Nightmare Mythos

Chapter 43: Shit Came, Shit Over

Essence

An abstract influence that manifested after the Nightmare landed in the world. Without the Nightmares, Essences might've not been born.

It is a power that naturally went from the first until today's generation of this time and age. It wasn't widely used until the Nightmare Potions became so popular since it needed most of the abilities some sort of activation and essences were the right fit for it.

Essences, on the other hand, have been studied and researched. Certain aspects of this topic made everyone put their focus on it, and one of them is highly usable for almost every artifact. This, however, was the only common knowledge that everyone who studied Nightmare knew.

The artifacts that the artificers made needed an essence to activate. As a sort of power button, only then the artifact will be able to work and be usable because of the essence. Additionally, inputting essence into an artifact will let the holder of it be able to understand how it works.

Cesar was about to test it out.

'Man, essences is not really my forte…'

Cesar mused inwardly before focusing on the essence inside his body and transferring it to the tooth to see how the artifact was used.

Remembering how these lessons were taught in the academy since having a basic knowledge of essences is one way to enter Class 1-A, Cesar did his best to do so.

It was one of the reasons why he was stuck up in some classes; he barely even passed this thing.

"Now then…"

Cesar knew that this sort of thing was easy for Jacqueline. She had all the qualities of how a number one rank of their grade should show. Her capabilities were top-notch and all, especially with the use of her essence.

But only because she had a family to support her and Cesar was left with nobody. He had only learned a lot of things once he got admitted to the academy.

Now, he can finally apply it in real-time.

'Though the heretic told her control sucks. I'm not sure what he meant there but anyways...'

Once a tiny amount of essence was transferred to the blackish-grey tooth, Cesar was in awe once the information regarding the black tooth was transferred to him without any problem.

The Black Tooth had two usages.

One ability is called Tooth Reconstruction which can reshape its form into a sharp object, of course, of the same size. It will take a heavy amount of essence to even achieve it, however.

The second ability is its Tooth Odor. With essence activation, it can secrete the foul stench of a rotting corpse which could disrupt someone's senses and probably conceal a person's presence to some degree.

Cesar wasn't sure how the second ability works but he understood that without proper protection for himself, he might also be affected by its power.

Though he was unsure how the first ability worked, he wasn't going to try it anytime soon to see the result since he would not waste a single essence in this type of terrain full of danger just to practice it.

The only time he might've used it was when he was facing another opponent.

He'll just have to play smart about it.

Rumble—!

Suddenly, as Cesar was playing around with the black tooth by tossing it in the air repeatedly with nonchalance, the ground violently shook.

It threw him off guard by losing some balance and he immediately adjusted his footing to remain his footing. With a confused expression, Cesar looked around the hallway skeptically.

"What was that?"

Crack—!

As the quake continued to be roaring and ferocious, Cesar couldn't open but open his one eye widely after seeing a slight cracking from the walls.

This one crack that appeared unnoticeable if not for the fact Cesar had noticed it sooner, slowly grew to form a line.

Crack—!

This one line didn't appear frightening at first until it slowly extended further and further which made Cesar's expression churn.

"Motherfucker…"

Cesar's senses tingled and the last thing he knew, he was running away from the crack that extended far to the back and far to the front.

Whatever or whoever was doing the violent shaking didn't matter. In fact, it was his ridiculous unluckiness that made him be in this situation.

But all of that aside, his inner feelings that have been polished throughout time told him one thing;

Flee.

In this vast and endless hallways that will give someone a false hope of reaching the end, one will just have to run away and avoid the incoming disaster.

It was the only thing that filled Cesar's mind.

Rumble—!

"Oh my god! Oh my god! Hahahaha! This is ridiculous!"

Still, Cesar put a bit of humor on the unknown life-threatening situation he found himself in. Instead of being crestfallen, he was deadbeat laughing as he found himself running with a bit of struggle to balance himself due to the intense earthquake.

He wasn't heartbroken.

He just found it absurd.

Soon, the life-threatening situation that he couldn't confirm yet became actual as kilometers away from his position, the vast hallways that he deemed indestructible were getting destroyed due to the crack getting larger.

And the Void started eating its remains away.

The dark purplish emptiness which was vaster and a new type of world than the endless hallways ate its remnants containing the red carpet, wooden floors, and the hard walls and ceiling.

It swiftly extended to the far back and the far front without any stop, completely passing through the same hall that Cesar went through until it went over the corrupted human's corpse and be with the void itself.

Eventually, the line of cracks was finally able to extend toward Cesar but it pushed even further to the point that he couldn't even see the end of it, just like the message of the hallway giving him involuntarily from time to time.

Because of the strange phenomenon, he took a single glance at his back to see the situation which he immediately regretted.

His emotions surged into nervousness.

Peeking at his back was the dark purplish emptiness known as the Void. He didn't remember a single point filled with dark purplish images when he was looking through the vast corridor which made him hastily push his current knee strength thrice.

Whatever came on his back was much more dangerous than the corrupted human he met earlier.

He shifted his gaze forward for a few seconds and once he went to see the same purplish emptiness that slowly crept his way towards him, his entertained face turned heavy.

The single point of the void turned much larger and bigger than before. This time, he was able to see that the Void was destroying the hallway which is probably the reason why he was in this situation.

"Shit…"

Cesar goes even further.

Dozens of seconds later in his relentless but fruitless running, he took a curious glance back, and his heart wavered as the purplish emptiness became bigger, unlike the time when it was only a single point of line.

Cesar became full of doubts.

What was all this running for if he'll get eaten by the same Void? Why all the struggle if in the end, he'll get nothing but a battered, tired, and destroyed body?

He looked back again.

And this time, a whole new world overshadowed the vast hallway, something it couldn't even compare to.

It looked like the vast hallway was trapped in the Void. The dark purplish emptiness was keeping this vast hallway in its watch, forever guarding and lifetime looking.

For what?