Interlude of a Dream – A Brief Pause; Part I (Chapters 1-22)

This is not a new story. This is not a new chapter. This is an interlude, a synopsis if you will, of the events that follow from Chapters 1 – 44 of the story – Dreams of Uncertainty, Surrealism of Reality. The purpose of this is to let possible readers catch up, and if they choose to simply skip ahead, then this will have served that purpose as well. Of course, for the core themes and the ‘Dreams’ that play clear points of this story, this synopsis cannot do them justice, so just look into chapter 2 (labeled chapter 3) and locate any italicized text within the actual story. Those will most likely be regarding the dreams.

For actual story, look for: Dreams of Uncertainty, Surrealism of Reality

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The main character starts out as a mere college student at the age of 19. After a recurring dream of seven repetitions plagued his sleep for seven nights, all under the lingering presence of a full moon, his life was about to take a twist from the ordinary. The dream was the main focus throughout the story, as it depicted him going after a girl that was about to jump off an unknown building, and he had wanted to save her with all of his being, daring to jump after her into the darkness.

On the day before classes officially started, for reasons unknown to himself, the protagonist strode into a construction site, only to be bombarded by telepathic beings that he could only assume to be of an alien kind. The two individual presences that hammered his mind were blabbering about something related to the Prophecy, and apparently, regardless of his response, the simple college student left Earth in a swirl of darkness that consumed his mind and awareness.

Everything started from there: guided by one of the alien presence, our protagonist, feeling quite unlucky, was released into the sky of an alien world, and proceeded through five minutes of sky-diving before the black mist – alien presence – saved him from becoming a decoration of the land.

From here, he learned of more about the Prophecy, about the Prophet he was to meet, and that he supposedly already wielded a power greater than his wildest dreams – or desires. It was the power that was as poorly understood as it was described, but it was enough. Braving through multitudes of dangers, only to be imprisoned and then freed again, our protagonist was as lost as the readers that followed in his footsteps. Before long, he plunged body-first into the seas of the next world, where giant Leviathans ruled the oceans, and human-like beings seek for ancient treasures buried beneath the emerald waters.

Realizing how his survival depended on grasping hold of whatever this intangible power he possessed and use it, the main character endured a little more violence than he had wished before finally created something from out of nothing. Magic? Psychic powers? None of that really applied to what he did, and in addition, it appeared as if he was dreaming of the future, for they were to become inevitably real.

Escaping from the clutches of the navy-like men, managing to feint fear into their hearts, the protagonist dove into a giant whirlpool along the way and ended up face-to-face with the Leviathan he thought he had killed, and the tower behind the Leviathan, which he had seen within his dream.

Given the responsibility of climbing the tower, our protagonist walked on. Feeling the emotions that would normally pursue the mind of an unprepared and pessimistic person, as he was unfortunately, the main character had to break through a series of battles against himself, and the ‘tests’ the tower threw at him. It was from this point that driven to the corner, he had no choice but to trust in the power he could not confirm, and to trust his life in himself. Invoking the old motto, ‘do or die’, our main character (he had yet to find a situation where he must reveal his true name) began to learn slowly about the power he possessed.

The key result of combating for survival was a switchblade, about the length of an average knife, except its blade could cut anything conceptually possible. He sliced through an illusion that bound his mind, and he sliced apart a water prison, not only the wall, but also the liquid itself. He also faced two monstrous beings resembling T-rex, and managed, through an incredible luck (as he called it) to escape while disabling them with his new-found weapon.

Near the top of the tower, bringing down armored insurgents with the second weapon he had produced – bow and arrow, the main character came face-to-face with a giant spider, an illusionary spinner, after managing to escape an illusion that was too good of a reality to be true.

When he finally reached the top, a battle took place shortly after, between the ‘black mist’ known only as Alzrius, and his half-sister. Both of them revealed themselves to be of the Te’anari, a race the main protagonist knew nothing of yet. No longer in hiding, Alzrius, self-appointed guardian of the protagonist, revealed his true form to be an abysmal-black dragon with violet flames burning within his skeletal eye sockets and jaws and spectral, almost translucent wings. His half-sister revealed herself to be more like a demoness, and in the course of the battle, injured the main character before he sliced her arms off with his knife.

