"Where am I?"
Faraam looked around, confusion on his face.
"I never heard of a place like this in the Dream Realm..."
He was standing above a gray land; the trees and nature around him were dead, not a single life inside of it.
The sky was covered with clouds covering the moon that hung above, its pale light passing the clouds and reaching the earth below.
No matter how much he looked around, everything was... dead.
The only thing he saw was the great building in the distance that towered above everything else.
Even though he couldn't clearly see it, he could distinguish it as something like a pagoda. A temple, maybe.
In this vast place, where nothing could hide. Faraam saw nothing.
Not a single nightmare creature nor any kind of building other than the pagoda.
This made Faraam sweat a little. He always heard about how dangerous the Dream Realm was and how nightmare creatures always tried to kill humans.
It was impossible to go somewhere out of the human territories and not find a single nightmare creature.
And Faraam was sure he was not inside a human territory.
This place looked like somewhere inside the Song domain, but Faraam was sure it wasn't.
For an obvious reason. There were no mountains nearby.
The Song domain is known for the mountains near Ravenheart, but here there was only a dead flat land.
Now Faraam thought of two reasons why there's no life around. Each one is worse than the other.
Either the nightmare creatures are afraid of entering this land, or they are already dead, killed by something.
And if what he thought was true, then he had just stepped into that thing's territory.
'I need to leave.'
Faraam started walking on the opposite side from the pagoda.
If there was really a being capable of doing what he thought about.
Then that being must be residing inside of the pagoda.
Faraam started walking faster; fear started taking root in his heart.
***
The sun hung up in the sky, casting its heat and light upon the dead land.
In the middle of nowhere, a naked man walked; his body was swimming with sweat.
His throat started to become dry from the absence of water.
It has been two days since Faraam was summoned to the Dream Realm.
In these two days of walking and searching for any hint of life, he had found nothing.
It was like life had abandoned this land.
Well, until now at least. He looked in front of him where ruins of broken houses and other buildings were half inside the earth.
Reaching the ruins, he looked around, searching for food or water.
He spotted a well in the distance, but to no one's surprise, there was nothing inside.
"I will die from thirst before I even encounter a single nightmare creature."
Even though sleepers can survive for more than a week without water and even more than a month without food.
He still needed energy for his body to work.
Well, there's at least one good thing from finding these ruins.
Since the ruins were small, it most likely belonged to a village.
And villages are always built around cities.
***
He was right. After walking for more than a day, he saw something in the distance.
Unlike the ruins of the village, the thing in front of him was far larger and less damaged.
The gate, which was long ago destroyed, and the city walls, which were almost falling apart but were still intact
Faraam walked inside. He glanced at the streets and frowned.
He walked toward a crumbled house and looked around, searching for something that he didn't find.
His suspicion grew more.
He entered more houses, but it was still the same.
Although there are signs that humans lived here before, there are no bones or remains of their dead bodies in the area.
It was like they were erased from existence completely.
But what Faraam didn't understand is how they were erased. No matter how much you hide something, there will still be remains.
That is, of course, if the one who erased who lived here once was a mortal, not a god.
There were two places he still hadn't visited: the large castle in the middle of the destroyed city and the temple near it.
He first went to the castle.
The castle, surprisingly, was in good shape, at least better than the buildings around it.
It was made from some kind of a black stone that absorbed the light. The windows were already broken, letting the air inside.
Entering the castle, Faraam walked its halls, entering room after room, searching for any clues of what happened to the city and the land itself.
Until he found himself in the throne room... just like his first nightmare.
The pillars that held the room were near crumbling, and the windows were broken just like every other room in the castle. The chandeliers fell down on the floor a long time ago.
He walked toward the throne, clearing the dust upon it, and then he walked past it.
There sculpted on the wall was a text written in runes.
Thanks to Caelia's memories, he was well-versed in rune language.
And what he read made him shiver.
[Greed... has blinded us all. We have brought God's punishment upon us. Oh, who created death... have mercy on your poor believers...]
Faraam would have gulped his saliva if it wasn't for his dry throat.
"Did everything happen here because of Shadow God's punishment?"
Honestly, he didn't care about what happened to this land; what he cared about was what they did to receive Shadow God punishment.
Faraam wasn't sure, but he might know where he can find his answer.
***
Standing in front of the temple of what is supposed to be the Shadow God temple.
He walked in, and what he saw made him stop in his place.
The temple itself was like any other temple, created for the gods.
The only difference would be that there is no statue depicting the Shadow God. Most likely because Shadow God doesn't have a form, or at least that's what he thought.
But what made Faraam stop was... the text written by blood on the floor.
First, it was impossible for even the smell of blood, let alone blood itself, to remain until this time.
But it did... because it was not from the same era when the city was destroyed.
The text was written in human language. His world language.
And what he read made him take a step back in fear.
[For those who came after... heed my words. Leave this land as fast as possible. For when the sun and moon align, the shadows will rise, protecting their god's last remains. From those who greed after it...]
***
Author's Note:
Am I cooking, or did I burn the whole shit? Who knows? Even I don't know, lmao.
Leave a review on this fanfic and chapter and some power stones so more people can read it.
And see you again tomorrow.