TRPM 376

“Are you calm now?”

“…Yeah.”

Chloe Greenwood cautiously nodded in response to my question. It seemed she hadn’t completely lost her temper, but she had at least regained her composure.

“Getting to the point… Instructor Chloe, can you deal with this nightmare?”
“…I can’t do it alone.”

Chloe Greenwood said that as if relieved.

“Thanks to you being here, I think it’ll be possible. It’ll take some time though…”
“What can we do to help?”

At Chloe’s words, Elena and Ihaeun brightened, expecting there would be something they could do.

“Simple. Protect me.”
“…So there are strong dolls, huh.”

Even inside one’s own dream, there could be dolls strong enough that you couldn’t beat them easily. Chloe nodded at my guess.

“There are ordinary dolls, but there are also many ridiculously strong ones.”

I couldn’t beat them.

“…So in short, we just have to eliminate all those dolls?”
“That’s right. The problem is those strong dolls are skilled enough to dodge the sword Geonwoo used to cut through this nightmare earlier.”

If they could dodge that attack… they wouldn’t be easy opponents. It’s possible some dolls had only avoided my attacks by chance — flying, small height, whatever — but some clearly recognized and evaded the attack.

“Elena, Ihaeun. Keep on guard.”
“We will.”
“Okay.”

They readied themselves to intercept at any moment, aware that some dolls could dodge attacks. I tried to draw my sword…

“Ah…”

The sword I had been holding a moment before crumbled to dust. I reached to draw the Harmony Divine Sword, but it’s in my pocket dimension, and my pocket dimension…

‘…isn’t here.’

Only my consciousness came into Chloe’s dream. My physical body didn’t, so there was no pocket-dimension artifact on my arm. Well, there was a bracelet, but it was just a bracelet.

“Tch…”

With no choice, I yanked a sword from the arm of one doll that had been stopped by my attack.

“That blade looks pretty beat up — are you sure it’s okay?”
Ihaeun asked as she watched me take the doll’s weapon. She was right — whether this nightmare was based on the urban legend that abandoned dolls returned to kill their original owners or not, most of the dolls were in poor condition. The swords they carried were in bad shape too.

“Better than nothing.”

If we’d had time I would’ve used magic to sharpen the blade instead of a whetstone, but the dolls were already getting close. They weren’t rushing in blindly like before; they were observing, wary. If they saw an opening, they’d all attack at once.

‘…Time is on our side.’

The dolls’ caution suggested some intelligence. That might sound bad, but if we didn’t show any openings and dragged things out a bit, it actually worked to our advantage. Chloe said you just had to eliminate all the dolls, but that wasn’t our only path to victory.

‘Chloe purifying and erasing this nightmare is also one way.’

Chloe knew that — that’s why she asked us to protect her. All we had to do was guard her until her work was done.

Click-clack… Creak…

While I was thinking that, shabby-looking dolls appeared and kept their distance. They must have noticed I’d located them.

Or perhaps…

‘They judged leaving Chloe alone as too dangerous.’

Before I could finish the thought, some comparatively agile dolls lunged at us.

“Elena!”
“Yes!”

When I called her name, Elena used the spirit-art she had been readying.

Wind spirit art — Howling Wind.

A storm-like wind wrapped around the sword in my hand. Seeing that, I swung the blade.

KRAAAASH…!

The wind swirling around the sword scattered along the arc of my swing and swept away the dolls charging at us.

“Ihaeun!”
“Got it!”

After clearing the dolls in front of me, I called to Ihaeun, and she began to cast the spell she had prepared.

Meteor.

“Huh?”
“Uh?”

Elena and I both doubted our ears at Ihaeun’s words. Chloe seemed focused on purifying the nightmare and didn’t hear.

“…She actually summoned a meteor.”

I mumbled, looking up. I had only cleared the dolls in front of me, so I’d called for Ihaeun to form a barrier to block dolls coming from our sides or rear. But she either didn’t know that or didn’t care — she summoned a meteor.

Click-click… Sklrit…

Maybe the dolls sensed their doom; many froze in place. Some fled, but most remained rooted where they were…

BOOOOM…!

The meteor crashed into the ground with an ear-splitting roar, obliterating the area around us. Of course we were safe — Ihaeun hadn’t summoned the meteor thoughtlessly; the barrier she had formed protected us.

“…”
“…”

When the situation calmed down, Elena and I turned to Ihaeun and asked:

“Since when could you cast offensive strategic magic by yourself?”
“You used to only be able to cast support strategic magic, right?”

