Nightmare Mythos

Landing on the paper floor that really felt like a cushion to land for a brief moment, Cesar bounced back up after being propelled by the same floor and immediately froze at his position when he realized his group was missing.

"Agh!"

Swiftly balancing himself mid-air, Cesar immediately took an immediate forced halt, adhering to another yet of heretic's words from earlier, knowing he had been right once of their dive.

Without even his warnings regarding the dive, he and his group wouldn't have been able to land safely and would've flattened blood on the ground that turned mushed due to the harsh conditions.

Or there was already one?

Because as of the moment, it seemed the paper floor they landed on had been different. Probably because others were wrong in their judgment that resulted in a change, they had to make minute modifications to slightly force themselves to hover on the side.

Not Cesar though. Even if he only had one eye left to him, he was able to judge and pinpoint the right landing.

'I guess they're near. There's no need to worry about anything. Amar and Quentin who didn't do well with fighting can survive on their own just like what they did before. We just got separated now,'

Cesar rest assured himself in this thinking as he remained in his motionless position, still unsure what to expect in this scenario. Even so, he trusted his guts more than ever and it was telling him to stop.
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The library wasn't finished with its work after all.

Above everyone else in the library, the roof which is just yet another amazingly designed bookshelves that was once everyone had stepped onto before the fluctuations, was being reworked yet again.

No one knew when it would be finished.

'Tsk, next time I'll look up to see if the roof has been finished. I'll trust my heightened senses to give me when to move or if I spot someone already moving…' Cesar paused, 'Meanwhile, if I was on the Fixed Period, I might as well use it as a time to study what I currently have.'

Suddenly, something that he had been pushing to do until now was to study the power, a concept that appeared in his head for whatever reason he wasn't aware of.

It's like he had been finally blessed throughout all the shit he had gone through and the goddess of luck gave him another good reward for it.

'First is the superficial fire…'

Based on Cesar's acquired knowledge regarding this concept, superficial fire is entirely different from natural fire. The confusing knowledge that was all muddled in his mind explained that to 'conceptualize' the superficial fire, there should be a fuse that will trigger this superficial fire to burn.

Unlike natural fire which will burn just a bit of essence use, superficial fire is a created fire that will only burn with a fuse as a trigger. The fire isn't even the focus point but the 'fuse' itself. One can create a fire with a bit of essence.

The fuse, on the other hand, added the firepower of the fire. Even if it isn't flashy or explosive, the content of the fire with the fuse will be greater. It's like a safety device that can keep the fire at ease until it is triggered.

'It's like a grand performance that ends with a huge explosion… But again superficial fire didn't heavily rely on the fire but on the fuse that assisted it to make it explosive.'

Cesar nodded once before proceeding to the next acquired knowledge he had.

'Second, the concealment that can disrupt a being's vision to an extent.'

This knowledge had an elaborate concept that if not careful, the user will be also affected as well. After all, it focuses on how a person envisions someone with their eyes. It mainly targeted the person's vision, tricking them with their sense of sight.

The concealment works like a wall that can be placed manually or automatically. However, the latter is harder and impossible to place unless they master the manual way of concealment wall.

For the manual labor of the concealment wall to work, one had to use their hands. It will manifest on their hand like a curtain that can be placed literally anywhere. Yet treat it with extra care as one mistake can lead to complete concealment, and their eyes can be affected because of it. One had to consider how their enemies would see them as well.

'Misdirection. Somehow, the last two heavily rely upon misdirecting or deceiving someone. The first is like a show to produce a grand act, and then the user can just run away. As for the concealment, it looks like a performer hiding his movement from the crowd and only then they will strike with their best tricks.'

Cesar wanted to scratch the back of his head, thinking his head was about to burst out from the crazy conclusion he ended up to before proceeding to the last one, the most complicated 'trick' in his opinion.

'Paper figurines…'

Using this concept, one can produce a figurine of themselves made out of paper, control, and appear like the real person that isn't much of a difference, strength-wise and thinking-wise, or conceptualize a piece of object. Lastly, a deadly attack made their enemies turn into figurines that would just melt away upon making contact.

The great thing about this concept is that it uses a bit of essence. There was little to no consumption.

Anything else is a downside, however.

The third concept involved a very deep knowledge that isn't just explainable to human language unless Cesar acquired more that is coherent on his terms. It doesn't matter if it's vague or impossible to understand, he can analyze it and he was very good at it.

'These three… if I can learn them somehow, it will exponentially increase my survival rate. Thank you whoever had given me this!'

Cesar mused inwardly before he heard a loud creak that reverberated throughout the library and swiftly came to a stop.

For whatever reason, Cesar considered it as the library finishing its work. The moment he did, his gaze went upward, and he could see the other half of the library that became its roof was done.

They can move now.

Rumble—!

But as if it wasn't done yet, Cesar heard and felt a tremor at his back which he couldn't help but turn around to look at it.

There, hundreds of meters away from him was a huge Nightmare running towards him.

Rumble—!

And at its back, a much larger entity was chasing down this Nightmare as if hungry to devour every being of this Nightmare.

"Huh!?"

The only problem is that this Nightmare isn't being chased by a higher-level Corrupted human or a Nightmare that is much stronger than itself if the Nightmare can even determine its strength it in the first place.

The one chasing it was a freaking huge shelf.

Two of its wooden panels were slanted and seemed to act as its brows. It seemed to be frowning while sprinting towards Nightmare.

"I'll be damned!"

After getting out of the Fixed Period, Cesar encountered an absurd scene.

He also started running away from the Large Frowning Shelf.