'This must be the increase in connection strength'
Nuriel perked his lips upwards.
Now that he had two Scepter fragments, his range of connection was increased by an unknown amount, but it was an increase nonetheless. He imagined if he had three fragments, or even four, or even an intact Scepter.
For now, he focused his gaze on the silver string in front of him. Although more white strings appeared around him, Nuriel only cared for the ones that were colored.
'I wonder what determines what color a string is...'
He reached his hand out and touched the string, then suddenly a strange feeling covered his whole body.
To enter the dream, he needed to strum it like a guitar, but now, the connection was much more evident. Just touching it alone was enough to get his mind pulled into the dream realm.
But regardless, he strummed it.
The same strange feeling enveloped him once again as his vision darkened.
Nuriel woke up in a strange dark hall.
Judging from the structure of the building, it resembled the eastern kind of architecture that he was once familiar with, then finding that he spawned near the entrance, inside the building.
Without a sliver of a doubt, Nuriel knew that this was the dream belonging to Yushin.
In the center he saw a young boy swinging his sword, diligently swinging down with force, then pulling himself back to the same stance then swinging down over and over again.
'I guess that's him... now what kind of secrets are you hiding' Nuriel thought, turning invisible.
He silently walked towards Yushin.
He noticed that nothing was different about him. Even as a boy, his facial features looked the same as the first time he met him, demonic-like gaze and dark circles under his eyes.
[Scepter Fragment Nearby]
Nuriel blinked.
Technically he could do the same thing as he did before with the Steel Witch's Scepter, but doing so with the dreamer would risk waking Yushin up.
Slam.
Nuriel turned around to see the entrance being swung wide open.
A gang of boys entered the hall. In the center was their leader who was much taller than the rest.
"This zombie's using the training hall all for himself again," the leader sneered.
He gazed at Yushin, whose face turned into slight terror as the group of boys surrounded him from all flanks. Instinctively, he raised his sword.
The leader ticked, "Who even gave you permission to get that sword?!"
"Uncle let me! y-you won't get away this time!" Yushin shouted, though his voice quivered during the response.
An ominous grin appeared on the leader's face before turning to one of his lackeys and signaling them to close the entrance shut.
A foul gaze emerged from him as he began speaking. Nuriel could hear a hidden scent of laughter under it.
"That is if you had proof. Unfortunately, your uncle is visiting another sect so he'll be gone for a while."
He signaled for two of the boys behind Yushin. In a split second, they overpowered him from behind, locking his arms to his side then kneeling on the back of his shins to prevent him from standing.
"I'm sure you've enjoyed your lonely training, right? My friends also need to train, and to be honest—
The leader walked towards a rack of training swords, taking one for himself, then turning to Yushin.
An even more sinister grin appeared on his face. "I've grown tired of trees... they don't fight back and it's so damn boring to practice with them. So... hitting something that can scream would be so much more entertaining! Don't you agree?!"
"I'M GOING FIRST!" the leader screamed in joy, as he dashed towards Yushin who could only struggle and try to escape but couldn't.
A lethal strike was planted on the base of his neck, followed by a barrage of other strikes. The leader didn't even bother taking a stance to hit him properly. Rather, he was just simply relishing the fact that he was beating up Yushin.
Despite the pain being inflicted on his body, Yushin didn't scream, only letting out grunts.
"Why aren't you screaming?!" the leader let down his sword before proceeding to deliver a hard hook onto Yushin's jaw.
Suddenly, the leader's face grew expressionless as he looked at his closed fist.
"Fuck, I got zombie blood on my hands... disgusting freak," he spat, walking toward one of the two boys who were holding Yushin in place before smothering his bloody fist into the unfortunate one.
The boy flinched but chose not to react.
"I'm bored already. You guys can have him."
Nuriel floated upwards, watching the scene below him unfold as the group of people began taking turns beating him to a pulp.
Stomping on his head whilst they forced him to bite on the wooden sword, stabbing his chest and stomach with the blunt end of their swords, punching his face, practicing restraining moves and dislocating or shattering his bones.
