Chương 302: A Face Never Seen Again

The intruder was indeed quite feeble. Each one of my punches was enough to absolutely blast his body to pieces. No matter where I struck, it ended up in a blast of flesh and shards of bone. There was still no blood to be seen, and it made me wonder if this ugly creature could actually be killed in such a manner.

Especially since, regardless of how much I destroyed his body and tore him apart, he was constantly putting himself back together, and although he wasn't defending himself, it didn't bode too well in my eyes. Mmh… He doesn't seem to give a damn about getting brutally butchered. Any ideas, Nara? It's my bad. I dug deeper, and while he appears weak to us, he seems to be a pretty big deal normally. It seems like he doesn't quite know how to use his powers on anyone but the person whose dream he is invading Is that so?

The anomalous entity began spasming as I slammed my elbow straight through his head as it regenerated. I stood up and threw him away reflexively, right as the dark void that surrounded us began trembling. It shattered like glass, revealing a landscape I had never seen before. Pieces of tall architecture with an appearance so awful that it was impressive. Everything was grey and sad.

I was standing on what I assumed was a road with unnecessary markings in the middle, as if the people here needed to be constantly reminded of how to circulate, and there were weird things all over the place. My senses told me they were machines. This looks a bit like how the Unwanted Presences described a city in their former worlds. That's exactly what this is.

It would seem that the creature manifested something it is familiar with Speaking of the entity, he rose from the ground like a puppet being pulled by its strings, his body reformed until it seemed as though no damage had ever come to befall him, his face remained inexpressive, but I could now feel that his emotions were in turmoil. A delicious mixture of anger and fear, with the latter being far stronger.

"It wasn't a coincidence… The void had a ground because you will for it! Who are you? How can a being with influence over dreams exist without my knowledge?!"

"Maybe you shouldn't go poke into other worlds, you know?"

"Other worlds?" Well, looks like he didn't even realise that Rose had been sent to another world. Did he just pop into her dream at random because she was once a part of the same world as him? That's quite the unfortunate turn of events for a creature born from anomalous energy… Since the whole point of the energy he wielded being here was to avoid other worlds.

"No matter. I must exterminate you" With a lazy arm motion and a limp wrist, he summoned a variety of odd objects. Another thing the otherworlders had mentioned and described to me. Nara, are those the famed 'guns'? Yes, yes, they are I still remember like it was yesterday when Baker and Williams asked why, despite the supposedly 'odd' level of technology, there was thanks to mechanistry, that there weren't guns in my world. The reason was actually quite simple.

There was a small story that I was reminded of when they started asking… It was the story of an otherworlder just like them who thought that he could revolutionise the so-called 'fantasy world' by inventing the firearms that existed in his former world.

It was a good idea on paper, but he forgot to account for the fact that even that which bore the same name in his old world and the new one was actually quite different, and he thus discovered that the reason guns didn't exist and probably never would exist in the form that he imagined is because our version of gunpowder was not only way too powerful, which led him to lose both arms and the flesh on his face, but also that it was highly toxic.

The closest thing to guns we have are cannons, and those things are expensive. Not just because they are costly to make, but because they usually break after about ten shots. With how heavy they need to be to handle the blasts caused by the powder, they aren't a popular weapon at all. Magic is favoured when one wants to throw a cannonball at their enemy. Besides, who needs these machines when he can just make nifty crossbows?

The entity was annoyed at my utter lack of care and controlled the firearms to start shooting at me. So I simply used one of the abilities of the form I was currently using and froze time. The power of my form seemed to override whatever influence he had over the dream, and all came to a halt as expected. I got out of the way and made use of my fast thinking to discuss with Nara… So… It looks like he doesn't care that much about getting punched.

My first assumption would be that I should use 'Dream Walker' to gain superior control over Rose's dream. As I suppose that he wasn't dying from my hits because he could control the dream more effectively than I could. I concur. Due to your 'Nightmare Form', your hits should have been effective, so the only explanation is either what you said, or that he is unkillable, but considering how afraid he seems, I doubt the latter explanation is the case Did you know this text is from a different site?

Read the official version to support the creator. I moved closer to the ugly fucker, and grabbed one of the bigger guns within reach, pointing it at him. Alright, I don't really know how I am supposed to wrestle control over a dream, but I guess I'll try it… It was actually a good occasion for me to learn to deal with other dream invaders. There were definitely a bunch of those guys, and with my luck, I would definitely be meeting some.

So I focused not just on my 'Nightmare Form', but on the 'Dream Walker' ability itself. As with most things, the description of the ability provided by the system was a bit barebones, and as per usual, there was more to it than what I was told. If I only listened to the description, my ability to have influence over a dream was merely to turn it into a nightmare, but as I was finding out, it wasn't the case at all.

