29 The Dream 1

After getting bored and deciding to have a brief nap, Faeran found himself opening his eyes almost as soon as he closed them. It was weird, boredom getting the better of him, he had decided simply to rest his eyes a bit.

Only, as soon as he felt sleep take hold of him, he felt his consciousness shift and felt himself awaken.

"....What the fuck?" the Scottish teen gaped as he looked up and the roof of a dark stone cavern met his gaze.

Not only that, he was no longer laying on a couch, but cold hard ground. Pushing himself up, he took a look around himself.

The first thing he noticed, beyond the fact that it was some kind of massive cave system, was the fact that he seemed to have been laying on some kind of path that led downhill, carved into the side of a huge rocky wall made of dark blue-grey stone. Following the path with his eyes, he noted it zigzagged at each side into a new path and led down for easily over a thousand feet. Even with his enhanced eyesight, the eyes of a demi-god, he could not see the bottom.

The second thing he noticed, was the light illuminating the cavern. Or rather, the many many wrought iron cages cropping out of every surface he could see, so many he couldn't even count them all, each filled with burning blue balls of flame.

Only, they weren't fire. He couldn't tell how he knew, but his very instincts told him they were no mere elements. But rather, souls of the once living. Souls of humans.

"Where in the fuck am I?" Faeran wondered.

As he spoke, his breath frosted in the air and he could feel a biting cold nipping at his skin. If he were still just a mere human, he had a feeling his body would be getting worn down at a rapid pace.

Actually never mind where the hell he was, how the hell did he end up here? the kind of power it would take to shift him like this without him being able to notice or put up even a token resistance was far beyond the norm, something he'd honestly expect only out of True Magic or above that level.

"...I'm not fully here though." he noted pretty easily after a few moments. He could feel the connection with his physical body, and he could feel his connection with Mash and the Noble Phantasms he had bound to himself.

A dream then? He'd been kind of expecting the dream sequence at some point. He wasn't sure if it would be Herakles or Mash's past he would dream about though.

Something told him, this was not either of their pasts though. Especially with how in control he felt of his movements.

'Astral Projection maybe?' Faeran mused. But, he had little training at all in the art. Ah, what a pain.

"Well, only one thing to do then." he shrugged and began making his way down the path carved into the rock wall.

However he ended up here, he didn't feel threatened. It was hard to feel threatened when he had the power of Herakles backing him up alongside multiple Noble Phantasms.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting when he got to the bottom. All the way down he felt on edge, as if he were being watched, and expected something to jump out at him at any moment and pick a fight.

Despite his expectations though, nothing at all jumped out at him. And Faeran wasn't sure if he was glad, or disappointed. At least it wouldn't be as boring something came to pick a fight with him and maybe he could get some answers.

But no, when he got to the bottom, or rather the ledge overlooking the bottom, he merely found himself staring down into a massive level area down below, the only things of note being a pair of large stone pillars towering over a small rocky plateau foundation that looked a bit like an alter of some kind.

Simple as it was, it definitely stood out. If there was anyone about here, they were definitely somewhere within that vicinity. His instincts told him that.

Wasting no more thought on it, the teen dressed only in a pair of tassets leaped off of the point where he was standing and descended hundreds of feet down into the level area.

He landed easily, the ground buckling and cratering under his feet as he landed, and as he did, he felt the density of the biting cold targeting him increase massively.

It may as well have been a stiff breeze though for all it accomplished against his God Hand.

"Now who'll pop out I wonder?" he mused to himself. This looked like some kind of boss stage. Would some form of demonic beast pop out?

As he made his way towards the stone alter, a grin spread across his face, 'I wouldn't mind that.' he thought. There was a lot of things he could do with the blood, body and soul of a demon with his magecraft.

Just as he was within a hundred feet of the stone alter, it lit up in an eerie blue glow alongside the pillars, casting a cyan shade over the area.

"I will admit, you have guts to so brazenly break into my domain and swagger around as if you own everything in sight." a deep ominous voice echoed from all around him and the blue light flickered like flame.

How cliche.