Chapter 27: Whispers of the Dreamless
The warning hung in the air like frost: The Dreamless are waking.
Kazuki stared into Noir's eyes, searching for deception. None came. Only sorrow — ancient, exhausted sorrow.
"Explain," he said.
Noir lowered her hood. Her hair, once silver, now flickered with streaks of black — corrupted strands from her time within the Rift. "The Dreamless are older than the Void. They are the ones even the Void fears."
Aria stepped forward, her voice steel. "Then why warn us?"
"Because if they awaken, nothing will remain. Not the Void. Not me. Not even you."
The Council met in the fortress war chamber. Maps floated in the air, infused with living magic. Every eye turned to Kazuki.
He pointed at the Northern Cradle — a mountain range swallowed centuries ago by myth.
"They're stirring there. I've seen it in my dreams."
Noir nodded. "They dream in reverse. When they awaken, reality frays."
---
The Journey North
Kazuki, Aria, Noir, Myrr, and Caelus led an expedition north. Through the Bleeding Vale and the Forest of Echoes, where time stuttered and space looped.
They encountered dream phantoms — echoes of people who never lived. Aria held a dream version of Lyra in her arms before it vanished in smoke.
In the Valley of Teeth, Kazuki's Chrono Flare failed. Time bent, but the phantoms walked freely. Myrr was nearly consumed by a memory of her past self.
Only Noir's presence stabilized the breach.
"We're close," she whispered. "I can hear their breathing."
During their encampment, Kazuki sat with Aria beneath a bent moon.
"Are we ready for this?" she asked, fingers brushing his.
He nodded. "We have to be. If we fail here, it all ends."
That night, Kazuki dreamed of the Dreamless — not as monsters, but as children trapped in time, too afraid to wake. One of them reached toward him, eyes pleading.
"Let me sleep a little longer," it whispered.
He awoke trembling.
---
Within the Cradle
The mountains were wrong.
Kazuki felt it before they saw it. Peaks curved impossibly upward. Rivers ran with stardust. The sky bent like glass under pressure.
Their journey through the Cradle became more surreal with each step. At one point, they walked across memories of battles Kazuki hadn't yet fought. In another, Aria saw a future where she stood alone among ashes.
Myrr was drawn to a stone carved with the names of those yet to be born.
"This place knows everything," she murmured. "Too much."
A great stone gate, cracked and humming with runes, loomed at the heart of the cradle. On it, the language of the Primordials — beings lost before time.
Kazuki touched it. Visions flooded him.
He saw a great slumbering city. Towers of bone and light. Beings chained in golden rings, their eyes closed, their thoughts so loud they shook stars.
"They're still dreaming," he whispered.
Noir stepped beside him. "And soon, they'll wake."
Suddenly, a scream tore through the realm — not of pain, but of awakening.
One of the Dreamless opened its eye.
And the sky above cracked.
---
To be continued...