Swimming in the endless deep sea.
How long had I been struggling in this pitch-black darkness where the depth couldn't be asured?
I was trying to find the surface and rise up, but I wasn't even sure if I was going in the right direction.
Yet I kept moving without stopping.
Surely, little by little, I was making progress.
If I don't stop, I will definitely reach where I want to go.
Even if it takes a very long ti.
I just need to rember where I want to go.
“——“
A small ray of light shining beyond the darkness of the deep sea ca into view.
It was so faint that it seed precarious, as if it would be torn apart by the surrounding darkness at any mont.
Whenever that happened, the light stood firm and whispered.
That you can do it. That you can reach here.
That place was the only escape from this deep sea and the way to the surface.
Upon realizing this, strength surged through my body that was about to sink.
I wasn't wrong.
Because I didn't stop.
Because I didn't give up.
Finally, I was able to reach it.
And so, the mont my outstretched hand touched the ray of light.
The darkness washed away, and everything turned white.
-Swoosh.
The sound of waves can be heard.
Rudger stood on the white sand, gazing at the endless ocean spread out before him.
Looking down at his feet, he saw a sand castle that remained intact despite being hit by waves.
It could hardly be called a sand castle anymore. It was literally a small fortress made of steel.
-Well done.
A familiar voice was heard from behind.
It was the voice that had encouraged him not to give up when he was about to lose his sense of self.
Rudger, taking his eyes off the sand castle, turned around.
Who could it be?
Who kept encouraging ?
Rudger slightly widened his eyes as he finally identified the person.
And then he nodded.
"Yes. It was you."
What he never forgot, even amidst the countless waves of mories pushing away his sense of self.
Before he was Rudger Chelici.
Before he was Gerard.
Before he was Machiavelli.
Beyond the countless aliases and masks, before he was born as Heathcliff van Bretus.
There he was.
The original self who had lived on Earth.
"Thank you. I received a lot of help because of you."
“You won't forget from now on, right?”
"Never."
Rudger gazed forward again.
The waves had already stopped.
In place of the sand castle, there was a door made of pure white wood.
Rudger opened the door and stepped through.
* * *
Many things happened in an instant.
Nirva appeared, students scattered in panic, Flora was attacked.
And Rudger, who woke up from his sleep, blocked Nirva's attack to protect Flora.
All of this occurred in a single breath, and the silence that followed was eerily quiet.
Flora looked at Rudger's back and opened her mouth.
"Tea-cher?"
For the first ti, a relieved smile ford on Flora's face, which had been tense with anxiety and pressure throughout.
"You, how?"
Nirva's expression went slack, as if he had seen sothing impossible.
More than the fact that the students he had pounced on were the ones with Rudger.
The existence of Rudger standing with his eyes wide open in front of him was questionable.
Though he was an apostle of dreams, the situation before him seed so unrealistic that he wondered if he might be dreaming himself.
"Thanks to you, I slept well. I took a damn good rest."
-Kigiigik.
As Rudger exerted force with his hand, Nirva's arm made of sand slowly pushed back.
Nirva tried to resist by applying force, but that will was rely a feeble resistance in the face of Rudger's strength.
The current Nirva, wounded and weakened, could never defeat Rudger.
Realizing this fact, Nirva shouted.
"That's, that's not possible! What do you think dreams are! They are mories and experiences! I made you dream forever!"
"There is no forever. Because I'm standing here with my eyes wide open right now."
Nirva was at a loss for words.
Even so, it was strange nonetheless.
Even if not forever, he should have dread a dream that was close to eternity.
How long does he think that period is?
"I died."
"What?"
"In the dream, the mont I beca aware of myself, I knew it was a dream. So I chose death."
Because when you die, you wake up from the dream.
An unbelievable truth sprang from Rudger's mouth.
"5,396 tis. That's the number of dreams I've crossed to get here."
Rudger had dread a total of 5,396 dreams.
5,396 mories.
5,396 experiences.
5,396 lives.
— And deaths.
