A Nightmare's Influence

> ”If anyone else told me that, I probably wouldn’t believe them. If Schrodie told me that from the get-go, I’d say she’s crazy.” ~Frein Nivan, the Visitor

Frein churned out Evanclad’s words as he walked over to the one of the Sphinxes Without Questions. He already forgot which Sphinx this one was. Was it the first or the second?

It didn’t matter. He was supposed to eat both anyway.

How do I eat them? For that matter, he wondered if he should believe Evanclad in the first place. The Monarch was nonchalant about Schrodie taking over the Visitor project. Regardless of what the Gatekeeper’s true involvement was, that word irked him.

Project.

It implied a set objective. He was simply a means to an end. He had sort of expected that already, but to what end still remained a mystery.

Not exactly.

Evanclad clearly implied he wanted Frein to deal with the Nightmare. Whether to eradicate it completely or not was another story, but at the very least, the Monarch expected him to be strong enough to deal with all manners of creatures from the Nightmare Lands.

Frein soon realized he was looking at the first Sphinx. The distinct injury he left over its chest remained hollow. No core inside.

Elizzel stood beside him, seemingly in a daze.

“You didn’t know about this either, huh?” he asked.

“No. But I think you should believe Evanclad. For what it’s worth, he’s dedicated his entire life for Brymeia, even after his death.”

“But if we take the events into account, the Letterman staged all of this. He forced Kristel to take Evanclad’s materialized form.”

“You don’t trust the Letterman?” Elizzel craned her neck with curiosity. “Everyone else seems to trust him.”

“I didn’t get a letter.”

“Maybe he thinks you’ll get the message on your own? Maybe he’s afraid you’ll figure out who he is with just a letter?”

Frein sighed and reached out towards the nearest longsword. With a flex of his Siffera strengthened by a drop of four-meiyal, he dug his hands into the flat of the blade and wrenched out a piece of the sharp edge like tearing off paper.

“That’s for another time, I think. But you’re right. If you trust Evanclad, then I’ll trust him too.”

He walked towards the Sphinx and performed an incision, slicing the Nightmare’s torso open. He had to walk to complete the dissection, but halfway through, he realized he was side by side by the Sphinx’s left breast.

It was large. Larger than he was. He couldn’t wrap himself around it if he tried. And now that the dark meiyal was gone, he could see the half-erected nipple at the tip of the mound…the hill.

Frein swallowed hard, letting go of his improvised scalpel. Elizzel just sighed, shook her head, and massaged her forehead out of irritation.

“Are you serious, right now?”

Frein stuttered his words and snapped back at Elizzel while gesturing towards the nipple with both hands. “Look at it! It’s practically begging!”

“It’s dead, Frein! It’s dead!”

“Let me just bury myself for a bit. I want to know what it feels like! I need to know! It’s in my nature as a man!”

“That’s your nature as a pervert. Disgusting.”

“Get over here and tell me you’re not one bit curious.” Frein compelled the faunel over. She couldn’t hide from the Tether. And when her interest leaked out for just a bit, he immediately snagged it.

Elizzel reluctantly followed.

She looked at it from below and her jaw slowly slacked. It took her a second to regain her composure, clearing her throat. “Fine. I guess you do have a point.”

“Wait, wait. I have an idea.” Like a tourist, Frein produced his M.O.B.I.L.E. and pondered for a second if he should use the record function. In the end, he decided to take just one image of himself and Elizzel with the giant breast behind them, taking extra care to keep the nipple within frame.

“I’ll have to show Kat this one later,” he said, giggling.

“Are we done? If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re delaying because you don’t want to eat the core.”

“No, no, no. This is purely scientific. A study of culture. This is curiosity, not perversion nor diversion.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

“You say that, but you’re not taking your eyes off it either.”

It was Elizzel’s turn to overreact, gesturing towards the nipple. “Just look at it! Who wouldn’t be enamored by it.”

After a smirk, Frein took a deep breath. “Alright, moment of truth.”

The two approached in synchronicity. They found themselves at the base of the giant tit and pressed one hand each towards the flesh. It was full to the touch. Heavy and soft and somewhat elastic, and it bounced whenever he released the pressure.

