Nightmare Mythos

'Corruption again…'

Cesar immediately distanced himself away from the utensils that he could see from the table, afraid that he might get infected by the same profane concept of impureness.

However, he also noticed a key detail that the eerie voice seemed to willingly leave out which is excluding the food on the list of corruption.

He was becoming hopeful.

The eerie voice, Cedeit, then continued, its voice grim than usual, "You heard me right. Corruption. Something as vile as this continued to corrupt every being and all anyone could do was avoid it. Knowing fighting something powerful as this wasn't enough to eradicate it completely.

Its resistance is like an annoying pest that no matter how many times people prevent it from happening, it will continue to grow and expand.

"The utensils, as far as I'm concerned and following what I knew, are tainted by the hands that touched it, the same beings from these assembly who were more susceptible to the corruption that you knew. According to it, those utensils had been used as a medium to transfer the corruption within them. The one who designed it was no other than the creator of this Mansion,"

Cesar couldn't make the most sense of the Cedeit's words but he got the gist of it.

This assembly isn't just really as simple as eating the food for the visitors of the creator of the Mansion. There was a meeting that had transpired and it has been used to help those people to avoid being corrupted at the same time.

The utensils are the medium that has been used to do so.

Nevertheless, the fact that the creator of the mansion was able to pull off that unbelievable achievement was noteworthy to be proud of.

"I guess the creator is a big deal. Seems like a very powerful individual,"

Cedeit followed up, its flat tone seemed to be agreeing, "You got it."

Feeling the mysterious voice to be in a good mood, Cesar pressed even further as he added, "If so, how is this table unaffected by the utensils that seemed to be corrupted? Wouldn't that spread around the place?"

The eerie voice answered after a whole minute, as always, "According to the article, something unbelievable feat such as "tricking time" was part of the play. He isolated the utensil in that space alone while deceiving the 'real' time that continued to transpire even until today. Oh, be very careful about stepping inside the 'space' I was talking about.

I'm unsure what will happen to a being who was inside of it as well,"

'Tricking time…'

For some reason, Cesar was compelled to connect these findings to the frozen delicacies he was currently seeing. If the architect of the mansion was able to pull off corruption transfer into utensils, tricking the time into food shouldn't pose much of a problem.

Additionally, Cesar can't help but add and connect this idea to the corrupted areas from the City of Wheels. By the looks of it, they were also tainted by some of the "tricking time" power and it originated from this mansion, right in this table.

But then another question appeared: how could it escape outside if it was isolated in an imaginary space, The Mansion?

It might not be implausible, but Cesar had an answer in his head that he couldn't prove for now. At least not yet, when all he had were questions but no answers.

Still…

'It's the Void, isn't it?'

The one looking out for the hallways, destroying them even to the point that Cesar almost became one of its casualties, and probably the reason why weird occurrences started to happen in the city.

'It had to be that purplish emptiness…'

Grumble—!

While deep in thought, Cesar heard his hunger speaking to him so deeply from his tummy that he couldn't help but be embarrassed even if no people were watching him, all except his companion, the eerie voice, Cedeit.

If the eerie voice was a person in the first place.

And as if the mysterious voice managed to 'hear' his hunger even though Cesar wasn't seeing anything, it replied with a jest.

"Are you afraid that these frozen luxurious foods are also affected by the tricking of time as well? I mean, you are not eating them."

"Well, of course I am!"

Finally, the long-awaited query inside his head was answered by Cedeit.

"Good, because most of them are too unbearable for the kinds of you. Even a small bite of this food will cause a surge of essence inside your body. It's like an overdose in a kind of way,"

The eerie voice paused, "But it's not tainted with corruption. Unlike those utensils and silverware where you can spot a thing or two of rot or decay in their bodies, those foods didn't have any. It didn't have one of the few qualities of corruption, relating to food,"

'Does that mean they can be eaten still!?'

Cesar couldn't help but feel happy instead of feeling worried after being slapped with the reality that the food was unavailable for the likes of them.

Cesar could eat them however but it would be his last supper if he did.

"Honestly, the food should be the least of your concerns, kid," The even voice of the mysterious figure behind it couldn't help but sigh, "After all, a Nightmare is currently staying from this table. A few are corrupted and have been controlled by it. Lastly, you will never cross the middle of the table if you can't defeat it.

Traveling below the table is a no-go as well since there are Dwellers of the Dark roaming relentlessly from that place,"

As if his dreaded situation isn't just enough, Cesar has another type of problem to worry about.

And it was a lot.

Of course, he had to be. He was, after all, in the middle of the assembly that had been once used as a meeting for great beings rather than puny Nightmares as the eerie voice had mentioned.

"But fret not," The eerie voice seemed to bring good news as he continued,

"First, you have me. I'll help you challenge that Nightmare. You have one advantage and it's that I know what kind of Nightmare is staying at this place. Second, a few of your people seemed to be stranded nearby which you can use for help. By the looks of it, they entered here using the doors that led to this table,"