Nightmare Mythos

Chapter 44: Door

Cesar actually didn't know what to think at this point. His mind was overloaded with thinking that he was incapable of adding more.

He was still going at the same pace but he wasn't sure which direction he would take when the only way to advance was forward.

All this thinking vanished the moment however when he saw something a hundred meters away from his position.

"Ahh..."

What he saw up front was a wall, not on the same walls at the side, but right in the middle of the hallway he was supposed to pass.

And right in the middle of the wall was an ancient wooden door with intricate engravings that seemed to suck his every attention right at it

Blankly staring at the ancient door, Cesar's fire that had been extinguished a moment ago has been ignited with hope once more. This kind of hope is such a cursed yet addicting thing to have.

Yet it was all he had.

It was a single lining of hope left at this point.

It was a kind of change he needed, and it didn't matter if it was the better or worse decision yet. He was going to take it.

'Whatever…'

With the still encroaching purplish emptiness surging toward him, Cesar prepared himself to give everything he had.

Once he made another stop while running, Cesar put everything in his strength around his legs. It took one point to bring out the momentum by sticking his foot to the ground for a brief moment before he sprinted his way through the ancient door.

Whoosh—!

Cesar became swift in his movement to cross that hundred-meter distance between him and the ancient door. He was dead tired, feeling that his legs were about to give out any time soon if not for the fact that a sense of purpose was driving him to survive his predicament.

It was some sort of adrenaline rush.

Yet the Void continuously made his way to eradicate every living being that stepped onto the hallway. The hallway remains flew through the purplish emptiness outside of it that surrounded the once indestructible hall.

The last thing he knew, there were only a hundred meters left for the Void to reach Cesar completely, who was still dozens of so meters away from his position.

Approximately a minute had passed since he saw the Void yet it was already on behind his tail, ready to eliminate him and whatever that came on its way.

Cesar had to decide what to do swiftly, knowing in just a few seconds the Void would eventually reach him.

"Fuck it!"

Cesar, at one point, slightly bent his knees instead of continuing to run. Putting every ounce of strength from his legs, he somersaulted himself as if he were some sort of cannon that had fired its shell.

On its back was the relentless chaser that was almost reaching towards Cesar without any kind of stopping.

Cesar was closing yet the Void was coming closer. Feeling that the tip of his legs touched the purplish emptiness that was attached to the place where the hallway was trapped gave him the chills of a lifetime.

He immediately regained his focus and kept his head collected before his hand finally touched the knob of the ancient door with a nervous smirk on his face.

"Please open!"

Shouting desperately that the mysterious ancient wooden door didn't need any keys or a special type of incantation for it to open, Cesar twisted the knob and immediately entered inside.

"Yes!!"

Feeling the joy swelling inside him, Cesar started falling to the place of the door he entered while glancing at the other hallway he was in a few moments ago.

Observing the purplish emptiness from afar, Cesar raised his hand and gave it a middle finger to show his annoyance at the Void that halted its pursuit. The ancient door seemed to be stopping the emptiness as if it were some wall to protect it from trespassers.

"Fuck you!"

Even though it didn't have any visible facial features at all, Cesar felt the Void was peeking at him. Soon, this strange feeling while gazing at it slowly dwindled as the door started to close on its own.

"What a creepy concept of the Void. That purplish emptiness feels alive for some reason that when it touched my foot, I could feel it strangling my knee… Thankfully, I escaped in time,"

Cesar couldn't be gladder at this result, feeling rejuvenated as he started to shift his attention to his current position which he hadn't been able to focus on earlier because of the surge of joy he felt when he escaped the Void.

That's just when he realized he hadn't been exactly touching the ground floor but merely levitating through the air.

No, it wasn't really levitating as it was more like he was dropping down.

"What can I say…"

Cesar found himself free-falling through another hallway, which had the same interior as the hall earlier. Only this time, his movement was against his own free will since he was merely sinking into the endless and vast corridor.

"Hah…"

Cesar could only feel relaxation after he realized that there wasn't an immediate threat that needed to be taken care of.

Still, these kinds of weird occurrences didn't surprise Cesar this time since he had adjusted to the fact that normal situations were considered such as this.

If he were to be deployed to another type of terrain or weird landscapes in the future, nothing might surprise Cesar any longer.

'Is that the reason why veterans from this profession acted so indifferent most of the time because everything that involves a Nightmare is weird? Hell, when Vin started bleeding out, he didn't even shout what was wrong, probably because he was retaining his consciousness without suffering too many injuries to inform us what was wrong. Alas, everything was too late.'

Still, to remain cool-headed in that kind of situation was something that Cesar would polish for so many years.

He can remain cool-headed most of the time but when he is in grave danger, he copes it up with either his deranged humor or self-doubts. This is the reason why there was hesitation in his actions that he noticed earlier while reflecting on now.

"Man, I have so much to learn,"

Cesar couldn't help but ridicule himself but he also deserves some praise for being able to think about his mistakes from time to time rather than repeatedly doing them, which he wished not to do so for more future to come.

Even though he lost an eye, Cesar found this deployment really as an opportunity to learn and reflect.

"I'll fix it once I'm out of this wretched place,"

Cesar couldn't help but chuckle as he muttered before looking downward.

"So now what?"