126 Water Nightmare

The winds bellowed as the ocean waves surged. Rain pelted against the espers as they struggled against the storm. "Release the sails! Tai yelled towards the crew. "Turn the ship starboard! Wind espers, power the sails!" He walked up and down the deck, his back straight and head held high. He no longer seemed like a gentle young man, looking every bit the part of an imposing sea captain.

The crew pulled ropes, unfurling the sails. The rudder turned, directing the ship to the right so that the ship would move away from the nightmare. Green wind blew from nearly a hundred espers as they tried speeding the ship up further. The wind was so strong that the sails frequently ripped apart. Other espers had to hurriedly climb the masts and repair them as best they could. It was a task made all the more difficult when considering they had to face the espers' wind at the same time.

The ship quickly rose and fell into the sea. Their actions had sped the boat up drastically, but the nightmare was still closing in. The waves grew larger as it grew closer. Even with the size of their ship, it looked like little more than a small fish when compared with the massive nightmare and waves.

Flair stumbled on deck, holding desperately onto Tao to keep her safe. Terror covered her face as she saw the nightmare in the distance. "Not again... Not again!" She sobbed. Like Ed's other peers, she had awakened during the Flame Nightmare attack on Reef city, and only god knows what she had experienced during those events.

Ed grimaced as things continuously grew worse. The sea water stung like sharp knifes as it repeatedly slammed into his body. He activated his powers to melt the wood beneath his feet, fusing his boots to the ground. With each step he took he undid and redid the fusion, allowing him to keep his balance. Other espers weren't so lucky. Screams of terror echoed everywhere as men and women fell into the raging waters. They would no longer be saved by their comrades, for no one would be foolish enough to dive into the ocean with the Water Nightmare so close by.

Slowly, Ed made his way towards Tai. He had to shout loudly to be heard over the roars of the raging waters. "Tai! We're not going to make it!"

"We have to!" Tai yelled back. "What other choice do we have?!"

Ed frowned as he looked around the deck, hoping for any potential solution. "Where's it headed anyways?" He questioned loudly.

"Looks like we're moving towards Japan!" Tai replied. "If it makes you feel any better, we're saving time on our trip!" He laughed grimly, trying to keep his composure amidst the madness. He soon returned to his usual calmness, continuing to give orders to the crew.

"We need to fight and delay it!" Rubi ran over and shouted. "Like they do during the nightmare attacks on cities!"

"Are you mad?!" Tai yelled. "It would buy us minutes at best and seconds at worst. It would easily cost us halve our forces just for that!"

"What other choice do we have?!" She questioned begrudgingly.

Tai frowned while rubbing his chin. It was clear he was searching for a solution when there wasn't one. Their options were to delay it, try to ride it out to Japan, or give up and sink into the depths of the ocean.

Ed stared quietly at the looming nightmare. By now, its shadow was over 200 meters in height. They truly were running out of time. "Heh." He chuckled. 'What kind of shit luck is this?' Shaking his head, he looked at his trembling hands. Suddenly, he broke into a fit of laughter. He laughed so hard that he bent over holding his stomach and struggled to breath.

Tai and Rubi looked at him in confusion. "Are you alright?" Rubi questioned.

Mostly exiting his fit of laughter, he smiled. "I'm scared." He replied.

"Huh?" She tilted her head in confusion. "We're all scared, Ed. It's nothing to be ashamed about."

"No." He shook his head. "I've almost lost my life to nightmares twice before, and this is the third time, and I'm fucking terrified." He held up his trembling hands. "My powers have practically turned me into a fucking god amongst men." He pointed towards the towering Water Nightmare. "But compared to that? I'm nothing! Not even a fucking ant!"

"Ed..." Tai interrupted while placing a hand on his shoulder. "The nightmares aren't something that men can compare themselves to. We need to focus on finding a solution."

"You don't understand." Ed sighed while shaking his head. "When I fought the President and even when I faced OP Baldy, I never felt things were truly impossible. Even if I couldn't beat them then, I was fully confident of catching up to them in the future." His entire body shook as the freezing rains pelted against his body. "But what about the nightmares?!" He shouted. "Why are they so different?! What even are they?! Why does everyone give up on killing them?!"

"Ed..." Rubi shook her head, concern visible in her eyes.

