Layers Of Nightmare

Several minutes ago, two blocks away from the apartment William was in…

Two figures, one shorter than the other, arrived at the top of a building. Each of them wore a cloak which was covered in golden patterns. Whenever miasma or an ethereal existence came close to them, the cloak would emanate soft glows that thwart them away.

The taller figure held an oil lamp filled with what looked like fireflies made out of blue flames. A pale light pushed the darkness around them away, while the fireflies danced in a curious way—they seemed to guide them to a direction by frequently bumping on one side of the glass.

"Have we found the person, dad?" the shorter figure asked with a feminine voice.

The taller figure at the front did not reply right away. He put down the oil lamp, took out a regular binoculars from his satchel and used it to stare at a building—right onto the apartment unit William was in.

If any normal person saw what the man was doing, they would probably think that he was crazy. To say nothing about the pitch black surround, there were no open windows facing toward their direction.

Yet, the man seemed to be able to see through walls and windows.

"Hmm… he's still picking his weapons," the man said. After a moment of silence, he continued, "He picked up the Desert Eagle and... a whip blade."

Hearing her dad mentioned the "Desert Eagle", she nodded in approval. Most people will choose guns over shield afterall. But after hearing the "whip blade", she smacked her forehead.

"Of all options, he picked up a ranged trick weapon?" she sighed. "Don't you think that he'll die quickly?"

The man let out a chuckle, still keeping his cool. "Not necessarily. Let's see what will appear."

Both of them waited patiently for either an announcement or a new screen to popped out.

"[BEEP!]"

With the alarm notification, both quickly closed their eyes and dived into their mind space. They skimmed over the tasks details, then focused onto the text at the bottom left corner.

[Hallowed Emissary will arrive in 00:01:00]

"Wha?!" The girl gasped in astonishment. "Dad, that guy's in trouble! We should go!"

The girl was about turned around, but the man stopped her. "Wait, Felicia."

The girl stopped and turned her head, looking disapproved. "What?"

"A Hallowed Emissary at its first stage is not so dangerous," the man said, still staring through the binoculars. "There's still time to observe him. We wouldn't want him to be a deadweight in the future right?"

"...Fine" Felicia relented. "So, how is it?"

"Hmm… he seemed to run out of his room in a hurry. Did he notice the danger after looking at the wordings on the screen? Good observations!"

Suddenly, they heard an announcement.

"[The Hallowed Emissary has arrived.]"

"Now, let's see how he-" the man halted his word, his lower jaw hanging open.

"What's wrong?" Felicia asked.

"He… he intentionally approached the Emissary."

It was Felicia's turn to drop her jaw. She smacked her forehead again, now with both of her hands then said, "Curiosity killed the cat, let's go dad. There's no saving that person."

At first, she thought that they will be having another potentially powerful comrade after considering the high level of adversary that arrived. But now, she could not help shaking her head in disappointment at William's recklessness.

It was a risky move to infiltrate other's Nightmare instances. Looking at the situation, it seemed that their efforts would be wasted.

"We will stay!" Her father's yell disrupted her thoughts, she did not expect her father to say that.

"Give me a reason for us to stay."

"Your father also did that on his first instance."

"..." Felicia's face twitched a few times. "Didn't you said that you barricade yourself in your room before mom came to rescue you?"

"Well, that was after I did what he's doing now."

"Uh… this is the first time I'm hearing this?"

The man shrugged with his idle left hand and replied, "Now, you know."

"Wait, that aside!" Felicia stomped. "Didn't you just faced a common Nightcrawaler?!"

The man nodded. "That's the truth."

"That guy's facing something two tiers above that!"

"Err…" The man paused before giving a half-baked response, "Miracle is a thing!"

Felicia went speechless. Having no other choice, she sighed and went to her father's side, at the edge of the building top. Anyway, it should not be long before the man met his demise; they will return by then.

Around 15 minutes later…

Seeing her father still holding his binoculars and maintaining the same position, Felicia asked in disbelief, "That guy's still alive?!"

