Q: Why is summoning almost impossible in Shrankor?

A: Because the path to the Fairy Realm, Ishtar, is sealed from the Shrankor.

- - -

I squinted my nose, looking all around me in the gloomy atmosphere. Yasmine, who was by my side when I passed out, was gone, and so were the others. It was not the rocky terrain I was sitting in, but in the middle of grand debris and ruin.

I was not in the Starfall mountain range, but some place else. Somewhere I hadn't been before.

Nothing made sense. The night was cold and crusty. While the air gave the feeling of . . . heavy. Heavy and stiff. There was a murky, stuffy feeling about it that already got me on edge. I did not need to see the ruins before me to know something was wrong here.

Not just something, almost everything was wrong here.

Strong gusts of wind were blowing, and I worked up to stand upright. My body felt heavy, and I found a thick, plated breastplate with other arm and leg guards all over my body. They were possibly the reason for the heaviness, but I reckon there was something more. All felt so surreal, it had to be some illusion or hallucination.

"Yasmine," I called hopelessly, and as I expected, no one answered.

Before me was a vast ruin of buildings. Only the debris from skyscrapers could have been this extensive. Debris, shards of glass, concrete remnants, metal splinters pointing out, were all over wherever my eyes drifted. Fire was flaring in some areas, while in most others it had already finished burning, but the crusty smell of burning still remained. The wind carried dust and ash, as the darkness loomed to make it intimidating.

If this is all fake, my hallucination; then I am darn good with wild imagination.

The more I gazed at it, the colder my inner feelings got. It had to be an earthquake of degree 8 or above on the Richter scale to destroy such constructions, but that was not the only thing that made my heart race.

Despite the skyscraper being inhabitable and almost unrecognisable from its lost grandeur, the way it was built struck me the hardest. It was not the style of Shrankor—meaning not the mediaeval, Victorian era kind of construction.

I had been transmigrated here for about a couple of weeks, yet all the buildings I came across were the most were old-fashioned that I had ever seen in historical movies or sites. But the ruins before me were not some historical site, nor was it some old-fashioned constructions.

The skyscrapers were strangely modern. At least they had been before the destruction. It was quite similar to the high-storeyed skyscrapers that could be seen in any big city in my old world. I could not help but wonder about the connection.

Ash and dust hovered in the air and blew along with the gale, while some places burned in a crimson fire after the devastation that had taken place.

Unconsciously, I looked up at the skies, trying to discern something. My spine turned cold instantly. The sky was almost empty. Other than the few twinkling stars on the faraway horizon, there was nothing. Among the five freaking moons of Shrankor, there was not a single one of them in the sky.

Where am I? My mind wondered. But I can't possibly expect an answer.

"This can't be happening. It must be a dream," I muttered. "Dream, yes dream. It has to be a dream. Wait, Dream?"

Now I could comprehend a little about what was happening.

"Holy mother of God, this is a dream. A dreamscape."

But that revelation brought in another question: How did I appear here?

That realisation relieved me a little, as I was not going crazy. But all things did not add up. The Forbidden Realms consist of different a few realms. Three of them stood out the most. Shrankor — the middle realm, the place where the tale takes place most of the time. Ishtar—the high realm, the fairy realm, that was sealed away from Shrankor. And the third one is the Other side, the Abyss.

While the place I am in is none of the three, it is actually not a physical realm like the other three.

The Realm Of Dreams is not a constructive place, but rather a cognitive realm that exists between places, though it is difficult to access.

I wondered how I got here. Just passing out did not explain it, nor do I recall Scar having a talent for Dreamwalking.

I did not ponder for long, as I knew that getting an answer here was almost impossible. My eyes drifted towards the moonless skies again. Even the stars were one-tenth of what I see in Starlight City.

I pondered, trying to come up with some strokes of a strategy. That proved to be difficult. Information. I need more information to even come up with a plan.

Gazing around, I crept into the ruins. A heavy axe appeared in my view on the path. Without a second thought, I picked it up and saw it had dark marks of blood on it. I shuddered a little and kept the axe. Who knows what this place has to offer?

The axe was actually finely built and not a wood-cutting one either. I reckoned it was made of good metal, keeping in mind that it would be used in battle. Other than a little heavy, I found it rather solid in my arms.

The stiff, icy wind gave a chill to my spine as I tried to minimise the sound of my steps, but with the heavy boots I was wearing, that proved to be a difficult task. I was going to climb to the top of the ruins to see if I could recognise anything or the way to take off.

There was a space in the Starfall mountain range that worked as some kind of a convergent point between this cognitive realm and Shrankor. Most likely, I will have to find a point to get back to.

Then again, this place could be far away from the Starfall mountains. I thought about other convention points between the two realms and shivered just learning the options. If not Starfall Peak, possibly Ruthalyn, or possibly out of the mainland.

What if I am really outside of the mainland? What if it's Dvarka, the island of Darkorians where I have to get to? I shook my head in disapproval immediately.

My luck can't be that bad, can it? Maybe I am overthinking it. Maybe it was one of those kinds of dreams, and when I wake up, all of it would disappear. That didn't happen to my transmigration, and most likely won't with this one, either. I got back to my climbing but before I could climb the wrecked building; I thought I heard something.

"Help . . ." That sounded rather strange, but I could make out I was not the only one here. Someone else was with me and was asking for help. The voice was almost like a whimper, which made me look all around for it.

After covering a dozen yards, I got to see the owner of the voice. A man in a similar breastplate and guards was lying with concrete stone over both of his legs. I almost vomited at the sight of bare-bones sticking out of one of the legs. I wonder how this man is still alive. Perhaps being a knight was the reason.

"Can you hear me?" I asked, crouching down near the face of the man.

"Help," was all the man said. His eyelids blinked a few times as he was having problems even opening it. I reckoned it was the least of his problems.

“Hold on a little longer," I said, attempting to lift the concrete off his leg. It was quite heavy, and I surmised that with the new strength of my body, I could barely lift a little using all my strength.

That proved to be right. I slowly lifted the stone and started to pull the man, ignoring the horrifying wound with all my effort. The man moaned like a girl, and he probably left with only that much strength to do that.

I wondered what I could do to relieve him of the pain. The healing of Purgatory won't help as the wound was too wide, nor do I have a medicine kit with me. I have nothing, to be exact.

Even the armour and clothes I wore appeared foreign to me. I couldn't possibly make sense of anything other than that I am in the Dream Realm.

Scar possibly never had those. That could mean only one thing.

Abruptly, my thought process broke, and I looked around, steadfastly. A moment ago, I felt like something shifting in the darkness. My eyes drifted all around, trying to find out if it was really something or just my mind playing tricks.

This time, a loud squeak came, warping in the heavy air as it drifted into my ears. My stomach churned in that instance.

I did not know what creature it belonged to, but it sounded like bad news to me. Without even thinking deeply or being considerate of the injured knight on the ground, I lifted him up on my back and made a run for it.