The world is turning. The ground shattering. Flames burning the pristine city of Elysium like it was made for burning.

The pillars of light. those destructive pillars of creation and uncreation, flashing throughout the world.

At the edge of the world, after so many have died, Lud walked towards the center of this unfolding moment of myth. He walked towards an angel with too many wings and eyes to count spread out for miles. He walked towards the center to stop it all, to do something, but his body gets torn piece by piece each passing second and reformed once more for he wills it so in that fluctuation of aether.

The gods have already fallen to this angel, though they would never want to call him that after he was about to unfold the very foundations of the world.

Lud walked towards the center, thinking back on the promise he had made. Walking ever true to stop it all from happening, he saw the angel that was the cause of it all. Samael.

The weird man Lud saw during the banquet, just a weirdo, he thought at first, but now that the situation was what it was, it was like a truck had struck him.

Lud saw the man named Samael screaming in agony, in that form that had maybe thousands upon thousands of mouths, eyes and wings. Lud tried to get closer… just a bit more and it could all be over.

Lud shouted "Samael!" But all the screams of Samael drowned the cries that tried to stop this madness.

In the background, Lud could hear a familiar man laugh and shout amidst the screams of Samael "Yes. YES! This is it! Bring it all! Turn this world upside down! Show it to me! Show! It! To! Me!"

Lud didn't need confirmation who it was, since that voice, albeit being drowned by the screams and chaos unfolding around them, was all too familiar to him by now.

Lud used all of his power to get through Samael, until a faint voice from the man behind him said "Fri…en…d…"

Lud turned around and saw scarred and naked Samael with glowing golden eyes. Samael pleaded "Ha…nd"

The torn weakling of a man extended his hand ever so slightly to touch Lud, to which Lud tried to answer with his own hand, but the torrents of aether made it hard to approach. Lud felt like he had to touch Samael's hand. It was the only way.

Step by step… Lud got closer and stumbled along the way, until finally he managed to touch the tip of Samael's index finger.

With the contact made, Samael said in a weak but desperate tone "Please… save… them…Go… back… and… prevent… this… from… happening…"

And with the flash of light, Lud wakes up from a bed like he just had a nightmare.

Lud says "That was… a rough one to say the least. It felt so real as well."

He walks to the bathroom and washes his face, but as soon as the tap starts to spew water, instead of water, Lud sees blood and just stares at it in astonishment.

Lud had faced so many things up to this point, that little blood couldn't faze him anymore, but why was there blood coming out of the tap?

Lud dressed up since Zenith didn't seem to be coming, but once he got out of his room, he saw the hall filled with corpses of his people. Along with them, there were two corpses of dark skinned children Lud didn't recall seeing before, but swears they looked familiar.

The two girls were hugging Toki, like they were waiting for her to protect them, but alas, all three, along with many others, were dead.

Lud didn't know what was going on, so he thought Eris was pulling some sort of trick again and shouted "This isn't funny Eris! Stop whatever you are doing! I… I thought you have reformed."

There was nothing but silence for a while, until a voice he had heard at least twice in his life says "So you are one that wanders these lands with such sights, how sad. I hope your next visit here will be a more pleasant one."

Lud sees a man in robes walking towards him with two angel wings on him. It was Samael, but this time, his eyes were open and they had an opal like colour in them that seemed somehow surreal.

Lud asked "Why are you here and why are you talking so… normally?"

Samael answers "So you haven't figured it out yet? Let me explain, this is a dream. You are currently dreaming of this… sight."

Lud says "So does that mean I am lucid dreaming now? It feels so… real."

Samael says "You aren't, since you seem to be unable to tap in the power of this realm so far."

Lud asks "Tap into this realms' power? You mean here… dreams connect to some sort of realm?"

Samael answers "Of course they do. Everytime someone dreams, they are sent to the dream realm and Un'I' lingering power grants them dreams. You have been here before, but you just don't remember due to the rules of this place."

Lud asks "Then… why do you seem so knowledgeable about all this?"

Samael answers as he realizes something. "Ah. Right, since you are someone worthy of Mercy's affection, then I suppose you have your own circumstances. So let me tell you this much, I have a unique constitution that makes me more alive in this realm than I do in the other realms. Don't tell anybody about it in case you return with your memories, or I'll be in deep trouble."

Lud says "I don't understand. How are you more alive in a dream than in reality?"

Samael says "Yeah, now I'm super convinced that you aren't from Lutah. You seem to have a completely different view of dreams than a normal person in Lutah does. But just as I said, every time a person goes to sleep and dreams, their consciousness is sent to the dream realm and once they wake up, their consciousness is sent back to the 'real world' while often forgetting about the experience. It is just how things work here, and this isn't our first meeting, you just don't remember."

Lud ponders for a moment and says "I think… I saw two children clinging to my daughters body like they sought for protection from her. But the strange thing is, I don't think I recognised either of them."

Samael says "That is quite common. The way dreams work that it rarely makes up faces and just gives you faces that you might have seen one day in passing and barely noticed, but your head made a note of that kind of face and that is why you probably don't recognise them."

Lud says "So what you mean to say is that… I have likely seen them from somewhere in passing?"

Samael says "That sounds about right. That is at least how I noticed normal people act in most cases. That and Un'I told me about it later as a treat."

Lud asks "Who is Un'I by the way?"

Samael says "You really are a foreigner. Ahem… Un'I is the god of sleep and dreams. She created this way as a way to make mortals spend the accumulated aether in their head out in a healthy way since aether likes to linger near the brain."

Lud asks "Is it unhealthy otherwise?"

Samael says "According to her, they had trouble maintaining life as the mortals suffered mental issues before the method was invented. Even dragons weren't safe from this blight."

Lud thinks for a moment and asks "Out of curiosity… Is there a god who is responsible for nightmares?"

Samael says "That falls under Un'I's sphere of influence as well. Dreams are dreams. Sometimes they are nice, sometimes mid, sometimes sad, sometimes terrifying. It all depends on the aether fluctuation in the head of the person. Simple as that."

Lud says "I see. Well then… do I need to wait for me to wake up now, or…"

Samael says "Pretty much. For the rest of you, your 'real world' body dictates mostly when you are sent back there. For me, the dreams are in the real world and this world is my real world."

Lud says "Quite bizarre."

Samael smiles and says "No kidding."

There is an awkward silence for a moment before Lud asks "So what do you usually do here exactly? Wait for others to dream so you can spy on them?"

Sameal says "My goodness no. There is a real… I mean… There is a 'land' that houses us who live in the dream world instead of the real world. I just happened to get curious about your… interesting fluctuations."

Lud asks "Interesting fluctuations?"

Samael says "Yeah. I don't know how to explain it, but… somehow… it felt like something unusual happened with you before you came here. I looked at where you are currently sleeping and I didn't see any anomalies, so I just got curious and wanted to see you firsthand.

When it clicked that it was you who I met at the banquet, I couldn't help myself but to intrude a bit. Apologies for that. Dreams are supposed to be private for the most part."

Lud asks "For the most part?"

Samael says "Oh gosh. I'm yapping unnecessarily again, aren't I. Just forget I said anything about. In fact, this might end up forgotten on your part when you wake up. In fact…"

Lud starts to feel hazy all of a sudden and Samael sayS "I think it is time for you to wake up. I'll see you around, friend. I hope your next dream will be more pleasant than this one."

Lud tries to stop and says "Wait!" but he is soon woken up by Zenith and it all felt like a hazy dream. Soon, Lud would forget about most of it, but in time, he'll remember the promise he made for a man he dreamed inside a dream.

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