Chapter "554"

-Swoosh.

It was a beach with waves crashing.

The beach, covered with white sand, was so long that its end was not visible.

Looking left or right, all that could be seen was the boundary between the white sand and the sea.

Every time the waves mixed with foam crashed, the soles of his feet got splashed.

Looking down, he noticed he was barefoot without shoes.

'What am I doing here?'

His head felt foggy as if he had just woken up from sleep.

He couldn't remember where this place was or what he was doing here. Nothing came to mind.

It was a quiet world.

Except for the periodic sound of waves, no living beings or other sounds existed.

'Who am I?'

Faint sunlight from the cloud-filled sky scattered over the sea.

The white light scattered like tens of thousands of glass fragments. Waves mixed with light continued to rush in.

'That's right. I was making something.'

Rudger crouched down quietly and molded the sand with his hands.

Like a child playing on the beach, he gathered white sand with his hands, piled it up, and shaped it into a castle.

Hastily made, it was too crude to call it a castle—just a pile of sand.

He didn't know what meaning there was in making this.

It wasn't an action done with thought.

He was only doing it instinctively, feeling that if he didn't do at least this, it wouldn't be right.

-Swoosh.

The incoming waves hit the sand castle.

The outer part of the poorly made sand castle collapsed and was washed away with the receding waves.

-Scrape. Scrape.

Rudger scraped more sand from around and added it to the castle.

When he brought sand to repair the castle, waves would come in, destroy it, and recede.

Building.

Destroyed.

Building again.

Destroyed again.

The waves were endless. As long as the sea existed, waves continued to crash.

No matter how sturdy Rudger made the sand castle, it was useless against the waves.

The best he could do was barely scrape together the ruins of the collapsing castle to prevent them from being washed away.

Suddenly, he had such a thought.

'Why am I doing this?'

No matter how diligently he built the sand castle, it would only be destroyed by the eternally crashing waves.

Is there a reason to desperately build something that will eventually be destroyed anyway?

Thinking rationally, it would be better to give up.

Building a sand castle in front of the waves.

Isn't that a story even a passing dog wouldn't laugh at?

But contrary to what his head was thinking, his hands continued to move and grab sand.

Strangely, he couldn't give up.

He felt that the moment he gave up, there would be no turning back.

He didn't know what couldn't be turned back. Just that thought fueled his actions.

-Don't stop.

-Don't give up.

Another inaudible voice whispered to him.

-Swoosh.

The waves crashed.

The waves were dreams and someone's memories.

They contained the life of someone who was born, grew up, and experienced until death.

Rudger desperately protected the sand castle in those waves.

-It's precious, isn't it?

-It's yours, isn't it?

-So never forget.

Rudger suddenly realized that someone was speaking to him.

Behind him, desperately building the sand castle, someone was cheering him on.

'Who are you?'

While continuing to build the sand castle without stopping his hands, Rudger asked.

At those words, the cheering voice abruptly stopped.

It hadn't disappeared. It just closed its mouth, not expecting the question to come back to it.

'Why are you helping me?'

Rudger was curious about that.

What on earth was encouraging this meaningless action to continue?

Why not mock me, but rather cheer me on?

No answer came back.

Instead, Rudger could feel that the other was faintly smiling.

Why on earth were they smiling?

Just as he was about to ask that, a gust of wind blew from beyond the horizon.

-Awooo.

In the wind carried by the waves, it sounded like a wolf's howl.

Rudger's eyes widened.

'Hans?'

Though it was the sound of a beast, Rudger could tell whose voice it was.

At the same time, his foggy mind cleared, and his blurred reason returned distinctly.

"Yes, I..."

He had fallen into a dream created by Nirva, a dream from which he couldn't wake up.

In the dream, he became a child, an old man, a soldier, a nobleman, a woman, a butterfly, a knight, an adventurer.

More than thousands of dreams.

More than thousands of memories and experiences.

All mixed together, threatening the identity of Rudger Chelici.

But Rudger didn't disappear.

At this moment, firewood was added to the faintly dying ember.

