A/N: Wow… okay so the last chapter I posted some people got salty, if you're here looking to see everyone blow through all the problems like they're nothing, that's not this story, you may want to look elsewhere.

Disclaimer: I don't own these, they do not belong to me. I do this for fun, for me, and think others may want to enjoy them.

Might Controls Everything

Nero tried not to think too hard as they slowly wound their way through the small fishing village, the devil hunter thankful that their initial fights were small and over in a few well-placed hits or shots. He could, whenever Red Queen bit into his enemies or there was a bit too much spatter from Blue Rose, feel something in the back of his mind. He was used to enjoying battle and bloodshed, perhaps even a bit much but he'd gotten used to the slightly brutal wrath of his demonic side. This however… this was something alien that crawled through his veins, making itself known each time the fish-like villagers shouted at them and charged. The big… fish building, he had no idea what to call it, had been a bit rough but he'd been able to speed along their journey by using a combination of his wings and Devil Breaker to propel them to the top of the other side. They soon found themselves taking a moment of respite in a small hut and came across a familiar face when they did. Katherine knelt and lit the lantern as Nero jerked upon realizing that the heap of rags in the corner was not, in fact, just a pile of cloth. The devil hunter knelt next to the other Hunter, hands fluttering around him, unsure of how to help. A visible shudder ran through the man's frame before he seemed to recognize those kneeling near him. The devil hunter realized belatedly that Simon had bandages wrapped around his eyes and wondered for a moment how the man saw anything, if he could.

"Oh, you, I'm afraid I've made a botch of things…" he mumbled, coughing phlegm and blood up onto the ground.

"Simon, you okay?" Nero asked hesitantly, he knew that Katherine would have blood on her but after his own experience he was hesitant to give it to anyone else. The broken Hunter on the ground seized up, eyes darting around as he seemed to lack the strength to lift his head.

"I can hear the bell now… can you hear it? He's after me… the beast-hide assassin, again and again… it never ends…" his words were starting to blur together, no longer the crisp and calm voice they'd heard at the start of the Nightmare. Nero put a hand on the man's shoulder and he jerked again, seeming to have forgotten there were others there. His eyes met the partial devil's

"Please, I need you to do something…" he paused to cough again, a wet sickly sound that seemed to catch in his throat. "This village is the true secret. Testament… to the old sins, it feeds this Hunter's Nightmare. Please, I ask you, bring an end to the horror…" his expression glazed for a moment "So our forefathers sinned? We Hunters cannot bear their weight forever… it isn't fair…" his covered eyes locked with Nero's then "It isn't fair…" his breath was getting more labored and Katherine knelt next to him, pulling out a blood vial and holding it out in offering, he shook his head minutely.

"No…" Simon rasped "I'm too far gone for that, I'd rather die with my sanity about me… just leave me in peace now please…" They both stood by the other Hunter for a moment, until his breathing stopped and he stilled completely. Nero took a deep breath of his own and turned to face Katherine

"He's not coming back is he?" he asked. Katherine shook her head solemnly

"No, not all hunters are connected to the Dream." she said softly, rising back to her feet and looking around the hut and coming back with an old and musty blanket and covering the body gently. Nero glanced around, noticing a split skull on the table, tools still stuck in it, he made a brief face and turned back to the Hunter who was watching him, eyes unreadable.

"What did he mean?" Nero asked "Our forefathers sinned?" Katherine went up to the table with the skull on it, poking at the bone with one of the tools still on the table before answering him.

"The first hunters… their methods were… perhaps not the most modest. I believe I know what this place is. I've read of a hamlet that the first hunters found to have had strange insight. They believed that it was influenced by a Great One. Kos. They took the village by force, took what they required or desired and left the rest to rot." she said, setting the tools back on the table. Nero glanced around, noticing the rest of the body on a cot nestled in the corner.

"If they had this strange power backing them, why didn't they fight back? Run? Something?" as soon as he spoke he knew the answer, all the villagers had been fighting them the whole way through.

"Because might controls everything Nero, but that doesn't mean that they haven't fought back in their own way. They beseeched their higher power, that is what this is, this curse," she waved an arm around the area in which they stood "torments Hunters for all eternity, forces them to relive, to endure and face the horrors that their forebears committed."

"And we can end this curse?" Nero asked

"That is what Simon believed."

"What do you believe?"

"I believe that this Nightmare's secrets will prove insightful."

A/N: Alrighty, I really hope I'm not screwing up the geography too much, I wasn't able to find a good reference map so a lot of this is off of memory and the crappy reference photos I can pull. Anywho

Till next time,

-Winged Element