The Sleep World

10: Kingdom of Memories [17th March, 2013]

Kingdom of Memories

North of Memory Island, the Kingdom of Memories is a highly guarded kingdom with awfully high walls. This kingdom is directly linked with the Kingdom of Memories in Memoria Region via a powerful way-gate. The kingdom’s ruler is King Falco Talons. His wife, the queen, is Queen Scarlet Talons. He has two children with the eldest being Princess Carmine Talons and the youngest being Prince Forgo Talons.

Memoria is one of the regions in Gocembo, a country just like Alquarain. In fact, the way-gate was what G’s family used to travel here. G’s parents are both from Memoria and the reason that they had to migrate to Alphabeta was secondarily due to Principal Samon Detan who gave G a high school scholarship at Babylon High after he graduated from elementary. Of course, their primary reason was their ongoing research about the Supreme Being of Sleep. Because of the scholarship, G was the first to migrate to Alphabeta living in an apartment at High School City during the course of his high school life. When R graduated from elementary a year later, the whole family soon followed. Their parents bought a house at Mumbaki Town and R enrolled in the High School Department of Techincal University at Love City, the only city in Lover Island.

Arriving at the training hall of Rose’s manor within the kingdom, and Index returning to back to his realm, G waits for his opponent to arrive.

“I already sent a message to Cielon and I already told him the stipulation of the match.” Rose reluctantly speaks with him.

However, G remains silent. He’s just keeping himself calm. He already told her what she wanted him to hear anyway. The only thing he is thinking of right now is to show her that he is no pushover.

Rose continues to talk anyway, “The stipulation of the match will be a non-lethal match using only this wooden sword. However, these things are sturdy and they can knock you out. Also, using powers is prohibited. The first to knock his opponent down will be declared the winner…”

“If I win,” G glares at her, “you will have to take back everything you said about me, but do not expect me to forgive you that easily. I report everything to Orchid afterwards.”

“You are talking as if you’ve won already,” Rose glares back at him. “I accept your proposition, but if you lose, you should quit being Orchid’s chosen one and hand over the golden map to me.”

G breathes deeply and calmly as he can, “I accept. I will win… I will you my own sword style and show you that I don’t need you reminding me the Phoenix Dance.”

“You are free to fantasize your victory, but the truth is that you will end up swallowing your pride.” Rose looks down on him, “It seems like he’s here…”

G looks at Rose’s chosen one at the door across the other end of the training hall. He picks up a wooden sword and grips it tight with his right hand.

“I don’t feel anxious at all,” he thinks to himself. “I feel prepared to face this other chosen one… What I am more concerned about is the reminding of skill… Am I also a chosen one in a past life?”

“Hello, my name is Cielon Deepslumber. I am a knight here in the kingdom and also Rose’s champion. May I know your name?”

“It looks like he wants to shake hands with me. I guess it can’t be helped.”

“I am Gabriel Crimson Fallasleep,” he shakes hands with him, “I am Orchid’s chosen one.”

“Firstly, I am sorry for the attitude of my benefactor,” he lowers his head. “I’ve already gotten used to it… and it makes me wonder what kind of goddess Orchid is to you as well.”

“Orchid is good to me and praises me every now and then. She only trained me once but she killed me a lot of times.” G notices something odd about Cielon, “You’re not what I was expecting you to be… I thought you were as rude as her.”

“Not really, but I’m eager to battle you as well. I’m not sure of myself if I am really the chosen one as well. Maybe I can find out if we battle.” Cielon picks up a wooden sword of his own and gets in position in the middle of the hall. “Whenever you’re ready, Gabriel…”

“Don’t worry,” G approaches him in the middle of the hall and assumes his fighting stance as well, “I’m well prepared.”

“Rosa, if you will,” Cielon nods at her.

Seeing that the two of them are prepared to fight, Rose raises her hand, “The battle to between Cielon Deepslumber and Gabriel Fallasleep will begin… Fight!”

Cielon swiftly closes in, his blade on his left hand, swinging it diagonally at him aiming for his shoulder.

Noticing that Cielon may perhaps be left-handed, G using the sword with his right hand makes a full turn clockwise generating momentum to counterattack him, breaking his stance, and make way for a follow up strike!

