[Twenty-sixth year of the Nightmare Spell: The Present]

"...ope…ur…ht!"

"Hope! To your right!"

Hope flinched as he broke from a trance. Reflexively he brought his weapon up, rifle aimed at a monster lunging to his right, and pulled the trigger. The monster let out a pitched cry as its face crumpled from the stream of bullets before it collapsed to the floor.

Kieeeeeeeeeek!

But it wasn't the only monster he had to be wary of.

Shrilled roars and gunfire filled the late night, and he could barely hear his teammate's warning through the deafening noise. His mind had wandered off in the heat of battle. How could he be so careless? It was a dangerous and foolish mistake for any soldier to make on the battlefield.

Although, he supposed he had a good excuse for it…

Hope gritted his teeth under his masked helmet and shook his head to wake himself up.

'Ah dammit. Of course, I just happen to be infected…'

Hope didn't think much of it at first. Soldier life wasn't of course easy and demanded his full devotion, whether it was being active on the grounds or patrolling behind stone walls.

Hope even made it a priority to only sleep when he really needed to; be it thirty minutes or four hours.

This routine more or less worked for him.

So, it didn't occur to him that, at the beginning of the day, him feeling sleepy would forebode the chance of him having his own First Nightmare.

It wasn't simple fatigue he was fighting. This drowsiness was as if 'something' was trying to take hold of his mind.

And at the most inconvenient of times.

Tonight was like any other night or was supposed to be. The constant travel between land and sea was the usual side duty Hope took on. Hope and his team were assigned to support the artillery transport to the port of Acheron. From there, the fortified cargo ships called Arks would ferry the equipment to Quadrant III: Asia, their primary trading partner.

There were six Quadrants in total, and North America was the first; South America the second; Asia the third; Africa the fourth; Australia the fifth; and Antarctica the sixth.

At first look, life in Quadrant I didn't appear to have a bright future. Sea levels rose and compared to other continents, half of Quadrant I's continent had already sunken into the ocean. But it sounded worse than it was. People thrived to the best of their ability and made extraordinary progress compared to life a decade ago.

A decade ago, there were stricter laws, rules, and codes placed among settlements that meant life and death if anyone broke them. There was a strict number of people permitted to dwell in settlements, requirements for people to take part in activities, and the rationed food items distributed gnawed at their flesh and minds.

But with their new regimes and promised Awakened warriors—even some Masters now—civilization didn't seem impossible anymore in Quadrant I. In fact, a few cities were already returning to normal.

Well, Hope wasn't sure what 'normal' was compared to life before the Spell, but that was how people described it to be.

And if people had enough currency, they could access the Arks along with the cargo to the next Quadrant.

A luxury not many had though.

But the main problem now was this annoying Category Two Gate that opened in the middle of their convoy. More than half of their vehicles had been destroyed, leaving only four remaining at the head of the march with Hope's team and some fellow soldiers.

The gate itself appeared out of nowhere and seemed to have torn through spacetime itself like some spatial wound on the earth's atmosphere. It had rumbled and shook the area, causing the remaining convoy to deviate off the trackway and fall into a crater, resulting in the death of their convoy commander in the crash.

What Hope didn't understand was why they took this route in the first place. Whether the change of route was primarily in the best interest by command, their odds weren't exactly in their favor. Why the pressure from command to take this route? No. How could they make a mistake in finding the safest trajectory for this mission? Something wasn't adding up.

But Hope couldn't think about that now. It was time to act.

Hope clenched his teeth as he reached down his side and grabbed onto the edge of his knife. Its cold sharp bevel bit into his palm, sending a sharp pain from his hand to his brain. It didn't feel that much to him, but it was enough to keep his consciousness for now.

Kieeeeeeeeek!

Out of the shadows, another monster, but bigger, resembling a crab with stone-like carapaces charged towards him. An awakened beast.

Hope tossed the blade aside and aimed his gun at the creature, shooting through the crevices of its armored face.

The monster screeched and desperately reached out with its large pincer to grab him, but its legs gave way and fell limp with a heavy thud onto the marshy floor.

Tink. Tink. A clicking sound came from his rifle as he pulled the trigger. Hope quickly removed the empty magazine and dropped it to the ground as he reached for the last one from his chest rig.

Hope slapped the magazine into his rifle, turned, and quickly aimed at all the other beasts charging at them. He and his comrades all opened fire at the wave of incoming monsters.

And it was only the first wave dammit…

The gates that opened always let the monsters out in waves. The first wave were mostly dormant beasts. Hundreds, even thousands, with a sprinkle of awakened beasts poured out here and there. The second wave though was completely charged with awakened beasts.