He took a deep breath, holding it for several seconds before breathing out. "I'm going." His eyes sharpened as scales covered his body. Not waiting for a response, silver flames blasted him into the stormy skies.

"He's mad!" Tai yelled in shock. Several other crew members stared wide-eyed at the suicidal esper flying like a beacon in the night towards the towering monstrosity.

Ed flew through the pounding rain, the stormy wind repeatedly blasting him off course. "Ha." He laughed. "HAHAHA! This is fucking crazy stupid!" His fear grew greater the closer he flew, but he refused to retreat. 'If I don't face the nightmares when I'm weak, then how will I react once I'm strong?' He questioned himself. 'The President? Mr. Sai? They might be willing to go up defensively against the nightmares, but they've never seriously considered killing them.' His eyes hardened with resolve. 'I'll eliminate the nightmares someday! And to do that, I need to understand them. Men fear what they don't understand. Everyone's just accepted that these things are invincible, but I won't!'

Forcing his way through the raging storm, he neared the nightmare. The monster's body was so large that it appeared as if he was standing in front of an endlessly tall wave as opposed to a monster. Starting off easy, he hurled two balls of silver flames towards the nightmare. The attack quickly entered its body and fizzled out instantly, the electric flames doing no damage whatsoever.

'Purple, next.' He ground his teeth as purple flames covered his body. He shot a continual stream of the fire forward. Surprisingly, the purple fire managed to last for several seconds, going so far as to leave a small burn a meter in radius upon the nightmare's torso. Unfortunately, the wound healed just after.

'Will purple elements be the solution once I'm stronger?' He wondered. He glanced up at the nightmare, his head tilting back as far as it could. It seemed the Water Nightmare hadn't even noticed the insect attacking it.

Flying back to keep some distance, he began experimenting with his mana-batteries. He fired ice, earth, light, darkness, and more. He fused and mixed elements, attempting things such as corrosive flames, plasma, freezing winds, and more. However, none of it did the slightest damage, meaning his purple flames were still the only thing that had slightly succeeded.

'Interesting.' He nodded in understanding, slowly overcoming his almost instinctual fear of the nightmare. He rubbed his chin. 'If it's like other living creatures, then surely the eyes must be its weak point, right?'

Self-convinced and growing ever bolder, he began flying upwards along the nightmares body. He struggled keeping his eyes open amidst the freezing rains and stinging winds. As he flew higher, the rain turned to hail that easily broke through his flames and scales, bruising his body all over. He was forced to slow down and take the time to avoid the larger pieces of ice. Soon, the hail grew even larger in size. He flew back-and-forth as he twisted and turned, attempting to dodge hail bigger than steam wagons and houses.

'Almost there!' He clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes as he added wind from his mana-batteries to his flames to boost through the final stretch of distance. As he finally reached the nightmare's head, it was as if he passed through a barrier. The winds grew calm, and the rains stopped. There was no hail or freezing weather. It was like the calm in the eye of a hurricane.

Relaxing slightly, Ed examined the nightmare's face. This was by far the closest he had ever come to a nightmare. The number of espers that had been foolish or brave enough to come near a nightmare's head could probably be counted on just a few hands.

"Amazing." He gasped as he stared at it. The nightmare's face was basically non-existent. It had no mouth or nose, or any other kind of defining features. The one exception was its four purple glowing eyes, which all nightmares seemed to share. Slowly, the nightmare's head turned, its eyes staring directly at the insect that flew before it.

Ed gulped as he felt a shiver travel down his spine, but he refused to give up. He pulled every ounce of mana he could manage from his meridians, covering his body in raging purple flames several times their usual size. 'I wonder if it has a mana-core?' He thought before he charged forward.

Purple flames rolled off his hands, blasting towards the nightmare's lower right eye. Boom! The eye exploded violently, sending purple water everywhere.

Pshhh. The purple water rushed past Ed, extinguishing his flames momentarily before he recovered. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at the nightmare's head. 'It was that easy? Why'd it's eye react so violently to the purple flames?'

"GROARRRRRRRRRRR!!!" The Water Nightmare's deafening roar reverberated for kilometers in all directions, sending even greater surges of waves through the raging ocean waters. It stopped moving forward, and its eye recovered in just a few seconds.

