Chapter 6, Dream Walker

> *"☹︎□︎□︎🙵 ⧫︎♒︎❒︎□︎◆︎♑︎♒︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ⬥︎□︎❒︎●︎♎︎📬︎ ☞︎♓︎■︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ 🙵♏︎⍓︎⬧︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎🕯︎●︎●︎ ■︎♏︎♏︎♎︎ ⧫︎□︎ ♐︎♓︎■︎♎︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ☼︎◆︎■︎♏︎ 💧︎□︎◆︎●︎📬︎"*
>  – ☞︎❒︎□︎❍︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎🕯︎❒︎♏︎ ●︎□︎♍︎♋︎●︎ ⬧︎♋︎●︎♏︎⬧︎❍︎♋︎■︎📬︎
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Kris changed his shirt and eventually walked out of the cabin, it was morning and he looked out towards the empty sky. It was gray and bleak. Like a mirror to his own life at the moment. He walked out and around the camp. Kris saw some other large cabins that looked to be made for hangouts and one that even looked to be a store. He saw some camp counselors talking with one another across from him at the docks. He saw them talking and one of them was holding a fish net. He looked at them and then kept walking around.

Kris kept following a trail he got his eyes on, he looked at the large trees and expansive woods all around him. As he kept walking he saw that the signs on the trails were a little old, but pointed in unique and interesting directions. On leading to "Happy frog mountain" and the other leading towards "Sunny shores". Kris looked at them for a little bit. Thats when out of the corner of his eye he saw Susie running in the distance with something in her hand.

"Ah Kris! Good to see your up." said a counselor behind him, Kris turned around and looked at him.

"We've ran out of chalk for a camp game we were planning to do. Could you perhaps head over to sunny shores and go grab some from the shack? If there a woman there named "Alisa" tell her Tommy asked for it.

"...Sure." Kris said as he then started making his way to sunny shores. Kris walked along the pathway through the woods. His mind filled with memories of what happened that night with Noelle. He then shook them away as he looked at his impaled finger from before. He kept walking.

As Kris eventually got to Sunny shores he saw a empty beach with remains of what looked to be a party that that had went on there. He looked through some of the mess and saw a ring on the ground. He picked it up and engraved on it was the words "princess". He looked at it funny and then put it in his pocket.

"Hey there fella!" Shouted a female's voice. Kris turned around to see a woman leaning against a large snack shack. He walked over to her. As he got to her, he saw that she had a jacket on and wore a backwards cap. She was smoking a marble red cigarette.

"Uh, hey there." Kris said waving

"Sup kiddo, Shops closed, you need something? You smoke?" she said as she offered him a cigarette. Kris shook his head as she just shrugged and then put her smokes away.

"What is it?" she asked

"Uh Tommy asked for some more chalk, so could I get some?" He asked

"What kind of chalk" she asked

"Theres more than one kind? don't you just have basic chalk?" Kris asked

"No such thing as basic chalk, but if your looking for some normal stuff than here" She said as she turned around and unlocked the metal gate and opened up the store. She went inside for a few moments and then came back out with a bucket of chalk. She handed it to him. He looked at it and nodded.

"Thanks, have a good one." Kris said

"Tell Tommy to drop by sometime. I miss him." she said in a seductive voice giving Kris chills as he kept walking back to camp. As he did he saw Susie's figure in the woods in the far distance. He looked at her and then went further into the woods to follow her. He kept searching for her until he then stepped on something that left a crunching sound. Kris looked down and saw it was chalk, he picked it up and saw it was a bit chewed on. It was blue. He then saw a trail of it leading deeper into the woods. As he got closer and closer to the source he could hear munching and biting as he got more near. Eventually he would arrive to a tree where he could hear Susie biting down on chalk. They were scattered all over the place.

"...Being a monster...is it really so wrong." Susie said as she bit into a red piece of chalk, thoughts of what Sharlet had said to her before running in the back of her mind. Kris looked at her and saw her eye's drop to her figure. Susie looked at her body, to her fingers, her breast and to her legs. She then got frustrated and smashed her hand against the tree shaking it. Kris nearly jumped out of his skin in shock at her strength. Susie then dug more into the bucket of chalk she had as she licked the chalk powder off of her lips. Kris just looked at Susie. Everything about her was so mesmerizing, yet also dangerous too, All the power she had at her fingertips, yet she didn't use it. Made Kris wonder if she got bullied what would she do. Would she **act**? or **attack**?