"Is it possible for a human? That many deaths would have broken your mind multiple tis, which wouldn't be strange...!"
"Yes. I almost did. In fact, I nearly went to the brink."
-Fsssssh.
Blue mist-like magical power began to flow around Rudger's body.
"Thanks to you, I had a very interesting experience. So let return the favor."
"This...!"
Nirva's eyes widened.
This power flowing from Rudger was sothing far more powerful than what Rudger possessed before falling into the dream.
"Divine power? No. It's not that. How could a human have such power...?"
"It's thanks to you."
Nirva's sand prosthetic hand, which was in contact with Rudger's hand, began to crumble as it was engulfed by the blue magical power, just like a sand castle hit by waves.
"Thanks to ?"
"Dreams. Even if you wake up, fragnts of mory remain. What kind of life I lived, what I did where, and how many experiences I went through."
Nirva realized what Rudger was trying to say.
The dream that Nirva made Rudger dream wasn't a simple curse or anything like that.
Nirva knew well that such a thing wouldn't work on Rudger, who was immune to ntal attacks from the beginning.
That's why what he gave was a dream.
In another sense, the opposite of a curse, what you would call a blessing.
The dream that Nirva gave implented the exact mories of people who actually existed.
He showed the real through the fake.
That ant the various events, experiences, and knowledge gained by countless people living in the dream were real.
Even if most of those mories had evaporated, if he still rembered even so of the 5,396 dreams…
"Thanks to you, I learned a lot."
All the dreams he had experienced so far would be converted into experience and knowledge, helping him embody a higher level.
"That ans, I...?"
‘Does that an I led the already strong human Rudger Chelici to an even higher level?’
Nirva found it difficult to accept this reality.
"This, this is strange! This can't be! You humans couldn't possibly do this much!"
"That human talk again. Don't underestimate us so much."
Rudger narrowed his eyes and retorted, but Nirva mumbled to himself as if he had gone mad.
"You were designed not to evolve in the first place!"
"Designed?"
At that abnormal reaction, Rudger instinctively felt that there was sothing else but Nirva had no room to answer Rudger's words.
"Could it be Lunsis' trap? Yes, that's it. That cunning guy could certainly do that. I wondered why the bloodline of those who serve him was here, so that was it!"
"I don't know what nonsense you're talking about."
"Shut up! Since it has co to this, I will surely eliminate you here!"
Rudger realized that Nirva was making so big misunderstanding.
Even if it wasn't a misunderstanding, nothing would change.
Rudger was planning to kill Nirva here.
Nirva, who had pushed Rudger away, regenerated a sand prosthetic on his right arm.
As it was made in a hurry, it was crude compared to before, but its power was still sufficient.
As Nirva stretched out his hand, the tips of his fingers split, and sand blades rushed toward Rudger.
Seeing this, Rudger drew a sword stick from the shadow.
'If I use big magic, students will get involved.'
Being in a position where there were people to protect created constraints but he didn't feel disadvantaged.
Rather, he felt an inexplicable confidence. Updates are released by N0velFire.ɴet
The source of that confidence was clearly the countless new experiences he had realized.
Rudger, gripping the sword stick, surrounded the sword with magical power.
The magical power, mixed with dreamlike qualities, turned the white blade black.
Rudger, holding the blackened sword stick, raised it vertically to his chest.
Just as Nirva was about to react to this neat and calm posture, different from usual, Rudger took a step forward.
"What?"
Every ti a black line was drawn in the air, the sand blades shot by Nirva exploded one after another.
It wasn't just that the sword stick was powerful.
Its speed and accuracy were impressively sharp.
In the montary distraction of this strange sight, Rudger had already approached within arm's reach of Nirva.
Nirva saw the sword tip thrusting toward his brow and avoided it by turning his head to the side.
-Pfit!
Golden blood flowed as the area below his earlobe was cut off.
Nirva was astonished by the movent Rudger showed.
'He's faster and more nimble.'
