As far as Freddy could remember, the people he dragged into nightmares had reacted in a myriad of ways. Some cried loudly, some had looks of disbelief, some swore out loud, some immediately knelt down to pray, and some even screamed for mercy....But the reaction of this man in front of him right now was something that Freddy had never seen before - he was completely calm!
He simply stood there at ease with some curiosity and some indifference in his eyes. When Freddy tried to erode the man with his murderous spirit and evil aura, it felt like he was throwing a stone into the sea, not even making the tiniest wave. Instead, he could feel the opponent"s calmness even more vividly.
Sheyan slowly lifted his head and smiled at Freddy.
"Freddy? Are you Mr. Freddy Krueger?"
As he spoke, he took a step forward and held a hand out to Freddy.
"It"s a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Seaman."
Freddy was shocked and dumbstruck, but a poisonous look quickly returned to his eyes. He walked up and took Sheyan"s hand with a grin. Suddenly, Freddy"s hand turned into horrifying blade claws. He laughed hysterically as he pulled his hand back hard. Sheyan"s hand instantly became a blurry mush of flesh and blood. The white bones inside could be seen through the wounds.
Freddy laughed, expecting to hear the opponent"s cry of anguish. However, the opponent"s expression remained indifferent.
"You sure are naughty, Mr. Freddy. Is that why you like to enter children"s dreams?"
Sheyan looked at his injured palm and slowly raised it up.
"I"m talking to you in a dream, aren"t I. Since it"s a dream, these b.l.o.o.d.y wounds are just illusions. Since they"re just illusions, I can naturally do whatever I want regardless of the rules of the real world."
While Sheyan was speaking, his palm quickly healed and soon recovered to the way it was before.
Freddy"s face twisted into a terrible expression when he saw this. He knew now that he had met with a fearsome enemy! The realm of dreams was supposed to be his home court. He could be said to be omnipotent in dreams, strengthened in all aspects, but this person in front of him easily broke through the shackles of the illusion and healed his own wounds with his willpower! This showed that his willpower and personal strength far exceeded Freddy"s imagination!
Freddy found, to his shock, that he could only invade a small number of areas of the man"s mind. Most of the man"s memories seemed to have a lock on them, totally inaccessible to him. Even those memories that were accessible felt like misty swamps; he found it very difficult to invade deeper into them. What shocked Freddy even more was the presence of a certain threat in those memories which struck fear into his heart!
"You... Who on earth are you?" Freddy could not stop himself from taking a step back.
Sheyan smiled. "I"m a person with the power to destroy you."
He turned his wrist, and there lay "Verdict" on his palm. The dazzling silver glow caused Freddy to shrink by a size and made his body spew thick black smoke!! Freddy screamed in horror! He was actually still in a state of recovery at the moment after being destroyed not long ago, so he was still very weak. Fortunately, Sheyan had quickly put away his weapon, or Freddy would have suffered extreme agony.
Even so, Freddy was now lying almost completely paralysed on the ground. He breathed heavily while holding the wall for support, fear apparent in his eyes. Sheyan spread his hands and spoke to Freddy earnestly, "You see, I can easily kill you, but I didn"t do it. Don"t you think that"s enough to prove my sincerity?"
"You, what do you want?" asked Freddy.
"I want to show you a piece of memory," answered Sheyan.
Sheyan showed Freddy all the information he showed the Cullen family before, which he had kept in his memory. After reading it, Freddy did not laugh hysterically and say that the extinction of humankind was none of his business. Rather, he fell into silent contemplation.
This was one of the two reasons why Sheyan came to Freddy first. Although Freddy was cruel and vicious, he was also cunning. Cunning meant being good at thinking. It was easier to communicate with people who were good at thinking.
"Is this for real?" asked the demonic Freddy.
"You can verify it yourself. And do you think I"m so bored that I"m doing this for fun at the risk of being murdered by you?"
"So….what do you want?" Freddy asked again.
"Your strength," Sheyan said simply. "Your attacking method is very strange. Although your power is weak now, I have ways to make you more powerful! My goal is to save as many people as I can. I will encounter unimaginable obstacles along the way, so I need your power to help me kill people, in order to save even more people! "
"How are you going to save them? Are you building arks too?" Freddy was showing unprecedented interest in this issue.
