First Nightmare (8)

As Hope continued to stare forward at the fiendish statue, he felt a rough tug on his collar.

In the next moment he was dragged inside of the room. The sanctum.

He lost his footing and fell backwards, landing on some...rocks?

Hope didn't check beneath him and instead looked up at the knight who was already closing the entrance. The dying screams past the void had long been hushed. And they both knew what that meant for them.

The knight's face strained from the weight as he pushed again once more, blonde strands of his hair sticking to his face, arms trembling as he closed the doors, staring into the stone carven eyes of the statue that still was frozen in place with a snarl plastered on her face.

Suddenly, a pair of yellow flaming eyes emerged from the darkness.

"..!"

The knight also noticed the pair of eyes.

Hope scrambled to his feet.

"Watch out!" He outstretched his arm.

"Priest s-stay back!"

The door was ten inches away from closing, but maybe even that won't stop the beast from its hunt. 

Hope rushed towards the knight and grasped his arm to pull him back. 

But at the same time the beast surged forward and snapped the knight's head like a raptor taking out its prey, pulling his body forcefully through the narrow crack of the door. 

For some reason, Hope didn't let go. He couldn't explain why, it was as if his body responded on its own again without the rational thought of maybe dying in the process. 

The disturbing sight of flesh and armor being stuffed between the narrow crack of the door was like how one would shove clothes in a suitcase. Layer upon layer folded itself until it fit just the right size.

The smell of blood and the sound of metal being scratched accompanied by the monster's snarling overwhelmed his senses.

And just like that, the weight escaped from Hope's hands. 

The arm he held onto so tightly slipped out of his grasp as the knight and the beast disappeared back into the abyss. Hope stumbled backwards and froze, hearing the drag of the knight's body being carried further and further away.

'Move…' An instinctive voice whispered.

Hope then snapped free from the shock that had rooted him in place and ran towards the door.

Right. He couldn't stop now.

The beast may have taken the knight, but it might return any second. 

Even while still holding the torch, Hope didn't see the snarling statue there anymore, but he felt eyes watching his every movement. Maybe they didn't dare enter the sanctum and maintained their distance. Hope didn't care to know the reasons why just as long as they kept their distance.

Hope took a deep breath and mustered with all his strength in closing the door. 

Luckily it was moving! 

Incredibly, and insufferably slow, however.

It was like he was pushing against an impregnable wall. He would have believed that he wasn't making any progress if he hadn't heard the faint scratch of the door.

As he did this, he heard the knight's body being reduced to the sound of bones crushing ominously far away.

His muscles burned as he pushed, and his chest felt like it was about to explode. The heat swelled in his face, but he didn't stop. No matter how shaky his limbs were, or the aching pain in his bones, the screams in his muscles, he refused to give in.

The door was five inches closed…

'Come on come on…'

Three inches…

'Close dammit!'

He saw the flaming eyes appear in the distance and his heart dropped. The ground shook. The beast was pouncing towards him.

At the same time, the doors shut just in time and the curvilinear carvings on the door pulsed with light as it sealed.

As he stood there in disbelief, the room suddenly shook violently and Hope fell backwards again, the torch flying out of his hand. He grunted as he looked back at the entrance and realized the beast was slamming into it from the other side.

Hope's mind raced with what to do next.

But luckily some seconds later, the beast stopped…

The ground still quaked and the beast's roars and growls echoed from the other side as if directed to an opponent. Almost as if it were in a battle.

Was it fighting the statues?

If that were the case, then maybe Hope had some actual time to recover and devise a new plan on what to do next.

However, he felt his body rigid and grounded to the floor. 

Hope paused and looked down at himself. 

'The hell I'm still shaking for?'

Hope felt his whole body tremble this time. Maybe it was because another person died right in front of him or the sight of the beast up close.

Of course, the priests and the Beast Tribe were also massacred. But he didn't care about them. Even when he faced monsters out in the real world, he had not felt this disturbed from what he could recall. All he had to do was what he was taught in training and maybe solve a few contingency plans.

Supposedly this Nightmare was a place the Spell thought fitted of his stature. But all of it was…a little too much wasn't it?

Statues? Cults? Blood power? Catacombs?

Could a simple soldier really adapt to this sort of setting? 

'Ah dammit…'

Of course he could.

Adapt. Adapt. Adapt. That was what he trained for.

It wasn't impossible. But his body was acting strangely unresponsive compared to his mind's rational thought. He just had to find a way to relax. 

Hope sighed and buried his face in his hands.

Despite feeling the ground shake and the unknown chaos beyond those doors, he took deep breaths to steady his heart. He had to shake off this weird feeling. It wouldn't do him any good when he had to move on to solve the next problem.

He clenched his fists in his hair, counted to ten, then slowly let go.

He knew there was a high chance that there would be deaths in the Nightmare. Regardless if they were allies or enemies. 

Oh well. 

Nothing he could do about it now. 

But now the real question was…how to complete the Nightmare. He got to the Tears of the Heart God and yet he was still here.

