Chương 30: Carmen Carnis et Ossis

Lillia was no stranger to situations such as this one. Unlike June, who was a Nightwalker, she was a Daywalker who was born in the nightrealm, not to mention one of great importance. She was royalty and a Daywalker; she had a price on her back. Some wanted her as ransom, some wanted to extort her family for land, plenty of affluent people wanted her, and plenty of scientists of the waking realm wanted to dissect her.

In fact, any Daywalker Dreamer entering the waking realm was in danger, but in Lillia's case, she had more people to worry about than just the ghouls who wanted power. Her family lineage was special; other than its royalty, every member of the direct lineage from the founder, her great-grandfather, was born with a secondary trait. A curse even. Every member of the direct lineage of her great-grandfather was born with a split personality, and both personalities had their own unique affinities.

Lillia technically had five sisters, four brothers, and two fathers. Her mother was not a direct descendant, so she did not have the curse, but Lillia couldn't imagine having 5 children and one husband and then also having to deal with their alters. There was no primary personality and no secondary personalities; they were the same person and at the same time had two souls.

It had its perks as much as it was annoying to have to take turns to live, as it allowed for unique experiences and perspectives that enriched their lives. Lilia understood why her split brought her to the theater, but at the same time'Why did you have to bring us here without guards?' Her voice sounded quiet and cool, almost timid as she thought the words to herself. Then another voice that was also quiet and cool but rambunctious replied.

'Did you want to scare him away? We were supposed to be secretive.' Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Their thoughts didn't mix with each other, but even then, the rambunctious person could feel a facepalm coming. The timid-sounding Lillia had erected a cocoon of ice around June and herself. She sent a message out on her phone; it was only a matter of time until help arrived. But until then'We will protect June.'

'We have questions to ask.'

June was tearing through the mercenaries; an overreactive imagination was seen as a bad thing to the people of the waking world. But to a dreamer, it was a boon. June was fighting an aspirant; several other aspirants lay disfigured around June. Each wound was lethal, and if they survived, they would be crippled for life, but June left them to rot anyways.

'This is getting interesting.' He was getting ideas; seeing this many new powers was doing wonders for his imagination. Breakthroughs were being made, and if one of his desperate enemies made one, June would be right there to mimic it. June was fighting another swordsman; their blade glowed with a seething flame. A single cut would cauterize immediately, which was a good thing as much as it was a worse thing. Small cuts would be considered imperfect, but deeper cuts might kill him.

'I almost feel human.' As dangerous as the fight seemed, June was playing with his opponent; he was prodding them. He wasn't able to manifest earth or ice; he didn't know the internal processes of these powers, but he was able to mimic physical movements flawlessly and even made alternative versions of some of the powers he witnessed.

He mimicked an aspirant with steel skin by covering his own with bone; he mimicked another that was able to shoot bullets of earth by chipping a tooth and shooting it out with enough velocity to tear through his opponent's inferior bones. Another shot scalding hot liquid out of their mouths; he mimicked it by shooting his digestive acids out of his own.

That one was a bit more uncomfortable than the others since he didn't think to coat his mouth with the same coating that protected his stomach from his own acids, but he won't make that mistake again. He had an idea, a new one. A more interesting one. June was able to steal his opponent's blood; he could absorb his own blood. He learned this from his experiments with Fin. In fact, he barely even bled due to this ability, but the fact that stealing an opponent's blood was working flooded his mind with possibilities.

The aspirant fighting him was a trained fighter; their face was grizzled with medals of honor in the form of scars, but June's glowing gold eyes were piercing, and his red pupils made those he looked at shudder; it was beautiful, but it looked like it was beholding something unfathomable. Gold saw your essence; Red saw your fate. June was in control of this fight; he was even in a position to turn his back on his opponent, an inconceivable mistake in a fight, but his opponent was frozen.

They knew what was coming; they knew they didn't have long. Their eyes searched frantically for an opening. Not to attack. But to run. It was too late; two bright yellow flames ignited the fists of the monster. The unfortunate surviving aspirant had to see his allies' skin blistering from the flames simultaneously as their skin shriveled rapidly and then saw a piece of the flame thrown; it turned a bright white before exploding violently with a squelch. Then the eyes appeared again.

The creature looked at the Aspirant. His fate was sealed. The song continued.