Acrid smoke that stung the tip of my nose.
Heat so intense I could feel it searing my skin.
When I casually rubbed a scar gouged into the floor with my foot, the rough texture and the unmistakable sensation of the indentation came through clearly.
And from the ceiling, powder and dust rained down onto my shoulders with a soft patter.
All of it was evidence that what was happening before my eyes was real, not an illusion.
But I could not understand it.
This was not the scenery that was supposed to appear in Dreamland’s dungeon.
According to what that little brat had said, shouldn’t what appeared before me have something to do with my inner world?
Like Arghalia, whom I had defeated in the game’s Dreamland, or the Body of the Lionheart Knight appearing as a monster.
Even if it was not that, I had expected, at most, something related to Ian, the original owner of this body.
So why was it the DLC?
What did the DLC have to do with Ian?
At that moment.
"Ian."
Dante, standing beside me, spoke in a brusque tone.
Looking at her expression, how should I put it? Half serious, half playful.
It was amazing that she could still mix in a joke amid this utter mess.
But I decided not to expect much from whatever she was about to say.
Because that expression usually meant—
"Why?"
"Are you perhaps thinking of rebellion?"
—she was winding up to say some spectacularly bizarre nonsense.
What kind of bullshit was she spouting now?
I pressed a hand to my throbbing forehead and let out a deep sigh.
"Why on earth would you think that…?"
"Because they said this is your inner world. It’s the world inside your mind, yet the Imperial Palace is burning red. So then…"
She looked as if she were about to add, ‘Doesn’t that mean you want to overthrow the entire Imperial family?’
But I shook my head.
Of course, whenever I saw the outrageous bullshit plastered in huge print across the front page of the Imperial newspaper the Imperial family put out, I did feel like toppling them.
But how the hell was I supposed to overthrow them?
Was I insane?
Even max-level heroines could not bring down the Empire by themselves unless they were someone on Angelica’s level.
Not even the final bosses of Dawnstar Academia included a calamity that had singlehandedly destroyed the Empire.
Just as the Abyssal Mother had her cult of fanatics and that bastard called the Director had the Dawn Troupe.
Each of them had underlings supporting them, and only with people like that backing them up could they even hope to contend with the Empire.
That was how powerful the Empire was.
Though it would be another story if we were talking about the calamities from the DLC.
"I’m joking."
Dante looked at my face, then gave a short snicker and walked toward me.
Lightly propping her chin on her right hand, she murmured in a voice low enough to sound like a whisper.
"Maybe this happened not because of you… but because of me."
Because of Dante?
"Why do you think that?"
Meeting my eyes, she continued.
"You know my routine is taking walks at night while looking at the stars, right?"
I nodded at her words.
I knew she always went out for nighttime walks.
And the reason for that was—
"Because of dreams, you said?"
She had said she kept having some kind of nightmare.
When I first heard about it, it had been intriguing, but it had also left me with a strangely unpleasant feeling.
Because it was a setting that had never been revealed in the game.
Not in the setting guide, either. Nowhere.
I had never heard or seen anything about Dante taking night walks so often that they had become more than a hobby—a routine—or about that being because of nightmares she had every night.
Seeing my nod, Dante said,
"That’s right. It was because of dreams. Dreams where everything collapsed and burned. Those were the dreams I had, but…"
She swept her gaze over our surroundings before continuing.
Her face was stiff.
As though she needed to take this sight in once more.
And as though to show just how unpleasant it was for her to look at it, she lightly bit her lip.
"This scenery I’m looking at right now feels far too familiar."
"So you’re saying that dream you had is connected to what’s happening now?"
"It goes beyond being connected."
Dante slowly nodded at my question.
"It’s identical."
A dream.
This, too, was something I had never heard before.
Not in the setting guide, not in any playthrough.
Not even in the DLC.
This was the first time I had heard that Dante’s nightmares were dreams related to the DLC.
Was it some variable or patch that had been applied when this became reality?
If that was the case, then as Dante said, this burning landscape was not my inner world but Dante’s?
But if so…
There were several parts that did not sit right with me at all.
No, I was the one crossing the wall. Why would it use Dante’s inner world instead of mine?
It simply made no sense.
Perhaps Dante had been invited as a helper, and her inner world had mixed with mine?
I sighed and shook my head repeatedly.
There did not seem to be anything more to gain from dwelling on it here anyway.
If it was exactly like the DLC prologue, then just like then…
At that moment.
…■■■■■■.
Something was slowly approaching through the flames, letting out a cry.
A huge shadow emerged between the fallen pillars.
‘Ian, that is…’
Kafka, who had been hidden in the shadows and silently watching the situation, sent me telepathic words full of incredulous shock.
And it was—
"Why is that beast here?"
Dante reacted the same way.
It could not have been otherwise.
The beast that had appeared now must have been a sight most familiar to them.
Fuck, it had not even been that long since I last saw this thing. Why was I seeing it again already?
I grimaced in disgust and tightened my grip on Clarent of the Coward.
Amid the blazing inferno, it sat atop a fallen pillar and silently watched us.
Despite its enormous body, it had limbs so slender that it seemed agile.
Its entire body was covered in so many spots that they looked tattooed on, as though one might be sucked into them.
