Jonathan shielded his face as he made his way through the outer layers of the hurricane, feeling the grit trying to get through the eyeslits in his helmet. Even with the Void, the sheer density of elemental power in the area made it quite hard to shield against everything.

  Eliza was even worse off, her blankets of Air energy not enough to stand in the way of the stinging dust for long. It was slowly eroded by the edges of the storm until it was able to break through into her domain. Her face was covered with scratches, but she seemed fine overall so they kept going.

  The storm continued to grow more powerful the closer to the center the two delved. The winds picked up and the grains of sand turned into shards of Earth elemental energy that shot through the air like bullets. They acted in much the same way, even managing to punch through Jonathan’s armor a few times.

  The storm wasn’t that wide, at least compared to the speeds Jonathan could move at, but it was much harder to get through than he had expected. The winds circled the center, trying to pull him away from his path and up into the air. It was only due to the combined efforts of his and Eliza’s elemental power that he was spared from this fate. Still, every step was slightly off course, needing constant adjusting. Otherwise Jonathan could walk past the storm’s center without ever finding what he had come for.

  About an hour later, just as the winds were beginning to become dangerous, everything stilled. Jonathan’s foot broke through an invisible barrier and into a new world. Before him was a resplendent mountain, bathed in the light of a tiny sun suspended above, about fifty miles in the air. The mountain was covered in massive buildings and the very top was covered with a viewing platform sized for Avarana.

  A river ran down the front of the mountain, filled with sparkling azure water. It shimmered like a diamond beneath the rays of the false star above.

  “This really is something else,” Jonathan said, looking up at the mountain. “Worth the hassle getting here.”

  “We are still going to have to get out,” Eliza reminded Jonathan, popping his bubble. “But yes, until then, let’s enjoy ourselves.”

  ***

  The next few days passed in a blur, with Jonathan and Eliza quickly running out of things to do. The mountain complex was vast, but they were so fast that they could go from one side to another in seconds. As for the various amenities, there were three major attractions. A hot spring the size of a lake, a training room where you could fight against elemental projections keyed to your desires and a never ending buffet operated by elementals.

  Other than that, Jonathan assumed that Avarana had brought much of her own entertainment, as it was quite sparse. The views were good, though, and coupled with the unlimited food, it made for a great retreat from the constant war.

  Jonathan had tried out the training room a few times, but eventually gave up. He wasn’t there for more work, after all. He wanted to relax with Eliza and get some time together that was all too rare these days.

  Three days were gone in what felt like the blink of an eye and they made the journey back to Avarana’s citadel. Kharon was waiting for them there, the scythe covered in layers of dried blood and flesh. It had made short work of the various monsters that made Bloodspill their home, as well as some bandits and mercenaries who had escaped the culling of Avarana’s forces. Most such people had given up their old habits, but the few that hadn’t were dealt with swiftly.

  At this point, there were few dangers left in the realm unaccounted for, with monsters only allowed to live because they were necessary for progression. Now that constant warfare wasn’t a way of life, monsters were the new means of leveling as was the case in most places. As most people in Bloodspill were significantly above the average in terms of level, there was a good platform set up for a new society to grow upon. Tier 7s could live for thousands of years so there was at least that much time for citizens of Bloodspill to find new lives.

  Meeting in a plaza near the city center, Jonathan and Eliza regrouped with Kharon. After a few minutes, Edgar, Arkanon and the others made their way to meet them, preparing for entry to the next realm.

  “Glad to see you back in fighting shape!” Arkanon declared, giving Jonathan a hearty pat on the back. “It’s been getting a bit boring around here.”

  Jonathan chuckled. “You just want me to get you to the next realm, huh?”

  Arkanon grinned. “You know me too well. All jokes aside, I am happy to see you. Everyone else is as well.”

  Edgar was a bit more reserved, but he still had a smile on his face as he approached Jonathan. “How was your little break with Eliza? Must have been nice to get away. You certainly deserve it.”

  “It was as good as could be expected,” Jonathan said. “I hope Avarana’s mountain resort can be made available for people other than just those who can survive the storm. It’s one of the few places in Bloodspill that I would call beautiful.”

  “Bloodspill has something like that?” Eliza asked, leaning in closer to Jonathan. “Where is it?”

  “It’s pretty hard to miss,” Jonathan explained, pointing at the smudge on the horizon, just visible looking down the street. “Right where that brown bit is. There’s a mountain hidden inside.”

  “We might have to pay that a visit ourselves,” Eliza replied, nudging Edgar with her arm. “After a bit more of the Hells has been freed, of course.”

  Jonathan nodded, remembering something. “Do any of you know anything about the next circle? I didn’t have much time to do any research.”

  “Yes,” Edgar and Hushar said at the same time. They looked at one another for a moment before Edgar spoke. “The next circle is called Hollow Dream. It is ruled over by a creature called Eventide. Nobody knows much about Eventide, but the Circle Lord is supposed to be extremely powerful. It sleeps for most of the time and gathers power while sleeping.”

  “How much power?” Jonathan asked. “Enough to tip the scales against me?”

