Creepypasta: Rebirthing Fear

by Hewhoimagines

Turns out Gamindustri is not the only digital realm, as the Gamers find out the hard way. As Nick is captured by Polybius, the others have to rescue him with a new friend, before eternal fear leaks out to the multiverse! (This story was made with Nkirby, and continues from The Four Outsiders.)

5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FOUR

Blind Side

Natalie, Michael, and Caela had all blacked out. When Caela slowly started coming around, her eyes immediately shot wide open, as once again, RED was towering over her, preparing to devour her entire body. RED didn't say a word, just focused on trying to eat the pest who had humiliated him previously.

A sharp pain awoke Michael with a start, as he was now witnessing the Buryman trying to bite down on his shoulder while the Rake pinned him down with his claws. Hasshaku-sama just surrounded Natalie, preparing to drag her away by some mysterious means, never to be seen again most likely. Michael had to think fast, because Caela was about to be devoured, and Natalie was going to be taken to lord knows where.

"So you're conscious now," the Rake hissed, "don't you dare try to fight us, it will make your death much more painful."

"I didn't plan to," Michael groaned, spawning a camera in his hands. "I planned on fighting her instead!" Stupefied by such a random weapon, Michael pointed the camera in Hasshaku-sama's direction, focusing before pressing a button to take her picture. She suddenly began screaming in pain, as if the camera was a supernatural kind, capable of dealing damage to her. "Fatal Frame taught me about you, tall lady!" Michael shouted to her.

He took another shot, the camera's flash blinded the Rake, which gave Michael enough time to punch him, freeing his legs in the process so he could pull away from the Buryman. Natalie woke up once she felt her head thud against the floor while Michael obtained the Belmont whip, so he could snag Caela away from RED's horrifying maw.

Once all three of them were up and moving, they all prepared their powers, but were hesitant to act. "I don't think we have time for this, do we? Oculass may be in trouble along with Nick now!" Caela pointed out.

"She's kind of resourceful," Natalie pointed out, "I'll give her about fifteen minutes to take these guys on again, then we'll worry about her!"

—

"Thank you for your assistance," Skin-Taker sighed, strapping Oculass down to the wooden table with Horace's help. "That shouldn't have been as ridiculous and embarrassing as it was, but oh well. You're allowed to go and do your own thing now."

"I would, but since Polybius voiced his anger over this one, I may have to inform him that she's now in our grasp, and surely will have no attempts of escape." Slender Man then stared down at the blind woman, watching her squirm and twist to break free.

Her struggles soon stopped, sweat rolling down her face as Oculass was getting the feeling of some genuine fear. "She's finally afraid when she's completely helpless it seems! Why, Skin-Taker sir, you and the others could just torture her sightless sanity until it all slips away! Would that be an ideal revenge for Lord Polybius?"

"No, I wish to do it the way he suggested, which is to skin her alive, slowly." Oculass began blinking faster, heart rate accelerating as the Skin-Taker's jaw began to slide back and forth. "Once she's peeled like an orange, I'll grind her skin. I'll take those whitened little eyeballs of hers and keep them in a jar for Lord Polybius. Her head full of hair is nothing more than a bonus for my next coat!"

Something about her look of fear felt wrong to Slender Man, but he couldn't figure out why. The way Oculass was struggling, it didn't feel completely natural like someone desperately trying to break free or get away. Come to think of it, why did she come into this realm? She wasn't like the others at all, and it couldn't have just been for her vast knowledge on the creepypastas themselves. Why would someone blinded like her even care about those in the first place?

When the Skin-Taker finally ripped apart the coat that Oculass was wearing, well, he was more than a little surprised to see that the assets weren't just from a puffy jacket. "I certainly have options now, don't I? Normally I would take a little marker to decide where I'll start and stop trimming, but for now," he took out a tiny pair of scissors, pressing it against Oculass's arm.

"Hold on," Slender Man started, "before you begin, I should go back to attend to the young man, and let Polybius have the chance at questioning her."