"You know you breath pretty loud." Susie said as she turned around to Kris who looked at her in shock. He had been discovered! Susie and Kris looked at each other for a brief moment before Kris looked at the container of chalk that only had a few more sticks left. Susie noticed and then smiled a wide smug smile. She grabbed a stick of chalk and looked at Kris.

"Wanna try? It's monster candy." She snickered, Kris wasn't interested in the slightest. He simply shook his head. Susie shrugged and then bit it in half.

"God damnit, I'm almost all out of Chalk!" Susie shouted pissed off before noticing the bucket of chalk Kris had. Kris then noticed her making eye contact with it and then hid it behind his back.

"Hey, what ya got there? something for me? Hehehe." Susie chuckled as she got up and tried to reach around Kris only for him to extend his arm away with the bucket.

"ARGH! Don't be a hard ass Kris! Give me the chalk!" Susie shouted as she reached over Kris only for him to move out of the way.

"Why are you being so quiet...SAY SOMETHING!" She shouted, but Kris didn't know what to say. Should he even talk? Everything he heard, was it his place to speak.

"Kris! SAY SOMETHING! I hate...I hate quiet people." she said as she then grabbed Kris by the collar and picked him up. Kris looked at her in shock, he had never seen her like this.

"You know something I-...forget it." Susie said as her expression dropped from anger to melancholy and she dropped Kris on his butt. She kicked the dirt and turned around.

"...I understand. I may not be a monster, but I am a **boy**." Kris said as he looked to Susie who stared at him. However, as Kis looked at Susie and tried to get up his hand suddenly sank into the ground. He looked down at it saw it was like as if his hand had gone through paper or something like parchment.

"Uh Susie, some help!" Kris shouted, this wasn't a dream or nightm are. This was real!

Susie looked over to Kris and noticed.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Susie shouted as she then wrapped her arms around Kris's waist and lifted him up only for the rest of the ground beneath them to completely fall apart and open up into a pitch-dark void. The two were speechless and paralyzed with fear as they fell straight through into a dark abyss. Into a **Dark World**.

It was cold. It was darker than darkness itself. Kris was lying on a white pathway, it felt like dirt and yet also stone. His hand grazed against like touching gravel, his face pressed against it like a bed. His chest was tight, yet also heavy. His mind even heavier than his body. Kris's eyes opened up and he immediately got up.

"SUSIE!" Kris shouted as he stood up, he stood still for a moment. He then looked at his hands and saw he was wearing gauntlets, boots and a long white like cape that covered his back and front.

"What?" Kris said as he then looked to see he had a scabbard, yet it had no sword. He looked at it and then saw a apple core get thrown at his feet. He then looked up, he saw a large man made out of a weird gelatin standing in front of him with massive branching paths behind him. The man wasn't moving and seemed statue like. Kris looked at it confused before he got hit with a apple core.

"HEY!" Kris shouted as he looked up to the top of the gelatin man to see a weird jester like figure. Kris walked closer as he saw him sitting on the head of the large man eating an apple.

"Hey! Excuse me! I'm a little lost. Do you know where I am? or where I can find a friend of mine!" he shouted at the jester. The jester opened his eyes and then looked down at Kris. His eyes went wide as he looked at the figure of Kris.

"My goodness! Is it the **Knight**! The Knight in the flesh!?" shouted the jester all excited.

"Huh? Oh no. I'm no knight. I dont even know why I'm wearing these." Kris said as he got ready to take of a few things.

"You put them on didn't you?" said the jester

"What? No, these aren't my clothes." Kris said

"Not yours? What kind of boy, wears someone else's clothes? Heheheh, I think you just don't remember." the jester said as suddenly he got another apple and began to eat away at it.

"...Look, I just need help to find my friend or get out of here. Which path do I take?" Kris asked

"The right one." the jester said

"Thank you." Kris said as he started towards the path on his right

"Or was it...the left." the jester said, Kris backed up and looked at him.

"No no no, it was right, cause theres no better way. Than the right way hehehehe!" the jester chuckled

"..." Kris was getting frustrated.

"But they also say, that left is best. So maybe thats it too. Oh I hate choices, why don't you pick instead. Decisions give me butterflies." the jester said as he began to behave all giddy.

"Forget it. I'll find my own way." Kris said as he started walking down the right path.

