Nightmare

When his eyes opened, Theodore found himself in a cave. Though there was no light, for some reason, Theodore was perfectly aware of his surroundings, enough to know that he was in a cave.

Without him consciously thinking about it, his sluggish body began to move. And as he made his way through the tunnel, Theodore felt as if he had been to this place before. Yet, he couldn't quite recall it on the spot.

Gradually, the cave became more uniform, the tunnels appearing more manmade than not, with wooden support keeping the tunnels from collapsing. It was by this point did Theodore realize that he was not in a cave, but a mineshaft. An old abandoned mineshaft. The on located in the hills of Eastcliff.

Theodore wondered for a moment why he was there. But before he could figure anything out, his consciousness became blurry and he drifted off. By the time his mind became clear again, he found himself in the middle of the town.

Something was strange about the town. The sky wasn't quite right and there was an eerie quietness to the place. There were people moving about their daily lives as always, but something felt terribly off about them.

Then, Theodore heard a scream. Before he could react, his consciousness cut off again. By the time he regained clarity, Theodore found there to be a metallic scent in the air, a scent he had gotten quite familiar with as of late. It was the scent of blood.

Feeling wetness in his hands, Theodore looked and found not hands, but claws, stained in fresh blood. Without his conscious control, he went and tasted the blood. It was good. The taste sent shivers down his spine and his body yearned for more, as if he hadn't eaten anything for a long, long time.

After licking his clawed hands clean, Theodore found the place he was in to be rather familiar. Then again, it was only natural to know this place. He had lived here for ten years, after all. It was the temple he grew up in

As he basked in nostalgia, feeling as if it was so long ago even though it had only been a month, a creak in the old wooden floorboard drew his attention. Theodore ran after the noise with a speed and ferocity that he could only describe as ravenous, crashing through a wooden door and into a room with three beds. With a whiff of the air, a scent was caught by Theodore's surprisingly strong sense of smell. He could tell that someone was under the bed.

With claws ready, Theodore dove under. He could feel his mouth watering, the core of his being assaulted by what felt like an insatiable hunger. Whatever was under the bed, Theodore was going to drag right out.

There, he found a small girl with big round eyes, her bob-cut all messed up, and for some reason and her clothes were a mess. Even so, Theodore recognized her.

"Fio!" Theodore cried, and his consciousness cut off from there.

***

As dawn approached, Theodore lay atop his bed, vividly awake. Though he spent much of the night tending to his wounds, he found himself waking up at the same time as every other morning due to the nightmare.

(Was... Was that really a nightmare? It felt so real...)

Theodore's thoughts immediately went to the seal placed on Merry. The seal was designed to last, though the Demon Lord's Aether was severely weakened by the time it erected it.

(It's just a dream. There's just no way...)

Perhaps it was because the he had not yet recieved a reply for that letter he sent a while back. Perhaps his mind had conjured the nightmare in his anticipation.

Theodore's head felt heavy, but he forced himself out of bed regardless. Though he hardly recovered from last night, he knew that if he went back to sleep now, he would not awake until noon or later. If he tried to sleep in, Fiana would probably let him, but Theodore did not want to wear out the kind woman's patience.

As he approached his desk, Theodore felt a sharp pain in his leg, causing him to hiss in pain. He took a moment to gather himself before continuing on, lighting up the room with the brightstone lamp on his desk.

Theodore first checked on the wound gouged into his left thigh. It was plainly visible as he had no pants on. After he took off his bloodied pants and hid them beneath his bed, he did not bother to put on another pair. Looking down, he spotted a clear wound, one with blood clots binding it shut. The same went for the bite mark on his arm.

Having gone through the ordeal last night, Theodore was exhausted both in body and in mind. He, unfortunately, did not have enough focus of mind to maintain the processing power needed to perform his healing magic to the fullest.

Softly, Theodore let loose a sigh. His incompetence had been revealed to him by this incident. Though he knew it in his head, it was only at this moment that he fully realized that having memories of the Demon Lord's techniques and being able to perform them were two very different things. To perform even a fraction of them, he had to condense more Aether and raise his Aether density.

As Aether is capable of the transfer and storing of information, the more Aether Theodore has, the more his mind will be expanded. Not only will Theodore have more Aether to use in his techniques, but the surplus of Aether will also serve to increase the processing power of his brain.

Changing into a new set of clothes and putting on his robe, Theodore left his room and headed towards the kitchen with Peter following suit, beginning his day with the usual routine.

***

Upon noon, after seeing Fiana off, Theodore once more brewed some tea from the herbs acquired from the garden. The herb was plentiful, though Fiana warned him not to consume too much of it.

The plant was called 'Aetherglow herb' something that grew in areas of high Aether density and had evolved to absorb Aether from its environment to grow. Due to this, this herb possessed a high density of Aether within its body and they release a soft glow upon reaching maturity, hence its name.

While the roots and stalks of the Aetherglow herb needed to be processed before they could be consumed. The leaves could be used to brew tea which would moderately increase the amount of Aether within a person's body. Due to this property, the tea brewed from the Aetherglow's leaves was popular amongst the mages, enough so that even Kalman planted them in this garden. That being said, overconsumption of the tea would increase the risk of Aether crystallization within the body, so drinking in moderation was advised.

For Theodore, he had initially brewed it to help him in his Aether condensation training. However, upon starting his little escape plan, his use of magic techniques made it so that he had to replenish Aether through tea consumption daily. Though he could reabsorb the Aether used to form his threads, the human body was, unfortunately, inefficient in absorbing Aether through the skin, meaning that most of the Aether would have dissipated into the air.

Still, the amount that the Aetherglow tea could replenish was limited. It wasn't nearly enough to cover the loss from the previous night. Theodore was going to have to take it slow, otherwise, the net loss of Aether would begin to affect his Aether density, flushing down all of his efforts in his Aether condensation down the drain.

(Not that slowing down is going to be a problem. I've hit upon a brick wall after all, or in this case, a floor.)

As he sipped on his herbal tea, Theodore racked his brain for alternatives in dealing with the obstacle that had put a damper on his plans. It's times like these that he wished he was simply possessed by the Demon Lord instead of being the inheritor of their memories. Surely, the late Demon Lord themselves would have found this obstacle unworthy of being troubled by.

(Surely, the Demon Lord would have just done what was necessary.)

It wasn't that Theodore had no idea what to do. Guided by the Demon Lord's memories, he had already formulated a plan. The problem was, he didn't like it. He loath it, in fact. The mere idea of the said plan even surfacing in his head filled him with hate and repulsion towards himself. Yet, Theodore felt something inside of him urging him on. It was the nightmare he had. Despite dismissing it as merely a dream, it continued to haunt him from the back of his mind. It made him feel an incredible sense of dread and impatience, the likes of which he had never experienced before.

While Theodore agonized over the situation, the ringing of the doorbell pulled him out of his thoughts. It came from the rear entrance.

"Same time as always I see. As expected of a courier, I suppose... Let's hope my letters have arrived."

Lifting his body off his seat, Theodore went to greet his guest with heavy footsteps. Yet, when he met her, he was disappointed to learn that no letters addressed to him had arrived.

Looks like it might take a while.

***

End of Chapter 41

***