Without a second thought, he launched himself in it, stretching out his entire wingspan to take as much flesh as he could. Elizzel did the same. It was like squeezing a marshmallow with his entire body. A mildly sweaty marshmallow.

Determined, the two quickly raced for the top of the breast. While the base was fine and pleasurable, the top was indeed where the cherry could be found. But before they admired the nipple up close, there was one curiosity they still had to satisfy.

Elizzel was the first to jump, treating the tit like a trampoline as she bounced right back on her feet. She did so repeatedly, laughing and inviting Frein to try as well.

The Visitor suppressed the desire to call her out and simply enjoyed the treat.

Satisfied after just a few more bounces, the two were then filled with excitement and anticipation as they made their way for the top. Frein’s shoes dug into soft flesh with every step.

And finally, there they were. Elizzel knelt on the areola while caressing the nipple with both hands. She had been completely absorbed by the activity. In the meantime, Frein snatched a picture of the faunel before appreciating how huge this nipple was, just a head smaller than Elizzel when she sat.

It felt firm to the touch. Just like any other nipple, but the size made it feel more gratifying.

Frein could feel a grotesque curiosity creeping at the back of his head.

Should I lick it?

Elizzel looked at him at that. Then she turned back at the nipple and then back at him. The thought made them swallow in anticipation. She tried it first, slowly pressing her tongue and licking up at length, savoring it like ice cream.

A wave of exhilaration electrified Frein as the sensation travelled through their Tether. He had to try it for his own. He pressed his lips against it first, before sticking out his tongue. It tasted of sweat, like the skin hadn’t been washed for a while. But the experience of licking off this piece of marvel overpowered any sort of disgust that tried to surface at the back of his mind.

Satisfaction crashed at the two like a heavy burden as they realized what they just did. Frein didn’t know if he should feel disappointed about it, but there was a clear sense of victory as if they had conquered the impossible.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Now, Elizzel was completely hypnotized by the curiosity. She tugged at the Tether instinctively, and Frein could read her intentions clearly.

But there was work to be done. And while he couldn’t help but admit he was extremely curious as well, entertaining it any further would be crossing a line.

“I think we should look for the core now.”

“It’s in the tail,” Elizzel said, giving up on voicing her request. “I could feel it by touch.”

Following the faunel’s instructions, Frein carefully sliced open one of the tails. He found the first one empty, but successfully located the core in the second one.

It was a dark, rectangular gem. Black smoke swam inside, but tendrils of it licked out of the precious container, wrapping around his fingers like curious appendages. With Elizzel’s locating ability, they found the second Nightmare core inside the second Sphinx’s stomach. It looked the same, if only a little thicker.

The two found a small space away from the Sphinxes in order to avoid further distractions and focus on the task at hand. Frein found a stone to sit on while Elizzel looked over him.

“Before I eat this, do you have any idea why?”

“I think so.” Elizzel crossed her arms, her eyes drifting back towards the Sphinxes. She blinked it away and returned to focus. “If Evanclad’s correct, and your meiyal system did originate from Zerax’thum himself, then you should be able to convert these cores into another source of meiyal. It was one of the ways the Fallen Dragon became almost unstoppable.”

“Wait. That means Nightmares existed before the Divine Severing? I thought it was the other way around?”

“Not as prominent as now. Deep Nightmares existed long before then under a different designation. Remember the Oblimoths Rindea mentioned? Those have been around…probably since the beginning. Way before the gods got involved. Long before I was born. Of course, they weren’t as large as mountain ranges back then.”

Frein pondered for a while. Unlike storing, retrieving vivid memories and details from his own Mind Palace meant he had to enter it, and that process took unnecessary time. He practically had to fall asleep. So, he relied on plain old memory. “It feels like there’s a missing piece. Feels like I already have it, but not sure. We need to look into this later.”

He studied the cores once again. “So, if I eat this, I can Mill a six-meiyal reserve?”

Elizzel took one from his hand and analyzed it. She went as far as licking the gem, which made her disappointed. “Not with these two, no. You’ll need more. Once you accumulate enough cores, we can start progressing to five-meiyal.”

