CALAMITY : Legends Of The Chosen

NIGHTFALL ARC — Part 1: "Dreams That Cut"

Location: Appalachian Forest Outskirts – Temporary Camp

🕒 Time: 11:57 PM

[Scene Setting – Forest Camp]

The wind had finally stilled. A makeshift camp nestled beneath skeletal trees glowed dimly under flickering firelight. Eight figures sat in silence now — weary, cracked, but still breathing.

Shojiro sat cross-legged, eyes closed in meditation.

Enme stood by a glowing rune-circle, reinforcing her night-barrier.

Zans lay quietly with Kuro curled beside him like a shadow-shaped pillow.

Max tuned his Indra crossbows out of habit. Karl was in compact mode, small and orb-shaped as he recharged nanites.

Leone leaned against a rock, her hoodie halfway up as her Ghoul mode shimmered softly beneath her skin.

Alex hovered a few feet off the ground, eyes closed, her presence unsettlingly serene.

And Morgz?

Morgz had already fallen asleep.

"Figures," Max muttered. "First to knock out."

Morgz had fallen asleep first, curled up by the fire, his head tilted toward the sky. The stars shimmered above the trees, and silence wrapped around the camp like a fog.

Shojiro kept watch. Zans and Kuro quietly played shadow games under the moonlight. Leone leaned against a boulder, slowly drifting.

[Inside Morgz's Dream]

At first, it was beautiful.

A quiet stream. Trees made of crystal glass. Light drifting down like powdered gold.

Morgz looked down. He was barefoot, walking on warm moss. He felt... calm.

Too calm.

Then the trees began to twist.

The sky cracked like glass. Red fog poured from nowhere. The water turned to eyes — thousands of blinking, unblinking eyes — watching him from every angle.

Something snapped behind him.

He turned.

A star-shaped cradle descended from the air.

It whispered into his thoughts, not his ears.

"You are the first sleeper."

Limbs extended. One of them — a jagged, sea-star claw — sliced across his cheek.

He screamed in the dream—

In Reality

"—AGHHHHHHHH!"

The scream ripped through the night like a gunshot.

[Reality – 1:34 AM]

Leone shot up instantly, running to his side.

"MORGZ?!"

Blood was spilling from a fresh cut on his cheek.

Everyone snapped awake. Karl unfolded from sleep-mode. Shojiro stood at once. Zans shielded Kuro. Max raised a clenched fist.

Morgz's eyes were still closed — twitching. Still trapped in the dream.

Leone shook him, hard. "Morgz, wake up—!"

She slapped him.

His eyes flew open, gasping for air.

"W-what—where…?"

Leone crouched, breath heavy. "You were screaming. You were bleeding."

He reached up. Blood on his fingers.

Shojiro narrowed his eyes. "You okay?"

"I… think so. I saw… something. A cradle. With eyes. And it spoke to me."

Enme stood nearby, lips tight. "Nightmare?"

"…Maybe."

Max grunted. "You probably rolled into a rock."

Zans added, "Or scratched yourself in your sleep."

Alex, eyes glowing faintly, just said:

"Nothing natural touches minds like that."

Everyone went quiet.

Leone finally said, "Get some rest. We'll talk in the morning."

But Morgz didn't move. He just stared at the flame…

Whispering something no one else heard.

"…That wasn't just a dream."

Scene: Nightfall in the Forest – "Sleep Will Take You"

The Chosen had set up camp in the heart of a deep, mist-choked forest. The air hung heavy with moisture and moss, every creaking branch overhead sounding like the snap of bone.

A fire crackled in the middle of their clearing. Karl's chariot had gone into standby form, nestled between two massive roots. Alex sat perched on a boulder, eyes glowing faintly as she silently scanned the surroundings with her mind.

But Morgz couldn't rest.

He sat apart from the others, shaking and pale, tracing the fresh slash on his cheek. It hadn't scabbed over yet. It should've. But it pulsed.

"Something followed me back from that dream…"

Leone approached, her cloak swaying behind her. "Still awake?"

Morgz nodded without looking. "You believe me, right?"

"…I believe something's wrong."

He looked at her. "Don't let me sleep."

She hesitated. "You're gonna fall asleep eventually, Morgz."

He clenched his fists. "Then wake me up. Please."

Later That Night – Sleep Wins

Despite every effort — pacing, biting his lip, even slapping himself — the foggy air dulled Morgz's senses, and the warm fire lulled his eyes shut.

