Chương 123: 122: Go back to sleep

The apartment was bathed in soft morning light. Winter Haze stood before the mirror, meeting her own calm, golden gaze. The bathroom was small but immaculate, with white tiles, a single window overlooking the busy street below, and the faint scent of jasmine lingering from last night's candle. Her light brown skin was smooth, save for the freckles dusting the bridge of her nose. She ran her fingers through her long, dark hair until they reached the white streak at her right temple, a mark she'd carried since birth.

She braided it back with practised ease before reaching for her toothbrush. Mint filled her mouth as she brushed slowly, her eyes never leaving the mirror. Her irises shimmered like sunlit honey, flecked with shifting amber. When she finished, she stepped into the shower. Steam swallowed the room as hot water poured over her shoulders, washing away the last traces of sleep. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. The restlessness returned.

For days, she'd awakened with the same quiet pull, as though something far beyond the horizon was calling her. She'd blamed stress at first, but the feeling had only grown stronger. It felt ancient. She dried herself and dressed in a fitted burgundy crop top that left her toned abdomen exposed, paired with quarter-length leggings that hugged her athletic frame. She never wore bras, underwear, or shoes. They had always felt restrictive, and she'd never seen the point.

As a result, the subtle outline of her new nipple piercings was impossible to miss beneath the fabric. Sitting at the vanity, she applied dark lipstick, then traced careful lines of eyeliner around her eyes. She studied the result for a moment. Golden eyes. The colour of sunlight. The colour of the fire that sometimes burned through her dreams. She reached for her waist beads, black, grey, and silver stones threaded with tiny bells that chimed softly as she wrapped them around her waist. The pull returned.

Stronger. Not a voice, nor a sound, but something ancient tugging gently at her chest, drawing her towards something that didn't belong in this world. Winter exhaled, shook the feeling aside, and walked into the bedroom. Long Yan was still asleep. He lay sprawled across the bed, his muscular frame claiming most of the mattress. Long, dark hair spilled across the pillow, a few loose strands falling over his face while a silver lip ring caught the morning light.

His chest rose and fell in deep, steady breaths, each accompanied by a soft snore that rumbled through the room like distant thunder. Colourful koi fish and wolves wound around both of his arms in intricate tattoos, their bodies coiling from his shoulders to his wrists. Even asleep, they seemed alive. The koi drifted through invisible currents while the wolves lay curled among them with their eyes closed, as though they too were sharing his dreams.

Every now and again, a tail flicked or an ear twitched before they settled once more into quiet slumber. He looked as though he'd spent the previous day hauling bricks. He had. Winter crossed the room, her bare feet silent against the wooden floor. Leaning down, she brushed a kiss against his cheek, letting it linger for a moment.

"I'm going out," she murmured. Long Yan stirred, his eyes fluttering open. Dark, warm eyes, still heavy with sleep, settled on her.

"Mmh...?" He rubbed his face.

"Where?" As he moved, a polished hematite earring came into view, set with fine orange cracks that glowed faintly beneath its dark surface, like cooling lava trapped inside polished stone. The tattoos along his arms awakened with him. The wolves stretched lazily before curling back into themselves, while the koi drifted through the ink in slow, graceful circles, their scales flashing with colour as they swam around his forearms.

They moved as naturally as living creatures before gradually settling into a gentle, sleepy rhythm.

"Something's wrong." She glanced towards the window.

"I can feel it. A strange energy. I don't know where it's coming from yet." He sat upright immediately, the sheets slipping from his broad shoulders to reveal the faint scars crossing his chest.

"Wait." He swung his legs out of bed.

"Stay here," Winter said, though he was already heading for the bathroom. The shower hissed to life. A moment later, purple flames crackled through the room. Long Yan stepped back out, steam curling around him as the last traces of violet fire faded from his skin. Every impurity had been burned away in an instant. He was clean, dry, and fully awake, his hair already settling into place. He dressed quickly in a black tank top, an unzipped dark jacket, and combat shorts that ended above his knees.

Winter fastened the spiked black collar around her neck, smiling faintly as its familiar weight settled against her throat. By the time she looked up, Long Yan was already waiting by the door. Together, they stepped outside.... The streets of Karachi were already alive. Cars wove through the morning traffic, horns blaring in the chaotic rhythm that had become the city's heartbeat. Vendors set up their stalls as the scent of fresh chai and fried bread drifted through the air.

Children hurried past with laughter and bouncing school bags while the morning sun cast long shadows across the pavement. More than a few men glanced her way. Some didn't bother looking away. Long Yan noticed.