"Really?" The Skin-Taker grumbled. "If I kill her now, her friends will lose their morale, you know."

"Yes, I do know, but if we kill her, we also lose some answers," Slender Man pointed out, leaving the two puppets behind so he could retrieve Polybius.

A few minutes later, Slender Man returned with Polybius, who was glad that Oculass was blind, so she couldn't see the struggle of him maintaining his composure. "Well, well, well. One of the intruders who came after the man we have in our custody. The one who actually interests us the most. Do not think you can fool me. I know that you are of Gamindustri, as I once was. Which makes your presence here the most confusing." He spoke, with a menacing presence that made Oculass shudder.

"Why would you come here?" He questioned. "The human has no true connection to you, you have little combat ability besides your cane, and your blindness makes you more of a burden than an asset! So why are you are meddling in our affairs? I suggest you answer quickly, for Skin-Taker is an impatient skeleton, and usefulness is how you survive here."

"My information was helpful," Oculass started, voice cracking under the pressure.

"How is it you are so well-informed, and choose to follow these humans, rather than stay behind, or communicate with them in some other form!?" Polybius demanded to know, slamming his fist against a wall.

"I," Oculass wheezed, somehow smiling through the threats. "I am… a fanatic, of horror stories, games, and movies! I enjoy the feeling of being scared, especially since the fear is increased by me not knowing what something really looks like!"

Once she announced that, the Skin-Taker nearly withdrew the tiny scissors, both Slender Man and Polybius were flabbergasted.

"I lost my sight when working on virtual reality helmet a long time ago. When I was adjusting, I learned how frightening the unknown was, and not being able to see things that could threaten me started giving me more of an adrenaline rush than before. It was like," Oculass smiled, sighing, "I wanted to be my own survival horror, chased by something that could tear me apart. Why, I even once gave VR support to Slender's game!"

Slender Man, feeling awkward as Polybius and Skin-Taker shot a glare at him, made himself clear. "The feeling is not mutual, I do not support your meddling, human," Slender Man informed her.

"Anyway, fear ended up being something I sought so frequently! Virtual reality made it look like monsters could really jump at people, and it was something I could imagine in my dark visions, something lurking in the corner, it all excited me!" Oculass cried out as the Skin-Taker began pushing the scissors into her skin.

"If only you could see," Polybius growled, "then I could show you something to really be afraid of, you've frustrated me enough for me to want to break my true form out before mortal eyes, for it is something beyond your imagination!"

"It is!?"

Wait, why did she sound happy about that?

This woman who went around smacking Sen and Hasshaku-sama, was suddenly happy about a threat from Polybius, accepting the defenseless state rather than fighting back? Slender Man tried to think of an answer, how someone could love the idea of being fearful for their life—

Oh, oh no.

Just how was he supposed to react to this? Call her out in front of his own servants in a furious manner? Or question her in the most baffled way? Either way, his next shout was a mix of both.

"This conversation has certainly been intriguing, but I now see that you are not who we should be wary of. Creeped out by, yes, but not wary. And now, you will tell us what we need to know about your companions."

"That, I will never do."

Polybius sent a chill through the room by giving a smile. "Very well. Skin-Taker, off of her." Both Skin-Taker and Slender Man were shocked that Polybius seemed to give mercy. "I am sorry to derive you of your fun, but that would be giving her what she wants, wouldn't it? No. Take her to another room, put her in a comfortable chair, bring in a television, and have it endlessly play Disney movies."

"Wait, what? That's not how this is supposed to go! You're supposed to torture me, cut me up, make me scream! Not make me feel welcome with innocent family movies! No, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Polybius smiled again as she was carried off. "Ah, now that is more like it." He turned to Slender Man, who was still frozen in shock over Oculass's reaction. "Well, what are you waiting for? We have intruders to prepare for!" Slender Man turned and ran, hoping that he would not disappoint Polybius to that point ever.

