Chapter 391: 391. Crater of Memories (Part 9)

The memory changed.

It was a rooftop overlooking the aftermath of the catastrophe that had changed Nicholas Arc forever.

Far below them a massive perimeter had been established around the office building. LUCID operatives moved through the streets with practiced efficiency, some awakened and others mundane, collecting evidence, containing remnants of the Nightmare Zone, and ensuring that the public would never understand what had truly happened.

Vehicles had been positioned around the area, medical personnel moved between the wounded, and specialized LUCID teams worked to alter the memories of witnesses who had seen too much. Nicholas stood at the edge of the neighboring rooftop with his hands resting against the railing, staring down at the place where he had nearly died.

The black creatures were gone.

The Beowolves had been hunted down and destroyed and the Amalgamation that had emerged had also been eliminated.

To everyone else, this would eventually become another unexplained industrial disaster, perhaps a gas leak or a structural failure. Perhaps even some other mundane tragedy manufactured by people who specialized in making the impossible appear ordinary.

But Nicholas knew better now.

He had seen the creatures and had even fought one with nothing but a broken desk leg and a lamp. And now, standing beside him, was the man who had stopped five of those monsters with a single word.

"Curious, isn't it?"

Tyrian said, his gaze drifting across the city.

"Humanity and the sufferings we go through."

Nicholas glanced at him. There was something strangely different about Tyrian now. The eerie female voice that had accompanied his command over the Beowolves was gone. There was no ancient resonance beneath his words, or a distant echo that seemed to crawl out from somewhere beyond reality.

It was simply Tyrian's voice, calm and almost conversational.

Nicholas remained silent, still attempting to process everything he had learned in the last several hours.

Tyrian continued,

"My dear Nicholas, you need not be afraid. But you should come to understand something. As you currently are, an accident could occur at any time."

Nicholas frowned.

Tyrian, seeing his expression gestured toward the ruined building.

"This time, a Nightmare Zone appeared in that building. But what would happen if one appeared somewhere close to those you cared about?"

Nicholas's eyes widened.

His family immediately came to mind.

His stomach tightened.

How did this man know? Tyrian seemed to notice the shift in his expression and smiled faintly.

"You wear your emotions on your sleeve. I merely guessed. You have a family, don't you? A wife? Or perhaps even children?"

Nicholas said nothing, and that silence was answer enough. Tyrian turned his attention back toward the city.

"In any case, you know that what I have said to you is the truth. But the question is... are you willing to do what it takes to keep them safe?"

Nicholas stared at the ground.

"I... but..."

Tyrian interrupted him before he could finish.

"You need not fully commit. Simply witness my vision. I have a feeling that with you by my side, I will accomplish a great many things. Think of the strength you would gain. No longer would you be as powerless as you were earlier."

Nicholas remained silent.

Behind him, Tyrian's expression gradually changed.

The smile faded and his eyes narrowed slightly, and after several seconds he quietly shook his head, as though disappointed by what he was seeing.

His hand rose. Invisible black light began gathering around his fingertips, so subtle that Nicholas, unaware of the supernatural world, couldn't possibly have noticed it. Tyrian's fingers slowly moved backward, preparing to swipe them forward toward the unsuspecting man.

Then Nicholas spoke.

"Power..."

Tyrian stopped and his hand lowered. Nicholas finally turned around and looked directly at him. His expression was no longer merely frightened.

It was conflicted.

He thought about the creatures downstairs. He thought about his wife and about his children who depended upon him. He thought about the possibility of one of those monsters appearing in his home while he was powerless to stop it.

"What... what do I have to do?"

Tyrian smiled.

.

.

The memory shifted again, and they were in an abandoned warehouse.

The building was old and empty, its walls stained with age and dust, the air cold enough to make every breath visible. Nicholas lay upon a small bed positioned in the center of the room. Around him, a circle of blood-red spider lilies had been arranged across the floor, their petals unnaturally vivid against the gray concrete.

Tyrian stood nearby, watching him.

