his boots.
"Wait. This isnt right."
Mathilda's voice cut through the silence.
She stood next to him, already on edge, her hand near the hilt of her weapon.
Around them stretched an abandoned city swallowed by time.
half-collapsed buildings, roads cracked open like old wounds, and a wind that howled like it remembered pain.
[Teleportation Complete.]
[Assigned First-Year: Elias Troum.]
[Supervisor: Mathilda Meier.]
[Zone: CLASSIFIED]
"Classified..?"
She whispered.
"This was supposed to be a beginner zone."
A low groan echoed in the distance—metal scraping against stone.
Elias's breath caught in his throat. He knew this place.
Or rather—he had seen it, once.
In a dream.
The city stretched out in broken silence. Every step Elias took echoed like it disturbed something ancient.
Mathilda scanned the buildings, her voice low. "We should find shelter. I can't get in contact with HQ. My communication charm's dead."
Elias said nothing. His gaze swept over a collapsed church to the left—its steeple cracked in half like a snapped spine.
The dream had shown him this exact place.
But in the dream, it was burning.
In the dream, he died here.
[Hidden memory unlocked.]
"The Ruined City of the Erebus."
Once the capital of the third dreaming civilization. Lost after the emergence of the first Titan. No current records in Dreamers Academy archives
You are not supposed to be here
Elias blinked.
"Third dreaming civilization?"
Mathilda looked at him. "What?"
"Nothing. Just.. deja vu."
His voice was calm, but inside, something itched at the back of his mind.
They turned a corner and froze.
A massive set of footprints trailed through the dust, each one the size of a small crater.
Five toes. Inhuman spacing. The ground warped around them unnaturally—as if reality itself had recoiled from the creature that made them.
Mathilda crouched and touched one. "Still warm," she said.
And then it roared.
Not far off. Not far at all.
It wasn't just any roar. It was remembered.
Like something deep inside Elias had already heard it—had already feared it once.
It sounded like the Erebus but Elias didnt feel the aura of the Erebus
The sky trembled.
[Passive skill triggered: Dreamwalker instinct]
Dream distortion detected: Level II Entity present.
Warning: Prolonged exposure may cause memory fracture.
Recommended action: Escape.
Mathilda stood, eyes wide, lips tightening.
"This isn't just a test anymore."
Elias nodded, slowly. "No. It's a graveyard."
Mathilda stood perfectly still, her hand gripping the hilt of her blade, eyes sweeping the ruins around them.
Elias didn't move either. He couldn't—not because of fear, but because of familiarity. His thoughts ran like broken film reels.
A dream.
But not just any dream.
He had been here once. Or at least… something wearing his face had.
"We need to move," Mathilda whispered, scanning the crumbling skyline. "We're not safe out in the open."
Elias nodded slowly. The wind whistled through hollow buildings like a breath drawn through broken teeth.
They moved cautiously, boots crunching over shattered glass and dried moss that had crept through cracked pavement. Most of the buildings were nothing but scorched skeletons. Blackened stone. Charred wood. It was as if a war had ended here, and the world had simply decided to forget it.
"Why would they send anyone here?" Mathilda muttered, half to herself. "This is way beyond a beginner zone. This city has… history."
Elias's eyes scanned the skyline. One building towered above the rest—a half-collapsed cathedral that pierced the low-hanging fog.
"I saw that in the dream too," he said.
Mathilda gave him a quick glance. "You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
"Okay, well maybe let's not go toward the cursed-looking tower that haunted your sleep."
"Maybe that's exactly where we need to go."
"You're impossible."
"Probably."
They turned a corner—and found it.
A wall. Old, massive, and scorched black. It had once served as some kind of city barrier, but now it was cracked open, vines creeping down like veins. Etched across it in enormous ancient letters was a phrase written in a forgotten tongue.
But Elias read it.
He didn't know how. He just… did.
"We buried the first god here, and the second one never forgave us."
He whispered the words aloud.
Mathilda turned sharply. "What?"
"Nothing."
Elias shook his head. The words had come to him like a memory. Not his own—but close.
They continued deeper into the ruins. The buildings began to twist the further they went walls curved at strange angles, impossible shadows hung in corners, and the air began to hum.
"I'm not imagining that, right?" Mathilda said, voice tight. "The buildings are getting weirder."
"They are."
And then they found it.
A wide circular plaza, sunken slightly below street level, half-submerged in a shallow layer of mist. At its center stood a statue—ten meters tall, faceless, robed, with one hand pointing toward the sky and the other resting on a sword stabbed into the stone below.
Around its base, seven smaller statues knelt. All of them broken. Headless. Forgotten.
[New location discovered: Echo Plaza]
[Dream distortion level: High]
[Do not remain here for more than 15 minutes]
Elias approached it carefully.
The faceless statue had no nameplate. But his chest ached when he looked at it.
He touched the cold stone.
[Memory fragment detected.]
Would you like to retrieve it ?
[Yes] — [No]
A pause.
"Yes."
Retrieving….
Warning: Incomplete.
Warning: Foreign entity detected in memory.
Proceed with caution.
The world slipped away.
A memory not his own.
Flames devouring the city. Screams swallowed by thunder.
A young man—barefoot, bloodied, standing on this very plaza, holding a broken sword. His eyes were hollow, voice hoarse.
"I won't forget you," the boy whispered to the kneeling statues.
"I won't forgive you, either."
Something enormous loomed behind him. A shadow with hands the size of buildings. The memory cracked like it couldn't hold itself together, and then
Elias snapped back, breath ragged.
Blood dripped from his nose. Again.
Mathilda caught him before he fell.
"You're pushing yourself too hard,"
she said.
"Whatever this city is it's hurting you."
Elias clenched his jaw.
Or was it trying to remind him?
He looked back at the faceless statue.
The pain in his chest hadn't left.
Mathilda shook him gently. "Hey. We need shelter. Now."
They moved on, away from the plaza, back into the maze of shattered buildings. With each step, the mist grew thicker.
Eventually, they found what looked like an old records office.
The sign above had long since faded, but inside were hundreds of ruined shelves, papers turned to dust, and a few surviving corners untouched by weather or time.
They barricaded the door with fallen wood.
It wouldn't stop something serious but it would buy them a few seconds.
Elias slumped against the wall. Mathilda sat beside him.
"You've always been serious. Even in the few days you lived with us."
"A version of mine died."
She looked at him for a long moment. "Don't say that."
"I didn't mean it literally."
"You better not have." She forced a smirk.
"Because if you die, I am dragging your corpse home.
Even if it kills me."
He smiled, barely. It didn't reach his eyes.
Outside, the wind howled again. But this time, there was something in it.
A name. A whisper. A presence.
[Passive trait activated: Dreamwalker Instinct]
You are being observed.
Mathilda stood up sharply. "Someone's near."
"No." Elias said.
"Then what-"
"Its not someone."