Samael found himself in a black sky, illuminated by an infinite tapestry.
It was the Nightmare Spell.
Created by Weaver.
Then, words began appearing before his eyes.
[Welcome, six brave warriors...]
A pause.
[Error.]
[Welcome, seven warriors...]
Another pause.
[Error.]
The Spell seemed to be experiencing strange errors.
—What? An error? The Nightmare Spell? —Samael asked incredulously.
It was unimaginable that something like the Nightmare Spell could contain errors.
After all, it had been created by Weaver.
Shaped from the very Tapestry of Fate.
A creation that utilized the lives of gods and demons.
How could something like that simply... make a mistake?
New words appeared.
[An unknown existence has entered the Nightmare.]
[Error.]
[Error.]
[Error.]
The Spell seemed incapable of assimilating the existence of something.
—What?
An extreme chill ran down Samael's spine.
It was an alien sensation.
As if the Spell were observing the very depths of his being.
Observing him.
Analyzing him.
Trying to understand something that shouldn't exist.
Samael felt something else, too.
A presence within him.
It had always been there.
But now, it was far more pronounced.
—Is this because of the...
Samael had a suspicion.
—The Foreign Attribute.
The air seemed to leave his lungs.
Then, new words appeared.
[Error.]
[An Anomalous Nightmare is occurring.]
Samael froze.
[Strange being who does not belong to this world, the Spell wishes you good luck.]
[You will need it to survive the Anomalous Nightmare.]
Samael's mind went blank for a moment.
"What does it mean, Anomalous Nightmare?"
"And why will I need luck to survive?"
Before he could think of an answer, the landscape began to distort.
—Wait! Explain that properly! —Samael shouted.
The Spell did not respond.
The landscape simply shattered before his eyes.
The darkness disappeared.
A new landscape emerged.
A massive city.
Great walls surrounded the place, protecting it from whatever existed beyond them.
And what was happening there was terrifying.
Inside the walls, humans fought desperately.
Awakened.
Sleepers.
Masters.
Everyone was fighting.
But not against an army.
Against a wave.
A completely endless wave of Nightmare Creatures.
They advanced toward the city in absurd numbers.
There seemed to be no end to them.
Creatures climbed the walls.
Others destroyed buildings.
Some were slain only to be immediately replaced by dozens more.
The humans fought as best they could.
But they were losing.
Along the city's coastline, enormous military vessels floated upon the water.
Colossal ships.
Thousands of people were running toward them.
Men.
Women.
Children.
Entire families.
Everyone desperate to escape.
Some carried suitcases.
Others carried wounded people.
Some simply ran.
There was no order.
No dignity.
Only survival.
Samael watched everything in silence.
He knew this scene.
Not personally.
But he knew exactly what it meant.
That place was falling.
America was falling.
After a few seconds, Samael's vision changed.
Finally, he was in his own body again.
He found himself in the middle of a city filled with people.
However, there was something strange about those people.
Their gazes were tired.
Empty.
Without hope.
That was what the eyes of every single one of them conveyed.
Normally, the main difficulty of a Nightmare was discovering what needed to be done to complete it.
But in this Nightmare...
It was obvious from the very beginning.
They simply needed to hold back the Nightmare Creatures until the evacuation was complete.
And knowing that made everything even more terrifying.
After all, the number of Nightmare Creatures Samael had seen was unimaginable.
They were hordes.
Endless hordes of creatures.
Samael looked at himself.
He was wearing a military uniform beneath his Armor of Bonds.
In his pocket, there was a small identification card.
He took it out and read the information.
[Samael]
[Awakened of Unit 27]
That was the identity the Nightmare had given him.
Samael spent a few seconds staring at the city, trying to process the situation.
He was twenty years in the past.
Twenty years.
He was living through one of the greatest historical events in his world.
Nightmares normally reconstructed events that had happened thousands of years ago in the Dream Realm.
They were so ancient that they seemed more like mythology than memories of the past.
But this was different.
This was recent.
Close.
It was part of the history he knew.
And now he was experiencing it with his own eyes.
A shrill siren echoed throughout the city.
It was the signal summoning the units.
The citizens had heard that sound so many times that they barely reacted anymore.
Or perhaps they were simply too tired to react.
Too tired to feel anything.
Samael began walking, following other uniformed Awakened.
His mind was still trying to process all the information he had received in a single day.
He had awakened his Legacy Aspect Ability.
He had discovered that he was dead.
He had entered the Second Nightmare.
The Spell had experienced errors.
And now he was living through the Fall of America.
It was too much information.
Too many things happening at once.
So much that he hadn't even been able to properly think about some of them.
His Legacy Aspect Ability, for example.
He still hadn't had time to explore its effects or fully understand the knowledge he had received.
He also hadn't had time to think about the details of his own death.
And now he already had to hurry to complete the Nightmare.
There was no time to look back.
No time to reflect.
There wasn't even time to breathe and process everything that had happened.
It was like...
—The legless bird... —Samael murmured.
He remembered an animal he had seen in one of his books.
—A legless bird that cannot land, stop, or look back.
A bitter smile appeared on his lips.
—The skies are its prison and its freedom. The only time that bird stops... is when it dies.
Samael continued walking.
—It cannot hesitate.
His eyes became slightly darker.
—It cannot look back.
For a few seconds, he remained silent.
Then he let out a small laugh.
—I already died. By that logic, I should be able to stop and think.
The smile on his face became slightly more bitter.
—Considering that... perhaps I'm even worse off than the legless bird.
Finally, Samael arrived at the place where several soldiers had gathered.
There were signs indicating the different units.
He walked between the groups until he found his own.
Unit 27.
There were two people there whom he didn't know.
And a third.
A woman with long pink hair and eyes of the same color.
Samael stopped for a moment.
He immediately recognized her.
Cyrene.
Apparently, she was part of his unit as well.