First Nightmare (4)

'Tears of the Heart God…?'

Well, at least he found a clue on what his objective may be. 

The only god he knew belonging to the Dream Realm was the Sun God. Mostly because that was one of the famous rumors people have spread around on that Immortal Flame guy.

But Hope didn't even know if there were even multiple gods. 

With that thought, Hope had a feeling that learning more about them would make things complicated in the future. 

Luckily that was if he studied furthermore into it in which he didn't plan on to. It wasn't necessary if that wasn't part of his field. He wasn't some archeologist or scientist.

Hope's eyes quickly darted to something moving behind the elder. Out of the shadows, one of the cultists approached the elder. It was also hard to make out his features under his hood, but his hands looked sickly thin when he held his crude spear.

'Huh. How strange.' Were all of these men in silver hoods suffering from some sort of sickness?

'Hmm…there has to be something else at play.' Hope would just make a note of it for now.

"Father," the other man spoke, "if you spill blood here then it will attract the beast…"

The elder sighed and rolled his neck back leisurely.

"No worries. The village is quite vast and there are a great number of prey to chase. This young boy was just about to answer. Right?"

"…"

If Hope didn't answer soon enough, then more unnecessary blood would be shed. Who knows. Maybe the elder would be too impatient and kill him next instead.

'Come on. Think. Think. Think. Think.'

Maybe he could lie about knowing the way to buy some time. He was doomed either way.

Hope's eyes trailed back at the dead priest's face. The lifeless eyes gazing up at the cathedral's skeletal structure as if it were calling his soul to the darkness. 

The seeping blood surrounded his head, its blood slowly forming into a pool of black on the floor like a spillage of ink-

'Wait...'

Black…

Ink…

Hope's mind flipped through a sequence of memories at a sudden tangent thought.

Finally, an image flashed in his mind back when he first appeared on the balcony. After the knight came in and dashed to the corner of the room.

The maps. The burning of the scrolls. 

The scribbled writings. Although he didn't understand that language. But it was there!

Hope sometimes had a weird tendency to link memories together from the simplest sight of things. He could stare at a rock's formation and think about the carapaced beasts he fought. Or a crack in the city's wall and think how his continent was falling apart, and they were eventually doomed in the far future. 

Or maybe not. 

Rarely were they that extreme and comical. 

Hope only glanced at the maps at the beginning of his Nightmare yet he could remember them clearly. And they were of great importance if the knight was so determined on burning them.

'That has to be it. The way to the Heart God or whatever special water they're after.'

He paused. 

Could that be from his attribute? He remembered one of them listed as [Keeper of Memory], along with the other odd two names, but he didn't have time to study it yet. Even so, he did realize his memory had become detailed to some degree. It luckily presented itself very useful in this situation.

'Although too bad for the knight who went through the trouble of burning them only for me to recite it by memory.'

Hope raised his head to the elder. "I know of it." 

"Oh?" The elder raised an eyebrow. 

Hope continued on. "I'll show you the way."

He felt all eyes turn on him.

The murmurings stopped, filling the dark sanctuary with an eerie silence. 

The knight began to protest but was instantly silenced by one of the other priests. That seemed to be a smart move. Any further inappropriate action from the hostages could bring unnecessary punishment. This strangely rational priest, who appeared to be mid forties, gave the knight a slight shake of his head. 

'Hmm…' However, his eyes were calm. Too calm. Did he know something Hope didn't? Or maybe he also accepted their doomed fate?

Hope decided to ignore it. His priority remained the same: Survive. 

To get out of this hellish Nightmare as fast as possible.

Hope shifted his legs to position himself to stand.

"And it isn't far." Hope slowly rose to his feet with hands raised to show he meant no harm. "The path starts…" He pointed. "Over there…"

Hope pointed at the wall behind the altar.

On each side was a tall female sculpture, presumably of the goddess or 'Heart Mother' as one of the priests whispered under his breath earlier, standing post. She had her hands held out, palms facing up, and a veil cloaking her face with a subtle smile forming through. 

If his memory served him right, there should be a pathway just beyond it.

The only problem was unlocking that secret passage. 

The elder seemed to have noticed the reluctance in Hope's eyes. Wrinkles formed between the old man's brows in suspicion.

"Open it."

'Shit.'

Hope held back a sigh.

Here came the difficult part in 'faking till you make it.' At least, that was how Hope remembered people describing this kind of difficult situation. 

Hope slowly walked past the altar, the gazes of everyone else tracing his movement. Hope ignored them and placed a palm against the cold marble wall; it felt cool and smooth to the touch.

Maybe there was some hidden button in the wall like some novels mention. Well, in all honesty Hope didn't really read all that much. He mostly heard from fellow soldiers of these types of scenarios in fiction that they've read. Like for instance some secret button to a secret passage. Hopefully it wasn't complicated to find. 

Hope glanced at the middle part of the wall and pressed into the block.

Everyone's breath hitched and then…

…Nothing happened…

He moved to the next block.

And still nothing happened…

Maybe the top corner block will work. Or the bottom corner. 

He tried another. Then another. Then another…

"..."

"..."

'...maybe it's a lever?'

"You seem to be stalling, boy." The elder said in a low voice.

"Just…one second…"

Finally, his fingers brushed over a slightly rougher texture at the far-right side of the wall. Although it wasn't visible to the eye, when he felt the tracings, it formed an outline of a tear drop with a flower in its center.

Hope quickly pushed into the block and suddenly a part of the wall, about the size of a doorway, slid backwards a few inches. 

Krrrrrrrrrrr.

Stone scraped heavily against stone as it moved slowly to the side, revealing a long downward staircase in front of him. It appeared quite narrow; the arching roof was low over the flight of steep stairs disappearing into the dark abyss with dry black soil compacted on each side.

It seemed his luck and assumption weren't so bad so far. Hope would have been satisfied in solving this small puzzle, but now he had another factor to worry about…

'There's still that beast roaming around.' 

There should be just one monster in the First Nightmare. No wait. Maybe there were more? No one confirmed it to him if it was just one or several. But there had to be one that was of 'boss' level. 

He didn't know what rank or class it could be either, which also served a problem. However, its ability may be related to fire. And the cult may have led it here so maybe it wasn't too strong of a rank? A rank that they could handle if things went wrong with whatever power they had at their disposal.

And it seemed like things have gone slightly wrong. 

As one of the followers mentioned, blood had been spilt here, and soon the beast will catch up.

If that were true, then the beast must be attracted to blood. It must be relying heavily on scent to track down its prey. So, they should be on a time limit.

Hope couldn't help but think how typical it was for enemies to slip up and cause their own misfortune without even realizing it.

Just a few words from them and that could be used for his advantage.

He just had to be perceptive enough to catch those details.

'Cults. Beasts. Gods. Treasure. What's next? Curses?'

"Well done, young boy!" The elder sauntered forward next to him and patted Hope on the shoulder. 

Hope eyed at the wrinkly fingers. 

"Come now all of you. Hahaha no time to waste! We've been waiting too long for this."

The hooded men in silver robes approached the remaining priests and one knight, roughly pulling them up by their arms.

The mood among the priests became even more sour. Hope expected it. He willingly offered to reveal a big secret that belonged to the church after all. 

One of the priests, a slightly older one than himself, glared at Hope.

"You are a condemned young man. You have no idea what you've just caused."

Hope simply turned away, not wanting to engage a pointless trivial conversation, which angered the priest even more. The knight also shook his head in dejection, not fully understanding Hope's actions either.

Hope didn't need to convince anyone of why he did what he did. If it meant completing his trial then his choices would benefit him to do so. It felt the most obvious and logical thing to do anyways.

The elder sneered and, surprisingly, turned towards the knight that was brought near the front.

"Ah young knight." He grinned. "Such a shame that you did not fight with the rest of your brothers. It should comfort you to know that their deaths were very, very heroic. It seems they didn't have enough honor to stay alive."

The knight's face grew grim. "You have no right to speak of honor."

The elder smirked. "Of course. Pity they left you to defend the church on your own. You don't have the qualifications to even be on a real battlefield. And to make matters worse, your religion is…lacking. A religion not even worth dying for."

His words seemed to have stirred something inside of the priests. A mixture of shame and anger spread on their faces.

What kind of goddess was the Heart God anyway to receive this reaction from the elder?

The old men turned and met the rest of the priests' gaze. "For you all to simply give your names to the Heart God is a fool's gambit. Goddess of Souls. Goddess of Memories. She's all but abandoned you. Honestly, even with those titles she's not worth groveling for." 

The elder pushed Hope forward with the tip of his spear, causing him to take one step down the staircase. 

Ooooooooonngg—

The darkness eerily reacted to his presence. Hope's foot shifted on the step.

'…how creepy.'

A dark aura could be felt from far below the staircase, and faint screams could also be heard. Screams he thought came from outside of the cathedral were actually echoing from the deep darkness in front of him.

Out of the deep darkness, a supernatural wind blew past them, sending a cold shiver down his spine. It even made some of the priests more anxious. They now seemed to be more terrified by what was ahead of them than the actual capturers themselves.

'Well, someone is definitely dying tonight.' Hope thought.

The elder's followers started to light up their torches one by one. As they did so, their shadowed faces illuminated and revealed to be even more hideous.

They all looked to be aged. Deep creases like that of their leader were dragged all over their features. Some had their lower jaws jutted out. An upside down 'c' shaped scar was carved onto their eyelids, lips, and forehead. Their eyes looked bloodshot and had a weird craze in them. Almost as if they went on days without sleep.

As if something was gnawing them from the inside.

Naturally, the priests and the knight involuntarily took a step back at such a sight. 

The elder chuckled again as he held his torch aloft, the fire gleaming in all their eyes.

They all smiled and said in unison:

"Glory to the Beast God."