Not too long ago, Zagan managed to enter Earthland through the rifts that opened all across the world. Many demons were slaughtered upon entering Earthland, however, Zagan turned out to be too powerful for the group encountering him in Hargeon. He did not care much about the carnage. Instead, Zagan decided to collect on the deals he had made with mortals centuries ago. Debts that were carried by their descendants.

Eventually, the Dragons realized what Zagan was doing. They secretly captured the Demon Lord and sealed him in this dungeon. Now that others had finally entered it, he could leave this damned place again. He did not care to exact revenge against the Dragons who sealed him here. His plans were far more ambitious. A glimpse of what could be offered was presented in this dungeon. A chance to overcome one's own insecurities and become a stronger person. Only a few resonated to this call though. What they heard were not words whispered by Zagan, but words that came from within themselves.

From the shadows, Zagan entered the room to reveal himself. At that moment, he appeared like any other human wearing a black suit. It was, however, clear that Zagan was not someone ordinary wandering around this place. With a wave of his hand, Mary turned into smoke and disappeared. She wasn't harmed by Zagan, but teleported away from this floor. Zagan already knew that the girl hadn't heard the whispers. She would become a liability if she remained here and heard about it.

"Did you hear them too? The whispers?" Zagan asked the group. There were four of them. The three hadn't noticed yet that someone else reached their location as well. "I heard them as well a long time ago. Whispers that came from within. Whispers that confronted you with your own insecurities." Zagan walked towards the group without any sign of malice. He wanted to show them that he wasn't here to harm them. Instead, he wanted to help them. "It is as they say, right? The one capable of hurting you the most is yourself in the end. Deep inside you know what bothers you even if you do not want to acknowledge it all. These whispers are not a curse though. See them as a blessing. Only those hearing the whispers can seek out the power to end it. So what is bothering you all?"

It seemed that solving the labyrinth had more profound effects on the dungeon than simply opening the way forward.  After turning around and storming back into the twisting halls Ko and the others had just left, he'd quickly come upon new passageways that weren't part of the labyrinth at all.  Every time Ko began to question the rationale in chasing a disembodied voice, it spoke up again, peppering him with inflammatory whispers that stoked his outrage.

Ironically, after some time the passageway he'd been traversing started to resemble the lava tubes of Fatal Peak, and just as expected he came to the end of the passage to find himself deposited in a room that could only be described as the heart of a volcano.  Strewn about the place were the bodies of murdered Kobolds, and standing near the center were a group of four people Ko didn't recognize.

Naturally, Ko assumed that one of them was to blame for the whispers, but before he could call out to them another figure appeared, casually gesturing at one of their number and teleporting her away.  Nantosuelta was following closely behind him, incredibly on edge.  Whoever that shadowy man was, he made her extremely concerned.

Ko finally reached the rest of the group just as the man began to speak, and his initial choice of words gave Ko pause.  At first glance Ko would have thought the man in shadows was the cause of the whispers, but he was talking about them as some kind of separate phenomenon he had experienced himself.  As he continued, the angry scowl on Ko's face melted into a strained, manic grin.  

His own insecurities?  Of course, he'd known that.  It had never been what the whispers had said, it had been that something was repeating it back to him.  The shame of thinking something else out there had seen what he'd packed down into his soul like a lump of coal.  When the man finally asked what was bothering them, Ko let out a sarcastic laugh, dropping his sword on the ground with a clatter.  "Blessing?  You call this a blessing?"

Ko rubbed at his face with one hand, running it up through his hair as he craned his head to stare at the ceiling, trying to keep his turbulent emotions from spilling out in front of these strangers.  "I hear these damn whispers every night.  I see the face that speaks them in my Nightmares.  Memories tormenting me, holding me back.  Tearing me apart from the inside.  If I could, I'd shove my own sword into my head and cut these memories out like a cancer!"

"Somehow you still perservered and continued living on with these painful memories of yours." Zagan said. Even though Ko might not have been aware that he was speaking to a Demon, Zagan's demeanor wouldn't have given it away for he was empathetic towards Ko's struggle.

"It is holding you back though, isn't it? Somehow you cannot reach your true potential because of these memories. Always second-guessing yourself. Never feeling as if you deserve something."

"I see, so we are all in the same boat here. I guess I have managed to deal with a lot of things since I accepted the solution to the problem," Zagan said. "The answer to your problems is Nightmare." The concept of Nightmare would be vague to all of them, because Nightmare was removed from lore and history. In the end, they managed to remove a lot of things linked to the Abyss, however, Nightmare was much smaller and it could be removed more easily.

"Have you ever heard about Nightmare? Ah, what am I talking about! Of course, you haven't heard about it! Everything about it got erased." Zagan could ramble on about anything. They missed out on so much history cause their lives were so short. "Wistech? Ever heard about Wistech? Long ago, the nation of Wischtech existed on Earthland. While small, they were nearly unstoppable for they utilized something known as Nightmare. At the time, the strongest race on Earthland, the High Elves, warred against Wischtech for years to stop them from expanding. They sealed away the realm of Nightmare from which the powers poured into Earthland and empowered the Wischtechians. Lore about Nightmare was burned and destroyed so that it could never return again."

So here Zagan stood with mortals. They were unaware of the depths of life due to their short life span and Zagan was pouring some knowledge into them. "Okay, look. Imagine going through life without whatever is bothering you right now? How would it go? Better, right? That is Nightmare." What Zagan forgot to share was that individuals who used Nightmare drew their power from more intense, raw and darker emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, passion, and aggression.

The blond boy was a bit skeptic, but Zagan couldn't blame him. "The name is Zagan, normally I would charge you an arm and a leg, but this consultation meeting is absolutely free of charge. And what might all your names be?" Zagan said with a laugh. Somehow the laugh indicated that these were actually Zagan's rates. He then turned his attention towards the lich pretending to a mortal. "We have to find one of the remnants of the Wistechian civilization. And I have to contact an old friend of mine. Either way, it means we need to get out of here first." Zagan already sensed that these adventurers were not the only ones in the dungeon. The others were most likely still outside. Based on the number of people that had just entered this place, the Dragons were probably already alerted. They didn't have much time to leave the scene. They weren't going to allow Zagan to leave this place and spare the lives of these adventurers with him.

It seemed like the pit that Ko had unwittingly wandered into just got deeper and deeper.  While Ko couldn't really follow a lot of what Zagan was saying, he got the general gist of it.  Sometime in the past there was some kind of super-powerful nation that used some kind of special magic to...do something.

Regardless, the strange man was right.  Ko was tired of feeling lesser than himself, of falling short of his own expectations because of something completely out of his control.  If Zagan knew of a way to let him take back control, he'd take the chance even if he wasn't offering it for free.  

As he was coming to this conclusion, however, one of the other men brought up some good points.  Zagan had said that the fact they heard the whispers meant they could seek the power to end them.  "It has something to do with the whispers, doesn't it?  The reason you need us?"  Ko blurted that comment out the second it occurred to him, and it didn't stop there.  

However, realizing he'd simply interjected right after Zane had finished speaking, Ko sheepishly backpedaled. "Uh, names, right; I'm Ko Lesalt. You said this 'Nightmare' thing is supposed to help us get rid of whatever is holding us back, so what exactly is it?  Some kind of Magic?  A life philosophy?  A weight-lifting regimen?  I just...look, you see where I'm coming from right?  Its called Nightmare.  That's not what you'd usually call something that's supposed to be good for you, right?  Hell I get enough nightmares as it is without adding some extra ones on top."

"I am not here entirely willingly, Zane. There is faction out there doing whatever it takes to ensure that Nightmare does not return to Earthland. Since they couldn't defeat me, they sort of sealed me here. I guess my friends somehow managed to convince you all to enter this dungeon in order to disturb the seal. Either way, after today, I can leave this place."

Zagan briefly paused to look at the others for a moment. "The reason I am sharing this with you all is because you heard the whispers as well, Ko. I am simply offering a solution to your problems. It is up to you all whether you leave this place with me or without me. I don't care. If you want to do something about your lives, follow me. If not, continue living as broken beings." It was true. Whether they followed Zagan or not didn't matter to him. He simply wanted to offer the same power to like-minded individuals. A cure to their disease.

"Nightmare manifests through passion. Through passion, you gain strength. Through strength, you gain power. Through power, you gain victory. And through victory, your chains will be finally broken. Nightmare does not associate itself with good nor bad. It simply draws its powers from intense and raw emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, and passion." There wasn't much time left. Zagan was willing to answer a few more questions, but after that, the adventurers had a decision to make. Zagan was either going to leave this place with them or without them. But he wasn't going to stay here anymore.

