Otto's eyes opened slowly, unfocused and raw. The moment light touched them, pain shot through his skull like a spike hammered straight into the center of his brain.
He gasped, clutching his head as a thin stream of gold ran down from the corner of his eye. It hit his cheek before promptly retreating back inside.
He jolted upright. The previous night replayed in his head in perfect clarity. The corruption crawling through his mind, the sensation of having it devouring everything in its path, and how it had vanished the instant it looked too deeply into him.
He patted his entire body, searching for some kind of damage it may have caused on his body. Finding none, he visibly relaxed.
'Fuck, what is this smell?'
He looked down at himself. Trash and vomit clung to his clothes, making the already poisonous, acrid air of the outskirts even worse.
'Just my luck… Why couldn't I get a better body? Maybe one of the legacy kids. Better yet, why couldn't I get maybe Anvil's body.'
He sighed and got up. His new body didn't feel strange at all, Sylas's memories made everything easier.
'Now what?'
Despite conquering his first nightmare, Otto had no idea of what to do now.
Normally, an aspirant would surrender himself to the police, so they would lock them into an armored room in case they died and brought a nightmare creature into this world. And if they conquered, they would instantly be placed into the Awakened Academy.
But his situation was different. Not only Sylas hadn't surrendered himself, but he also couldn't.
He was a wanted criminal.
Yeah, turns out having striking gold eyes wasn't good for a life of crime. As it was simply too easy to remember and too easy to distinguish.
'Well… I guess I should look at my Runes for now.'
Otto had never once looked at his Runes inside the nightmare. Which was completely absurd. Thinking back now… Sylas had literally no chance of conquering that Nightmare.
Not because of his loss of memory, that could be dealt with.
But because of the Mad Prince. That bastard was absolutely invincible, even for the standers of the future he knew. The Mad Prince was a Corrupted Titan that lived for at least a thousand years–if not ten thousands. So he was powerful, extremely so. His sword-play was beyond reasonable and in the novel, he was able to craft a memory that worked even without being summoned.
He was absolutely broken.
At the very least, he didn't had Saint, Nightmare or the Serpent anymore, because if he did… Well, he didn't even want to imagine if he did.
'Oh gods, what if he didn't lose his Aspect then…'
He shivered just from that thought alone.
Otto was really lucky. Because of the nature of a First Nightmare, only one Nightmare Creature could exist.
Because of that, the Dread Lord didn't exist. Which opened a loop hole in his innate ability. In his first nightmare, the mad prince had no master, leaving him open for a new one.
But, how could a sixteen years old boy that lived in the outskirts possibly know the True Name of a defiler?
'Poor Sylas… Poor me?…He or I…didn't had any chance from the beginning,' he shook his head. 'Well, that's passed now…'
Suddenly, he felt something on his hand. Silk seemed to appear out of nowhere.
"Hey, how did you get there?"
The jumping spider seemed confused for a moment by his new appearance.
Then, perhaps guided by that same instinct that had made her cling to him from the start, she relaxed and raised one tiny arm to wave at him.
Now that his memories were back, Otto saw Silk in a new way.
Not only did the little spider look more fantastical, showing a level of intelligence her species should never possess, but the pattern of black fur finally made sense to him.
The reason it had felt familiar before was because it resembled, very slightly, the three twisted horns of the Weaver's Mask. Only faintly though.
"You are really special, aren't you?" he murmured, raising a finger from his other hand to gently pat her.
Silk raised her little head high, her front legs extending like she was posing. If spiders could smirk, she absolutely would have.
"All right."
He placed her on his shoulder, then seated on the floor.
"Now… Do I just say, Runes?"
Instantly, ethereal runes appeared in his view. They glowed with a soft light. Visible only for him and Silk.
Otto was speechless.
"What the fuck is this?" He turned to Silk, "Are you seeing this? It's not translated."
Silk could only look back at him, confused. Not sure what he meant.
Naturally, spiders couldn't read.
The Spell should translate almost all kinds of Ancient Runes automatically, that was one of its principles. So why wasn't it doing its job? Is it broken? The Spell? That was impossible, literally.
'Great. Did I spend all of my luck with Sunny?'
Looking back, even inside the nightmare, The Spell hasn't translated any of what was written. Only what was spoken.
'Weird.' He sighed, dismissing the runes. 'Now what? Do I have to learn about Runes to read this?'
He knew he would have. Knowing his traits and his aspect was utterly necessary to his survival after all.
"I guess it's settled then."
He looked at Silk, who stared back at him.
"I guess we are going to the academy."