The self that was being washed away by the waves returned to its original form, and Rudger realized what he had to do.

"Get out of here."

For that, he needed to wake up from the dream but there was no immediate way to do so.

What Rudger could do was purely straightforward, simply breaking through.

'There's no other way.'

No matter how many dreams remained, he had to continue exploring to the end without forgetting who he was.

He didn't know how many more memories would flow in.

Now he had to cross the sea with towering waves, manning the helm alone.

A dangerous adventure where everything would end if he was swept away by the waves and the ship was engulfed.

It was a dire moment where he could only hope for someone's salvation, but...

"This seems doable."

He didn't hope for salvation.

No matter how difficult things got, in the end, it should be oneself who overcomes the final crisis.

Only I could save myself.

* * *

Sedina and Julia fled diligently.

While Nirva was fighting the Beast of Gevaudan, they needed to get as far away from the place as possible.

As the distant roars and explosions faded, they suddenly stopped completely.

The fight was over.

"W-what happened?"

Julia was bewildered.

It was a reaction due to not knowing who had won between the two.

On the other hand, Sedina's expression was not good.

In the current state, it would be bad either way if Beast of Gevaudan won or if Nirva won.

But this quietness bothered her.

If the Beast of Gevaudan had won, it wouldn't be this quiet.

'Which means...'

The worst situation had occurred and Nirva had won.

'Senior Hans.'

Thinking that Hans had been defeated, Sedina wanted to go back and rescue him right away, but she suppressed that feeling.

Judging from the flow of the battle before they fled, it didn't seem like Hans, who had transformed into Beast of Gevaudan, would be easily defeated.

The fact that it had become so quiet suggested that Nirva had used some method to distance himself from Hans.

'Right. Nirva is quite exhausted now. The fight couldn't have been decided that quickly.'

Having made her judgment, Sedina urged Julia.

"Julia. We need to keep running. That demon will chase us now."

Once caught by Nirva, it would be impossible to escape from his grasp no matter where they fled.

But if they could rendezvous with others, there might be at least a chance to counterattack instead of being helplessly defeated.

The moment Sedina said that, golden light flickered from beyond the twisted space darkness in the distance.

"He's already here!"

Nirva's speed was very fast.

His face, approaching while causing localized sand storms, had a terribly chilling smile.

"Where are you going? Do you think you can escape from me by running away like this?"

Sedina bit her lip.

She couldn't face him directly in this situation. Not only had she used too much energy, but even at full strength, she would be no match for the current Nirva.

Somehow, she had to buy time.

"...What happened to that monster?"

"Can't you tell by seeing me coming to find you personally?"

"You must think I'm a fool, but who was struggling against that monster? It seems you couldn't properly settle the match."

Nirva's expression distorted at the words hitting a sore spot.

Sedina immediately added:

"Do you know who that monster is?"

"A monster is a monster, what else would it be?"

Good. She succeeded in diverting his attention.

"It's a person. And someone I know well."

Of course, she wasn't lying.

In front of Nirva, the Apostle of Dreams, casual lies would be immediately exposed.

'I'm sorry, Senior.'

Sorry to Hans, but she decided to sell his information to buy time.

Since it would be information he would find out anyway over time, it wasn't so bad to mention it first to draw attention.

"He just has a unique constitution. Not such a strong person otherwise."

"That's ridiculous. A mere unique constitution can make such a monster?"

Nirva lit up his eyes to distinguish whether Sedina's words were true or false.

From what he confirmed, Sedina's words were true.

It was quite surprising.

That monster, who could be considered his extreme nemesis, was actually human.

"It's a constitution that can transform into the corresponding beast when touched by a beast's factor. With that, that person was able to use the power of a gigantic monster that had once terrified a country."

"The monster's power...You mean that creature."

"The Beast of Gevaudan is a very famous monster."

"So, what about it? That guy is not here now."

"That's not the issue. You couldn't defeat that monster, so you used a trick to avoid the fight, right?"

It was obvious provocation, but Nirva, who was in a bad mood, fell right into it.

