A black dandelion gently drifted down.
Ronan awoke in a dream.
A sound akin to fabric brushing against satin roused Ronan from his slumber.
He forced his eyes open.
The entire room was not very bright, with thick curtains blocking most of the light. Small specks of dust danced before his eyes, and there seemed to linger a faintly lewd scent in the air.
Ronan slowly propped up half of his body from the bed. The sound of fabric rustling he had heard earlier came from somewhere to his left-front.
A woman sat at the bedside, with her back towards him, bending over to slip on a pair of black thigh-high stockings.
The room was unusually quiet, and Ronan said nothing. He stared at the woman’s smooth, bare back, upon which was tattooed a purple snake.
After dressing in all her underwear, the woman stopped her movements.
She sat at the bedside, seemingly aware that Ronan had awakened, murmuring hoarsely.
"I’ve seen it again... In the dream, it tightly coiled around the whole world."
Ronan’s eyes flickered slightly, and he instinctively blurted out the question.
The woman did not reply but instead stood up, picking up the clothes scattered on the floor and dressing herself piece by piece.
The woman’s figure was tall and voluptuous, and after wearing the specially made purple-black robes, a sense of majesty inherent to those who dwell in high positions emanated from her.
When she placed a dark golden crown on her head and turned to face Ronan, Ronan instinctively lowered his gaze, focusing on the necklace with a black snake devouring an inverted cross hanging on her chest.
"Last night was strenuous... Rest well."
A rough, cool hand gently brushed across Ronan’s cheek, and the hoarse voice, as if marred by past trauma, carried a slight tenderness beneath its cold surface.
Ronan "obediently" nodded, and as the hand withdrew, a clear sound of footsteps echoed in the room.
Ronan lifted his head, watching as the woman walked to the far end of the room, where a large door automatically opened. Several robed figures swiftly approached, gathering around the woman as she departed.
Finally, he was left alone.
Ronan exhaled a breath of stagnant air, feeling the ache spreading through his muscles.
He raised his hands to examine this youthful, vibrant body.
This time’s "dream entry" felt even more real than the last.
Ronan casually pulled on a robe, getting out of bed, and barefoot, walked to the window, drawing the curtains open to let golden sunlight pour extravagantly in.
Before him lay a dense cluster of buildings, each carrying a sort of religious style. Streets, streams of people... It appeared he was at the very center of a city, the highest point, able to overlook the entire city with ease.
"Deep Drowning Church... Selena, the Female pope..."
He murmured softly, quietly digesting the pre-existing memories in his mind.
This "life," he became the youngest male priest of the Deep Drowning Church. Because of his exceptional looks, rarer than one in ten thousand, he was favored by the current female pope, Selena, on his first day in the Church Palace, becoming her exclusive "male pet."
Compared to the start of his previous "life" sleeping in a pigsty, this beginning was admittedly much better, though still limited in its goodness. Follow current novels on Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
The female pope, Selena, was naturally the hoarse-voiced woman who had just left.
Ronan recalled her appearance in his mind, surprisingly realizing that if one overlooked the terrifying scars from early church struggles on her face, and aside from her icy, regal bearing, she bore a striking resemblance to the Princess Selena of the Life Court.
The only apparent difference between the two was their hair color, one a dark gold tending towards black, and the other a brilliant gold.
"Is it a coincidence?"
Ronan’s eyes flickered as he walked to a mirror set near the bed, scrutinizing his own reflection.
Indeed, he looked young and handsome, possessing a unique aura of purity and tranquility.
Ronan combed through his memories, still unable to find traces of a Wizard’s presence. However, as the leader of the Deep Drowning Church, the pope renowned for her iron-blooded ruthlessness, Selena seemed to possess some extraordinary power above the mundane.
It was said to be a divine power granted by the "deep immersion," the god worshipped by the church.
That image was what Ronan had previously seen—a black snake devouring an inverted cross.
In church legends, deep immersion was the Mother of Evil, representing "chaos and termination."
"In the dream, it tightly coiled around the entire world..."
Ronan repeated the words spoken to him before the departure of the female pope, who was remarkably similar to Selena.
Such phrases she had uttered more than once, frequently hearing some of her murmurs about the "Divine Dream," as the closest person to Selena.
Unlike the last life, this dream world seemed to have many mysterious facets that piqued Ronan’s curiosity.
According to Alazan, each life passed down in the "Spirit Heart Amber," although crafted and polished to some extent, was largely real, harvested from some unknown period in history, or perhaps from... another world.
Of course, now was not the time to delve into these matters, Ronan hadn’t forgotten the true purpose of this "dream entry."
He called out Alazan’s name in his heart, quickly receiving a response.
Sunlight streamed onto Ronan’s pale, near-translucent slender hand, gathering into rays that slowly writhed, crawling out a golden ladybug.