Zyroth's body collapsed in the middle of the chaos-marked village square.
The others rushed to his side.
Hena (shaking him): "Zyroth! Wake up, idiot!"
Nell (checking his pulse): "He's breathing, but… something's wrong."
Kenny: "He's twitching… like he's fighting something in his sleep."
Teana: "Don't tell me… he's cursed?"
But inside his mind—Zyroth was in a nightmare.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
He stood alone, drenched in cold sweat, when a voice slithered through the void.
"Ahhh… there you are. My reincarnation. My flesh. My vessel…"
A figure of twisted shadow emerged—the Nightmare.
"You and I… are one. Give me your body. Return to me. You are mine."
Zyroth (covering his ears): "STOP! My head… my ears—it hurts!"
The nightmare laughed, the sound echoing like breaking bones and screams of the lost.
"Unsseal me… You… me… I am you… we are the same!"
Illusions spiraled around Zyroth. Hundreds of versions of himself screaming, bleeding, fading. Faces of people he loved—burning.
The nightmare closed in, towering above.
Zyroth (trembling): "Why me?! What do you want?!"
The nightmare grinned, its mouth splitting wider than a human face could hold.
"Why? Because your soul belongs to me. You're nothing but a fragment of me. Hand it over, you filthy human."
Suddenly, everything went silent.
Zyroth stood still.
Breathing heavily.
Then he looked up, anger burning in his red eyes.
Zyroth (growling): "…You think you can control me?"
He took a step forward.
Zyroth (shouting): "This is MY body! Mine alone! I'm not YOU!"
Light erupted around him, bright and furious.
The nightmare hissed, shrieked—its form cracking.
"NO! NOOOOOO!!"
Zyroth: "You'll NEVER take me!"
With one final scream, the nightmare shattered into mist.
Back in the real world…
Zyroth shot up, gasping for air.
Everyone jumped.
Selma: "He's awake!"
Hena (tearing up): "You idiot! Don't scare us like that again!"
Nell (relieved): "Welcome back."
Zyroth clutched his chest, staring at his hands.
Zyroth (thinking):
I saw it… a nightmare sealed inside me…
But when I screamed I wasn't it…
It vanished… like it was weak to rejection.
He looked up at the others. Something had changed.
Zyroth (softly): "I think… I know what it is now. Something's inside me. But it's scared of me too."
One: "Are you saying you scared a monster away… by yelling at it saying yoh are you??
Zyroth: "Yeah… and I'll do it again."