Chapter 393: Waking dreams

A landscape of freezing snowy desert surrounding Niko on all sides. Above him, instead of the sky, hovered an ocean, so dark blue it was almost black. Waves crashed into each other and sent splashes of salt on Niko's face. A roaring storm raged above, but below, things were almost calm. Just windy.

He knew when he fell asleep. Niko's magic kept him aware of himself, aware that things around him weren't real. They weren't exactly unreal either, though.

They were certainly much better than he expected. The wind tore his skin, but at least it was quiet. No voices—he must've succeeded in filtering them out. The roar of the storm was easier to bear.

A representation of mana around him filtered through the mesh of dreams. From Niko's past experimentation, it was closer to reality than the voices he constantly heard, but still mostly nonsense.

Except for Starspawns. They were easy to find even here, in dreams. They were just too different from everything else.