Chapter 35: An Irregular
As they moved into the dense woods, the slithering black snake once again spoke in a hissing voice.
"Another. Enemy. Big. one."
"Okay." Charles squinted his eyes as he hid behind a tree trunk and unsheathed his dagger.
In the meantime, the black snake circled the large tree trunk and soon turned transparent.
"Do you have any combat skills?" Charles also cast [Conceal] skill on himself and asked the weird black snake.
Upon hearing his words, the black snake moved its concealed head up and down and then spoke in the same breaking voice.
"Dream. Hiss, Memory. Steal, Nightmare. Poison."
'Hmm?' Charles raised his eyebrows in confusion and soon thought of casting inspect skill on it.
A second later, a row of information about this black snake appeared in front of his eyes.
[Name: Shadow Princess
Health Status: Normal
Race: Dream Snake
Rank: 1 (Common)
Class: Level 3 Nightmare Snake (0/225)
Health Points: 59/59
Attributes:
Strength- ??
Dexterity- ??
Constitution- ??
Wisdom-10
Charisma- 6
Class skills:
Dream Hiss- 45
Memory Steal- 34
Nightmare Poison- 42
Unique Skills: None]
'Wow, we got a princess here.' He stared at the snake's name in surprise for a second and soon glanced at those class skills.
'Hmm, Nightmare Poison looks good. Although I don't know how it works, at least this weird snake won't be useless during the battle.' He nodded thoughtfully and then looked at the enemy, who was already shrouded by shrubs and vines.
Due to his sharp eyes, he soon saw the enemy's appearance and sucked in a cold breath. Like the Shadow Princess had said earlier, the enemy was indeed a big one.
It was a grey-colored horse-type creature with a single horn on its forehead. Although it looked more like a Unicorn from the fairy tales, sadly, it wasn't. It had four creepy white eyes, scorpion-like tails, and a body of a zebra. It looked around five meters tall as a giraffe and appeared more like a horse from someone's nightmare.
'Well, it might really be created from someone's nightmare, though.' He let out a silent sigh and then cast inspect skill on it.
A second later, he smiled bitterly and shook his head.
'Inspection failed. It means this weird horse is a peak Rank-2 creature or Rank-3 creature.' He thought that retreating was the best option and said to the Shadow Princess in a suppressing voice.
"This creature is way above our strength. Is there any other way to go to your Dream Lord's residence?"
The black snake weirdly tilted its head to show its confusion and soon nodded its head. After that, it slowly slithered from the tree trunk and started moving in a different direction. In the meantime, Charles followed after it with light footsteps and soon noticed that they were moving in a familiar path.
'Isn't this the way to out Wind Villa?' He furrowed his brows in surprise for a moment and soon concluded.
'I thought that this Dream Lord has some connection with Eddie Nightwind. Now, it confirmed my suspicion. Hmm, I can't rule out the possibility that some other guy is manipulating me behind the scenes and trying to lure me into this dream world. But that possibility is very low. If such a guy really wants to harm me and find more information about me, he could have extracted my memories using strange mind-related methods.' He thought to himself as he soon saw a muddy path in front of him.
The weird Shadow Princess didn't explain anything as it simply slithered towards the muddy path and soon moved on the mud path. With a helpless look on his face, Charles wore a wry smile and followed after the snake. The gloomy way soon came to an end as the large mansion-like building stood blocking their path. It was a two-storied building and appeared very eerie and gloomy. Multiple creatures with different looks roamed in the yard, and Charles even saw some humanoid creatures cutting the black leaves of the nightmarish ornamental plants.
'What the hell did the Dream Lord turned this place into?' He stared at those creatures with a stupefied face for a moment and soon walked in.
The duo walked past many strange black dogs, goats, three-headed orc-like creatures, and even old-looking women with fish bodies and soon arrived under the slightly tilted porch.
"Go. In." The black snake said slowly and then went in a different direction. In the meantime, Charles turned the doorknob, pushed it forward, and opened the door with a click. After that, he went to the reception hall with a large chandelier floating at the center and soon looked up at the split staircase.
Without even looking at the surrounding rooms, he walked ahead and soon stepped on the stairs. He walked on the stairs with loud footsteps and soon reached the second floor. He paused for a second to recall Charles' memories about this Wind Villa and soon found out the study room's location. Nodding his head, he gripped the dagger hilt with his right hand and started walking on the right-side hallway.
After walking for a while, he soon appeared in front of a wooden panel door and knocked it twice.
"You are sharp, visitor." An old, ancient voice filled with the power of dominance came from inside, and soon the door opened with a click, leaving a small creaky noise behind.
Charles's gaze swept past the table and soon landed on a white-robed man. He showed his back to him and seemed to be looking at the outside world through the opened window. He had combed straight black hair and looked around 187 cm tall.
Furrowing his brows, Charles took a step forward and walked into the study. He soon appeared in front of the table, pulls over the wooden chair, and sat on it. Following that, he took out the Ember Pistol from his void pouch and placed it on the table.
His calm action even surprised the mysterious old man!
Turning around, the mysterious black-haired old man stared into his eyes and said in deliberation.
"You look calm… Very calm…Why?"
Charles smiled instead of responding and then asked after a short pause.
"Why did you invite me here, Dream Lord? Or, should I call you as Eddie Nightwind?"
