My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1136: Chapter 1037: A Dreadful Memory

The sounds here were like the sad and silent tears of a child.

Sleeping here was allowed, if one dared. Though if you were unlucky, you would never wake again.

Some slept only to have their minds invaded by nightmares. When you slept, you gave birth to dreams and horrors alike, and in turn they feasted upon you and those around you.

The strength of a nightmare had little to do with the rank of the one who dreamed it. What truly mattered was despair. Fear. Anguish. The countless negative emotions that had given rise to such dreadful visions.

And sometimes, beautiful dreams drifted forth as well.

The dream of becoming an angel would manifest.

The dream of becoming rich would manifest.

The dream of finding love or escaping one’s chains would manifest.

People carried many dreams within their hearts, though their power paled in comparison to the nightmares born alongside them.

The longer one remained here, the fewer pleasant dreams there were, while nightmares thrived and multiplied.

Sleep itself was the least of one’s worries.

The enemies you faced in your dreams were not even the worst horrors, even when they followed you into the waking world.

No.

The true horrors were those imagined while awake, and those that had been born directly from the Abyss itself.

It was madness.

And yet, despite its cruelty, the Abyss remained a teacher.

For those willing to endure its trials, it offered knowledge.

Miracles occurred here every single day.

As Seras fell deeper into despair, she could almost feel a comforting hand pushing against her back, urging her to hope for something more.

It was as though the tormented mind of a god had become intertwined with endless contradictions.

Even so, this god desired hope.

This god wished to be good.

It wished to be adored.

To be loved.

To be accepted.

It desired to create, to give, to nurture.

After all, was that not what a god was meant to be?

A creator.

And yet, lying just beneath those desires was rage.

A desire to bring an end to everything.

To destroy.

To torment.

To resent.

A refusal to understand.

Countless emotions swelled together and formed the Abyss.

Seras’ eyes had grown hollow.

She was tired.

She cursed the day she had stepped foot in this accursed place.

She was afraid.

She wanted to go home, to rest, to close her eyes and never dream again.

Even so, she remained.

The Abyss beckoned to her, and she had become enthralled.

Seras could no longer leave.

She gasped and took a deep breath.

Today, the Abyss had transformed into a beautiful garden filled with fruits and plants unlike anything she had ever seen.

Yet Seras herself was no larger than a blade of grass.

Everything in this garden was gigantic.

Fear gripped her heart because she knew exactly what this meant.

They had been drawn into a memory.

And memories were far worse than monsters or horrors.

Monsters were small.

Monsters could be fought.

Memories were something else entirely.

Seras had experienced this phenomenon only twice before, and each encounter had been more terrifying than the last.

These memories often seemed mundane.

Yet the realm in which they unfolded belonged to beings far beyond anything Seras could endure. Sometimes something as insignificant as a passing breeze or the flap of a bird’s wings was enough to become a calamity.

Now she stood in an open field.

The grass towered over her head, and she quickly realized that they had landed on the floor of some enormous garden.

Voices echoed across the heavens.

Looking up, Seras saw giants.

They were larger than the grass itself, yet somehow smaller than the towering trees beyond.

Were they truly giants?

Or had she simply become impossibly small?

Fear seized her.

Turning around, she saw that several hundred soldiers had fallen into this memory alongside her.

Raising a hand, she signaled for silence.

Then she motioned for them to follow.

These memories all seemed to belong to the same person.

To the god who had become the Abyss.

To the Unknown God.

Cruel though he might be, he was not unfair.

There was always a way out.

Seras scanned her surroundings before pointing ahead.

They needed to find him.

The moment they saw the Unknown God, the gateway back to reality would open.

Without hesitation, Seras broke into a run.

Hundreds of soldiers followed close behind.

Any supplies they had carried were abandoned for the sake of speed.

The grass around them was not particularly tall, but to creatures as small as they were, it resembled an endless forest.

If even a small insect of this divine realm were to discover them, they would all perish.

At last, she reached the source of the voices.

And when she looked up, she froze.

A dark-skinned boy with enormous wings sat among the towering flowers, a massive book resting in his hands as he quietly read to himself.

Beside him sat a woman.

Her long silver hair matched the boy’s own, cascading down her back like moonlight.

She was beautiful beyond anything Seras had ever imagined.

The boy’s face remained hidden behind a mask that covered half his features.

Seras could not tear her gaze away.

Even as blood trickled from her eyes.

The moment they laid eyes upon him, a spiral of darkness opened beneath their feet, ready to drag them out of the memory.

But before they could leave...

The woman turned her head.

She looked directly at them.

In that instant, Seras felt her heart stop.

She felt her soul begin to unravel beneath the weight of that gaze.

Then the woman blinked.

There was no hostility in her eyes.

Only sorrow.

Softly, in a voice heavy with grief, she asked,

”Where is my son?”

Even though the boy sat right beside her, still reading his book without so much as lifting his head.

Seras and everyone who heard her found themselves unable to remain silent.

The answer escaped their lips almost instinctively.

”I don’t know.”

Before the woman could ask again, the memory collapsed around them.

The world twisted.

And then they were gone.

Seras fell to her knees upon the jagged rocks beneath the Sky Continent.

Above her, the Abyss spiraled endlessly.

Fear consumed her.

And in that moment, unable to stop themselves, everyone present imagined that woman.

To their horror, an image of her began to take shape.

The world trembled as the apparition formed.

Yet it was too great.

Too powerful.

It surpassed the limits of their world.

Dragged down by its own magnificence, the image was swallowed by the Abyss before it could fully manifest.

That horror was never born.

Seras wiped the tears from her eyes with trembling fingers. She coughed violently, blood staining the rocks beneath her.

Then she slowly rose to her feet.

She had survived one more day by the Abyss.