I took over the weapon my opponent manifested, which he could do nothing about, as time was still frozen, allowing me to walk behind him before the time resumed and his summoned weaponry fired at empty space, whilst the one I had stolen fired point-blank at his spine. I shredded the entirety of his spine, going from the hip bone to the back of his skull in one straight line until the weapon in my grasp stopped firing. … Pretty fun, I suppose. It lacks the oomph of bolts or good old melee strikes, though.

To remedy this, I grabbed the searing hot bit of the weapon and wielded it like a mace, bashing the bastard's skull from behind as he seemed to struggle to regenerate like before.

He did manage to force himself to warp away, but his fear went through the freaking ceiling as he realised that I was battling him for influence over the dream, and the place he manifested was already beginning to crumble–I didn't do that last part on purpose, I just hate how it looks so much that my subconscious must be responsible for bringing it down. Anyway…

"I don't know what your intentions were with my cute Rosie, but I'll just assume the worst and punish you accordingly""That's… That's slander!"

"That's what you're worried about?" I froze time again and grabbed him by the throat. Just like I exerted influence over his own creation and made it mine, I began exerting influence directly over him, and the moment time resumed, he began convulsing, the city became the dark void again, and he started summoning a whole bunch of nonsense that failed to properly manifest. He screamed without ever opening his mouth and shifting expression, but he shouted like a dying animal.

His last-ditch effort was to make himself explode to escape my hold… He fell to the ground with just a burnt head.

"I'm sorry for the offence! I truly am! I'll banish myself from this world! I won't ever come here again! Wait-!" I stomped on the head, but whilst I felt his presence vanish, I didn't feel the kill. Did he actually escape? Looks like he genuinely banished himself… You didn't even need to use 'Embodiment Of Negativity', and yet, I don't think I've ever seen anything be as afraid of you Heh, it's probably because he never ever had to actually fight or be at risk…

Unfortunate that I couldn't reap his soul or whatever he had in place of it. I could have turned him into a good spectral servant. What mattered most was that Rose was fine, though. I went back to check on her, and she was still having a pleasant dream. The dream had slightly changed, which was normal. Dreams tended to not be linear at all. Previously, she looked like how I knew her, but right now, she was back to being a little gal, though she was still working on the farm all the same. She… She's so damn cute!

Nara, do you see this adorable little tomboy?! I had never gotten to meet Elowen as a little gal. She had already been quite tall when I first met her at the diner, but I can only imagine that she looked a lot like this. I didn't interrupt the dream, even if I really wanted to take her into my arms. I merely used 'Dream Walker' to try to ensure that this dream would remain a pleasant dream, and then undid the 'Nightmare Form', reappearing where I had been before transforming. I was in my 'Base Form', however.

Although I could switch form just fine from my 'Gynoid Form', it always brought me back to my 'Base Form'. It was only a small detail. I gave a little kiss on Rose's forehead and pulled the covers up to her shoulders as the Gravescape was a rather chilly place, and then decided to go and pay a visit to the other two otherworlders.

Before, I wouldn't have been allowed to use the warping array without Leou, as I was only supposed to accompany her, but not only did Ergonip not mind me, he actually wanted me to come by to continue instructing Baker and Williams. The poor young men were suffering under a deluge of words from the dusty skeleton when I arrived, but I didn't interrupt Ergonip's lesson on magic.

Even if I couldn't do magic apart from pre-made curses, I always found it interesting nonetheless, and who knows, maybe a final trial will make me into a proper mage one of these days. Damn, I wish… I still appeared as Maya, the Silent Knightess, before them. I already had to reveal that I could turn into a knightess for the mission to begin with, so showing it in front of Ergonip was no problem. In fact, I feel like he wouldn't care much even if I showed him all of my forms and innate abilities.

"Ah, if it isn't who I think it is! As beautiful as always, Maya" The skeleton played along by using the right name.

"You know, you remind me a lot of a woman I used to know when I was still young and alive… I always admired knights for their strength. I never really understood this weird enmity between mages and warriors, to be honest…"

"... Well, you only remind me of her because you have similar styles, to be honest. Otherwise… She was very, very weird… A kind of weirdness that is not suitable to be spoken about in front of children""We… We aren't children, Mister Ergonip…"

"You two are not men until I say you are" The skeleton turned to me, placing his bony palm to one side of his skeletal jaw whilst pointing his thumb back at the two otherworlders.

"As we say between necromancers: Those two are high-value sacrificial assets" Ergonip laughed boisterously. It took me a second, but I understood the joke, but the two didn't. He means that you've never felt the touch of a woman. Then I wrote: 'Ahah' on the blackboard, it was quite funny.