"What?" he said with a grin.

"Never seen a woman barefoot before?" Winter didn't even look at him.

"I doubt that's what they're looking at," she muttered. Long Yan followed a few of the lingering stares, coughed into his fist, and wisely decided not to argue. Winter ignored them. The pull was growing stronger. She could feel it now, an invisible thread stretching across the world, drawing her towards something unimaginably distant. New Zealand. The thought surfaced without warning. She couldn't explain how she knew, only that she did. Then the screaming began. A woman's cry split the morning air.

Another followed. Then dozens more. The street dissolved into panic. People fled in every direction, faces contorted with terror. A man dropped his briefcase where he stood. A mother snatched her child into her arms. Vendors abandoned their stalls as the crowd surged past them. Winter's golden eyes narrowed. She saw them. They poured from the alleyways, crawling across the pavement like enormous reptiles.

Each was the size of a truck, its body a grotesque lattice of stretched flesh wrapped over elongated bone, every movement accompanied by the dry crack of joints bending far beyond anything natural. Their impossibly long arms dragged along the ground, gouging furrows through asphalt as hooked claws showered sparks from the road.

Pale skin, white, brown, or an eerie stainless grey that seemed to swallow the light itself, clung tightly to their distorted frames, stretched so thin that ribs and twitching tendons shifted visibly beneath the surface. Their heads resembled bleached reptilian skulls, their jaws hanging permanently open to reveal rows of needle-like teeth that snapped together with the frantic chatter of piranhas. Long, black tongues coiled and tasted the air as strings of saliva hissed against the pavement.

Deep within those hollow faces, cobalt eyes burned with the same impossible colour that haunted her dreams, never blinking, never looking away. Every few seconds, their necks jerked sideways with a violent crack, as though some unseen force were trying to twist them free of their own bodies. Winter's voice was barely a whisper.

"Nightmares." One dug into the ground, buckling roads, rupturing water mains, and tearing through buried infrastructure. Others skittered up skyscrapers, smashing through windows as they climbed. Several were already feeding, swallowing screaming civilians by the dozen while their needle-like teeth snapped with the frantic speed of piranhas. KRAAAK! The street beneath Long Yan exploded. A Nightmare erupted from the asphalt, its colossal fist driving straight into his abdomen. BOOOOOOM!

The impact blasted a crater through the intersection, folding the road and hurling shattered concrete in every direction. Long Yan didn't budge. His feet remained planted exactly where they had been. The Nightmare roared and raised both arms overhead. WHOOOM! They came crashing down. Long Yan slipped aside at the last possible instant, the blow pulverising the crater even further. The muscles beneath his skin swelled, veins standing out across his forearms as white claws burst from his fingertips.

His canines lengthened into gleaming fangs. He lunged. SHRAAAK! His clawed hand tore through the Nightmare's chest as though it were wet paper. RIIIP! One savage motion split the creature apart from shoulder to hip, scattering flesh and black blood across the ruined street. The two halves collapsed, dissolving into black smoke before they even struck the ground. Long Yan flexed his now-clawed hand once.

"So," he growled, violet flames curling around his feet once more, "you hit harder than the others." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Behind him, terrified civilians could only stare. Long Yan vaulted over a swinging car that crashed into a building behind him, landed in a roll, and blurred towards the nearest pack. Twin axes appeared in his hands, their blades gleaming in the morning light. He swung once.

Three heads tumbled free before the Nightmares even registered his presence. Their bodies collapsed, dissolving into black smoke that drifted away on the wind. Long Yan was already airborne. BOOM! Purple flames erupted beneath his feet, blasting chunks of asphalt into the air as he launched skyward like a missile. A Nightmare perched atop a nearby skyscraper hurled itself at him, its jaws opening wide enough to swallow a car. It never reached him. SHHK!

One clean horizontal slash flashed through the Nightmare's impossibly wide mouth. The blade passed between its snapping rows of teeth, tore through the back of its skull, and carried on in the same unbroken line. A heartbeat later, the cut finished travelling through its body. The Nightmare split cleanly at the waist, its upper half sliding from the lower like the top slice of a sandwich being lifted away. Long Yan shot through the widening gap without losing an ounce of speed. KRAK!

His free hand slammed into the skyscraper's wall. Concrete shattered beneath his fingers as they dug deep into the façade, halting his momentum in an instant. Dust and fragments of stone rained down the side of the building while he hung effortlessly against the vertical surface. Both axes rested casually in one hand as though they weighed nothing at all. Below him, more Nightmares poured through the streets. He watched them for a single heartbeat.

