[Nightengale]

Here's the actual chapter...I intended to end it with only 1 part, but apparently things got out of hand as usual as I wrote more than I thought I would...so this "arc" would end at the next part. Promise...probably.

Spoiler for Part 13.4 : Dreams :

~Part XIII Unknown Verse ~ Oblivion Dreams x Twilight Reality ~

~Lost Pages 277 : Mandrake ~

“There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”

Mandrake has the power to materialize the past and dreams of one’s life.

To that one person…time will stop, injuries will heal, the roads of his past illuminated, and the future clouded.

It is the universal cure…the universal poison.

For one will remain there…living in one’s dreams…

Forever…

~Saga~

“Saga, Saga, Saga…”

A cheerful, youthful and bright voice played repeated in my ears, as someone called my name repeatedly…who?

“Wake up, Saga!”

Bop. Bop. Bop. Bop…my dreaminess was interrupted, as my eyes opened…to see a small young girl, with a light toned baby blue hair…with a tinge of azure… she pouted as she pointed her fingers at me…

“Mou! Did you know how much trouble I went through just to wake you up!? Reflect a little, will you?”

The young child, despite being clearly no more than 3 years old, showed her sour side as she lectured me… Wait…what is this feeling…

It feels like something’s severely wrong…like something’s missing…

“Why…am I here?”

I looked around, as I see the meeting place…the field of moonlight flowers, the place where I met Tiara, and had continued doing so… I was lying here, but… what was I doing here…?
Bop…Ouch. Once again, my head was hit with a small book.

“Have all that sleep made you dreamy? Mommy! Saga’s being strange!!! Like he always is!!!”

Mommy…? That’s right…I seem to recall now…ever since the war ended 3 years ago… Tiara and I…

“Don’t address your father that way…You’re being rude.”

Tiara appeared, as she gently carried the young child, hugging and cuddling her, as they both shared a beautifully mutual exchange of maternal feelings. My wife…and my daughter…

“I’m sorry…Saga.”

“That’s still being rude.”

“Can’t you call me Daddy like how you call Mommy?”

No answer…just her tongue sticked out.

“Gimme a break…”

Tiara could only smile at our … I suppose I still some ways to go before my daughter will open up more to me. I stood up, as I slowly walked away from the flower field… and with my head turned towards my wife and daughter, I held out my hand…

“Let’s go home... Dear…Rein…”

That’s right… the war has ended 3 years ago, and right now…I’m living happily with my wife and 3 year old daughter, Tiara and Rein…

But…it feels like…

This place…no…the entire world feels completely…different.

~Astra~

4 days… It had 4 days now, ever since that tragedy. I sat in front of Saga’s coffin…of which he was placed into one day after his death was confirmed. Even now, everyone finds hard to believe you’re dead.

“General…everything here’s insane.

You’re dead… Wira’s turned into nothing but crystallized blood, he’s right here as I speak… Isdera’s been fighting out at the battlefield alone for days, like a raged man. Your death and Signum’s must’ve affected him greatly. That woman from the other side, Shamal…she’s not eating well, likewise, the deaths of her princess and comrades weighing greatly on her…

Even Null’s unresponsive… what had happened in that battle?

What should we do…Saga? If only you’re here now…what would you do?”

Open.

…What was that? A voice…no, it’s resonating in my head?

Open…it.

It sounded vaguely like Wira’s…Damn it. Look like even I need to get myself reasserted. With Saga dead and everything else fucked up, if I can’t keep my reason…who else will? Voices in one’s head are a bad sign of losing it…Even so…

I don’t know why I did what I did…I opened up the coffin… And even though I cannot see, it still felt the same it was 4 days ago…

Cold, lifeless, without a scent of life… yet, there was something strange. There was no…rotting smell of a corpse…as I touched his skin, cold and lifeless it was, but likewise, it was not rotting. It was as if time stopped the moment he died.

What could this mean? C’mon, Astra…think. You’re supposed to be the brain here…what’s the point of those years of studying if I can’t even apply it here? Something…anything that could cause death, but without decay…

Could it be?

I rushed as quickly as I could to Shamal’s room… if I’m not mistaken, there’s only one possible answer.

“Shamal…there’s something I need to ask you.”

Meanwhile…

[Unison status…2%]

~Saga~

“Happy 7th birthday, Rein. And a happy 3rd birthday to you too…Nia.”

“Yay! Cake!”

“…”

Rein was clearly overjoyed, flailing happily like the little child she is; meanwhile…Nia’s only reply was a timid blush, accompanied with a slight nod. Tiara could only smile at the strange, yet beautiful contrast of our 2 daughters. The elder, energetic and optimistic, vibrant and cheerful while the other was more of an introvert… soft-spoken, silent and mild-mannered, like a small lady.

Rein on the other hand, was more like a small boss.

“Bop!!”

A pillow hit my face…

“I heard that!”

Oops..did I say it out loud?

“MOUUU~!!!”