An escape shortly hatched because Alzrius could not hope to win against his half-sister. Alzrius forced the main character to jump through the pool at the bottom of the tower. Apparently, the top of the tower had mechanisms that acted as warp drives, and the pool was actually a portal. Through it, the two escaped with their lives and reached their destination: Sirius I, the star system where the Prophet lived.

Enter, Evening Star, one of the most beautiful worlds in Sirius I. Here, the college student finally get to meet the Prophet, the one responsible for dragging him across two worlds, away from a reality he was familiar with. Of course, he was rather upset at first, until after much discussion, he realized he had no choice.

Sirius I was on the brink of an interstellar war, with its twin system, known only as Sirius II. Within less than a year, the Te’anari, dominant race of Sirius II, shall invade, as foreseen in the Prophecy. However, that was far from the many more events taking place as time moved forward, and all things changed.

Outside of the Prophecy’s control, outside of the autonomous world of the Evening Star, the military and the Interstellar Space Agency, two factions holding most of the remaining power in Sirius I, had already made their own plans regarding the incoming war. The Prophet feared something malignant was approaching, so she sent the main character, still totally lost, to his next mission. This time, neither she nor Alzrius will be there to guide him.

Off to Deirdre, third planet from Sirius star, a world of predominant colors – deep blue and sandy red. Those are the colors of the sky and sand, respectively. Deirdre was a planet covered in over seventy percent sand the color of gold and red, quite the opposite of Earth, yet the air was clear, breathable, and the technology was still far superior. Under the alias of Z, the only human in the entire system, our protagonist ventured forth into the desert planet, toward a facility where beings gifted with special talents and abilities trained for the incoming war.

Along the way, he met the beautiful girl Sumire, native to Deirdre yet looked just like a human. She had long silver-blond hair, and eyes that reminded Z of amethysts. Little did Z know that after meeting her, his life was about to become a roller coaster ride. All he knew at the time was that she relieved him of his homesickness and loneliness; he was not alone in this alien universe.

Enter Spartan Command, the training facility where every inhabitant possessed some sort of talent unlike the rest of his or her own race. The only oddity there would be Z, given how he was not only the single human with barely-passable documents, but he also knew next to nothing about the extent of his abilities and was possibly the only ‘powerless’ individual inside the facility.

As fate liked trickery, Z ended up sharing the same room as Sumire, and although nothing really happened ever between the two, it was evident that a relationship was forming. Although… Z, being who he was, inexperienced in this and that, remained dense for all the time spent as his mind was clearly on other things.

No, the key to infiltrating Spartan Command as one of the trainees was to investigate the plan behind heavy military buildup all across the system. The Prophet had feared that a full-frontal war would give neither side any worthwhile gain, and suspected that the military was up to no good. However, she had no true jurisdiction beyond the Evening Star, so it was up to Z. They went as far as assuring him that he had much to gain from this experience.

From this point, Z began the arduous testing, categorizing, and disciplinary procedures that every ‘student’ had to go through in order to realize his innate abilities. Yes, Spartan Command was very much like an academy, and all the trainees were like cadets preparing for the monumental moment of war. Of course, Z had to endure way more than just mere testing. He faced illusions and nightmares that attacked his mentality, he faced near-death situations where numerous bones were broken, and he faced the knowledge of his own abilities – how impossible they were.

Z’s power was at first unfathomable, but only when he learned to lace words with the proper concepts was he capable of bringing them from his mind, the realm of the impossible, into reality. His power was fundamentally the alteration of reality, of overriding every possible rule in the physics of reality. With enough concentration of the mind, with enough willpower, Z could invoke the command through any word of his choosing, as long as he understood the word’s meaning and attach it to its proper concept. For example, by merely picturing within his mind what an explosion of flames would look like, he could simply utter the word “Explode”, and the command shall act flawlessly, down to its last detail, blast radius, damage output, and location. Perhaps the true gift Z possessed as a human was the strength of his mind, for from then on, he walked a road of self-discovery – the limits of what he could do.

