"Big trouble! Enemies are rushing from behind!"
To make matters worse, the creatures targeted the rear of the battleship.
In front, a barrier manifested by [Nursery Rhy].
Behind, swarms of creatures like dark clouds.
Since they couldn't deal with the creatures, they had to break through the barrier ahead first.
"Everyone, concentrate your power!"
Elisa gathered compressed magical power at her fingertips and fired it toward the barrier.
The long pink beam of magic collided with the barrier and then faded away like a dying candle.
Elisa's expression hardened at the sight.
"What? Even though it wasn't full power, I attacked quite strongly."
Instead, a tingling pain was felt in her right hand that had fired the magic.
Others had similar reactions.
Every ti magic hit the barrier, it lost power and disappeared.
Rather, due to the strong repulsive force emitted by the barrier, the magicians retreated with groans.
Chris Benimore frowned behind his glasses.
"This is no ordinary barrier! It's showing a repulsive force greater than the impact we apply!"
Alex and Pantos stepped forward, but it was useless.
Their sword strikes and harpoons bounced back due to the rebound force when they hit the barrier.
-Kwagagak!
The drill tip broke off and continued to wear down at an increasing rate.
Crimson sparks burst like fireworks.
Rudger's expression hardened.
He kept generating cubes to replenish the drill, but they were wearing out and disappearing faster than he could create them.
'But I can't let go here.'
The airship was maintaining its form thanks to Rudger.
It was a precarious situation where he constantly had to add steel to fill cracks and replenish broken armor.
If he let go for even a second, the airship would collapse.
Others seed to know this too, as they were doing their best to break through the barrier.
"Keep hamring! Even if your arms and legs break, keep hamring!"
"If we don't break through here, it's all over anyway!"
Just as the Dream Walkers, who hadn't lost their fighting spirit, were about to pound the barrier again, an anomaly occurred in the barrier.
-Woooong.
The translucent surface of the barrier vibrated like waves, then began to create a black mass at its center.
"Huh?"
As soone expressed confusion at the sight, black energy radiated outward, sweeping across the deck.
It happened so suddenly that people were late to respond and covered their faces with both arms.
But as ti passed, no pain was felt.
People realized that soone was blocking the energy alone from the front.
"M-Master?!"
Dream Master Clara Cowen alone was holding her staff and blocking the energy fired by the barrier.
With no trace of her elderly appearance, she had rejuvenated to at least her 30s and was barely withstanding the massive torrent.
Her younger appearance ant she was now burning all her power.
But even Clara Cowen couldn't stand alone against this massive flow.
As her body staggered, soone from behind supported her.
At the sa ti, Clara was partially relieved from the pressure crushing her entire body.
Soon the wave of energy emitted by the barrier stopped, and Clara was barely safe.
"What are you doing?! You almost died just now!"
As Franz questioned with a voice filled with anger and sadness, Clara smiled.
"What else can I do? This is all I can do here."
"You an sacrificing your life? Knowing that's how father died, you're trying to do the sa thing!"
"Maybe that's why. They say couples grow similar through love, don't they?"
"You are... no. Mother..."
Franz bit his lip with a complicated expression.
"Finally calling mother again?"
Seeing Clara smiling gently at him, Franz felt sothing welling up inside.
His heart ached as if it would tear.
"This is not what I wanted."
Franz knew his father could never return.
He was dead, and for those who had left, all one could do was keep them in a corner of one's heart.
But Clara was different.
She was still alive, and Franz still considered her his mother.
Clara was his only remaining family.
"What I truly wanted was..."
After avenging his father, Franz wanted to be with Clara again.
Although much ti had passed, he wanted to spend the remaining ti with her.
Even if they couldn't completely go back to how things were, he thought it would be enough if they could fill the deep trenches in his heart even a little.
He thought that would be sufficient.
"I just wanted mother to live and be together with ."
"That's the sa for ."
"...!"
"What mother in the world would want to lose her only child after losing her husband? So to save you, I would gladly sacrifice my life."
That's what a mother is.
Franz couldn't hold back his tears at those words.
He wanted to sacrifice himself instead, but Franz's reason desperately held that back.
His role was not to perish here.
At the very least, he had to destroy [Nursery Rhy] with this dagger he had honed for so long.
For that, Franz had to conserve his strength even at this mont.
"Another attack is coming!"
There was a commotion at the barrier's anomaly.
Clara gently pushed away Franz's support and stood up.
"Mother. You can't."
"Franz."
"No. No. Not mother, please."
Clara shook her head at Franz and spoke.
"Let go now."
"..."
"Sotis, you need to let go of things that are flowing away, rather than trying to hold onto them."
"..."
"I realized that too late, but I hope you won't. And you, you still have things to do going forward."
Franz couldn't hold onto his mother leaving his hands.
He desperately reached out, but Clara stepped forward briskly, widening the distance.
His hand couldn't reach her.
Why did it feel so distant, as if it would never be reached, despite not being that far?
Franz bit his lip tightly.
If he didn't, he felt he would break down and wail.
The wrinkles on Clara Cowen's face completely disappeared, and her appearance changed to her mid-twenties.
She had entered her pri completely.
Before, she had stopped midway to preserve her life, but now it was different.
She had beco a fully lit fuse, a candle burning most brilliantly.
Clara didn't look back.
Those who had to leave shouldn't look back.
'No, maybe I'm afraid my heart will weaken too.'
As she gave a bitter smile, soone approached Clara's side.
When she turned her head, she saw a familiar wrinkled face.
"Zantman."
"Old hag. No, Master. Why are you trying to show off alone again?"
Zantman grinned.
At the sa ti, his appearance also began to return to his younger days.
His beard disappeared, and his wrinkled skin returned to when it was young and vibrant.