"They're weaker than the original." His eyes narrowed.

"So... they're clones." Another Nightmare sprang from a neighbouring rooftop. FWIP! He flicked one axe without even turning his head. THUNK! The spinning blade buried itself straight through the creature's skull, carrying it backwards before curving gracefully through the air. WHSS! The axe returned to his waiting hand.

"That singular creature must replicate itself," he muttered.

"Numbers instead of quality. Individually, they aren't particularly strong." Winter heard every word. Her golden eyes remained fixed ahead as she continued walking, the invisible thread drawing her relentlessly towards New Zealand.

"So that must be its ability," Long Yan finished quietly.

"Replication." Below him, the streets were already drowning beneath an endless tide of Nightmares. KRAAAASH! One of the creatures lowered its shoulder and rammed straight through the base of an office building. Concrete columns exploded into dust as steel supports twisted apart. The entire structure groaned, tilted, and began collapsing floor by floor. People poured from the entrances, screaming.

"It's coming down!"

"Run!"

"My God!" Another Nightmare stooped, seized a delivery truck in both hands, and swung it overhead as though it weighed nothing. FWOOOM! The truck sailed the length of the street before smashing into a sedan desperately trying to escape. BOOOOOM! Metal crumpled into itself as both vehicles tumbled end over end, scattering glass and debris across the road.

"No!"

"There were people in that car!"

"What are those things?!"

"Help!"

"Somebody save them!" High above, Long Yan saw it happen. A low growl rumbled from his chest.

"You're dead." Purple fire erupted around his body. He thrust one hand forward. A lance of condensed flame screamed across the city. FSSSHHHHOOOOOM! The blazing spear punched clean through the Nightmare's chest, carrying the creature through three buildings before detonating in a towering pillar of violet fire. KABOOOOOM! Windows shattered for blocks. The shockwave rippled through the streets as the creature disintegrated into black smoke. People stared in stunned silence.

"He... he killed it!"

"Who is that guy?!"

"He just shot fire!"

"Oh my God!"

"Look up!" Above the chaos, Long Yan remained clinging to the side of the skyscraper. Someone pointed up.

"How did he get up there?!"

"He... he jumped!"

"That's impossible!"

"He's climbing the wall!"

"No, he isn't climbing. He's just... hanging there!" Another person stared in disbelief.

"Who is that guy?" Nobody had an answer.... The city descended further into panic as sirens wailed in the distance and the endless swarm of Nightmares continued pouring through Karachi. One turned towards Winter. Its jaws yawned open as it lunged, claws reaching for her throat. She didn't move. The Nightmare fell apart before it could touch her, carved into neat pieces that scattered across the pavement in a spray of blood.

Behind her, translucent tails of light flicked lazily through the air, their razor-sharp edges moving with a grace too fast for the eye to follow. Winter continued walking. The pull was growing stronger. Without looking back, she raised a hand.

"Yan!" Long Yan glanced over his shoulder from halfway up the skyscraper.

"Yes?"

"Kill everything." She pointed towards the endless tide of Nightmares flooding Karachi.

"I'm going after the source." A broad grin spread across his face.

"Sounds like a plan." He rolled one of his shoulders, purple flames beginning to coil around his feet once more.

"Good luck."

"And you." Winter vanished. The pavement burst apart beneath her feet as she accelerated beyond sight. Long Yan watched her disappear for the briefest moment before turning back to the city below. Thousands of Nightmares looked up. He smiled.

"Right." Purple fire exploded beneath his boots. BOOOOM! He launched straight down into the centre of the horde. The impact obliterated the front ranks, flesh and shattered pavement erupting skyward as the surrounding creatures were hurled through buildings, storefronts, and abandoned vehicles. Long Yan rose from the crater with both axes already swinging.

"Let's get to work." — The world blurred around Winter. Cities shrank beneath her feet. Oceans became fleeting streaks of blue. She crossed the planet in moments before slowing at the edge of an endless wilderness, where cold air brushed against her skin and towering trees reached beneath a vast grey sky. She looked up. Katherine floated above the clearing, suspended in the air with blue hair drifting as though underwater.

A translucent silk blindfold covered her eyes, while delicate fins fluttered at her waist like butterfly wings. The pressure pouring from her was immense, ancient, and suffocating enough to make Winter's lip curl. Butter stood nearby, pink eyes wide as the black bandages around her shimmered faintly. Beside her was a woman with deer-like legs. Korhess. The name surfaced from somewhere deep within Winter's memory, familiar despite feeling impossibly distant. Everything else stood perfectly still.

