Courting Death System-Chapter 72: Tony (2)

Before going to sleep, Tony adequately prepared himself to face the nightmare that had been haunting his dreams for years. He placed the Lucid Flower beside the bed, ate cookies and drank milk and even wore his father’s robe, hoping they would give him strength and only then did he go to sleep.

For Tony, going to sleep was a matter of mere seconds to a minute. In no time, he was already snoring.

...

In his dream, Tony found himself in the woods, he wore pyjamas and his father’s robe made him feel safe and protected. In the dream, it was nighttime so seeing in the dark proved extremely difficult for Tony, fortunately, the moon provided the light needed to barely make out the silhouette of anything out of place.

"Today I’m not running away. You bastard have been tormenting me for years and today, I’m gonna put a stop to all of it!" said Tony as he entered the woods without fear and resolute eyes. Usually, he would run as far away from the woods as possible but the nightmare always caught up with him.

In the woods, it was deathly silent and only Tony’s footsteps sounded, he walked cautiously while looking around but there was no sign of the nightmare.

’Could it be that today it doesn’t want to torment me? No! I won’t be swayed by foolish thoughts, since I came here to conquer it, I won’t wake up till I do so.’ thought Tony.

"Come out, come out wherever you are. Don’t be scared, I’m not gonna hurt you, I’m gonna torture you slowly before finally killing you so come out! Come out and face me you ugly bastard! Come out you piece of shit!" Tony started cursing the nightmare when it didn’t come out after such a long time.

’Damn darkness, be gone!’ thought Tony and the most magical thing happened. The moon glowed so brightly that the darkness disappeared, leaving only the shadows created by trees.

"What’s going on?! When I think of something, usually, the opposite of what I thought occurs! Is this the Lucid Flower’s magical powers at play?" said Tony not knowing that his conjecture was actually correct. The Lucid Flower beside his bed was glowing and releasing an orange powder that Tony inhaled.

"Since I can now nanimate my dreams, how about gaining insane amounts of physical strength."

In an instant, Tony felt immense and overbearing physical strength coursing through his veins.

"Awesom..."

Bang!

A powerful force from nowhere sent Tony flying and crashing through the trees, destroying them.

"So, you finally decided to show up but unfortunately, I was already waiting for you." said Tony while nonchalantly standing up and brushing away the dry leaves and branches on his clothes.

Not far from him was the nightmare that had been haunting him for years, it had a deeer skull head with two blue dots on its empty eye sockets, it was about four meters tall with numerous sharp horns on its skeletal head, it also had sharp claws. Its mouth was made up of darkness and so was the rest of its body, it was both bipedal and quadrupedal, it just depended on how it wanted to walk and it emitted a soul freezing aura, just standing there gave Tony the shivers.

’Make my body warm.’ he willed it and his body became warm. He also willed for two daggers that he planned on stabbing this nightmare with but the daggers didn’t form perfectly as he wanted.

’Are the effects of the Lucid Flower waning? I gotta finish this quickly.’ he thought.

"Come!"

Bellow!

The nightmare released a creepy bellow that sounded like a mixture of a cow’s moo, a bear’s wailing and a crocodile’s bellow, completely soul freezing and body stunning. It then lunged at Tony on all fours at a fast speed, covering ten meters of distance in just a few seconds.

For a second, Tony was afraid but after thinking about the years of torment, when he thought about how constantly worried his mother was, when he thought about not even having the time to mourn his father’s death because of this thing, he became enraged.

"Do you know how many times I’ve thought about this moment?! The moment where I absolutely beat the living shit out of you!" shouted Tony while sending a punch directly to its face.

Bang!

The nightmare was sent flying but his hand was slightly numb, Tony didn’t care and just chased after the nightmare and began punching it over and over again.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of his fists could be heard from afar like it was thunderclap. The nightmare didn’t know why but today, the human was insanely strong. After beating it till he bled, Tony started stabbing it with his daggers over and over again without stop, causing it to scream in excruciating pain.

When it opened its mouth, Tony stuck his hand inside, all the way down to its throat, pierced it with the dagger and dragged it upwards, severing its throats and whatever else. The nightmare squirmed in pain but he held it in place, his fear of the nightmare was slowly fading away.

"Everytime I came here, you either devoured me or chased me down and mutilated my body but now the roles have changed. This is despair!" he said coldly then continued to torture the nightmare.

Outside the dream, the Lucid Flower was glowing so brightly that Tony’s room was illuminated in a purple light, the flower pot started to crack, every wound inflicted by Tony on the nightmare caused more cracks to appear on the flower pot until it completely broke and the Lucid Flower hovered in the air, then slowly, floated its way to Tony’s face where its roots pierced his glabella and slowly planting itself inside him.

Tony was obviously unaware of this and just felt himself growing stronger, the nightmare felt that simrjnr was wrong but before it could figure out what exactly was wrong, Tony bit its hand, chewed and then swallowed it. Green liquid spewed from both the wound and Tony’s mouth, tasting like mud and swamp water but he didn’t care.

"Since you ate me, how about I give you the taste of your own medicine!" immediately after, Tony continued to bite and chew on the nightmare, swapping it forcefully, his eyes gleaned in insanity and fearlessness.

[I’m... sorry...!] said the nightmare. In the zone, Tony didn’t even care that the nightmare could speak and continued to devour it.

"You’re sorry, too late for that! I’m gonna swallow you whole if I have to!"

[Let me go! Let me go! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Let me go!] the nightmare kept screaming in pain, begging Tony to stop.

The Lucid Flower had plunged its roots deep within his forehead, as for where it was taking root, it was yet to be known because seemed to be taking root in a dark space and it had already planted itself halfway into that space.

The nightmare tried to fight back but Tony’s physical strength was unmatched and it didn’t even leave a scratch on his body.

[Spare me... Spare me... Spare me...] those were its last words before it was completely devoured by Tony and the same time he completely devoured the nightmare, the same time that the Lucid Flower ompletely disappear into the dark space and assimilated with it. Tony then lost consciousness even in the dream.

BOOM!

Something inside him exploded as purple and white energy coursed through his body and even escaped through the pores and enveloped Tony’s body in a pod. Inside the pod, Tony was undergoing an unprecedented change, one that would change his life forever. His hair slowly turned white, his eyes turned purple and his pupils were shaped exactly like the Lucid Flower, his skin became fair and smooth and his appearance became more and more beautiful but in a manly manner.

...

Tony woke the next day feeling fresh, his eyelids and body not heavy like they usually were he wasn’t fatigued or tired in the slightest bit.

"SUCCESS!!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, waking both his mother and friend up who then quickly rushed to his room.

"Mother, I succeeded! I conquered my nightmare!" he exclaimed in excitement as soon as they entered his room. The two were too stunned to say anything.

"Mother, Justin, why aren’t you guys saying anything? Aren’t you happy for me?" asked Tony.

"Are you really my son?" asked Tony’s mother after a long time.

"Of course I’m your son, who else would I be?"

"Are you really my friend?" asked Justin.

"What kind of questions are these? I’m Tony Daimann, twenty one years old and proudly living with my mother. Justin, do you remember when we went to the river to swim and..."

"Stop, I believe you, just stop!" hurriedly said Justin.

"Honestly, what’s wrong with you? You’re usually not like this?"

"The question is, what’s wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Go look at yourself in the mirror. I’m sure you’re also going to have doubts about yourself."