Different towers rose towards him, each unleashing a powerful bolt. They were uniform, unlike the shifting pillars made of Carvers. Each made up of compact tendons, flesh and muscles covered in carapaces that didn’t always hide the shifting meat underneath.

Like all of the Nightmares present, mouths rimmed the length of them, all screaming. The top point of the towers was a mouth, which was opened wide and spewing forth bolts hammering his home. An increasing number of these Nightmares were breaking the surface of the ocean. His own monster was trying its best to curtail the beasts, but there were so many, and the ocean let them outgrow and heal any real damage Bliss was able to inflict.

Bliss had yet to take own one of the towers. From its sight, Dailin knew the length of them went deep into the depths below. It would take time for Bliss to elongate enough to encompass the entirety of a single tower, and right now his creature was a bit preoccupied with other forms of Hunger. The gluttonous spheres were growing in number, and like the towers, were hitting him with chants. However, unlike the towers racing to meet him, the spheres stayed under the ocean, keeping themselves fed.

The panel pulsed at him, a glance showed further greater bolts had been born and joined the others already assault him. The speed of his layers refilling slowed more and more, enough that he couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. Pulling on the pools of Mana around him, Dailin song into exitance more amplifiers, far larger than their predecessors.

“Take them Bliss,” he instructed. “Spread them out in the fifteenth layer.” His creature only nodded at him as constructs moved and flew away with his creations. Hope strengthen her grip as he rubbed his tired eyes, though he felt failure, sleep didn't call to him. There was to much stress racking his mind for it to allow rest.

“Everything is going to be alright,” Hope said innocently, her smile radiant, unblemished by the worries that haunted him. “Things always look the worst near the end, but it’s an illusion, one last push by Doubt and Despair to claim people.” The child said gently. “Push back, and keep pushing and you’ll see everything will work out in time.”

Dailin squeezed the child's hand, pushed back his gnawing fears and focused on the events taking place. Hope wasn’t wrong, in time everything would be fixed, the fact both a blessing and a curse. The more that passed the better his position in the grand scheme of things became. The ocean of Mana had to be decreasing, and the specks of Mana coming down from the sky couldn’t possibly be enough to replenish what was being used. This flood of substance had taken thousands of years to build up, and Hunger was eating it all with ravenous speed. The ocean will recede, eventually, the long fight will one day end.

Another bolt formed and struck his home, and the runes flared brighter.

‘The question is,’ a voice said thoughtfully. ‘Will you be around long enough to see it?’ Its musing was answered by more bolts, and Dailin hummed instinctively forming more amplifiers and like before Bliss hurried them away.

Dailin continued this, doing his best to keep pace with the increasing demands. The Mana descending from above spiraled towards his home, the pull strong enough that hovering rivers formed. Specks, once heading towards Anchors, redirected and raced to him instead. The influx of Mana outperformed what was being used, and Dailin took a couple large breaths to steel his ragged nerves.

‘Everything’s fine, everything is going to work out, my family is safe.’ He echoed deep in his mind, watched the instruments with a fixed gave. When the fifteenth layer pulsed that it was full he aimed and smashed his hand down on the activation Rune. A tower rising towards the Oasis was engulfed in ending light. He could hear nothing over the roar of the chant, so he waited a minute before turning off the weapon. When he did, he found a thin and blackened tower that cracked and crumbled back down into the depths.

A chuckle of relief escaped him as he once more aimed and fired. He killed many of the rising abominations, turned them to dust. But more kept rising from the ocean, each adding to the maelstrom of strikes hammering his home.

Bliss did its best to try and alleviate this as it split into more versions, yet even with its new means of attack, things weren’t going in Bliss favor. There was simply to many and the ocean to deep. Worse due to all the fighting, the ocean was permeating more of the realm below. Allowing additional swarms to make constant with the substance and begin the cycle of explosive expansion anew.

Due to this, the realm was continually bathed in white and blue flames as he began targeting multiple towers at once. It took longer to do so but he had no real choice in the matter. He was the only one making any progress slowing the beasts breeding.

