Chapter 4: Chaos Sea
There was a realm where dreams and nightmares were born.
There was a realm where a few ragged sounds could sound a symphony.
A realm where pandemonium presents patterns, where ideal fantasies turn into reality and memories feign meaning.
A realm where-for as long as a sleeper can sleep-stories are spun.
And so, listen.
Listen now:
At the end of this infinite realm, the serene waves of a golden ocean washed through the sands of a beach flanked by a rising valley. Even though there was no sun in the sky, rays of auric light broke through the wavy clouds, illuminating everything in golden shades.
A man stood on the gleaming golden particles of the beach, his saddled feet washed by the most tranquil of waves. He was young, with a youth that seemed to exist outside of time and a pale skin that contrasted with the golden environment. He had a muscular but slender build with a lean but chiselled physique. His black hair was short and frizzy, exuding a darkness rivalled only by the void. His eyes were platinum silver, sparkling like the argent moon at night. He was dressed in a black tunic belted at the waist and a silver wool on his shoulder.
He was none other than Hypnos, the Primordial of Sleep.
(Image here)
Hypnos gazed ahead at the serene golden ocean, and the primordial of sleep extended his hand into the substratum. The reality of the ocean and the sky that enveloped it began to shimmer as if it were nothing more than a veil. And with a single swift motion, he drew the veil away, throwing it into the blue firmament behind him, and they merged with a thrum of reality.
The scene before him immediately changed as the veil of concealment he had draped over the boundless ocean was lifted, revealing the horrors stirring beneath this realm-his realm.
The serene ocean and blue sky had melted into a vast, colourless sea, which opened as far as his divine eyes could perceive and beyond, descending into the abyss of infinity.
"What in Tartarus are you...?" Hypnos mumbled, his tone so heavy and sombre that if his family had been present, they would have been surprised.
He looked out at the colourless sea, his heart clouded by confusion and trepidation. The sea may appear to be harmless and benign, but it is anything but that. The mere sight of this sea could break the minds of mortals and plunge them into insanity.
Unknown-a concept he abhors instinctively. And the sea just appeared to be an amalgamation of everything unknown.
He found this sea deep inside the realm of the collective subconscious. In his mind, the sea seemed to go on for ever and ever, with no ending in sight. It surprised him, and his attempts to delve deeper into it were met with chaotic failure.
Hypnos was obviously fascinated by the mystery and tried to solve it. He created a puppet out of his dreams and imbued it with a sliver of his primal essence, binding it to him. He then tossed the puppet into the colourless sea.
He connected with his essence in it and perceived the chaotic sea through it after his puppet sank into it unharmed and unaffected, though he still kept his senses on high alert just in case.
Hypnos immediately regretted his actions. His senses were assaulted by the boundless sea, which splayed his mind into infinity. Words would fail to convey what he truly felt in the infinitesimal moment he made indirect contact with the sea before squeezing out all of his strength and self-destructing his essence in the puppet, severing the connection.
He was terrified, to put it mildly. He immediately assessed himself thoroughly, looking for any abnormalities or problems within himself. Thankfully, there were none, but he double- checked just to be quite certain.
After cursing himself for his sloppiness, he tried to make sense of what he had seen, but all his primal mind could conjure were glimpses of what he truly saw, and the rest fled his mind. Nonetheless, he began to piece it all together, ignoring his heavy thumping heart. Slowly but steadily, he completed the puzzle, and the dreadful picture revealed itself to him.
The colourless sea emerged to be a vaster and more haunting cosmos beyond consciousness and sentience, sprawling into infinity unbound by matter, time, and space, the existence of which we suspect only in certain forms of sleep-those dream beyond dreams, mind beyond minds.
All in all, even with his primal mind, Hypnos didn't understand the colourless sea for what it truly was. The unknown had crept and rooted itself in his mind, and he loathed it.
They had even devised stages for his dream reality manipulation: basic, advanced, ultimate,
and absolute.
He is now at the advanced stage. In this stage, he could turn his dreams into reality, though with limitations such as that it cannot defy the logic and laws of creation. And if he wishes to create something from his dream, he must have a solid foundation in the subject matter. Despite the limitations, his power was undeniable. At this level, he could manipulate weaker concepts of creation or unleash all of his primal power onto his physical form, bending reality simply by his presence.
His power of dreams was not without weaknesses and dangers. The subconscious mind isn't always aware of how reality works; it believes what it wants and manifests it in the dreamscape. As a result, if he isn't careful, he may cause horrific and disastrous events to occur in reality, bringing literal hell to the world.
That brings him to the last concept he worked on personally over the last two years: Mind. He
had put in less effort on this concept than he had on Dream and Sleep, since he was spending most of his remaining time perfecting his realm. He had been experimenting with the minds of monsters, manipulating and infecting their dreams with his commands, which in turn affected their psyches. After all, dreams shape not only reality but also the mind and personality, as well as how you perceive the world.
Using this concept, Hypnos was also aiming to maintain a serene mind so as to avoid dangers and the weakness of dreams. He didn't want to inadvertently unleash disaster on reality. That was the extent of his current abilities. He may have left some, but that was the general
gist of it. Hypnos retuned his gaze to the infinite, colourless sea and clicked his tongue as the thoughts passed through his mind.
He let his mind wander yet again and completely overlooked the point he was attempting to convey-his guesses on the chaos sea.
Because of what Dreaming represents and symbolises, he was able to deduce the origin of the colourless sea. Hypnos desired that his realm expand further into the mind realm, eventually into all concepts related to sleep, which would encompass everything related to sentience and thought. And the chaotic sea just merely reacted to his grand acts and ambitions.
This was just his wild guess, with little to no evidence to back it up. And for all he knows, this
could be completely wrong.
All of these mysteries and unknowns made Hypnos doubt if this was truly the world of Percy
Jackson. Heaven and Hell exist, as do God and Lucifer. There were numerous primordials in other pantheons.
All of these shifts, which were not in any of the novel series, only added to his suspicion. But,
given that the books didn't go beyond the Norse, Egyptian, and Greek pantheons and even
hinted at the possibility of God's existence, this world could very well be the world of Percy Jackson.
All in all, Hypnos realised that this world-his world-was more than just the world of reckless teenagers and incompetent gods depicted in the Percy Jackson series. It felt far more than that, full of mysteries and unknowns lurking around every corner of existence.
And he would uncover everything one by one. Suddenly, Hypnos felt a tinge in his perception. And he snapped his fingers, manifesting a veil of concealment over the edge of the chaos sea and directing it to drape over it.
The scene in front of him changed instantly. The infinite chaos sea had vanished, to be
replaced by the ethereal golden sea.
And with that, a woman materialised at the side of Hypnos. Her long black gown was speckled with golden lines, and her silver hair was long and flowing like an argent waterfall.
The dreamy woman bowed to him. "I apologise for interrupting your revive, my lord, but the
Lord of Death has arrived at the Gate of Horn."
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