'Ah right. I'm at the sacred water or whatever.'

He shoved aside memory traces of the knight, the beast, the carnage and lifted his face from his hands to embrace the new setting he was in. He didn't properly observe his surroundings due to the adrenaline of escaping, but now that he could, Hope's eyes widened slightly in shock.

It was a small cavern with blue aquatic reflections dancing along the walls like wisps of blue flame. He was sure it came from the sacred water which sat behind him, but he didn't look back just yet because something else had his attention…which was the graveyard of skeletons loitered all around him…

They were all in different positions. There were skeletons curled into a ball as they held their limbs, others clawed at the walls leaving a series of scratches with faint black traces of what old blood could have been, others held their craniums as if to prevent it from falling apart. Then finally, there were some who crawled their way back towards the entrance, as if to escape some tragic fate from the water's luminosity. 

But among the aged rotten bones were bright-red berries that grew amongst them. Its vehement color stark against the blackened soil glistened like a hundred tiny blood droplets. Their thistles entangled around the rib cages and eye sockets as if claiming the dead as their own. 

". . .this was not exactly what I had in mind either." Hope muttered.

None of it made sense to Hope.

Wasn't this sacred water supposed to grant life? Or maybe 'immortality' for that matter?

Well maybe not immortality. Longevity maybe. Immortality sounded too extravagant of a gift. The goddess would be a fool if she had done such a thing.

Hope slowly stood up and stared at the graveyard of bones, a morbid mixture between nature and man flooded his view. However, Hope noticed that wasn't the only thing on the ground. 

He noticed telltale writings scrawled across the soil and scratched onto the cavern walls. There was a reason why they clawed the earth in desperation. Not out of madness, but in hopes for something else. It seemed that with their dying breath, they were trying to relay a message with their bare fingers, as if warning to any newcomer who came to drink from the sacred water. But they were all in rune-writing in which Hope did not understand. Not even the Spell offered translation. 

Whatever it was, it clearly had to be an omen.

Hope finally looked over his shoulder at the source of the cavern's ambience. There it was a great wide pool illuminating a brilliant blue light. It was a similar blue that Hope wore under his priest's cape. Hope recalled how he compared its color to be richer than any clear sky he'd ever seen.

But was it really like the color of the sky? 

Not the sky of high noon, but the type of ambience when dusk sets. A chilling color with a faint warmness to it left by the sun before it drowned its last goodbyes to the moon. 

Hope thought his comparisons probably didn't do it justice. He wasn't good at describing things in a proper light. Maybe it was because of his lack of education or his lack of living outside of the army. Maybe then he would have enough comparisons to properly describe things as he truly saw them or felt.

Such as this new feeling. 

For some reason he felt in his heart a weird energy stirring inside of him. Like the rush of cold water, or the kindle of a warm flame, or the slight shivers of the night. A whirlwind of something threatening and comforting was tugging on him. Was it because of the water's presence, hand touched by the goddess herself?

Did this water really give life?

Hope could hear murmurs instead of screams coming from the water, as if it were calling to him gently.

What sat in the middle of the pool was a great statue of the Heart God herself. Carved flowers blossomed at her feet, vines trailed up her dress in an intricate fashion, and her hands were clasped around her chest where her heart was. Her head was tilted as she stared down where Hope stood with an expression of tenderness. Similar to the one he saw back at the cathedral.

Unlike those corrupted statues.

Hope blinked at the sight and felt his mouth go dry. "Tears of the Heart God…what exactly did you cry for…?"

What grave sin did the people commit that she held back her gift? 

Or maybe even cursed it…?

Kraaaawwwwr!!

Hope immediately turned to face the entrance. The whole cavern shook again as something rammed into the door from the other side.

Dust spewed out of the cracks and rocks bounced off the walls with each quake. 

Once. Twice. Four times…

The beast was trying to break through.

Boom!

Boom!

BOOM!

'Dammit. What the hell do I do now?'

Hope stumbled when a bigger impact occurred. This time the doors cracked.

'What the hell am I supposed to do!?'

Hope gritted his teeth and stared at the doors helplessly. Whatever happened on the other side with those statues, the beast seemed to be more bent on getting Hope now. 

Hope scanned the cavern, looking for an escape route, a weapon, a crevice to hide in. Anything! Should he hide in the water? No. He couldn't dismiss the fact that these skeletons seemed to have suffered a terrible fate when they consumed the water. Anywhere but there. 

Hope's eyes fell on the thistles. More specifically on the red voluptuous berries.

He made a deep frown as a sudden thought crossed his mind. A memory of when the knight spoke of the cultists consuming 'bloodbane' berries.

Made by spilt human blood he said. 

This graveyard seemed just the perfect terrain for it. 

'Tsk fine. Say if it works…No it's still a bloody beast, what if it doesn't work!?'

BOOM!

"Arrg dammit!"

Throwing all logic out the window, he was going to bet his life on chance.

Hope immediately dropped to the ground and carefully disentangled the thistles from the bones.