Layers Of Nightmare

A pair of eyes slowly opened amidst the engulfing darkness. William got up from his position in one swift motion, looking wary of his surroundings. The first thing he saw was an oil lamp full of blue fireflies on the table. Occasionally, the little creatures would flicker and bump into the glass, creating a muffled "clink".

Next to the lamp was Madeline who was draping a cape around her shoulders. Although the brown cape looked as rough as a gunny sack, it was covered with dimly glowing magical runes of different shapes and sizes.

William observed the runes longer, but immediately regretted his decision as all of them had varying strange effects upon sight. Some caused his eyes to feel dull pain, some made him nauseated, a few even caused his eyes to go blurry.

"Oh, you're awake?" Madeline turned around when she heard a rustling noise.

"That wasn't even a minute, wasn't it?" William g.r.o.a.n.e.d.

"Oh, don't mind the minor detail!" Madeline laughed.

William sighed as he shrugged it off. He observed the dark corners around him for a moment, then asked, "Are we still in the room?"

"Indeed we are still in the same room, but outside may be different," Madeline said as she nodded, sounding very serious. "Have you saw what the system prompt said?"

With their short conversation, William knew that his second Nightmare instance had finally arrived.

"Hmm, let me see." William closed his eyes on which a silver screen appeared. After a few seconds of silence he opened his eyes, whilst a frown slowly formed on his temple. "This… is so vague."

Ignoring the first few announcements the system would give to new Dream Treaders like the weapon space part, William had expected that it would show him the tasks or quests right away. He never thought it gave him… a riddle.

"Yep." Madeline nodded. "This is how a real Nightmare instance would begin; a riddle followed by the trait of the instance. It seems that we're in a forest instance."

"Then what about the objectives?" William asked. "Is this riddle our only clue on completing the Nightmare?"

"Surely you jest." Madeline waved her hand down. "Don't worry, they will be shown in about 30 minutes. During this time, you can say that nothing will come out yet."

"I see…"

"But, here's the catch." Madeline first went for the master light switch, the lights in the room was instantly lit up.

After reading the parchment and asking around, William knew that any location within the Nightmare realm, where electricity still functioned properly was known as the Safe Zone. This included the location where the Dream Treader first arrived, which was a guaranteed Safe Zone.

The zone, however, will not prevent the abominations from breaking in. It just prevented a certain form of detection from them depending on the area.

For example, the Safe Zone of the starting location offered all forms of detection-proof including sound, sight, heat, feel, and smell. But other Safe Zones found in the instance may not offered as many protections.

A clack resounded from the front door, followed by Medeline's voice, "Come and have a look."

"Okay!" William stepped down from the bed, that was when he realized...

'Hm?' A slightly solid and stiff feeling covered his whole body as he stood up. William looked down toward his torso and was shocked to see pieces of black-l.u.s.tred armor sticking on his vital regions and every muscle bumps on his body.

The latex suit has transformed into a real armor that was out of the ordinary! At first, William was pretty sure that the armor is made out of steel alloy by tapping on it, but upon extending his arm, he could feel the bits of the armor stretching as if they were a part of his skin.

Thinking back, he was sure that Madeline also wore the same armor before she covered herself with the cape.

William whistled in marvel, whilst exclaiming inside, 'These stuff of the dream never ceased to amaze me. Or should I say, Nightmare?'

He chuckled at his own joke before proceeding into the front door. What fell on his eyes was another unexpected view, because beyond the door was a pitch blackness that could not be any darker.

"What the?" William stared blankly at the darkness. He was sure that there was some kind of solid substance blocking the whole door, or else the light from the room would disperse a distance away outside.

"How is it? Different than the first instance, this black barrier will prevent anyone from going out of the Safe Zone before the system announced the objectives after approximately half an hour." Madeline knocked onto the dark veil with her knuckle, creating a noise similar to a wood. "You can try touching it if you want."

Madeline stepped back to create a room for William, who extended his right hand to trace the dark surface.

Solid and smooth like a polished metal, accompanied by a strange slightly hot and cold sting.

"Interesting…"

"And by the way, don't even try breaking it," Madeline said. "One time, there was a crazy person who brought an RPG to blast the barrier to no avail, and instead ended up injuring the whole squad before the instance even began."

"F.u.c.k!" William shivered at the thought that those people were basically trapped within an explosion. "What happened to them?"

Madeline grinned as a tiny "hehe" escaped her mouth. "I'll tell you once we finished this instance. For now, don't you need to do something more important?"

"Fine." William relented, but then he did not know what Madeline was referring to. "What important thing do I needed again?"

A look of utter disappointment flashed across Madeline's face as soon as the words left his mouth. Instantly, William felt the coldness from ninth hell striking him.

'Gulp.' William suppressed the sound of him swallowing, afraid of angering the tigress.

"Hah…" Madeline sighed. "Take out your weapons, let me teach you how to use them properly."

"Right!" He finally remembered now!

However…

"Err… how do I retrieve my weapons?"

From the parchment, he knew that it was impossible to lose the weapons given by the system.

"Unless broken or stuck on any native inhabitants of the Nightmare realm, any weapon retrieved from the Nightmare realm will never leave its owner's side, even if the said owner dropped it in the previous instance." That was the exact sentence written on the parchment.

Though William had no clue how the statement was true as he did not seem to see any signs of weapon when they arrived.

"Close your eyes, then simply imagine the shape of your weapons and will them to emerge on your hands," Madeline explained.

"Alright."

William did what Madeline told him. The moment he saw the silver screen, he willed the gun to be in his left hand and the sword in his right hand.

Something cold and solid touched both of his palms at the same time. William immediately clenched his hands and opened his eyes. Lo and behold, the two weapons appear magically within his hands.

Finding the phenomena slightly amusing, a smirk formed on his face. Moments later, the weapons disappeared into particles of light before reappearing again in his grasp the next second.

'That easy eh?'

William had simply commanded 'equip' and 'unequip' within his mind, and the result was exactly what he had expected.

Suddenly, sounds of metallic clink entered his ears as he noticed a pair of chain within the dim lighting, rattling on the floor next to him.

The two strands of chain seemed to possess their own sentience as they slithered up toward each of Madeline's arm like two snakes. Both only stopped swirling around her arms when William could finally see the other ends dangling from her wrists.

'One arrowhead, one sickle blade. So that's her weapon…' William thought to himself.

At the moment, there were no magical lights surrounding the two sharp ends similar to Madeline's drawing. Nonetheless, William was sure that they will expose their real power when the situation arose.

Besides the two chains, Madeline also held a silver Lupara within her right hand.

"I rarely took out my gun nowadays, I hope I can still remember it," Madeline said with a smile. "It requires a single short spell to basically turn off the 'safety lock', so please repeat after me."

Madeline gave an inquiring look toward William, who then replied with an "Okay!"

"Here goes: עם הקודש בדם שלי, הדם שמגרש את השטן."

The Lupara in her hand gave a pulsating glow before two muffled clinks resounded from it.