Everything was proceeding as anticipated - something Cedric made a point of not taking for granted. A caution that occasionally bordered on, but never crossed the line into paranoia. There may be wisdom to the saying of “if everything is going according to plan the plan has been compromised”… but Nightmares didn’t exactly have a counterintelligence division.

Cedric closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, breathing in the scent of fresh hope that now drifted through the air. Still, every good plan left room for error, just in case -

Cedric opened his eyes, only to find himself surrounded by pitch blackness. One by one, dozens of rifts tore open in the sky to reveal giant, moldy eyes with pulsating blackened veins running through them. They twitched and convulsed as they stared unblinkingly at Cedric. They also seemed to be oozing… something. It was difficult for Cedric to tell exactly what, though, due to his deliberate effort to dedicate as little thought to the eyes as possible.

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Every good plan had room for error, just in case something like this happened. Cedric slowly turned to look at the info box for his Nightmare, breathing and moving with a calmness he had imposed upon himself with brute force. “Status: Desperate. Panicked. Current Activity: Using illusions to attempt psychological warfare. Trying to mentally destabilize Cedric.” With a more relaxed, more natural calmness Cedric called up a new info box. “Disturbing Imagery. Type: Illusion. Status: Illusory. Current Activity: Semi-successfully mentally destabilizing Cedric.”

Good. Okay. This made sense. Cedric had considered his Nightmare might use illusions to try and shake his resolve - but he’d expected something more along the lines of old classmates, or Andie and Dyllan speaking words he didn’t want to hear… not full on sensory assault. Still, all he had to do was stay calm, close his eyes, and let his drones do their work.