Again?

[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]

An indifferent voice murmured in the ears of a sleeping child. Although its face resembled that of a child, its body was easily over 3 meters tall and when paired with limbs as thick as tree trunks and a face the size of a small boulder, no doubts were left. It was a child of a giant.

Suddenly with a jolt, its eyes snapped open and the body which was still as a statue before started convulsing as if being tased with electricity before finally coming to a stop after a few minutes. Though if one were to look at this scene, they would barely pay any attention to the mystery child for there was another personification of horror which was laying a few meters away.

A beast was laying in front of the child, not making a single noise. It had azure and sapphire scales protruding like spikes all over it's body, along with a white underbelly which looked to be carved out of chalk. Its head seemed to be the pinnacle of craftsmanship on its own - Three spikes were present on either side of its face along with a small spike which was present on top if its head, almost looking like a crown. It had an icy blue sclera along with black pupils which had a hint of green flowing in them. 

But if that was all then the beast would've been described as a majestic being. The true horror were its wings which seemed to be made of blood, constantly expanding and contracting like a heart which was on the verge of exploding. Thick purple veins covered the entirety of them, which almost radiated the feeling of death and malice. 

The boy woke up with a yawn, rubbing its eyes before looking around with a confused expression on it's dirt covered face.

'What a weird dream that was', Eli thought as he rubbed his eyes and looked around.

The first thing he noticed was that his arms were strangely heavy and dirty, and his bed was rocky and hard. Then as soon as he turned his neck, his body froze and his breathing became rapid. A massive dragon was laying in front of his eyes. Its wings were spread out as if trying to engulf the entire world in darkness and emanated a feeling of dread and horror. And when paired along with its regal face, it almost seemed natural for him to prostrate himself.

The dragon's eyes shot open and stared into the stiff body of the child before huffing loudly.

It then tuck its wings in before turning around and walking a few steps forward. Then suddenly, it spread its wings to their full extent before flapping them and then flying away.

Eli's eyes were glued to the dragon and the moment it flapped its wings, he was blown away. He rolled a few meters before finally stopping by hitting a side of a wall. 

"Am I still dreaming?" Eli asked to nobody in particular before pinching himself in the thighs. "Ouch, the pain felt real at least."

In the next second, he immediately punched the wall next to him with all his might.

"AAAArgh" He cried out in pain and rolled around on the ground while grabbing this wrist and cursing loudly.

'This is definitely is not a dream' was the conclusion he came to after his little experiment.

After a few minutes of rolling around, he took a better look at his surroundings. He seemed to be in a cave of sorts. It had an absolutely massive entrance which looked as if it was made for titans and opposite to the entrance were three pathways. He couldn't see where those pathways ended as the light from the entrance could not reach that far. There were also hundreds of ice spikes, their size ranging from pebbles to boulders, which hanged from the ceiling all over the cave.

From his position, he could see that the landscape outside was covered in snow and that an intense snowstorm was currently going on. Strangely enough, he wasn't feeling cold at all and even though he could hear the howling of the cold winds, they seemed to be unable to reach him.

After thinking about his situation, he did the only logical thing that came to his mind.

Sleep.

From his point of view, he basically had two choices. The first one was believing that this was his reality now, which would include believing that that dragon was an actual real and living being. This choice would give him two more options, either go deeper into the cave and walk around in complete darkness and die of hunger or go outside in the freezing snowstorm and die from the cold. Needless to say, neither of those options attracted him very much.

His second choice was that he could go to sleep while praying to all the heavenly beings he could think of that this is just a dream and then hopefully wake up in his house on his warm and cozy bed, forgot all about how horrible this dream is and then continue his monotone life. 

He obviously chose the second option like anyone with even a hint of common sense would choose.

Against all odds, lying on the rocky ground with nothing but rags on his body in the middle of a massive snowstorm which would freeze a person to the bone within minutes and 3 pathways which lead to absolute darkness and probably housed a colony of insects, he slept. Quite peacefully too.

