Dungeon Raider System

Luna and Medusa exchanged awkward glances as they tried to understand what happened to Sam and whether or not they were at risk. They briefly discussed the matter as Luna proposed to close the laptop in the off chance that it could keep him sealed, but Medusa was against it. Not because Sam was a friend, which he wasn't anymore, but because he was a holy rank hunter who had gone rogue and now attempted to find redemption by helping them.

Just as the discussion was about to reach the argument level, Ika butted in showing deep concern in her eyes. Sam may have been many things to the Dungeon Raiders and the city of New Texas, but to Ika and Wendy he was their boss and the closest thing to a family.

"Alright, we'll try to figure out how to release him from the laptop. But in the meantime we'll focus on other cases." Medusa suggested.

"That's not enough, what if something happens to him?" Ika rebuked.

"Something like what, exactly? You've seen the same things I have, I'd be surprised if there's anything in this world that can actually kill him." Wendy scoffed.

Sure enough, everyone knew exactly the reason why Sam could not be defeated no matter what, though the only one who could possibly understand what Sam was suffering in that moment was not present in the room.

Being the first one to become Water warlock's host, Uriel knew death and even hurt slowly lost their meaning, but that didn't mean he lost his ability to lose fear. Back then, Uriel did not fear fighting stronger opponents or getting himself in harms way, but just the thought of being trapped for eternity was enough to make him stutter in fear. And if that was bad, knowing that after millennia of being sealed he could wake up to an alien world completely unfamiliar to him was the worst.

"So, next case it is," Emma said after a long sigh. "this one has a few reports about it, but it seems harmless. It appears people who had fallen asleep after the barrier was lifted had all been dreaming about this particular man." She displayed a picture on the TV screen and pointed at a hand drawn portrait of a man who seemed completely normal.

With thin lips, thick eyebrows, a receding hairline and a resting face that looked smug to some and devoid of emotion to others, the only weird thing about him that could be said was that he looked completely average.

"Dibs." Luna said as she sat on a chair with the obvious intent to put her ability to fall asleep whenever and wherever she wanted to good use.

"You can't just... at least tell us what this is about and if you need backup or something." Medusa said after passing an obfuscated hand across her face.

"Uhm... actually... I need an electroencephalogram in place and I'd also like to have a snack before sleeping." Luna said looking at a random colonel.

"Do I look like a butler to you?" The colonel snarkily said.

"I'll tell you what," Medusa started with a smirk that became wider and wider as she spoke. "I'll bring you the encephalogram, snacks, drinks and I'll even give you a massage with scented oils if you take her place."

"I'll do it!" Contrary to her expectations, the man agreed on the spot and stood his ground. Not out of duty or pride, but because Medusa was the single most attractive woman he had ever laid eyes upon and the fact that she was completely unaware of her own beauty only doubled it.

"Too bad, I already called dibs." Luna said.

"I insist, the flag is calling upon me and I can't let the opportunity pass." He said with a straight face that almost crumbled down when another colleague gave him a nudge in the ribs, but it eventually did crumble down when Luna explained the background of it.

"I have studied this case before as it took place before the arrival. A psychiatrist posted online that one of her patients dreamed about a man he had never met and a few days after that, another one reported something similar. It prompted him to create a supposed hoax, likely as a joke, where he posted the picture online asking other people, but the next day his email was full of people claiming the same which he dismissed as mass hysteria or self suggestion. That was the case until he noticed one off thing: all the people who saw the man lived in the same city." Luna's expressionless face encompassed the recount to perfection and those who were smart enough to put the facts together understood how unlikely something like that was to happen and they wondered if it was safe to fall asleep at all, but Luna's story was not over yet.

"Since it started as a hoax, it didn't take long for people to figure that out and he even admitted it. However, soon after that the character in question started appearing in the psychiatrist dreams. 'It is my own self suggestion' he thought, then carried on with his life experiencing from time to time the uncanny presence of somebody else inside his dream. He started going to therapy to unravel the mystery in the attempt to write a book about it, but then his therapist started having those dreams. In facts, the reports of people dreaming about that man started becoming more elaborate. Some claimed the man only stared at them while others claimed he was a dear friend or a family member in their dreams. Always a benevolent presence that would do nothing but look at them, however..." Luna took a pause to look everyone present in the eye, prompting Wendy to cry out loud.

"For fucks sake just finish the story!"

"Could it be... are you scared?" Ika chuckled at the silly thought of a cryptid being scared.

"Of course I am! you may not believe it, but gods are to us what we cryptids are to you." Wendy said leaving the colonels wondering about her specific use of the pronoun 'we'.

"However...," Luna continued as if nothing happened. "people started dying. The first victim being the psychiatrist's first patient who described the man. It was a friend of the psychiatrist who informed him that the doctors dismissed it as a stroke and claimed he died peacefully in his sleep, but instead of reassuring his friend it only caused him the most absolute terror. He bypassed security and bribed people who worked at the morgue to inspect the body and just a glance of the deceased's face was enough to know there was nothing peaceful about his demise."

"How could you possibly know all this?" Questioned a colonel who had unwittingly taken a few steps back.

"During our time in Europe I got my hands on some interesting books and documents, among which was the diary of said psychiatrist. I did not think it could possibly be a cryptid, since I already know the cryptid who holds power over the dreams, which is why I lost interest. But if gods are somehow involved in this case, then it needs further investigation." She said right before dozing off so easily people thought she fainted, except she snored like a hibernating bear.

Because of how invested everyone was in Luna's story, no one brought the equipment she had asked for. It was not uncommon in the slightest, but there were none in the vicinity which meant someone had to go fetch it from a hospital.

It could not have taken more than ten minutes, but by the time they installed it and hooked it up to Luna, the results were already egregiously strange. Rather than a single signature, the machine detected two different brain waves as though it had been hooked to two people at the same time.

"This results, they are impossible..." An army doctor which was among the few that could read the chart let out in a gasp.

"Not really, she's a hybrid and as such, she obviously has two different signals." Amy informed.

"So, you have hybrids in your midst... and I think I heard that lady say she's a cryptid..." One of the bunch of colonels who remained in place mumbled.

"Well, yes, there's plenty of hybrids in our ranks. If you don't like it, then you can complain to our boss about it. Or better yet, why don't you speak directly to my father?" Lizzy Dragonfang made sure everyone listened and while it helped the colonels from running in fear or rebelling on the spot, it certainly opened up a dam of doubts. Particularly a specific question that now lingered in their minds.

'Are the gods really the bad guys here?'

So far, the evidence of a god being present in the city, let alone existing, had yet to be proven and while they were certain there was a threat to the city, now they questioned whether they were looking directly at it.