Nightmare of Layla (3): Starless Night

Layla stood motionless, still gazing at the shining moon through the large windows.

The content of one of the torn of pages still on her mind.

'You're being watched ... Layla.

Lets give you a goddamn show then, bastard.'

Her new sword had given her confidence but there was still an oppressive feeling clawing at her mind.

She took a deep breath, readying herself for the trials to come, as she got ready to explore the eastern wing of the Cathedral.

The only sounds were her quiet steps and the occasional crumbling of stone, as she made her way through a large hallway.

The eastern wing seemed to be very different from the western one, since it was constructed out of multiple, small rooms.

It looked like people had once lived here, people who had prayed to the Unknown.

Each small room was very simple, consisting of a run down bed, a molded wooden table and chair and an already broken oil Lantern.

Each room seemed to be a copy of the last one but there were also ever so slight differences. Some rooms seemed more noble, like a higher position had lived inside them.

And in those rooms of higher quality, also laid torn of Papers to the truth.

Chapter 36: The Guardians of the Unknown

"The Unknown grew, and with its growth came those who guarded it's secrets.

The guardians were not born from the flame the gods came from but from the will of the First Unknown itself.

Each of the seven guardians had a small fragment of the Unknown inside their body, and with that came the purpose to guard the forbidden truth.

They had no names, creatures of the unknown had no need for them.

But one of the seven guardians was different.

It longed to feel, longed to live on its own and cherish its existence. It wanted to be, to have a name of its own and to rise.

And so it had befriended the first Shadow of them all.'

'Fragment of the first Unknown ... befriended the first shadow of them all .. Guardian ...

Is this me ? My [Echo of the First] Attribute states that I have a fragment of the first Unknown and I do have a Name. The Watcher, the shadow of the first being, so the first shadow to ever exist, is also watching me. So are we "friends" ?

What does it mean to be a guardian of the forbidden truth ? I know nothing of the truth, so how am I supposed to guard it !?

Lets just read the other pages too.'

Chapter 312: Vile thieving Bird:

'The Vile thieving Bird was hated by the gods, even by the forgotten one.

It only cared about shiny things and once, on a dark, starless Night, it had stolen an eye of the forbidden lineage.

But through the reflection of the eye, it had seen a past echo of the forgotten god. Because of that, it had dropped the eye into the mortal realm, and the only thing left was a singular drop of ichor, inside of its mouth.'

'What a poor creature, being hated by all the gods. I wonder what it did to anger them and if it's still alive, somewhere.

Lets looks at the last page now, I guess.'

Chapter 746: Bloodangel

'The Weaver had once created a creature made out of its own, forbidden blood. It took care of him like he was its own child but after many years, one of Weavers sisters, the daemon of imagination, had used illusions to make it seem like the Bloodangel had done something bad.

The Weaver had gotten angry and threw out his own Creation, which made the Bloodangel go mad and take revenge on the daemon of Imagination.

He had destroyed her city and her people, killing all of them in one blow.

At the end, he ended up being sealed in different locations.

His Brain in the deepest part of the water, his Heart inside of a Moon and his Soul rotting in the underworld.'

'Even more characters ? Okay, if I get this right, Weaver and his sister were two out of the seven daemons, which were the kin of the forgotten god.

And Weaver had created a creature out of his own blood and then sealed it ?

He probably isn't that important. Still, interesting to know.'

Layla moved back to the Mainhall and put the torn of pages into the book on the altar, like how she did to with the page that described the Watcher.

'I wonder how many pages there are.'

Suddenly she heard unnatural creaking above her. The creaking was not like the ones she had heard before, someone or rather something was on the roof of the Cathedral.

Layla looked up and what she saw made her heard drop.

Through one of the holes in the roof, looked an eye of a beast, directly fixating on Layla.

The eye looked like one from a cat. A yellowish dermis with a thin, black pupil.

And just a second later, the roof crashed down, with it a black panther looking creature.

Slamming onto the ground, debris and dust flying everywhere, the creatures dark fur rippled through the cloud.

It was almost blending into the shadows of the cathedral, only the yellow eyes shining into her direction.

Layla's heart pounded in her chest, as she gripped the hilt of the Black Katana tighter. This was the first, the first Nightmare Creature she would need to fight.

'Of course it couldn't have just stayed with torn of Pages. My Attribute wants me to feel despair afterall and I defenitely do right now.

The Watcher is defenitely laughing his ass out right now.'

The Panter-like beast was easily towering over her, even tho only he was standing on all four.

The Panther hunched over, it's yellow eyes following all of Layla's movements as its long Tongue licked it's maw.

'I'm not your food, bastard !'

The beast growled low, the sounds echoing through the large cathedral, and in the next heartbeat, it already appeared right infront of Layla, swinging it's claws at her.

For a moment there was silence, before the sound of a parry could be heard through the Cathedral.

Layla had parried the panthers attack with the Unknown whisper, stunning it for a second before counter attacking.

Sadly, the panther was too fast for her as it just put it's point of gravity lower, avoiding the slash by just a friction.

Layla barely had time as the Nightmare Creature sprang back up again, its massive paw swinging at her with full force.

Thankfully she avoided it last second by side stepping and now the Panther started circling around her, waiting for the right time.

'That bastard is really playing with me!'

Layla took a deep breath and quickly looked around the Main Hall.

She couldn't beat it with just strength and speed alone, she needed to be smarter.

'That's it.'

On the ground, she had seen one of the oil lamps that were also in the small rooms of the eastern wing.

It was broken but the oil was still inside it.

'I just need to make it burn ... then I can kill it.'

She only had seconds, and without thinking, she dashed towards the oil lamps, picking it up while still running.

The Panter was already following at her, running at inhumane speed but it wasn't enough, as Layla turned around and threw the oil lamp at the Panther, the contents spilling onto it's body.

For just a second, it froze. But that singular second was all that Layla needed, as she scraped her blade against the stone floor, small sparks flying directly onto the panthers body.

And then, everything brightened up as the Panther stood in flames.

It growled loudly, aimlessly running around now.

Now was her chance. The Creature was disoriented, thrown off by the fire.

She could feel the adrenaline flowing through her body as she ran towards the menacing beast, sword tightly in her hands.

The Creature was now right infront of her, screaming because of the pain.

Layla's chest heaved, as she took a step forward. She couldn't chicken out now.

With a swift strike, she pushed her dark blade through the creatures Chest, piercing its heart and back.

Blood splattered all around Layla as she could feel the body of the Panther grow limp.

In the next second, it fell down and a voice whispered into her ear.

[You have slain an Awakened Monster, Night Panther.]

Layla coldly looked down at it, her hands full of blood, as she loomed over the Creatures corpse.

'First Nightmare Creature down, thousands to go.'

——-Author's Notes——-

Words: 1449

Slightly earlier Chapter.

I hope y'all enjoyed it.

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