But another challenge about this whole situation was that it was nighttime and dense fog reduced visibility for about a quarter of a mile.

Hope could barely see the horde and wreckage in front of him as the fog obscured his vision, catching glimpses of their silhouettes just in time for him to subdue them.

He could faintly hear the hum of the Category Two Gate somewhere above in the darkness. The source where all the streams of monsters were pouring out from. Dormant beasts would have been fine and doable if he had the rest of his convoy with him. But the sudden appearance of the gate not only destroyed their vehicles and caused crashes in their march, but the hundreds of monsters easily stepped onto the convoy and clawed their way through their thick armored shells, not giving any of the soldiers a chance to calibrate against the horde.

'Well, time to get the hell out of here.'

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Even if by some miracle they got through the second wave, they would have to deal with the Guardian of the gate. Who the hell knew what type of monster they would have to deal with. The situation was long out of their hands anyways the moment the gate appeared.

They would have to do it the classic way:

Bulldoze through.

As Hope noticed the first wave dying down, he quickly stood up and glanced at his three teammates that crouched nearby.

"GA-014, take over the head of the convoy and head straight through the left flank! Reset course and find the damn trackway!" Hope shouted through the deafening noise of bullets and roars.

Bang!

A monster's head blew up from his gun, and he spoke in a louder tone when his team didn't respond.

"Move it!"

Hope continued firing at the horde. He could hold a bit on his own since there wasn't as much as before. At least not yet. His team hesitated as they watched him but then stood up and shouted at the rest of the soldiers to fall back.

He could hear their rushed footsteps squashing through the mud. After his teammates climbed back onto the vehicles, the motors immediately started.

Then his teammates started to shout at him.

"Team leader!"

"Hurry!"

"Get back to the convoy!"

'Well, obviously.' He thought as he pulled the trigger.

Hope shot another crab-like awakened beast down as it lunged at him from the front.

'To hell with being a martyr.'

Hope then threw a grenade at the horde before sprinting back towards one of the last vehicles, just in time to grab onto the rear as they drove off.

He was lucky that the simple grenades and bullets they had worked on these dormant beasts, but the effect would only lessen when the rank of each monster increased. It was all about luck on the battlefield.

Well, at least more so for average human soldiers. They couldn't always rely on the Awakened cohorts.

Now would be a good time as any though.

BOOM!

A loud explosion reverberated behind them and shook the ground. Hope held tight onto the rail, feeling the cold wind hug his bones and his fingers turning numb. He looked up to see his two teammates kneeling on the roof of the carrier as they continued firing at the chasing monsters. There were also a few other soldiers too on top of the other vehicles spewing bullets from their guns as well.

Hope was about to give another order when the world suddenly became blurry.

Everything became hazy, images blending into one foggy mess. Even the sounds became muted.

The supernatural drowsiness came back again to take hold of his mind. He could feel its claws on the back of his mind, whispering its slumbering spell in his ears.

His body slowly felt detached from the world.

His mind emptying like a hollow shell from all the tension, and his eyelids were becoming heavier than before.

His grip started to loosen on the rail.

It was all almost peaceful enough to give in. To just let go–

Boom! Boom!

Suddenly his whole body shook violently.

He promptly tightened his hold onto the rail and realized they were clashing through the flank of monsters; bodies being tossed aside or simply runned over; all being crushed under the weight of the tires.

Kroooaarr!

Hope brought up his gun and shot at the monsters that tried to climb onto the vehicles. These monsters appeared to be more of a houndlike creature. Hairless bodies with toned muscles throughout their limbs.

But they were only dormant beasts. Easily subdued with just the right number of bullets.

Their pitchy cries rang out as Hope and his team pierced their necks and bellies. Their bodies dropped to the floor one by one, leaving a trail behind them.

The convoy picked up their speed as they found their way back on the trackway again. The monsters desperately tried to run after them but the distance between them slowly grew bigger and bigger.

After what seemed to be an eternity, the thunderous roars started to trail far off into the distance.

Hope looked back and saw the horde become smaller and smaller until they vanished behind the slopes.

Finally, they escaped.

"Sigh…" Hope rested his head against the rail.

The next thing to do was to report back to command of this now dead zone area and have one of the Awakened cohorts handle the situation. It wasn't his problem anymore to deal with them. 'Leave it to the experts', they would say.

"Team leader…?" A girl's voice spoke overhead, GA-012, probably wondering why he was still hanging back on the rear.

'Yeah yeah I'm coming…' Hope tightened his grip on the rail. His fingers cramped from holding onto it for so long.

