Nightmare Mythos

After Terry managed to grab Cesar away from both the Librarian and Caster, he started to run away from both of them while carrying Cesar at his back. But after a few seconds of being carried, Cesar strongly denied his actions.

"What are you doing!?"

Terry halted for a brief moment and replied to him.

"I know you recognized me. But you have to get out of here. Well, I'm not really talking about the exit of this place. You just need to be away from that Nightmare with glasses and the Heretic,"

Cesar clicked his tongue, "I know who you are! You're the corrupted human from Harden City! But you need to bring me back there! I need to search for something!"

"Do you mean the key for the exit? Doesn't the Heretic have a way to get inside and out of this place? Is that it?"

Cesar strongly shook his head as he had already considered this matter beforehand, "No, that key might've worked before everyone got transferred here but the Heretic isn't an idiot to not use it when he encountered dangerous problems."

Terry appeared confused but Cesar explained it, "You experienced the Fluctuations, right? Where you'll float up, and dive into the library before you have to remain fixed since the library will be your enemy if you don't. The Heretic—no, Caster. I met him right after we entered the library."

Cesar nodded once, fully agreeing at the idea that was just entering his head, "If he was going to encounter the fluctuations, he should've been able to use the key to enter the library in and out, but he was with us all the time. I even managed to shoot that fucker,"

Cesar then compiled all his findings and concluded, "If that wasn't working, then it could only mean there was a problem. Not like I want to know it anyway. I have my ways,"

Cesar stared at the corrupted human before speaking out in a demanding tone, "Piggyback me. Let me use you to my advantage. I'm finding something and you will help me achieve it,"

Cesar checked the conditions of his artifacts as he added, just to give Terry a reality check, "Just so you know, your situation is only temporary. You're different from others 'who were about to be corrupted' from 'already being corrupted'. Obviously, you fall for the latter part."

Terry remained gazing at Cesar, understanding that his situation wasn't actually good. It brought more dangers instead of opportunities as there are similar cases of his situation all around the world, albeit some are known very discreetly.

A corrupted being will remain corrupted.

This is a fact known to everybody.

Throughout the time the Nightmares has been studied, not a single article pointed towards being able to treat the corruption. Even higher entities such as the beings from the meeting that was held at the table by Deceit weren't safe either.

A mere nobody, a human, like Terry will be no different.

"Give up on your dreams and die,"

Terry knew everything made sense from start to finish. Cesar didn't hide that he wanted to use him to further his goal but it was either he would follow the heretic or him.

Terry let out a sigh before slightly bending on the ground to give way to Cesar and replied with a cold tone, "Hop in,"

The moment Cesar got at his back, Terry got in the position and sprinted his way back toward the middle but avoided the site where they met both Caster and the Librarian.

"When have you gained consciousness?" Cesar asked while still maintaining most of his focus on the task before handling one of his artifacts, Mouthpiece.

Terry replied shortly after wearing the Mouthpiece to his mouth, "Just after my hand got sliced. Right then, I went back to this city but the last thing I knew, I got transferred to the library. Since from that moment, I've been following Caster the moment I found him inside,"

Cesar remained silent for a while and retorted, "Talking about those things at this point will not matter anyway, but let me assure you this, I will personally kill Caster for you,"

Terry wanted to respond to his kind words, but he felt something within him died, a sign that one of his clones had just disappeared.

Cesar noticed a change of demeanor coming from Terry until both of them got distracted that came from the far front. In there, they saw the reality being pierced and forced to be destroyed.

The moment it did, Terry's pace gradually died down. The two had their eyes sticking the reality before they saw a head popped out from it, revealing the crazed Caster looking at them.

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Just after that, the clash between the other clone of Terry and Librarian went near them as the Nightmare indeed followed the heretic behind.

Cesar had to made a decision.

"You buy time,"

Cesar tapped Terry's shoulder before bringing himself down from his back and immediately rushed away.

Seeing Caster and his apparitions begin to enter the fractured rift, something likely created by Caster himself, Terry rushed forward, determined to stop the heretic from pursuing Cesar.

"…"

Cesar merely cast him a cold glance before continuing on, leaving Terry alone to face the two opponents.

Cesar heard sounds of clashes from his back until they became nothing but noises he needed to avoid. He sprinted his way around the middle and after almost circling around the center area, he came across a lone wooden shelf just meters away from him.

Resting on one of the wooden boards was not a collection of books, but a singular cube with maws surrounding its walls. Completely steady and calling out specifically to Cesar, the cube made out of flesh had allured him enough for him to pursue.

Whoosh—!

Without a moment's hesitation, Cesar lunged forward to seize the cube. Just as he was about to reach for it, a sword suddenly flew toward his face, blocking the path between him and the item.

"Tsk,"

Cesar was forced to come to a sudden stop to evade another great sword heading his way. Glancing to the side, he saw the Librarian lunging at him, wielding two swords tightly in his grasp.

Whoosh—!

Wearing the tiara above his head, the bloodshot eyes in the middle got redder as the floor of darkness manifested right underneath him.

Clang—!

The Librarian and Cesar clashed again, their battle a fierce exchange of strikes as darkness and destroyer carrying two swords met in combat. Each sought to best the other, attacking from every angle to gain the upper hand.

The Librarian, who somehow got controlled by Caster relentlessly pursued Cesar, whose form began to fade as he melded with the darkness of the floor, becoming one with the shadows.

Then he vanished.

The Librarian effortlessly shattered whatever Cesar had conjured, but it overlooked the fact that its target had already disappeared from view.

In just a quick interaction between the two of them that probably lasted half a minute of fighting, Cesar who was never interested in fighting the Librarian finally managed to get at his goal.

"Finally…"

Cesar reached towards the Fabric of the Prison Domain that appeared like a cube and clenched it with his hand.

The final piece for a ticket to way out is there.

"What now?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn