I wake up!
Sweat-coated, I try to clear my blurry vision and lift myself to a sitting position.
My head is buzzing, and I have trouble focusing.
I open my eyes after some adjustive blinking...
and look at a planetary necklace.
"Are you kidding me?!" (I)
Kidding
Kidding
Kidding
Huh?
Who said that?
I look around, but cannot make anything out.
All I can recognize disturbingly are the sidelines of the eel lake.
Yet without eels.
All that remains is an abundance of bones that apparently accumulated on its grounds.
It seems this dream isn't through with me yet.
I have a weird taste in my mouth that simply isn't recognizable, but certainly not pleasant.
While I feel totally creeped out, I start to remember my last moments.
Promptly, I begin to check my body for any eels.
What the fuck is this!?
My hands are blackened claws!
Creepy, dangerous, yet slender-looking, elongated claws in pitch black.
And they feel normal.
Like my hands.
There is no discomfort or even a foreign sensation.
This is unsettling in itself, as the number of joints is one too many for each finger.
For some reason, I still have my nightclothes on, which look like new.
Taking my hands into account, something obviously happened, yet my clothes contradict that idea.
In the end, I'd best put this all on dream logic.
It might be better to get this all out of your head, Iori.
Just think straight!
Straight
Straight
Straight
Again!?
And again, I find no one around.
While trying to stand up, I discover that my body feels weirdly light and all my exhaustion is gone.
I feel good!
Really good!
Good
Good
Good
This is getting annoying.
Also, despite feeling well, as soon as I try to support my weight, I lose my balance and topple over.
The reason becomes quickly apparent.
My feet!!
My feet turned into some bizarre kind of beast paws.
I cannot really discern the animal.
Cat or dog, maybe.
But elongated.
Like in some of those werewolf films.
And black as well.
So maybe a panther's?
The problem with my balance is that I can with my anatomy now only use my toes to stand, which greatly differs from before.
Also, I start to notice some kind of itch beneath my pants.
The disturbing reason for that is that I apparently grew a black pelt on my legs.
At least it's silky.
Really, like a cat's.
As changes keep piling up, I grow more and more distressed.
Iori, calm down!
It's just a dream!
It's supposed to be weird!
Only a dream!
Dream
Dream
Dream
Once again, this echo.
Here isn't even anything that could produce it.
Trying again to stand up, setting my uncommon abundance of energy against distressing body changes, I manage to rise.
The paws I stand on are strong enough to maintain a stable posture.
It's certainly wobbly, but I can make steps.
Slow and carefully, to make sure that I won't topple down, but steady.
I again head in the direction of the touching point between the planets and walk forward.
This plane has really nothing going for it.
No redeemable points.
No change of this purple color.
Nothing!
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
That's extremely bothersome.
But I don't grow exhausted and can walk steadily, as these weird lycanthrope paws aren't deterred by the ground.
Even the sharp stones aren't hurting like before.
"Gruuuhhh!"
Wh-what?
Not again!
I look to the source and find a maw-monster again.
Panicking, I lose my already bad balance and fall on my knees.
The thing draws close and frantic, I try to get back on my feet.
Or whatever it is.
"N-no! Let off! Go away! I don't want this! Leave!" (I)
Like on command, the monster jumps at me.
My panic grows uncontrollably.
"Ieeekh!" (I)
Suddenly, billions of strands or tendrils are erupting out of me.
From my arms, my torso, my legs, and even my hair, it rushes out, shaping itself into the strangest forms of dark lines while crossing the distance to this monster.
My body shifts on its whole front and opens up in an endless accumulation of unspeakable terror.
"Aahhgckh!" (I)
The sight alone is enough for me to have a complete mental breakdown, and I choke on my own scream.
Unable to say a word, I lose control over my body, yet whatever grew there already spread so far that the remaining rest of mine is easily supported in the air.
Effortlessly, it catches the maw-monster.
It gets pierced, enveloped, and, like a fish caught by countless hooks, pulled in my direction.
Now it panics and tries to get away, but is held tight.
While the considerable distance between us gradually decreases, I again find enough thought for undertaking my own actions.
I try to rip those strands away, which pulls the monster closer.
But they are incredibly durable.
While I manage to separate some, there are countless more that pull, and new joints form with every passing second.
Soon, it reaches the hole of terror my whole front turned into, and all the tendrils pull it inside.
I don't want to see this, close my eyes, and cover them with my clawlike hands.
However, I feel what happens.
As soon as the monster passes the borders, tentacles grow over it, closing my chest and stomach again.
After this, there is just nothing.
Well, I feel an absolutely frightening crawling everywhere on my body, but the movement of this monster ceases rapidly until it completely dies out.
A short time later, the crawling settles down.
I feel how the tendrils pull themselves back inside me, and my torso closes.
The tendrils weave into each other in increasingly fine patterns, forming a smooth surface that feels like my skin.
After a while, I manage to open my eyes again.
Nothing!
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
I just sit there, but nothing is around me.
My clothes are also like before.
They should be torn after what just happened.
Not looking normal.
They cannot!
