Principles

"Are you kidding me?"

Cain retreated under the onslaught of the tiny vermin attacking him. It wielded a tiny piece of sharp ceramic, but behind it was all the strength the Nightmare pocket held.

The child moved freely; its body supported by dark strings rising far above the house.

"I wish you luck, Dreamer. I hope you can end my Nightmare and save me. Even if by doing so...will be my demise."

The trapped Nightmare, the mysterious man, disappeared. Cain did not know where he went but he left him to fight the rapid child.

'You know, you should never think something is going to be easy....'

Giving himself advice with a sword in hand, Cain raised it against the bruised and damaged hollow suit of flesh and cut away at it.

Cain had never used a sword before, but he had fought before. His experience allowed him not to fumble, creating messy but powerful and swift strikes.

Under the barrage of magical silver, the rabid child backed away as its wounds let out dark vile air. It was deflating like a balloon, a horrendous smell covering the entire village.

A bog was created from his wounds, resulting in change. The ground turned rife with bones, trees sprouted from the ground and contorted into unnatural swirls, and the dark fog spread throughout all of it. One breath could result in terrible consequences.

Luckily, Cain still had his mask on. Not only was it meant to filter corrupted air, but it could filter anything, as is the power of imagination.

Now with the fiend retreating, Cain could press the attack. Charging after the runt, he ran out the door and followed it through the new environment. Chasing the beast as their footprints were left in the brown and green mud.

'How...is....he....so....fast!'

Cain was tiring; he was heavier than the small body of a hollow skinsuit, and his feet sank deep into the mud. Chasing the little terror became harder and harder as the beast scampered farther and farther away.

It would have been the end of this game of cat and mouse, but Cain wasn't the only cat.

When Cain thought all his energy left him, he clutched his knees to catch his breath making sure not to topple over.

But then, something brushed against his shoulder. Looking behind him was a friendly disc that began to circle him.

"Hah, Arlen, it's good to see you. Can you help me out? The principle is ahead, but the thing is quick."

Arlen didn't communicate with words; instead, it lowered itself as its body expanded and grew larger. It grew so wide Cain could lay on top and not reach Arlen's edges at all.

"You're the best!"

Cain climbed onto his metallic friend as it lifted back up and zoomed through the forest in chase of their prey.

...

"Evette, watch the right! Vera, back up behind me!"

The rest of the hunting crew were together. Unlike Cain, they didn't find anything and decided to head back.

This was a good and bad decision. Good because they could now hunt together, bad because the place they first landed in was now sprawling with Shades.

"Dalax, do you have anything yet?"

"No, Captain, I'm still calibrating."

The group was stuck in an ever-moving grinder of ghostly flesh and black sand. Shades swarmed the Dreams they so ravenously desired while consecutively dying in droves. They were not powerful, but they were many.

Evette swung her giant axe, cutting down tens of hungry fiends. Her grin widened as their corpses turned into black dust, drifting up into the air with the breeze.

"Captain, do you think Arlen and Cain are okay?"

"They went in the same direction; they should have met by now. They'll be fine Evette."

"Good, I don't want the rookie to die on our first hunt. What kind of teacher would I be then!"

The massacre continued while, behind a faraway tree, a figure covered in black skin up to his neck watched. However, he stopped staring at the battle to gaze up, looking at the sky.

'Someone is trying to break in....'

...

"There! He's there!"

Cain directed his flying ride to the small child still running. They had long exited the swamp and entered a barren land that seemed to be scorched by fire. The land had never been touched, as trees still stood.

What was strange was the fact that the lightest touch would result in those same trees turning to ash.

Not even wind blew in this place, nor were the moons in the sky. There was nothing at all.

'Is there even a territory like this, no, this is more like a corrupt zone. But pure energy is still here....is it because this is only a memory? What a strange and eerie place.'

Cain lingered on the origin of the scorched land, but he could only theorize.

The scorched lands were dry and black, and the runt was the one with a disadvantage, its flesh burned in the sands, and Cain could smell its cooked flesh.

"Faster, Arlen, this is our chance!"

Wobbling as it moved, the fiend was in great pain; its movements slowed, and now Cain and Arlen were seconds away!

But they were too focused on their prey, they could not see that the sky above them had broken. The image of an endless abyss blotted out a piece of the sky as a figure covered in black and red descended at terrifying speeds.

Just as Cain raised his sword, the figure crashed into the ground between them and the Principle. Buckling under the impact, the ground shattered and created a large crater.

Shaking off the nausea and dust of the impact, Cain weakly raised his chin as he watched an unknown figure rise.

It looked down at him and Arlen. It was then a terrifyingly familiar voice entered Cain's ears.

"Well, well, well, look who I found. You know I was looking to use this opportunity to become Corrupt, but this is too much of a surprise. I didn't think you would venture down here until you at least reached Dream Soldier."

'No...no, this can't be happening!' Cain's mind became increasingly alarmed. 

As the dust receded, "Cain's" figure was revealed. His blood-red eyes now held a dark abyss in their center, moving clockwise similar to whirlpools. His skin was pale white with dark lines moving throughout, all moving toward the Crimson half-moon on his forehead.

"What have you done!"

Cain knew what his other self did, he could feel it; he had become a Nightmare. As the shareholder of half their soul, he didn't know what effect such a change had.

"Why does it matter, don't worry you shan't be affected, you won't be affected by anything. I am in full control, of my destiny, of my mind, of everything!"

The Nightmare Cain stepped closer, the ground crunching with every step.

Cain was down for the count, his mind still rattling, and his body exhausted. But Arlen wasn't.

The disk rose to the challenge. Floating in the air, the disk seemed to show great hatred for the Nightmare before it. Arlen was intelligent enough to put everything together on its own.

"My my, a disk? This realm truly is strange. I thought due to the subconsciousness of people from reality, there wouldn't be many intelligent lifeforms without a bipedal form. But I keep getting proved wrong."

The edges of Arlen's body became hotter than the flames of hell; its body began to spin at extraordinary speeds before it flew off in Nightmare's direction.

But then the Nightmare "Cain" only raised one hand, and witnessing his actions, Cain, who was covered in ash and dust, grew horrified.

The chills he received beat off the heat as he watched the scene unfold before his eyes.

Arlen neared, and in response, Cain's fingers swung down. As they did, the disk lost all control and tilted forward, showing its top side. It couldn't slow down and was caught in the Nightmare's grasp.

"You know, telekinesis is cool and all, but when you use it to move, it will not go well against someone like me."

He then crushed the disk with one hand, a large chunk of Arlen's center was turned to scrap metal, and it was thrown aside.

"It seems I was giving it too much credit before. I can corrupt dreams, you know. Abilities you imagine can also be under my control. If you were a Warden, it would have been much harder for me to have done that....but well, you're just a Dream Soldier."

Finished with the disk, Cain turned to his other half.

This was a meeting destined to happen for a long time. Well...with the Shade "Cain" there, he was more so allowing this meeting to come to fruition. He said he was in control of his destiny after all.