Chương 13: Episode 10: The Nightmare

Lightning cracked across the stormy sky as I stared upward. The Lunaranites were already out, spears drawn, scanning the clouds for us.

"We gotta get outta here," I muttered through clenched teeth. Prince shifted into his Lightning Bird form, electricity crackling around him.

"Where we even gonna go? If we fly, what about Sophia, Javier, Ella, and Olsen? They're land creatures!" I turned to the squad.

"Alright, we split up. You four stay grounded. Me, Power, Prince, Demaurion, Archie, and Angel, we take to the sky."

"But Don, isn't that crazy risky? The Lunaranites could find you guys!" Ella protested, worry thick in her voice. I looked back up. They were already searching. Then I looked down. Come on, Don. You're the leader. You gotta get this right. She's not wrong. If we fly, it could end bad—but I'll take that risk. I have to. I turned back to her, eyes sharp with purpose.

"We'll be fine." I morphed into my dragon form, wings unfurling wide. Everyone else shifted into their beast forms. The rain came harder, the wind howled louder, more hostile by the second. We launched. The storm swallowed us whole. Lightning barely missed me as I pushed higher into the clouds. Archie flapped close, flames flickering wildly around his Phoenix body. The winds howled, the thunder snarled like some ancient monster, and I had to dodge bolt after bolt like we were in some kind of aerial war zone.

"Dude, you sure we're gonna make it? This is hella dangerous," Prince called, voice shaking. I didn't respond. I was locked in, brain locked on survival. The Hydra ambush… that was Dreadixz. Or maybe… someone worse… I tried to stay focused. I heard it, battle cries. Lunaranite Scouts. They were on us. I spun my head, five of them, armored in silver, wings gleaming, spears glowing with violent intent.

"GET 'EM!" one shouted. I flapped harder.

"MOVE! We gotta get outta here!" My instincts flared, I twirled, dodging a flying spear that whistled past my cheek. No more playtime. I surged forward with everything I had, and the others followed. BOOM! —lightning nailed Archie. He shrieked and plummeted.

"ARCHIE!" I screamed. I dove beneath him, catching his falling body on my back. His flames flickered out—burned out. Now he was just a huge red bird, his Phoenix form dimmed. But he was alive. I could hear his breath. Feel his heart. I scanned the clouds for somewhere to land, nothing but storm. Then, like a nightmare, a black figure riding a Lunaranite dragon slid up beside me. Dark energy coiled around him. Eyes glowing red. Feral. Focused.

"Tsk tsk tsk… well well well… what do we have here?" he sneered from the shadows.

"Who are you?!" I shouted through the storm. He clenched his fists, red energy cracked from his knuckles.

"You don't remember me? That's cold. I'm kinda famous, y'know… or at least I was." He leapt off his dragon, punched me in the face so hard, I went flying down through the clouds.

"DON!" Prince screamed. Archie slipped off my back. My wings buckled. My body quit. No. No. No!

"I can't… I can't…" Everything went dark. Five days later — Eclitsic I snapped out of stasis, ice cracking off my scales as I opened my eyes to a frozen wasteland of flat white plains, squat igloos, and jagged mountains looming like teeth. Blizzard winds screamed through the air, cutting visibility down to a whisper as snow piled high over the rocks, swallowing the landscape in a muffled silence.

I was still in my dragon form, but when I tried to beat my wings, sharp pain lanced through my joints, dropping me back onto the ice. Tiny ice spikes clung to the membrane like nails, locking my wings in place. I must have been out for six days, my silhouette fractured beneath the glassy sheen of the ice. There was no time to panic. I needed to find the beast and move to the next world. A massive boom rolled over the plain, and my ears snapped toward the sound.

I bounded toward the noise despite the cold biting through my scales. When I reached the cliff edge, the landscape opened up and my stomach dropped—I wasn't on open ground, I was standing on top of a massive tower. Below, Jocabed and Emely were locked in a losing fight against the guy who'd punched me into next week—or at least someone wearing his face. Shadows collided with snow as beasts lunged through the air, one of them catching Emely by her trident and hurling her across the ice like nothing. Not on my watch.

I dropped back into my base form as the hood settled over my head and my rings locked into place. Celestial energy surged up my spine like a bolt of lightning, purple-white electricity crawling across my arms. The cliff edge buckled beneath the pressure and shattered, sending stone tumbling down the mountain as I jumped. The entire peak detonated behind me, launching me through the sky like a violet comet.

Clouds split apart and snow vaporized into steam as the freezing wind whipped past my face, the swarming battlefield rushing up to meet me. I hit the ground like a meteor, erupting a massive crater beneath my feet that blasted stone and ice high into the air. The shockwave flattened everything in its path, throwing entire clusters of monsters backward as giant white waves of snow rolled across the field. A heavy silence followed the impact.

Then he stood up from the wreckage—red eyes, clawed hands, and a twisted grin stretching across his face. I slowly raised one of my daggers and pointed it straight at his chest.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" I demanded, the wind howling between us as snow spiraled around our boots.

"WHY ARE YOU HUNTING US?!" The man chuckled—a slow, cold sound.

