Chapter 62: The Suspended Trance
Soft rustling sound of dust turned sand crescendoed in Lidien’s ears as he focused all his senses inward.
His smell and taste senses turned dull, his skin couldn’t sense the changes of temperature inside the room, even his sight turned grey with the lights dimming while his ears rang.
Lidien felt himself suspended inside his body... like a spectator watching everything unfold.
Then he stared at the ceiling... boringly watching it turn into starry skies...
’So this is how the Blessed are meant to enter the Dreamflow...’
Then...
Everything vanished, as the ringing in his ears stopped and the room brought back its original hue.
Lidien panted, his sweat pooling on the ground. As his frustration flared once more, he smashed his fist into the stone floor, splattering the sweat with blood from his split knuckles.
Until he heard a voice replace the ringing inside his mind.
’Don’t let your mind wander, again.’
It had been almost a day, without rest. Lidien was trying to enter his Dreamflow with the instructions of the Monarch of Blood.
It wasn’t because it was the only method, but the only available one... For Lidien to capture the Rift’s Core and flood it with essences, he could only follow the Monarch’s way, for he himself didn’t know how Demons did it.
Lidien pulled a calabash and some dried meat from his space ring and immediately ate it, a process that lasted only a few minutes, before standing up again and staring intently at the Rift’s Core.
Gulping, he relaxed his mind again... as his stare turned dead.
"I wasn’t diagnosed as someone who had ADHD, but my mind can’t seem to focus at crucial moments..."
Sighing, he repeated the procedure...
This time, he was fighting the itchiness, the urge to talk, to move... or to scratch that random tingling sensation on his back.
His mind was never empty... for the past few minutes of not moving and just staring at the Rift’s Core, he had already recited a mantra inside his head, taught by the Monarch.
Then, when everything turned dull, and his sight muted the hues again with his ears ringing,
he watched everything unfold again with his suspended in trance feeling.
The ceiling was slowly being replaced by the starry skies... his vision was getting overlapped by the ocean of verve and the Crimson Shard.
Until everything solidified,
as the Monarch of Blood welcomed him inside the Dreamflow.
"Now that you get the feeling of entering here, it will be easier next time you do it."
The Monarch of Blood walked towards Lidien and tapped his shoulder, before pointing at the Starry Skies.
"And what you need to do next is to maintain yourself in between the Physical world and the Dreamflow. Using the Starry Skies as the source... and you as the medium, directing the Essences at the Rift’s Core."
Lidien’s lips uncontrollably twitched, unsure of whether he should laugh or be sad about it.
For the most crucial part wasn’t entering the Dreamflow, but maintaining the feeling of his suspended spectating of the Starry Skies, without being pulled back to the physical world while not entering the Dreamflow.
"How would I channel the Essences from the starry skies and let myself be the medium just by maintaining that state?"
The Monarch of Blood smiled faintly and shook his head, then turned back and walked towards the Coreflux.
"You’ll know once you get there."
As the Monarch flicked his finger, Lidien was sent back outside the Dreamflow, panting heavily.
Then...
A weary smile touched Lidien’s face, for obtaining a small accomplishment that took him too much time just to enter the Dreamflow, only to know it didn’t end there.
"When was the last time I slept so well? I can’t remember..."
Without rest and a good night’s sleep, Lidien continued his meditation, failing every time he was sent to the Dreamflow or back to the Physical World...
Lidien couldn’t afford to rest, not because he didn’t want to... but because his control over his blood by verve would lapse... making him never wake up again.
And, not because he was the Master of the Rift, without being able to control it... was he exempted from its effect.
To stop his blood circulation and solidify his blood if not moving.
’Damn this Rift, it’s more dangerous than the Rift of the Shattered Mirrors.’
Another day passed... Lidien had been awake for two days now... and the only thing keeping him awake was when he suddenly surged his blood flow by rushing his verve.
’Damn it! I can’t stay in that suspended state. Though it was easier now to enter the Dreamflow like I was just willing it, safer than stopping my own blood...’
Drowsily blinking his eyes, he weakly stood in front of the Rift’s Core, his intrusive thoughts wanting to touch it out of dizziness, yet his sanity still prevailed.
Lidien then, with his dead eyes, stared at it boringly with a touch of yawning... before shaking his head, waking himself up.
Then, he recited his mantra for entering the Dreamflow, while activating his Incite of Blood... hoping he could divide his thoughts to not let himself fail putting his consciousness back outside the Dreamflow.
’I need to do everything unconsciously... naturally... without thinking... for I should be the Master of myself.’
Then he sighed, while taking a deep breath.
’Easier said than done, but I have no choice...’
Closing his eyes, he steeled his resolve.
’I’ll let my survival instinct find its way...’
Lidien slowed down his verve controlling the blood flow, as he tried to mix the procedure of Blessed and Demons entering the Dreamflow.
Since his only reason for doing it was... while Demons need to pause the beat of their heart to enter the Dreamflow, they couldn’t see the Starry Skies... because they would enter it abruptly...
While the Blessed, though it takes time... they could see the starry sky materializing before they enter the Dreamflow.
Lidien felt his body grow heavy from the sudden slowdown of blood flow, while he was kept awake by the Mantra and Incite of Blood.
Then he saw the starry skies slowly materializing... yet, he wasn’t getting pulled into the Dreamflow because he wasn’t stopping the Bloodflow, while his active control kept him fully aware of the physical world.
Until he completely entered a suspended trance state by exploiting the ways of Blessed and Demons entering the Dreamflow.
As his dead eyes with hyper-focused stare looked at the Rift’s Core, he asked himself.
’Now what?’