  “Quite a lot,” Edgar answered, nodding. “Enough to fight on an equal level with a Tier 10 or 11, at least for a few moments. At the exact moment after awakening, Eventide can do even more damage.”

  “What about the rest of the circle? Does Eventide have any followers, or is it more like Bloodspill?”

  “To my knowledge, the citizens of Hollow Dream don’t see Eventide enough to have any sort of relationship with it. Eventide sleeps for millions of years, more than enough time for anyone who has actually seen it to die.”

  Jonathan didn’t respond immediately, thinking through his option. The main objective of this initial scouting run would remain the same, but this circle sounded more complicated than those that had come before. Hollow Dream would need a measured approach, and a contingency plan for when Eventide woke up.

  With a wave of his hand, the realm portal opened up, the purple eye staring at those waiting before it. Jonathan waited until the others had stepped through and followed, emerging into a silent and foggy world. A few gnarled trees were visible nearby, but a prevalent fog covered everything beyond them. A few shapes were barely visible through the fog, but everything else was invisible after a few hundred feet.

  “So this is Hollow Dream,” Arkanon said softly as he looked around. “Seems oddly peaceful for a realm of the Infinite Hells.”

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  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Jonathan said softly, his eyes flicking over towards a patch of shadow that was moving in the opposite direction of the faint light around it. “Something’s watching us.”

  Arkanon followed Jonathan’s gaze and without warning, a pillar of flame erupted from where the shadow stood, immolating it and the trees nearby. “Not any longer.”

  The flames vanished, revealing a crater in the ground filled with ash. More ash drifted around, settling on the ground around the crater.

  Jonathan saw a flickering shape at the edge of his vision and looked around to see the same shadowy figure watching him, only this time from the other side of the fog. “Uh, I don’t think that did anything.”

  The shape blurred and suddenly appeared in Jonathan’s shadow. Its hands lengthened and snapped into focus, turning from shadowy fog into long claws of abyssal darkness. Jonathan turned rapidly, feeling the claws slicing towards his legs. His fist blazed with purple fire and he drove it through the shade’s head. With a keening cry, the monster fell back, melting away into the faint light of the realm.

  “At least it looks like energy attacks work,” Jonathan observed, letting the fire coating his fist dissipate.

  “What was that thing?” Eliza asked, looking at where the shade had been. “It didn’t seem very powerful, just fast.”

  “I have a feeling this realm won’t be anything we are used to,” Edgar suggested. “The Circle Lord is very different, and most likely the realm’s inhabitants are as well.”

  Another shadowy figure emerged from behind one of the stooped trees, looking at the group with its featureless face. Then another popped out behind it, also staring directly at them. With a short window of time to observe, Jonathan scanned the creatures. Strangely, his analysis skill only returned a name, with everything else missing.

  Living Nightmare

  Just going by the name alone, he could tell that these weren’t necessarily the best idea to tangle with, especially if there were more. With the level of speed that they could operate at, coupled with the assumption that their strikes could actually injure him, a larger group could be quite dangerous.

  Unfortunately for the Living Nightmares, Jonathan could do far more than just punch. With a snap of his fingers, the Void erased the monsters from existence, leaving a hole in the air where they had once stood.

  “How about we get above this fog?” Jonathan asked. “We’re not going to learn much about Hollow Dream this way.”

  Various flying techniques and skills triggered as the party rose into the air. The Uthraki floated on discs of magmatic rock, Edgar, Eliza and Eva flew, and Jonathan rose on wings of the Void.

  The fog parted before them as they rose, swirling and eddying like steam above a bath. Only, the fog persisted, even as Jonathan picked up speed. He quickly left the others behind, only finding more grey fog. He could still sense them with his elemental powers, but they were completely invisible otherwise.

  Jonathan closed his eyes, realizing that they would be of little use here. Instead, he started sending out the Void in every direction, trying to figure out what was going on. It had already been fifteen or twenty seconds, and he had traveled dozens of miles. There was no way that the fog was that prevalent.

  After a few moments of searching, Jonathan found something amiss. A slight lag in a segment of his Void energy net, trailing behind the rest. It vanished quickly enough, but it shouldn’t have been possible. Nothing was there to block the elemental energy, nor was any less of Jonathan’s focus on it.

  It was strange, but not exactly a concern on its own. However, as Jonathan continued to extend his net of purple energy out into the mist, he found more such issues. So many that it seemed not to be a fluke, but by design. More inconsistencies began to pile up, from the failure of his analysis skill to the endless fog. It was as if…

  “It’s as if this isn’t real…” Jonathan breathed, realizing that was the only explanation for his failure to control his power. “This realm isn’t just called Hollow Dream, it is a dream.”

  Jonathan’s vision went black and he awoke, gasping for breath. He lay on his back, one of his feet entangled in a plant. His body shifted slightly, and he looked down, seeing that the vine attached to his leg was also connected to a vast, arboreal maw on the side of a tree. This tree was nothing like those he had seen in the dream realm. It was taller than a redwood and far wider. Two onyx eyes peered out above its mouth, with teeth of splintered bark and a tongue of sap.

