The gravity of Ford's words hit our group hard. Everyone leaned in, intent on sharing any scrap of knowledge that could be helpful. The conversation crackled with urgency as we discussed the strange and challenging environment of the great plateau. We swapped details about the unique plants and the dangers that lurked there. Every bit of information could be the difference between life and death.
During this exchange, Ford also revealed his aspect to everyone's surprise. Sure, the situation was deadly serious, but the fact that he was willing to share it goes to show how dire the situation really was.
Ford's aspect ability was to control the water in the surrounding area to blast them into the air like geysers. Though it didn't sound useful at first, Ford went on to showcase the extent of his power.
It was as if an explosive had been detonated from a distance, a large pillar of water rose several meters in the air before it fell down in a crash. Though he didn't explain anything more about his ability, me and the other two girls in our group were thinking of the versatility of the power.
Obviously the water geyser could be used as an attack, but it could also be used to create a wall of water to defend us from both close and far ranged enemies. The most useful part of his ability was that he only blasted pure water into the air, anything that was once part of the water was left behind. So when he used his ability on the muddy puddles of the Great Plateau, only a translucent sheet of water and steam rose into the sky, the dirt from the mud was still on the ground clumped together. This meant we had as much drinking water as Ford had essence.
There was also one obvious disadvantage, Ford could only utilize his ability when water was present. In a place with no water, he would be unable to use his ability, making him far more vulnerable. However, the Great Plateau was blanketed by layers of wet mud, which provided Ford a surplus of water. The fact he had access to so much water was likely the reason he had revealed the ability. If the unimaginable scenario of fighting each other were to happen, it was very likely that Ford would easily win. The Great Plateau itself was a weapon for him.
After the demonstration of Ford's aspect ability, we all began to walk in one direction Ford and Lorelei had decided beforehand. It was easy to decide on the direction we had to go because it was common knowledge to most sleepers, which was when one was in the Great Plateau, they go in the opposite direction of the sun's path to sunset.
During our entire walk no one talked except for when we had to discuss the distance we had to go. Even when one of us had trouble walking around the deep mud, they didn't call out for help.
From an ignorant outsider's perspective, our urgency made no sense. The great plateau was entirely illuminated by warm sunlight that let one see for tens of miles ahead, so if there were a nightmare creature in the way, it would be easy to prepare for it.
The plateau also seemed perfect for urbanization. Sure, it was littered with swamps, but that would be quite easy to remove with the power of modern technology and aspects. There weren't any good local watersheds or wood to build with but that could be prepared by the many powerful entities in the waking world like the Great Clans.
But no one, not even the Great Clans had attempted to expand their domain here. Even with the power of hundreds of awakened and the saints under their control, there was not even the foundation for buildings.
This was all because of one reason: A great ranked devil walked the premises of the Great Plateau's night. Called the Moonlight Surge, it was a terrifying great devil that even the major leaders of the great clans feared. Its ability was simple yet so destructive--it could multiply indefinitely, and there was no main body which would stop the entire swarm. The clones of each of the Moonlight Surge were all of the same rank making it difficult for one person to deal with them all, even hundreds of saints would find it practically impossible to overcome the horde of white devils.
Because of the gargantuan threat the Moonlight Surge proved, it was an unanimous decision to call it one of the many Death Zones in the Dream realm. Honestly, most of the residents of the Dream Realm were lucky that the Moonlight Surge could only appear at night, otherwise it would have likely taken over the majority of the dream realm if its multiplication wasn't restricted by daylight.
This was what hastened our group. We had to get out here before sunset, or else…we could only pray to the dead Gods.
***
"Damn, that's an ugly one!" Ford said as he looked in the distance, he had one hand over his eyes shield them from the sunlight. The subject of Ford's disdain was a smooth green dome in the distance.
The green dome had light blue stripes running across its sides in a tiger pattern, two large amber eyes dotted the side of the green dome that faced our group. The green dome looked like a type of frog nightmare creature. Its sack inflated making it twice as large then it was, then it croaked.
"So we're killing that thing?" Ford turned to us with a bright smile on his face. Lorelei looked at the frog for a few seconds and then nodded, "The spell's appraisal will be higher if we kill more nightmare creatures."
"Nice! Now, let's kill that fool!" Ford howled, making his way to the frog while summoning a sword from bright sparks. Lorelei did the same but looked back at me and Eternity. "You both stay back, if one of us gets hurt--Vincent you come over with Eternity and she'll heal the person who got injured, make sure you protect her while she is healing as well."
"Got it." Me and Eternity replied.
As Ford got closer the frog stood taller, its sack growing larger. It then opened its maw and a pink blur shot out. Ford barely managed to dodge the frog's tongue. Before the frog could retrieve the tongue back into its mouth, Ford grabbed it and pinned it to the ground. He stabbed straight through the tongue with his sword and locked it in place to the ground.
The frog's amber eyes turned blood red as anger surged through its entire body. It reared up to lunge at Ford but Lorelei was faster. She slipped to the side of the frog and leapt up onto the frog's back. She then kneeled and punctured her sword behind the frog's eyes, where it's brain would be located. After a hard twist of the blade's handle, the frog went limp.
Lorelei jumped off the frog and Ford raised his hand for a high-five. Lorelei looked at it for a second and then proceeded to give an awkward slap to his palm. Me and Eternity walked over just in time to hear Ford's question. "So did you get a memory?" He asked with sparks in his eyes.
"Actually…I did." He said, she extended her hand to Ford. He looked at it with a confused expression, "We already did the high-five?"
"I'm giving you the memory." Ford didn't ask any questions, clutching Lorelei's hands with glee. After a second they broke away and Ford raised a palm to the sky. White stars weaved the form of a green harpoon with a dark blue barbed tip. A green rope was looped around the harpoon which could be undone.
