Nightmare Mythos

"I am Apathy,"

Cesar immediately grabbed the key from his pocket and twisted it mid-air, imagining the gates of the Hidden Village.

Not even a few seconds passed, and a gaped hole opened up in the air.

"What's with the haste? Don't you want to know something interesting? How was I able to manipulate everyone's actions?" Apathy tone seemed to be having fun as he reassured, "Don't worry, killing you now hasn't been part of the plan. Yes, I designed the assassination but I know you'll survive it,"

Arnold who knew that he wasn't included in the conversation due to how clueless he was, looked back and forth between Cesar and Apathy.

He wanted to interrupt the conversation between the two but he was afraid that his life would be in great danger by pestering someone of the caliber of the mysterious figure, Apathy.

Hence he stayed quiet and continued listening to whatever came out of their conversation.

But will Cesar continue listening to a Nightmare's gibberish?

Obviously not.

Becoming more exposed by a Nightmare that even Cedeit had warned him about will lead to complications.

Cesar could even imagine a lot of downsides of being near them, much more when fighting them.

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That's why he needed advice coming from a party that is of the caliber of these guys, which sadly will not be happening soon.

'Cedeit… just why the hell are you not talking?'

After he fainted while stopping the assassins that tried to take his head at the Castle Hearth's roof, Cesar had never heard Cedeit speaking a word in the entire time.

It made him worried but he already had suspicions as to why he was being like this.

'It's probably related to that consciousness… I've never seen it within me the moment I wake up. Is Cedeit hibernating perhaps?'

With his Nightmare gone when would've been a helper in this situation, Cesar was left with no choice but to think for himself.

Cesar let out a calming breath.

'For now, Apathy isn't making a move on us. Heck, we wouldn't even notice him doing something if not for the fact that he willingly showed himself. Does that mean he wanted to talk?'

Cesar let out a grumble.

'I've been doing a lot of talking in the past month that this thing is already making me tired,'

Letting the gaped hole open for them to escape any time, Cesar removed his nervousness and reassured Arnold that he had everything covered.

'Why is he reminding me to calm down? I am calm!' Arnold mused inwardly as he awaited for the two to continue.

Then, Cesar's lips curled upward, "May I know about your future plans?"

Apathy whose mood seemed to be great, nodded once and retorted, "Let's see. I guess protecting myself from the ones that continued hunting us now? You should warn Deceit about it. It wouldn't take long before all our enemies would come to this world and wreak havoc. Even The Void, the premature one, seemed to be hunting him. Didn't they have a teacher-student relationship?"

'Huh…? Deceit and the Void had that kind of relationship?'

Cesar frowned upon that piece of information but he connected it with the eerie words The Void had uttered while he was escaping from its clutches.

'The Void called me Master because she sensed Deceit within me? Is that related? Wait, why did I think she's a she,'

Apathy then continued, unbothered in whatever he was thinking, and added, "And by the way, don't trust the Unholy Trinity too much. Nor the Five Misalignments or Seven Unturned Stars. The latter group I mentioned will probably make a deal with you, but be careful,"

'Five Misalignments… Seven Unturned Starts… So it is a group,'

As Apathy continued to talk, Cesar continuously took a mental note about the mentioned names that seemed important.

It was free knowledge regarding Nightmares, and it was no other than Origin Entities no less.

Cesar took a mouthful of gulped and asked, "Regarding "Them", which should I watch out for? Just in your own opinion…"

Apathy looked at the castle as if he was waiting for something to happen.

The moment he saw that the time wasn't still up and no apparent changes were happening, he continued entertaining Cesar by answering his question.

Apathy smirked as he gave a roundabout answer, "In the darkness full of only nothing, be careful of the ones that knew you. He sought any vanished beings and guided them to confusion. That's one clue."

He then proceeded to tell the next one, "An old sly snake. She loves bringing other entities down with only her incontrollable words. Defamation is her strength and feeds onto it. That's another,"

He then proceeded to tell the last one, "A guy you wanted to 'avoid' at all cost. He's a bit introverted hence you'll never see him around that much. However, beware once you land his gaze on him. He's no ordinary and completely elusive,"

'That's three Entities, meaning three other Origin Nightmares…'

Cesar put those descriptions at the back of his mind in case he accidentally met those creatures Apathy was describing.

Upon seeing that Apathy was still waiting for something at the crescent-shaped castle, Cesar probed on what might be his last question for today.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Why are you on this fountain?"

Apathy slightly tilted his head as if he got confused by that statement.

"Why am I here…"

He sighed, "Well, I'm on my way to retrieve one of my consciousness inside this castle. It is my humble abode. If you're not busy, do you want to go in together and see what's waiting for us inside?"

"I humbly decline…"

Cesar immediately rejected the idea of joining the Origin Nightmare in his upcoming adventure inside the castle, and he had no idea that could be entered by someone.

He looked on the side and saw the astonished face that Arnold couldn't remove from his face.

'Yeah, I guess that gives him the reason where this fountain came from…'

Soon, the three of them felt light tremors inside the fountain's dimension and locked their gazes at the castle.

And just as Apathy mentioned, the crescent-shaped castle manifested a door right in front of the Nightmare which seemed to not have happened throughout its existence to humanity.