However, when the two blades clashed, even with G generating enough force to somehow break his defense, Cielon isn’t fazed. G knows that because his opponent has strong muscles, he will lose in the clash. So, he thinks of the only possible way of making sure that his sword stays in place. He uses his left hand to support his right.

Because of what G does, Cielon finds an opening and aims to punch his defenseless left side. With his right fist clenched, he makes a straight jab at G’s chest area!

Except that… without a sword to use, G’s other option is his legs. As Cielon’s left fist makes its way towards him, he propels his left knee forward in an upward direction to deflect the fist by hitting the opponent’s forearm.

Cielon’s left forearm is hurt from the impact moving it away from G, but G isn’t finished yet!

He transfers all the force he has to his left leg moving it back behind his right one that is planted to the ground and then, like a cannon ball, he hits Cielon in the abdomen hurling him a few meters back! The strength of the kick even made G turn 180 degrees with his back now facing the downed opponent.

“Midnight’s Dance: Leg Spear,” G grips the wooden sword and looks back at Cielon, “I think that’s enough…”

“Yeah,” Cielon brushes of the smudge on his shirt and gets back up. “You did good on me there…”

“CHEATER!” Rose yells at him, “YOU ARE DISQUALIFIED!”

“What?! When did I cheat?!”

“You used your Sin of Vengeance!” Rose continues with her accusations, “I told you not to use any powers!”

“I never used my powers!”

“Rose, he didn’t use his powers,” Cielon also defended G. “If he used his powers, we should’ve known immediately!”

“See?! Even your guy believes me! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?!”

“That remains to be seen,” Rose picks up a wooden sword. “You’ll be fighting me next. If you called for help, I will never acknowledge your victory.”

“Unbelievable…” G drinks a Save-potion just in case she ends up killing him.

“That’s enough, Rose,” Cielon goes to G’s side. “As a knight, I can’t allow you to persist even if you are a goddess.”

“Oh I see where this is going,” Rose picks up another wooden sword. “I’ll beat you both to a pulp…”

“This is bad, G. We need to work together,” Cielon brings out his own vial.

“Don’t drink that.”

“Why G?”

“Give me your sword instead,” G sets his focus towards Rose. “Trust me on this one…”

“Alright,” he hands his wooden sword over, “but I will still drink this and get a sword of my own.”

“Do what you want,” G squats spreading his legs apart and then crosses the two wooden swords together to his left side while his faces Rose with his right side. “This time I’ll use my powers on her…”

“Pretty bold to face me on your own you scrawny little smug!” Rose charges towards him.

“Revenge mode…” a dark aura sips out from him as soon as he thinks of getting his revenge on her. With his fighting stance all set and ready to go, and Rose only a few feet away from clashing with him. G makes his sword play combo! “Midnight’s Dance: Maestro of the Midnight Orchestra!”

G strikes first with his left sword launching it towards Rose in a piercing manner. However, Rose deflects the attack with her left sword to the right and then she follows it up with a spinning motion, turning clockwise using her right sword to hit G with a forward s***h, light a phoenix spreading its wings making sure that he gets hits twice, with her left sword.

However, G prevents her from hitting him back with the sword technique, hitting her right sword with his own right sword and sways his blades like a maestro conducting a musical piece following the beat as if there is a music like that of Beethoven’s Virus playing in the background.

To her surprise, Rose can’t keep up with the beat of his sword strikes bruising her arms unable to block and deflect a most of the strikes. In the heat of the moment, unable to formulate a counter against his dance, she has no choice but to use her powers against him. Before she has the chance to use her power, she catches a glimpse of G’s eyes… faintly glowing red…

“Impossible…” she backs away from him, her hands are trembling from the bruises she got from clashing against him.

“Truly magnificent,” Entranced by G’s sword play, Cielon commends him for his sword play. “This is my first time seeing such a wonderful dance…”

“Just give up… already…” G suddenly feels too fatigued to continue as he drops on his knees and then finally losing consciousness…

…

…

Before G could hit the floor, Orchid appears in front of him and catches him using her lap to cushion his head.

“Orchid,” Rose begins healing her own bruises, “How long have you been watching?”

Cielon lowers his head, “Almighty goddess…”

“I’ve been watching the whole time,” she beams at her. “Did you see them, the marking in his eyes, did you see them?”