Cannot
Cannot
Cannot
"Uuuh, shut up!!!" (I)
Despite having lost it by now, I kind of mechanically strobe my body.
Nothing.
Oh, good.
No echo!
There is really nothing out of the ordinary with my body.
Promptly, something shifts at my shoulder.
I directly pull the shirt away.
First, it does just prickle, then something forms on the surface.
The next moment, I see some kind of face with an extremely elongated mouth.
It looks and feels like it screams, but no sound escapes.
Just silence.
Then, for a moment, the face distorts in an even more unsettling grimace.
And disperses away.
Completely vanishing.
Was that this monster?
Did it just... die?
In me?
I... I feel...
"Bluuurgh!" (I)
I cannot stand this anymore, and feeling this sick and disgusted, I start to vomit.
I sense this strange, unpleasant taste again.
It all flushes out of my mouth.
Sludge.
This is all that comes to my mind at this distressing sight.
Under me forms a whole puddle, and despite being fluid, this stuff is of such a dirty pitch black that it only reminds me of certain horror movies.
And this is all horror!
After another gallon, which makes it too much to have been easily contained inside me, I fall down.
Directly on this puddle.
Grossed out, I try to stand up.
But then I lose hold.
Even more, I lose my grounding and fall through the surface of the puddle.
In a blink, I am drowning in a completely black sea.
Thinking for a moment that it doesn't seem like I might make my journey to this border point between the planets, suddenly, there is a drain.
Seconds later, I get flushed with incredible force.
I feel how I get expelled from this fluid, finding myself again on this weird planet.
Yet when I look up, I find that I am much closer to the point where the planets meet.
I notice under me another small black puddle and scurry fast away, reminiscing about what this stuff can do.
Looking at the planets, I can see some kind of tower that links them in the middle.
This makes a fine destination, and so I again stand up, pushing all the recent happenings away in the furthest corner of my mind.
"Gruuuuhh!"
No!
"No! Not again! Leave me be! I don't want! AWAY!!!" (I)
I scream at this monster, and like on order, the strands are rushing out again.
Again tying themselves around this thing.
Again pulling it to me.
Again, my body terrifyingly opens up and sucks it in.
And again, it leaves no trace that anything happened at all.
I just kneel there.
Devastated!
This is all far too much for me.
Once more, I feel a shift inside me that tries to get to the borders.
Yet different from the face, this one doesn't even make it to my outer layer but gets mercilessly snuffed out inside.
Too much!
This dream is too much!
Whatever happens, I don't want to remember anything about it!
I think I'm losing my mind!
"Wheeeh!"
Another scream from the distance, drawing closer.
"No! No, no, no! Please, not! Please, stop it!" (I)
My eyes get teary, but as soon as I take my hand from them, I see black fluid.
Again, black sludge, only this time from my eyes.
What is even going on here?
Having lost my control, despite being creeped out, I keep on crying.
Soon I can see this new monster.
It's some kind of hound, more a hell-hound, completely covered in reddish-black scales.
It takes a moment in my sorry, quivering state to realize that my eyes are closed due to crying, and it is behind me.
And another moment to realize why I can still see it.
The back of my head!
I did grow an eye there with which I watch this thing right now.
This isn't even helping in the slightest with my condition, and, becoming completely unresponsive, I disconnect myself from anything.
"WHEEEEHHHHHH!!" (hellhound)
It lets out an ear-piercing howling sound that makes my blood freeze and runs at me.
Like this, it happens automatically.
Mostly my hair this time, which visibly elongates, gains in volume, spreads out, and as a huge mass catches this thing.
Then it pulls its prey back to me, it gets entangled until it's no more to be seen, loses form, and ultimately dissipates like all the others.
I don't want to think about it, but stay unmoving.
Yet this cruel dream world isn't done with me.
Even if all that I am capable of doing at this point is whimpering on the ground.
I start to see in different directions at the same time, when to my dismay, all around me, eyes open up on my free body parts.
But even more terrible is what they spot.
After that loud howl, multiple other of these creatures advance from all directions to my position.
As ravenous as they are, they lose no time in rushing at me.
I don't want this!!!
They soon come within reach, and promptly a good part of them gets caught by the strands summoned from my hair and some tendrils extending out from my back.
But it doesn't end with just this.
I cried so much that again a puddle formed below me.
Abruptly, this one extends and, like a growing shadow of absolute darkness, starts to cover the whole ground.
Some of these monsters turned already away to flee, but the shadow is faster.
The creatures sink in like in tar, and so their movements are restricted.
Next, several more black strands are extending out of this substance and pull them below.
A moment later, the sludge drains back to me and pulls all the creatures with it.
My body opens up in all directions so that just my shoulders and head remain.
I can't even cover my head like this and cry on and on.
Many are already lost, drowning in this black fluid.
But others get sucked inside this living nightmare, which my own body has become now.
They are all soon pulled in by the tendrils.
While there are many dozens, it doesn't take long.
Also, the sludge somehow gets absorbed at contact with my body.
Like this, all these existences end.
Well, not like this.
In a last grand finale, all the entities move from inside me out to my borders.
And one after the other, they expire on their way.
And that's it.