"Hope? Your hope?"
"Yes."
Leon was baffled; the first thing Cain created that solely belonged to him was actually a concept, one sprouting from himself no less!
One of the soldiers walked over, "Hey, did your hope, uh, weaken those Shades? How?"
Cain smiled, "I simply hoped you would win."
His simple response was nothing but; Cain had just admitted to them that his imagined concept could affect Nightmares because he simply 'hoped' it would! What kind of logic is that?
But, this was the Land of Dreams....anything was possible.
"Well, could you help us out of this situation?"
"I can't just do that. I can only use hope to affect a future outcome in the present situation. I think...I think it's like how Fate works, behind the scenes. Only my Hope is more direct...but much weaker."
"This is still great! We have a massive chance to save the Lord! You can hope for him to be saved!"
Leon was ecstatic, his eyes bulged in anticipation of seeing his Master once more.
However, Cain choked on his next words, "Leon....I don't hope for him to live, I hope for him to die."
The old ghost stopped, his face seemed to lose color although such a reaction should be impossible.
"What?"
Cain's face eerily contorted into an insane grin, "I know what I want to do now! I want to live here forever. I want to create a land of hope. I can do that here! My imagination can run wild, and I can do real good! This is what I've always wanted to do, what I always wanted to achieve!"
"You.....I.....no.....No!"
Clutching his head, Leon screamed in confusion before turning to mist and disappearing.
Cain didn't pay attention to it. He predicted his response would lead to this; instead, he looked back down at the glowing light in his palm.
His eyes turned glossy in enthrallment, 'With you...I don't need anything else. I can forget about everything and simply make this place a world she would want. Finally, I can achieve it!'
...
One swipe after another, Zeki dodged the ghostly hand of the 12-winged monster.
'One, two, three, four; one, two, three, four.'
Zeki performed a beautiful dance. Imagine move after move, he weaved together a move set that even some nobles would find hard to replicate.
His moves were refined and agile, each step more calculated then the last.
'One, two, three.....now!'
After dodging another swipe, Zeki's arm turned into a cannon, from it he launched a balloon sword that he sent straight at the moon on the Corrupt's forehead.
On contact, the sword melded into the moon, and the creature thought nothing of it.
Suddenly, after a few more bouts, the beast brought its bloody tendrils to its head. It was in pain.
Immediately upon this intense feeling, it reeled back as its maddening screams once more erupted; this time they were far more powerful, and many Wardens instantly lost control of their minds.
...
Fighting off one dark phantom after another, a man wielding two long daggers danced in a land of blood and death. Each arch of his blade took one life after another, sending the dark ones back into dust.
Noticing something, he looked up to see a balloon sword rain down from the sky and land in a swamp of blood and bone. From it, everything found itself in immense pain.
Even the figure clutched his head.
'Haha, whoever sent this has good taste. Is this an attack or a straw to grab?'
Contemplating his options, Cain watched the dark servants of the Primordial Horrors die one by one.
'Well, I'll take it. I was getting tired; hell, I might have had to go take a nap. It's unfortunate all those servants of mine turned bad after fighting these things. No rest for now!'
The dark ones quickly understood the balloon sword as the cause of their problems, but Cain also knew what was going on.
"Not so fast!"
Charging forward, the pale man defended the hilarious-looking sword.
Contrasting to the environment, it wasn't serious at all.
"I just have to outlast you weaklings, and then I can be rid of this headache!"
Cain turned more tenacious as he continued to fight an army of darkness in his mindscape.
...
The Corrupt One could no longer take the pain. In a bid to recover, it called back its operators of Horror and War and melded with them.
Very soon a tornado of Red and Black encased the gap in the City and shredded any and all Masters and Wardens before escaping to the abyss.
Protecting himself and a few others, Zeki watched while inside a bubble he blew.
"Not so fast!"
Raising his hand, he gave the middle finger to the escaping monstrosity.
Outside the bubble, a massive golden hand appeared, in the same gesture as Zeki. It sent down a ray of light. The holiness of the insult collided with the wretched beast and burned away at its cloudy form.
The pain exceeded the tolerance of the animal's mind, and it fell unconscious, returning to its physical form and plummeting below.
"Should we go after it?"
Zeki sighed, "No, the Horrors want to reclaim their prince. We can't intervene being so close to the abyss. All we can do is wait and make a trap for next time."
A Master grumbled, "I hope there won't be a next time. I wish you would get that lazy Dream Lord of ours to create an army to invade those damn Horrors!"
The clown rebuked, "No....we need balance; otherwise, we will no longer be favored," He spoke softly, so much so no one could hear him. Even so, realizing his own words, he subconsciously blocked his words with a wall of air as they escaped his mouth.
'That was a close one. If the Lord heard me say that out loud, he would get really angry. Can't have people knowing the Dream Realm has a mind of its own!'
Even his thoughts were theatrical.
...
Drifting down. Then plummeting some more.
That's all he did.
Cain had long expunged the servants of the Primordial Horrors; when he regained consciousness, he took the time to fix his body and rid it of their influence.
He long since returned to a normal humanlike form.
'So boring...I can't fly because those bastards are pulling me down....'
Cain had no way to escape a Horror's grasp, especially if it was one of the Three who "blessed" him. So instead, he waited to meet his captor.
One day, two days.
Weeks went by, and all Cain did was fall downward.
He didn't know how much time had passed; he was surrounded by pitch-black nothing. Time might as well be absent.
During this time he also began to reevaluate himself.
'Damn it. That's it, no more thoughts of freedom until I can realistically obtain it! I can't be brazen like an idiot again. I should also fix some of my flawed ways of thinking while I'm stuck like this....'
He continued to descend. At this point, he prepared to fall forever.
...
One year and 6 days later.
Cain woke up from a nap. He woke up because he could feel a presence below.
'So I finally reached your little hidey-hole.'
He tried to smile, but he had forgotten how to. He didn't move a muscle as he descended downward all this time.
Cain would mostly be in his mindscape replaying memories and organizing knowledge. From time to time, he would annoy or play with the few apparitions he recovered from the corruption of Nightmares.
He also found out one of the abilities granted from being a 'chosen' of the Horrors during this time.
It was the ability to manipulate other Nightmares powers. An ability only the Three Primordial Horrors and their blessed could have, and it was how they reigned supreme among all the horrors.
'To think they gave me such a nice gift for using my body. I could almost forgive them.'
It was then his back softly landed on something; it had been so long since he felt anything and his surroundings were silent.
Only after moving for the first time in a year did he learn to stand again, taking more than 10 minutes to do so. After finally getting up, he looked around.
The Corrupt Cain found himself in the palm of a giant skeleton.
Its bones were dim but gave off a weak and dark gray glow. Almost akin to a hologram more on the hazy side.
Finishing his analysis, Cain followed the hand and then up the arm; finally, he laid his eyes on the one who caught him.
He didn't need to guess, although Cain didn't know of the Three, the fear he felt was overflowing. The silent and serene aura that infinitely caused his skin to shiver made me understand this was no normal Horror.
It was a deep fear rooted in all living beings, the Primordial Horror.
Death.