Luna dreamed back to the days when she was still a normal girl and to the sun and moon that used to comfort her.
A dinner table seated with her friends and family. Candles lit on the fancy wooden surface, emitting a sweet smell of moon orchids.
Her mother brought a pie stuffed with the most delicious red apples. She couldn't exactly tell what she looked like, but her voice would be able to shine light onto those deep in the dark.
"Honey, get the plates ready. Don't want to be eating on bare table, do we?" Her sweet voice called out.
Luna mindlessly followed her mother's words and started to get them from the cub board. Her eyes softened from being back here, but the image of this cozy home was still fuzzy in her mind. Only the deeply engraved sets of memories could bring her back to this place.
"No need to fret. It's her Birthday; she should be able to laze around in her seat." A well-dressed man entered the room with a cake and placed it on the dinner table.
His soft hands grabbed Luna's shoulder, and although his face was but a blur, she could tell how much happiness was engraved into that face of unknown.
"Up we go, Birthday girl! You get to go onto the throne."
A warm surge of abrupt jolliness filled her face as her father picked Luna up and gently laid her down onto a finely crafted chair adorned with crimson gems and moonflowers lined onto its base.
Warm, gentle hands touched the top of her head, and soon a golden plastic crown was dropped onto its proper royale host.
Steaming plates of food landed on the table, decorations were placed in the room, balloons of elated colors covered the ceiling, and more guests started to join in this celebration.
Luna's face curled up into a smile, experiencing and feeling this warm atmosphere…She wanted to stay there a little longer and to remember this moment forever.
Her mother pulled out a lighter and started to light the wick of flames one by one, and the other guests started to cheer upon such a sight for the Birthday girl.
They all started to chant a familiar song, one that even those out in the Cosmos would know.
"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday dear, *@!*&#@!, Happy Birthday to you!"
As the candles on the cake started to gleam with dazzling sparkling light, Luna leaned forward to blow them out, but before she could, a cruel sound stopped her in her tracks.
*Click*
Luna suddenly felt something binding onto her hands and arms. Her eyes widened in horror as roses of bleeding camellias were gripping into her flesh with its weeping green thorns.
The once-happy song of celebration started to slow and distort as if that once-present dream was now but a nightmare.
"NONONONONO, WAITWAITWAITWAIT! WAITWAITWAITWAIT! WAITWAITWAITWAIT!"
Her voice was hoarse as she screamed her lungs out, and her arms desperately tried to break out, but the more she moved, the more the thorns started to rip into her flesh, causing a constant river of blood that dripped onto the chair.
From the corner of Luna's trembling eyes, she saw a beautiful blonde woman with crimson eyes. She had a dress the same color as her eyes and roses that were the same, binding Luna onto its fabric.
The Lady stood up from her seat and lifted her hand gracefully. The cake, once standing in front of the bound Luna, flew towards the woman and into her hands.
As she walked closer to Luna, roses bloomed forth from the guests, devouring their flesh for their endless blossom. Crimson started to stain the entire room, giving a horrid appearance of entire bloodlust.
Luna watched in horror as yearning roses covered everyone's bodies, tears dripping as she watched her mother and father being enveloped in their own blood.
Their throats choke on the roses growing and feasting within their bodies.
The girl screamed in anger and bared her fangs toward the lady. The once-dripping blood staining herself now condensed into sharpened spears aiming at the figure.
Crimson lines sparked through the air as pointed tips were aimed at the woman's head, but with a snap of a finger, the same yearning roses growing from the guests bloomed into hundreds of glowing petals.
*CLANG*
The sound of clashing lasted for mere seconds before disappearing altogether as Luna's River of blood dried into an empty stained husk
An alluring voice called out mockingly…It came from the dressed Lady herself.
"Poor child. Can't do anything but make such crude shapes to save this once beautiful dream.
Alas, your efforts are in vain, like how the victims of Vlad the Impaler can do nothing but scream in pain as a spear impales them through their rectum until it reaches their mouths.
Why don't you look at your parents? I did the same thing as well, but instead with such beautiful roses! Isn't that true art! Using suffering to bloom eternal beauty! A,h how I yearn! For my God that eats all!"
Madness seeped into her eyes as she continued until her words stopped as she felt the heat of a barrel pressing onto the back of her head, but it was already too late.
A golden light pierced through her head, burning and blasting her brains out. Her body fell to the ground.
A blonde man with piercing emerald eyes wearing a firm black suit walked into the birthday room with a dead, cold expression.
He looked at the fallen corpse and, with the Judgement of Shamash within his hands, unloaded all his fiery rounds onto the dead body. Bursts of yellow light started to flash through the room as Otto kept on shooting and shooting.
Nightmares were a natural thing in life, Otto knew that at one point a person will experience one in their life, but he was quite pissed that Luna was going through this horrific one…So what better way to burn it all down into a Dream full of light?
Finished with his job, he stepped toward the fang-bearing Luna, and he could only look on with a solemn expression.
He didn't say a word but cleared the roses, gripping her flesh with his bare hands. His hands ripped off the binds with ruthlessness until they were fully gone.
"Sorry for not coming sooner." Otto lamented with a grave tone as he wiped her tears with his soft fingers.
Luna blinked in confusion, not knowing if the man in front of her was real or not, but then she noticed the familiar scent coming from him…And how Divine he smelled.
She licked her lips and replied with a somewhat bashed tone, "Don't worry. At least you came and stepped up for me…But how?"
