"You must the revered lord Tristan. I must say, I am not impressed."
Jack pursed his lips together and looked away. James and Benji looked at each other, unsure of who Jack was talking about. Lord Tristan, meanwhile, looked at Jack with a strange expression and tilted his head a little with a teasing smile.
"You must be the infamous Major Jack, famous across the globe for his intelligence, intellect and carnage. I must say well, you are too cute to be a bloodthirsty fiend."
Jack blushed in embarrassment, and cleared his throat. In the end he held himself back and did not say anything. Benji and James had a hard time keeping up with their conversation, for one reason really. They had never seen someone so good-looking in their lives it was actually disturbing. Not that they were attracted to the lord or anything...
Tristan had a tall and muscular build, but not too musculine either. The perfect equilibrium. He had long, black curly hair and electric green eyes that hypnotized anyone who looked into them for a long period of time. He had broad shoulders that contrasted his masculine figure and confident posture. His jawline was sharp enough to cut through the fabric of reality, his high cheekbones responding to the sheepish smile resting on his full lips. He wore an armor-like shroud that covered his whole body, but also outlined a few regions perfectly.
He turned and looked at Benji, his green eyes piercing his very soul. He did not speak for a few moments, and suddenly looked down at him, as if looking for something on his body. Benji could his heart pounding and was afraid the room itself could hear it. Lord Tristan turned to James and did the same, and then turned back to Jack and walked closer. He was so close to his face that it seemed like something else was going to happen. Jack remained indifferent to this sudden act, but there was something else dangerous burning in his eyes. He looked at the stranger looming above his face as if daring him to do something.
"What are you doing? What do you want?"
Tristan remained quiet, and continued looking straight into Jack's eyes. Then he raised his hand and brought it to Jack's face, his left hand twitched. Tristan noticed and smiled. He brought the hand down slowly, and placed it on top Jack's own. Before Jack could process what was happening, his gun was gone. He looked at James behind him and saw a confused expression in his face. He turned back the stranger now standing half a dozen feet away from them, playing with two guns in his hands. Tristan shook his head and said:
"You are not very respectful now are you? This is my space and guns are not allowed in here."
Before Jack could retort, Tristan crushed the two guns under his palm, and then turned to face hus throne as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. The wierd thing was, Jack did not react to it at all, as if he had been expecting something like that to happen. Benji and James looked at each other and took a step back, then another. They had seen a lot of things in their miserable lives, but they have never seen someone crush two guns with a single hand before. Or one for that matter.
The folded remains of metal fell on the ground with a loud clang that echoed across the dead silent room, making Benji and Jack shiver. They were already fully aware of the fact that the whole camp was a strange place. From the moment they found out that the disease was among them, and yet the civilians were not susceptible to it. Also, they realized soon after arrival that the so-called Protectors are actually who they referred to as Mercenaries, a group of people that went around other established camps to kill people and steal their supplies. It is what they had been researching for a long while, among other things as well. But they were not prepared to witness what they had just did, and the weirdest part is that the Major was completely unfazed.
Had he know all this time? Was he aware? Had he always been aware? If so, then for how long? Maybe it was the reason why he was acting like a lunatic earlier, killing people for no reason. Is it because he knew what they were up against? What was lord Tristan anyways, was he an alien? A superhuman being? Or something even more bizarre? James and Benji had no clue. Every question they asked themselves had no answer. Even the man they trusted to answer them just remained silent and blankly stared at the broken guns with a subdued expression. James cleared his throat and asked nervously. His voice came out hoarse and strained.
"Uhm if I may ask, what the hell is going on?"
***
Soon, they were gathered around a small round table, in one of the compartments of the underground chamber. They all had different expressions on their faces, the silence nestling above them heavier and more oppressive than the force that descended upon them earlier. Before Tristan could continue speaking, Benji retorted.
"What do you mean Dream Curse?! A system, what is that? Quests, countless monsters and supernatural powers?! Forgive me but I am having a hard time believing that."
Tristan turned to him and looked at him with a flat expression.
"You saw me crushing those guns did you not? Now shut up and let me continue before I do something similar to your brain."
Benji opened his mouth and closed it again, the words dying in his throat. Tristan meanwhile, continued.
"As I was saying, the disease is not actually a disease, but a curse instead. A Dream Curse to be precise. I still have no idea where it came from, but my awakening helped control its spread, somewhat. You should already know the symptoms, so i will not explain that in detail. I know it sounds unbelievable but after falling asleep, your consciousness is transported to another world, where you battle dozens of creatures in order to survive."