Rudger had shown all sorts of various fighting thods before, but they were ones that weren't bound by formality.
Even wielding the sword stick was a movent specialized for killing and hunting sothing, thoroughly piercing the opponent's weak points, rather than swordsmanship.
But what he was showing now was the opposite.
It was formatted and formalized.
Therefore, it was refined to the extre, showing a static and heavy power.
Rudger was now using "swordsmanship."
Not hunting, but fighting.
This also ant that Rudger recognized the opponent as an excellent enemy, but
It also ant that he would push with pure class without any tricks.
"Don't underestimate !"
Rudger's sword, swung again, collided with Nirva's sand prosthetic hand.
A massive explosion followed, with shockwaves swirling around.
The students who were watching unconsciously stepped back a few steps.
Only Flora, Aidan, Leo, Tracy, and Iona remained in place.
Rudger, unconcerned that his attack was blocked by Nirva, shifted his body's weight axis, deflecting his power diagonally and using that rebound to rotate his body.
Nirva's body tilted sideways, unbalanced. Rudger, having rotated a full circle, firmly stepped on Nirva's bent thigh with his shoe.
His balance was completely disrupted and Rudger swung his sword stick, imbued with rotational force.
Nirva barely managed to block the attack while regaining his posture, but goosebumps rose all over his body.
Rudger didn't pause in his attack.
Every ti the dream-wrapped sword moved, black lines were drawn in the air.
Nirva was busy dodging or blocking the attacks.
"Is that, Teacher Rudger's fighting...?"
"Is he really a magician? He's almost like a knight."
"Ama, amazing."
Watching it made one's blood boil with excitent.
"Teacher! Fight on!"
"Defeat that demon!"
Hearing the cheers, Nirva's face contorted.
"Shut up! How dare you, humans!"
He tried to vent his anger elsewhere, but Rudger wasn't going to stand by and watch.
Rudger relentlessly drove Nirva back.
Nirva gritted his teeth, endured, and opened the ceiling.
Soldiers made from human corpses and dream sand fell from above Rudger's head.
-Uwooeoeoe.
Like zombies, the sleepers surrounded Rudger from all directions, stretching out their hands to bind him.
But suddenly there was a flash of light, and with a massive impact, all the soldiers were blown away.
Nirva felt anxious.
'This won't work. The humans who were chasing have already joined nearby.'
Though he had shaken them off, it was clear that the commotion from fighting Rudger had reached their ears.
Nirva chose to flee again.
"Do you think I'll just let you go?"
Rudger had already seen through Nirva's intention to escape.
The tip of Rudger's thrust sword stick brushed past Nirva's chest.
Nirva, thinking he had barely avoided it, felt his body suddenly stiffen.
Wondering what happened, he turned his head to see that the tip of Rudger's sword stick had fixed his clothes to the ground.
Rudger, who had deliberately released the dream to restrict Nirva's movent, raised his other hand and clenched his fist tightly.
"I told you, right? That I would return the favor."
In that fist, a black current was swirling like a vortex.
That was the dream flow used by Lucid of the lucid dream, one of the five familiars that Nirva controlled.
-Kwang!
Rudger's fist cleanly landed on Nirva's cheek.
His body crashed into the floor, leaving a deep crater in the ground.
Fragnts of the broken floor rose with the massive vibration.
Rudger delivered another punch to Nirva, who had fallen spread-eagled.
-Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
Each ti he punched, Nirva's body sank deeper into the ground.
His nose bridge collapsed, teeth broke.
Although Nirva was an enemy, he was in such a pitiful state that it evoked sympathy.
Rudger, having completely subdued Nirva, took a stance to swing his sword stick.
"Kheuh. Kuluck!"
Nirva, wheezing and exhaling, looked at Rudger and grinned.
Rudger was about to swing his sword but hesitated montarily.
He had a bad feeling, a thought that all of this might have been induced by Nirva.
Rudger slowly lowered the sword stick he was about to swing and stepped back.
"I won't kill you. Not right now, at least."
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