The momentary weightlessness and the sharp pain in his back as he hit the ground allowed Will to break free from Treya’s fourth attempt at control.
“Pain…”
He hadn’t expected that the sensation of “weightlessness” could be used to wake someone from Treya’s control. He had to admit, Shuna was Shuna for thinking of using “weightlessness” to awaken someone from a “dreamscape.”
“Hah… Hah…”
He struggled to stand, his lower leg bleeding from a cut by shattered rocks, staining his torn trousers red. It wasn’t a big deal; he was quite familiar with “getting injured.”
“Hoo…”
Run.
He looked up, only this word remained in his mind. His feet were already moving, frantically descending the long staircase. The door leading outside was right before him. He knew escaping the royal palace was just the beginning; he’d likely have to flee far down the mountain. But…
After failing in a confrontation with Treya…
After waking from such a prolonged period of memory alteration and dreamscapes…
After finally seeing the dawn of hope for escape from her control…
Especially after failing to escape the previous two times—
Escaping through that door had become a form of “sustenance.” He felt he shouldn’t be content to sleep in a beautiful dream. He believed that as the source of Treya’s “blackening,” he still had a chance to defeat her. He felt that as long as he got through that door, facing a destiny that now had a chance of breaking free, there would still be hope.
Moreover, this was an opportunity given to him by Shuna, the “protagonist” he trusted, using her ostentatious protagonist skills and her decent physical condition.
“Before Will leaves, I will stop your advance.”
As Shuna said this, Treya performed a swordsmanship in mid-air that, to Shuna’s dynamic vision, looked incredibly strange. The Shadow Nightmare Sword seemed to hover for a moment, and Treya shifted from facing forward to a side stance. Simultaneously, she changed her grip from reverse to standard, directly thrusting her sword towards Shuna’s forehead.
*Clang—*
Shuna deflected the sword and then leaned back to dodge the attack, taking two steps down the stairs.
“You… Your swordsmanship is indeed excellent, it’s just… not like something a human would use.”
“Likewise, you adulterous lady, your dagger doesn’t seem like something a human would use either.”
“Wow, that’s quite rude to describe me like that. After all, he has so many women, and only I am a close friend to confide in. I don’t want to be lumped in with you lot.”
Shuna stood at the edge of the long stairs, facing Treya’s ghost-like swordplay. Her dagger was already moving so fast it left trails of afterimages. She had only been considering how to contact Will, not that she might have to cross swords with the sole and strongest successor of the Entak Style. Otherwise, she would have definitely brought a longer weapon.
But…
Shuna still felt something was off. Treya’s gaze had been fixed on Will’s movements—it hadn’t changed at all during these brief ten-odd seconds.
She wasn’t rushing to catch up to Will, nor was she in a hurry to kill herself. What was she thinking? It was even stranger if one considered her actions beyond just combat.
For example…
Luring them to the main entrance…
Waiting here in ambush…
Yet still leaving an opening for Will to advance…
She came for oneself, but insisted on bringing Will along…
“Is that so? But I don’t think he needs such a close friend.” Treya said coldly, twirling her sword a few times. The black blade left afterimages in the air, much like the moonlight behind her. “The ‘Will’ I desire, in both memory and life, requires no one else’s presence.”
She took a step down the stairs in her black boots. “—That’s right, Will told me all this. I’ve come this far to ensure his life has only me as its single source of color.”
Her black high heels stained the silver-white stone steps with a layer of black. “Since I see him as my only color, he should see me the same way.”
The light gauze she was wearing began to subtly change from black at the hem of her skirt upwards, becoming eerily black. The moonlight seemed to shine even brighter. “If dreams don’t work, must I resort to methods he can’t refuse?”
Treya’s purple eyes met her light blue one, reflecting Shuna’s image. “For example, making him understand that running is futile.”
—This, along with Will’s retreating back.
“And for example, filling his waking hours with ‘despair,’ forcing him to bow to dreams.”
“!?!”
After a few exchanges with Treya, Shuna blinked rapidly.
—Wait, could it be that…
Shuna began to consider her own “intuition.” When facing such a “psychic” opponent, one sometimes needed to trust their intuition. For instance… the strange aura she had felt since stepping into the royal palace, like being deep within a “dungeon”… At this moment, a possibility she had barely dared to imagine flashed through her mind.
“Awful… Will—Stop—”
As Shuna shouted this, the latter half of her voice and words were as if being choked from her throat, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t utter them. In her vision, Will’s back instantly plunged into “darkness.” Her vision was completely stolen, her outstretched foot found no purchase in the air, and her body felt weak. Was this… the power of a true “demon”?
No, it was the power belonging only to the Empress, the “demon.”