He sighed.
"If you want to be free, there is a specific goal you have to reach, or quest you have to fufil. On the other side, it is carnage and ruin everywhere, pools of blood drowning anyone attempting to survive the nightmare. The blood belonged to humans of course. The blood of all the humans who succumbed to sleep and died. Even i was lucky so survive. That was because I was placed in a remote area where there are not too many creatures."
He was silent for a second, and then continued. His voice distant.
"Like I said before, my awakening helped slow down the spread of the curse and control it, even though i still do not know how it works. That is why there are dozens of civilians who have not succumbed to sleep, and why they cannot step foot into this building. Because I am the concentration of all their dormant dreams. I hope that answered your question."
He looked at Jack, who just nodded slowly, still processing the ocean of information.
"The trial is very cruel, which is why people do not survive. Hundreds of thousands of people lay dead inside their dreams, while thousands are still fighting for their lives. That is the cruel thing about the Dream Curse, you do not finish your quest, you will be trapped inside your nightmare for eternity. And if you die in the dream, you die in real life. I am sorry to disappoint you but there is no cure to be found here, only death."
Jack was still confused about one thing.
"Okay I understand all of that, but I still do not understand one thing. Why are you telling us all of this?"
Tristan did not answer immediately, when he did though, his voice sounded subdued.
"I usually keep to myself in this basement. That is not because I enjoy being alone or hate the society, or anything like that. If it were up to me, I would be out in the world living like there is no tomorrow. Making lots of friends and breaking lots of hearts. That is how your twenties are supposed be spent right? But not if a massive responsibility has been bestowed upon your shoulders, just because an invisible force deemed them broad enough."
He forced a smile.
"I never wished to be a ruler, or anything like that. They were the ones to decided to label me that after witnessing my abilities. They started worshipping and fearing me, to a point that they began bringing me gifts and stuff like that. But I was still killing them. I was still toxic to them. My existence was their salvation, but it was also their curse as well. My curse to be precise. You see, as the first and only survivor of the Dream Curse i bear a responsibility like no other. I serve as a conduit to the curse."
His smile dissappeared, replaced by something else.
"Not exactly a conduit, but something close to that. Those who are under my rule do not have to suffer under the curse, because i do. That is why I said earlier, that I am a concentration of what you call the disease. I can manipulate them into something else, something I cannot explain as well. The reason why I am telling you this is because I want you to be ready. Ready for why you are about to face."
Jack finally showed a reaction. He shifted uncomfortably, and looked at Tristan dead in the eye.
"Just get to the point dammit, stop beating around the bush!"
Tristan sighed.
"Don't you get it? I am the concentration of the curse, which is why I have to seclude myself in order to protect all of th civilians. Because of your stubbornness and foolishness, you have just exposed yourself to the curse, and now you have only a few minutes - half an hour at best - before succumbing to the curse. I was trying to prepare you for the trials you were going to face."
The three of them remained indifferent, prompting Tristan to frown.
"Are you not afraid? I just told you that you have 30 minutes before your deaths. Does that not mean anything to you?"
James shrugged.
"He have long come to terms of our deaths. We knew from the moment we arrived that the whole camp was infested with the disease, even though not everyone seemed to be infected. We did not allow ourselves to find solace in that fact though, considering that we still had no idea how that was even possible. So, we came here fully aware that we have the disease, and prepared to die. But can I ask you something else, since you seem to be aware of everything. Do you know how our friends are doing? Have they contracted the curse as well?"
Tristan looked at him thoughtfully then sighed.
"I see. It is true that I can see everything happening around me. The Protectors allow me to do so. I do not know much about the state your friends are in though, but I can tell you that they have contracted the curse and they are hours away from falling asleep. Maybe a day or two, i do not know. But I do know that they are not under my rule so i cannot protect them like I do with other civilians."
James nodded.
"I understand."
The mood was somber, with no one wishing to speak. After a long stretch of silence, Benji finally asked a question he had been holding back since the moment they met.
"Uhm can I ask you something too. What are those Protectors, and why are they so weird? I mean, they do not seem like normal humans at all."
Tristan tilted his head in surprise.
"Well of course they do not."
The three of them frowned in confusion, so Tristan continued explaining.
"They are my puppets of course, what else could they be?"