Winter remained at the centre of the frozen clearing, her tails swaying gently behind her as she stared at Katherine. The energy radiating from the floating girl was unlike anything she had ever encountered. It pressed against Winter's skin like an invisible weight, demanding every ounce of her attention. She lunged. Her tails carved through Katherine's body, yet the wounds meant nothing. Narrative authority shielded her.

She wrote her own story, and the cuts closed before they had fully formed, flesh knitting together as though they had never existed. Winter smirked and attacked again. She was moving so quickly that the world itself had become motionless. Butter hung frozen in space, suspended exactly as she'd been. Leaves remained perfectly still. Dust lingered in the air. Even the wind had ceased to exist. Katherine's head turned. Winter's eyes widened. Someone had actually perceived her. Her gaze found Winter without hesitation.

She reacted instantly, raising a hand as a spell formed upon her lips. A flicker of genuine surprise crossed Winter's face. She moved... At this speed, that should have been impossible. Then understanding dawned. No... Katherine hadn't moved in real time. The strange energy surrounding her wasn't following the normal flow of causality. It operated on a more convenient version of time, one where sequence itself bent to accommodate her.

She could simply decide whether an action occurred before or after another, regardless of what should have happened. Winter felt the corner of her mouth curl upward. She isn't faster than me. She's cheating. The realization only made her smile wider. She's strong. Katherine spoke.

"Collapse." The word was soft, almost gentle. Reality folded inward around Winter. The air compressed with impossible force, crushing the space where she stood. Everything occupying that region collapsed with it. Space. Matter. Concepts. Even the figure standing within it. For the briefest instant...... everything that had existed there was reduced to a single impossible point. No. She had already moved. The spell had struck only an afterimage. Winter stood several metres away, her golden eyes gleaming.

In one hand, she held something. An arm. Katherine's arm. The floating girl stared in stunned disbelief at the shoulder where it had once been. Her mind hadn't even processed the loss. The severed limb still shimmered with faint cobalt light beneath its skin. Winter had torn it away with claws blessed by death. Katherine's breath caught. The wound refused to heal. Narrative authority faltered.

Words spilled from her lips in hurried succession, desperate incantations tripping over one another as her mind struggled to keep pace with what had happened. Winter raised a hand. Pestilence descended upon the very concept of Katherine. Every disease ever known. Every plague. Every sickness. Every parasite. They fell upon her all at once. Though Katherine no longer possessed a truly human body, illness still found purchase. Her body convulsed violently. For a heartbeat, her colours inverted. Flesh became darkness.

Shadows blazed white. Her hair and clothes flashed into impossible negatives as though reality itself had glitched under the strain. She convulsed again, her form flickering as narrative authority struggled to reject afflictions that had already taken hold. She fell. The frozen world lurched back into motion. Butter screamed, her voice sharp with disbelief.

"Winter?! What are you doing here?!" Korhess vanished instantly, teleporting into the trees without hesitation. Winter opened her mouth to answer— Everything restarted. She woke in bed with a sharp gasp, her heart hammering against her ribs. Morning light spilled through the window. Long Yan still slept beside her, his gentle snoring filling the room. Winter sat up slowly, one hand pressed against her chest. A strange sense of déjà vu lingered in her mind. She couldn't remember why.

— Winter sat upright in bed, her golden eyes fixed on the foot of the mattress. The smell reached her first. Bright bergamot drifted through the room, threaded with the dry, earthy scent of expensive tobacco, as though someone had recently finished a fine cigar in a place that had never known smoke. A figure slowly pixelated into existence. Reality seemed to struggle to render him correctly as countless luminous squares assembled his form with mechanical precision. One moment there was nothing.

The next, a man sat at the foot of her bed, facing away from her. His blond hair was immaculately styled, catching the morning light. An ash-coloured suit, perfectly tailored, fell in crisp lines over broad shoulders, a tortoise-shell brooch pinned neatly to the lapel. Silver-rimmed glasses reflected the sun, while his hands rested casually upon his knees with the easy posture of someone who had been waiting for her to wake. Beside him hovered a small white drone.

Its smooth shell was unmarred except for silver fractal patterns that drifted across its surface like living snowflakes. A single unblinking lens regarded her with quiet curiosity. Pearl. Winter let out a long, weary sigh.