"Oooohhhh," his glowing eyes narrowed as his grin widened.

"So you really don't know. Heart burning…" The air around him darkened as the temperature plummeted, shadows bleeding outward across the snow.

"I'm Incarceration," he said, his eyes flashing crimson.

"Villain name… Insane X." My blood ran cold. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The fourth strongest Zenith—the traitor from the stories parents told their kids at night. I tightened my grip on my daggers and vanished. The battlefield distorted as I reappeared behind him. Steel flashed, carving a glowing cut across his cheek. A single drop of blood rolled down his skin, but his head slowly turned toward me, still smiling. Something moved beneath the snow.

The ice bulged upward and cracked open, revealing dozens of crimson eyes glowing beneath the surface. Long skeletal arms burst through the ice as nightmare creatures clawed their way out—shadow wolves, spider-like beasts with human hands for legs, and massive eyeless serpents whose mouths stretched down their entire bodies. A six-headed monster dragged itself from a pool of darkness, every head screaming in a different voice. The snowfield became a living nightmare, and Incarceration hadn't even lifted a finger.

"Meet my friends," he smiled wider, his tone chillingly casual.

"The things people see when they close their eyes." The beasts charged. I vanished into a purple blur as a giant wolf lunged, appearing above it to sever its head mid-air. Another leaped from the flank, but I spun and sliced its torso apart. A serpent burst from beneath my feet—I teleported just as it smashed through the ice where I'd been standing. I landed with both daggers glowing as five monsters rushed me at once.

I moved through them, leaving trails of violet light as beast after beast collapsed onto the snow. But every time one died, another crawled out of the darkness in an endless wave. I gritted my teeth.

"Seriously?!" The six-headed creature roared, firing crimson beams from all six mouths. I launched upward, twisting between the heat blasts as they carved burning trenches across the battlefield. One nearly grazed my leg, another missed my face by inches, but I flipped in mid-air and drove both daggers straight down.

"SPIN DROP!" A celestial vortex erupted on impact, light swallowing the field as the shockwave disintegrated the six-headed beast and tore through the surrounding horde. Shadows evaporated and snowstorms exploded outward in every direction. When the dust cleared, Incarceration hadn't moved an inch. He just stood there, watching me like a teacher grading homework. I launched forward again, the ground shattering behind me as celestial energy surged through my blades.

I opened up his chest, drew blood, and kept the pressure on—snapping his jaw with a kick, driving an elbow into his ribs, and following through with a rising uppercut. He staggered back, but I didn't give him room to breathe. I appeared directly above him.

"50-50-50 CELESTIAL DROPKICK!" The impact folded the air itself, sending a ring of celestial force blasting outward. Incarceration tumbled across the battlefield, skipping over nightmare beasts, ice, and stone like a flat pebble before finally coming to a stop. I landed, breathing hard as my daggers smoked with energy. The battlefield around us was ruined, littered with the bodies of defeated beasts, but Incarceration slowly rose to his feet—smiling and completely unaffected. I blinked, lowering my stance slightly.

"Why aren't you fighting back?" He laughed—a sound like rusted metal scraping underground. Every remaining nightmare beast froze, turning their heads toward me as the snow cracked beneath his feet.

"Don…" his voice echoed unnaturally across the plain.

"You don't get it." Thousands of crimson lights filled the battlefield as the red eyes of every nightmare beast lit up in unison. The creatures closed in like a living audience, watching us. Incarceration spread his arms, and the monsters bowed their heads to him.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he said, every single beast smiling along with him.

"I'm here to help." Then the monsters vanished into dust.

"What are you talking about?" I snapped.

"You're a villain—not a therapist!" I hurled a celestial spear straight at his chest, but he crushed it between his fingers, spilling dust like chalk. Before I could reset my stance, he moved. Two fast, clean punches broke through my guard, followed by a spinning kick that cracked my jaw sideways. He grabbed my head, drove me into the ice until my skull rang, then spun and threw me straight through a wall of frozen glass. I tore through the ice, shards screaming past my face.

A dark chain snapped tight around my chest, jerking me off my feet and hurling me into open air. The wind ripped at my ears as my grip on reality began to slip. I reached for my dark energy, but instead of erupting, it folded in on itself—a technique I knew by heart yet couldn't quite remember. The ground vanished, the wind died, and sound cut out entirely. I hit metal face-first, cold flooding my hands as I pushed myself up in a space that felt suffocatingly small and familiar.

Looking up, a ceiling of red eyes opened one by one, blinking slowly down at me. Incarceration's voice drifted through the dark, cold and unhurried.

"Listen to it." Something yanked me upward, slamming me onto a wooden gym floor. The echo hit first—sneakers squeaking on polished floorboards and a whistle dangling in the air. My body already remembered where we were. Fifth grade. Across the mat, my opponent staggered, and I saw the opening for a finisher. But as I lunged, my foot slipped just enough to ruin my balance. I hit the mat awkwardly, pain flaring up my side. Then came the laughter. One kid chuckled, then another.

I tried to push myself up too fast, slipped again, and someone snorted. The scene reset. Same gym, different match. I rushed the approach, missed a step, and froze mid-combo. The referee blew his whistle, and the laughter came faster this time. Incarceration stepped into view as the sound looped, thin and sharp.

