Darkness held Jade for what felt like centuries.
Then he opened his eyes.
He stood in a field of silver grass beneath a pale moon.
The wind whispered through the stalks like ghosts speaking through clenched teeth.
Jade did not move immediately.
Rainwater still clung to his skin from the last dream. His chest still remembered the blade Seraphine had driven into his heart. The pain had faded…
…but the memory remained.
He breathed slowly.
Then a voice drifted through the field.
"Brother…"
Jade turned.
A child stood there barefoot among the grass.
Small.
Thin.
Silver-haired.
Eyes bright like stars.
Jade froze.
The child smiled sadly.
"You forgot me."
Jade stared.
He did not know the boy.
Yet seeing him made Jade's chest ache.
The child stretched out a hand.
"Come home."
The silver field trembled.
The moon split open.
Thousands of skeletal hands burst from the earth and grabbed Jade's legs, dragging him down into darkness while the child watched silently.
Death.
---
Dream 417.
Jade was a soldier in an ancient war.
Black banners burned across the sky.
A thousand armored warriors charged screaming across blood-soaked land.
At their head rode a king with a golden spear.
Jade fought until both arms bled.
Until his sword broke.
Until arrows filled his flesh.
At the end, kneeling among corpses, he looked up as the golden king removed his helmet.
It was Jade.
Older.
Crowned.
Cold.
Without hesitation, the king thrust the spear through Jade's skull.
Death.
---
Dream 439.
He wandered a ruined palace where every mirror reflected different versions of him.
One was a child.
One was old.
One wore a crown.
One had six crimson eyes.
One was dead.
Every reflection whispered.
"You are almost awake."
The mirrors cracked.
Glass became blades.
Death.
---
Dream 462.
Jade sat beside a campfire with strangers.
A wandering woman played a flute of bone.
An old blind man laughed over tea.
A scarred warrior sharpened his blade.
None of them felt threatening.
For the first time in countless dreams…
Jade relaxed.
The woman looked at him through the firelight.
"You've died many times."
Jade stiffened.
The old blind man nodded.
"You still scream in every death."
The scarred warrior smiled.
"But less than before."
Jade stood instantly.
"Who are you?"
The three lifted their heads together.
And all three spoke with the same voice.
"We are the memories of those who failed this trial."
The fire became black.
Their flesh peeled away into ash.
Jade burned with them.
Death.
---
Dream after dream continued.
Years passed.
Then decades.
Then what felt like centuries.
Jade stopped counting.
At first he cried.
Then he screamed.
Then he begged.
Eventually…
he did none of those things.
He simply endured.
---
Dream 571.
He woke as king of a drowned empire.
Ghosts drifted through flooded streets beneath the sea.
Thousands bowed as he passed.
Their hollow voices echoed:
"Save us."
Jade walked through them without looking.
When they grabbed him—
he did not resist.
Death.
---
Dream 623.
He lived as a farmer in a peaceful village for thirty years.
He had a wife.
Children.
Grey hair.
A quiet life.
He buried loved ones.
Watched seasons change.
Sat under sunlight growing old.
Then on his deathbed, his daughter leaned close and whispered:
"Still dreaming."
His body turned to dust.
Death.
---
Dream 701.
He stood atop a cliff above an endless void.
Across from him stood Seraphine.
Her eyes were wet with tears.
"Please don't go."
Jade stared at her.
Once, those words would have shattered him.
But now—
he only shook his head.
"You're not real."
Her expression cracked.
"Jade…"
He stepped past her.
She dissolved into ash behind him.
He jumped into the abyss willingly.
Death.
---
Dream 744.
Aaron dying.
"You can save me."
"You're not real."
Death.
---
Dream 752.
Ella reaching for his hand while monsters closed in.
"Please."
Jade looked at her calmly.
"You're not real."
He walked away.
Her screams echoed behind him.
Death.
---
Dream 801.
A child crying beneath burning rubble.
Jade didn't stop.
Death.
---
Dream 844.
Mike kneeling with blood running down his face.
"We're your friends."
Jade's eyes were emotionless.
"No. You're shadows."
Death.
---
Dream 889.
A city fell beneath black snow.
Thousands begged Jade to save them.
He sat atop a broken tower and watched silently.
The city vanished.
Death.
---
Dream 913.
He walked through a battlefield of ghosts.
Transparent figures from ancient ages.
Kings.
Slaves.
Children.
Warriors.
All dead.
All staring.
One by one they asked him:
"Do you care?"
Jade answered each the same.
"No."
The ghosts screamed and tore him apart.
Death.
---
Dream 954.
Seraphine held a child in her arms beneath moonlight.
Their daughter laughed softly.
The sound nearly broke him.
Seraphine smiled.
"Stay."
Jade stood still for a long time.
Long enough for his hands to tremble.
Long enough for his breathing to grow uneven.
Then he closed his eyes.
"You're not real."
When he opened them again—
they were gone.
Only darkness remained.
Death.
---
Dream 999.
Jade stood before a single door.
Black.
Ancient.
Covered in crimson runes.
There was nothing else.
Only the door.
A whisper came from behind it.
"Open."
Jade pushed it open.
Inside…
he saw every dream.
All at once.
Every death.
Every scream.
Every corpse.
Every version of himself.
Every moment replaying endlessly.
Then all thousand dreams rushed into him.
Pain beyond pain.
Memory beyond memory.
Jade fell to his knees roaring.
He saw thousands of lives.
Thousands of deaths.
Thousands of endings.
His mind should have shattered.
His soul should have broken.
But it didn't.
He endured.
Then came—
Dream 1000.
---
He opened his eyes in darkness.
No sky.
No ground.
Only void.
Before him stood the god-beast.
Larger than before.
Its six eyes blazing like suns.
But now…
there were others.
Shapes hidden in the darkness beyond it.
Massive.
Watching.
More beast gods.
Ancient beings beyond imagination.
Their gazes fell on Jade.
For the first time—
they acknowledged him.
One spoke.
Its voice sounded like oceans collapsing.
"He survived."
Another answered like burning stars.
"Four hundred dreams of suffering."
Another:
"Six hundred dreams of illusion."
Another:
"A thousand deaths."
The first god-beast lowered its head toward Jade.
"You abandoned hope."
"You abandoned attachment."
"You abandoned illusion."
Jade said nothing.
His eyes were hollow.
Ancient.
Tired beyond measure.
Then the beast god asked:
"What remains?"
Jade lifted his head.
His voice came calm.
"Me."
Silence.
Then—
the void trembled.
One of the hidden beast gods laughed.
A terrifying sound.
"Then let us see if even that can survive."
Jade's expression changed for the first time.
A flicker.
Confusion.
Then the darkness behind him split open.
A new dream forming.
Larger.
Deeper.
More terrifying than the thousand before.
The first beast god's final words echoed through the void:
"The true trial begins now."
Darkness swallowed Jade once more.
And he opened his eyes…
into another dream.