"Contact command for assistance." Hope spoke. He felt his words had begun to slur. "Report back the incident and the coordinates of the Category Two Gate-"

"Team leader, we're not getting any response over the COM channels." His teammate interrupted but this time in a lower tone.

"..." Hope paused, then he quickly climbed up the rear of the vehicle and stood with his two teammates on the roof. He glanced at the other soldiers who were catching their breath on the other vehicles, unaware of the warning GA-012 just gave.

"What do you mean no response?" Hope said softly so the others wouldn't hear as well.

"No one is responding…?"

Hope sighed. He shouldn't have asked twice. It was a stupid question to do so if he had heard it the first time.

His other teammate, GA-015, spoke. "Maybe we are still within rage of the Category Two Gate...That could be damaging the transceiver, Team leader."

'Highly plausible.'

Hope paused. "Four vehicles. Three cargos remaining." He murmured to himself.

It was against orders to open the cargo, but at this point they might need to use the cargo ammunition if they crossed another horde.

Or not. But it was best to prepare for the worst.

He would like to survive.

Hssssssst...

Strangely Hope thought he could hear a sea of whisperers hissing nearby. He shook his head from the noise.

Was it because of the Spell? It couldn't be from the gate, could it? It couldn't reach them this far. Besides, only Awakened could hear this sort of Call from the gate. Something that they described about being lured by a Nightmare seed on the other side.

Hope was anything but an Awakened so it shouldn't apply to him.

Hope glanced down and noticed how banged up the vehicle was beneath him from the wave of monsters. Of course, the front head of the march, or what was left of the convoy, was worse. But the other two cargo vehicles were in such bad shape that Hope wondered if any of their artillery were damaged. He would like to know that there wasn't a possibility in which they could blow up any second because of it.

Hope observed pieces of sharp metal that were pulled back. Streaked claw marks dragged across the vehicles' side doors.

Not good.

"Check the vehicle for any salvageable ammunition, extra rifles, or crates of frag grenades. Any damaged artillery must-"

Clang!

Hope tried to step forward, but his leg buckled. He collapsed down to one knee and immediately struck the stock of his rifle onto the roof to quickly balance himself from falling any further.

No. No. No. He couldn't sleep now.

Voices from his teammates immediately rose but were intangible to him. They sounded muffled and distant like when one's head were underwater. Although he had an idea of what they might be saying.

The only sound he heard clearly was his heart. His heartbeat thudded loudly in his ears as he forced his eyes to regain focus.

"Check on the cargo…Now…"

Hope didn't know why, but he had a feeling that they should do it this instant.

It was more important than him struggling to stay awake.

In his peripheral vision, he saw one of his teammate's silhouettes pause but then gestured for the other to follow and climb down the vehicle.

Hope recalled that his other teammate, GA-014, was at the head of the march helping guide the course and probably checking on the rest of the soldiers in need of aid.

Not that they could do much anyway.

The medical vehicles were at the rear of the convoy before the Category Two Gate appeared so full treatment wouldn't be offered until they reached the Naval Base at the port.

Hope bit down on his lip till he could taste the metallic blood liquid on his tongue.

None of this should have happened.

Hope wasn't one to drown in his emotions, and he didn't feel particularly emotional now either. He was indifferent to his work because it was simple and repetitive. As far as he knew, these types of missions went thoroughly smoothly.

But why not this one?

From the odd route they were assigned by command to the lack of awareness and consideration of weather conditions that affected the performance of their march, it seemed as if something else had been put into play. But what...?

'Move…' An instinctive voice whispered.

Hope tiredly went to reach for his blade again but then recalled when he tossed it hurriedly to the side back at the battlefield.

'Shit shit shit-'

Maybe he could use a gun to wake up?

'Wait. What the hell am I thinking?'

Hope staggered to his feet and looked down at his two teammates opening the rear of one of the cargo vehicles.

Their voices suddenly rang out as if something truly alarmed them.

Was the damage that bad inside? His teammates weren't ones to be easily startled.

But Hope lost the urge to speak and to understand them anymore through his mind's haze. Their voices were nothing but a soft buzz in his ear as he glanced down at them blankly.

Step.

Part of his mind said he should check.

Step.

What was down there?

Ste-

His body swayed as he tried to walk again. Hope felt his feet awkwardly shift to one side and then…air.

Nothing but gravity accompanied him.

For a few moments it was like free fall, his body weightless like dust in the wind. But then pain shot through him, and Hope felt the urge to scream.

But no cry came out. The feeling itself instantly vanished just as it came.

Everything went black. Numb. Silent.

Before Hope could even process what just happened, a voice resounded somewhere in the void:

[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]