“Oh, my head…where the heck am I?” I looked around sheepishly, trying to answer my own question. My mind was not focused, everything seemed to be spinning. Now that he focused, everything shook for a moment and then stabilized to form a picture of a burning nightmare.

It looked like a village, burning in flames, all of the buildings reduced to dust. The closer inspection revealed that the corpses belonged to the Tengu clan members, the ones he got to know fairly well.

Orin was lying on the ground, all of his arms severed while his head was twisted backwards. Aijasyl was cut in half, her upper half dangling over a bridge clinging on to small amount of flesh from her lower body. Yet that wasn’t the worst of it. Shaula was pinned by her wings to the wall by knives, and her body looked like someone was torturing her. Worst of them all must have been Akjan, I walked over to see her corpse, broken horns, bleeding out of her mouth, her eye sockets empty and her body was slashed open vertically. Every Tengu clan member was lying dead here. Every single one of them. And I wasn’t able to do anything to save them.

“Pretty nostalgic sight isn’t it? It looks exactly like our old home, doesn’t it?” A figure that he saw in his dream several nights before emerged from the shadows, now donning an attire of complete black and red robes, his face was visible only from an angle, exposing upper half of his face, concealing his jaw.

“What have you done to them? Answer me you fiend!” I screamed with all my might.

“Me? The one responsible for this is you, and only you, and you know it is true. Face it, no matter where you go, disaster will follow you, just ask your dear old grandpa!” He pointed at the bloody corpse of the Master Korgan lying on the wall of the building. It was obvious that he was dead; blood was everywhere as if he was pulverized by an explosion.

“What happened here? How is this fault? I did not do anything to cause this…this…this …murder!” I found myself stumbling for words. Why did this specter have to haunt me so? What have I done to deserve such a punishment?

“Still denying your responsibility in causing all of the tragedies around you, aren’t you. But think about it, if you weren’t ever born do you think all the villagers in the Sunflower village could have lived? What about your parents, without your existence, don’t you think they still would be alive? What about your precious master Shan, didn’t her life end because you were there?”

“Why can’t you stop doing this, I don’t want to hear about it!” I tried to deny the small fragments of memories that kept popping into my brain. The sights, the experiences, her voice, it was all too real.

“I will not stop this until I… ” The hooded figure stopped when many grey shadows appeared right behind him.

“I am afraid that enough is enough” A grey figure materialized before the dark figure, and with a motion of the hand the dark figure dissipated into the thin air, but not before whispering “I will be back.”

There were countless grey figures, and unlike the dark figure, they were rather see through. They looked like ghosts, with each one having a unique face. Each one was focused on me.

“Um, thanks, but who are you guys? I don’t think I remember you.” I said while feeling rather stupid.

“I see, you don’t seem to remember the contract, but the contract still stands, so we will abide by it.” One of the ghosts spoke. The others just nodded.

“Contract? What do you…”

“We can’t have you pass away here, without fulfilling our unfinished business. That is why we will force you to snap out of this illusion.” As they kept approaching, the landscape covered in corpses started to disappear, now replaced by darkness. I saw nothing, just the ghosts.

“Now, open your eyes!”

I awoke to find myself lying on the ground. The ground was made of some kind of purple crystal. Apparently I fell asleep here, and it seems I wasn’t the only one.

The entire Tengu clan was napping there like there was nothing wrong. But their expressions on their faces could be described as anything but pleasant. The Tengu clan wasn’t the only clan that was unconscious, there were countless demons and other species lying down on the ground, not moving a at all.

“What the heck is going on here? Why is everyone taking a collective nap?” then I remembered. At the morning, the trial started, and some kind of strange voice transmitted itself through our brains and told us “THE FIRST TRIAL SHALL COMMENCE NOW. THOSE WHO SUCCEED SHALL PROCEED; THOSE WHO FAIL SHALL BE LEFT BEHIND. THE TRIAL SHALL END WHEN THE PORTAL TO THE OUTSIDE WILL CLOSE AT THE ALIGNING OF THREE SUNS.” And then near the lake some kind of a path opened, resembling doors but made of water, everyone entered them so I followed the suit.

