Chapter 82: Illusion
"Utaha, Ichika, both of you—get out of this dream now!"
Rin stepped forward, shielding the two behind her.
"Understood!"
Ichika and the other nodded nervously.
Killing through dreams—this was clearly no joke! This wasn't a suitable debut battle for them.
In this situation, if they stubbornly stayed, they'd only become dead weight. It'd be better to retreat early, call for backup, and inform Touko about the situation so she could figure out a solution.
The two hurriedly closed their eyes, attempting to exit the dream.
But after a moment, when they reopened their eyes, they found themselves still on that same hill—nowhere near the Aozaki residence.
"We can't leave the dream? What's going on?"
Before they entered, Touko had already explained everything to them in detail.
In essence, Touko had merely linked their dreams to Roy's—not forcibly trapped them inside. She had explicitly told them that as long as they had a strong desire to wake up, they could leave the dream at any time.
"Probably because of that cursed spirit."
Illya's gaze was icy as she stared at the fleshy cursed spirit.
"Angra Mainyu called it a 'Nightmare Cursed Spirit.' It likely has the ability to forcibly drag people into dreams and keep them trapped. To escape, we'll probably have to defeat it... or get far enough away to leave its range of influence."
"As if it'd be that easy?"
Angra Mainyu scoffed as if he'd heard some hilarious joke.
"You're currently within this Nightmare Cursed Spirit's domain. Nothing you do matters—it can shatter all your defenses with a single thought. For example—"
Rin's instincts screamed at her, and she reflexively tried to throw out the gemstones in her hand to erect a barrier.
But her hand suddenly swiped through empty air.
"What—?"
Her eyes widened in shock.
The gemstones in her hand had vanished without a trace!
"My threads too..."
Even Illya gritted her teeth in frustration.
This was their dream. Both gemstones and threads should have been infinitely replenishable. Yet, somehow, all the gemstones and threads in their hands had disappeared—as if they no longer had any control over the dream.
"Go on, kill them once for starters."
Angra Mainyu wagged his finger with a grin.
The flesh lump didn't speak.
It silently floated upward, its mass rapidly expanding—in the blink of an eye, it grew from half a person's height to the size of a three-story building, and it was still swelling.
Roy watched this scene, his eyelids lowering slightly.
"How utterly insulting."
The moment those words left his lips, a sharp whistling sound tore through the air.
A figure descended from above, a blade plunging straight into the top of the cursed spirit's head—then, with a single downward slash, cleaved the Nightmare Cursed Spirit clean in half!
"Uuuuooooo—!"
The fleshy cursed spirit let out a pained shriek as it hastily retreated.
"Don't even think about running!"
The moment Okita Souji landed, she kicked off the ground, chasing after the cursed spirit.
Seizing the opportunity, Rin focused her mind.
She visualized a mountain of gemstones—and when she opened her eyes, a small hill of glittering, multicolored gems had materialized beside her.
"Now's your chance—get out!"
Her spirits lifted as she urged Utaha and Ichika while simultaneously grabbing a handful of gems and hurling them wildly toward Angra Mainyu.
Rin had never fought a battle this lavishly in her life!
"So that's how it is. The trick lies in its eyes, doesn't it? The moment its focus shifts away from us, it can no longer manipulate our dreams."
Illya smiled in satisfaction.
With a wave of her hand, countless thread-like swords manifested in the air like projections, raining down on the enemy in a grid of lethal fire.
"Tch! Just when things were getting interesting, someone had to ruin it."
Angra Mainyu had no choice but to turn and flee.
At his core, he was just an ordinary villager. Even as a Servant, his abilities were barely above average—the very definition of a third-rate Heroic Spirit.
Against Rin alone, he'd struggle, let alone Illya, who was even stronger.
"Hey, meatball!"
As he desperately ran for his life, he snarled at the cursed spirit.
"You wanna die? Hurry up and materialize my dream!"
The cursed spirit, currently fleeing for its life under Okita's relentless assault, let out a shrill cry of acknowledgment.
Instantly, the surroundings warped violently.
The hill vanished at lightspeed, replaced by a sprawling metropolis in the middle of a wasteland. From above, the city was unmistakably Fuyuki—but a twisted, distorted version of it.
Rin and Illya scanned their surroundings—they had been transported from the wilderness to a park. The two quickly tightened their defenses, bracing for the worst.
"Awooooooo—!!!"
Suddenly, countless howls erupted chaotically across the city.
From houses, apartments, and shops, humanoid monsters emerged one after another.
Each was pitch-black, resembling a cross between a wolf and a human, standing over two meters tall. Their bloodshot eyes radiated bloodlust, and their razor-sharp claws scraped together eagerly, as if revelling in the impending hunt.
"What kind of nightmare is this?"
Back-to-back, Rin and Illya were surrounded by an endless tide of wolf-like monsters. Cold sweat dripped down their faces.
At the very least, during the chaos, Utaha and Ichika had vanished from the dream.
If only reinforcements would arrive soon.
Preferably Aoko!
With the three of them plus Aoko, they'd absolutely steamroll these bastards!
"Are you two alright?"
Okita appeared beside them like a gust of wind.
"Where's Roy?" Rin demanded.
"When this dream manifested, he disappeared along with Angra Mainyu and the cursed spirit!"
"Are you kidding me? You didn't prioritize saving him?"
"That cursed spirit has eyes everywhere. If I'd ignored it for even a second, it would've taken control of me too—and then we'd all be done for!"
Okita tersely explained her tactics, slicing two approaching wolf monsters into ribbons with swift strokes.
"Besides, my Master will be fine!"
"Where the hell do you get that confidence?!"
While Okita held off the monsters, Rin and Illya hastily worked together to erect a barrier.
They had initially planned to leave immediately and head to Roy's location.
But for some reason, this dreamscape was unnaturally solid—impossible to navigate through sheer willpower.
Worse, they could no longer conjure weapons through imagination. Fortunately, the gemstones and threads they'd imagined earlier were still with them, so they had enough to work with for now.
"That Nightmare Cursed Spirit must have poured all its power into this dream, making it almost indistinguishable from reality."
Okita retreated into the barrier, her sharp eyes scanning the false Fuyuki.
"I can vaguely sense Master's direction, but the monsters in this city seem endless. With our current numbers, even getting close will be impossible. What a pain..."
***
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