Nightmare Mythos

Creak—!

Immediately stepping away from the plate he just tapped, he accidentally produced a gears shifting from somewhere Cesar could hear. As if something was about to happen, Cesar didn't waste a single time as he immediately darted upwards.

Whatever the trap was, he didn't want to see it in his eyes.

"Hey! Are you there?! How come you knew about the traps? Do you perhaps recognize some of them?"

Imploring the eerie voice about what it knew about the traps, Cesar demanded answers weren't coming yet.

However he wasn't going to patiently wait this time, knowing the unnerving gears switching coming from outside the hallway which is impossible to happen, unceasingly tickled Cesar' ears.

It was coming for him... that's what it was trying to imply.

He continued climbing up.

Creak—!

Doubts started to fill Cesar's mind, as he was expecting something to happen, yet it never came. Still, those doubts tend to distract a person's concentration, so he immediately removed them from his head and relentlessly ran upward.

"What the..."

Eventually, Cesar couldn't help but take a breather once he realized that the sounds of gears shifting weren't actually doing anything to him, merely tricking his mind as simply trying to pull a prank on him.

"Hahh… Hahh…"

Breathing raggedly as his expression started to change into a deranged face, Cesar couldn't help but chuckle.

"I don't understand anymore…"

The trap he just stepped onto, clearly believing it this time, seemed to be just a way to make him agitated. It was never meant to give him harm but a means to add exhaustion to his already exhausted mind and body.

Or was that really it?

Instead of believing the logical solution he had thought of, Cesar didn't just idle around as he continued climbing.

Was the trap really a prank on whoever stepped into that plate? Or was it something else that was why the gears shifting were very loud which kept ringing at his ears?

Creak—!

Soon, Cesar was finally able to discover the reason why the sounds of gears kept reverberating through the wooden walls of the hallway.

Further away from the top of the stairs, there was a mysterious figure that almost looked like a human falling down in the middle of the stairs, coming straight towards him. Almost human was an understatement if not for the fact that this figure appeared very, very tall.

Its head only consisted of tiny mouths and one protruding eye atop everything else.

It was a corrupted human.

The tall corrupted human stretched its two small hands, pointing it directly at Cesar as it continued falling down. Once it was near him, its two small feet hung themselves at the edge of the stairs, silently watching him for a brief moment… not until it let out a piercing shriek.

"Kreee—!"

The two small hands that were already pointed at him suddenly formed a mouth and spewed out green liquid towards Cesar who immediately started avoiding the corrupted creature.

Sizzle—!

Barely dodging the liquid as the corrupted human had an uncanny aim, Cesar couldn't help but be distracted and looked at the boiling green liquid as it made contact with the stairs.

'Acid? So this is not the same Level Zero corrupted human that I kept encountering at the start of this mansion? An ability and it looked like this creature hated me for some reason…'

Cesar analyzed the monster and the ability it had while running below the stairs, seeing that the corrupted human was waiting for it to come up rather than pursuing him. By the looks of it, it can think on its own.

'So the gears are a way to attract something, huh.' Cesar couldn't help but shake his head at the realization that he could only laugh in disbelief.

After taking a few distance away from the corrupted human, Cesar silently observed the creature from this standpoint, gazing upward while discerning what to do from now on.

…

"Okay… I've decided,"

Thinking up a plan has been easy for Cesar, considering he had been doing such actions back when he was in his first year. Hence, it only took a solid three minutes and this time, he was sure that there'd be no problem on his part unless the corrupt showed something ridiculous.

But he's confident that the corrupted isn't some ridiculous being pretending to be weak. After all, powerful people wouldn't reduce to the tactic of merely waiting for the prey to pass by since that was the only way to the top.

Cesar then picked up his dagger before tearing some part of his clothes that could be used to cover his mouth. Once he put the torn cloth around his lips wearing it as some sort of mask, Cesar brought out the black tooth from his pocket.

"Now my gun…"

Knowing his revolver was loaded, Cesar still double-checked if it was full. The moment he did so, he started stretching his arms to prepare for the takeoff.

"I'm beat…"

Letting out another tired sigh that he had been doing right at the start of his fourth year, Cesar slightly bent to the ground, not in a sprint manner but more specifically something more like a jump off.

As if he was about to leap very high.

It truly was for that.

Whoosh—!

Once he built up momentum around the ground, Cesar shot upwards, traversing a couple of stairs in just a second before landing on the nearby staircase as he did. In just a second, he went even further before taking another leap by relying on his improved jumping power which was a boost that came from taking a facet.

"Kree!"

Clearly agitated at how swiftly Cesar was able to close the distance between them, the corrupted was taken aback for a second but that was only it.

The creature didn't just idle around and lunged forward.

That was what Cesar was waiting for.

Channeling his essence onto the black tooth he was holding with his hand, Cesar threw it to the incoming corrupted human before adjusting his aim at his revolver towards the monster.

"Die,"