“How much more.”

“I’d say about ten total of this quality, or a Deep Nightmare’s core. Just an estimate, though.”

“When you were a Forest Jaws did you eat Nightmares, too?”

“To sustain myself, yes. Not to make meiyal pools for myself.” She pointed at him. “I have you now, so I don’t need to do that anymore.”

“I only love Katherine,” Frein said.

Elizzel leered at him. “No one’s asking.”

Frein quickly moved on from the joke. “Actually, I’m curious, Eli. Does the meiyal pool you provide the same as Emerald Guidance’s?”

This time, she glared at him. “No, I have far better quality.”

“How better?”

“At my current state, about three times better.”

“Current state?”

The faunel sighed, as though the implication was obvious. “We’re Tethered, Frein. The stronger you get, the stronger I get. You can basically treat me as a multiplier. I’m three times better because, not counting myself, you have three sources for me to amplify.”

“Oh…”

“You really thought I’m just some addition, huh?”

“That’s why I asked.” Focusing back on the task, Frein tossed one gem and caught it as he stood. “Alright, how do I eat this?”

Elizzel raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean how? Obviously you chomp at it.” She mimicked the act of devouring something from both hands. “You need to put as much gusto as you can. Like a savage.”

“Ha ha.”

“Obviously you Gather it like any other meiyal-charged material. It’ll manifest into your Exhibit, then you need to grind it through your Mill. I’ll help you out. Make sure you don’t throw up.”

He had heard that multiple times already. And now that he was sure to Gather it like a material, he couldn’t quite picture what it meant to throw it up.

“Means you’ll hurl it out,” Elizzel clarified for him. “It won’t disperse like a material. You literally hurl it all out of your body. It’ll usually go through the mouth, but some reactions will probably make you throw up from other orifices, if you catch my drift. Not to mention it’ll be bloody, throw you instantly into Art fatigue, and you might be unconscious for a while.”

“Can’t I just bring these out then, so we can do it properly outside?”

The faunel shrugged. “I don’t know. Some cores stay for a while, some disappear almost immediately. They’re your cores, so do what you want.”

“If you put it that way…” It left Frein with a simple choice.

He made his intentions to Gather known and the faunel merged inside his meiyal system.

“Make sure you don’t accidentally Gather anything else. Just the cores, alright?”

Frein didn’t respond audibly. He was already concentrating, manifesting his own meiyal around one core. He chose to absorb the thicker gem. There could’ve been many assumptions for it, but the obvious one was that a larger core could be more difficult to Gather. And easing into it wasn’t really his style.

His dark red meiyal enveloped the Nightmare core. Now it made sense to him why the color of his meiyal looked sinister. It was very Zerax’thum-like. With precision, he Gathered his meiyal and brought along the core, making absolutely sure it was isolated enough.

It felt like a massive wrecking ball slammed down his Mill. It almost broke, and his body instantly rejected the foreign object. On the other hand, the core pushed against its confines. It wanted to invade the rest of the Exhibit, banging its smoke-like tendrils against an invisible wall indicated by the stanchions surrounding the Mill.

The force brought Frein onto his knees. Something blocked his airway, as though he was punched in the gut multiple times. His head throbbed and a wave of nausea washed over him.

“Concentrate, Frein!” Elizzel’s worried voice echoed from their Tether. “Mill it. Grind it down!”

Frein relied on his instincts. He was too bothered by the sickness. His body Milled on its own, crunching and grinding at the Nightmare Core using the same routine he always did. He doubled over and vomited, mostly water with small chunks of what he already digested.

“That’s fine,” Elizzel echoed. “Just don’t stop Milling. Don’t let the core take over.”

His internal organs were getting twisted, as though someone reached inside and went crazy with his flesh. He felt them yanking out, ripping through his bones. And the bones themselves, cracking and snapping. His eye bulged and popped while the other slipped out of his sockets.

He went blind. His hairs fell out. And he was hard as a rock through all of it. While he continued to throw up his meals and innards, his lower half humped at the ground like a sex-craved maniac.

