Ch.266Embracing Nightmare

“Kya, haak…!”

Blood erupts from my mouth like a cough.

The impact that struck my entire body makes my vision flash.

I clench my teeth and steady my consciousness that threatens to flicker erratically.

I immediately understand what hit me.

My vision has become completely distorted.

“Ahahat…! Where are you aiming? I’m right here!”

An unpleasant laugh echoes like cheers reverberating around me.

Everything around me disappears, gradually replaced by the witch’s form.

Every pillar, broken fragment, even the cracked floor.

Isabella, lined up in formation, blocks all directions in place of walls.

Isabella ripples like waves flowing between other Isabellas, with Isabella standing on flowing Isabella, and Isabella floating horizontally above Isabella’s head, while large Isabella cracks and small Isabellas fall down in droves.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Isabellas twitch their antennae and sneer.

Literally, the entire world had transformed into the witch!

—-

“Urgh…”

I rise with a blood-mixed groan.

Lacy’s blessing, which still had some power left, seeps into my damaged organs and heals the wounds.

A fatal carelessness. It’s a miracle I wasn’t cut in two.

No, not a miracle but thanks to this woman.

[What are you doing! Swinging your sword at rocks while leaving the enemy alone!]

Hersella scolds me with a shout.

Yes, if her Karma of Murder hadn’t extended to protect me… I would have lost my life before even noticing.

The witch’s third power.

【Embracing Nightmare】

An illusion that penetrates the target’s mind and makes them perceive all surrounding objects as the enemy’s form.

Originally, it was a power meant to be cast on entire allied forces, causing them to slaughter each other.

I let my guard down.

To think she had already cast it…!

I thought mind-affecting magic wouldn’t be a problem, but does even Mana Resistance become useless against power at this level?

“You look like you’re having a bad dream! But the nightmare is just beginning!”

Everything I see spews black Dark Mana and mocks me.

The world is filled with writhing insect legs.

Even my five senses, which I’ve always trusted, perceive all those things as undoubtedly Isabella!

Moreover, though I clearly smashed through a wall that blocked me, now it feels like I’m half-embraced by Isabella rather than a wall.

The sensation of hard carapace strokes my back.

The witch’s arms wrapped around me wriggle as a sweet scent rushes in.

Sticky saliva drips onto my head and flows down my cheek.

It’s probably just groundwater or stone dust in reality… but both smell and touch feel like nothing but saliva.

Damn it,

If I’m going to be caught in an illusion, it’s a thorough one…!

Among those countless Isabellas, the real one must be there somewhere.

But my mind can no longer distinguish what’s real. One wrong move and I might attack Lacy or Ophelia!

What’s worse, the illusion that somewhat resembled the structure of the underground waterway begins to distort gradually, twisting arbitrarily.

Like nightmares always do, to the point where I can’t tell which way is up or down.

And thousands of magic circles appear throughout the world.

My instinct rings a fierce alarm.

A sense of crisis I’ve never experienced before flows through my nerves.

Most of these must be illusions, but the real ones are surely mixed in among them.

…Distinguishing them would be meaningless anyway.

Even if I cut through magic that’s merely an illusion, I’ll still feel the sensation of Dark Mana dispersing, and if I’m hit directly, the pain will be vividly transmitted as well.

Indeed, it’s power worthy of being called a divine ability.

Once caught in it, I couldn’t find any way to counter it on my own.

…On my own, that is.

[What are you just standing there for! Dodge!]

Hersella’s voice contained urgency, but not the bewilderment that should rightfully be there.

If she were seeing the same scene as me, she too would be unable to hide her confusion.

That means Hersella must be seeing the real underground waterway, not Isabella’s illusion!

That must be why she was able to block Isabella’s strike earlier.

Right. The power of this ability works on the mind.

Even if my mind was trapped in an illusion, there was still one more person in my head.

Isabella could never have anticipated Hersella’s existence, and her mind was the solution to breaking through the ability I carelessly fell victim to.

—-

I spread the power of Karma of Murder thinly to bind my entire body.

Nakgoe. A technique that forcibly moves the body with the power of Karma, allowing one to fight until their last breath no matter what injuries they sustain. With this…!

‘My body, like this you can move it as you wish, right? Dodge and fight on your own! I can’t tell what’s what because of the illusion!’

[Illusion? Don’t tell me you’ve fallen victim to such a thing…!]

Hersella immediately understands the situation and takes over control of the Karma of Murder.

My body moves forcibly as if being dragged. I ignore whatever appears before my eyes and simply surrender my body to the flow of Karma.

I kick away from Isabella’s embrace, leap up, and throw myself toward Isabella’s magic raining down.

