Chapter 4: Eternal Dawn Scripture

As the golden aura seeped into Isaac, he could feel a strange power entering his body. However, he didn't pay attention that. He couldn't. All his focus was being forcefully taken away by the carving in the wall, as well as in his mind.

"Why...why is this here?" Isaac asked to no one in particular, bewildered at what was happening. "Was the text carved into my brain originally from here?"

Isaac, who was already very confused about his situation, just got more confused as he recognized the text. "So the text that was ingrained in my dream, which stayed in real life, was from a dream I had inside of that dream? Wait, what?"

Then, he sighed. "I feel like I'm been having to do this a lot since coming here, but..." Taking a deep breath, he continued talking to himself. "Calm yourself down. Let's focus on the matter in front of us."

Isaac started inspecting the text on the wall, confirming whether it was the same as the text in his head. Perhaps he just be mistaken and the texts only looked similar.

However, upon closer inspection, he could tell that the text on the wall mimicked the one in his head, word for word. This had confirmed that there was some relation to this dream and the text in his head. Another benefit he gained from the inspection is the realization that he could now understand the text. "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder..." Isaac muttered as he started reading.

[Eternal Dawn Scripture]

[In the beginning, there are but two: creation and destruction, each one's fate intertwined with the other. When creation arises, so too does destruction. And when destruction occurs, new space for creation appears. Thus begins an cycle of creation and destruction, one that must be preserved eternally.

To destroy, you must create. And to create, you must destroy. But a world without this cycle, is a world too forgone. Such is the undeniable truth. To abide by this truth, is to preserve the cycle, and by extension, your world.

After a long, dark night, the sun always rises at dawn. And after a long, bright day, the sun always sets at dusk. To maintain such balance, there must be two present: the Earl of Dawn and the Count of Dusk.

To be reading this means you have the qualifications to inherit the title of the Earl of Dawn. With said title, you will obtain power that goes beyond your wildest expectation. But note that with such a power, comes a huge burden. If you still wish to seek this power, despite knowing this, continue reading, and you shall become the Earl of Dawn.]

"What...?" Instead of clearing things up for Isaac, the scripture just made him more confused. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

He thought that the writing might be able to provide some clues as for how he could wake up, but there was nothing. He sighed as he walked away, only to realize that he couldn't. He was being blocked by some invisible barrier. He instantly deduced that the cause of this was most likely the scripture on the wall, since there was nothing else that could cause this to happen.

"Well that's annoying...Maybe if I erase it..." Isaac mumbled as turned towards the dirt wall and walked. After he got within reaching distance, he felt the dirt to see the condition of it. "If it's this soft, then..."

Isaac suddenly dashed forward, closing in the distance between him and the wall then slammed his palm into it. Then, he speedily moved his hand through the soft dirt and scattered the surface of the wall in an attempt to erase the scripture.

However, just as he did this, the stationary barrier trapping him slowly started moving, seemingly trying to close in on Isaac. As the barrier moved, it scraped off the dirt below it, making a squeaky noise which alerted him on what was happening.

"Trying to stop me, huh? Why don't we see who's faster?" Seeing the closing barrier, a normal person would've started panicking and looking for ways to get out. However, Isaac wasn't a normal person. He instantly realized that if the barrier was trying to kill him, then the scripture must see him as a threat. That means that if he could erase the scripture faster than the barrier could crush him, he would be able to survive.

Of course, this was just a speculation of his and isn't necessarily true, but he was currently in a dream, meaning his life wasn't in any danger. That's the only reason Isaac was willing to take such a high-stakes gamble.

SCREECH!

Isaac used all the strength his young body could muster as he frantically scrubbed on the dirt wall. The sound of the barrier scraping against the dirt only got louder the more he was able to erase.

Second fly by as Isaac speedily erases more and more of the scripture off of the wall. As he was scrubbing, he realized that the scripture that was carved in his mind was slowly being erased as well. He quietly took note of that as he continued scrubbing.

'Just a little bit more...' Just a few more sentences of the scripture were left. However, they were in a difficult position to reach, which could be blamed on Isaac's method of erasing the scripture from top to bottom. Since the scripture's bottom part goes all the way to his feet, Isaac had to bend down to erase the words at the bottom.

This made it so that he took up more space, something he had very little of. Before Isaac could completely finish scrubbing the final bits of the scripture off the wall, the barrier had already caught up to him, forcing him to stand straight.

"I really could have tackled this another way..." Isaac muttered as he thought about the options he had in his current situation. He lacked items, he lacked time, he lacked space to move and maneuver, and he lacked the physical prowess of an adult due to his current body. With all these constraints, it would be next to impossible to think up a solution, even for Isaac.

'Well, it's just a dream anyway, it doesn't really matter if I die right now.' This was the thought that Isaac originally had when the barrier started moving. After all, it wasn't like he was wrong to assume so, since, well, he was right. It is a dream. And because it's a dream, it really shouldn't matter if he died here.

However, as Isaac felt his body being crushed by the barrier made of light, his intuition told him that something was wrong. At that moment, it hit him. 'Wait...isn't it common knowledge that you can't feel pain when inside of a dream?'

Numerous possibilities ran through Isaac's head, but the most prevalent one was that he actually died from that dust that flew into his room and he had transmigrated into the body of this child living in the slums. After all, he had just transmigrated a few days ago. There was no reason as to why it couldn't happen again.

Another conclusion that Isaac came to was that in the new world Isaac was in, dreams worked differently than they did on Earth. Perhaps they were a lot more realistic to the point where you could feel pain in them.

Without a moment's hesitation, Isaac realized that he should follow the first possibility. As much as the second possibility could be the truth, there was still a chance it wasn't. He would much rather treat the situation like one of life or death than die, thinking reality was a dream.

For a second, he also considered the possibility of transmigrating again but instantly discarded it. Even if it could happen, Isaac didn't want to take the risk.

And so, despite being pushed into the wall, Isaac struggled as hard as he could to just barely have the tip of his feet reach the last new words. "Almost..." He muttered under his breath. He only had one thought on his mind: he had to survive.

SCREEEEEECH!

After having touched Isaac, the speed of the barrier's movement had decreased significantly. Although this action would leave many confused, Isaac instantly feel the difference. When it first hit Isaac, the barrier had barely even pushed him, much less crush him. But now, despite its slow movement, the barrier's weight had increased significantly.

'This scripture is smarter than I thought...' As soon as the barrier had appeared, Isaac knew it was the scripture that had done it. He had two main reasons for this.

One, the barrier only appeared when he entered the vicinity of the scripture, and two, the barrier wasn't here when he walked over, meaning it was created after he came here. This leaves the barrier maker to either be someone hidden, or the scripture itself. But because Isaac didn't see any other people around the cave, he had already eliminating the first option and only leaving the second.

However, Isaac was in no situation to properly utilize this information to formulate a plan. This was because of the pain of being crushed slowly invading Isaac's brain, corroding his thoughts. Before long, he could barely even think about anything, but he still didn't let himself lose focus of his will to survive. Right now, that was his strongest shield.

CRUNCH!

The sound of Isaac's bones being crushed, alongside the sound of his ragged breathing, reverbed throughout the cave that had been filled with an eerie quiet before. At this point, despite continuing to reach for the scripture with his feet, Isaac had nearly given up all hope. With most of his bones broken, he no longer stood a chance. 'I just hope whatever happens because of this isn't going to be too bad...'

That was the last thought Isaac had as he saw the blinding, golden barrier covered in crimson. Despite the river of blood flowing out of Isaac's mouth, it had formed a weak smirk on his face. The reason for this? "Gotcha." He had erased the last pieces of the scripture.