“Dear…you shouldn’t tease Rein so much…”

“Nee-chan, you really shouldn’t…”

We all laughed. Tiara, Rein, Nia, myself… Everyone’s mood and spirits were lifted…we were happy…7 years had passed since the war… Tiara gave birth to another beautiful baby daughter 3 years ago, on the same time that Rein was born as well… We named her Nia. The times slowly passed as they both grew up… Rein was clearly taking after her mother, surely to someday grow up to be just as beautiful as Tiara, though sometimes I wonder where did all her energy come from, while Nia was closer to me… and before everything, we were truly happy as a family.

This is without a doubt…the happiest moment of my life.

… However…even till today, there was something I couldn’t shake away…

Like there was something in my heart that is hollow… almost as if this happiness is ethereal.

On that night… I had a dream.

A dream of blood…the memories of the war…people I’ve never met…as a small lion stood before me…his voice, his roars, resonates and tell me…something.

“Why…are you here?”

“What?”

“This is a dream…you should be elsewhere. This is not where you belong.”

What’s this…a talking lion? And of course this is a dream…To think that I was being told that I’m in a dream inside a dream...

“I know th-“

“No, you don’t… Your reality…That is not your reality. You are already…”

What…was that? I couldn’t hear…

From the darkness…I awakened… there was no blood, no talking beast, just Tiara, Nia and Rein by my side, sleeping peacefully…just my true reality…

To think that I’m being bothered by a dream…

“Are you all right…Dear?”

Tiara, rubbing her eyes…as she slowly surfaced herself from the sheets, concerned as she asked me… My sudden awakening must’ve disturbed her.

“I’m fine, dear…just an unpleasant dream.”

That’s right…Just a dream…

It was just…a dream…

Yet, why? Why couldn’t I shake away this ominous feeling? This scent of blood on my hands?

~Shamal~

Before long…the knight, and the other one…Astra, was it? Both of them appeared in my prison…well, it’s a regular room…but it made no difference. I am in the end, their prisoner.

Astra briefed me on what happened in the past 4 days I was locked up… The Princess..or what’s left of her…is now slowly expanding her magical field, Diabolic End… consuming the lifeforce of everything within its range…In the past 4 days, it has expanded to over 50 miles in radius… and Saga… is dead, but not completely dead…

And now…Astra wants me to tell him everything I can…on the princess’s condition, and of Saga’s…

… What should I do?

“All right. I’ll tell you all of everything I know…”

Even if I tell them…it changes nothing. Might as well let it out from my heart…

“The Princess…what happened to her was probably an emotional assimilation with the Tome of the Night Sky. When the late queen died…she left behind the one complete Unison system, and the Princess completed it by merging it alongside her Storage Device, the Tome itself…

But even then…it wasn’t just a Unison Device. Due to the sheer complexity of the device that was beyond conventional standings… it was almost as if it possessed a will of its own. But there was no danger, because the late queen installed a pre-cursor system that prevents a mental-overload…

The Mother System… it was a technical defense program that analyzes the mental and physical state of the user…however… since it was a system that dealt directly wit the mental and emotional state of the user…it had its minor risk.

Probably… the death of Saga caused an emotional outburst from the Princess…and caused something like a complete spiritual fusion that feeds from her emotions rather than minds…”

“And what about Saga?”

“The Princess was… a genius. Her mastery and understanding of magical complexities was at a level no one could hope to achieve…even though her body was weak, she was able to transmute magical equations to a level where the strain is reduced without affecting its strength…and that applies to her natural ability of conveying effects as well…

What the princess probably did…was to simulate the effects of a mandrake into her spell, and the effects of it are now circulating inside Saga.”

“Simulating complicated medicinal effects into magical equations…That’s…”

“Yes…almost impossible. But it’s something our Princess is capable of…

Mandrake…a legendary herb, that had been extinct for centuries… a powerful hallucinogen, it was said to be the universal cure to all injuries and sickness…as well as the ultimate poison.

Mandrake…is something that defies the law of nature. It can heal the incurable, and was said to work even on the dead. It brings one back to a world that defies reality…

Saga’s probably in a state of false death at this moment… That is the law of nature. It takes back what it gives…

The dreams conjured by the mandrake is said to be indistinguishable from reality… Even if it’s your general, it is almost impossible for him to wake up from it.

That is all I know…”

“Thank you... Shamal.”

The both of them bowed their heads… I don’t know if I should be thankful or sorry… that’s right. It’s not just me. Everyone is suffering from this… the Princess…and Saga.

~Isdera~

So…the effect has caused the General…to be living in a world he most desires…or a time where he is truly his happiest…

Knowing him…it’s probably a world without us. A world without this meaningless bloodshed.

Returning to a most treasured memory… a world unaffected by even time…

And if what that woman said is true…Forever… and ever…

Like an eternal darkness…without single glimmer of hope…

But…I believe in you, General.

Because it is you, and because you can end this madness…

So please…wake up, Saga…

Wake up…

[Unis…on…Sta…tu…s… 0.6…%]

[M…e…i…st…e…r……]

And no, Nia's no homage. There's a purpose behind it, and I've given some hints here and there... or you could just wait till the next part.