episode_0108

When I turned on the animation, Serena was the first to dash out.

And then.

The rest naturally disbanded…

“You think you can just send us away with an animation?!”

“Master! I want more!”

…Yeah, no, that didn’t happen.

Lia, Alice, and Marianne remained on the bed.

At the very least, Sophia went with Serena to watch the animation, so maybe that was a small relief?

‘Though Sophia’s real goal seems to be Serena, not the animation…’

Sophia, nestled in Serena’s arms, happily watching the animation with a blissful smile.

Two big-breasted beauties hugging like that…

It’s just…

Somehow…

That alone was enough to stir certain desires in me…

‘But right now, this side is more important.’

Ignoring that,

I turned my gaze to Lia and Alice.

‘Subduing them would be impossible, right?’

In my dream, I am the king, the god.

I can become a transcendent being capable of anything I desire.

But.

The source of that transcendent power is belief.

What if there’s a firmer belief than the belief that I am the king of this domain?

Then that belief takes precedence.

Therefore.

I can’t defeat the Hero’s Party.

Because there exists the belief that the Hero’s Party is the strongest.

A belief so unshakable that it influences even dreams.

I can’t win.

I can’t overpower them.

So I had to rack my brain.

‘I don’t need to overpower them.’

All I had to do was handle the parts that got worked up from a little stimulation.

…With that thought, I grabbed Lia first.

“Master?”

“If the problem is pent-up desire, then all I have to do is relieve it.”

Holding Lia in place, I rubbed there.

Not just enough to get her slightly heated—

I rubbed so fiercely she’d completely lose herself.

“Ngh—Ahh… Hahh… Uuugh…!”

Lia gasped roughly as she felt it.

“Haaaaaaahhh!”

With a spectacular spray of fluid (?), she was done.

Thud.

Completely down.

Nice.

One down.

“Next is you, Alice!”

“So you’re planning to finish me off the same way, huh?”

“Yep.”

“No thanks.”

“?”

“If my body’s heated up, I’d rather use my sword.”

“I told you I’m not using that.”

“Not that sword—I mean a real sword.”

“Real sword?”

Shing!

Alice drew her blade and spoke.

“Fighting the Cain inside a dream sounds way more fun than the real-life Cain, don’t you think?”

“Ah… So you wanna spar, huh?”

“Yep!”

Come to think of it, this was Alice to a T.

The real-life me is too weak to be worth fighting,

but the dream version must be strong enough to be interesting.

‘Why not?’

Against Lia, with her cheat-like resilience, nothing I do would win.

But.

Against Alice? There are ways.

‘If I were D-rank Cain, I couldn’t win.’

But if Cain can’t win,

then I just have to borrow someone else’s power.

“Marianne!”

“Huh?!”

“I’m borrowing your strength for a bit.”

Slither…

Temporarily, I borrowed Marianne’s power.

Her stats.

Her skills.

Everything.

With that, I became a fighter on par with Marianne.

“Now I can win.”

I changed the battlefield too.

Not my house—

I switched it to a clearing in the woods surrounded by trees.

“This should be a good enough place to fight, right?”

“I guess… But did you borrow Marianne’s power?”

“Yep. Right now, I have her stats and skills. I’d say I’m about as strong as she is.”

“Ooooh… Planning to beat me with that?”

“Exactly.”

“You really think you can?”

“Of course.”

I summoned the old sword Marianne usually uses and gripped it tightly.

At a glance, it looks like a worn-out blade,

but since it’s Marianne’s weapon of choice in the Prophecy RPG,

it’s gotta be a legendary-tier weap—

“……?”

No matter how I look at it, it’s just… a regular old sword.

Not a famous blade.

Just a mediocre one—

rusty and chipped, worse than even a standard weapon.

F-rank, if we’re grading it.

Honestly, it’s barely different from fighting with a tree branch.

‘Is it because this is a dream?’

A sword used by someone as strong as Marianne should be a legendary-tier item 100%, but…

Visually, it’s just an old sword,

and I don’t even know what special effects it has.

In Prophecy RPG, every time Marianne died, it was found shattered beyond recognition, so there was no way to confirm what kind of weapon it really was.

So,

I couldn’t replicate it properly.

This is my dream.

I can only recreate what I know.

And what I don’t know—I can’t.

But.

The battle had already begun.

‘Whatever.’

With Marianne’s abilities, even an old sword can become a renowned blade.

‘I can do this.’

I quickly activated Black Armament.

Marianne’s unique ability.

This magic converts her mana into a black substance that reinforces weapons.

Ting!

It can create black steel to forge an unbreakable blade—

Swish!

Or black rubber to make a whip-like, flexible sword.

“The blade bends?!”

“This is Marianne’s power!”

“She never used that before! Marianne! Were you holding back when we fought?!”

“I-I don’t know this ability either! I’ve never seen Black Armament bend a weapon like a whip before!”

“Well, that’s just how it is.”

