Layers Of Nightmare

"Alternate dimension huh…" William muttered.

Though he had some guesses before, hearing the confirmation was distressing nonetheless. Now that he recalled, there was a clause in the magic parchment related to this.

"Tell me Lina, being forgotten isn't the only impact of us dying here, right?"

Madeline put up a smile. "What makes you think so?"

"I have seen a clause in the identity parchment, something along the line of preventing this realm from connecting with the real world," he said as he met eye-level with Madeline. "Does that suffice?"

"Hm. Sharp, aren't you?" Madeline sighed. "You're right, every failed instance will have a widespread impact in the real world. From insanity to suicide; the inhabitants of these failed instances will migrate to our world, then proceed to affect the people outside in various ways."

"Why did no one tell me about this?" William asked calmly.

To be honest, the fact was not far from his initial guess, which he relates to possession and other supernatural phenomenons. Nonetheless, who would like to be kept in the dark considering the circ.u.mstances?

"Because you will have to clear your third instance before you can understand the significance of that."

"Right… sure…" William sighed ruefully. This was the third time Madeline had denied an answer.

Seeing his pained look, Madeline could only look away before saying, "Sorry… this is just how it is."

William clenched his fist hard. If there wasn't anyone around, he would have punched the nearby tree already.

But that was all of it. He knew that conflict wouldn't solve anything at the moment, as such, he took a single big breath before exhaling. Only then did his rage recide.

"Consider I never asked," William said.

"..."

In the end, Madeline couldn't say anything else. Guiltiness drilled itself into her heart, though there was nothing she could do.

…

Bristling cold cold wind swept through the darkness, rustling the thin leaves of the primordial ferns in the surroundings.

The muds under their feet had been replaced with patches of grass and composts, while musty stench assaulted their nose. Sounds of creaking bugs and groans of unknown creatures had never left their ears.

Meanwhile, the trees around them seemed to sway from time to time, as if they had grown arms and legs.

Wait, did that tree up front just walk away?

"I don't like this," William whispered. The meager vision granted by his enhanced sight and the lantern was probably the only saving grace at the moment.

"Neither do I," Madeline said. "Not like we got many choices, though."

"You did say that these Nightmares may be post-apocalyptic worlds... Do these local inhabitants you told me about-"

As the words left his mouth, Madeline suddenly put a finger to her lips.

"Shh."

Then, she ducked all the while waving her other hands, signalling William to quickly come over and followed suit.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, keeping his head beneath the shrubberies.

Madeline pointed a finger toward a distance. "That's one."

"Where?"

Darting his eyes around, William finally spotted what seemed to be a hill made out of fur in the distance. Covering the fur were glistening pearls of unknown liquid.

"That?" he asked.

Seeing his glance, Madeline suddenly picked up a pebble and threw it at the fur hill with all her might.

"H- Hey!" William screamed as if his heart stuck on his throat.

Thud.

The pebble hit the fur hill and simply bounced off. A few seconds later, the ground shook as a cloud of dust rose from beneath the fur hill.

With a mask on, William didn't worry about fleeting dirt nor toxic gas. He tried his best to squint his eyes open, afraid that whatever that creature is might charge onto them.

However, he soon realized that his worry was unfounded. The cloud of dust up front did not disperse rapidly, nor there was any sign of undulating from rapid movements.

Still fearing that something might happen in the next second, William stood still on his original spot.

'Lina doesn't look worried.' William thought to himself.

A minute passed and the cloud of dust settled. Slowly, an enormous shadow began to unveil. It was twice the height of the initial hill and seemed to stand on squirming things.

As the dust cleared, William was left with his jaw open.

True that it was the same fur hill, but then a pair of glowing blue eyes opened up near the top. Meanwhile, countless millipede-like appendages extended from its beneath.

With its dimly glowing eyes and squirming appendages, the creature spun around as if a living watchtower. It seemed that it was trying to find who had disturbed its sleep.

Right when the light from its eyes fell onto their location, Madeline stood up and walked away from the shrubberies they hid in.

"Wait, what the f-" William stopped before he screamed, then kept his head even lower.

His heart already skipped a beat when the creature began to scan around. Now that Madeline did something outrageous, he couldn't help but think about escaping.

Yet, when he took another look, the creature didn't lunge like what he had thought. Instead, it shuffled back in quick strides all the while keeping its eyes on Madeline.

'What's it gonna do?' William was baffled once again. 'No way... is it afraid? With that size?'

Then he saw Madeline bent her waist forward, before putting her right hand on her c.h.e.s.t and left hand on her back.

Seemingly noticing the gesture, the brown creature stopped on its track. It began tremorring visibly—no, more like jiggling on top of being given drugs. As it did, the ground shook in an undulating rhythm.

'Is it coming now?' William had his legs' muscles tauted and gripped his summoned weapons tight.

The creature kept alternating between slight trembles and explosive jiggles, until finally… went drilling into the ground and back to its smaller hill form. Though still keeping its dim eyes open.

"What?!" William quickly stood.

By then, he saw Madelinine giving him a wave. As he approached with his mouth itching to blabber about the weird turns of events, Madeline had open hers first.

"There are a few exceptions of the local inhabitants of these Nightmare realms," she said. "As you can see, not all of them are actually brainless monsters who are coming for our lives.

"After years of acc.u.mulated experience, we know that some of them are able to communicate. Just like this giant fella."

"Ah…" William nodded then took another glance at the fur hill not far away. Its flashlight-like eyes were full of curiosity and lacking malice.

"Don't you think it's cute?" Madeline smiled.

"Kinda…"

As he said the word, a rustle was heard when another lifeform entered their views. It looked like a giant deformed chicken, with no feathers and wrinkly yet solid skin. It had no eyes, whereas bone claws were in the place where its wings should have been.

Walking toward the fur hill, the bird did not notice the presence of the two humans. Whatever senses it had were used to their fullest focus on the glistening pearls of fluid in front of it.

When it was a few steps away from the fur hill, it stopped.

'Hm, does it know that the fur hill is something alive?' William resisted the urge to whistle as he pondered.

At that moment, the bird pulled its head and long neck down to its torso, then launched it toward the fur hill as if it was a loaded spring.

A patch of moisture was instantly stolen away from the fur. Traces of the glistening liquid were dripping around the strange bird's beak.

"Whew," William sighed in amazement.

Madeline replied with a shush. "The second attempt is the most risky for that bird."

"Risky?"

Then they saw that the bird was getting ready to launch its head again. But this time, the fur hill reacted even faster than the former.

A gaping maw large enough to swallow a small elephant whole opened up right when the bird launched its head. As a result, the bird was sending its head part straight to the guillotine.

Wham!

An air crack was heard as the maw closed. Not even a second passed from when the bird launched its head the second time around, but now, there's a twitching corpse of a headless creature on the ground.

After that, the fur hill extended to its full form again and crawled on top of the bird carcass before slumping back down.

It was only then that William snapped out of it and felt a shiver down his spine. He didn't even see clearly when the fur hill opened its mouth.

"Well… I don't think it's cute anymore," William mumbled, earning a giggle from Madeline.