Immediately after everyone went through countless doors made of water we ended up in realm covered in colorful crystals. But then, everything started feeling dizzy and then I remember falling down and closing my eyes.

“There is definitely something here that’s making everyone fall asleep, but what?” I wondered, but decided to forget about thinking of it in favor of waking up Tengu clan members. Luckily the scene of carnage was just a dream, a horrifying dream, but a dream nevertheless.

First I woke Orin up.

In Orin’s dream, he was forced to relive the day his weakened clan was sacked by savage demons, what’s worse, he was trapped in the small, under-developed body that he had back then, so even the skills he acquired were useless. The Rheno clan members were taken down one after another, each one tied by ropes on their four arms, while an executioner with an ax was approaching. “There is nothing you can do to stop this…” a singing voice sounded out. Orin himself was held down and made watch the systematic execution of his clan. It was getting from bad to worse every minute he was there. Orin begged someone to stop this eternity of pain, this continuous cycle that he was forced to look at for so long. After everyone was killed, the day would repeat, but then it would be even worse than the one before it. And the worst part-they left him alive to see his clan die again, again, and again. Orin clutched his head as his mind was starting to slowly break.

“Orin! Orin, snap out of it!” A voice was calling out to him. The red bloody scenery suddenly changed and he found himself hearing his Master’s voice. He saw the light glimmer into his eyes. He opened his eyes and he saw Ren. “Boss, it is you!” He was heavily panting for breath.

“Not exactly the best dream was it?” Ren asked with a goofy grin.

“No, more like a complete nightmare.” Orin had to admit. “Wait, this is not another dream, right?”

“Nope, I woke you up just now, help me get the others awake as well, or else we will not finish this trial on time.” Apparently there is a time limit-when the Great Ones deem appropriate, which apparently was not very long. Now that I think of it, the voice did mention that the trial will end as soon as the three suns will align. “By the way, do you know how long do we have until three suns align, assuming we didn’t sleep for too long that is?”

Orin glanced at the sky as if he was making a mental calculation. “I think we have less than two weeks, that was how much time we had when we just entered, now I presume we have far less time, Boss”

“Then it’s all the more reason to wake everyone up!”

“Right away, Boss!”

So, Orin and I proceeded to wake everyone up with rather mixed reactions from the ones receiving the wakeup call.

Orin would wake Sukesir, Sirinke and other demons named Aron, Neer, Maro, Lecro, Toro, and Aijasyl while I would wake Akjan, Shaula, Kizilkoz. There were female demons from Tengu household I wasn’t so familiar with like Shara, Lowa, Rona, Quo, Riosa, Mara, Gema. The unfamiliarity is due to them joining Tengu clan rather recently.

Inside Akjan’s dream, it was a complete nightmare. She was stuck inside the cell in which she was locked in for so long, but now she was seeing something she was afraid of, one thing she feared, even if she knew the truth, she still couldn’t avert her gaze. Her entire clan, still alive, but each one was smiling as each one’s horns were cut off with long daggers.

“Big Sister, why did you let this happen to us?” a pair of twins, very similar to Akjan in appearance asked her, both of them had blood flowing down their faces, their horns were gone, and their small hands seemed to be reaching towards her for help, but she couldn’t budge from the cell to which she was chained to.

The distance between their outstretched hands and Akjan’s own hand kept increasing, to the point it seemed like miles separated them..

“Why did you abandon us? Why have you left us behind?”

“Please, don’t leave me!” Akjan screamed in despair, she never saw any of them ever since that day when Kas clan took them away, the others have sacrificed their lives to let her escape. Seeing her entire family just within hand’s reach but so far was by far the most painful thing she had to see.

Then the landscape changed, she no longer was imprisoned

“Where am I?”

Looking around she realized she was walking on a pile of bones, demon bones, when she bent down to examine them she found a pair of disembodied blue horns.

“Shaula…” when she looked at the other horns, she recognized them by their shapes. “Orin, Aijasyl…Master Korgan…” all of their horns were here but the demons themselves were not here. She trembled from thinking what it could mean; her new family has been reduced to lifeless horns.

Then, she found an arm on the ground, when she inspected it, to her horror she knew whose hand it was. “Ren…No!”