Dozens of black blades fly straight at me.

Is this an illusion? Or real?

My arm doesn’t move.

Then, it must be an illusion.

Even if it’s an illusion… the pain will still feel real!

I clench my teeth and prepare for what’s coming.

And dozens of blades pierce my entire body.

Fiercely and mercilessly.

“Kuuuaaaaargh!”

It hurts, hurts, hurts…!

Terrible pain turns my mind white.

My trembling jaw is torn off, my limbs severed into pieces.

Fragmented intestines flow from my torn stomach. My insides boil hot as if I’ve swallowed lava.

A blade grazing my face cuts through one eye, and half my vision goes dark.

Dark Mana piercing my chest tears through my lungs and bursts out through my back.

In an instant, pain like dying ten times over.

My dismembered body is reduced to little more than a rag-like upper torso.

A scream erupts from the throat missing its lower jaw, and consciousness…

[Pull yourself together!]

A thunderous shout shakes my fading consciousness awake.

My vision clears again. Only one side, but still.

The pain that had been fading returns with fierce intensity.

Agony like melting in hell’s fire pit.

Still, thanks to her voice, I didn’t lose consciousness.

It hurts. Really, terribly hurts. Like I might cry.

Enough to want to give up and run away. Enough to think death would be better.

—Even so,

For something like this.

I didn’t come all this way to fall to mere phantom pain!

Warm vitality pours from my missing right arm.

Crimson threads wrap around the void, forming the shape of the limbs I’ve lost.

Yes. Even if I couldn’t see or feel them, my oath-bound sword and my body definitely existed there.

That was enough.

Invisible legs kick off Isabella and fly like an arrow toward Isabella.

An unseen arm swings and cuts through something black.

I continue this incomprehensible battle, traversing the air with limbs that don’t exist.

—-

A land of flesh placed above my head.

Isabella, distorted and melting from the heat, pours down upside-down.

A black sun shining beneath my feet.

A giant ball of dozens of Isabellas rolls across the sky, shooting out more Isabellas.

Isabella’s eyes floating on spilled blood look at me, and with each swing of her arms, small Isabellas scatter like flying insects, laughing.

Isabella’s face protrudes from my stomach, biting at my split chest with insect jaws.

My spilling, ragged intestines transform into mantis arms, slicing and tearing what little flesh remains.

The illusion of nightmares at its peak.

Now, I couldn’t tell what was what. I just endured with all my might.

My left side, touched by Dark Mana, rots instantly.

Maggots boil up from my empty eye socket, eating away at my flesh.

[Hold on! Not a single hair on your body is harmed!]

“Kyaaaah!”

I let out a sharp roar, somehow holding onto my consciousness that threatens to break.

Green lava pouring from the left grazes my rotting shoulder.

Not my shoulder, but the right side of my skull instantly boils, melts, and flows down.

“Ah, ugh. Uaaaaaaah!”

I endure and endure, screaming with all my might until my split vocal cords nearly burst.

A hellish nightmare lasting over ten minutes.

All that remains of my body is half a brain turned to meat pulp and one eyeball connected to it.

Whether I’m still alive, or even what “I” was to begin with.

In a battle where even that becomes vague, finally—

[Where do you think you’re escaping to!]

With someone’s cry, red spreads and cuts through the world.

“Aaaaargh!”

The sky screams. The earth weeps tears of blood.

The world shakes and the air exhales a shriek.

Isabella’s world shatters into pieces.

—-

“Haak… ha, huaak…!”

My breathing returns.

My consciousness, which had crumbled to the point of forgetting my own self, recognizes myself again.

Even the pain that was beyond description fades like stars at dawn.

The body I had surely lost trembles tangibly.

Kneeling legs, left hand on the floor. Even my right hand still gripping the sword appears clearly before my eyes.

I’m back.

Somehow, my surroundings had returned to the ruins of the underground waterway.

“Haa… haa… Lord Elpinel, thank you…!”

“Am I… alive…? Surely, my body….”

Perhaps they too had fallen victim to the nightmare, as Lacy and Ophelia sat gasping for breath.

Pale complexions and bodies covered in wounds. They were pointing weapons at each other, perhaps having fought mistaking each other for Isabella.

“Impossible…! I clearly trapped you in the nightmare, how…!”

The witch’s voice groaned in astonishment.

Pain seeped into her trembling voice.

I raise my trembling head to look straight ahead.

Just a few steps away from me, Isabella staggers and bleeds from a deep sword wound.

Yes. There is no such thing as a nightmare that cannot be broken.

The terrifying power, ‘Embracing Nightmare,’ had finally met its end.