"I guess another way to describe Nightmare would be through the color black. But it isn't a color, is it? It is the absence of color. And yet, without color, it exists. It is raw, pure, and untainted. Now some might argue that black stands for evil, but that is simply a construct made by this world through storytelling. In the end, what does black truly stand for? It stands for nothing. You give meaning to colors. And you decide how to use these powers once you make them your own. As long as you feed it with your raw emotions, they will manifest. That is why not everyone can hear the whispers. Some lack these raw emotions."

Ko listened intently as he could as Zagan explained the nature of Nightmare, nodding in thought. As he expected, Ko didn't get it at all. Zagan was talking about it like all he had to do was be passionate and he'd somehow overcome his inner weaknesses? But it wasn't just emotions, it was also a color? Really, this Zagan guy was really good at talking without saying anything.

Regardless, it was good enough he supposed. Whatever Nightmare was, it wasn't exactly magic, and it wasn't exactly evil. It was probably predisposed to being used for evil, since it drew power from fear and anger. Ko knew enough to deduce that it couldn't impose those emotions on someone without it's power becoming recursive.

The man named Lucas spoke up then, asking that they hurry so that he could get medical attention, which was the first time Ko noticed he was missing an entire arm. "Oh shit! You're a tough motherfucker!" Ko could only hope he'd take it as nonchalantly if he ever lost an arm. Still, there was one question still hanging at the back of Ko's mind.

"So, I don't mind if we get outa here now, but I do have one more question. Did they have to call it 'Nightmare'? Couldn't they have chosen something less obviously evil sounding?"

"No catch, Steel. Extra hands are always more useful. I got what you need and you guys can help me out to get it faster. Diversion might be necessary from time to time to trick the Dragons and it is easier to pull that off with the right numbers." Zagan then turned his attention towards Lucas. He didn't want to blow Lucas' cover and played along. Even though Zagan realized that Lucas was a lich, he understood that the rest might not be aware of that fact. "Sure thing, champ. I'm in a hurry as well."

Before they could leave, Ko started to ask more questions. Zagan didn't mind answering his question, but they really needed to leave the place before the seals were restored. Thus, Zagan started to walk and signed the rest to follow him while talking. "The name itself refers to Nacht, the Dragon of the End, the Nightmare Dragon. Since the powers originate from him, it is referred to as a Nightmare. And the whole end thing sounds scarier than it is. I mean, what is creation without a little bit of destruction?" Zagan said. He casually strolled through the floors while the rest followed him towards the exit. Since the dungeon's teleportation exits were gone, they had to use a different method. Luckily, Zagan knew how to exit the dungeon.

"Last chance to change your minds, fellas. Once we leave this dungeon and you guys walk out of here with me, your fates are sealed in the eyes of the world."

They were almost at the exit, but Zagan still offered them a chance to retract their statements. Only if they were truly interested, he would allow them to tag along for this adventure.

Ko couldn't conceal his surprise when Zagan plainly explained the origin of this 'Nightmare' power.  He might as well have been detailing his grocery list rather than talking about the history of some apocalypse dragon.  Even Nantosuelta tensed up at the name, bumping chin on Ko's shoulder as she moved in.  "Ko, we shouldn't be listening to this!  This power must have been locked away for a reason, you can't trust him!"

If Ko were being honest, or less desperate, he probably would have agreed with Nantosuelta.  This Zagan guy was selling something questionable with a suspiciously timely use to everyone present.  At the same time, Ko was tired.  He was tired of feeling trapped in his own life.  So instead of being honest, he grinned and rubbed Nantosuelta under her jaw.  "That doesn't sound like you Nan, you almost seem scared.  You're not gonna let something like a name send you running are you?"  Immediately he got the indignant growl he was looking for.  Rather than dismissing it, as he usually would, he looked her in the eye.  "Trust me, okay?"

It was clear from the look in her eyes that Ko hadn't dismissed her worries in the slightest.  Still, she didn't say anything else, simply laying her head on his shoulder and grumbling.  Ko, still comforting his reticent flamewyrm, looked back at Zagan.  Our 'fates would be sealed in the eyes of the world', eh?  "Fuck em.  I've seen where fate is guiding me already, and its face down in a muddy ditch, drowning in my own vomit just so I can stop remembering for a few hours.  If stealing some power from some crusty old dragon will help me change that, I'm in."