"Ah, and we should also tend to the cuts Skin-Taker gave her. We wouldn't want her to get an infection." Slender Man ran faster.

Her cuts were washed out, she was laying in a comfortable chair, and some Disney movie was playing before her. Oculass hated it. She hated everything about it, and was more than vocal about it than she normally was.

"I hate these kinds of movies," she whined, tied up so she couldn't leave.

"What's wrong? Don't like the joyous songs of birds chirping?" The Skin-Taker sneered, not that it was exactly his kind of thing either. "I would be more than willing to play a regular episode of Candle Cove for you, but I don't think that would go over well with Lord Polybius, now would it?"

"It's not that," Oculass groaned, "I hate these kinds of movies because of how much dark, disturbing content they alter from their original fairy tales!" Skin-Taker halted on his tying, looking at Oculass in a peculiar manner.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"You don't know?" Oculass smiled. "Like in the Grimm's version for Cinderella, the stepsisters would cut off parts of their feet, like their toes and heel to fit in the glass slipper, and birds blind them by pecking their eyes. That's the kind of stuff that doesn't make it into those overly colorful, cheery movies."

The Skin-Taker drew back, genuinely surprised and perplexed to hear such a drastic change in the story's tone. "Is that true? That certainly would have been a much more interesting film," he chuckled darkly. "Do you have any other differences between those little Disney films and written counterparts?"

"In the original tale for The Little Mermaid, the titular protagonist must stab her beloved prince and let the blood drip to her newly formed feet if she wishes to become a mermaid again. She can't bring herself to do it and kills herself, her body dissolving into sea foam." During the distraction, Oculass began to pull away the rope which restrained her wrists, albeit slowly so the Skin-Taker would not notice.

"Well, that's a completely different story from what we got—"

"There's also one of the earliest versions of Sleeping Beauty, where the titular princess, where a king from a passing area became intimate with the princess while she was cursed to slumber forever, and she gives birth while she's unconscious." Oculass chuckled. "The king's wife becomes furious and demands her babies to be killed and cooked, served as food."

"Ooooh, how twisted!"

"One of my personal favorite stories, which I had once read back when I had sight," Oculass continued, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. In the original ending, Frollo has Esmerelda to be hanged by his troops. After Quasimodo kills him, he remains by Esmerelda's body, until he dies of starvation. His skeleton is eventually found, and it crumbles to dust."

She then got up from her seat, startling the Skin-Taker. "I'll be nice enough to not turn you to dust though!"

"How did you!?" he growled, taking out cutlass. "Trying to distract me with fairy tales, are you? You don't have your worthless little stick though, and you can't see!"

"Yes, but I can hear your bones rattling constantly." Skin-Taker tried to swing at her, only to find his attack easily evaded. "Case in point!" She then made a run for it, arms stretched out forward so she wouldn't hit any walls, hoping to find something that could guide her.

"Goddammit!" He knew he wouldn't be fast enough to catch her. She'll probably get smart and crush him under her weight or something if she was that cornered, and given his skinny stature, that wasn't exactly something he wanted. "Horace!"

"Y-yes sir!?"

"Get her! Get her! We can't have her reunite, much less find Polybius's prisoner!"

As Oculass ran off, she gave a quick smirk. "Good thing I like Daredevil as much as Horror."

—

"A→re you okay over there, BEN?" Sen asked, seeing the statue return while he was still bruised up from the fall he took earlier.

"No," BEN answered, his hollow face torn up. He was immediately met by Sen taking out some bandage tape in an attempt to fix up the fellow monster. "They're coming. Polybius and Slender are probably going to have to greet them soon. Those twerps wiped the floor with nearly everyone."

"I'm sure Lord Polybius cA→n take them if we can't! Right Glitchlett?" A small, distorted Diglett with pixels over its face popped out from below, chirping in an glitchy manner. "Yep, that's right! Polybius is stronger than A→nyone here, because of his multiple forms and cool power, right? So that would mean, anyone who looks at him would be in for a pretty rough time!"