Dream Realm: The Mindfield Returns

Morgz awoke in the middle of an inverted forest. The trees grew downward from a floating ceiling. Leaves hovered weightlessly. The moon bled yellow and throbbed like a heart.

He knew exactly where he was.

"No… not again—"

Then, it slithered in.

From behind a warped tree, the Aetherial-Class Namsari emerged.

The evolved starfish-like horror pulsed with psychic filaments. Its eye blinked once, and a low hum vibrated through the dream.

Morgz's memories flooded back. The face slash. The scream. The blood.

And now he remembered something worse:

"It feeds off what we forget."

Desperate Strategy

Morgz backed up into the roots. "I'm dreaming. It's not real. BUT THE DAMAGE IS."

He looked down at his hands.

Then gritted his teeth.

"I have to make it real."

He bit his own wrist as hard as he could. Blood trickled. The Namsari blinked — interested.

He punched a tree. He pulled hair. He screamed.

But his body wasn't waking up.

The Namsari raised one of its spines—

SLICE!

A thin spiral was carved into Morgz's upper chest. The wound stung like hot acid.

Real World – Camp

Leone sat up instantly as Morgz screamed in his sleep. His face was red, body soaked in sweat. Blood was soaking through his shirt, in a slow spiral pattern.

Leone didn't hesitate.

She rushed over, shook him hard. "MORGZ! WAKE UP!!"

He jolted upright with a gasp.

The moment he opened his eyes, he collapsed into her arms.

Leone held him. "What happened?!"

He didn't answer at first. But slowly, with trembling hands, he reached into his shirt… and pulled it down.

A spiral-shaped gash. Identical to the dream.

"It's real…" he whispered.

"It followed me back… and it's not done."

Morning Comes

The forest had a cold stillness to it. Fog drifted around the trees as the Chosen began to wake.

Morgz sat apart from them all, staring into the fire.

Shojiro walked up and looked at his chest. "…Another nightmare?"

Morgz didn't answer.

He looked up.

Eyes hollow.

"No. Not a nightmare. A parasite. And we're all already infected."

Scene: "He's Just Tired." — Morgz Gets Gaslit by the Team

The campfire flickered quietly under the forest canopy.

Morgz hadn't blinked in over two minutes. His eyes twitched toward every rustle in the trees, every flick of shadow. His knuckles were white as he gripped a sharpened stick he'd carved from a fallen branch.

Everyone else was preparing to sleep.

Again.

Shojiro

(grinning nervously)

"Bro, you need to chill. You sound like one of those conspiracy nuts."

Max

(chewing dried jerky)

"You had a nightmare, Morgz. That's all. We've been through worse — remember the Death Worm that swallowed us? That was real. This?"

(waves vaguely at his face)

"It's not."

Leone

(firmly, but gently)

"Morgz, listen. We want to believe you. But Yggdrasil healed every mark. There's no evidence. And you can't explain what it was."

Morgz (desperate)

"I know what I saw! I saw it twice! It cut me — I screamed — Leone, you woke me up! I had blood down my face, and then it was gone!"

"The thing lives in dreams! It waits until we fall asleep—then it plays us like puppets!"

His voice cracked.

Zans

(raising an eyebrow)

"Okay, Freddy Krueger. Maybe it's the forest air messing with you."

Kuro

(quietly, to Zans)

"Or his trauma. He did take that curse like a bullet for Leone."

Karl was checking his systems nearby, scanning for VYTHRA fluctuations.

Karl

"Negative on anomaly detection. No psychic breaches. No corrupted aether signatures. Statistically, Morgz is just suffering from high-stress hallucinations."

Enme (from inside her barrier orb)

"…He's not faking it. But it doesn't matter. Until we see it too — it's not real."

Morgz looked at all of them. His team. His family.

They didn't believe him.

They thought he was crazy.

Morgz (quietly)

"…You're all gonna die. One by one."

He stood up and moved away from the fire.

He didn't even feel like arguing anymore.

Alex leaned over slightly, watching him go.

Alex

"…That was pain. Not madness."

Scene Cut: Morgz's Isolation Begins

Under a rotting tree, Morgz sat alone, back pressed against the trunk. He stabbed the earth repeatedly with his stick.

"I'll stay awake," he muttered. "Even if I have to cut my eyelids open."

The forest wind whispered around him.

But somewhere, in the silence between the stars…

A dreaming eye opened again.

Watching.

Waiting.