Sheyan was overjoyed when he heard Freddy ask this. Freddy was no longer a human, so he was certainly not asking for himself. It was for someone he cared about!
There was no doubt that the person was Freddy"s greatest weakness.
Be it humans, demons or any other creatures, as long as they had a weakness, they could be controlled! Freddy was obviously a villain, he always had been. A villain would obviously break promises and trust no one. But if Sheyan could hold on to Freddy"s weakness, then no matter how strong he made Freddy, he had no reason to worry.
"Building an ark is certainly a viable option, but it"s already too late to start building one. The governments around the world concentrated all their resources for three years and only managed to build four arks. We don"t have enough time," answered Sheyan solemnly.
(TL: There are nine arks in the movie though.)
"With all the earthquakes and tsunamis happening during the apocalypse, the only safe place, relatively speaking, is the sky. That"s just a basic idea of mine. I"ll need a large group of experts and professionals to verify its feasibility, but I do believe this path is viable. More importantly, Freddy, we may or may not succeed if we try, but if we do nothing, we"ll die for sure."
Freddy appeared to be lost in thought. Only the grinding of the razors on his hand could be heard, a rusty and ugly sound which seemed to rise and fall with the fluctuation in his mood. After a while, he suddenly asked, "How do you plan to make me stronger?"
"Doesn"t your power come from fear? The more people who are afraid of you, the stronger your power will get. I only need to record the process of you killing someone and put it up on the Internet, then buy some traffic and employ some people to hype it up into a viral campaign. Your power will increase dramatically!"
Freddy pondered for a moment, then flashed a frightening smile.
"Well, then, Mr. Seaman, it appears you"ve convinced me. But the activity of my soul is limited to 50 kilometers around my remains, so if you want me to serve you, you"ll have to bring my corpse and razor glove with you."
Sheyan nodded. "I understand. And, Mr. Krueger, I sincerely believe that you should tweak the way you fight a little from now on."
"Oh yeah?" Freddy was clearly dissatisfied.
Sheyan told him earnestly, "Yes, because your enemies are no longer ordinary children. You may face opponents even more powerful than I am. If you still make your appearance like in horror movies, you"ll just warn the enemy and give them time to raise their vigilance. Would you prefer to lose a fair duel or win a shameless battle with despicable means?"
Freddy seemed to be thinking over Sheyan"s proposal carefully. Sheyan took the chance to tell him, "I actually have a few key suggestions...."
***
Two hours later.
Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
A straight road stretched straight out into the spa.r.s.e fields, with isolated areas on both sides as protection against sandstorms. There were many drought-tolerant plants here, as well as large patches of ryegra.s.s, white clovers and alfalfa hay fields. The plants undulated like waves in the breeze.
The farms here were sprayed by airplanes and harvested mechanically, so both sides of the highway were very desolate, with not a human in sight.
A Buick SUV was parked behind a mountain pa.s.s. There were three men in black suits and dark gla.s.ses sitting idly on the vehicle and talking casually.
"Hopefully the target doesn"t take too long to arrive. This sh*thole of a place gets really cold after dark; it"s gonna get really uncomfortable."
"Don"t worry. It"s clearly stated in our intel that the target"s a very punctual person, and the meeting this time is arranged under the name of an academy headmaster. The target should be here soon."
"But boss, don"t you think something weird"s going on? She doesn"t look like a foreign spy to me. And, even if she is, shouldn"t we catch her alive so that we can interrogate her? Why are we ordered to eliminate her?"
When those words were uttered, the agent suddenly noticed his team leader looking at him with stern eyes.
"Have you forgotten the confidentiality order?"
For a moment, the atmosphere turned eerily cold. The three men leaned back on their seats at the same time and did not speak. But strangely, they all felt a strange drowsiness after that. Their body could not resist the exhaustion. They closed their eyes one after another.
Among them, the team leader had the strongest will. He could sense that something was wrong. He tried hard to snap out of his tiredness while shouting the names of his two deputies aloud. However, the only response he got was the sound of snoring. The ominous feeling got even stronger. He gritted his teeth, pulled a dagger out of his boot, and stabbed his own thigh!
Unfortunately, the dagger only managed to travel half the distance to the thigh before it dropped helplessly onto the seat. The team leader had already fallen into a deep slumber....