It had small side effects though. The storm which began to morph into its lightning form was beginning to disperse in his local area. There were too many disruptions in the air for it not to be affected. That and the Anchors, he never bothered to change, were being turned to ash. Either by lucky strikes or succumbing to the intense heat and the inability to claim Mana from the suns above.

The realm below began to see more of the realm above, witness the glory of his home, which he’d wanted to be hidden till the time was right. But that would never be, nor did it matter since the Nightmare knew where he was anyway. Though it did let him see painfully clear how many were heading towards him. A shadow of a shiver wormed itself up his spine as he gazed down. No matter where he looked, towers rose, maws snapped. And their cold dead eyes gazed upon him with pure wanting. They wouldn’t stop, perhaps couldn't or didn't have such a concept in their mind. As long as one remained, the Nightmare would try again and again.

‘Inconvenient isn’t it?’ A voice whispered.

‘One of many,’ Dailin sent back. But the real inconvenience was above him, a sky barrier that blocked his way to a quick solution.

‘But I’ll fix this, I’ll make everything work out,’ Dailin thought, assuring himself. ‘Everything will be fine in the end.’ He pulled from the wells of Mana around him, made more amplifiers. Bliss hurried them away, while he continued the process, and when the Oasis was full he returned to burning towers. Tried in a desperate bid to decrease the number of bolts striking his home. All towers, no matter how far away, angled and fired up. And considering the size of his home, they always hit their mark. The Wards of the underside of the Oasis blazed red, protesting the sustained and increasing assaults being launched. The demand to power them growing ever worse.

In a vicious cycle Dailin made more amplifiers, broadening the Oasis pull, trying to outpace the demand. The Mana ocean directly under the Oasis bunged upwards, slowly at first, strings of Mana ascended, the speed rising the closer they got. The current, however, was disrupted every time he activated the Hearts, but at least more Mana was heading his way.

Again, it felt like Dailin was falling into a stalemate, neither he nor the Nightmare were winning. Not in the present anyways, the long game was his, if he could reach it. He just had to hold out and wait for the ocean to run dry. Though how many years that would take he left unasked, the thought was depressing, so he did his best not focus on it. He prayed instead, that he’d be able to complete his work.

Right now that was impossible, not only because of the needed Mana he wasn’t willing to spend. But also he wasn’t sure what would happen if the Oasis was attacked while the Wards shifted. That maybe it would cause flaws, or shatter them entirely. Perhaps it was a misguided worry, the Nightmare seemed fine with fighting him with shifting wards. Though theirs didn’t warp nearly as much as his, or for that matter have so many underlining workings embedded within them.

Maybe the Nightmare had it right, maybe he should have just focused on improving himself, becoming just as imposing. But then his family wouldn’t have had a safe place to hide in. Dailin recalled the Giver, who was surprisingly absent. Remembered how much difficulty she had protecting Sanctuary, how it crippled her movements. Then there was the matter of the sky and its suns pouring down endless Mana. He’d still have to block that, or not. Maybe if he'd been a realm sized entity that wouldn’t have mattered. He could have crushed all his opposition or had an easier time keeping them away while he worked.

Dailin growled in frustration as his mind followed down paths, seconding guessing his every decision, searching for a means to keep him and his family safe.

‘Do you perhaps think there isn’t a perfect path, that there will always be danger?” Voices asked.

‘Death is ever-present,” another voice added, one that felt to be right next to his ear. “It will get you eventually, it gets all life, such is its role.”

Dailin pushed the thoughts away, mind eyes focused on the problem before him. Towers were everywhere, all moving up like some grotesque sprout rising from a water bed. Dailin aimed the hearts and bathed the realm in searing light. Towers burned and thinned away to nothing, but there was always another, always more bursts of lightning coming from a new source.

The realm shifted back and off between its normal state and the fiery hell he made. Hand rising and falling in quick succession as he deactivated the hearts and re-aimed.

‘Its going to be a long fight,’ a voice whispered. ‘Years upon years, and even still no good may come of it, Death always gets its due.’