The important thing: Meteor is a strategic magic that normally requires dozens of ordinary mages to cast. It’s an offensive strategic spell. Only an archmage could cast such a strategy magic alone — and even then, attack-type strategy magic is rare. Ihaeun was known as a one-trick support mage; though not entirely without talent for offensive magic, her offense was far below her support ability, and she shouldn’t have been able to cast an offensive strategic spell alone.

So how—

“Well…? I just had a feeling it would work here, so I tried.”

“A feeling it would work here?”

“Sure…”
“…Elena. Do you understand what she means?”
“Yes… I somehow feel like I can use much stronger spirit art than usual….”

Elena sounded unsure. But it was plausible. Considering we were in a dream, one hypothesis occurred to me.

‘If their bodies can’t follow their minds…’

If their physical bodies weren’t matching their minds, then it made sense that they’d be stronger inside the dream. Here, states follow the mind rather than the body.

“Then go for it.”

Just then, new arrivals appeared. At the end of my sentence, dolls showed themselves. They’d been outside the meteor’s radius but had seen or heard it fall and now swarmed in.

“…Huuu…”

Seeing that, Elena pulled up spirit energy with a tense expression and used the skill she’d used with me in the dungeon.

Wind spirit art — Annihilating Tempest.

A tempest that changed the dungeon’s climate and terrain, flipped the ground, swallowed everything standing on it. It shredded all ents in its range.

‘It was powerful.’

Of course there had been problems back then.

[(…Huh?)]
[The tempest that swallowed the ents almost swallowed Elena too.]
[She was hit by her own technique…]
[(Kyaaah?!)]

At the time, that technique was so forceful it threatened to consume the caster as well.
[It’s a miracle her internal organs weren’t damaged and that she didn’t bleed from her eyes or nose.]
[…Can I rest for a moment?]

For Elena’s level, the technique had been something forced out by using the dungeon’s spirit energy — hard to control and usable only in special environments. But now it was different.

KRA-KRA-KRA…!
(“Good! That’s it!”)

Elena controlled the tempest perfectly. She didn’t even look tired.

CLANG-CLANG…!
(“Die! Die!”)
“…”

Not only did she not look fatigued — she looked exuberant, as if finally allowing her hidden psycho streak to show in full here. She must have judged that the three of us — me, Ihaeun, and Chloe Greenwood — wouldn’t go blabbing about her secret.

“(Kyaahaha!)”
“…”
“…”

Still, that was a bit much.

“Phew…”

Watching Elena rampage like that, Chloe let out a deep sigh. Ihaeun and I turned to her.

“Is something wrong?”
“No… Because most of the dolls were damaged, I succeeded in taking control of the nightmare. Now I just need time to absorb it.”
“…Absorb it?”

Well, being a cambion, she could absorb a nightmare — a kind of dream.

“Sorry. I just feel like if I absorb a nightmare of this size, I might be able to break the wall.”

Hearing that, Ihaeun and I understood. Sometimes acting on a hunch like that actually lets you break through a limit. Still, it’d been only a few months since she necromanced Merlin’s soul; her growth rate was astonishing.

“So, can we help?”
“Of course. If Instructor Chloe gets stronger, it benefits me too.”
“…Pffw…”

Ihaeun puffed out her cheeks at my remark. She seemed jealous — understandable; Chloe was somewhat a rival to Ihaeun.

“Anyway. What do you need us to do?”
“As I said earlier, just dispose of all the dolls in this dream.”

Because Elena and Ihaeun were stronger here in the dream, that didn’t sound too difficult.

“No… it won’t be easy. Among the dolls, there’s exactly one—an anomalous doll mixed in.”
“An anomalous doll?”
“Yes. Since it’s my dream I can sense it. That doll is moving toward us right now…”

Before Chloe finished,—

PAANG…!
“What—?!”

Elena’s storm vanished. In the space the storm had occupied stood a doll wielding a strangely familiar sword.

“…That doll?”
“Yes…”

Indeed… we couldn’t take our guard down against that doll. Thinking so, I approached slowly with my sword.

“Artist?”
“Elena, stand back.”
“Huh?”
“Even you, as you are now, probably won’t survive against that one.”

I grabbed Elena’s dress with a qinna (grappling) move and pulled her behind me. When she turned her head at my voice, the doll had swung its sword aiming for Elena’s throat.

CLANG…!

My sword struck the doll’s blade. I was able to see the doll’s face clearly.

“Long time no see.”

I spoke to the doll that, being a doll, didn’t say anything.

“Even if this is a dream and you’re a doll rather than a doppelgänger… I’ll make you pay for killing me.”