But through it all, one, faint sliver of his consciousness continued to Mill, grinding halfway through the entire core.

Frein climaxed and immediately felt hungry. He reached out blindly until he felt something wet and moist. It smelled repugnant, but he was famished, and he was hard again. So one hand scooped up the glob and he drank from it, slurping small chunks to fill his stomach, while the other hand took a handful to lubricate his shaft. He ate and masturbated at the same time.

Light brought the Visitor back to his senses.

“Good work, my perverted host,” Elizzel echoed from the Tether. She had gathered the granules of the Nightmare core into a secure display case. Frein couldn’t see them properly from the outside, but he didn’t have time to enter his own Exhibit. “Why, in Brymeia’s name, do you have dreams like that?”

“I don’t know, but it felt amazing.” Frein smiled ear to ear, looking at the other core still in his hand. “This might get addicting.”

“You know, that’s the entire point why I’m here, right? We don’t want you to end up like the Fallen Dragon.”

Frein didn’t listen and Gathered the second core.

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It took Frein a while to recover from the second core. Ironically enough, it drained him more this time around. Smoke sizzled out of his right arm where his meiyal core was. He didn’t quite reach Art fatigue yet, but it had been close. And he noticed he had fourteen marks now.

He was weirded out by that fact. For him, the marks literally didn’t matter now. With Elizzel helping him out, he could Gather any meiyal-charged material regardless of their limitations.

“Don’t expect the same reaction every time,” Elizzel scolded him, pulling him back to his senses. She had manifested out of the Tether, massaging his back with a small hand for comfort. “Even if they’re from the same type of Nightmare, their sources are still different.”

“Yeah.” Frein looked at his arms. They were still there. He felt his stomach, still present. His legs, his hair, eyes, nose, genitals. All present. He sighed in relief, but at the same time he wanted to experience it again.

“All this, and no power gained,” he commented. “We need to hunt more Nightmares.”

“We need to check on Kristel first.”

That made him realize where he was, still in Kristel’s Dream. “You’re right.”

They returned to the Mind Palace, trying to figure out where the other two were. Frein focused his Siffera on his awareness and almost immediately found traces of the Monarch. He couldn’t help but feel that Evanclad purposefully left them as breadcrumbs for them to find.

It led them to a broken stairwell, plunging into darkness.

Elizzel reached out and perched on his shoulders as he leapt off, empowering himself for the balanced and reactive blind landing. He had never done it before, but as long as his fall wasn’t any higher than the Vanguard’s, he should be okay.

He reached the ground soon after, landing like a superhero. Only, there weren’t any crimes to fight. What he found was Norazzel in her normal sized wolf form and the presence of Evanclad turning only slightly towards their arrival.

In front of them was a small room where Kristel was suspended in mid air. Chains from all sides coiled around her body. It took Frein a moment to realize she was completely naked, with the links of the chains covering most of her. They gripped and tightened every few seconds, causing the Princess to wince in pain.

“Perfect timing,” Evanclad said. “Norazzel’s almost out of meiyal. Can you lend her some?”

It was only then that he noticed a number of dead wolves on the ground inside the room. Another materialized out of Kristel and fell dead on the floor underneath her.

“Sure,” he replied. “Take as many as you need.”

“No,” Elizzel interjected. “No one bites Frein but me. We made a pact.”

“Katherine bites me whenever she likes,” Frein reasoned out, too late to stop himself.

“That’s different.” Elizzel hopped off his shoulders and offered her hand to Norazzel. “Take mine instead.”

“I understand,” the faunel of Dreams said. “Thank you.” She gently sank her canine into Elizzel’s wrist. Blood trickled out and the faunel of Freedom winced in pain. And then, it was done.

Norazzel’s fur glowed with power as she manifested ten more copies of herself. They quickly leapt and entered the Princess through her core. One appeared an instant after, falling dead.

“Can we do anything else?” Frein asked. He would’ve yanked on the chains already if not for the two in front of him.

“No. This should be enough, Frein,” Evanclad said, his presence turning to him. “Thank you. We just need to wait now.”

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