"You really believe in him and Slender Man, huh?" BEN sighed.

"Don't you?"

"No, I don't." BEN answered in a snappy manner. "Quite honestly, I've given hope on us making anymore efforts at standing out or existing! So many have come, and gone in this realm. Some monsters get rejected, get killed, get dropped in your glitchy realm, others can outright die from natural causes if they do not strive in this world! Remember what happened to the Creepy Black Pokémon Ghost?"

"He used that Curse A→ttack too many times?" Sen asked, their conversation now being heard by the fleeing Oculass.

"Yes. And when you do something too much, it gets stale. When something gets stale, it stops being scary, people forget, and monsters die. There was nothing he could do to cling to being feared, so he perished." BEN continued, sighing more heavily now. "This is going to backfire, and I just know it. Polybius isn't going to know what to do with this kind of power. He's just desperately clinging to something."

Sen just kind of shut down into a depressed state after being told that, slumping with Glitchlett sitting near him. "Don't take it so personally, it's not your fault or anything. I just know it's inevitable at this point. Momo is probably gonna stop being relevant really fast too."

After hearing that, Oculass took a stop to think about the forces she was up against.

Was there really nothing that could be done…?

After wandering for a few minutes, Oculass's face lit up a bit when she heard some familiar voices.

"Oculass!"

"There you are!"

"Are you OK?"

"Your arm!"

"It's treated?"

"Yes. Not only did they treat my wounds, they had me watch Disney movies! Who knew they were so evil?"

The others silently decided not to delve into that statement any further and continued on their way. "We may have lost BEN, but I got enough power to track down Polybius. And he's right around this corner!" They turned to see a big hall, barely lit, with Polybius and Slender Man standing at the end. "I must admit, while your intrusion is nothing less absolutely unbearable, I am impressed you made it this far."

"And unless you want to get 'impressed' some more, you'll give us back our friend!"

"But of course. He's right here." They were surprised to hear Polybius surrender outright, and even more to see him and Slender Man step to the side to reveal Nick standing behind them. But something was off.

"Heh…..heh, heh…...hehehehehehehehehehehehe…."

"Nick, we appear to have some guests. Guests that have been able to keep their sanity and courage. Do something about it, would you?"

Nick stepped forward, revealing that he was holding a rusty, two-handed blade. But what struck right into his friends' hearts was the look on his face. An impossibly wide grin paired with huge bug-eyes, seeming like he was staring at nothing, yet staring at everything. And his response came in a raspy wheeze.

"Yes…..do something…...spread the terror…..spread…...the fear….."

…

"Nick? That's your name, right?" Oculass, not being able to see the look on his face of course, completely broke the mood. "You sound tired, are you okay? I don't dislike the idea of spreading fear though, so long as it's done to me rather than someone unwilling."

Just about nearly everyone fell over from the mood-killer.

"Joke…...bad…..not make fear…..only….annoyances….." Nick charged forward, slashing the blade at Oculass. Caela pulled her out of the way in time as Michael pulled up Link's shield to block Nick. "Ugh! He's not using his powers, but his blows have quite a lot of kick to them!"

"Whatever got him to this state must have caused some sort of adrenaline rush or something. Like when people get a massive amount of fear!" Natalie's realization nearly made her miss that Caela left Oculass by her side, as she joined the fight against her friend.

"Maybe Polybius did something." Natalie turned to Oculass as she deduced the situation. "Polybius was said to be a government experiment that involved messing with people's minds, trying to control them or just drive them mad. The worst of it happened when some people actually committed suicide in order to escape the madness." Natalie looked in horror at Nick, still giggling as he kept slashing at Michael and Caela without a second thought. Turning to the two behind it, her horror turned into a nasty glare.

"How long can you hold him off?"

"Maybe a minute or two. We only got enough NGP left for a few shifts."

"That's all I need. Oculass," Natalie handed Oculass her cane. "Can you hold off Slender Man?"

