Dreams were never kind to Nyx Elowen.
They were loud.
They screamed, whispered, overlapped—memories that weren’t hers, faces she didn’t recognize, futures that hadn’t happened yet bleeding into pasts that never existed. From the moment she learned to speak, Nyx knew one thing with terrifying certainty:
Her mind was fractured.
Not broken—fractured. Like a mirror struck again and again, every shard still reflecting reality… just from a different angle.
She saw too much.
Nyx stood at the edge of the Heavenly Demonic Sect’s inner cliffs, toes peeking over the abyss, black hair swaying in the wind. Below her, clouds rolled like a living sea, swallowing sound and distance alike.
She smiled faintly.
“Jump,” one voice whispered.
“Don’t,” said another.
“You already did,” said a third.
Nyx tilted her head.
“I know,” she murmured. “I remember.”
A presence settled behind her—not heavy, not threatening.
Jin Valentine.
“You don’t sleep,” Jin said.
Nyx didn’t turn around.
“I do,” she replied softly. “Just not all at once.”
Jin studied her.
Unlike the others, Nyx didn’t radiate power. No oppressive aura, no visible cultivation foundation. If anything, she felt thin, like a thought that might disappear if ignored too long.
And yet—
The system had screamed the moment Jin looked at her.
SYSTEM ALERT
Subject: Nyx Elowen
Mental Structure: Fractured (Non-pathological)
Consciousness Layers Detected: 7
Dream-State Overlap: Permanent
Potential: Extreme
Risk Level: Catastrophic (Untrained)
She wasn’t unstable.
She was too open.
“Do you know why you were chosen?” Jin asked.
Nyx hummed, tapping her chin.
“Because I’m dangerous,” she said cheerfully. “But not to you.”
Jin raised an eyebrow.
“And why is that?”
She finally turned, mismatched eyes glinting—one silver, one deep violet.
“Because you’re louder than my dreams.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Nyx had been abandoned young.
Not because she was weak—but because people changed around her.
Parents fought more. Neighbors whispered. Children avoided her.
Sometimes, people woke screaming after sleeping near her.
Sometimes, they confessed things they never intended to say.
Once, a man killed his brother after Nyx innocently asked, “Why do you hate him?”
She didn’t mean to.
She just… heard things.
Dreams leaked.
Desires surfaced.
Fears crawled out into daylight.
A wandering illusion cultivator found her once, eyes lighting up with greed.
“A natural dreamwalker,” he said. “Perfect material.”
He tried to bind her consciousness.
He never woke up.
Nyx remembered standing over his body, blood pooling, unsure whether she had killed him—or merely convinced him to stop breathing.
That was when she learned to smile.
People were less afraid when she smiled.
Jin brought Nyx into a sealed hall unlike any other.
The walls weren’t stone.
They were memory.
Scenes flickered—laughing children, screaming soldiers, lovers embracing, corpses rotting in silence. The air tasted like incense and regret.
At the center hovered a veil.
Black and translucent, woven from threads that pulsed like sleeping veins.
SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION
Artifact: Veil of Nightmares
Rank: Forbidden
Function: Anchors fractured consciousness, weaponizes dream-state overlap
Compatibility: Absolute
Warning: User will permanently exist between waking and dreaming reality
Nyx’s breath caught.
“It’s… pretty,” she whispered.
“It will hurt,” Jin said plainly.
Nyx smiled wider.
“It always does.”
The veil descended.
The moment it touched her—
Reality split.
Nyx screamed.
Not out loud.
Inside.
Dreams collapsed inward, slamming together. Voices fused. Timelines tangled. Her consciousness stretched—then snapped back into alignment around the veil like a spine reforged.
She dropped to her knees, clutching her head.
Blood trickled from her nose.
Jin didn’t move.
He watched.
Waited.
Then—silence.
Nyx inhaled sharply.
When she looked up, her eyes were no longer mismatched.
They were both black—reflecting nothing.
“…Oh,” she said softly. “That’s better.”
She stood.
The veil settled around her shoulders like a living shadow.
For the first time in her life—
The dreams listened.
Nyx’s training was unlike the others.
No battlefields.
No weapons.
No physical trials.
Jin placed her in a single room.
No windows.
No doors.
Just a cushion.
“Sit,” he said. “And go somewhere else.”
Nyx blinked.
“That’s it?”
“That’s everything,” Jin replied.
She sat.
And vanished.
Not physically—but conceptually.
Her body remained, breathing steadily.
But her presence faded.
Minutes passed.
Then hours.
Jin activated a detection array.
Nothing.
Not soul.
Not intent.
Not thought.
Nyx existed—elsewhere.
When she returned, she looked mildly annoyed.
“Your wards are noisy,” she complained. “They keep dreaming about collapsing.”
Jin exhaled slowly.
Over the following weeks, Nyx learned control.
She learned how to:
— Enter dreams without alerting the dreamer
— Rewrite emotional anchors
— Create false memories without touching the soul
— Walk nightmares and emerge untouched
She practiced on illusions.
Then volunteers.
Then enemies captured from rogue factions.
None of them remembered her face.
Some woke enlightened.
Others woke broken.
Jin never asked which she preferred.
For her final test, Jin created a domain illusion.
Nyx faced herself.
Seven versions.
Each one representing a fragment of her consciousness.
The Child.
The Killer.
The Observer.
The Dreamer.
The Coward.
The Liar.
The Hollow One.
They spoke at once.
“You don’t exist.”
“You’re a mistake.”
“You should disappear.”
“You enjoy this.”
Nyx listened.
Then she laughed.
“You’re all right,” she said gently.
She stepped forward.
And embraced them.
The fragments dissolved—not erased, but integrated.
Her presence deepened.
SYSTEM NOTICE
Conceptual Alignment Achieved
Path: Deception Dao (Dream-Aspect)
Progress: 18%
Unique Trait Confirmed: Conscious Fragment Assimilation
When Jin dispelled the illusion, Nyx stood taller.
Quieter.
Dangerous.
The sect learned her name through rumor.
Enemies fell asleep mid-battle.
Allies received warnings in dreams.
Plots unraveled before execution.
Some swore they saw her standing behind their own reflections.
The system chimed one final time.
SYSTEM REWARD ISSUED
Title Granted: Demon of Deception
Passive Ability Unlocked: Dream Sovereignty
Effect: Absolute control within dream, nightmare, illusion, and subconscious domains.
Nyx approached Jin that night, veil fluttering softly.
“Master,” she said. “May I ask a question?”
“Yes.”
“If I walk into someone’s dream… and never leave,” she tilted her head, smiling sweetly, “do they die?”
Jin met her gaze.
“No,” he said. “They become empty.”
Nyx nodded, satisfied.
“Good,” she replied. “That’s worse.”
As she faded into the shadows, the night itself seemed to blink—
And forget she was ever there.