Nirva's eyes narrowed, and the killing intent from his body choked Sedina and Julia.

Sedina swallowed hard.

"But there are strong individuals here who can defeat that monster. I know at least two of them."

Two humans here who could defeat the monster he couldn't handle?

In other words, it implied that he, an Apostle of Dreams, was inferior to humans.

His pride was already crumpled, but being treated as below contemptuous humans was an unbearable insult.

Still, Nirva didn't act.

He even gestured with his chin for Sedina to continue.

"One is a great beast-folk warrior, and one is an exceptional knight. Both are truly skilled. Too powerful for you to handle casually."

"A beast-folk and a knight. You mean those two."

He remembered.

After losing an arm to Franz, there were two strong ones who had ambushed him.

The large beast-folk who had thrown a harpoon, and the brown-skinned blonde man who used a peculiar sword technique.

They were wearing masks to hide their identities, but Nirva easily saw through such trivial disguises.

Those guys could defeat that monster?

Nirva again narrowed his eyes to distinguish truth from falsehood.

Upon checking, it was an ambiguous truth.

Not a lie, but there was no certainty in that truth either.

Sedina hadn't directly witnessed how strong the Beast of Gevaudan was.

She only knew from hearsay that it was a formidable cryptid but she had seen Pantos and Alex fighting directly several times.

Alex, who grew stronger every moment, and Pantos, who was on par with such an Alex.

If it were those two, they might be able to hunt Beast of Gevaudan—a faint conviction.

That's why Nirva couldn't simply deny Sedina's words.

It was an ambiguous truth, but not a lie.

"Those two, I don't know what they're doing or where they are now, but they're probably still getting stronger. Enough to threaten you."

Sedina's message was simple.

Is there a need to waste time on us here?

It seemed like passing the buck to her seniors, but it was actually the opposite.

Sedina trusted both of them.

More precisely, she trusted the Owens.

Without Rudger, they were the strongest forces she knew of.

"If your words are even partly true, those two are indeed threatening. But is there a need for me to move specifically to eliminate them?"

However, Nirva didn't move according to Sedina's intention.

Nirva grinned at Sedina, who had a dismayed expression.

"Why? Did you think I wouldn't see through your thin scheme?"

"That's..."

"Yes. Why did I listen to this story while knowing? It's to make sure you two don't escape this time and to capture you for certain."

The surroundings were already surrounded by sand.

"If I absorb the energy from you two, I'll recover far more power than from other humans. After that, I'll gradually devour the people you cherish. Don't feel too lonely."

Sedina bit her lip.

She knew it was a meaningless struggle.

Still, she thought she should struggle to her best until her dying moment.

In moments of crisis and despair, she learned from Rudger that if you completely give up everything, it's over but now this too was over.

In the end, all of this was nothing more than futile resistance.

Sedina looked at Julia with a 'what should we do' gaze.

The moment she saw Julia nodding, indicating she did well, a smile curved Sedina's lips.

Her struggle wasn't meaningless.

-Flash!

A white light burst out from behind Julia's back.

Nirva frowned at the sight.

"What trick is this now? Are you trying to blind me with light? Or did you actually think this was an attack?"

"This was never meant to be an attack. Rather, it's a signal flare."

"What?"

"Did you think we were just running away aimlessly?"

While fleeing, Julia continuously analyzed the structure of this infinite dream prison.

Even until the moment Sedina bought time.

"I've completed analyzing the basic structure of this prison."

"You so easily analyzed this space I created..."

"I think you've forgotten who I am."

Julia scoffed at Nirva.

"I'm the future master of the Dream School."

The light grew stronger.

Julia's words weren't bluster. Just as Nirva tried to stop her and rushed forward, a door opened in the ceiling, and a pink pillar of light poured down from there. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ N()

Nirva had no choice but to back away, giving up his rush.

With a light tap a flower landed on the ground with light footsteps.

"An aged monster bullying young students. As the chancellor, this is something I can't overlook."

Elisa Willow smiled brightly at Nirva.

Of course, her eyes were not smiling at all.