"Oh and when you reach your friend, tell em Jevil sent ya!" shouted Jevil, Kris turned around annoyed only for his face to change to shock as the Jester wasn't there anymore. As he kept walking he soon made it to a field of flowers. He began to walk over them when he then heard tinny screaming. He looked around and then saw a sign that said nursery and pointed forward. Kris took a breath an saw he could see his ice cold breath. He then heard the sound of dripping water. He completely had ignored the void around him. The only thing showing him the way being the white gravel like ground and the signs around him. He looked over the edge of the path and saw it made it a steep drop into nothing. He then backed up a bit and continued to hear more tiny screaming. He looked around for it this time and then for some reason, something told him to look down and he did. He looked down at the flowers. The screaming continued, he took a knee and got closer and as he did he began to hear the screams get louder and louder. He couldn't believe what he was hearing nor did he even want to fathom the idea. He backed away from the field of flowers and ran back down the path he came. He took some deep breathes, his heart racing as he looked up the gelatin man and saw that Jevil was still gone.

"What the hell is going on? This has to be some crazy dream. I'll wake up any second and this will all be gone..." Kris closed his eyes, somehow though even without opening them he already knew the answer. He fell to the ground sitting on it as he pondered on just what was happening. Thats when something would happen, Kris would feel a tight cold draft. He'd look up and see his ice cold breath. His eyes then focused on something in the distance. A snowflake. The snowflake was hypnotic to him, he got up and looked at it.

"Ice...here?" Kris though to himself as he walked to it and touched; it only for it to be so cold that his body literally couldn't come within a few inches of it without him nearly freezing. He backed away from it in fear. It flew away in a direction, it was going down a invisible path that Kris hadn't notice before he went down the other one. He looked around and then back at the snowflake and saw it had stopped.

"Are you...leading me?" Kris asked only for it to keep floating away. He then chased after it. As he followed it he then saw giant clumps of dust everywhere. He touched one and saw it completely disappear and burst. He watched as the snowflake flew past them. He kept following it until he saw a shadow hiding in one of the clumps. He was a bit put off by the shadow so in response he chucked a rock at the ground at it. It made contact and the person in the shadow shouted with a loud-

"OW! WHO THREW THAT!? YOU LOOKING TO GET YOUR ASS BEAT!!" shouted a familiar voice. Kris's eyes lit up as he then ran over and touched the giant dust cloud and just as before it burst into smoke with the figure being revealed to be Susie. Susie yelped as she was shocked at what had happened. She was also in different attire too, something much more...exotic than what Kris was wearing. Kris couldn't help but stare at her. She looked at Kris and only then realized who he was.

"KRIS!? Thank goodness...WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE!?" She shouted grabbing his shoulders. Kris wasn't even thinking and more was happy to have found her in general.

"I'm glad your ok Susie." Kris said, Susie looked at him for a bit before clocking him in the head and turning away.

"Hehe, You think something like a fall into the void would take me down? Heheh pleas. Uhhh anyway what the hell are you wearing?" she asked

"What I'm wearing? Susie you looked dressed for a show." Kris said before getting clocked in the head again by Susie, harder this time. Kris rubbed his head as Susie looked at him pissed and flustered.

"LOOK PUNK! QUIT WITH THAT FLIRT SHIT! Its weird...where the hell are we and where do we go? Where's home?" She asked, but Kris didn't have a answer.

"...Nothing? really now? Well screw this I'm finding my way out. Even if I to beat everything in my path." She said as she stormed off, Kris followed after her. Thats when she stopped, she turned around and looked at him. Saw he was armored up and then put Kris in front of her.

"Wait what?" He said

"Your better equipped than me. Besides you found me. Maybe you got a natural sense of direction. Yaknow, man stuff." She said as she stood behind him. Did he? Kris then looked forward and saw a hill Infront of them that went down. He then went to it and began to make his way down. The two walked for what seemed like forever until they reached the bottom of the hill. Thats when Kris noticed the blackness around them before was gone. Susie kept walking as something got her attention. Kris however looked up to see the darkness had stopped near the top of the hill.

"A cloud of shadow?" He thought to himself

"HEY KRIS! Look." Susie shouted, Kris walked over and as he did he then saw it. A large gothic and Victorian looking castle in the distance.

"Woah a castle. Maybe theres people." Kris said

"Or a way out of this damn place." Susie said as she then kept going downwards with Kris now following her lead. The two eventually arrived at the castle gates. The gates were large, larger than even they're school. Kris looked at the large gate and then saw a sign next to it.

