Layers Of Nightmare

"Wait, I'm not a citizen though," William said. "Won't that create problems?"

"It doesn't matter." Alex shook his head. "After all, Dream Treaders are special entities in this world. No matter which country, you can always join their Dream Treader's Association!"

"Now," Alex said as he walked toward one of the sofas. "Come have a sit before we go on."

"Sure."

Consequently, William sat opposite of the cold-looking guy, while Alex sat on another sofa to his right. The guy was still ignoring them and continued to write. Though, no one in the room stopped him from doing so, even with the new guest in front of him.

"Let's start with our adversaries shall we?" Alex said.

William silently swallowed his saliva. An image of terrifying abomination appeared in his mind.

"Have you ever read the book of Revelation?"

"Huh?" William was dumbfounded at the unexpected question. "As in the one in the Bible?"

"It seems that you have. This will make it easier for me to explain." Alex nodded. "This is the most widely accepted theory amongst us: Revelation has begun since a long time ago. In fact, we're probably in the midst of the Revelation itself."

William gasped audibly.

"Those monsters… they may be the beasts of the apocalypse."

William contemplated the new information for a bit. Soon, he asked, "If we are already in the timeline of the Revelation, why there were no big signs of it happening?"

William vaguely remembered several passages in the Bible that wrote about the signs of the beginning of Revelation. One being the ascensions of 'God-chosens' from all over the world and another about the appearance of the Four Hors.e.m.e.n of the Apocalypse.

"At least, I can't recall anything in history about the 'mass disappearance' event that was told in the Bible," William added.

"Oh, it did happen," Alex replied blatantly. "It's normal for you to not remember it, no one does. Only we, the Dream Treaders, know about them."

William frowned. "Are you implying that the governments covered up the incident?"

"Hehehe," the blonde girl gave a chuckle from the back. "However good a government is at covering up news, it would be impossible to cover something on a world-scale, don't you think?"

"Well…" William fell back to a thought. "That makes sense."

"Oh, I forgot to introduce you to our members, how rude of me!" Alex cut-off his thoughts. "This lady here is Anastasia."

The blonde girl nodded. "Nice to meet you, William."

"Same here." William smiled.

Next, Alex pointed at the tall man standing at one corner. "That guy is Thomas. As you might have guessed, he's visually impaired. Do forgive him for any inconvenience."

The man nodded, a pleasant smile on his face.

"No problem at all!" William replied.

"And here." Alex tilted his head to his behind. "This is my daughter, Felicia. If you remember, she was also there to help you with me last night."

"Right, I do remember," William replied as he stared at Felicia

The brown-haired lady showed a charming smile. She said, "I must say that I'm surprised by your performance. I never thought you would survive the night."

"Thanks... I guess." William knew she meant well, but something about her wording ticked him off.

"Hahahaha," Alex laughed. "Felicia is still quite young. Pardon her words."

"No, no, it's okay."

As soon as William said that, a quiet "hmph!" could be heard coming from Felicia. She pouted, likely unsatisfied with what her father said. Anastasia just giggled quietly.

"Last but not least." Alex gestured at the 'busy' cold-looking man in front of them. "This is Lee, he's one of the most important core members in our circle."

The man did not respond, he continued to write on his paper. Upon closer observation, William could see that his eyes seemed to be out of focus.

"Don't mind him." Alex said. "It looks like his ability has been activated before we came in. It's not like he's being rude."

"An ability?"

Alex nodded. "There will be a time when a Dream Treader awakens a certain kind of marvelous magical ability that will grow with them."

Alex glanced at the half-conscious Lee. "Lee is an indispensable member for us, precisely due to his innate ability, ⟨Guide⟩."

"Oh…" William replied absentmindedly. Everything being told to him sounded like something out of fiction. If it was not for this science professor he respected, he would... also respect the other person; in making such prolonged bullshit that is.

"But, you don't have to worry about that at this time. It will take another while before your awakening arrived. Now, where were we?"

"The mass-disappearance event," Thomas replied.

"Right!" Alex hit his left palm with his right hand. "As Anastasia said, the fact that you didn't know about the event isn't because the government trying to hide it, rather, every normal person in this world has simply forgotten about it."

William frowned, he found that Alex was talking in circles. "What are you trying to say here?"