Another called out to him, ‘you need to let go of this dream that you’ll find a means to end this. Accept that only the long path is ahead of you, always has been. Death is not the end, for you or your family’

Dailin said nothing, only raised and lowered his hand, burning more towers spouting death at him. His creature was doing as well as him when it came to curtailing this madness. Though its new trick allowed it to actually kill the larger beasts, the rate of it was laughable. Even as Bliss made more colossal versions of itself, it wasn’t enough.

‘It’s never going to be.’ Voices said, the words soft and sympathizing. ‘The mistakes of the past have arrived, and though none who caused them remain, the consequences still happen none the less.

Dailin shouted curses to the dead in his mind as the white flames flicked out, but this time they didn’t return. The fifteenth layer was almost depleted and with the rising threats he refused to dip into the lower layers. He breathed deep, watched the instruments, gazed at his home slowly refilling, and clenched his jaw as more towers rose replacing all he’d destroyed.

‘Though it looks troubling, and it is indeed a nightmarish sight, it does hold good news.’ A voice whispered. ‘Think how much those towers are consuming, how much Mana is being wasted to make more and grow them large enough to reach you. Wonder about the cost of those chants they send your way. You will win in the long run, their power dwindles while yours continues to rise.’

‘For now,’ he thought back, making more amplifiers as the reserves progress refilling became a horrid crawl. If only he had suns caged if only there wasn’t a barrier blocking his path. All this madness and grief would be over. The realm freed of the Nightmare plague them all.

‘It will. Eventually,’ voices said.

“Maker!” Bliss constructs shouted in alarm. Startling him enough to open his eyes and peer around the room.

“Below us, Hunger is forming, something,’ Bliss said gazing up at him, then down at Hope. The child nodded in some form of understanding. “Everything always works out in the end.” The child said looking up at him, the fluttering in his chest swelling to new heights. Yet, it didn’t have the same impact it should have. No his heart thundered loudly in his ears, fear and dread weighing heavy on his shoulders. Accompanied by another, instinct had returned, and it pressed upon him, death was near.

Dailin closed his eyes, gazed below. At first there was no change to the scene, only more towers rising from the ocean. But then, his eyes trained on noticing trouble, he spotted the problem. Under the surface an impossibly large mass was darkening the hue of the Mana. Mana that shot upward, flung away as the mass rose.

‘Oh, gods!’ Dailin shouted in his mind as his hand slammed down on the activation Rune.

The bulging flesh speared upward, a tower beyond all others. It roared as it rose up, swimming through the light trying to cleanse it. Runes flared and pulsed out loudly as the mass of flesh slammed into his home, its mouth was open and spreading as the tower unseamed itself. The central Heart, the original Oasis itself was engulfed inside its jaws. The light from the Hearts seared down into its gullet, the radiance it produced allowed him to see every detail. Witness the Wards engraved onto carapace free flesh.

Breathing heavy Dailin pressed upon his panel, moved Hearts so they all hit the abomination suctioned to his home like some horrific leech. Time drained away like the Mana of the fifteenth layer, down it went yet the tower remained

“Maker stop!” Bliss called out, causing him to lift his gaze to the construct. “Hunger, it's eating the light you’re sending down into its stomach.”

“What?” He said intelligently, mind coming to a halt while dread and instinct pressed upon him.

“Strike it only from the outside Maker, that appears to be having an effect,” Bliss added.

Numbly he did as advised, turning off the central Heart and engulfing the Oasis in the dimmer lights made of Wards. The outer layer continued to drain, though nowhere near the speed as before. But that didn’t matter, he watched the reserves drop into the fourteenth layer as the beast unleashed a wave of lightning into his home. The amplifiers could no longer keep pace with the demand, not with the lower half of the Oasis covered in lightning, and now a growing mouth gnawing on its surface.

“Bliss,” he said, voice trembling. “Call back your constructs, have them give all their stored Souls to the Oasis.” His creature nodded its head, and the army below fighting with the Nightmare flew up, soaring in wind rippling speeds towards the Oasis. Through Bliss eyes he saw the immensity of the tower. A tower that was still plunging up, the new length added was used for the mouth to spread wider across his home. The thing was trying to swallow the Oasis, to cover him, as he aimed to cover the sky.

