Way of the Knights

Chapter 815: Nightmare Realm

—

"…so, are we going to do this or what?" 

"Alright, geez! Can't you like, chill? I told you there's still five minutes left before we can enter." Paul huffed at Mark's impatience. 

Both of them are currently standing in front of a Spatial Tear, an unstable one at that. They've camped not too far away from the entrance since they have to work to do at the other side of that spatial tear. 

They are currently at the Howling Wind Great World, located somewhere south of the Divine Realm. The Spatial Tear in front of them is the entrance to a realm called Nightmare Plains – a danger zone that has claimed numerous lives since it has appeared.  action

Mark and Paul are here under official business – meaning they're here as representatives of Dawn Council. They're wearing badges and uniforms which had the crest of the council embedded at the back. 

People already saw them and cleared the area out for them which was convenient. They didn't really want people to be entering the realm at the same time as them since it could get risky when they're involved. 

"Alright, it's about time." Paul stated, standing up from the rock he's sitting. 

"About damn time." Mark ġrȯȧnėd as he stretched his neck and prepared for some action. "You got the seal ready?" 

"Yep." Paul nodded. 

Without any further ado, Paul walked at the Spatial Tear just as the same time when it started releasing an ominous light. Paul slammed his hand on it, applying the seal at the tear almost immediately. 

Dark gold and pale silver lines started weaving across the spatial tear. They formed an intricate design which covered the spatial tear and stabilized it. Harnessing it and keeping it from becoming unstable. It only took seconds before the seal dimmed and disappeared.

The Spatial Tear now transformed into a Spatial Node – one that is stable and won't close down at any given moment. This means that they're not pressed on time anymore. 

"I've said this once and I'll say it again…" Paul muttered as he stepped closer to the spatial node, "Raven's seals makes everything so friggin' convenient."

Mark just chuckled but didn't disagree. Why would he? What Paul said was true anyways? 

It had be to known that although the process of stabilizing space looked and sounds simple, it takes a lot of effort and knowledge to do so. 

An unstable space will always be dangerous. It can give birth to spatial storms and interference. Heck, make one wrong move and you'll end up at a completely different place altogether. 

Not even those who understood the profound Laws of Space can just stabilize it. Like what was mentioned earlier, it takes a lot to do that. 

Transforming a Spatial Tear – an unstable and dangerous shortcut from Point A to Point B, into a Spatial Node – a stable and perfectly safe passage from Point A to Point B, requires even more. 

Not to mention, doing it within seconds through a remote seal? Some people wouldn't even be able to know where to start doing all that. But Raven could, and this is why the Dawn Council is lucky to have him. 

—

Paul and Mark entered the Spatial Node and took their time to arrive the other side. 

They travelled for a hour before they eventually reached their destination, the Nightmare Plains. 

"Oh, they were not kidding about this place." Paul's expression looked disgusted. "It smells horrible here. Ew." 

Even Mark's not immune to the scent of this place. Both of them unceremoniously pulled-up their hoods and put on their face masks in to filter out the smell, which made things more bearable at least. 

The Nightmare Plains isn't only notorious for its foul stench though. It hides worse things that this, obviously. It wouldn't be labeled as a Danger Zone if this was it. 

"Oh dear. I can already feel them coming." Paul's words sounded muffled with his face mask on but Mark still understood what he said. 

"How many?" Mark asked. 

Paul stomped his foot twice – this was him using Seismic Sense to spy ahead, a second later he replied: "Thousands?"

"Great." Mark snorted, "I thought we handed out missions to cut down their numbers?" 

"It isn't a popular mission though. At least that's how Laughing Dragon describes it." Paul stated as he took out his spear and shield. "Not a lot of people want to come here, they don't like this place."

"…sounds about right." Mark shrugged as he too summoned his short swords flickering with crimson lightning. 

Mark felt something that made him pause though, something that Paul didn't fail to notice. 

