Two months went by.
Jay spent most of his time either training, messing around with his companions or learning about the world of the Nightmare.
Occasionally, the cohort was called forth by the military to kill Nightmare Creatures.
The cohort's coordination increased exponentially after the number of hunting expeditions they executed.
Jay's most impressive kill was another Awakened Demon, the [Feathered Hunter]. It was a very large bird, albeit one that couldn't fly. The cohort watched it for a few hours before attacking. It went down quick. It was much weaker than the Sabered Assailant.
It had dropped a fairly remarkable memory, which wasn't really the most useful, to Jay, at least.
Memory: [Crimson Plume]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: Charm
Memory Description: [In the past, there were colonies of birds populating the world. Their collective might reached an unrivalled peak. The lord of the birds was a terrifying, yet benevolent overseer. Their influence spanned all of Heart's Domain. And yet, in the end, they fell. Their tree in a cycle of endless rot and growth. Now, all that remains are weak fragments of the past.]
Enchantments: [Adaptable Fowl], [Early Outcry], [Fleet-footed]
[Adaptable Fowl] Description: [Birds somewhat recognise you as one of their own.]
[Early Outcry] Description: [A first strike shall always be the deadliest blow to the enemy.]
[Fleet-footed] Description: [Enhanced footwork and lighter steps allow the bearer to outpace most others.]
The first enchantment was basically entirely useless to him. [Early Outcry] was a pretty useful enchantment and had allowed him to slay an Awakened Beast in a single strike. Granted, he had sneaked up on the creature and struck it on the head, but still, it was pretty nice.
[Fleet-footed] seemed incredibly useful, but to the current him, it was almost as bad as [Adaptable Fowl] because it was an active enchantment. Unfortunately, with his dormant essence, he could barely sustain it for a few moments. Still, when he became Awakened, if he did, it would undoubtedly be incredibly useful.
On the 90th day after entering the First Nightmare, Jay noticed a tiny change. The sky had darkened, and the air was heavier. After asking around, there seemed to be no real reason for it, but it was rather surprising.
And as the days of the week continued passing by, more things started changing. The plazas started becoming less sparsely populated. There seemed to be fewer Nightmare Creatures on the other side of the island.
Jay frowned as he mentioned these things to Silvas while they were walking on a street.
"Do you think an abomination infiltrated the city and decided to eat everyone?"
Silvas deadpanned back at him.
"Please stop mentioning ridiculous rubbish. If an abomination had the capabilities and intelligence to infiltrate us, then everyone is going to die. It would have to be of an unfathomable scale to do something like that."
Jay's frown deepened.
"It's just a theory. Besides, it might've happened."
"If it has happened, we're all dead. No point discussing it."
"Whatever. By the way, have you seen Luna recently?"
Silvas raised an eyebrow, very slightly, in confusion. It looked ridiculous to see someone doing that in real life.
"What?"
""What what? Have you seen her?"
Silvas's look of confusion intensified.
"I've no clue who you're talking about."
Jay stared back at him, flabbergasted.
"Is this... is this supposed to be a joke? Luna? Our comrade-in-arms? The girl with the moon-fire aspect?"
Silvas stared at him like he'd gone genuinely insane. Jay was about to continue when he froze.
He stared in genuine shock at the horizon. It was disappearing.
No. It was the city disappearing from the fringes. And past the city, there was only a white void.
Jay recoiled in shock. Silvas stared at him in concern.
"What's wrong? You don't look very well. Have you actually gone insane this time?"
Jay didn't answer. He turned around and ran to the side of the island where the Nightmare Creatures dwelt. As he ran, he noticed that nobody else was running.
He considered it for a moment. Was he actually going insane? But then, he decided, it wasn't him. Something was telling him that all this was happening and that when the white void reached him, he would be gone.
As he got closer to the boundary, he saw Nightmare Creatures fleeing as well. Proof that he was right.
But the white void was growing faster and faster. The Nightmare Creatures it touched simply disappeared. Jay felt it. They had truly died. Touching the white void would kill you.
He was screaming internally. There was no way that a First Nightmare was this ridiculous. And yet it was. And as he tried to get to the centre of the island, the place that the white void was the furthest from, he saw hordes and hordes of Nightmare Creatures. Except, these ones weren't running. Instead, they simply disappeared.
Jay ran and ran.
He stumbled over multiple times, and yet he ran. Till finally he was at the point where no matter which way he turned, the white void was prominent and approaching.
He had reached the centre. And yet the white void went on and on.
A few minutes passed. The white void was nearly there now. The city was gone. All the Nightmare Creatures were gone, bar one.
There was a wolf, looking positively terrified. It didn't even try to attack Jay. But then, it too was assimilated by the endless white void. Jay's terror grew as he tried to stay away from the white void as long as possible.
The void continued approaching until, finally, there was no land. There was nothing except Jay.
And then, he too disappeared. The world shattered like glass.
Jay gasped as he tore his eyes open, shaking in fear.
He looked around.
There was some weird sticky substance around him.
After staying still for a few moments, he finally regained his composure.
"...Flesh. I'm in a bag of flesh."
He summoned the Regret of the Weak and tried slashing the flesh. It tore easily, and he pried his way out of the bag and looked around cautiously as he got out.
There were cocoons. Hundreds, maybe even a thousand of them. Just like the ones he'd been in. From the outside, he could see vague shapes of Nightmare Creatures inside them.
And then, he heard a growl.
He turned. A few hundred metres away, there was a grotesque thing. It was a massive blob of flesh, with an uncountable number of mouths and eyes. Each eye as horrible as the creature itself, mutilated and gouged.
They stared at him, unblinkingly.