Seeing her back to her usual cheerfulness, Otto replied with a light smile, "Herrscher and Divine Key nonsense."
After answering, Otto wrapped Luna into a princess carry and asked, "Was this a memory of your past?"
She hesitated to answer, but feeling his warmth, Luna had the courage to,
"Yeah…It's about fuzzy, but when I had my 7th or 8th Birthday, the Church and that crazy lady wrecked my village and turned the entire place into a Garden of Roses…Thanks for shooting her into a piece of cheese."
Her words stopped as she noticed a certain problem, and Otto soon knew as well.
"The body is gone." They both said in unison.
Otto's Spiritual Intuition warned him of an attack from above, and in a fit of nonchalant display, he bent his body in an absurd degree, dodging a rose thorn from the ceiling.
"What type of dodge was that? Are you sure you didn't break any bones?" Luna yelped as she felt the wind pick up from Otto's movements.
Stepping back, Otto took a quick glance at the culprit. Hanging from the white colored ceiling was the same alluring woman, but instead the previous holes that blast through her were covered with a bloody rose dripping onto the ground floor.
The crimson dress grew lusher and more bountiful as more and more blood started to condense onto her plump body.
Her reddened eyes seemed to glow a wild and feral light as she gazed upon not Luna but Otto's figure with a hungry expression.
"Say, Mr. Noble, you smell so f*cking delicious! Would you like to conceive a child with me?" She called out with a sultry tone, and soon, Otto responded with a reasonable answer.
*BANG*
A golden light shone straight toward her head, but her rose-covered limb blocked it in time. The lady let out a regretful Tsk as her arm was slightly burned to a crisp, and so she waved her hand, causing hundreds of rose thorns to descend from the room onto both of them.
Faced with such an attack, Otto's feet moved with laughing finesse as he moved through numerous crimson spikes.
He bounced wall from wall, avoiding the wave of attacks. When landing in the kitchen, a fast-piercing thorn suddenly approached, aiming for his legs. Acting fast, Otto kicked a random bag of flour toward the yearning plants.
An explosion of white mist covered the entire room with a homemade smoke screen, giving time for Otto to form a plan.
Otto's eyes quickly noticed a devious way to get out and, in a burst of speed, dashed toward a suitable wall.
Sidestepping a thorn piercing from the ground, he bounced himself off onto a nearby wall. Using it as leverage, he launched his figure toward his intended target.
Out the door!
"When were you this fast!"
Luna screamed louder as they crashed through the door, pieces of wood flying all around them until they reached the outside world.
As Otto ran from the home filled with yearning roses, he took a look at the sudden change of scenery.
Instead of blue skies, firm lush land, aquatic blue seas, and windy air, the dreamscape was but a crimson landscape filled with an unending stream of blood flowing through it.
There was nothing but bloodied ground, and the same went with the sky. Replacing the Sun was a crimson moon that seemed to have boiling blood from within its surface.
Finding a suitable place, Otto let down the grumbling Luna down onto the ground. Seeing what the nightmare has become, he proclaimed wildly
"Oh, my Mother Goddess of Depravity…This truly is one freaky Nightmare."
"Is that all you're going to say?" Luna asked with a dejected face.
"Yeah…It's obvious you had a rough past, and this nightmare reflects it. Even if your past holds the foulest and most disgusting aspects of you, I will still help you…Because I care about you."
Luna took a moment to take in his words and soon replied with a bitter smile, "Do you care about me because I remind you of your Holy Maiden or for who I am?"
Otto laughed at her words and said, "If Kallen Kaslana represents the Beauty of the World, then you, Miss Luna Apocalypse, are a Calamity that defends Beauty in your own bloodish beautiful way…Now I'll lay you on the ground and think of a plan to wake you up from this nightmare."
As Otto laid the bloody girl on the floor and started to wipe her wounds with his sleeves. Luna was lost in her thoughts hearing his words, a sense of overwhelming warmth started to consume her.
A revelation came to her like a bolt of enlightenment. if Luna wanted to stick with her dear "Grandpa," she had only one option…Because the strongest granddaughter in the entire world…No Universe. She had to become an unrivaled calamity that not even a Herrscher could challenge!
*Snap*
"Luna, you okay?"
The snap of fingers and his smooth voice brought Luna back to her senses.
"…Yeah, just happy."
"That's sweet, but we can have happy moments after we get out of here! I have a plan that works on logical dream mechanics.
This nightmare is powered by your fear of the one Shepard who caused you the most pain and suffering.
The Shepherd of Yearning, Emily Rose.
Human no…Sentient Living beings with a thinking mind are afraid of the unknown. The concept that there will always be something lurking in the darkness of uncomprehensible horrors.
So, to solve that, I'll explain everything about her, including the embarrassing parts, to weaken her a bit."
Luna tilted her head in utter confusion. 'What in the world is "Grandpa" talking about?' Before her thoughts could continue, the sound of blossoming roses started to converge onto the area.
Her house, which was once filled with warmth, was now but an overgrown rose leeching out from its roof.
The massive rose flower glowed a dark crimson hue as it bloomed even further into the sky, and its body started to rip out the house with its thorns until there was nothing left but a bloody flower in the shape of a giant.
Its limbs were made from massive green thorns, its size reaching up into the sky and its body dripping rivers of blood. On top of the rose lay the alluring lady herself, wearing the same crimson dress.
Otto could only think of one thing in this situation,
'My God! Powercreep truly does exist in real life!'