"I think I can do something. Which direction is he in?"

Natalie aimed her in the direction leading to Slender Man. Oculass ran forward, prompting Slender Man to lash out with his tentacles. In response, Oculass started twirling her cane, catching the tentacles and tangling them up. And with a mighty yank, she pulled Slender Man toward her, putting him in a headlock.

Learning to expect it by now, Natalie ran forward to Polybius, who was a bit surprised at the sudden frontal assault. He was even more surprised when she turned into Sonic and used a homing attack on him. Polybius was able to dodge direct damage, but the spikes caught hold of his cape. Ripping it off, it revealed a simple form of a man in a black suit, wearing dark sunglasses. "Revealing my inner form only makes it tougher!"

Polybius revealed he had some moves to go with that form, pulling off kung fu you could only see in a spy movie. All Natalie could do was block him until there was an opening. But there were none. It was getting obvious how Polybius was able to defend his place as ruler. Natalie could only think of one thing. Jumping back, she concentrated all the power she had, turning into Arle Nadja and unleashing the biggest fireball she could muster.

Upon throwing it, Polybius did not have any room to dodge. The flames engulfed him. Even he had to yell out in reaction to the heat. His yell caused the whole room to pause. Even Nick stopped to slowly turn his head. "Fear….source…..?" As the flames subsided, what was revealed even terrified the Creepypastas watching. A robotic form, white-hot from the fire, emerged, looking like something from the 80s, but entirely unscathed.

The only thing that was left were his sunglasses, but they were nearly melted, looking a little creepy. But what was really scary was the smile he was doing. "It seems that just like your friend, the only way to break you is to bring out my ultimate power." He tossed his sunglasses aside, revealing that his eyes were nothing more than two screens, showing a strange pattern. Grabbing Natalie, he pulled her close, until all that she could see were the screens. "Don't fight it. Just think, you'll be reunited with him again, in the pure realm of madness." Natalie had some trouble listening to what he said. The patterns felt like they were going straight into her skull. The only thing that came through clearly was the thought of being with Nick. At that moment, she nearly surrendered.

A loud thud brought her to attention for a split second. Lying at their feet were Caela and Michael, clearly beat up. Nick walked up, grinning. "They….were no match…..for the fear…..soon…...we will all…..be as one….thanks to the source….of the fear….." The sound of that seemed to make something click inside Natalie.

"N….no…."

"What?"

"I…..said…..NO!"

Clenching her fists, Natalie started to squirm. "You're not going to take me, my friends, or anyone else! You may be the 'source of fear', but that does mean you are invincible! I've faced villains so much scarier than you, that you're just a lightshow compared to them! And the courage gained from that is the reason that you're gonna lose!"

Reaching up, she grabbed Polybius's arms, and started to drain his power as fast as she could. "W-wait, what are you doing?!"

"Awwww, are you scared?" Natalie, in layman terms, went boom. Unleashing the power she got in a tremendous shockwave, she sent Polybius flying into the wall, where he fell down in a slump. Nick's eye started to twitch with the corners of his mouth.

"Fear…...source?...no….stay back….back…...BACK!"

Natalie just used her legs to kick the sword out of Nick's hands before grabbing him in for a kiss. She broke it off after a few seconds, glad to see that his eyes were getting a bit calmer. "Natalie…?" Natalie was about to say something, but then Nick fainted. Again. "OK, it was a little understandable, but you have got to fix that before it gets worse." Natalie then proceeded to get her friends comfortable while she healed them.

"Polybius," Oculass started, continuing to fight Slender Man, all while hearing everything else which went on. "If I had known he was the reason for this occurrence— Ah!"

In the moment of distraction, Slender Man freed himself and began binding tentacles around Oculass, preparing to choke the life out of her. "Those who cross Lord Polybius in this realm, must perish! I do not care if you have once supported The Arrival a long while ago, that time has passed, and for your interference, I should force you into becoming a proxy."