"You know what to do."

Nicholas nodded. He closed his eyes and his heart was pounding. He knew that whatever happened next would change his life forever, though he had no idea how completely. His mouth opened and he began to speak the horrifying chant that Tyrian had taught him.

Then Tyrian's voice joined his own, and this time the woman's voice returned, ethereal and distant, layered beneath his words like something speaking from beyond the edge of existence. Together they spoke the invocation, each word seeming to deepen the darkness around them.

The Sleeper Beyond the Grave,

Matron of Slumbering Nightmares,

The Horror who denies the Sun.

The world seemed to hold its breath. Something descended upon the warehouse. It was not merely a presence but an authority.

A pressure that made the air itself feel insignificant. Nicholas felt something ancient looking through him, past him, and into the deepest reaches of his soul. For a moment, the ordinary man who had been playing with his children only days before understood just how small humanity truly was.

That night, a god entered his life.

.

.

The memory changed again.

Nicholas was sitting on the porch of their home with Seraphina beside him. Nicholas held a sleeping Celeste in his arms, her tiny body completely relaxed against his chest, while Violet rested on Seraphina's lap.

In the backyard, Taz was teaching a young Jaune how to punch. Jaune threw a punch that barely resembled a punch, stumbled through a kick, nearly fell over, and then immediately tried again with complete enthusiasm.

"Are you sure that letting Taz teach him to fight at such a young age is a good idea, Nicky?"

Seraphina asked.

Nicholas didn't look away from the yard.

"It's good exercise. And besides, it might come in handy one day soon. You never know if in the future someone might try to mess with him. This will give him an avenue to defend himself."

Seraphina frowned.

"But I'm worried he's going to get hurt."

Nicholas finally looked toward his wife. His expression softened and he reached over and gently stroked Violet's hair.

"I will keep him safe." His eyes moved from Violet to Celeste, then toward the rest of his family.

"All of you."

Seraphina smiled.

For one brief moment, Nicholas looked completely content. Then a cry came from the yard. Both parents turned their heads. Jaune had somehow managed to fall directly onto his face while attempting a kick.

Seraphina slowly turned back toward Nicholas and gave him a pointed glare. Nicholas looked away with an expression of profound sheepishness that made Seraphina's glare deepen.

.

.

Another memory followed.

Nicholas was in the backyard, but the pleasant domesticity had been replaced by the rhythmic clang of metal. Over the previous few months he had taken up blacksmithing, converting part of the backyard into a crude but functional forge.

He had built the structure himself, researched the techniques himself, and learned everything he could about metallurgy because Tyrian had made one thing clear to him: if Nicholas wanted to survive within the Dream Realm, he needed a weapon that would not break the moment he encountered something stronger than a mundane human.

Tyrian would provide him money, nothing more.

He would not train Nicholas personally, nor would he hand him some legendary weapon. If Nicholas wanted to become strong, he would have to forge himself into the kind of person capable of wielding strength.

Nicholas hammered the heated metal again and again, sparks scattering across the forge as sweat rolled down his forehead. He reheated the blade, placed it upon the anvil, and struck it once more. Each blow shaped the metal. Each blow also gave him something else to think about.

'I can't trust Tyrian. While he has been honest with me so far... his goal is ultimately to awaken Her. He's promised that they would be safe when she awakens and all the Grimm would serve us as if we were royalty... but is this really the truth?'

Nicholas internally sighed.

'And... I would be leaving every other human to a nightmare of terrifying proportions.'

Nicholas paused only long enough to turn the blade before hammering it again. He drew the metal through the fire, watching the color shift, then quenched it carefully. He worked on the edge, grinding and sharpening it until the shape began to resemble something worthy of being called a weapon.

'If I reveal him to LUCID... no. It wouldn't work. He knows about my family now. And... I don't know how strong he is as of yet. If they can't take him down and stop him, my family will be in danger.

He paused.

'Which means... first of all, I need to gain an understanding of what exactly it means to be a Rank 2 or a Rank 3. He's definitely in one of those categories.'

