The nightmares had, at long last, stopped.
Lacintus had never liked women. They were always stuck up and every last one that he had ever had the displeasure of speaking with was so damned convinced that any man would bend over backwards to do whatever she wanted. As if pleasing a woman meant anything in the hellscape that served as their world.
And yet, while he was living his best life—he had successfully bested Rangers and guards and so-called familial bonds to get there—a young woman showed up. He had blearily been awoken from his sleep by what sounded like doors opening and closing in his seized estate and found himself face-to-face with her.
Then she denied his existence. She had somehow known about the fears he’d developed since he had unlocked his Mirage class, namely that he was no longer real. That he himself was just another one of his illusions.
He tried to kill her, of course. He wasn’t able to drown anyone anymore, not since he made his first Water [Mage] class Mirage and his second Mist, but the vase had been so heavy he had struggled to even lift it. It should have killed her when he crushed her skull with it.
Like a damned [Warrior] she had just gotten right back up and chased him. The man that joined her was cute, but if he was with her… well, cute didn’t spare the lives of those who crossed Lacintus, the Destroyer of Societies.
For a time, it looked like his new abilities were going to do exactly what he hoped. He nearly had that cute fool kill that damned woman, yet she survived.
And then she proved that she was even better at Mirages than he was! His powers couldn’t see through them at all! And that… that strange, unholy cackling! Sound would have paired with his illusions far better than Mist had, it seemed.
No matter what he did, the illusions that she crafted followed him unerringly. It was too much.
He failed, and the nightmares had begun.
He was so distraught that he only barely had enough sense left to use his illusions to free himself. He watched his illusionary duplicate—which wasn’t him, he reminded himself once again—get executed for his crimes.
And he was free. No one knew to look for him, but it still took him time to recover.
And, just when the nightmares had, at long last, stopped… There she was.
His nightmare made flesh.
He would never forget her face, and he had no doubt that it was she that traveled the roads, alone. And where someone was alone, they were vulnerable.
It was… perfect! He had always scorned the gods, but, clearly, they believed he had earned a boon! Invisibly he followed her, eager to learn her secrets. Because once her secrets lay bare, he had everything that he needed to erase her from the world.
The thought brought a smile to his face.
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He watched her bathe in a rocky stream. He watched her make her little camp. He watched her check snares that she had set and cluck her tongue in disappointment at how empty they were.
He watched her moodily eat trail rations.
And then he watched her create an illusion of a man. Once again, he was unable to peer through the illusion. If only he knew how she made such potent illusions with her Mirage class!
It never even dawned on him that her path might have been wholly different from his own. Not until the moment he watched her draw her hated knives… and throw one to the illusion.
It was the moment that the illusion caught the knife that his entire worldview was shaken.
“Let’s see how well you do at combat without me using you.” The woman told the man.
What…? What was even happening?
The man then attacked the woman. She blocked and the unmistakable ring of true metal on metal reached Lacintus’ invisible ears.
“Too stiff, no one would ever believe that was a human’s attack.” The woman grumbled.
She took a deep breath, nodded, and then spoke again.
“Just try again.”
The words of the woman’s rebuke echoed through Lacintus’ head. Whatever that being that she summoned was, it wasn’t human! There were many terrible possibilities. Demons or fae were at the top of the list.
Just… what dark arts had this damned woman embraced?!
Several clashes later, she smiled.
“Much better, Amaus is starting to react and feel far more like a real human! …At least so long as no one tries to pull his clothes off. That wouldn’t end well. …Eh, not too worried about that and I’m not even sure how to begin to address that flaw.”
Lacintus abandoned his plans entirely.
He fled, his heart pounding with terror. His nightmare made flesh was worse than he had ever dared dream! The fucking witch was summoning things never meant for their world! She was teaching them to pass for human! He… he had to warn someone! Someone powerful!
Such was his horror that he had forgotten the shape of the world and why he hated it so.
The Ranger team he found hadn’t cared about his dire warnings. He had barely even begun to explain the nightmare that the woman brought into their world when he was cut off.
“Wait, you’re that [Mage] that was scheduled for execution two stops back. …Not very bright, delivering yourself to us. Ranger Mettlea, you needed to get some more experience for your second class. Ranger Barmos, keep the air clean; Mettlea, carry out the sentence here and now.” The tall man that seemed to be in command ordered.
“No, you have to listen to me! She’s summoning demons or fae into our world!” Lacintus screamed.
An unseen power forced him to his knees. Another man stepped forward and placed a hand in front of his face.
“She’s a danger to us all!”
A thin smoke slowly drifted from the man’s hand.
“You have to go kill her! Before it’s too late!”
The smoke filled the air around his head, but he continued to plead. Even as his body began to hurt.
“They’re not illusions, she’s not really a Mirage [Mage], she’s worse! She’ll ruin us all! Please, just… kill… the… Advent…”
Lacintus died, convulsing and bleeding, even as he tried to continue to whisper his pleas.
If it ended the threat she posed, his life was worth sacrificing. At last, at the very end, he had found a true calling. He had found his place in society.
All it took was finding a greater nightmare.
“Should we look into it?” Ranger Mettlea asked, once his Poison gas was safely dispersed.
“Gods no, the man was clearly deranged. Just as you’d expect from a serial killer. Continue onward, we don’t want to fall behind schedule.” The team leader replied.
The other Rangers nodded their agreement and loaded back into their wagon.
That done, he turned back to the two wolves that sat behind him and, in a quiet voice, spoke to them.
“Come on MoonMoon, back in front. This is my first rotation as team lead, and I don’t want to look bad.”
He was still forced to bribe his own bonds into cooperating, once again.