"Hmm…" Alex pondered for a moment. "How about if I explain it like this: let's say that you have a friend who you have spent a long time with, but suddenly, that person vanished in a fraction of a second."

"Vanish?" William's eyes went wide in shock. "You mean-"

"Poof! Just like that. That includes any memories, causal-effect and any records of the said person." Alex added, "Although the main mass disappearance event was long ago, it's still happening constantly until present. As we're talking, there are many people who have unknowingly 'ascended' around us."

"Then…" William realized that his hands were covered in cold sweat at this point. "Someone in my life… Have anyone disappeared as well?"

Alex put up a weird expression at William's question, he replied with another, "Tell me, William, have you ever felt a deja vu?"

"Of course I do..." William's eyes widened as he suddenly came to a realization. "Don't tell me-"

Alex chuckled, he reclined back to the sofa while saying, "Many research pointed out several hypotheses on the cause of deja vu. Little did they know that this is one of the major reasons.

"You might not remember exactly the 'lost' person, but you do get the feeling that you have been through a certain event with the said person. Due to the change in causal-effect, these events may overlap; either with another person or something inanimate."

William went pale at the thought that he may have forgotten about someone close to him in his life. Who would have thought such casual occurrence hid a terrifying secret!

"Calm down," Alex said. "Take a deep breath and don't think too much about it. You won't remember them anyway, even if you do, there's no helping it."

As Alex suggested, William took a deep breath and started to calm down. After a few more seconds, he said, "Go on, sir."

"Good, now let me explain more about those monsters. With countless sacrifices of fellow Dream Treaders and years of experience, we have identified hundreds of different monsters into their respective tier. The greater the tier number, the more dangerous they are."

"Okay," William took out his phone to jot down several points.

"Ah, you don't have to write anything," Anastasia suddenly said. "It's useless."

"Huh?" William looked at memo again, only to find the sheets remained empty. "What?!"

"Any written information related the realm will disappear from this world," Alex added. "This is another reason why there are no tangible records about it, other than the words from the Dream Treaders themselves."

Hearing that, William put his phone back in his pocket. "Fine, please continue."

"Alright." Alex opened his bottle to swig some water before continuing, "For tier comparison, what you faced last night was a Tier 3 Hallowed Emissary. Although it's a Tier 3, it's only comparable to Tier 1 monsters if you can finish it quickly. It will only become a full-fledged Tier 3 after it evolved into Hallowed Menace. In terms of power, a Tier 3 monster will be able to destroy armored vehicle in just a couple of seconds!"

William's lips formed an 'o'. Now that he thought about it again, it seemed that he was lucky enough to escape not long after the creature evolved.

"The only way to deal with them are the silver weapons given by the realm…" Alex think for a moment. "No... blood should be the correct answer."

"Blood?"

"Indeed! The silver weapons given to you are mediums that requires your blood to activate their effect. This includes the use of ammunition!"

"Ah!" William exclaimed. "Is that why I couldn't fire the gun?"

"That is both correct and not," Alex answered calmly. "If you insert normal ammunition, you can still use it like a normal gun. But again, it won't be effective."

William nodded with a humm. "So, how do I use them?"

"Unfortunately, we will have to wait until your instance before we can teach you. You probably realized this already: all the weapons don't appear in our current realm."

Alex took a deep breath and exhaled, then said, "That's it for my short lecture, any questions?"

"Three more questions."

Alex gestured with a hand, seemingly trying to say 'go on.'

"First, what is this special paper and that pill you gave me?" William pulled out a piece of crumpled paper from his pocket.

"Ahaha, I knew you would ask!" Alex smiled widely. "To put it simply, they are special items given by the so-called 'system' in the other realm, just like those weapons. Let me guess, your next question is about that 'system', yes?"

"Right…"

"No one knows." Alex gave a short reply. "Who created it? For what purpose? How does it relate to the Revelation theory? Those are questions left to be answered. Regardless, it has guided the Dream Treaders for countless generations already, and never once did it show a detrimental behaviour to us."

Alex took another swig of water. "So, what's your last question?"

Suddenly, William began to hesitate. He wondered if the question was proper or not.

"If you are afraid to ask, you will die sooner." Felicia's voice suddenly resounded in his ears. "That's what father always told me."

William looked up to Felicia, then to Alex who still kept the 'go on' attitude.

He took a deep breath and finally let out the question, "What happen after we died there?"