"At least two people are better than one, right?"
"But if even you go like this, what about the rest..."
"Well, those left behind might feel a bit sorry."
Zantman muttered as he looked back.
The Dream Walker colleagues who always bickered with him were staring at him. Follow current novᴇls on novel~fire~net
"Zantman, you..."
They widened their eyes in disbelief at his choice, but no one could stop him.
Zantman acting like this ant he had made up his mind.
For soone ready to burn everything they had, all they could do was offer words of encouragent and a push on the back.
They dream impossible dreams and chase unattainable ideals.
Even if they're pointed at by society, they laugh it off cheerfully.
Because.
They are the ones who walk through dreams.
They are Dream Walkers.
"Farewell, Zantman."
"Go ahead. We'll follow soon."
"Leave the rear to us."
After hearing these solemn words of farewell, Zantman smiled with relief and faced forward.
"See? Everyone is so reliable, so I can go with peace of mind."
Clara burst into laughter.
It was a fresh smile that suited her beautiful appearance in her twenties.
"Really, our school is full of fools and idiots."
"Of course. Whose school is it, and who led it? They're all fools who followed the two idiots, Nathaniel and Master. And the future of our school, we've surely left it in good hands."
Clara nodded at those words.
"Yes. Then let's go. The path won't be lonely."
"You might regret going with . I'm a very talkative person. I'll have to nag Nathaniel a lot when we get there."
The two rejuvenated Dream Walkers slowly approached the barrier.
The black energy ford on top of the barrier reached a critical point and trembled.
At the mont it seed the energy would burst out at any mont.
Clara aid her staff and stabbed it forcefully.
As a fierce repulsive force burst out and Clara's body was about to be pushed back, Zantman grabbed her staff together.
A fierce storm raged, and people could only watch the scene blankly.
As the energy ford on the barrier mixed with Clara's dream power, it gradually began to transform into a different form of power.
The mixture of black and green looked like a beautiful glass marble that children play with.
"Kuhahaha! Seeing sothing good before leaving!"
Zantman let out a frivolous laugh at the brilliant sight.
"And though you probably can't hear! Our youngest! Julia!"
Zantman lowered the raised corners of the mouth slightly and said with a polite and gentle smile for the first ti.
"Take care. Don't cry because I'm gone."
---!!!!
The orb of light exploded.
Everyone closed their eyes or turned away from the light intensity that seed to tear their eyes.
It was a massive explosion caused by the mixing of two energies.
Surprisingly, the explosion didn't harm anyone on the battleship.
Until the very end, Clara and Zantman had adjusted the direction of the force, directing most of the explosion's impact toward the barrier.
As the massive energy that should have been fired out ca back in reverse, the barrier visibly rippled unlike before.
Not just rippling, a hole was created at the center of the explosion.
The hole was small, just enough for one person to barely enter, but it was definitely a hole.
"It's broken! Finally, a hole in that barrier!"
People who had hope for the first ti, but the barrier began to recover slowly as if mocking such reality.
"No! The barrier is closing again!"
Soone inserted their hand into the gap of the closing barrier and spread it.
Rudger Chelici, with black shadows around both arms, barely held the entrance of the closing barrier.
-Kigigigigik.
The barrier in contact with both hands emitted a harsh noise.
Rudger raised the output of the shadow mixed with dream power to maximum, but it was just enough to maintain the hole in the barrier.
"We'll help too!"
Dream Walkers flocked to support Rudger.
They each used hooks made from dream power to keep the entrance from closing.
"This passage was made by Master and Zantman sacrificing their lives! Protect it with the resolve to die!"
"We'll help too!"
Teachers from Theon also flocked to help the Dream Walkers.
But they couldn't completely prevent the barrier's hole from closing.
Very slowly, but the hole in the barrier was gradually narrowing.
Two people sacrificed their lives, and it ends without any aning like this?
'No.'
As Selina was watching the scene, not knowing what to do, soone whispered to her.
-Will you be alright?
The voice was so similar it seed like her own but Selina knew that this voice wasn't hers, but Esralda's.
Thinking of Esralda's true identity, it wouldn't be wrong to say it was her own voice.
-You're still confused.
Esralda saw through Selina's heart.
In the nightmare given by Noxana, Selina faced the truth of the past she had forgotten like a dream.
That she was actually not real, but a synthetic spirit.
That Esralda, the real owner of the body, was gone.
To think that she wasn't real but fake.
To think those mories engraved in the past were nothing more than a substitute made by piecing together Esralda's joyful mories.
That cruel fact shook Selina's fragile heart roughly.
"But I..."
-It's true that old mories might be fabricated. But are all the mories since coming to Theon also fabricated? Can all that be called fake too?
"...!"
Selina shook her head vigorously without realizing it.
No. At least everything after she ca to Theon was real.
Laughing and teaching students.
Having pleasant conversations with fellow teachers.
Sharing the sa hardships, empathizing, and envisioning future work were all real.
And
These feelings for Rudger Chelici, who was desperately trying ahead.
They were absolutely not false.
"Please. Esralda. Help us all."
-For you, gladly.
Darkness spread from Selina.
But it was far from horrific. Rather, it felt like a strange darkness that even gave a gentle and warm feeling.
Esralda, the spirit of darkness that appeared behind Selina, gently embraced her from behind.
Esralda's body poured over Selina like ink, and Selina's black hair beca one with Esralda's darkness.
Her pink hair, like flower petals blooming in spring, dyed as dark as the night sky.
Her pupils turned red.
The color of the clothes she wore also changed to match, taking on a black base.
"That...!"
Vierano, who realized what Selina had done, widened his eyes in disbelief.
Spirit fairy tale.
Selina had now reached the realm a spirit mage can show when communion with spirits reaches its peak.
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