"Pearl," she said flatly.

"Good morning. Lovely to see you. As always." The drone bobbed happily, chiming softly as its lens brightened. Somehow, it looked pleased. Lucien didn't turn around.

"Winter," he said, his voice calm and precise, every word measured before it was spoken.

"I trust you slept well."

"You know I didn't."

"Of course." A faint smile coloured his voice.

"That's why I'm here." Winter rubbed her face with both hands, her braids falling over her shoulders.

"Let me guess. You reset everything." Lucien raised one hand. A gold-and-black stopwatch dangled between his fingers, its hands still moving as tiny blue sparks danced beneath the crystal, recording something only it could perceive.

"I restarted from just before you chose to fight," he said evenly.

"You were about to engage an asset I've been monitoring. That would have been... inadvisable."

"Would it?"

"It would have complicated a rather delicate experiment." Winter's golden eyes narrowed.

"One of your experiments again?" Lucien tilted his head just enough for her to glimpse pale blue eyes behind the silver-rimmed glasses.

"Something like that." He spoke with the quiet satisfaction of a man who had already solved one problem and moved on to the next.

"Go back to sleep, Winter." Beside her, Long Yan stirred. His eyes blinked open, dark and unfocused, still clouded with sleep. He mumbled something unintelligible before his gaze drifted towards the foot of the bed. He froze. His eyes widened. Every muscle tensed. One hand instinctively reached for his pillow, as though weighing whether it would make a suitable weapon.

"Why's there a man in our room?!" he demanded, his voice still thick with sleep but edged with alarm. His eyes travelled over the ash-coloured suit, the immaculate blond hair, and the silver-rimmed glasses.

"Oh," he said, the tension draining into mild irritation.

"It's just Lucien." He blinked. Then he shot upright, the sheets slipping to his waist.

"Wait. Lucien? Lucien!" He jabbed a finger at the figure.

"What are you doing in our room?!" Lucien didn't turn around. His fingers lifted from his knee, and the pixelation began anew. Tiny luminous squares broke away from his silhouette as reality struggled to render his departure.

"I was just leaving." His voice remained perfectly calm. Perfectly measured. As though being discovered in someone else's bedroom at dawn was an entirely ordinary affair. Winter watched him dissolve into light.

"Go back to sleep, Winter," his voice echoed, already fading.

"The experiment will continue without you." Pearl bobbed once, her lens brightening in what could only be interpreted as a cheerful goodbye. Then they were gone. The scent of bergamot lingered for a few moments before fading, replaced by the familiar smell of their apartment. Morning light poured through the window, and Long Yan's breathing gradually settled back into its usual rhythm. Winter sank against the pillows, staring up at the ceiling.

"That man," Long Yan muttered, rubbing a hand over his face.

"One day he's going to give me a heart attack." Winter snorted.

"He's been giving me heart attacks for years." Long Yan flopped back onto the mattress, throwing an arm across his eyes.

"What did he want?"

"He wanted me not to interfere."

"With what?"

"I don't know." Her voice was flat, carrying the exhaustion of countless conversations just like this.

"He never explains. He just appears, says something cryptic, and leaves." Long Yan chuckled.

"Pearl seemed happy to see you."

"Pearl's always happy to see me. She's the only one in that partnership with any manners." A low laugh rumbled from his chest, vibrating through the mattress.

"You're going to get yourself killed one day, talking about him like that."

"I've been talking about him like that for years." Winter yawned.

"If it hasn't happened by now, I doubt it ever will." She closed her eyes. The pull was still there. That invisible thread stretching across the world towards New Zealand had grown faint, muffled, as though someone had thrown a heavy blanket over it. Whatever Lucien had done...... it had worked. For now. Winter sighed and settled deeper into the pillows.

"Go back to sleep, Winter," she murmured, perfectly mimicking his measured tone.

"The experiment will continue without you." Long Yan snorted.

"You really should stop mocking him one day."

"He's probably torturing Butter again," Winter mumbled.

"Trying to force her into unlocking another form or some ridiculous new power." Long Yan frowned.

"I just hope he knows what he's doing." Winter let out a quiet laugh.

"Of course he knows what he's doing. That's never the problem." She opened one eye.

"I'm just annoyed he won't tell me." A weary sigh escaped her.

"Naughty Lucien." Long Yan chuckled, leaned over, and kissed her gently on the cheek before wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close. She nestled against his chest without protest. Within moments, the apartment was quiet again as the two of them drifted back to sleep.