At the same time, Z met two individuals as seen from a dream he had while still back on Evening Star. Kiri, a pale blue hair man with sharp grey eyes, and Narcissu, a beautiful girl with startling blue eyes and long nigrescent hair. Combining them with his meeting with Sumire allowed Z to experience Spartan Command in a series of discoveries: his power, his relationship with these individuals that although none were human, they were close enough to become friends. Unfortunately, he also discovered a series of plans that were slowly coming into fruition.

Upon this fact, it was quite unfortunate that the very days after Z had extracted valuable information from the vaults of the databanks within Spartan Command’s core, he was found out, by none other than Sumire, who ‘worked’ for the military.

What greeted Z afterwards were starvation, brutal questioning, and something similar to what we would refer to as torture. In the end, with his power, Z managed to prevent them from altering his mind or destroying all traces of his intelligence, but without fully knowing that they had already taken ‘something’ from him despite resistance. He also suffered wounds that were to remind him that in the end, he was still a human with limited strength and vitality.

What he didn’t know was that his few friends were to provide him with far more than just solace. Although Sumire turned him in, she couldn’t bring herself to toss away all the time they had spent living in the same room, or training together and whatnot. When Z had a dream regarding the whereabouts of Sumire’s father, whom was the sole reason for her joining the military, he let Sumire knew about it. It was then that she had a change of heart, and decided to act.

Of course, nothing ever went smoothly, for the reptilian Colonel, commanding officer of Sumire, had pit Z toward a suitable death that followed in honor of Spartan Command’s code. Think Roman Coliseum, and with Z facing against the other two friends: Kiri and Narcissu. It was just as he had seen within his dream, and he was once again assured that his power extended to the dreams of which even nightmares were realities to come.

Kiri and Narcissu had an interesting relationship growing up together in the same training school in Evening Star. Kiri was the elder of the two and Narcissu had always looked up to him over the years. Eventually, they developed feelings for each other (somewhat), but even though Narcissu wished for Kiri to treat her like a girl instead of a younger sister, he was perhaps too stoic or too strict to let himself become distracted. That was how Z ended up between them. He became quick friends with Kiri, and they trained and sparred against each other as Z continued to discover about the extent of his abilities. Narcissu allowed herself to complain to Z, and perhaps also induced some competition between herself and Sumire, though the reasons were entirely unclear to the dense main character.

All four individuals finalized in their training within the ‘Free Lancer’ class, which as the name implied equate to abilities beyond two types of categories within anything ranging from telekinesis to shape-shifting to time control to melee superiority.

Back to the present, Z realized he must fight to the death against two of his friends, who also believed he was a spy that should be executed. At least when he started fighting, Z stuck to pure defense, as he couldn’t bear to hurt his friends, nor did he want to die. Facing that dilemma, he was about to be on wit’s end when Kiri told him that he had a plan to get Z out alive. Of course, when remembering what Sumire had told him before, Z refused to allow himself at a complete disadvantage, even if Kiri meant no ill.

Thus, surprising Kiri, Z disabled him with a swift use of his power. Thus the fight was left to between Narcissu and him. Of course, Kiri, knowing Z was buying time for hopefully a better plan, waited. He pretended to be incapacitated since the military officials in Spartan Command were observing. However, Narcissu didn’t know of what was really happening, as she was fighting Z with the willingness to kill. Before she could kill him with a sword move, Sumire – to everyone’s surprise – intervened to save Z. She threw a scythe at Narcissu, which Kiri took in her place.

Amidst all the confusion, all four escaped and hid inside a small abandoned room. There, Z healed Kiri of his wounds, and after much bickering, it seemed a bit more apparent that Kiri also shared similar feelings for Narcissu, except he had overheard Narcissu’s feelings when she became concerned with his small sacrifice. The end result was for her to beat him up, literally, but at least they were getting somewhere… maybe.

After that encounter, Sumire was no longer hostile toward the other two, and most of the issues between them were resolved. All that was left was escaping. Assuring Z and Sumire that they’ll be fine, Kiri and Narcissu saw the two off.

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Author's Note: This is a synopsis for the original story, so everything is condensed. Feel free to read the actual thing, and I hope that this can provide some help in catching up, if necessary :)