Hayakawa dreamt of a desert.
A never ending desert. A blinding disc of an incandescent sun was bathing the tall dunes in a flood of immolating heat. The sands of the desert were flawlessly white, and the azure sky above was deep and boundless like an ancient ocean, with not a single cloud blemishing its silken expanse.
Suddenly, the moon and the sun changed places, again, and again, and again, like time itself was rewinding backwards, the sky above blue merging with the black skies of the night, and in the blink of an eye hundreds of thousands of year flew back.
[Prepare for your First Trial]
A burning pain shot straight from Hayakawa's feet, going through his whole body, Hayakawa also noticed that he was barefoot, and wearing only a single tunic.
'Fuck.'
The never ending heat descending from the bright sun above him was melting his body, and the sand below his feet was reflecting that same heat sensation, what kind of 'fair' situation is this?!
Hayakawa quickly thought of what the awakened taught him.
'What was it again? Runes?..'
And, as if controlled by his will, floating runes appeared in front of Hayakaw's face.
Name: Hayakawa
True Name: —
Rank: Aspirant
Attributes: [Poet], [Mark of Divinity]
Soul Fragments: [0/1000]
Memories: —
Echoes: —
Aspect: [Poet]
Rank: [Dormant]
Description: [You are a Poet, someone who knows many names and can manage them.]
'..What the fuck.'
Hayakawa's reaction wasn't exaggerated, since, what could he do with this aspect in such an ambient after all?
He knew what the attribute [Mark of Divinity] did, it simply helped in sorcery and enter in sacred places, but what help would it bring after all?
Deciding to check the other Attribute, he focused his eyes on the runes.
[Poet]
Description: [As a Poet, you have great talent with names.]
He assumed that this attribute had to do with his aspect, as well as the other one, but it is still useless..
And his Aspect also intrigued him, what could the knowledge of names do in a fight to death? And could he even do with this?
'No useless Aspects my ass..'
But he had to ask himself how to get out of the Nightmare first, Hayakawa did not like his life out there, but that did not mean he was willing to throw it away without a fight.
And also one more thing about the dream realm is that the air in there was so clean that he wanted to live more of it..
And, after all, how come he was alone in an endless desert, in there should have been something that he could use to finish the Nightmare, after all, it is supposed to be fair, isnt it?
So, Hayakawa started to wander through the endless desert, the scorching sun on his back melting his body while the pristine white sand was burning his feet.
'This is really not something i expected. Are all first nightmares like that?'
He thought while already wandering for a while and not really finding anything, he was about to starve soon, he was human after all.
But his thoughts did not linger, after all, there was something beneath the sand.
Hayakawa felt something beneath himself and quickly stepped back.
What surged from beneath him was not a normal creature, it revealed itself as pristine white sand fell from its body, somewhat resembling a human.
With two curved horns protruding from its eyeless head, teeth that could have been mistaken as needles, and instead of arms, that abomination had blades protruding from its torso, its body towering over Hayakawa's, that abomination was about 7-8 feet tall.
'Ugly bastard..'
But unfortunately for Hayakawa, he did not know what to do, there was nothing he could use to defeat that abomination, as well as he could not defeat it in a fair fight since he did not even have a weapon to use.
So, Hayakawa did what he knew to do best, he ran, Hayakawa ran with all his might as a being, his body now was very similar to his older body, so he was still a malnutritioned kid, and he was tired from the wandering he did.
Darting his eyes to all around the desert, he was searching and wishing for something to appear so he could save himself from this abomination chasing him.
Fortunately for him, he found something on this never ending desert, that was, a Shrine.
"What the fuck?!"
Truly, he did not expect anything to show up, and with the adrenaline he was feeling, the only thing Hayakawa could do now, was run straight up for the shrine.
It was breath-taking sight, a pure black building, its structure, even on ruins, could have been percieved as art, stairs climbing up to a beautiful black temple, it was like the temple was absorbing all the light from the scorching sun.
But Hayakawa couldn't have this thoughts now, as he was being chased by a abomination leagues above his level, his knees were already burning from the constant motion and restraint put on them, he was sweating so much that his tunic was wet, his skin red from the scorching sun.
Yet, the adrenaline did not let him stop, since his potential salvation was so close upon him.
Closing up on the ruined shrine, and climbing the stars to enter the beautiful temple, deep inside the shrine he saw something that his mind did not want to believe.
He rubbed his eyes once, twice to make sure that, what he was seeing was true.