"You're beautiful." Ford muttered affectionately as he examined the harpoon memory.
"Didn't you say it was ugly a few seconds ago?" Eternity cut in.
"Yeah, but that's because we were fighting the frog. Now that it is in my possession, it is legally my child."
Eternity seemed confused by Ford's fondness of the memory but she could only sigh. Lorelei spoke of our following actions. "We don't have a way to cook the frog meats, so we'll collect some of the smaller meat of the frog and carry it with us by tying it with the blades of grass. We can eat it once we have a way to safely cook it, otherwise we can risk eating it raw."
The rest of our group nodded in agreement with Lorelei's plan, all of us hoping it didn't have to come down to eating the frog raw.
***
"Vincent, do you want to take a break?" Lorelei asked me, worry permeating through her words. I shook my head, my entire body slick with sweat, "No, let's continue."
Aside from the nightmare creatures and the Moonlight Surge, walking through the wet mud of the Great Plateau was a great challenge on its own. The mud made it so that every step was hard to take, slowed down by the thickness of the wet mud. The sun wasn't helping as it only increased our exhaustion along with increasing the humidity because of the water in the mud. Without Ford's Aspect to provide us with clean water, we all would have probably died from thirst in this heat.
The others were already tired from the arduous trek we had taken for the last couple of hours, but I was in a much more grim state than the rest. My back was hunched over and my legs barely listened to me, screaming against my every move. Even Eternity, who had the thinnest physique out of all of us, seemed confused that I was the slowest. At first there were many questions, but they all died down once I ensured everyone that I was really fine.
The cause for my excessive exhaustion was because of my flaw: [Four Humors]
[Four Humors] was never really a problem at the academy since I always had it dissipate [Essence] which wasn't needed for my survival or really needed at the Awakened academy. But here in the dream realm, where danger was present anywhere, [Essence] was absolutely vital since I needed it to use memories and use my aspect if it came down to it.
So currently I was switching between [Mind] and [Body] every few hours. The former affected my awareness while the latter affected the control over my body, depleting either one of them made it harder for me to traverse the Great Plateau but I had to deal with it.
One step at a time.
***
Nighttime.
The sun had gone past the line of the horizon and disappeared, leaving behind the night sky and the stars. Even though we were in a death zone of the dream realm, I couldn't stop myself from being awed by the glamorous view of the starry sky. It was really nothing like the dark and dreary cloudy skies of the waking world.
Though I wanted to spend a few more minutes looking at the spectacle of the universe, I had to keep moving. It was nighttime, which meant the biggest danger of the Great Plateau was awake: the Moonlight Surge. Just simply thinking about the disastrous nightmare creature sent shivers down my spine--but I suppose that's what a Great Devil would do to a sleeper.
We didn't slow down our pace, but we didn't quicken it either. Lorelei explained that we needed to conserve our stamina as much as possible, so if the Moonlight Surge did come after us, we would be ready to run. If we wasted all our stamina now before the Moonlight Surge chases us, we'd die instantly. If we get lucky not meeting the Moonlight Surge, we'd have wasted a lot of energy. During this explanation, Lorelei looked at me whenever she mentioned stamina but I was too tired to care.
The legacy girl could think whatever she wanted about me as long as she kept us alive, I would even sing and dance for her.
Eventually we stumbled upon something that wasn't a nightmare creature or the grass and mud, which Ford was happy to announce. "A berry bush!" He ran towards the thing like a child chasing an ice cream truck. If I wasn't so tired, I'd probably have done the same.
The berry bush didn't look too special from any other berry bushes I've seen before. Its branches were like cobwebs wrapped with dark green leaves with a thorn at the end. Purple berries, no bigger than my eye, were bunched up at the end of a few stems and hung down due to their weight. It really did look ordinary, but in the monotonous and bare wetlands of the Great Plateau, it was akin to an oasis in a scorching desert.
Ford, Lorelei and Eternity each took one bunch of berries and studied the outside of it. They looked ripe with a mixture of purple and dark purple, looking full of juicy goodness. Though the three of them couldn't wait to chew on the berries, they waited for me to join them first.
Sympathy-no, pity. They pitied me for being so exhausted. I sighed, and without saying a word, I took a berry from the bush and popped it into my mouth.
After chewing it for a few seconds with my eyes closed, I raised my hand and signaled a thumbs up. The others let out a breath and popped their own berries into their mouths, relishing the taste of the berries.
We sat in the viscous mud, but we paid it no mind because of the sheer deliciousness of the berries we were eating. The dream realm was a horrifying place, but it rewarded its inhabitants with a delectable palate.
We sat in the mud for a few minutes even after we finished eating, our exhaustion was simply too high. Even during our moment of rest, I still felt tired.
Lorelei got up, her legs trembling slightly, and took a look around at our surroundings. The only things to see were the starry night sky and the uneven wetland, the former a tapestry of sparkling lights and the latter a blanket of darkness.
She then looked at the invisible center point from where the entire group was sitting around. "I'll take the first watch."
Ford's onyx eyes met Lorelei's steel blue, "We're staying here? Wouldn't it be better to keep moving so that we can find a citadel before the Moonlight Surge reaches us?"
"Sleep is important. We can recover faster than a normal human, but we're still human. Remember what Master Sunless said, If we don't rest properly we won't be able to function properly. So, go to sleep." Lorelei seemed to be set on taking first watch. Eternity and I didn't argue, the two of us were the most affected by exhaustion. Ford looked at the ground for a few seconds, then he sighed and laid on his back. "Wake me up in three hours." He said, before turning over.
Lorelei nodded, turning her back to us to stare at the immeasurable darkness of the Great Plateau.