XXXII - Nightmare

Pan slowly opened her eyes.

Something cold pressed against her cheek, her head throbbing.

She grimaced and pushed herself up.

“Ugh…”

Pan blinked several times as the blurry shapes around her gradually came into focus.

“Where am I…?”

A narrow street stretched out before her, hemmed in by tightly packed timber-framed houses.

Above one door hung the painted sign of the inn in Garend where she had once been thrown into the street.

Pan looked around.

“Garend…?”

She remembered what had happened.

The convent, the dead knights, and the pale figure that had stepped out from behind the shrine.

Pan looked around frantically.

“Haku?! Elda?!”

No answer.

She immediately broke into a run, hurrying out of the narrow street until she emerged onto a broad square.

“HAAAKU!”

Her voice echoed across the square.

Only then did she realize that the city was completely empty.

There were no merchants calling from the stalls, no pedestrians moving through the streets, not even a single bird overhead.

An uneasy chill crept down her spine.

“What kind of place is this, mm…?”

She slowly crossed the square, searching the deserted streets until she noticed a figure standing at the far end.

It only took Pan a moment to recognize her.

“Haku?”

The Sword Saint stood with her back to Pan, dressed in full armor, her visor lowered. Her backpack rested on the ground beside her.

Relief flooded through Pan.

“There you are!”

She hurried toward her.

“Do you know what’s going on? We were just in the convent, and then…”

Haku picked up her backpack.

Without saying a word, she started walking away.

Pan stopped.

“W-what are you doing?”

“I have to leave.”

Pan stared after her.

“Leave? Where?”

Haku shouldered her pack.

“To the next world.”

Her voice was calm.

“To find the Great Hero.”

Something tightened painfully in Pan’s stomach.

“What?! But…”

Her voice became quieter.

“I thought you believed I was…”

Haku stopped, but she didn’t turn around.

“You? You only lied to me.”

Haku said it without anger or accusation, so calmly that it somehow hurt even more.

She began walking again.

Pan's heart began to race.

N-no…

She ran after her.

“Haku, wait! I’m sorry!”

But no matter how quickly Pan moved, she couldn’t reach her.

“H-Haku, listen to me! This world still needs you! Please!”

Tears stung Pan’s eyes.

“I need you!”

Haku didn’t react.

She simply kept walking.

And somehow, the distance between them continued to grow.

“Haku!”

Pan ran faster.

Still, Haku became smaller and smaller ahead of her.

Eventually, Pan stumbled to a stop.

She bent forward, panting, tears running down her cheeks.

“I didn’t want this…” she choked out.

She looked down.

And froze.

Black water covered her boots.

It hadn’t been there a moment ago, yet now it stretched across the street in every direction, thick and glossy like tar.

“What the…”

Pan tried to take another step, but her leg barely moved.

The black liquid had already risen above her ankles.

“Haku!” she screamed.

Far ahead, the Sword Saint continued walking, and finally, realization hit Pan.

“That wasn’t really her...”

Something seized Pan from below.

“Wha...?!”

A black hand rose from beneath the surface and wrapped itself around her ankle.

Pan kicked at it.

“L-let go of me!”

Another hand burst from the darkness.

Within seconds, several more were clutching at her arms and legs.

Pan struggled violently, but the hands dragged her deeper.

“No!”

Her breathing quickened as the darkness rose past her waist and kept creeping higher.

With every movement, her limbs seemed to grow heavier, as though the black mass were draining the strength from them.

“Why… do I feel so weak, mm…?”

She remembered the dead knights in the convent, the unnatural state of their bodies, and the cold sensation that had passed through her when the creature’s eyes met hers.

Pan struggled again, but her arms barely seemed to answer.

“It’s… pulling the life out of me!”

The thought brought Aki’s words back to her.

Life current.

It flows through every living body.

Pan forced herself to stop fighting for a moment.

The black hands still clung to her, dragging her deeper, but she forced herself to ignore them and focus inward.

At first, she could only feel her own heartbeat and the rhythm of her breathing.

But beneath both, there was something else: a faint warmth pulsing deep inside her abdomen.

Shuisu…

The pulse was weak, almost impossible to grasp.

But it was there.

Something is pulling on it…

She could feel thin currents slipping away from her, disappearing into the blackness around her.

Pan gritted her teeth.

If it can pull the flow out of me… then maybe I can push it the other way and break free!

Pan concentrated on that warmth.

Feel the flow.

Slowly, the warmth began to spread from her abdomen through her chest and shoulder, flowing down her arm until a faint tingling reached her fingertips.

Her fingers trembled.

“Guide the flow…”

The darkness was already creeping up her neck.

“C-come on…”

The black hands pulled harder.

