Nightmare Mythos

"A Nightmare…?"

What Reyna found in the basement of some destroyed house was a corpse of a Nightmare which looked like a Fallen Nightmare that seemed to be also cut into thin slices.

It was still emitting a dangerous scent like what Fallen Nightmare could be doing but all of them didn't focus on looking at this particular Nightmare.

Their gaze was stuck in the middle of its chest where a shape of a cube seemed to have been stolen from the Nightmare itself.

"What the hell is that thing? It looks like an Artifact but we aren't seeing anything. Also, it looked like it was stolen but it seemed to be new?"

Reyna pointed his finger near where interior where the supposed cube was stolen and stated.

"Imagine that there's a cube there and someone plucked it out, the things beside it suggest the good was stolen."

'This…'

Cesar already experienced something like this in the past. In fact, he came to a similar experience when he was traveling towards Dawn Breaker.

It was the time when he was finding a higher concentration of Soul from the mountainsides of Flora City and found another Fallen Nightmare with an Artifact that seemed attached to the city itself.

Of course, the Nightmare was no more since Cesar got a good harvest there but the artifact in that place was still standing strong, and he was afraid something would happen to the city if he disturbed it.

"I've encountered a similar situation before and some Fallen Nightmare seemed to leave their Artifact behind and used it to activate it around its range of influence."

Cesar pondered whether he should give this opinion since this information isn't widely known in the Army.

If Reyna or the rest recognized it sooner, they would've already given their points.

But looking at it, Cesar realized that this type of information was pretty new to them which was visible to their faces as he explained.

"These kinds of Artifacts that came from the Nightmare and weren't harvested yet the moment they got killed is shocking, I know. These Artifacts looked like they were alive and was activating by themselves until something stopped them. This is the only thing I could've given you since I'm pretty much clueless as you,"

Cesar then mused inwardly, 'I mean, I couldn't have known that Fallen Nightmare had this kind of use where an Artifact would activate on its own without the use of somebody's essence. This point is already proven since this is the second time I've seen something like this… however the said item was already stolen,'

Cesar was starting to form a conclusion inside his head and the others looked like they were already making up their minds.

Vanke came to this city to steal the Fallen Nightmare's Artifact.

'And the people here were just unfortunate enough to be here in the right time and place. That's tragic,'

Cesar then paused, 'It meant that the Artifact holds great importance.'

Cesar looked at the team and said, "Have you begun asking the information regarding this residence? Keeping a Nightmare or under their possession illegally is a crime and could potentially lead to imprisonment."

Understanding the rules regarding the whole Nightmare since they were already briefed about it when they were in the Academy, Reyna answered.

"I'm going to communicate it with our supervisor,"

Nike then came up next, "I'm going to search the Mayor's office and see if there's something there. Unlike other Mayors, this one is a pretty coward and decides to evacuate as well even though he served in the military. I hope I can see some information so that we could proceed,"

Quentin who looked at them weirdly, raised the matter as he stated, "Hey, the job here is to count the casualty. I will be handling that so you can focus but if you guys want to pursue and learn more about this, give me a heads-up since I'll be pretty busy myself,"

Now that each person had a job on their own to do, all of them began to do their own thing.

As for Cesar, he was going to help Quentin since that was the job to begin with. It was Nike's and Reyna's idea to add something to their task.

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…

"Total amount of bodies found. 14,681. Estimated amount of damages to buildings and the city. 14,210,213 Million Vennon Cash. Team Reyna concluded that the Fender City Massacre was done no other than the works of Vanke from the Revolutionary Army. He came here to retrieve a Fallen Nightmare's Artifact that seemed to be working on this city, and killed any witnesses. Did I get it right?"

While Reyna was explaining to her team that this was the report she had made herself the team's faces were telling her that she could do better, Cesar was waiting for the next deployment he'd be receiving up next.

To count these bodies with their little manpower, it took exactly three days. However, because of how proficient the people were on this squad, their Facets seemed to be suited for utilization such as this one.

"That concludes our report. I'll be giving this information back to the Army," Reyna paused as he looked at Cesar's direction and said, "Nothing has been said to you yet?"

"Yup, I'm patiently waiting though so you don't need to worry about a thing. You guys, if you could just leave one communicator here I would really appreciate it,"

After a mission is over, it was natural for the Army to have already given orders for his next deployment just like they did when he finished the defense of three cities and helped the previous one.

But it seemed he had to wait in the city alone to receive the next one, and he would need a communicator since he didn't receive it as he was in such haste to do his first mission which is the three-city defense.

"We'll be going first then,"

Soon Reyna's squad began to fill up their vehicles as they prepared to embark Reyna herself tossed a communicator to Cesar.

Catching the communicator, Cesar looked around and said, "You're leaving the corpses, huh,"

Nike nodded, "A casualty like this is left as it is since the damages continued to rise, you know. Soon or later, we're going to lack manpower for every operation as both sides are suffering from their wars. And we couldn't waste retrieving the corpses that are beyond repair help already,"

Cesar waved his hand dismissively as he didn't expect Nike to say a lot regarding this situation and leave them be.

"Be careful out there. Always watch out,"

Quentin looked at Cesar as he frowned, "After what happened before, we are always alert on our things. If not, we would've already died,"

"Language dude, geez. You really changed so much Quentin. Changed for the better, of course! Haha, you know what I mean,"

Quentin scoffed but it didn't sound like he was affected by Cesar's remarks. Instead he understood him fully and said.

"I know I matured. Who wouldn't change after what happened to the Mansion? I know it was hard for you but it's also hard for us as well, you know?"

Cesar smiled as he couldn't comment on that and just waved everyone goodbye.

Watching them all depart from the cities from the corpses that were spread around the city, Cesar sat down on the ground while continuing to be patient.

That was until someone made a noise that brought him back to reality.

"Cesar?"

Suddenly a voice reverberated in his mind which made his eyes widen in surprise and relief.

With a disbelief tone, Cesar muttered, "Cedeit?"

The voice that he slightly missed since its disappearance replied with a groggy tone.

"Hey, kid. Long time no see… Well, at least for you." Cedeit paused, "Thankfully, you aren't dead yet. It might've caused a lot of problems for both parties,"

'It's Cedeit all right,'

Cesar mused inwardly before stating, "A lot happened while you were gone, Cedeit. I can explain it to you the moment I receive an order for my next site. It should be coming by now,"

Cedeit who was quiet for a moment answered but didn't seem related to the statement he raised.

It was different.

"Are your senses dulled or what? Someone is interfering in this area we're in. And you might've not noticed it but I did. And you know what, you're already surrounded,"

'Huh? Surrounded?'

Cesar looked around the place and was suspicious since it clearly showed that he was alone there. He heightened his senses to double-check and realize it was still the same thing.

The only thing he was surrounded by was nothing but the corpses that belonged to the deceased people.

"Wait,"

Cedeit paused.

"I couldn't have noticed it if I didn't get an upgrade…"

Cedeit then took a long breath.

"Listen here, those corpses are acting as if they are dead. Just gone. But in fact, they are very much alive. Don't agitate them. You fighting them is not worth it,"

Cesar felt shivers down his spine as he couldn't help but raise a brow.

'Those corpses are alive?'