Shadow slave: In The Eye of The Beholder

The cold hit Silas first.

It was the kind of cold that seeped into his bones, wrapping him in a paralyzing grip before he could even process what was happening. His eyes snapped open, but he saw nothing—just darkness, suffocating and thick, pressing against him from all sides. Panic clawed at the edges of his mind. His instincts screamed at him to move, but his limbs were sluggish, weighted down by the icy grip of the water.

He was drowning.

Silas desperately tried to hold the breath that he had, he registered that he was in a immense body of water, but to where up and down were illuded him, in the short moments that he had to hold his breath he activated [Beholders Eye] colour bursting in his irises that slightly illuminated the complete darkness he found himself in.

Although Silas was completely blinded by the water, somehow, he could still see the strings in the unknowing darkness, a myriad of threads weaved around him, but to what things that the ethereal manifestations represented was unknown. 

His insects kicked in, using adrenaline his body subconsciously powered up through the water, whatever the threads represented, there was a decent chance one of them was something alive, and in the dream that meant one of two things, either a human, or a nightmare creature. Silas decided to not attempt to find out, in the water he stood no chance of fighting back.

He continued to ascend, distancing himself from the strings, the further up he went the more his lungs cried out, the water pressure against his chest starting to feel unbearable, but eventually his quick decision to move away from the strings lead him into desperately needed air. 

His drenched ashen grey locks breached the surface of the water, the pressure vanishing as Silas took the opportunity to draw in a hoarse breath. relief crashing over him as oxygen was rushed into his lungs.

For a few seconds he was unsure whether he was actually breaching for air or was actually avoiding strings from things above the water, unintentionally sinking himself into the depths of no return.

'It was a good decision to learn how to swim well from teacher Julius, if i had avoided those classes I simply would have perished here....' Silas let the morbid thought cross his mind, then letting his eyes truly grasp of what was around him, and to where he was. what he saw was surprising if not haunting. 

Simply nothing, it was a pitch-black night, not a single star dared to show its face, not even a pale moon hung in the sky, The only thing that he could see was pitch black nothingness. whether it be the presence of light, or the abundance of darkness in the horizon.

Silas was left in the silence of the pitch-black ocean, he spun around on the water's surface to try to see anything, but all he was met with was the same all accompanying darkness, his anxiety rising with his attempt for salvation proving fruitless

"Where the bloody hell am I!?"

He could not stay up in the water forever, he would either run out of stamina and drown or be met with one of the creatures that held the golden threads. To all he had been told before this was nothing like the transitions to the dream realm. There was nowhere to go, nowhere to aim. he was alone in the black water, though a horrible beast from the depths might make him less isolated. 

Silas disparity brushed through any options to find land; he had no luminous memories to lighten up the abyss, along with not being able to hear the water brush against land, the current was slow, only the shallowest of waves brushed past his face, he lacked all of his senses to locate safe land. 

The tension that burdened him being pushed back as a new idea came to mind, following up he reached into his soul and summoned [Ashen Veil], The interacted black coat wrapping around him, providing desperate needed shelter against the cold waves.

Though it did help in him keeping warm, Silas idea for the cloak was to use the enchantment [Way of Wind] maybe by controlling the small breeze that assumed the waves around him could he reach out and feel land. 

He reached his hands out from the water and felt the frigid wing brush in fingers, from that the wind was abrupted from its flow and danced around his palm, the breeze around him following suite, the enchantment taken further by Silas anxious [Empowerment], the wind meters ahead following in its control, and Silas commanded the wind to flow in a wheel, attempting to feel any object obstructing the course.

Yet to Silas muted horror, the wind continued straight, not once abbreviated from the command of Silas, around him for about fifty meters1 shared the same black water, for the time he was first brought into the dream realm he hopped the spell would have some mercery and not drop him into an ocean with not a single island or structure around him. 

Dread starting to take its grasp of Silas, he looked to the waves that brushed against him, it was pretty clear that he would have to reach land soon, if not he would most likely be met with death, or perhaps a fate even worse than that.

The thought only made his [Empowerment] soar, he gritted his teeth as desire felled him to start swimming in any which direction, to use his will to push himself forward past and to land, he felt the strength starting to emerge in his body. 

He nearly acted upon these thoughts, he looked to the water he was supposed to breach past and found golden strings brushing by. Any sense of action or desperation being immediately extinguished at the sight of the threads.

Sure, he could most likely find some land by acting out, any attempt was better than floating still and await being drowned, but such action would not do anything good for him but lead the holders of the Theads right to him, his struggle would only lure them to him. 

For that it was a more certain death then anything. 

Others had been afraid of the dark for the possibility it held a presence in its depths, a fear of the unknown. Silas was blessed, or cursed with the knowledge something was indeed there, but to either a small pebble in the ocean current, or a colossal abomination was up to his imagination. 

So, he continued to float on the small waves, Silas had the urge to chew on his nails in order to vent some of his worry, but could not for the fact if he did, he would only sink. so, he was left trying to think of any way he could possibly get himself out of danger.

The wind changing flow against being his only way to guess time and change in the lightless ocean, he eventually came up with something that could be his salvation. He reached into his soul and felt a pull, shimmering blue light forming into a weight above his shoulder. 