The man nodded slightly. "He is trapped in the 15th floor right now, though I can see that he has a really interesting idea."

The man told her daughter about how William broke placed his phone on the ground, broke the doors at the side corridor, before hiding himself in the garbage chute room.

"A risky move don't you think?" Felicia asked.

"I think so too." The man nodded. "But I don't think he had many choices."

"Right…"

At this time, Felicia noticed the sudden extreme movement of the fireflies in the oil lamp. It was as if someone had light them on fire and they were trying to escape the glass frantically.

"Dad," Felicia said in a serious tone.

This time, the man lifted his eyes off the binoculars, then stared at the oil lamp near his feet. Before he said anything, he took another quick look through the binoculars.

Seeing that the monster took the bait and William managed to sneak away, he finally said, "Okay, let's get ready."

Both of them put a hand in their cloak and picked up something. It was a black fat gun with a big hook attached to its muzzle.

They aimed down at a building nearby and pulled the trigger. Two hooks attached to a metal wire launched at a supersonic speed, instantly embedding themselves onto the building wall.

After checking out the tensile by pulling a few times, they jumped down and glide with the gun in their hand. In a matter of seconds, they kicked the glass window in front of them, shattering it, then rolled to safety before cutting the wire off. They have arrived in a standard office.

The man took out his binoculars again and saw that William had ran all the way down to the 9th floor. Meanwhile, clinking sounds similar to rain falling on a glass surface could be heard as the blue fireflies had went on a rampage in the oil lamp.

"It's time, huh."

The man undoned his cloak, revealing the stoic face that signified the wisdom of age. The brown pigments on his hair had shown signs of giving up, while wrinkle marks could be seen on his forehead and corners of his eyes.

He wore a set of sophisticated full body gear underneath him. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, the shiny gray armor seemed to be made out of metal, yet, it did not impede his flexibility at all.

The man pushed his square glasses up and took out something of his regular-looking satchel. A silver sniper rifle made its appearance, it has a similar appearance as Barret M99 model. As if not outrageous enough, he took out a large sniper stand from the satchel; the magical satchel seemed to be much more spacious than it actually looked.

He took another look at his daughter. By now, a fine skinned and charming lady has taken out a short silver rod that was attached to her waist. Similarly, she had undonned her cloak, revealing the skin-tight gray-l.u.s.tred armor that flaunted her ample c.h.e.s.t.

Her brown ponytail swiveled from side to side when she trained her neck. Having done so, she swung the rod in her hand, instantly, it extended into a 1.8 meter-long silver spear with an abnormally large head.

"[BEEP! The high number of people in the current Nightmare instance had attract more menacing entities and negative energies. Two Hallowed Emissary will arrive in five seconds!]"

"I guess we are just in time," the man said as he harness the sniper rifle in a proning position, ready to fire whenever William encountered a crisis. "Can you handle those two?"

Just as he finished his sentence, he heard two loud screeches from his behind, followed by a machine's announcement, "[Congratulations on killing two Hallowed Emissary!]"

Felicia had neutralized both Hallowed Emissary as soon as they spawned!

The man sighed, still in his proning position and said, "Looks like I'm worried for nothing. Don't forget to collect the materials."

"Yes daddy!"

Felicia pulled the two carcasses together and used her spear to sever several parts of the monsters—its pincers, fangs and a pair of bump on each of its back. After that, she put them inside the satchel.

Soon, a loud sniper bang echoed as the man opened fire toward the Hallowed Menace in front of William. He then took a fist sized red orb from the satchel and yelled to it.

"RUN! NOW!"

Once he had done his job, he packed the sniper rifle back into the satchel. At the same time, he took out two new hook guns and passed one to his daughter.

"Good job," he said with a smile. "Now let's go fetch him."

"Un!" Felicia nodded.

Both fired the gun at the apartment building in front of them. This time, they would land on the ground—right in front of the building where their target was.