A look of amusement appeared on the old man's square face as he closed his monolid blue eyes for a second and soon opened while asking.
"How did you find out?" His wrinkled face was filled with full of confusion and curiousness.
Charles curled his lips upwards as he leaned on the wooden chair and started talking with a mysterious smile on his face.
"I guessed with all those small clues left behind by you. First, your strange prophecy and our coincidental appearance around this time to Riverdale city gave me a big clue. Moreover, my mother's intuition on buying this villa and our current house from the previous owner… It looked more like someone with a higher power forced the land on us in the name of intuition. Unlike others, I somehow felt that someone was manipulating us from behind the scenes and led us to this city using some strange, mysterious power like 'Fate.' After watching my mother's skills, I knew that it is possible in this magical world. You are one of those suspects.
Second, It's about the Holem's Crown. If I'm not wrong, you must have left the Series-A artifact in Riverdale City to achieve specific goals. To accomplish those goals, you need one of your descendants' help. Although your reason about saving the world from its doom sounds reasonable for others, I don't believe in such bullsh*ts.
And about the third clue, it's the 'Nightmare Stone.' If you have put that stone in some hidden place and made some complex mechanism to open it with your descendants' blood or something, I would have believed it. But when Bishop Reynolds told me that he found the 'Nightmare Stone' in Wind Villa, I almost felt that you are the one responsible for pulling strings."
Eddie's lips twitched as he heard that his descendant pointed out his mistakes like an expert teacher.
"Impressive." That what all he could say as he felt ashamed of admitting his defeat. But soon he shook his head and spoke,
"You are indeed smart. But you are wrong about one thing." He paused for a second and continued with a solemn tone.
"I'm not Eddie Nightwind. I'm nothing but a remnant of his memories with a separate consciousness. Incarnation should be the best word for it."
"Incarnation?" Charles raised his eyebrows at the new term as he straightened his back a little and asked in curiosity.
In the meantime, Eddie Nightwind walked near the wooden table, pulled another chair from the side, and sat on it.
"Yes, I'm nothing but a powerless incarnation. My true body died in the strange dimension when battling against the World Eater." He paused as he saw the puzzlement on Charles's face and continued with a sigh,
"Let's talk about the World Eater later. Now, after the death of my true body, all the remaining incarnations and avatars started to destroy one by one. But I entered the Woolbringer World and survived by absorbing the memories of other creatures and humans. Then, I slowly accumulated my strength by gaining different experiences from others and soon formed a fake soul. That is the current me."
Charles widened his eyes for a moment and then asked in surprise.
"Why did you lie to others then?"
Eddie glanced at him for a second and soon changed the topic.
"Let's talk about you, now. What's your name? Why did you change so suddenly? What's the cause of your Irregularity?"
Charles's lips twitched as he heard Eddie's questions and soon shook his head.
"I'm Charles Nightwind. As for why did I change, it's the situations that forced me to walk on another path." He replied vaguely.
Stroking his beardless chin, Eddie Nightwind sighed in disappointment and then clapped his hands. A heartbeat later, two glasses of black teacups appeared on the table, causing Charles to widen his eyes a little.
"Creation Magic? Or, Teleportation?" Charles then asked in curious.
"Creation Magic? Do you even know how absurd your thinking is? Do you think of me as a creator of this universe?" Eddie almost lost his cool as he stared at his descendant with daggering eyes and then explained with a sigh.
"This is the power of 'Dream'…No, 'Imagination' should be the right term for it." He took one black teacup from the table and passed it to Charles after saying those words.
In the meantime, Charles took the cup, blew some air to break the surface bubbles, and then took a sip.
"It looks so real. Can I also learn this skill?" He commented in surprise and then asked.
Eddie, who was about to take the other cup, stopped his hand and said in a surprising tone.
"I'm really starting to wonder if you really are my descendant." He paused for a moment as he took the cup from the table, moved it towards his mouth, took a sip, and then added.
"The answer to your question is, no. Unless you become a [Dreamer] class Mystic, It's really is impossible to learn anything about the power of 'Imagination'."
Charles got disappointed a little upon hearing Eddie's words and soon changed the topic.
"So, why did you lie to everyone about the Edhen world? Was that a made-up story?"
"No, the destruction of our world is bound to happen in the future. At first, my memories about the 'World Eater' were disappeared. No, I would say that the real 'Eddie' sealed my memories. The real 'Eddie' must have anticipated the original body's demise and made some plan. After entering this Woolgatherer world, I instinctively absorbed memories of other creatures and started improving my ranks.
After reaching a certain level, I suddenly recalled my battle with the World Eater and got anxious about our world's destruction. After making a detailed plan, I returned to Edhen World, warned my friends about the destruction, and went out to the Endless Sea to search for the 'Myth Tree.' In truth, I used that reason as an excuse and returned to the Dreamworld. After that, I used one of my remaining unique skills and started seeing the future changes continuously."
"What are the futures did you see?" Charles interrupted his talking.
"Most of them are Edhen World's destruction. But I also some Irregulars in the vision and was greatly impressed by their irregularities. Many of them were not restricted by the strings of Fate and even made a great mess in the timeline. Among those irregularities, only one guy caught my attention." He closed his eyes for a second and then finished in a solemn tone.
"Not you. He is an Elf and also an Irregular."