‘You’ll only get so far beast.’ He thought somewhat relieved. The Oasis was pressed firmly against the barrier behind it, the Nightmare wouldn’t be able to close around his home and cut it off from the suns above. But it would make certain all the Hearts would be shooting down into its stomach. With the beast somehow eating the light, strengthen it even more, the Oasis would be helpless.

Bliss army neared, their size well beyond Titans, but that quickly changed as they released the Mana they held, down they shrank, their appearances thinning and becoming transparent. The Mana offered streamed into his home. The reserves once dipping rising back up.

“Do it again Bliss, feed on the ocean below and bring the contents up.” Dailin commanded, his mind struggling to think as it became almost paralyzed by the dread he was feeling. Bliss sang deeper, spending more of the Mana around them pushing back the other feelings. He allowed it, tried to seep into the blissful sensation coating the chamber. That failed however, as the weight of instinct pressed hard on his shoulders.

‘Everything’s fine, everything’s fine’. He told himself as his grip on Hope hand tightened. If it had been a real child the poor girl hand would have been shattered by now. But Hope made no fuse, only orientated herself so she could give him a half-embraced hug. “Everything works out in the end,” Hope repeated comfortingly. “No matter how bad things look, it all parts as long as you keep trying.”

The tower pulled more itself upwards, the distorted wave of flesh rising up the frame reaching its head and spreading the mouth further along the Oasis. Oddly shaped mandibles and teeth gnawed on the surface of his home. The Hearts burning light did nothing to stop the scene from taking place. Even with most of the monster upper frame doused in it from multiple directions and the realm itself burned wildling. The beast continued on its task of swallowing him.

“This isn’t working,” he fearfully mumbled, mind eyes seeing it all as he slowly began losing the fight. The reserves began to dwindle, the added stores Bliss had proved all used up, and his creature had yet to return with more. He had to do something new, his current spell was made useless against the beast before him. But what else was there? Light so hot it metaled the realm was now made inert.

‘Try a different type of attack.’ A voice said unhelpfully.

‘Use the Mana as you have been doing this whole time, it will work out the rest.’ It added annoyed.

Yes, yes, the Mana almost always brought about what he wanted, he didn’t need to understand how. Just needed to know what he wanted. So Dailin focused his eyes on the beast, imaged it dying, its flesh decaying and its strength withering away leaving behind only a spent husk. He envisioned all of this as his will connected with the network. His call carrying through the Oasis, hurrying towards the reserves on every layer. It moved slowly at first, hesitant, or unsure, but he kept demanding, kept picturing the Nightmare dead.

The Mana acted, and his Runes howled at him as Mana drained away. Out the substance went, seeping through the Wards and Hearts. The underside of the Oasis bled out the Mana. Mana with an ominous hue which washed over the beast head and began working its way down its frame. Both on the outside and within, he didn’t know what was happening, but the Nightmare wailed, its long frame swaying wildly as the Mana coated more of it. It Wards flared so bright it was painful to look at them, yet for all the agony it appeared to be in, the tower refused to let go and its mouth continued to spread.

Dailin kept chanting, demanding the Mana to hurry, to bring about what he willed. but the Nightmare remained, and the Oasis reverses drained. Instinct and dread pressed against him, all the while the fluttering in chest increased. Hope hugged him and now hummed along with Bliss.

“In the end, all will be well.” Hope hymned to him, he listened the best he could, tried casting down the fears making his hands tremble.

‘Everything is going to-

Dailin thoughts stopped, his mind eyes transfixed on spheres of light hurling upwards. At first he thought it Bliss racing to deliver Mana. But then once near the spheres exploded outward. His instruments pulsed in protest, another layer spent.

“This is your fault!” a voice screamed over the rumbles of chants. “My Vail, my Sanctuary, my Kingdom! You took everything from me!”

‘The Giver.’ Dailin realized in horror as more light erupted, bathing him and the tower in searing light.

“And now,” her voice raw. “I’m going to take everything from you.” The Runes pulsed at him, growing concern, the Madness seeping closer.