Nuriel could only watch from above, his face contorted in disgust and fear. He had no words to say or even think of what could describe the feeling he had.
However, despite the torture-like conditions, Yushin didn't scream once.
"Alright, stop for a sec," the leader ordered before continuing, "You're such a killjoy sometimes, zombie."
He approached him before picking up Yushin's sword which was in front of him.
"You were practicing with this?"
The leader admired the silver engraved sword.
"D-Don't you dare touch it... that's... uncle's..."
The leader smiled, "Oh I'm so sorry. Here..."
Gripping Yushin's jaw, the leader pushed it upwards so that Yushin was looking at the ceiling.
With his other hand, he drove the silver engraved sword deep into Yushin's orifice. Only then Yushin screamed in pain. However, as the sword went deeper into his mouth, the screams turned into horrific and gushy sounding noises.
The leader stopped, leaving only the hilt sticking up from his mouth. Yushin couldn't look down, nor could he speak.
Before long, another group of boys brought actual swords and presented them to the leader, who cheerfully thanked them for their service.
For both his legs, one through the thighs, out the other end, then through the calves, then finally digging into the floor.
For his arms, a dagger for the hand and a sword for the shoulders.
Then finally, a sword to his right lung.
Yushin went limp, though he was still present despite the horrific wounds.
The two boys stopped holding Yushin in place, leaving him to pose in the grotesque position they crafted for him.
"We'll come back later tomorrow, zombie. Nighty night," the leader spoke, his tone cheery.
The group left Yushin alone.
From above, Nuriel was still struggling to put himself together after seeing everything.
"How the hell did Yushin survive that?" he thought.
As he floated closer to Yushin, he could see the deep red color of his iris, hear the slight whimpering under his choked mouth, and a mix of pain and rage that even Nuriel felt attacked from just merely looking.
Nuriel didn't know everything about him, but he could tell what Yushin wanted.
'A connection... projecting on other scepters...'
A bold idea came to him.
God needed his angels to serve him, and such, the Steel Witch needed saints to spread her word.
Nuriel decided on taking a page from their manual.
The connection between a god and its believers was amongst the strongest he could think of.
He approached Yushin from behind.
Silently floating, thinking of what he should say before deciding on one thing.
Nuriel whispered softly into his ears.
"Pray to me."
Yushin didn't react, but Nuriel knew he heard it.
. . .
. . .
. . .
Eventually, Yushin closed his eyes.
[Scepter fragment wants to establish a connection]
[Accept?]
'Yes'
[Establishing connection]
[Scepter Fragment of Ouroboros]
[Class: Saint]
– The undying wyrm whose hunger circles time itself. One that devours itself not to die, but to begin again. Always. Ever. All.
[New Scepter detected! Applying new hardware]
[Status]
[Processing speed slightly increased]
[Internal database increased]
Ignoring everything else, Nuriel floated in silence.
'Who the hell even is Ouroboros...' He sighed internally.
***
Yushin raised himself, accidentally hitting his head on the ceiling as he was on top of the bunk bed. He cleared his throat and massaged himself to make the grogginess go away.
The bed rattled as he jumped down, which woke up his roommate below that was sound asleep.
"Urghh, use the ladder Yushin... Yushin?"
The roommate asked. He'd heard of the rumors of him being beat up at the Academy of Swordsmanship. Rubbing his eyes, he consulted him.
"Does your chest still hurt? I told you to go to the infirmary."
Yushin was silent. Then another roommate from across the room began speaking, his arms overlapping behind his head.
"Don't ever go to the College of War again. Those guys only know how to lift and not use their brains." The boy smirked before continuing, "Once I graduate, I'll start a company. So I'm telling you to invest in me and reap the rewards!"
Yushin stared at him. His expression wasn't showing anything other than confusion.
"Urgh stop being so silent and cool. Because of you, the few girls that took engineering are all flocking toward you!"
"Shut up. This room is already as small as it is." The other said, burying his head on his pillow.
Yushin sighed, "I just had a bad dream..." While speaking, he rubbed the ear where he heard those strange words.
'Who was that?'