After an unknown amount of time passed, Eli was once again woken up. But this time it was not due to his own volition but due to the loud sound coming from outside. Although the sound of the winds outside could be considered somewhat loud, this sound was 10 times worse. He would've thought that it was a sonic boom if he didn't know any better, but due to the fact that his ears were still able to hear something and were not bleeding, it was most likely not a sonic boom.

It was a something even worse.

A dragon.

"Ah..... shit"

Those were his final words before fell back with a thud and passed out. 

Once again, after an unknown amount of time, Eli woke up. He opened his eyes and tried to look around, but his entire body felt paralyzed. He tried again and again but his body just laid there like a corpse. He was stuck staring at the ceiling of the cave which was covered with ice spikes.

After trying and failing multiple times, he decided to just sort out the mess his mind was in.

'It really isn't a dream. Then where the hell am I? And what is up with that dragon? Am I in another world? Then where are the people of this world and why am I inside a cave? Is there no one that I can ask here?'

Instead of arranging the chaos in his brain, Eli only succeeded in adding fuel to the fire.

Luckily, he felt some of his control over his body returning and after some time, he could move again. He sat up and the first thing he saw was the wall of the cave.

Looking down, he saw that the ground was way too far from his eyes. His arms and legs were also strangely long and heavy and his skin was covered in dirt and mud. But underneath all that mud, he could still clearly see his blue skin and tattered brown clothes. 

'This... isn't my body?'

'Then am I really in another...'

Quickly turning his head around, the first thing he saw was a pair of eyes which peered into his soul and made a shiver run throughout his body. 

The moment their eyes met, Eli's entire body froze again. Fortunately, his mental facilities were still working, giving him time to process the newfound information.

'Then what about my previous life?'

'It can't just be gone like this, right?'

'No, there must be a way to get back.'

Unbeknownst to him, his hands and legs were already shaking. This caused the dragon's eyes to flicker for a second before it hurriedly looked away while pushing what seemed to be a bowl directly in front of the giant child.

It was a bowl made of ice and inside of it was a strange silver liquid which seemed to be boiling hot judging from the bubbles popping inside of it. But instead of warmth, it gave off a dreadful chilling aura.

After the dragon looked away, Eli's control over his or whoever's body it was, slowly came back and the first thing he did was look down. The silver liquid which was in the bowl had stopped boiling and now looked like it was a piece of metal which was perfectly cut out to match the bowl's shape. 

Fortunately or unfortunately, it was clear enough to give Eli a perfect view of his entire face.

Two small tusks were protruding from either side of his mouth and his actual teeth seemed to have a shine which was eerily similar to the one this silver liquid was giving off. His blue skin was pale and dry, the lips were cracked and his eyes were welling up with which threatened to overflow at any moment and prevented him from even seeing his face clearly, but still clear enough to know that this wasn't his face.

That this wasn't his body.

That this wasn't his life. 

'Damn it.'

For some people, this might have been a dream come true. But not for Eli. He had been extremely content with his life, so much so that he'd sometimes refuse opportunities to better his life just to prevent it from changing too much. He knew that the higher he aimed, the lower he would fall.

But now, all the choices he had previously made were for naught. As if his life had been a joke, everything that he worked for was taken away from him in a single night.

'Do I have to start all over again?'

'But then who says that everything won't be taken away from me again?'

'Should I just kill myself now?'

Eli hated being forced against his will. So he did not like the fact that his everything had been taken and he had been thrown into a random world against his will. In fact, he absolutely despised his current predicament.

After a few minutes, his eyes shone with resolution. Looking around he found a rock around the size of his fist and threw it straight above.

"I'll probably meet that bastard in heaven right? Or maybe I'll go t-"

Eli did not get to finish his sentence, for a ice spike double his size dug into his body from above and pierced his brain.