He landed, his feet finding the end of the long staircase. At that moment, Will heard Shuna’s shout from behind him.
“Huh?”
He stopped. But it wasn’t an intentional stop; he had simply missed his footing on the ground. His outstretched right foot sank as if stepping on cotton. But…
He stared fixedly ahead… He clearly… Clearly, he had already seen… the glittering golden door, unguarded, right before him… Yet no matter how he tried to step forward, he couldn’t seem to reach that destination.
*Fwoosh—*
Something felt strange in his vision; it was receding further and further away, becoming a tiny, unreachable speck of light in the distance. He didn’t want to look back while running, but now he had to.
“Now… you understand, don’t you?” Treya’s voice, as if enhanced with sound effects, came from the ethereal distance, yet every word was clear.
His eyes widened as he watched Treya, who seemed to disappear like a shadow with every step she took, yet rapidly approached him. It was like a blink. She was no longer wearing her white gauze dress; on the contrary, she was clad in black armor. It was the armor Will had always imagined she would wear when she “blackened.”
“Shuna—”
Before his eyes, he watched helplessly as Shuna knelt on the ground, as if silenced, clutching her throat, then slowly being swallowed by the dark sludge emerging from the ground. Had she lost? How could even she…
“It’s a shame that you can’t use this method when you’re in a dreamscape. You’ll only discover it when you’re awake.” Treya said, her black sword scraping across the ground, leaving a deep black mark like a black crayon.
Will now saw the strange “reality” before him—a reality he was seeing while awake. Even though dawn was approaching, why did the moon above her head seem to shine even brighter? Why did every place she stepped on leave a black trace? And… why did the entire royal palace environment become so bizarre…?
He turned around and continued to flee towards the “great door” before him. But the royal palace’s door was always a certain distance away, a distance he could never reach.
“Could it be… could it be that…”
At this moment, Will connected the “secrets of the Entak Royal Family that were never mentioned in the original work”—The Entak Royal Family deliberately concealed information about the Entak Style and the dungeons they had defeated in various libraries. They worshipped the “Demon Pot,” claiming it was brought from a dungeon, yet never explaining its purpose. The “monsters” from the dungeon never appeared far from their own dungeons, nor was there a need for them to, yet the Entak Royal Family always emphasized their possession of “Demon Power.” Shuna had told him that he could feel the atmosphere of a dungeon here. Lucifer had told him that she sensed the power of the “Zero Demon City” within him. Where was the Zero Demon City? No one had ever said from the beginning that the entrance to a dungeon had to be an obvious “great door” located somewhere outside. There were never any records of clearing the “Zero Demon City” heard of among adventuring teams. Could it be… that the Zero Demon City was actually…
“From the beginning, from the very beginning, I underestimated the Entak Royal Family, and I underestimated you, Treya…” He reached out, but couldn’t touch the door. Then, he had to lower his hand, a self-mocking smile appearing on his face. He felt a flicker of “despair” rise from the depths of his heart. Before him, in the direction of the distant light, was a place he could never reach.
“The power you possess has always been the most primal, originating from the dungeon…”
—Why hadn’t he realized this?
—Clearly… clearly, the facts were laid bare before him.
—The world of the original work, as he understood it, had gradually lost control from the moment Treya used such power before him…
—Perhaps, he truly hadn’t “controlled everything about the yanderes.”
“Yes.” Treya’s sword grazed by his cheek, leaving a shallow cut. “From the beginning, altering your memories, making you live as if in a dream, was not an ability bestowed by demons upon Entak.”
Will stopped moving forward.
“The Entak Royal Family’s greatest secret is their symbiosis with the Empress of the Zero Demon City, sharing life, blood, and spirit.” She leaned into Will’s face, slowly reaching out to touch his cheek and wipe away his blood. “Therefore, they can bring everything from the Zero Demon City into reality. Whether it’s the sword dance of the Crowning Festival, or every internal strife within the Royal Family, even every war, has been the Entak Royal Family acting as ‘adventurers’ undertaking a dungeon raid to excavate deeper power from the Zero Demon City.”
“Humans and the dungeon realm have been ‘cooperating’ for the past two hundred years. This is the Royal Family’s darkest secret, and the very foundation of the Entak Empire.”
“So—”
“Welcome to, the Zero Demon City.”
Before Will’s eyes, the light of the great door completely disappeared into the darkness.
“Teacher Will, as an adventurer, don’t you feel utterly despairing?” Treya cupped his face, turning his head. “Then, give up everything.”
“Isn’t it better to enjoy the pleasures of the dream?”
…
…
“Since you call it a dungeon, then don’t blame me for using dungeon rules—!”
“Treya—!”