"It's the same noise every time." My face burned as soft chuckles and quiet whispers filled the room.

"You aren't replaying the hit," Incarceration said, his voice cutting through the noise.

"You're replaying everyone watching it happen." My fists clenched tight.

"I was a kid."

"And it followed you," he said as the laughter echoed through the gym.

"Every time you miss a hit now, every time you trip over your words, you hear it again." My chest tightened, making it hard to breathe. The gym tilted on its axis, surrounding faces blurring into shadows with half-open mouths.

"They're my friends," I forced out through gritted teeth. Incarceration stepped directly behind me, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"Then stop giving them something to laugh at." The classroom shattered into fragments as the cold void rushed back in, cut short by the sharp tweet of a whistle. I looked up. The axe hovered inches above my face, perfectly still.

"AH—!" I rocketed upright off the mat like the universe just hit me with a jumpscare. No warning. No mercy. Chest on fire. Lungs filing a formal complaint. I was breathing like I'd sprinted through a Category-10 blizzard wearing flip-flops. Focus snapped in. … Yep. Igloo headquarters. The walls were stacked with glowing icy-blue crystal blocks, each one pulsing softly like it had trapped auroras inside. Every breath I took fogged instantly.

Outside, the sun was flexing—violent blue sky, zero clouds, snow sparkling like it got dipped in diamonds. Penguins waddled by like this was normal, while I was two seconds away from questioning reality. Quick systems check: No stab wounds. No void scars. No missing limbs. Hero suit: untouched, sealed, perfect. Relief washed over me. Okay. No death cutscene. Nightmare confirmed… probably. Then the temperature dropped hard. Jocabed slid through the ice tunnel—not walked, glided.

Her metallic white and deep-blue cybernetic armor hummed with blizzard energy, frost-light tracing every joint. Her Arctic Fox helmet turned toward me, ice-blue eyes narrowing beneath a sharp metallic brow, the scar across one lens crackling with tiny bursts of static snow. Each step froze the floor beneath her boots, frost webbing outward before fading, while micro-snowflakes spun constantly around her. Her cybernetic claws flexed once, cold blue energy trailing off them in vapor.

She reached up, pressed the release on her collar, and removed her helmet. Her skin was a striking, pale winter blue, completely contrasting with her hair, which was entirely, brilliant white. Frame after frame of her cold face came into view, anchored by her eyes—not the ice-blue of her visor, but a stark, piercing winter white.

"Bout time," she said calmly, her voice carrying that quiet-but-deadly blizzard weight.

"You've been out five days." I blinked hard.

"What—okay—hold on—everyone's here? Prince, Demaurion, Archie, Olsen, Ella, Angel, Power—all of them? And Incarceration didn't show up? He didn't pull up and start throwing hands with you or Emely or—" The air shifted, the cold sharpening into something electric and charged. Emely walked in. Her winter white skin practically glowed against her ice-colored flight suit, which shimmered with moving frost patterns.

Frozen earrings caught the light, dangling framed by curly ice blue hair laced with bright white highlights. She tracked me with cold blue eyes as razor-edged Ice-Bird wings unfolded from her back, crystal feathers refracting light into cold rainbows. Jagged crystal armor clicked across her shoulders and knees, shedding glowing shards that evaporated midair. Her solid-ice boots rang against the floor, the triangular emblems on her chest pulsing like a frozen reactor keeping rhythm with her heart.

She spun her trident, twisting the air into a lazy snow vortex.

"What are you talking about?" she said, frost mist spilling from her breath.

"Incarceration? Evil Zenith that betrayed the Zeniths? Never seen him, but everyone else, yeah they're all outside waiting for you because you've been on ice for five days straight and they've been absolutely losing it like Prince tried to time your wake-up and then Archie dared him to poke you and then Olsen told them both that was a bad idea but Archie did it anyway and—" Words poured out like an avalanche with opinions.

Jocabed sliced the air with one glowing claw, freezing the snow mid-fall before shattering it into glitter.

"Don," she said quietly, her winter-white eyes locking onto mine as the storm around her tightened, "you've been thrashing in your sleep since you woke up. Where'd you get the name?" My heartbeat slammed in my ears.

"He attacked us hours ago. I fell through a void. Everything went black. Then I crashed into the icy depths of Eclitsic and froze solid for five whole days." They both froze. Jocabed's storm stuttered, and Emely's chest emblems flickered out of sync. They exchanged a look.

"Dude," Jocabed said softly, her storm lowering to a whisper, "I think you need to rest." Hold up—hell no. They have to be hallucinating. I'm 99. 9% sure I saw Incarceration. I definitely fell through a void after going toe-to-toe with him. And I'm super sure I crashed into the icy depths of Eclitsic, freezing solid for five whole days. Wait, am I losing it? Or was all of that just some crazy nightmare? Did that Hydra fight even happen?

Shaking off the fog, I stood up, stepped out of the igloo, and headed straight for training. Maybe… just maybe, I gotta stop overthinking all this and focus on leveling up my moves. Yeah, maybe it was just a nightmare…