Chapter 90 - The Nightmare

—3rd Person POV—

"Haha, you cocky bastard, your overconfidence in your ability was your undoing!!", the God of Demise laughed, "Surrender now or this bitch dies!!"

Holding one of Cole's wives hostage, with a Cursed Blade to her throat, the God of Demise was reveling in his victory. His Holy Knights beat Cole to the Resistance Capital and successfully subdued the rebels before his arrival. Lulling him into a false sense of security, the Holy Knights had waited for Cole to be distracted before ambushing his family. Swiftly capturing his wives and children, while Vermillion kept his attention, Cole was forced to surrender to them to spare his family.

"I can't believe you were foolish enough to bring them straight to me and leave them unprotected. A mortal like you just can't compete with the higher intelligence of Gods, my comrades were simply idiots!", the God of Demise said with a proud grin, "So what will it be mortal?"

"You already know my answer…", Cole replied tossing his weapons to the ground, "Let her go, it's me you want."

"Seize his weapons and restrain him!", he commanded Vermillion.

Doing as her father said, Vermillion restrained him with specially made chains meant to seal a God's Power. They were the property of the Goddess of Justice, but he had stolen them just before their escape from Heaven. Originally meant for any deity that betrayed him, he decided to use it on Cole to suppress the majority of his power. With his family captured and his Divine Power sealed the God of Deceit knew Cole was no longer a threat to him.

"Alright you have me, let my family go!", Cole shouted in anger, "You got what you wanted!"

"Got what I wanted!?", he snarled, "I lost my seat in Heaven because of you, and now I have to live in this squaller till I eventually die! If you had just simply accepted your fate, none of this would have had to happen!"

"Your living situation is your own fault, we didn't force you to betray your comrades in Heaven.", Cole refuted, "If you want to blame anyone, blame the God of Reincarnation! It's his fault I was used repeatedly over and over to fix his problems."

"I know that he will get his for this too once I am done with you.", the God of Demise said with a smile, "Killing you is too easy, torturing you won't break you, and tossing you into the void would be unsatisfactory. You need to suffer for disobeying our Heavenly Authority, unfortunately for you, there is only one way I know how to do that…bring his wives over here."

Doing as they were commanded, the Holy Knights forced Cole's family forward using the children as persuasion. Pleading with them not to hurt the children, they followed their commands and approached the deity. Ordering them to kneel once they were in front of him, he tossed the woman he was holding to the ground. Cracking a twisted smile, he eyed the cowering women with a lustful gaze.

"I can understand why you gave us so much trouble over these women. They are some of the finest I have ever seen. You can stand there and watch till I am satisfied with them!", he howled as he reached for one of the Elves, "Come here wench!"

As he went to grab her, all of the women turned to smoke in front of him. Looking up in a panic, he realized that Cole was missing as well along with everyone else. Shouting commands out for everyone to stop hiding, a sudden, intense wave of Killing Intent and Bloodlust crashed over him. Nearly fainting from the pressure, he didn't want to look behind him to see what was going on.

"So this is what you dream about…", a cold voice growled behind him, "I have had all I can take of you!"

Recognizing the voice, he turned around and saw Cole floating in the air behind him with fiery, red eyes. Watching black and red lightning crackle off of his body, the God of Demise was at a loss for what was happening. Having been too petrified to listen to what Cole had said initially, he tried to understand what was happening.

"Don't you remember…I killed the God of Nightmares, this is a dream.", the real Cole informed him, "Right now we are in my domain, and I will make sure you pay dearly for even considering touching my wives and children!!"

Watching the world around him suddenly darken, the God of Deceit lost track of where he was. Waving his hands around like an idiot trying to find a solid surface, he began hurling insults at Cole and demanding to know where this power had come from. The power of Darkness wasn't Cole's, it belong to one of his allies.

"It seems you are too ignorant to realize that this is a dream. For the moment, you are safely sleeping in your bed surrounded by the women you forcibly stole from their families.", Cole said from somewhere within the black, "Since you likely forgot, I stole the God of Nightmare's power remember? Aside from the Goddess of Dreams, no one else can stop what's about to happen to you. Given how disgusting you are, there is not a doubt in my mind that she won't step in to help you here."

"Release me at once Mortal, or I will carry out what you saw moments ago!!", the God of Deceit threatened.

"We will see about that…I doubt you'll want to be touched by anyone when I am done with you. Don't worry though, you won't suffer alone in this dreamscape…Vermillion is here to keep you company.", Cole manically laughed, "I hope you enjoy this because it's all you will experience till the day I put you both six feet under…"

Starting to call out to his daughter, the God of Deceit was hellbent on using her as a shield for whatever Cole had planned. Quickly responding to her father's call, Vermillion started trying to run toward him but found moving in the dark extremely difficult. Crashing into everything in her path the noise she was creating stifled the noises around them effectively hiding the looming threat. Eventually reaching her father in a terrified state, she pleaded with him to tell her what was going on.