Nicholas wiped his brow and stared at the blade.

'For now... I'm trapped. But... maybe... if I create a rune that can assess credibility of sorts...'

The idea stayed with him as he continued working. He refined the grip, balanced the blade, tested its weight, and adjusted the edge. He wasn't merely making a sword anymore but an insurance policy against a world he had only recently discovered existed.

When the work was finally complete, Nicholas held the blade in both hands and examined it beneath the afternoon light. It wasn't elegant in the way legendary weapons were supposed to be but it was certainly practical.

Durable.

Something a man could depend upon.

Nicholas smiled faintly.

"I think... I'm going to call you... Crocea Mors."

.

.

The memory shifted to the Dream Realm.

Nicholas stood upon the remains of a ruined building beneath the crimson moon, Crocea Mors buried deep within the chest of a Beowolf. The creature dissolved around the blade, black particles scattering into the strange atmosphere.

Nicholas pulled the weapon free and opened his Nightmare System interface. His previous rune had already been imbued into Crocea Mors as a one-time rune, leaving him free to create another. He focused on the command.

The Nightmare System responded and an alien sensation descended into his mind as it searched the depths of his intent, asking without words what he wished to create. Nicholas concentrated on the problem that had been haunting him since Tyrian first brought him into this world.

Trust.

Deception.

Credibility.

The sensation faded. Nicholas stood still for several seconds before looking at the newly formed rune within his soul.

A smile slowly appeared on his face.

"Insight, huh?"

He looked toward the crimson moon.

"That's perfect."

.

.

Another memory came, and Nicholas was now a Rank 1.

Sleepless had begun growing around him. At first, there had only been Nicholas and Tyrian. Then Tyrian began sending him one or two people every week to manage.

"Call yourselves Sleepless," Tyrian had told them. "Because we shall never sleep until the Sleeper awakens."

Nicholas had initially been terrible at managing the organization. He understood logistics, but organizing awakened individuals with strange abilities was far beyond anything he had ever done. Insight changed that. It allowed him to recognize patterns, anticipate problems, assess people, and understand where weaknesses existed within the organization.

But Nicholas eventually discovered that there was another reason why Sleepless members obeyed so readily.

Tyrian was controlling them.

Insight allowed Nicholas to verify it.

Their personalities had not been erased and their memories had not been rewritten. However, their minds had been bent around Tyrian's objective until loyalty became instinctive.

It was horrifying precisely because it was subtle. Tyrian did not need to tell someone what to think. He simply altered who they were until they wanted to think it themselves.

Nicholas also confirmed something else.

Tyrian Callows was a Rank 3.

That realization terrified him more than any grimm ever could. Tyrian's influence was nearly impossible to detect through ordinary means.

One of the men that Nicholas was currently talking and managing, had once been part of LUCID, but Tyrian's Puppeteer Rune had converted him into a Sleepless spy. LUCID eventually caught him snooping through files under Nicholas's own orders.

The man's usefulness had expired, and Nicholas had no choice but to remove him from the organization, by faking his death.

It wasn't entirely the man's fault.

Nicholas's own lack of foresight had allowed the situation to happen. He wasn't capable of developing countermeasures for every possible scenario, and Sleepless was becoming too large to manage through logistics alone.

He needed an ace.

He needed something that could let him see threats before they became disasters. More importantly, he needed some way to ensure that if Tyrian ever turned his attention toward his family, Nicholas would know before it was too late.

.

.

Months passed.

Nicholas reached the peak of Rank 1.

He created and discarded rune after rune.

Prediction.

Calculation.

Premonition.

Presentiment.

Each had value and each had helped him manage Sleepless, yet none of them were enough.

Then he created Foresight.

It was different and even synchronized extraordinarily well with Insight, allowing Nicholas to peer into the future for roughly an hour when the two runes were used together. The cost was enormous, draining his aura rapidly, but the ability was transformative.

Suddenly infiltration problems could be anticipated. Issues with spying could be identified before they were acted out.