‘No, no, it’s not supposed to be like this.’ Dailin wailed in his mind as he stopped chanting, letting his home focus on defense.

“Bliss!” he screamed panicked, “Bring everything you have, stop her!”

Lights erupted, pulsing screams echoed as his home hollered demands, and the Givers onslaught continued. She didn't appear to care what she was trying to achieve, that her actions would kill the last remaining Vail. All Dailin saw in her eyes was unrestrained rage.

“Giver!” Blissed howled as thousands of its constructs came racing to his aid. Most were small, but as they went, rising through the realm, Mana chased after them. The ocean below rose as Bliss sang loud, forming a network of spread out constructs that guided the Mana to him. The rest condensed and hurried towards the Oasis as more lights collided with his home. They erupted and the draining of his strength continued.

Most of Bliss army collapse into one being, its smile gone, and it spread over the Oasis and Hunger. When more lights erupted the cost was halved, but it cleaned away much of Bliss. In response, his creature funneled Mana upwards, its network turning into rising rivers.

Bliss reformed, sheltering his home as best as it could. The pulsing of his Runes lessened, the reserves slowly beginning to rise as Bliss protected him from the strikes of Nightmare lightning. Hope began to well deeper in his chest, yet Dailin felt instinct, felt two hands gripping his shoulders tight, yet comforting. He glanced behind himself, the sensation so real, but he saw nothing.

He didn’t have time to worry about that, instinct once again hinted to him of danger coming. His second warning of this came from Bliss as it began coating him in more of itself. Then the Runes pulsed anew, louder than ever before, and when he gazed out into the realm, he whimpered.

There was another tower, just as large as that last, and it had attached itself to his home like the first. It chewed through Bliss protective layer, blasting it with lightning till its mandibles and teeth grounded against his home.

Dailin began to hyperventilate, and his heart thumped loudly in his ears, everything was going wrong.

‘It can’t be like this,’ Dailin thought. his reserves in a tug of war, rising then falling, Bliss and his amplifiers fighting desperately to keep up with the demand. It left him paralyzed, he couldn’t attack, the demand would be too much. His reverses would fall and another layer would be spent, then another then more, and then, then it would be over.

‘No!’ Dailin thought in denial, ‘no it can be like this, not after all I’ve done, all the struggles, it can’t be like this, I can’t end like this.’

‘Life ends, it always dies, always struggling to last a little longer, but still it ends, but you don’t.’ Voices said calmly to him. ‘There is no end for you, only change.’

‘I can’t die, I won’t die!’ Dailin said, screaming at them. ‘I have too much to do, mistakes to make right, my family to free, Bliss to change.’

‘You could have done all that sooner,’ the voices said, contempt laden within. ‘But you waited, kept it around because of its convenience it brought to your life. Now you pay the price for that.’

‘No, no, damn you.’ His hands balled into fists and the realm began to fall away as his attention turned inwards. 'I will live, I will survive, I will fix things!'

‘And all of you,’ Dailin said, pointing a hand at the shades silhouette his dream realm. ‘Are going to help me.’

‘We have been,’ the voices said. ‘In the only way that matters,’ others spoke from behind him. ‘You know what you were doing wrong now, salvation is in your hands.’

‘Try, endure, struggle.’ Voices spoke all around him. ‘Rise from the abyss you’ve thrown yourself into.’

‘I am.’ Dailin said heatedly, willing the bleak realm to how it should be, a rich sky, lively flatlands, the warm comforting breeze. ‘But all of you, you're trying to trick me.’

The shadows went still, their whispers taken by silence. ‘You speak of trying, yet when it comes to life you tell me to let it go, that it's temporary, meaningless.' Dailin hissed at them. 'I wouldn’t be here if that was true. all the lives I threw away.’

‘Was not the reason why you fell,’ the voices said patiently. ‘You didn’t try,’ they repeated. ‘You threw them away for selfish reasons, weight added. The lives themselves weren’t important, your intentions were.’

Dailin half laughed. ‘How is that any different now? You're telling me life ends, that I should let it, even though I have the means to prevent that. How is that not another suicide, another slip of intentioned convenience?’

Silence fell over them again, only disrupted by the occasional breeze.

