Welcome to my Dream World || (deukae)

Chapter 11: The Field of Lost Dreams

The Field of Lost Dreams unfurled before Handong and her companions like a tapestry woven with threads of twilight and shadow. A delicate mist curled around their ankles as they stepped across the threshold, each footfall soft against the ground, as if the very earth were loath to disturb the silence that hung heavy in the air.

"Doesn't this place feel... alive?" Bora's whisper cut through the quiet, carrying more weight than intended. Her eyes, wide and searching, reflected the ethereal glow that seemed to emanate from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"Alive, or something else entirely," Siyeon replied, her hand hovering above the hilt of her blade, comforted by its presence even though it remained sheathed. She cast a wary glance over her shoulder, half-expecting some phantasmal figure to be trailing in their wake.

Handong couldn't shake the feeling that the field was watching them, assessing them with an unseen gaze. The eerie landscape stretched endlessly, a sea of ghostly flora that swayed gently—a dance for which there was no music.

"Stay alert," Dami urged, her voice low but commanding, cutting through the fog of unease. "This place holds more secrets than the stars."

"Secrets we'll unearth," Handong stated firmly, reinforcing the taut thread of determination that bound them together. "We're here for Yoohyeon and the Nightmare, remember?"

"Of course, we remember," Gahyeon muttered, her hands clenching and unclenching in a rhythm of nervous anticipation. "How could we forget?"

They moved onward, the strange beauty of the field ensnaring their senses, lulling them into an almost hypnotic state. It was as if every step forward drew them deeper into a dream—or a nightmare waiting patiently to spring its trap.

And then, without warning, the Nightmare revealed itself.

It began as a subtle distortion in the air, a ripple in the fabric of reality that grew and twisted until it tore open, spilling forth darkness that had substance and malice. The group halted, their collective breaths caught in their throats, as the entity that emerged commanded the space around it with fearsome power.

"By the ancients..." Handong exhaled, her voice barely audible. She felt a chill crawl up her spine, gripping her with icy fingers.

"Handong, focus!" Siyeon barked, snapping her out of the trance. "We've trained for this!"

"Right." Handong's training kicked in, the adrenaline surging through her veins sharpening her senses. "We stand together. Don't let it isolate us."

"Look at it! It's absorbing the light!" Dami pointed out, her brow furrowed as she analyzed the foe before them. "Magical attacks might feed it rather than harm it."

"Then we hit it with everything else we have," Minji declared, unsheathing her own weapon with a sound that sliced through the tension.

"Whatever happens, we can't lose hope," Gahyeon said, her voice steady despite the fear that lingered beneath her words. "Hope is what it wants to devour."

"Let's show this Nightmare that we are more than just dreamers," Bora added, her hands aglow with the beginnings of an incantation. "We're warriors."

As they braced themselves, the Nightmare loomed, its form shifting and churning, a dark mirror that sought to reflect their deepest fears. But they would not yield so easily—not with Yoohyeon still lost within this haunting dreamscape, and certainly not to the terror that now faced them.

"Yoohyeon, hold on," Handong thought, her resolve hardening like steel. "We're coming for you. And this Nightmare will regret standing in our way."

The Nightmare, a nebulous mass of shifting shadows, grew more formidable with each passing second. Its dark tendrils lashed out, ensnaring the air itself as it sought to draw the life from their very lungs.