“Ah… Marianne doesn’t know what rubber is, does she?”

“Rubber?”

“What’s rubber?”

“It’s a substance extracted from rubber trees…”

Its characteristics are pretty diverse.

Water-resistant.

Insulating.

Elastic.

Shock-absorbing.

Et cetera.

Thanks to these traits, it’s widely used in modern industry.

And.

It’s a black substance.

While not all rubber is black,

most rubber in my mind is, so—

Marianne’s Black Armament can replicate it.

…I gave her a quick explanation.

“Just because it’s black, you can make it?! Anything black works?!”

“Of course!”

Woosh!

Black Flame—black fire.

Crackle!

Black Lightning—black thunder.

Crunch!

Black Ice—black frost.

Swirl!

Black Wind—black gale.

Clang!

Black Iron—black steel.

“An ability that materializes anything the user envisions as black! That is Marianne’s true power!!!”

Rotating five black attributes like a drill, I unleashed them all!

“I can handle this…!”

Alice summoned an ice shield to block, but—

“You won’t stop it that easily.”

“!!!!!!”

SHATTER!

Marianne’s black five-attribute attack shattered the ice shield effortlessly, striking Alice.

Clang!!!

True to her Sword Master title, she blocked with her blade.

“Alice. Want to hear something fun?”

“?”

“Bombs are black too, you know?”

BOOM!!!!!

The fused five-attribute drill exploded, dealing massive damage to Alice.

“See?!”

Black bombs.

In games, they’re one of the most commonly depicted explosives alongside red dynamite.

So, black is associated with bombs too—

meaning all black magic can now have explosive properties!

‘Feels like a forced rule, but…’

Magic is

the art of bending reality through sheer will.

Just as I said that, Marianne gasped in admiration.

“Wow… My ability could be used like this?! As expected of Cain! Truly a master worthy of the Hero’s Party!”

“Hahahahaha! And my teachings don’t stop here!”

“There’s more?!”

“Of course!”

“Wowww! I wanna see!”

“Hahahahaha! Then watch closely!”

Though she’s not the real Marianne,

her excitement felt so authentic that it fired me up even more.

“Hey, what am I, a practice dummy?”

“You don’t mind being treated like one, do you?”

“Hah. Cain, you know me too well.”

Alice—the girl who loves nothing more than witnessing new techniques.

She adores seeing fresh skills,

dissecting them, countering them—she thrives on it.

So, naturally—

I should go all out with my attacks…

‘Nah.’

Thud!

“Huh?!”

Alice suddenly slipped on a black super-ball that popped up under her shoe.

“Hahahahahaha! Behold the power of the super-ball!”

Ultimate efficiency.

Not every technique has to be flashy.

Sometimes, simplicity is key.

A single, trivial move can be more decisive than a full-powered strike.

“Here I come!”

“You think this will—?!”

Alice tried to regain her footing by pushing off an ice pillar.

But.

She never got the chance.

Slip!

“Wha—?!”

Thud!

She crashed down again.

“Hahahahahaha! That’s black ice for you!”

Black ice.

The treacherous, nearly invisible ice layer on roads.

At a glance, it just looks like wet pavement—

but in reality, it’s insanely slippery.

The perfect trap for unsuspecting victims.

A prime cause of winter traffic accidents.

Now, it’s replicated perfectly as a devilishly slippery ice spell.

Thanks to it, Alice fell flat,

left wide open for my attack—

Slip!

Thud!

“……”

“……”

I slipped too.

Tripping on the black ice, I ended up hugging Alice mid-fall.

“Cain. So this was your goal?”

“Not at all.”

“If you’re honest, I might let you do it here.”

“I said no.”

“Ohhh, Cain~ Couldn’t resist touching these, huh~?”

“I didn’t!”

It’s just—

I got too excited knowing Marianne was watching and messed up!

…Or at least, that’s what I wanted to say.

‘But doesn’t that just make me a loser too?’

Scenario 1: The guy who fell because he wanted to grope Alice’s chest.

Scenario 2: The guy who fell because he got hyped imagining Marianne watching.

‘Sigh…’

No matter how I spin it, both sound pathetic.

‘Silence is the answer here.’

Tap! Tap! Tap!

I quickly stood up, putting distance between us and resetting my stance.

“Now, I’m getting serious.”

“Oho~? Finally treating me right?”

“Black Flash.”

Wreathed in black light, I dashed in and slashed.

“Whoa!”

Still wearing her teasing grin, Alice barely avoided it in time, adjusting her grip mid-dodge.

“Phew… Alright. I’ll take you seriously too.”

Howl!

A blizzard roared.

Crunch!

Ice flowers bloomed across the world.

“Snowbloom Plain.”

Alice’s ultimate move.

Manipulating nature’s mana.

Transforming the world into her sword.

The raging blizzard.

The snow beneath.

The dazzling ice blossoms.

All become extensions of her blade, cutting her foes to shreds.

But—

It’s not completely unbreakable.