One of the mid-bosses from the DLC prologue.
And—
【The Leopard】
◈ Level: 55
It was the leopard, one of the three bosses that had appeared during the Kafka incident.
I did not know whether it was the same individual as before, but Dotore’s name, which should have preceded its name, was absent.
And it was level 55.
Far beyond its level back then, and even higher than the Body of the Lionheart Knight.
As though its size reflected its level, it was incomparably larger than when I had faced it before.
To escape Dreamland, I probably had to clear this bastard and the other two beasts…
What a pain.
[Oath of Chivalry is activated.]
[The Stars of Knights watch over your chivalry.]
I brushed aside the notification window that had popped up before my eyes and shook my head.
If this leopard was the same individual as the one I had beaten in reality,
then there was a high chance that lion was the same individual too.
Then that thing would evolve again, wouldn’t it?
How much more bothersome would it become?
Just thinking about having to beat that crazy lion again made my head hurt.
At that moment.
Patter.
The sound of dust falling.
With that sound, the leopard before us vanished.
■■■■■—!!!
‘Ian, above you!’
I did not know when it had moved, but the leopard was already above my head. It swung down its forepaw in a savage strike.
Logres Swordsmanship.
Quick.
After sparring with Angelica and subjugating Arghalia, my Logres Swordsmanship was now level 8.
A soft silver glow flashed along my blade as I blocked the beast’s forepaw descending toward me.
Clang.
Gripping Clarent of the Coward with both hands, I swung hard into the leopard’s belly.
■■■■■—!!!!
The leopard flew away with a monstrous shriek and slammed into a pillar.
But it was apparently not a fatal wound, because it quickly rose to its feet again.
Well, I had not used aura either.
Ssssss—!!!
Dante summoned frost and extinguished the flames around us, then condensed frost in her right hand to create a sword.
"But why is the leopard here?"
"Who knows. Maybe it reflects our inner worlds?"
I answered Dante’s question as though it were no big deal.
It was not what mattered right now, after all.
But had Dante’s dream not been the DLC?
If it was the DLC, there was no way she would not know the leopard…
For all that it looked like this, it had been one of the tutorial bosses that appeared early in the DLC.
Considering she had shown no reaction when we first encountered Kafka in reality, perhaps it had not appeared in Dante’s dream…
There was also the possibility that she had forgotten because it was a dream, but that was not important right now.
Hummm—hummm!
Mana stirred in the spots embedded in the leopard’s body, and they began to glow white.
One of its patterns: a mental attack, hypnosis.
The effect was the same as that bastard’s had been when I beat it before.
But the difference from back then was—
It was stronger.
And instead of targeting one person, it had become an area-of-effect attack.
The creature’s mana concentrated completely, and cracks formed in space, gradually widening.
I grasped my sword and raised it overhead.
I would have been fine even if I took the attack head-on, thanks to Dragon Strength, but Dante and Kafka would not.
Just as the spatial cracks spread endlessly and were about to split open—
‘[Breath Splitting].’
I coated Clarent of the Coward with sword energy and slashed downward from above.
Its mana split apart, and the cracks that had been carved into space vanished without a trace as well.
Not missing the moment it faltered at the disappearance of its mana, I rushed forward.
The leopard tried to immediately get out of the way, but Dante’s frost bound its feet, leaving it unable to move.
I immediately drew up my mana and brutally kicked its flank.
A strike empowered by Orlando’s Muscle Cultivation Method, with the attack power converted by the option built into the Bayard boots added to it.
The attack was enough to imprint a deeply sunken footprint into its side.
■■■■■■—!!!!
The leopard was flung far away, spewing blood from its mouth with a monstrous shriek.
It flew with such force that it did not merely crash into the wall—it punched straight through it.
Then, as the flying leopard collided with something, I heard a yelping cry.
"Sounds like it hit something?"
Probably the wolf or the lion.
The hole had opened rather high up, so I could not see and could not be certain.
But there were only about three beasts in the DLC prologue to begin with.
"Shall we go take a look?"
I looked at Dante and asked what she wanted to do.
Dante nodded as though to say we should.
Then Kafka and Niklas emerged from my shadow.
Kafka transformed into a wolf, and Dante and I climbed onto her back and passed through the hole in the wall.
The other side of the wall was just as much of a mess.
And, as expected.
【Dark Wolf】
◈ Level: 58
◈ The target is flustered.
Just as I had expected, the beast the leopard had collided with was indeed the wolf.
The leopard lay nearby, vomiting blood, while the wolf twisted and shook its entire body in apparent bewilderment.
The wolf’s level was higher than it had been back then as well, and Dotore’s name was absent from before its own.
But aside from its size, it looked exactly like Kafka in her current form.
Of course, since its name was different from back then, perhaps it was not the same one…
First, that wolf too—
"Wait, Ian."
At that moment.
Dante grabbed my collar in a faintly trembling voice.
When I turned to see what was wrong, she was pointing somewhere with disbelieving eyes.
And where her trembling fingertip pointed—
【Dante de Astoria】
◈ Level: 50
◈ The target has been weakened by frost.
There was another Dante, sitting there covered in blood from head to toe.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register