Clutching the lifeless hand to her chest, Akjan cried streams of tears, now that her last hope to carry on has been broken, she could no longer stand up.

She felt broken, completely.

“Why? Why everyone I have ever loved is taken away? Why did they have to die? Great Ones, please tell me, why couldn’t they have lived and I perished instead?”

“Akjan… Akjan… Akjan…” a voice was calling out to her.

“That voice…it can’t be…”

“Please open your eyes!”

At that moment, the reality shifted, shriveled, and disappeared. As her eyes opened, she found herself looking in the eyes of the certain demon.

“Eugh! That’s a relief” Ren wiped invisible sweat off his forehead. “I am glad it’s only causing you to fall asleep, I was afraid it could be something worse.” Then he caught a glimpse of Akjan looking at him with eyes full of tears. “Aah aah.”

“Ren, if this is a dream, please don’t go away….I…”

“Uhm, Akjan, we are not inside of a dream, this is real” he pointed at Orin trying to wake Aijasyl up.

Apparently Aijasyl wouldn’t wake up no matter what he did, so Orin asked Ren to do something.

“I am no good with these things, Boss, I am a combat type not a medical type.”

“How is waking up a medical task? Look, let me show you how I wake demons up!” With that said Ren put his mouth upon Aijasyl’s lips and started blowing air into her mouth.

“Ren!(Boss for Orin) What are you doing?!!” Akjan and Orin saw what Ren was doing with wide open eyes.

“Resuscitating, of course, what else…” Ren took his lips off Aijasyl’s mouth and inhaled more air. “This ought to do it!” before doing the mouth to mouth again.

At that moment, Aijasyl’s eyes opened wide and to her horror she saw Ren locking lips with her.

“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!” she pushed him with such force that he ended up rolling backwards at least three times.

“I suppose I should say ends justify the results, right? Please don’t beat me up…” Aijasyl was staring at him angrily, while Orin and Akjan were looking in embarrassment. With the angry figure of the green haired demon looming over, Ren couldn’t help but shudder.

After giving Ren a visible slap to the face, Aijasyl heard Orin out while Akjan was busy waking others up.

“I see, so we were caught in a sleeping realm, huh. That explains a lot. But…” she stared at Ren with menacing gaze. “Did you really have to do that? You took my lips! It was my first!” She was angry with him; after all she never did kiss a demon before, not to mention a male demon.

“If it makes you feel any better it was my first time kissing as well…” Somehow Ren dug himself deeper in grave, considering now it wasn’t just Aijasyl but Akjan looking at him with disappointed look in her eyes.

“That’s just not fair” Ren whispered under his breath not realizing Akjan whispered the same thing at the same time. Both ended up looking awkwardly at each other.

In time everyone was up, Akjan and Aijasyl took it upon themselves to wake the female demons up after Ren’s ‘performance’ with resuscitation. Other than the fact that Kizilkoz mistook Aijasyl for her mother or Shaula snuggling Akjan, none had much trouble waking up.

“That was painful” Sirinke cracked his head in discomfort.

“True enough…” Sukesir mentioned while rubbing her tail. When they woke up they found one on top of the other, crushing with sheer weight, not to mention the one who was being crushed mistook the tail of the demon on top of him for chewing food, with mixed results.

“Let us never mention this again.” Sukesir said to Sirinke.

“Agreed.”

Everyone gathered up, with Ren looking at forward.

“Well, I am not sure how long all of us were asleep, but we have to start moving forward. This is the first trial, so we can’t fret; after all we have a long way ahead of us. So, let’s do this!” Personally, Ren just wanted to go home, but the only way to do that was to finish this trial. Thinking of the bath he was going to take after he got back to Karatengu mansion. Ren took a fist sized crystal-like rock that was broken off from somewhere. The Stone was greenish blue in color, so Ren in his curiosity thought it would make a nice tiling or a decorative material for the bathhouse.

The place they fell asleep in a place full of crystals, green, purple, blue, and of colors they could not even begin describing. What they didn’t know however was what the true capacity of those crystals. Most would prefer to not touch the crystals in fear that they somehow might harm them.

Unlike other demons with a sense of caution, this demon would find out the hard way what future the crystal would bring.