"Pfft!" Ed spat out a stream of blood as his body shot backwards like a rocket. The roar had been so strong that the airwaves had knocked him falling from the skies. He only managed to recover after falling for several hundred meters. 'Nightmares actually get angry and feel pain?!" He stared in shock as the revelation dawned upon him.

Suddenly, the Water Nightmare's huge arms began slowly rising from the ocean, enough water falling from them to make it look like there were miniature hurricanes beneath them. The blue water throughout its body started to glow brightly and travel towards the fin-like arms. It slowly bent over and placed the tip of its arms back into the water. There was a brief moment of silence, and then, everything changed for the worse.

The water surrounding the nightmare's fins froze almost instantly. The ice quickly spread through the raging ocean waves, freezing them in place. Tai's ship was currently riding atop the crest of a wave. The water surrounding it immediately turned to ice, trapping the ship high in the sky. The ice continued to spread to an inestimable distance beyond the horizon in every direction. The stormy rain and wind ceased as things grew eerily calm.

Ed grimaced at the change of his surroundings. 'Not good!' He hurriedly flew backwards as the nightmare began moving again. The cold surroundings made it difficult for him to keep his flames lit, and the chill pierced down to his bone. As a strong esper, he didn't even remember the last time he had truly felt cold at all, let alone such a deep chill.

He prepared himself for the upcoming fight for survival, when to his surprise, the nightmare completely ignored him again. It continued on its journey, easily crushing its way through the ice as it went. As it neared the ship, the espers aboard panicked, truly feeling that the end of their lives had come. But again, the nightmare completely ignored them as it continued past. It slowly vanished into the distance, leaving nothing but the frozen ocean and ship behind.

Ed stared speechlessly as all this happened. 'Why would it just ignore us altogether?' He wondered as he struggled to fly back towards the ship. His flames continuously went out, much like a candle fighting against a strong breeze. Fortunately, he hadn't suffered any serious injuries during the battle. It was completely unlike the time he fought the Lightning Nightmare, where it seemed to target individual espers on purpose.

Landing on the ship frozen atop the waves, he headed for Tai. "Hey." He called out. "Any idea why it ignored us?"

Tai and most of the rest of the crew were still staring silently into the distance where the nightmare had disappeared. Slowly, he shook his head. "I've no idea. I'm not aware of anyone truly understanding the nightmares. Anybody that tries would likely get themselves killed before long. Perhaps only OP Baldy would know a hint of the truth."

"Mm." Ed nodded as he continuously shivered from the cold. He glanced down at the frozen waters. "So... what are we going to do about this?" He questioned.

"About what?" Tai asked, still half-dazed from the near-death experience. "Oh, the ice." He nodded, snapping out of his trance. "All flame espers!" He yelled towards the crew. "Are you waiting for the ship to fall and crash?! Get to work melting the ice! We haven't got all day!" He continued shouting orders as flames circled around him.

Dozens of espers set to work melting the ice, but their flames were continuously extinguished. The ice seemed to have a strong concentration of mana, meaning it would likely take a long time for it to melt naturally. Fortunately, they had a lot of manpower to speed up the process.

Rubi still stood atop the deck. She frowned as she looked at Ed. "That was a very stupid thing you did. You could have got yourself killed."

"Tsk." Ed clicked his tongue. "You're the one that wanted espers to risk their lives to delay it. Isn't that exactly what I did?"

"That..." She hesitated to answer.

"Yeah, exactly." He nodded while waving. "I'm returning to secluded meditation to focus on my insights from the battle. Let Tai know when he gets back."

"Okay..." Rubi agreed.

...

Back in Ed's room, he sat cross-legged in meditation with his eyes closed. 'The Flame Nightmare attacked Reef city, quickly destroying it and leaving. The Lightning Nightmare did the same thing to Atlanta city... I always thought they were monsters of wanton destruction, merely existing to destroy everything within their path... but that can't be right. The Water Nightmare completely ignored us even as I managed to anger it by destroying an eye. So, what is their true goal and purpose? Where did they come from?' He opened his eyes and glanced towards the direction of Japan. 'Will it attack a city there?' His eyes narrowed. 'We'll have to head there for repairs anyways. I'll find my answer then.'