Aiden’s consciousness was dragged into absolute darkness.
The sensation of being pulled through the void was entirely different from what he had experienced during his First Nightmare.
There was no overwhelming temporal rift, no violent disorientation, and no disembodied voice echoing through a crumbling chamber.
Instead, the moment the mechanical greeting of the Nightmare Spell faded, Aiden felt all four of his limbs firmly restrained.
He couldn’t see a single thing،he was suspended in complete, unyielding blackness.
He tried to flex his shoulders and shift his posture, but his limbs refused to budge.
After a few agonizing seconds, faint crimson light began to pulse from surrounding organic vines, casting just enough illumination for Aiden to study his immediate environment.
He was suspended nearly five meters above the forest floor.
Enormous, gnarled branches formed a natural cage around him, trapping his arms and legs against the main trunk of a towering, twisted tree.
Smaller, fibrous tendrils, resembling dark, barbed vines, were tightly wound around his torso, forearms, and thighs, securing him like a prisoner bound to a wooden frame.
‘Fantastic,’ Aiden thought dryly.
‘Tied up again.’
He tilted his head as far as his restrained neck allowed, surveying his surroundings.
The landscape was entirely alien.
The ground below was covered in pale, luminous vegetation that bled faint crimson light into the foggy atmosphere.
Giant, skeletal trees stretched into a vast, starless void above.
His first conclusion was immediate and absolute:
‘I’m in the Dream Realm.’
Aiden tested his physical freedom.
He tightened the muscles in his left arm, attempting to shift his elbow outward to gain leverage.
The thick branches holding him barely yielded.
He tried his right side, applying controlled, steady force to test the material’s elasticity.
The result was identical.
The wood felt as hard and unforgiving as cold iron.
He shifted his focus to his legs, attempting to bend his knees and push off the main trunk.
The moment he applied pressure, the fibrous tendrils wrapped around his waist tightened instantly.
The coils tightened around his ribcage with a slow, crushing pressure.
Aiden’s eyes widened.
He tried to locate the source of the emotional resonance, only to realize with a shock that it was coming directly from the entity holding him.
The tree itself was radiating emotion.
‘What in the world…
a Nightmare Creature?
Can a tree be a monster?’
Aiden immediately calmed his breathing, suppressing his pulse while analyzing secondary tactical options to break the restraint.
Realizing physical leverage alone was useless, he turned to his soul inventory.
He focused his intent inward, summoning his primary weapon into reality.
A flash of dark violet sparks erupted in his right palm, and the sleek, obsidian hilt of [Kurohana] materialized in his grip.
With his wrist pinned against a thick limb, he couldn’t execute a full swing, but he managed to angle the blade against the fibrous branch binding his chest.
Aiden pressed the blade against the bark and dragged it across the surface.
Sparks flew, accompanied by a harsh, grating sound reminiscent of metal grinding against metal.
The dark bark barely showed a faint scratch.
‘Fuck.
This angle makes it impossible to generate proper leverage for a full cut.’
If finesse and edged weaponry failed, raw kinetic force was his next logical test.
Aiden braced his feet against the bark, tightened his core, and pushed with everything his sixteen-year-old body could muster.
His muscles strained as he threw his weight against the wooden cage.
CRACK.
A loud, splintering sound echoed through the quiet forest.
One of the larger cross-branches began to fracture under his sudden burst of physical strength.
For a brief second, Aiden believed brute force would be enough to break the hold.
Then—
Without warning, a sharp, thorn-like tendril shot out from the main trunk and slammed directly into his side, piercing through his tracksuit and embedding itself against his body.
Aiden froze, his entire body locking up.
He braced himself for the sharp, burning agony of a physical stab wound, but the expected pain never came.
Instead, an eerie, sickening sensation washed over his body.
It felt as if a cold vacuum had attached itself directly to his soul, slowly drawing vitality out of him.
The tree was tightening its grip, determined to crush his momentum and prevent him from breaking free.
‘Shit, this is bad.’
Relying on his instant battle reflexes, Aiden willed his armor Memory to manifest.
‘[Immortal Shell]!’
A surge of dark threads erupted around his body, instantly solidifying into his sleek steel armor.
The rapid manifestation of the chest piece severed the tendril embedded against his side.
The moment the armor severed the tendril, the cold, draining sensation vanished.
Furthermore, the rigid steel plates absorbed much of the pressure exerted by the tree’s branches, relieving the heavy pressure on his lungs and muscles.
Aiden took a slow, steady breath inside his armor, using the brief reprieve to re-evaluate his situation.
He scanned his surroundings once more.
The environment was suffocatingly dark.
Without the faint, crimson glow emitting from the parasitic tendrils wrapped around him, he wouldn’t have been able to see his own hand.
Beyond his immediate surroundings, there was nothing but pitch darkness.
The sky above was an abyss, no moon, no stars.
The only other sound in the silence was the faint, rhythmic crash of distant waves somewhere nearby.
His final conclusion was brutal and immediate:
‘I’m trapped.’
Aiden ran through his operational contingencies.
Survival now hinged on two immediate priorities.
First, he needed to understand his surroundings.
Daylight would allow him to survey the terrain, identify landmarks, and search for a possible escape route.
Second, his armor had to maintain its structural integrity against the parasitic tree.
If another tendril managed to bypass his armor and puncture his skin, his energy could be drained completely.
‘I just hope this godforsaken realm actually has a morning.’
I wanted to ask your opinion on a minor detail I’m considering changing:
Since Aiden’s core mechanic is built around his feelings, wouldn’t it make more sense if his energy pool was called Emotion Essence instead of standard Soul Essence?
Tell me what you think in the comments!
Should I keep it as Soul Essence or switch to Emotion Essence?