"A damn gate? well screw that." Susie said

"Twilight Town, all hail the Lightners. Masters of the eradication of dark and bringers of the primeval light. Let the light guide through the greater beyond and through the eternal darkness brought by the Darkners before the age of time and before the age of ages." Kris read as he then looked to Susie who looked to him completely uninterested.

"Pfft whatever, I'm climbing it." She then hopped on the gate only for it to blast her back and send her o her ass. She gasped for breath as she was winded. She coughed and wiped her mouth. Kris looked at it and then grabbed a rock. He threw it at the gate and saw it completely destroy the rock and wipe it from existence.

"Holy cow! It just erased it!" Kris shouted as he then looked to Susie who rushed the gate only to be bounced back again. Kris kept watching her do it over and over again. Until she was finally tired.

"STUPID FUCKIG GATE!!!" Susie shouted

"Maybe we need to be let in." Kris said as he then looked to the wall surrounding the kingdom.

"What if we hop over it?" Susie suggested

"Can you even jump that high?" Kris asked

"...Probably not." Susie said defeated as she dropped to the floor and sat down. Kris then looked at the gate and held his hand to it. He then saw it bend around his hand and follow it.

"Freaky." He thought as he then looked at the sign again. Susie then got up and backed up a bit again. Kris looked at her.

"Susie it's not going to-" however before his very eyes he watched as Susie then grabbed the gate by the bars and hold her ground. She gritted her teeth hard as she grabbed tighter. The gate was reacting extremely to this and kept attacked her and attempting to erase her, yet she didn't budge and instead with all her might and with a strange purple aura surrounding her flung the gate open with a loud bang. Kris was shocked at the extreme feat of pure strength. Susie then collapsed completely out of breath.

"Good work Susie! That was incredible! How did you do that?" Kris asked

"...I...I just really want to get the FUCK out of here." She shouted as she then grabbed Kris's arm and pulled herself up. Her and Kris looked at the large town. It had many shops, homes and castles in every corner and a giant spinning sphere in the center of its plaza. They walked through the town and found nobody.

"Its a ghost town." Kris said

"WHAT KIND OF TOWN HAS NO PEOPLE!? THE FUCK IS THIS?!" She shouted as she ran around only to be disappointed. They both then looked to the main castle in the center.

"Maybe we can find someone there," Susie said

"Its worth a look." Kris said as the town then walked inside the Twilight castle. Once they got inside, they saw the interior wasn't much to be desired or at least the first floor wasn't. Kris looked around as he saw a chandelier hanging above them with purple flames coming off of the candles. Susie looked around and into different rooms on the floor. Kris however then saw giant painting of two trees intertwined together, one made of dark and one made of light. His eyes then moved to the writing underneath it. "Here, painted in all of their glory are the twin trees. One wielding all darkness and the other light. Responsible for the creation of the sources of the world. The Endless Darkness and Primordial Light. Responsible for time and space itself along with all that lingers beyond the beyond". Kris finished reading it when he heard smashing behind him, he turned to see Susie knock over a suit of armor in a fit of rage.

"SON OF BITCH!" She screamed as she kicked the helmet at a wall. Kris just looked at her.

"Welcome Lightners." said a voice, Kris and Susie both spooked looked up a flight of stairs and saw a cloaked figure, he began to walk down the stairs. Susie ran over to Kris and grabbed his shoulder.

"Finally someone is here...you think hes a good guy?" Susie said, but Kris didn't answer and just stared at the hooded figure. Susie looked at Kris annoyed at his silence once again.

" I see you made it past the gate, an admirable feat. That gate is meant to keep out all shadowlings. Besides myself of course. However that's now why I'm here. I'm here to tell you that you were destined to be here." said the hooded figure.

"Excuse me?" Susie said confused with Kris still just watching.

"You see, you two are destined to save this world and return the all the pieces of the **heart of light** back to the Tree of light. So that the duality of Light and Dark can be whole once again." said the hooded figure.

"However first I must tell you of the prophecy." said the hooded figure

"We really don't-"

"It all started with whispers, Once upon a time a legend was whispered among shadows, these shadows that lingered in primordial fragments. These fragments that existed far beyond reaches of space and time. Beyond the reaches of their own concepts.

It was a legend of **Dreams**.

It was a legend of **Hopes**.

Of **Light**.

Of **Dark**.

