Nightmare Mythos

Whoosh—

Feeling the intensity of the cold breeze brushing through his skin as his robe violently shook, Cesar watched himself fall through the dark before grabbing the Librarian's Key in his pocket. Inserting the key through the air, imagining as if there was a knob, he opened it up and saw a bunch of tools inside.

Grasping a grappling hook from one of the tools inside, Cesar pointed it towards the edge of the mountainside and clicked the trigger.

Whoosh—!

The hook lunged to the side, clutching onto the soil, before using the momentum that completely made him stop from falling. Once he took a halt mid-air while positioning himself to the side, Cesar looked down below and found nothing at all.

It was completely dark. However, that is only what appears through the naked eye as Cesar and even Cedeit himself can still feel the lingering sensation, this time it is much stronger and denser.

"This is where the soul in this city is more concentrated?" Cedeit questioned in a confused tone, "You really need to get down and check it out."

"Uh, okay? Just what the hell am I doing, huh?" Cesar asked with a sigh. He shook his head before opening up the air once more to use the Librarian's Key.

'This thing is really handy in this type of situation,'

The artifact he had gotten from the Heretic, which he stole from the Librarian, was the Librarian's Key. Studying the full capabilities of his acquired artifacts is just one of the things he needed to accomplish, and something he had already done when he was back in the Academy.

Not knowing your weapon's full function is one of the reasons why Cesar suffered so much back in the mansion. He reflected upon it and worked his best to not repeat the same mistake.

The Librarian's Key is a very interesting power that Cesar currently holds, amongst the top three of his currently possessed artifacts. The Fabric of Prison Realm and Book of Contents were at the top.

As for why he placed this item amongst those two important artifacts it was because its two functions were greatly usable and efficiently possible. One thing is to be able to store items inside, a space that is available for the current user of the key.

Right now, amongst the other usable items that the Heretic left inside, were currently stored inside. As for why he didn't put all his artifacts inside this storage, it was because Arnold was already aware of how many artifacts he currently possessed.

If all those items were to disappear, it would pose more questions and Arnold might take an interest in his items even if he didn't know any of those functions. That's why he remained inconspicuous in using his artifacts whether privately or in public.

Yes, he trusted Arnold but not to the extent that he was willing to give his life and treasures to him, even if he was going to borrow them.

As for the second function of the key, the most interesting part that Cesar liked about it, is the ability to switch and go through places.

Just remember the image inside your head and must be an exact image for it to work. There's a certain distance however but it's almost as large as a whole city like the place he was in.

Like how the Heretic is using the key to transfer from one place or another, Cesar was able to see how it was used while only infusing a bit of his essence into it just like the rest.

The key can do its two wonders by merely inserting the key everywhere. And if Cesar was done inserting it, he could use the storage room by moving it to the left. As for the switching places, he only had to move the key to the right after placing it through the air.

Eventually, after moving through the mountainside using the grappling hook to go down carefully, Cesar felt a solid floor below and removed the hook from sticking to the mountain walls.

Picking up a lantern inside the key's storage, he started moving forward while being aware of his surroundings.

"You're lucky that it isn't another Dwellers in the Dark terrain. However, the concentration of the soul is getting higher. You're nearby. If you're lucky, you'll encounter the Nightmare you're looking for,"

'How is it lucky to encounter a Nightmare now? What an irony…' Cesar mused inwardly as he made his way forward.

After a few minutes of walking while fully understanding the dangers he put himself into, Cesar landed upon a pond.

Gasp—!

A towering figure was resting on it that produced a gasp from Cesar's mouth he involuntarily took a step back. What's worse about this situation is that he couldn't notice its presence, however, he was sure that the strong concentration of essence was coming to the pond, and to this Nightmare.

'Shit!'

Cesar's mind stirred as any possible actions ran through his mind with a thinking that an unavoidable fight was bound to happen before Cedeit rest him assured.

"It's dead,"

'What?'

Cesar directly pointed his lantern near the dead Nightmare, clearly seeing it's disgusting appearance face to face before spotting a few bite marks which immediately shows how this abomination was put into such a state.

"It's a Fallen Nightmare…"

Cesar then whispered, "Do you recognize this one?"

Cedeit replied almost after, "Nah. This is one of the countless Nightmare. Anyway, that's beside the point. You're lucky to found this Nightmare. Go, see if it dropped an Artifact. And according to what I know, bringing a flesh of a Nightmare amounts to much cash,"

Just as Cedeit was explaining what he should be supposed to do, Cesar was already on the move. Grasping a tool from his storage room of the key, he began to cut a piece of its flesh as if he were a professional.

He grabbed one of its dead eyes, a piece of skin, a flesh, and some innards that were wide open for him to see through the bite marks.

At the end of his search, he found an artifact.

However, something was wrong.

"What?"

Cedeit voiced out his confusion.