Chapter 26: Entering The Nightmare Nest

—–

It didn’t take long. After half an hour of flight, I reached my destination: a vast pine forest nestled among towering mountains.

The forest was no longer covered in pristine snow. Instead, it had become something twisted and alien. Purple crystals, black miasma, and an unnatural darkness radiated from within, warping the very space around them.

“Ah, the infestation is worse than I imagined…” Mongrel muttered. “What could have triggered such rapid growth in this Nightmare Nest?! If we don’t stop it, it might spawn an actual Nightmare Gate! Could this be a planned invasion?!”

His words sent a cold shiver down my spine. I gasped, staring down in disbelief. This forest had once been peaceful; a place I had visited many times with Auntie to gather herbs and supplies. Now it lay shrouded in darkness, corrupted by crystals and leaking miasma that poured endlessly from its core.

“Stop scaring me! What do you mean by a Nightmare Gate?” I demanded. “Like the one that accidentally opened when you tried to hijack our Summoning Spell?”

“Precisely,” Mongrel replied, crossing his small tentacles. “We Nightmare beings can infiltrate other worlds through this method. Nightmare Energy is like a living curse—it devours space, time, and reality itself. By controlling it remotely, one can slowly erode a world’s dimensional membranes until a Nightmare Gate can be formed. Once that happens, a Nightmare King can invade freely and spread his realm, twisting everything in his path.”

“What? That sounds terrible…” I muttered. “Do you think there’s actually a King behind this?”

“…We’ll need to inspect the interior first,” he said. “Well, if you’re so confident about winning, then you surely aren’t afraid, right?”

“Ah! O-Of course not…” I nodded quickly. “Let’s go! Paragon, please protect my back.”

The Incarnation of my Spiral of Eternity nodded silently and floated beside me.

The moment I descended, the suffocating darkness pressed against me. It was incredibly potent. I immediately cast Harmony across the forest, burning away the Nightmare Erosion, but the corruption surged back almost instantly.

“You’re wasting your time,” Mongrel explained. “There must already be a Nightmare Erosion Core inside this territory. Unless you destroy it completely, the erosion will keep spreading.”

“That sucks…” I sighed. “Then I guess I’ll have to destroy it.”

“…Or let me eat it,” he added.

“What?”

“N-Nothing!”

“Hm.”

I nodded and scanned the area for wild monsters, but none appeared. Everything had already been drawn into the Nest. The black trees had merged into a dark, twisting labyrinth. Using my breath here would be pointless—the corruption would simply regenerate.

“Let’s go.”

Nervously, I stepped forward with Paragon in front of me and Mongrel behind. Ariel and Asmodeus floated at my left and right sides. The two of them hadn’t leveled up at all; they needed compatible materials to grow, and I had found very few so far.

The interior of the Nightmare Nest was even darker than I had imagined. Thick black fog blanketed the area, and strange corrupted crystals grew everywhere. When I used Harmony on them, the crystals exploded into millions of glittering shards and did not regrow.

“These don’t seem to regenerate like the corruption,” I noted.

“Hm. They’re Nightmare Crystals—excellent sources of Nightmare Energy,” Mongrel explained. “They form over time through the accumulation and crystallization of that energy. The corruption you’re cleansing plays no part in their creation.”

“I see…” I nodded and began storing every crystal in my Inventory. After spending another 500,000 System Points, I had expanded it to 20 slots. Since every crystal counted as the same item, they stacked neatly in a single slot.

[Master, are you not negatively affected by the Nightmare Essence in any way?]

Astrea sounded genuinely worried.

“No, I’m fine,” I reassured her. “I was trapped inside a Nightmare Domain before and nothing happened to me. I believe I’m completely immune to it.”

I walked into an area thick with corruption and touched the miasma. The black energy could not even penetrate my skin. When I channeled a bit of my own power into it, the miasma simply burned away into smoke.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“I think I can absorb this energy too… Chaos.”

I focused and drew upon my power as a Chaos Demon, pulling in the surrounding Nightmare Essence. Just as I suspected, my stats began to rise temporarily and my mana regeneration surged. The very energy that could mutate living beings was nothing more than a delicious snack to me.

“As you can see, I’m immune to it—and I can absorb it,” I explained. “I think it has to do with my Chaos Element. I’m like my mom, a Chaos Spirit. Nightmare Essence must originate from Chaos as well.”

“I never thought about that, but you’re not wrong…” Mongrel said.

[Incredible! I told Hrymdra and she seemed just as shocked as I am! She said you should still be careful though. Do not lower your guard.]

“Got it.”

I pressed forward, surrounded by the oppressive darkness. I constantly cast Harmony, twisting the Nightmares around me into Bright Dreams—only for them to rapidly twist back into Nightmares once more.

These floating fragments were not true living beings. They were shards of images, memories, and souls that had been absorbed into this phenomenon, perhaps even into the entire dimension of nightmares.

“GRYARR!”

A Nightmare emerged before me. It was beast-like, similar to the wolves I had fought before, but covered in black and purple fur with sharp purple crystals jutting from its body.

This was likely one of the Nightmare Beasts I had been expecting. Unlike pure Nightmares such as Mongrel, these were once-living creatures corrupted by the energy.

“That one must be a Nightmare Beast. Be careful…!” Mongrel warned.

“What do you mean ‘be careful’? You’re fighting it with Paragon,” I said. “Go!”

Paragon and Mongrel charged forward, though the latter did so reluctantly. Paragon swung his silver blade with blinding speed, severing the monster’s legs and sending it crashing to the ground. Mongrel transformed into a massive tangle of tentacles, coiling around the struggling beast as it bit into his flesh.

“Ouch! Ouch! Don’t bite me!”

Despite his complaints, Mongrel fired laser beams from his eyes, punching holes through the creature. I followed up with three Harmony Knives infused with Origin Flames.

BOOOM!

The Nightmare Beast screamed in agony as white-gold flames consumed it. Paragon ended its suffering with a swift decapitation. Unlike pure Nightmare lifeforms, Nightmare Beasts still possessed normal vital points. Removing the head was enough to kill them.