"This is just a dream, we need to try and wake up!", he said smacking her across the face, "Now wake up!"

Beginning to smack her in an attempt to snap her awake, both of them began to hear something in between the smacks. Stopping after the third hit, the two of them listened intently to determine what was going on. Hearing skittering all around them, Vermillion froze up with a horrified expression on her face that no one could see except Cole.

"NO PLEASE NO!!! LET ME GO!!! I SWEAR I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW!!!", she screamed breaking out of her father's grip, "ANYTHING BUT INSECTS!!"

"HAHA!!!", Cole cackled, "These aren't normal insects, you see I decided to torment you via a method I read about in a book during my brief stint in college. What's about to happen to you is retribution for tearing this world apart and thinking about railing my wives! Neither of you will have a good night's rest for the rest of eternity!"

As soon as Cole finished speaking, both of them felt insects begin to crawl all over them. Biting and tearing their flesh apart, the insects got under their skin and began devouring them from within. Screaming bloody murder as the cockroaches and locusts crashed over them they were quickly drowning in the insects as they started thrashing around trying to break out.

"STOP IT!!! STOP IT I SAID!!!", the God of Deceit pleaded for dear life, "LET ME GO!!!"

Drowning within the horde of insects for an uncertain amount of time, a sudden cold bucket of water snapped him out of the dream. Shooting up out of bed the deity screamed as he started digging into his flesh trying to stop the sensation he was feeling. Quickly restraining their Lord, the Apostles attempted to snap him out of it but couldn't. Throwing them off of him, the God of Deceit started throwing furniture all over the room as his servants and toys dove for cover.

"Make it stop!!!", he shrieked, "The sensation won't stop!!"

"FATHER!!", Vermillion screamed as she burst into his room covered in blood, "Why won't it stop!? I can still feel the cockroaches gnawing on my flesh!!"

"Someone use magic to calm their nerves!!", one of the servants shouted, "They have gone mad!"

—Cole POV—

Opening my eyes, I couldn't help but crack a twisted grin on my face. It was the first time I had used the God of Nightmare's power since I stole it, and it certainly didn't disappoint me. I never expected to wield such power in my life, but it gave me a dangerous tool to use against my enemies. This power was quite dangerous in the wrong hands as one could kill an enemy literally in their dreams leaving no evidence behind.

'I will need to increase my control of it to kill someone in their dreams, but tormenting is more than enough for now.', I thought, 'Still…I can't believe that bastard tried to NTR me in his dreams!! He's the worst type of ugly bastard out there! Eyeing my wives like that makes me want to blow this whole damn world up. Even though I have slept with countless women, I never once NTR'd anyone because that's just too cruel!'

Pushing the thought to the back of my head, I looked over to see Eri curled up between Elouise and me holding her stuffed bear. A little further away poor Kota was being crushed by Shino who was clutching him tightly. She was dreaming about holding our future children, and Kota was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

'Hang in there, you'll be alright.', I thought as he tried to break out of her grip in his sleep.

Teleporting out of bed, I got changed and headed to the kitchen to eat. We were four days into our journey at this point, and this afternoon we were set to arrive at the capital where the Resistance was still holding strong. Fearing that we might be wasting our time heading there, I had sent Flying Golems ahead of us to survey the capital and confirm the Resistance was still alive. Lucky for us they were, and I had also managed to confirm that the Seven Deadly Sins and Ten Commandments were all here as well.

"Honestly I am surprised Merlin didn't notice my golems, she's supposed to be an incredibly skilled mage after all.", I chuckled as I walked into the kitchen, "I am also curious how all of them are still alive, almost all the Ten Commandments should be dead along with Escanor."

Finding Malty measuring the coffee like usual, I made myself coffee using the percolator I used to use. Activating the Magic Heating Element, Malty asked me where the coffee maker was here. Pointing to the percolator I was using, she asked how she was supposed to use it if I already was.

"It's called wait till I am done.", I remarked, "Why are you in such a grumpy mood today?"

"The voice in my head kept me up all night!", Malty complained as I realized she had dark circles under her eyes, "She's trying to get me to foil your plan for the next Wave, but I value my life too much to try it."

"A wise choice.", I remarked as the water started to boil, "Is she currently pestering you?"

Nodding her head, I told her to let Medea come out for a moment. There was something I needed to confirm about the Wild Hunt, and she was the only person I could ask at the moment. Begrudgingly agreeing, a moment later Medea took over her body to ask what I wanted.