"Hm, well," Oculass coughed, "where's the issue in that?"

"You're right. You would like that, the sickening, depraved person you are." Slender Man hissed. "But you can't be running around. Even if you enjoy the thought of your cruel, unusual death that should not be named to keep the fear of the unknown, I shall do exactly that, since Lord Polybius was far too kind to let you breathe."

She actually started struggling for once, showing a genuine sign of fear and concern in her whitened eyes, it wasn't one that was getting sick thrill out of it either. "I," she choked, "I heard what Sen and BEN were talking about. This plot is to keep you all relevant and feared, right? You all need to be feared, unless you die."

"That is correct." Slender Man tightened his grip. "That's what we need right now, especially after I had messed up, I'm afraid. We plan to invade your realm, and leech off of fear from there, once this is all over."

Oculass blinked, then started laughing, her fears fading away.

"Oh, is that it? Well, then this can be easily solved!" Her body became so oddly calm. "You see, in 2017, a game based off of Polybius was released for the PS4, and it has VR support! You could all drop this instead of messing with both fear sources and NGP, then come over to Gamindustri! I'd be more than welcoming, you know."

"Yes, you would be," his tentacles tightened more, making Oculass panic again. "Polybius plans to combine all of his sources of fear with NGP, making him the most powerful entity there is in your realm—"

"No! You can't!" Oculass cried. "That kind of combination, it would be too unstable for anyone to handle! He wouldn't make himself stronger from it, he would just end up creating something out of his control, I'm sure of it!"

"Why are you so certain?" Slender Man threatened, ready to finally snap her neck. "Is this some sort of thing you have attempted?"

…

"Yes."

Upon hearing that, Slender Man immediately released her, retracting all of his tentacles in pure astonishment. "You," Slender Man stammered, "you what!?"

"In my many experiments at reaching a peak VR experience, there was a spread of NGP caused by a goddess using it. I recovered but a small fragment of it, thinking it would help me create something. I wanted to make the most terrifying monster in VR. This was a couple of years ago, so I remember, I used bits and pieces from your game; The Arrival." Oculass explained, laying her head down low. "It was that day, when I learned to defend myself against a legitimate threat. A horrible monster was created, one that couldn't be tamed. I couldn't see it, but I somehow managed to kill it. It was too unstable for anyone to use."

There was a long pause as Oculass sighed, trying to pick her cane back up. "I felt terrible for ending the life of a monster, but it had to be done. It was too violent, and wanted to consume everything, even reality. I came into this for monster fun-times, I admit, but to think that this was what was going on. I cannot allow it!"

How… how was Slender Man supposed to react to any of this?

"Please!" Oculass held her hand out. "Just let me stop this, let me help. I don't want to be enemies here, I want to help all of you retain the fearful reputation you all once had! I do not want your lives to be lost, and I don't want Polybius to do anything foolish!"

What was he supposed to do?

Should he really be asking for an outsider's help? From the woman who had caused his lord so much grief? She who came from the realm that even now, Polybius held a grudge on?

Or was he going to let the world fall apart again, and have it be his own fault so passively? This woman, she was strange and irritating, but she knew what she was doing.

Oculass genuinely didn't want the fear of these internet legends to go away… and neither did Slender Man.

—

Polybius had been laying there for a long while, standing completely still as his features were gently examined by the blind woman. Oculass dragged her fingers across the robotic form and screen-like eyes. "What a strange frame," she spoke, "will he be waking up soon? I want to warn him."

"I don't know," Slender Man answered, "no one has ever knocked him down that hard. Do you really think it's appropriate to caress my lord like that though? It's rather inappropriate."

"I'm just trying to get him to wake up!"

Her little yell caused Polybius to reboot, his eyes flashing before Oculass, but the patterns went unseen by her blind eyes. As his consciousness returned, rage began boiling in his body over the sight of this particular, mortal cretin.

"RAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Polybius's hands shot forward, grabbing for Oculass's throat. She quickly brought her cane out to block him, but she was easily overpowered. Luckily she was able to deflect him enough that he grabbed the collar of her shirt, but the pressure from his anger was still overwhelming. "YOU! If it wasn't for you, it would have all been mine! The outsiders, the New Game Plus, this world, Gamindustri, the outside world, everything and everyone in control of fear and madness, with me in control of the fear! But it's all ruined! By you, you INSUFFERABLE WOMAN!"

She blinked with her blank eyes. "I'm that insufferable? That's quite rude. We're only trying to help you." Polybius then quickly darted his eyes over to Slender Man, who wasn't making any attempt to murder the one who was preventing his own takeover.

"Slender Man… what exactly, is the meaning of this? Why is she breathing, walking, and overall, alive and well!?"

"My lord—"

"KILL HER! I don't care if she gets such a thrill from it, I want her dead!"

"My lord, she's trying to stop you from making potentially irrational decisions that could bring harm to everyone." Polybius found his anger overflowing even more, trying to stand on his two feet, just so he could lash out at both of them. "Unpredictable and questionable as this one is, it seems you are not the first one to be experimenting. She seems to be offering help, so long as we do not do anything regretful."

"Irrational decisions that bring harm to everyone? What a load of talk! Hypocrisy from the horse's own mouth!" Slender Man flinched at these words, unable to bring himself to retort. "You are the reason we have had to find a solution, even if it was drastic measures! If anyone would bring upon ruin to our realm, it is you!"

"Hey now!" Oculass objected, somehow courageous enough to defend a notorious monster. "If he really wanted to bring destruction and ruin, he wouldn't have bothered to listen to someone from outside this world, would he? If anyone knows what's best for this place, it should be someone looking in from the outside!" She then paused as both monsters gave her a questionable glance. "Oh, right, I guess hear from the outside in my case."

"Again….with the jokes….this is not a comedy world!" Polybius flung Oculass back, making her land on her backside. "This is why we are not as mighty as we once were! We are not taken seriously! And when we are, the important parts get forgotten and we become materials for memes! But no more! We will rise again, even if it's over your cold, beatened, bodies!" Polybius got up and started to walk towards the gamers. Slender Man reached to stop him….

….only for Polybius to slump forward and freeze in place. Puzzled, Slender Man looked closer, seeing that Polybius's eyes were off, and the heat he was emitting was cooling. "All the damage he took has caused him to shut down. He won't be bothering anyone for a while."

"That's good. Maybe we can finally leave now." Slender Man and Oculass turned to Natalie, who was able to heal her friends the best she could. The three of them were able to wake up and get up on their own, though Nick needed a bit of help to stay steady. "You doing all right, Nick?"

"Y-yeah. I can think clearly, at least. But Natalie, what about you?" He nearly fell over reaching for her. "I'm fine. I only saw it for a few seconds at most. All I have is a slight headache." Nick seemed to relax from that, but Natalie could not help but be concerned by a slight twitch in his eye.

"Nick," Oculass spoke, "please tell me, did Polybius put his fear sources inside of you?"

"Is that what you wanna call it?" Nick groaned a bit. "It's falling out now though, so I should be fine."

Her blank eyes widened, hands trembling as she quickly tried to pull both Natalie and Nick away. "Hey! What are you doing!?" Natalie yelled to her, confused by the sudden, violent reaction.

"He really did do the one thing I feared, didn't he?" Oculass muttered. "Polybius, you fool… the very thing I wanted to prevent, was inside of that young man this whole time!"

"Huh?"

"What are you talking about?"

A tiny puddle formed on the ground where Nick once was, almost like a splotch of blood, which slowly turned a pink color from some sparks of NGP. The color changed to that of a flesh tone, expanding like a balloon. "What the heck is that!?" Natalie shouted, Oculass could hear the sounds of bones cracking, indicating that something horrible was close by.

"You have to destroy it! Don't ask questions!" Oculass cried out.