Coldness crept across her throat and for an instant, panic overwhelmed her.

I can’t...

The darkness swallowed her.

...

.....

CRACK!

A thin line of light appeared beneath the black surface.

A second followed.

Then a third, until glowing cracks began spreading through the black mass around her.

Pan clenched her fists.

“HAAAA!”

Finally, the darkness shattered.

It evaporated beneath the sudden wave of heat, the black hands dissolving along with it.

***

Pan’s eyes flew open.

She sucked in a sharp breath, immediately breaking into a coughing fit.

For several seconds, she could barely see.

When she slowly lifted her head, the stone benches of the temple came into view.

Haku still lay unconscious on the ground between them.

And directly above Pan...

The creature.

Its pale, wavering face twisted with surprise and anger.

One shadowy claw stretched toward Pan.

The other was wrapped around someone’s throat.

Pan’s eyes widened.

“Elda…?!”

The creature held him off the ground by the neck.

His clothes were torn in several places. Dark blood ran down one arm and dripped from his fingertips onto the floor.

His wooden mask hung askew, half slipping from his face.

Several broken knives lay scattered between the stone benches.

Pan stared at him.

He protected us the whole time…

Her gaze snapped back toward the pale creature looming above her.

A growl rose in her throat.

Pan planted her hands against the floor, feeling the flow of her Shuisu again.

The warmth inside her surged downward into her legs.

“HAA!”

She kicked off the floor and drove both feet into the creature.

The impact tore it away from Elda and sent it crashing across the temple into one of the stone benches.

When Elda dropped heavily beside her, Pan immediately rushed to him.

“Elda! Can you hear me, mm?!”

His eye cracked open.

“Don’t… look at its eyes…”

“What?”

“Erl...king... ”

His head slumped to the side again.

“Erlking...?” Pan echoed.

Behind them came the scrape of stone.

The Erlking was already rising again, a strange, low drone drifting from its flickering mouth.

Its empty black eyes settled on her.

Pan instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

If I meet its gaze again, it’ll probably put me back to sleep!

Who knows if I’ll be able to wake myself up a second time…

She raised her fists and settled into a fighting stance.

But how am I supposed to fight if I can’t see a thing?!

Without her sight, the temple seemed enormous.

She could hear Elda’s blood dripping onto the stone floor, the wind whispering through the open doorway, even her own breathing.

But somewhere beneath all of it was that other sensation again.

The warmth in her abdomen.

Shuisu…

Maybe I can use it to sense what’s around me?

Pan drew in a slow breath.

Feel the flow…

Something moved to her left.

She ducked instinctively.

A claw passed so close above her head that it brushed through her hair.

Pan turned with the motion, twisted at the hip, and kicked.

Her foot struck something cold and solid.

The creature staggered back a step.

I actually hit it?!

Something moved again, a cold emptiness cutting through the warm current around her.

Pan slipped aside.

She caught its wrist, turned with its momentum, and dropped her hip beneath it.

“HA!”

The creature left the ground and crashed into one of the stone benches.

Everything went quiet.

Pan tensed.

“Where did it…?”

THWACK!

Something slammed into her side with such force that she was hurled across the temple.

“GAH!”

She struck a pillar and collapsed to the floor.

Before she could even draw a proper breath, a freezing hand closed around her throat.

Pan clawed at the creature’s arm, but the strength was already draining from her limbs again.

It flung her aside.

“HNGH!!”

She rolled across the stone floor and came to a stop, gasping.

“D-damn it…”

Pan forced herself back up and waited for the next attack.

But it never came.

Where… did it go…?

Carefully, she cracked one eye open.

And froze.

The creature was already standing over Haku.

One of its claws hovered above the unconscious Sword Saint, a wavering stream of shadow rising from Haku into its outstretched hand.

The same freezing emptiness Pan had felt in the dream rolled off it.

It’s draining her life current!

“HAKU!!”

Pan surged to her feet and lunged at the Erlking, forcing herself between it and Haku.

It recoiled, and for a moment, the stream of darkness broke apart.

Then its arm stretched, the shadow around its hand sharpening into a sickle.

SWOOSH.

Burning pain tore through Pan’s body from shoulder to hip.

“KYAHHH!”

The blow sent her crashing down beside Haku.

For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.

Her arms trembled as she pushed herself up and shielded Haku with her body.

Blood soaked through the torn fabric of Pan’s robe and dripped onto the silver armor beneath her.

“Leave… her... alone…”

The Erlking raised its hand once more.

Pan lowered her head.

“Haku… p-please...”

No response.

Her fingers tightened around the feathered plates of Haku’s armor.

“WAKE UP!!!”

The claw descended.

Pan squeezed her eyes shut.

“HAK...!”

She couldn’t finish.