  “Oh, hell no!’ Jonathan shouted, ripped his foot free. All around him, the others were in similar predicaments, all being dragged towards the tree.

  A pink mist surrounded the tree, hanging low to the ground. Every time it touched Jonathan, he felt a sudden surge of drowsiness, but now that he knew the trick, it didn’t work any more. While the poison was powerful, that power was compensated for by the fact that those affected could find their way out of the dream.

  Glaring at the tree, Jonathan pointed a finger at it. A ray of purple fire erupted from his hand and tore through the tree bark. The monster let out a rumbling groan of pain and convulsed, the vines letting go of Jonathan’s allies.

  A wave of Void energy burned away the pink mist, freeing the others from their slumber. Arkanon woke first, having the highest Resilience of them all, despite being lower level than Eliza. His face tensed in fiery rage, and a volcano ripped its way free from the earth, the tree monster in the very center. A geyser of superheated rock evaporated the creature, and the volcano sank back into the ground, a minor earthquake shaking the area.

  “What the actual fuck was that?” Eliza shouted. She rarely swore, so she was clearly quite affected by the incident.

  “Looks like this world is going to be a lot more dangerous than we thought,” Edgar declared. “Even if the Circle Lord is asleep.”

  “Yeah, that poison took out all of us,” Jonathan replied. “Even me, and I have the highest Resilience here. Even if the monsters here are weak enough to be evaporated by a single technique, if they can bypass our defenses, it doesn’t matter.”

  An unnatural silence fell over the group as a chill wind swept across the loamy ground. It was only then that Jonathan looked over the surrounding world, having previously been distracted.

  There was a slight fog rolling over the ground, but it was nothing like the dream world he had been trapped in. Trees were everywhere, but none of them were like the monster that had almost killed him. Most of them were the size of mature oak trees, though their trunks were covered in sigils and strange patterns.

  The ground beneath Jonathan’s feet was covered in a layer of thick green moss. It undulated back and forth, only by a miniscule amount, but enough to be noticeable. As he took a step, he realized that the moss had started to latch onto the bottom of his feet, though his strength was more than enough to break free.

  At this, the moss started to move more rapidly, growing up around his feet. Jonathan frowned and sent a wave of elemental energy across the ground, burning away the moss for a hundred feet in every direction. It started to grow back immediately, somehow taking root in moments.

  Realising that this wasn’t normal moss, even for the standards of the Infinite Hells, Jonathan scanned it.

  Moss of the Dream King

  Symbiote

  Level N/A

  Health: N/A

  Mana: N/A

  Stamina: N/A

  Status: Healthy

  Highest Skill Rarity: N/A

  Highest Pathway Skill: N/A

  A symbiotic relationship arose between this moss and the Dream King, the living incarnation of the realm of Hollow Dream. The moss captures the weak and brings them down into the earth where the living realm can consume them. It exists all across Hollow Dream, and as such cannot be effectively categorized in terms of level or stats.

  For the first time in a while, Jonathan was surprised by something he encountered in the Hells. He had battled gods and monsters, ascended through the ranks of Divinity and achieved the impossible, but this was something else. The entire realm of Hollow Dream was apparently a living creature, with its surface covered in predatory moss.

  “You won’t believe this…” Jonathan said to the others, before explaining what he had just read.

  “I can’t wrap my head around that,” Eliza said after a short pause. “If Hollow Dream follows the same size conventions as the other circles, this monster is bigger than a planet. Maybe even bigger than a star. How can it live like that?”

  “It has to be a far higher Tier than the mana of this realm,” Edgar mused. “Perhaps that is why it sleeps eternally. Maybe it devours the mana of those the moss captures. Otherwise it wouldn’t be sleeping. It would be dead.”

  Maranta perked up. “Now that you mention it, the mana here does feel thinner. My regeneration rate is a bit slower than usual.”

  “How strong does something have to be to affect the mana density of a whole Circle of the Hells?” Eliza asked, incredulous.

  “Perhaps being that Circle of the Hells?” Edgar replied.

  Hushar and Tukar shared a look, one that Jonathan couldn’t parse immediately. Eventually, Hushar spoke. “I think some of us need more power before we can do anything to help liberate this world. Hollow Dream is a step above anything we’ve encountered before. My brother and I wish to train in Tartarus until we are strong enough to help.”

  “Is that true?” Jonathan asked. “Do you also want to leave, Tukar?”

  Tukar nodded solemnly. “Unfortunately, yes. I am already many levels behind you, and even further behind in absolute power. I need more strength.”

  “Us too,” Maranta and Bordeg added, having thought it over for a few moments. “We aren’t any stronger than those two. We would just be dead weight.”

  “In that case, fine,” Jonathan answered. “You can use Arkanon’s Tartarus token.” He turned to Arkanon. If that’s alright with you, of course?”

  Arkanon shrugged and withdrew his token from his pocket. “I won’t need it here, I suppose. It is better served helping the others.” He tossed it to Hushar who caught it deftly, glancing at it.

  “We’ll take our leave now, then,” Hushar declared. He held it out to the other Uthraki, who each laid a finger on it. With a swoosh of collapsing air, they vanished.