‘I have all this power.’ He said as the shades remained quiet. ‘There has to be something I can do to save everyone, anything, anything. Please,’ Dailin said tiredly. ‘I’ll do anything you want, whatever hurtle or steps of redemption, just please, help me.’

The shades lowered their gazes, all falling into silent thinking, breathless moments passed. Then all around him they shifted and merged together. They formed into a loose silhouette of a person appearing to be cloaked. Its eyes met his, and Dailin could have sworn for a moment that he was looking at himself.

The realm around them shattered without warning and Dailin found himself in his chamber again, his body stiff, Hope and Bliss hugging him. But what had most of his attention, was the firm grip on his shoulders.

“I shouldn’t do this,” the voice whisper in his ear. “And there will be consequences for the both of us, if you take this path.”

“But I accept that,” it said to him, its grip loosening. “For I'm proud of your change.’ Its hands let go, moved to his neck and head, guiding their movement as thoughts danced in his mind. Dailin looked upon his chamber, the story Bliss had carved into the stone. Of the journal to paradise.

“You’re right, there is a way.” The voice said, “there are endless realms out there, and you have all the power you need to traverse to one.’

The thought struck him, his body going almost numb for a moment, and a laugh escaped his lips, growing into a chorus of mad glee. The grip on his head fell away. “Remember there’s going to be consequences for this, and one day you may dearly regret this choice.” Dailin felt a hand brush his hair and a head press near his ear. "And a debt, you said you’d do anything for this help. Here it is, never stop trying, no matter how bad it gets.”

And like that Dailin felt the presence leave, instinct gone, and with it him feeling half complete. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered in his mind, one that was racing with the thoughts given to him.

“Bliss.” He said to the construct wrapped around his frame, “Bring all the souls back, every last one, I need all within the Oasis.”

“Maker?” his creature said in a questioning tone.

“Hurry, time is running out,” Dailin said, excitement bubbling within him. Dread was gone too, he felt safe, blind to the dangers around him.

Bliss did as commanded and unwrapped itself, as did Hope. Though the child refused to let go of his hand. That was fine, grand even as the fluttering in his chest surged to new heights. His fears and worries melted away, there was a path out of here, and it took away all the unknowns that had been plaguing him. He knew what to do, saw the moment already in his mind, all he had to do was follow the required steps.

He laughed again, a mocking one aimed at himself. How couldn’t he with this new knowledge in his mind?

This whole time, the moment he entered the ocean of Mana, he could have left, bypassed all this grief, the stress. He could have abandoned the realm to the Giver and taken his family elsewhere. He could have avoided the Nightmare altogether, he could have already been safe and sound in another realm, free of this place, free of the madness.

A madness he noticed getting near as he reconnected with the panel. He saw the two Hungers spreading across his home. The abominations appeared to be merging into one. The heads had already achieved this, flesh knitting itself together and the progress was working its way down the monster’s length.

‘You can have this realm Nightmare, you as well Giver.’ He thought as the Vail god continued sending explosive lights crashing into his home.

“Maker if you would, I need some gates open to accomplish your task.’ His creature said, but before the utterance had finished, he’d already done as it asked. Opening all of the outer gates not yet covered by the Nightmare. Souls flooded into them, as the Mana Bliss held rushed into the Wards.

“It’s done,” Bliss announced.

“All of them?” He pressed, His creature nodded a pleased look as its face which spread more when he smiled at it. “Good, now then, let us leave this nightmare.”

He connected to the layers, ignoring the pulsing of Runes, and focused with all his intent on the surrounding Mana. He desired to it, like never before, because right now there was nothing more that he wanted than to get him and his family out of here.

‘Take us to a realm free of war, of strife and pain, a place of bounty, untouched by the horrid cruelties that plague this realm. Take us to a paradise, a land caring and protecting. A place my family can thrive in.’

Out he thought, mind singing, calling to the Mana to deliver him and his family to salvation. Over and over he hymned that chant, the realm falling away, his awareness only on that desperate desire. It all ended with an eruptive cheer as joy surging out of him as he felt Mana answer with deliverance.