Nightmare Mythos

"Hey, guys. Do you know why this city had that kind of name? City of Lights, Dawn Breaker, or whatnot?"

The others, who were wearing the same flying suit as him, flying goggles, and riding the flying balloon hovering atop the city\'s atmosphere, all shrugged their shoulders.

"Well, simple. You see, Dawn Breaker wasn\'t its name in the past. It\'s actually Dead City, a place where it was inhabitable for us humans. However, it was found right after humanity discovered that a city like this had been hiding from us throughout time. When everything has been cleared, the beauty of the city manifested. It became more so when the sun, like now, bathed its malevolence to this place, hence Dawn Breaker is born,"

The woman beside him jests, "Captain Oliver, I never took you as an enthusiast to history."

The captain of the Flying Brigade, Captain Oliver, smirked, "Well, you have to know everything if you\'re destroying the city isn\'t it? I just happened to read this somewhere and it was very intriguing."

Suddenly, one of Oliver\'s men approached him while carrying a speaker that was emitting a hazy aura.

Lending it over to Oliver, the Captain of Flying Brigade slowly walked towards the deck of their balloon ship as everyone around him began to disperse.

Tapping the speaker as he tried to test his voice once, Oliver finally managed to get ahold of the artifact at hand.

"Ahem, ahem..."

Oliver let out a huge smirk as he put the speaker at the highest volume.

Glancing behind him, and saw that he was the only one standing at his ship amongst the hundreds that were there with him a few seconds ago, Oliver knew their revolution was about to start. Discover hidden stories at empire

Crack!

The moment the breaking glasses of Castle Hearth resounded through his ears, Oliver shouted atop his lungs.

"Show\'s starting!"

Feeling all the bombs falling down at the main hall where important guests are cramped together, Oliver\'s voice became even more elevated.

"Kaboom!"

Booooooom!

The Castle Hearth that stood still for hundreds of years crumbled down right in an instant.

Stone splinters that were almost the size of a huge boulder spread across the city like a meteorite, falling down towards the nearby houses and families.

...

\'God damn it! This is absolutely unfair! I just came back from a few days coma and you\'re telling me I just got bombed right in front of my face?\'

Cesar grumbled angrily while being under the huge rubble.

Thankfully, Cesar wasn\'t hurt as the rubble was a few meters away from them. All of that is thanks to Jacqueline\'s shield that protected him and Arnold.

Cesar looked around at the people who weren\'t so lucky to withstand the explosion and also the splinters that came over to crush them.

Dead corpses and littered limbs were all over. The astonished reaction still lingered at the lifeless and pale faces of those people.

That was just around their area. Any more than that is just piles or rubbles and darkness.

\'I hope everyone\'s all right. I\'m sure they do.\'

Cesar couldn\'t help but be worried about the others yet he was confident in their ability to escape such a harrowing situation.

They already did once. For sure, unexpected situations are something they were already expecting.

Now, he had to worry about himself.

"How is this possible?! No, no! This can\'t be!" Arnold kept shouting as a familiar with a hideous face and daunting body appeared right beside him.

"Get me out of here,"

Using one of his Facets powers, the hideous figure that looked like a miniature version of some Nightmare nodded meekly.

"When I say to remove your shield, remove it right away got it? Nothing\'s going to happen and we\'ll get out of here,"

Arnold directed his tone to Jacqueline who was running out of ideas for exiting their situation, and agreed with a slight nod before waiting.

Then, as if it finally received the go-to, the miniature Nightmare transformed into another shield that cascaded them.

"Now…"

Slightly hesitating, Jacqueline let go of the shield that slowly began to exhaust her essence. As Arnold promised, no rubbles have fallen for them.

Right after the setup, this wall of Nightmare seemed to expand as little munching noise was heard until a path was made in their front.

"Can you run?"

Jacqueline looked at Cesar who understand what that meant. Giving a meek nod, the three began to run as the wall of Nightmare provided a path for them to move.

Along the way, the rest found some survivors who had a kit that saved their lives at the explosion and at the rubbles. They joined them at their run and slowly made themselves outside.

Arnold didn\'t seem to seemingly intend to rescue them as he was determined to leave the destroyed castle right away. Whatever came on their way, they just joined him.

Eventually, after the long run that took a longer time than it was supposed to, Cesar and the rest were finally out from the rubbles.

But the situation wasn\'t even better.

It got progressively worse.

Crack—!

Everything has been leveled at Dawn Breaker.

The tall buildings and their rubbles were spread across the city, forming boulders that pressed onto the poor lives of the civilians who had no means to defend themselves.

There was a burning fire on one side, too much screaming at the other, and a group of buildings that continued to explode, while another screamed at the world.

Everything was so chaotic together, that the sound became too loud. Nothing was comprehensible at this point as the situation appeared to be nothing but dread.

And above the skies were the disappearing balloon ships as they continued their travel across the atmosphere to blow their next target of the city.