**This is the Legend of the AlphaRune**." said the hooded figure. Kris and Susie just stared in disbelief.

Before the dawn of anything, reality, the universe, the worlds beyond all dimensions of every kind. There existed Light and Dark. They lived in eternal balance. After the fall of a past previous world of suffering the trees of Light and Dark emerged bringing peace and prosperity, to this new world that grew from a single sapling from it's branches. Both of the trees forever intertwined. Both with Hearts, one of Light and one of Dark.

However...if this balance were to be tarnished. A terrible catastrophe would emerge. The infinite universe will shatter in pain, the worlds and stars within would grow dark with suffering and blight. Then the last world **Earth** will draw her final breath. Only the though, do three warriors appear to end the horrors.

A Human, a Monster and a Prince from the Dark.

Only they can restore the broken fragments of the heart of Light and defeat the angels of Evil and restore balance and unity to the everlasting worlds. With each broken fragment, a well of darkness is formed. Today one lives here, as I've already collected one of them. However though a well of darkness has been opened in one of the distant kingdoms to the **East**. Until it is closed and the pieces are all collected. The balance of light and darkness will continue to never be one." said the hooded figure. Kris and Susie were speechless at what they were just told.

"Kris, Susie... thank you for listening to my long tale. Even through whatever enemies, monsters, angels and abominations you may face. Won't you take up this task? **Alpha Warriors!** Won't you save the world?" the hooded figure asked bowing. Kris looked at him and then to the large painting of the two intertwined trees.

"Save...the world." Kris thought

"Uhhh, No thanks." Susie said

"W-Wait what?!" the hooded figure said in shock as he stood up confused.

"Pfft, ME!? A HERO??? You got the wrong person short stack." Susie said, Kris looked at her and then to the hooded figure again.

"IF YOU DON'T DO THIS; THE ENTIRE WORLD AND EVERYONE IN IT WILL BE DESTROYED!!!" the hooded figure shouted

"LIKE I CARE! If the whole damn world ends, that isn't my fucking problem. This is your world, not mine." Susie said, Kris however was conflicted. Should he actually try to do this? this is all insane, the tale, three heroes. End of the world. Hes no here. Kris then had flashes to that night his whole world changed, images of Noelle against the ground beaten and bruised, naked ad drenched in the rain. He stared at her from the entrance of an ally.

He wasn't a hero...he was a **monster**.

"Come on Kris, lets get out of here before he tries making us wear some weird cultist bullshit." Susie said as she grabbed his arm, however Kris didn't budge.

"Kris move your damn legs otherwise I'll carry you ya damn wimp." Susie said

"...Susie, I-" however just as he was about to speak, the doors of the castle flung open with yet another shadowy figure emerging.

"WHAT THE-" however before anyone could react the shadowy figure then summoned a large shadow bike, he rode it straight between Susie and Kris and up the stairs slamming into the hooded figure and sending them flying up and over the staircase. He then did a grind down the railing of the stairs and landed Infront of them.

"HO HO HO HO! Look at this! The heroes are already running away, and they didn't even get a chance to fight me yet. Oh boy my dad is going to sure award me." snickered the new face, he looked like a plump little guy, his face shaped like a spade and wearing black armor and a blue scarf. His bike was that of motorcycle with black flames coming out of the exhaust.

"Who the hell are you!!!" Susie asked

"I'm Lancer! Your mortal nemesis!" Lancer snickered as he laughed loudly. Kris and Susie looked one another again as they were both in such disbelief at what was happening.

"You pea brains want to steal our **heart of light**, to stop the rein of darkness, OF THE DARKNERS!" Lancer snickered

"Not really." Susie said

"Why do you even want to stop us?" Kris asked

"Cause my dad said I should." Lancer said

"You always listen to what your dad says?" Susie asked with an annoyed tone.

"I don't know, you tell me missy." Lancer snickered, Susie began to show her teeth as she was officially pissed off. Kris looked at her and then to Lancer.

"If your looking to turn tail and run, then head **East**. Its your only way back. However I Lancer captain of the legion of shadows; won't let you get a inch close." Lancer said

"Oh yea? Just how you plan to do that?" Susie chuckled still pissed.

"With my flawless two step plan of course! First, I **thrash you**! Second, **You lose!**." Lancer laughed as he revved his motorcycle, the black flames from behind it flaring up.

"Heh, nice plan bucko." Susie said

"You really think so?!" Lancer asked in shock and joy.

"Oh yeah for sure, actually...**MIND IF WE USE IT ON YOU INSTEAD?"** Susie shouted in rage as she then rushed Lancer.