“Of course, I saw it!” Rose rubs her forehead, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Well you were so adamant about your chosen one that I needed to let you see them for real,” she grins at her older sister. “Oh no, Rose, you pissed him off big time~ Oh what could you possibly do to appease him now~”

“Uh…” Rose suddenly panics and starts crying, “WAAAAAH!!! I said a lot of bad stuff!!! I don’t think he would forgive me that easily!!!”

“Rose, may I ask what is actually happening?” Cielon cuts in, confused of the current situation.

“So… let me give you the bad news first,” Orchid speaks on behalf of his crybaby sister. “So… you are not the chosen one…”

“I see,” the knight takes a deep breath. “I’m somehow relieved to hear that. So, Gabriel is the chosen one then?”

Orchid nods, “Yup, and I just wanted my dear old sister to know…”

“So what am I going to do now?”

“Apparently, Rose will have to alter your memories…” Orchid pats him in the shoulders. “Don’t worry she’ll replace it with happy ones.”

“What about the others who know that I was chosen by Rose?”

“Don’t worry about those details. The memory alteration will affect everyone who knows about this… It’s too bad that we can never interfere directly like this to the mortals. If we were permitted to do so, then there would’ve been no pandemonium…” Orchid signals Rose who seemed to have calmed down. “It’s nice meeting you, Cielon.”

Rose stands up, “I’m sorry for being harsh towards you when we’re training.”

“No tis fine, Rose. It has been a privilege working under you.”

Orchid fires up a portal, “I’ll be leaving you guys then. I need to take G back to his home.”

“I’ll come by and visit next time so that I can reconcile with father…” Rose looks at G who is fast asleep. She places her palm in front of his face. “There, now he remembers the Phoenix Dance…”

Orchid nods at her one last time before the portal comes to a close. Now, with only Cielon and Rose left behind…

“You called him your father, Rose…”

“Too bad, it turns out that you are not the reincarnation of my father,” Rose places her palm in front of Cielon. “Thank you for you services, Sir Cielon Deepslumber.”

…

…

[18th March, 2013] [#14 Ngar Village, Naguilngar Town]

G opens his eyes and finds himself inside his bedroom and because of his thick window curtains, the room looked dim. He checks his phone to confirm today’s date. He somehow remembers what happened yesterday, how he defeated the knight in a match, how he was also able to beat the goddess of memories, but a question lingers in his thoughts. How did he get back? Checking for answers, he gets up and goes inside the bathroom to take a bath. After taking a bath, he sees that the mirror is all misty from the steam emitted by the warm water that he used in his bath. Unable to find a small towel to wipe it, he uses his hands and takes a look at his reflection…

“Huh?”

He touches his hair thinking there’s a bloodstain, but it isn’t…

“I don’t remember having dyed the top part of my hair red…”

He then checks the sides of his hair…

“At least these parts are still brown… I wonder why it’s like this…”

He then checks his eyebrows next…

“Still brown, but if I look closely… I see some red hair as well… …red… red? My eyes are red…”

He suddenly realizes that the irises in his eyes turned red as well.

“I think I should ask Orchid about this… … wait… …I can ask him first… but I need to wear my clothes first.”

After changing into his usual attire, G checks out the golden map to check which part of Alphabeta he is destined to go to…

“So my next destination is Mumbaki Town… mom and dad’s home…” breathing deeply, he invokes his name. “Index…”

“You called…” the god replies, but then he’s surprised by G’s new look… “Nice hair and contacts, by the way.”

“I didn’t do this by choice, although I kind of dig the blood red color… but that’s not the point!” G goes back to the issue. “Do you know why my hair and eyes are like this?”

“That maybe because you won against Rose, you know, you underwent some kind of level up just like in video games…”

“So you’d expect to believe that when I level up, a part of my body changes?” G scratches his head. “I can’t imagine myself having horns, a tail or even a pair of wings… but if somehow I get to have a halo like the gods of Creation in other universes, I might keep it… he-he-he-he~”

“So… G, I have a question…” Index snaps him back to reality. “Where are we heading to next?”

“Well… I think the map told me to go to Mumbaki Town next…” G checks his reflection in the mirror one last time. “I think it’s finally time for me to face my trauma, right?”

“It’s about time that you do that… kid.”

“Call me G, G Fallasleep~”