Nightmare Mythos

The ride through their designated post took at least a few more days as they were currently driving through the interconnected bridges, also known as Langston Bridge.

The greatest ever-built bridge that connects to various cities all across the world. It crosses through the dark oceans, harsh planes, cold weather, and even deserted landscapes. Though, the good thing about the bridge is that it kept people safe from their travels and kept everyone secured as well.

It is one of the wonders ever created by the humans that have been going through this day. It helped them go through the harshest and deadliest moments of time.

And finally, they arrived at their destination.

"Welcome to the City of Wheels, a land that was once preposterous, a city of engines and machinery that has been abandoned. Now, all you can see is abandoned products that workers and every personnel left behind," Alms introduced as he brought his bag up.

After exiting the van, the cohort couldn't help but look at the city with a doubt. Even though Alms described it as preposterous, the city looked like a version of a run-down town where a Nightmare creature related to despair happened to pass by and made it to what it is now.

The city lights were tweaking, barely even providing sufficient vision to the onlookers. The dark windows from the buildings and houses appeared ghastly, making someone think that a person was currently observing them. The roads and streets were imprinted with marks, signaling the city to be beyond repair, knowing a Nightmare might've inhabited this place.

It had a very depressing atmosphere.

"The disappearance made this happen?" Jacqueline asked with a hint of curiosity.

Chin, who was the last to leave the van after bringing out a rectangular case, nodded and joined the conversation, "Yes. The casualty of the mission has already been large so the Army and the Corps already brought their best people in here. Sadly, most of them are out of a mission. Hence, that's probably the reason why they used the deployment venture of the academy to get some manpower,"

'Oh, that answers why the mission difficulty is great and why we got sent here. So that's why…' Cesar mused inwardly.

Right after they prepared themselves, Alms and Chin led them deeper into the city with a location in mind. Passing through the streets where soldiers were patrolling around, their supervisors started discussing them about some matters.

"We're going to lead you guys to the makeshift camp that we decided to use," Chin started to brief them, "I know you guys already know most of the protocols that needed to be remembered but I can discuss it with you about the other matters,"

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Chin let out a short cough, "On this city, better distance away from the engines that'll most likely fall. Really, those that always made a sound, be careful with that. You don't want to go home with your arm or legs amputated. Another thing, don't touch anything that isn't notarized or permitted by someone. Just saying,"

He added a few more warnings that one has to know about this city before finally concluding by adding: "Now, you rookies, always remember to avoid a fight on a Nightmare. I trust your skills, judgment, and all that crap but Nightmares are a different kind of breed. Regroup with your team or find a Shaded. You are not a specialist who can solo a Nightmare themselves,"

At that tone of ridicule from Chin, the group couldn't help but notice the single line of sentence he mentioned.

'A specialist who can solo a Nightmare?'

Cesar was about to ask the question but Joshua and Nike beat him up to it, both asking in the same tone and voice.

"There are people like that who can solo a Nightmare?"

Chin chuckled, "There are many of them, and they are all either on the highest ranks of the military or Nightmare Corps. You know that Shaded is categorized by how many potions they drank and received powers from, right? For example, me. I'm Shaded of the Second Order. I have two Nightmares abilities from two different potions,"

The cohort slowly shifted their gaze to Quentin, who somehow felt uncomfortable with their gazes before finally understanding what those meant.

"Hey, I'm still on the premature level of First Order! I just happened to be lucky to have two abilities! I'm not as good as sir Chin yet,"

Reyna scoffed, "Of course, you aren't going to be as good as him, and you'll never be,"

Quentin clicked his tongue, "Wanna go?"

Chin gestured for them to stop their banter with a chortle before continuing, "As I was saying, the Shaded who are capable of defeating Nightmares on their own are Third Order with a history of killing one themselves. That's just qualifications on the paper that seems to be easy at first, but believe me, doing it will be the hardest achievement you can pull off,"

Cesar, after contemplating for a brief moment, asked, "Do we have someone on this base who is a specialist like that?"

"Yes," Alms paused, "Actually, he came to the academy to assist you guys with your selection. He's leading the investigation right now. Oh, he's from the Corps,"

'Came from the academy? Is it someone we know?'

Cesar and others started to become curious, knowing these figures from the Nightmare Corps were someone they looked upon when they were kids. There are probably what they call heroes who protect the world from corruption yet are also the most vulnerable to its presence, knowing they are the ones constantly at the front.

Which made Cesar realize why some people are crazy enough to be part of them.

"Here we are,"

After a while of being led around, the group looked ahead and saw a very normal two-story house located close to the very heart of the city. There was nothing special about it aside from the guards posted from every entryway leading to it.

Soon, they got permission to enter after seeing the uniform of Chin and confirmed his identification once they saw he was on the list of Shaded to have deployed on their current site.

Deeper into the house… nothing special as well. As if they wanted to be connected with the city's atmosphere the most, the house was designed to be bland, lifeless, and normal. In the middle of this bland house was a group of Nightmare Corps with a figure standing in the middle of them all.

'That guy…'

He excludes the same fearsomeness… ruthlessness when Cesar met him for the first time. His reserved gait was reading a set of documents from his hands when his indifferent eyes shifted towards them.

It was no doubt that it was Vin of the Nightmare Corps.

Cesar instantly recognized why he had these feelings when he first met him in the consultation room Arnold led him to give an explanation regarding his situation on the verge of corruption.

It was because he's one of the so-called specialists that Chin mentioned.

But there's another thing that he remembered from this guy that started to infuriate him. Of course, this was never put in a paper but he remembered that he asked if he got any information or leads relating to his discovery regarding a True Name.

Sadly, he didn't receive any letters coming from him.

'This bastard… tsk,'

Vin put the documents down on his table and greeted the additional workforce that had been sent to them and nodded.

"Welcome to the City of Wheels. We're just going to start the meeting for a moment. Care to join us?"