Potential disasters could be seen before they happened.

Nicholas had finally created the tool he needed to keep Sleepless from collapsing under its own weight.

.

.

A month later, Tyrian visited him at three in the morning.

They sat inside a bar operated by a Sleepless member, the establishment closed to the public and completely empty except for the three of them. Tyrian looked at Nicholas across the counter.

"It's a good rune."

Nicholas immediately noticed something unsettling. Tyrian wasn't speaking entirely in his own voice anymore. The distant feminine resonance had begun appearing in ordinary conversation.

"And now that you've created it... I have an interesting idea that might work out even better."

Nicholas frowned.

"What is it?"

Tyrian smiled.

"We're smuggling you to Erebus. I want to see what happens when Foresight comes into contact with Knowledge."

Nicholas's eyes widened.

"The Supreme Rune, Knowledge? But... I thought..."

Tyrian waved dismissively.

"Yes, yes. Our plans haven't come to fruition yet. But that doesn't mean we can't test certain things out."

Nicholas hesitated.

"I... see. But how do we get past the Keepers? They're Rank 3s, and we won't be able to get to any of the runes with them watching."

Tyrian smiled.

"Oh, my dear Nicholas. Are you forgetting who I am?" Black runic energy illuminated his palm.

Puppeteer.

Nicholas felt a chill and immediately understood what Tyrian was trying to tell him.

"You knew that I knew?"

Tyrian's smile widened.

"You are my first and most valuable subordinate. You are also someone who isn't directly under my influence. Did you really think that I wouldn't be keeping tabs on you and the runes which you make?"

Nicholas understood immediately that his caution had not gone unnoticed. His decision not to betray Tyrian to LUCID suddenly seemed even more justified.

"So how do we do this?" he asked.

Tyrian answered simply,

"One month. I have to make certain preparations to ensure you don't explode when coming into contact with it, first of all."

.

.

The memory jumped again.

Nicholas was inside the Keeper facility.

He had told his family that he was going on a work trip and would be back in a week, promising that he would call often.

He had no idea that the lie would become one of the most painful things he had ever done.

Tyrian had arranged for four Rank 3 Grimm to attack another section of the facility, creating enough chaos to ensure their infiltration went unnoticed. Eventually they reached the sector where the Supreme Runes were contained.

A Rank 3 Keeper was waiting for them. Nicholas's stomach tightened, but the Keeper simply bowed deeply to Tyrian.

'A Rank 3 has even been puppeteered,'

Nicholas thought.

'With Salem within Tyrian, it's very likely that he's the strongest Rank 3 in existence.'

He pushed the thought aside as they entered the holding chamber. Four enormous pillars dominated the room, each supporting a containment field around one of the four Supreme Runes. The sheer pressure coming from them made Nicholas's body instinctively tense.

Knowledge.

Destruction.

Creation.

Choice.

Four concepts that were far beyond anything he had previously imagined.

.

.

The memory skipped forward again.

Nicholas stood within the containment chamber while Tyrian activated ten different imbued runes upon Nicholas's metal arm protector. One after another, the effects layered over his equipment.

Then Tyrian wrapped his domain around Nicholas. Nicholas immediately felt the strange sensation of dense, liquid-like air surrounding his body.

It pressed against him from every direction, restricting his movement and insulating him from the overwhelming presence of the Supreme Rune before him.

He couldn't touch it directly.

If he did, the energy would overwhelm him instantly. Instead, Tyrian had devised a method of slowly channeling fragments of the rune's power through his own domain and parsing it into Nicholas's body in controlled amounts.

This wasn't something that just any Rank 3 could do. Even Rank 3's with all their might were akin to wet paper in front of the razor of power that were the Supreme runes.

However, Tyrian.... was the demi vessel of a god.

The Sleeper, god of Nightmares.

Nicholas stared at the Supreme Rune of Knowledge as the power of its runic energy was transferred into him.

Then, Foresight reacted.

Nicholas's eyes widened.

He saw everything.