Silas had summoned Cherub, the dove shifting around onto of him, eventually reaching the top of his head, making Silas require more effort to make sure the bird didn't make him sink, he took a deep breath to try and release the fear, as well as the annoyance the dormant dove was causing him.

'Cherub try to find some land' Silas issued mentally to avian, it tilted his head for a second before taking off into the air, he could not see his echo at all, only hearing the flaps of its wings becoming more distant. 

He was unsure of how the bird would actually manage to find land; Silas hoped that maybe its attribute [Blessed Sight] could aid in its search. For how to see cherub when it's succeeded in finding land, he had [Soul Sight] allowing him to see the pure soul core he had created himself in the pitch dark. 

Activating [Soul Sight] his eyes sharpened, the shining core of cherub glowing in the distance, the core was still, although distant it seemed cherub had found somewhere to perch. Immediate hope sparkling into Silas eyes. 

He began to swim in cherubs' direction, caution flaring in his mind to gaze at the strings that surrounded him, double checking to insure one wouldn't lash and start wavering at him, what he saw left him horrified. 

The strings were still flowing like usual, but [Soul Sight] gave insight into the cores of the creatures that created their strings, shockingly most of the strings held putrid cores of nightmare creatures. 

But the true fear of the sight was that each cores corruption was immense, he saw beasts, monsters, demons, and devils bellow, with the rank of their souls' corruption being as horrible as the terror of his first nightmare, if not some of them being stronger.

With a couple of the cores being far, far worse. 

What was around him was a place of monsters that even reached of the corrupted rank, the same creatures that even masters such as winter struggled to fight, they weren't some distant threats, but something that could swim over and devour him in a matter of seconds.

Silas felt the desire to laugh, it was absurd, to encountering an awakened terror in his first nightmare, and now seeing nightmare creatures the same rank as humanity's saints swimming around him. 

"The spell really wants me dead, doesn't it? I would rather it decide to be summoned in the dream realm by falling off a cliff rather than this!!"

He had to move, he had to make it to land. With cherubs' soul core being a beacon, he started swimming in its direction, making sure to stay relatively silent while doing so. always keeping his eyes to the threads around him, such an act let him cool his dread slightly, if he did spot something heading directly at him, there was not a single thing he could do.

Some strings came alarmingly close to answer that Silas stayed completely still when they approached, he silenced his breathing, even attempting to not think about the terror next to him. nightmare creatures were a unique bunch, they could detect someone if they were being looked at, thought about. So, Silas tried to erase his existence in the moments when the horrors swam close. 

Relying on the [Ebony Silk] enchantment of the [Ashen Veil] to hide his presence to the beasts, the cloak being the only thing continuing to move on Silas, as the edges of the cloth was carried slightly by the waves. 

The moments where Silas had to remain hidden as if years brushed past, despite being a single moment to a minute. For once spent their time existing, an act people would do for their entire lives. But for moments Silas had to discard this and try to vanish any thought or thing that could bring attention of it. So, the time that he attempted to not exist felt everlasting. 

Bit by bit he made his way to cherub, the horrors of the depth passing one by one, salvation was close, but Silas knew that at any moment one of the nightmare creatures could spot him, and just like that he would be truly erased from existing. 

Eventually he reached cherub, excitement mixing with fear as Silas reached out for his echo, his hand brushing past against the land, it felt as not dirt or stone, but bone. summoning [Mad Cows Canine] from his soul, he let the dull blade pierce into the bone in an attempt to find leverage. 

The awakened blade only managed to pierce slightly into the bone to Silas Suprise, he had probably come across a skeleton of one of the many horrors of the depths, it was still far better to ascend it rather than deal with the very alive horrors of the black water.

He felt around the bone and found it like a sturdy collum support, it was most likely one of the abominations ribs he grabbed. there was no proper purchase on the rib, so he had to climb up and hopefully reach the spine or maybe shoulder blades to rest upon.

Silas looked back to the ocean and still found dreadful cores closer, he had to ascend the bone quickly, before his actions attracted one of them. The grip on the bone was unusable as it was still smooth, not to mention wet from the waves, so he uses [Mad Cows Canine] to pick into it and reach upwards, similar to an ice climber. 

Even Cherub bit down on [Ashen Veil] trying to pull Silas up from the rib, its effort despite is size being epically effective at the task, maybe due to being an actual echo instead of a mundane bird, or possibly sharing some enhancement from [Empowerment] due to their linked souls. 

"So close!!" Silas inwardly urged as the slope of the colossal rib started to level, and with one final push he pulled himself up and onto flat surface that was the goliaths spine.

All the fear vanishing as relief collapsed on him, quickly being followed by immense exhaustion. after so long he had finally managed to reach land. 

On the silent skeleton Silas found himself drifting to sleep, his muscles that constantly kept him afloat and resisting the cold starting to fail, his entire body falling to rest. 

He accepted the exhaustion, not forgetting to command Cherub to keep watch in case anything tried to sneak up on his sleeping form.

Under the starless void of the dream realm, Silas escaped the harrowing waves, and let morning brush past his sleepless self, the darkness beginning to retreat. 

The first perilous day of Silas descent into the nightmare realm passing by.