"Felt something?" He asked. 

"Yep." Mark snorted, "There are some nasty things at the very back. I can feel their malice all the way here. If I'm not wrong, they're sending more this way." 

"Oh. Perfect. Love that for us." Paul scoffed as a marine colored glow erupted from his body. Both of them continued marching forward until Paul warned: "Heads-up, first batch incoming in five seconds."

"Roger that." 

Just like what Paul said, the first batch of enemies did appear after five seconds. 

A messy structure of tangled limbs came to their view. The enemies looked big but clumsy. They ran towards them like wolves who smelled blood though – feral and exited. They moved at a speed that shouldn't be possible with their huge frames. Then again, these are monsters, common sense doesn't apply to them. 

Seeing the monsters makes them understand why this place was named as the Nightmare Plains. The monsters here looked exactly like the ones that person would see in their nightmares. 

Red-eyed and strange, every single monster was unique and freaky. Some of them had faces of infant babies with bodies blown completely out of proportion. Some of them had animalistic properties and so on. 

What they do have in common is that, they are hostile to anyone that's not like them. There's quite a lot of them here too and their horde can give even Empyreans a headache. 

Well, not Mark and Paul though. 

The two swaggered like they owned the place. They held their weapons but they weren't on the offense. They're just slaying anything that comes close. 

Paul's spear would hiss like a poisonous serpent, tearing any abominations that comes close while Mark's crimson lightning straight up toasted them. 

None of them were in a hurry. It is part of their mission to cut down the numbers of abominations down so there's no need to rush to the hostiles ones at the back. 

"Oh. So that's why even Empyreans avoided this place." Mark muttered as his lightning armor toasted another abomination. 

"What is it?" Paul asked. 

"Well, these things are a pain in this ȧss." Mark scoffed, "They can't quite die, you see. They're bound to this place. And the nasties at the far back are bringing them back to life just as fast as we are killing them." 

"Son of a…" Paul ġrȯȧnėd as his spear turned into a blur, cutting down ten abominations into ribbons in one go. "So that's what's up. Ugh. I hate this already." 

"Who do you think's responsible for this? Jade or Monkey?" Mark asked. 

"I'd both actually." Paul snorted, "With the addition of Lady of course, only she can give birth to these Abominations?" 

The people they're referring to are the previous members of the Dawn Council. 

See, the Nightmare Plains isn't something natural. It is a man-made realm, created for mostly unknown purposes but if these two will guess, it would probably be something alone the lines of 'Greed' and 'Schemes'. The previous Council were good at that apparently. 

The Nightmare Plains is a tumor to the Howling Wind Great World. First and foremost, going in here is dangerous by itself since the entrance was previously a Spatial Tear. This place doesn't have anything valuable except maybe the remains of the dead people and their belongings. And last but not the least, the enemies are practically endless. 

Going here isn't just worth it. But even so, the citizens of the Howling Wind Great World has to or else, they'll be invaded by the Abominations inside. They need to constantly send people in despite their unwillingness since they need to cut their numbers down, however, they never actually did anything different, they just send their men to die. 

"You think something different will happen if we get rid of those bringing them back?" Paul asked tentatively. 

"Who knows? Want to try?" 

"You go instead." Paul shrugged, "You're faster than me. Leave these weaklings to me." 

"Alright." Mark nodded and immediately disappeared into a flash of crimson colored light. 

Paul continued swaggering towards the core of the realm while cutting down the Abominations into ribbons with his spear. 

A minute passed like this and Paul suddenly felt the work darken. All of a sudden, a loud thunderclap sounded and a flash of crimson pillar of lightning descended at the forefront of the realm. Paul saw this and shook his head:

"Man, he sure does not waste time." 

"OI, PAUL!" Mark's voice echoed. 

"WHAT?"

"COME HERE!"

"COMING!"

"HURRY!"

"I DON'T FEEL LIKE RUNNING!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"YOU TOO!"