Dawn of the Soul's Rest
-Woof! Woof!
Two barks. They tore into the darkness encircling the group like fangs, dismantling it piece by piece.
One by one, the others began to stir. Before checking on those riding atop his shell, Professor Beltum swung his staff and swiftly pulled away.
Because [Nautilus] had just opened its massive maw to swallow them whole.
The effect was relatively weak on a monster like Professor Beltum. It showed illusions to its enemies, trapping them until it could devour them entirely.
A fitting move for the beast coiled deep in the recesses of one human's psyche—Ricardo's.
'So the card failed to fully capture Nautilus's power...'
The Magic & Creature card version of [Nautilus] only manifested wide-area attacks and the ability to pinpoint-destroy a single card.
The true power of its, lurking in the depths of the psyche, hadn't been properly unleashed.
Thud───.
The sound was far too heavy for a mere creature opening and closing its mouth, rumbling dully across the ocean depths.
Professor Beltum was overwhelmed for a moment, but he confirmed he'd dodged the immediate attack. He rolled his massive eyes to carefully yet quickly assess the group's condition.
They all looked dazed and pale, as if they'd just awakened from a nightmare. Their faces were streaked with tears and cold sweat, their hands trembling uncontrollably.
Erhun especially had her ratkin ears and tail fully exposed. The severe mental shock had shattered her disguise.
Professor Beltum swung his staff again, concealing her twitching ears and tail.
"...What did we just see?"
Professor Georgia asked in a cracked voice.
He hadn't seen it as vividly as they had—just fragmented images—but Professor Beltum understood well enough.
Even he, with his long life, struggled to bear those hellish fragments. How could these young ones endure unscathed?
Instead of clumsy words, the old professor swung his staff. Four milky, glowing orbs floated up and entered their mouths.
Minds of Clarity, the same ones he'd given Ricardo before.
Having unwittingly swallowed the orbs, the group's faces finally calmed somewhat. Their unfocused eyes, wandering lost in nightmares, tenuously held their place.
"The only thing─ I can say right now─ is this."
Professor Beltum said calmly.
"Will you─ stop here? Or─ face it further?"
A momentary silence.
"Of course─ we'll face it."
Isabella broke the silence first.
Her face, smeared with tears and far from its usual composure, still gripped the scarf Ricardo had wrapped around her that freezing winter day like a lifeline as she continued.
"I want spring to come for Young Master. Always have."
"Then I can help with that, right? What do you think, Isabella?"
Adella said with a strained smile.
"I'm pretty good at making flowers bloom, you know~?"
Her eyes, glinting green like ice crystals, met the steady grass-green gaze head-on. She nodded, and they clasped hands.
"Pleased to work with you, Lady Belluna."
"Hehe, me too."
Sniff. Erhun wiped her nose on a face about to faint. She couldn't speak, but her small head nodded vigorously.
"May I─ rephrase my question?"
Professor Georgia sighed deeply, brushing back his seaweed-like fringe.
His bloodshot eyes widened with a teacher's sense of duty.
"What do we do now?"
Professor Beltum smiled faintly.
"Good."
Instead of answering, he let a brief inner thought slip.
"This kid won't be lonely, at least."
But only for a moment. He grew serious again.
"That Nautilus─ is the incarnation and crystallization of Bardi's submerged emotions and memories."
The turtle professor's eyes swiveled to gaze at [Nautilus] behind them.
Its camera eyes glowing red in the darkness merely stared silently after one chomp.
This heart's abyss was all [Nautilus]'s domain. It knew full well they couldn't escape, no matter where or how fast they fled.
"Thus─ its specs will be on another level from what we saw in Magic & Creature."
"But we can't run, can we? Doesn't seem possible anyway."
Professor Georgia asked. He was already manifesting dice in his hand, rolling them idly.
"A head-on fight─ would be impossible."
"Then...?"
"What would─ you do? If the enemy creature─ is too strong?"
"Weaken it with creature special abilities or magic circle effects."
"Then─ do that."
Professor Beltum's body spun around. From facing away to confronting [Nautilus].
In response, the Abyssal Dragon slowly opened its maw. The sheer mass displaced the deep-sea water, staggering the group.
Beyond the blacker-than-abyss throat, hundreds of torpedoes reared their heads.
[Nautilus]'s attack, the precursor to [Atomic Bite].
At the same time, bubbling water droplets surged. Each one thick with horrific memories—dense enough to ensnare even Professor Beltum in illusion.
Yet he pressed upstream against the reversing current.
"As I said─ that Nautilus is the crystallization of submerged memories and emotions."
In other words, sublimating those memories and emotions would weaken [Nautilus] too.
The turtle professor's eyes fixed on the [Cursed Marionette] collapsed since [Nautilus] appeared—and specifically, the coffin it bore.
"Conveniently─ there's a good way."
"Ah...!"
"The wreaths, right?"
Professor Beltum nodded at Adella's gasp and Isabella's question.
"Can you─ manage it? Belluna."
"Easier than not being late~?"
"You say that in front of her homeroom teacher?"
Professor Georgia's bloodshot eyes darted incredulously.
"Whoopsie~."
Adella stuck out her tongue and giggled.
"Here it comes."
Isabella said, drawing up ice mana.
The trauma bubbles racing ahead of [Atomic Bite].
They hurtled toward the group to engulf them again.
"Come here, Fluffy Rabbit!"
Surprisingly, Erhun extended her card first. The dandelion seeds her mana conjured took the form of a small rabbit.
[Fluffy Rabbit] perked its cottony ears and leaped straight at the trauma bubbles.
But the bubbles didn't erode the rabbit.
As they burst, [Fluffy Rabbit]'s body scattered like fluff, returning to Erhun's hand.
A trait shared by Erhun's Origin cards: upon targeting, it returns to the owner's hand while disrupting the foe with a special ability.
That power shone now, halting the bubbles' erosion.
Thanks to it, Ricardo's memories spread through the water like dye.
Kim Hyung-sik's severed body sprawled on the floor flickered into view.
Adella raised her grass-green mana. Protected by Professor Beltum's mana barrier from the water, it swiftly formed a ring-shaped wreath.
"Do your best, boy~?"
-Woof!
[Peanut] barked shortly, mouth clamping the wreath, and dashed off.
It placed the wreath on Kim Hyung-sik's head, as if seeking his legs.
Kim Hyung-sik, who had stared at the group, twisted his pain-racked face aside and murmured softly.
"After rolling for over 17 years, time to discharge, Corporal ■■■. Gotta get home myself."
He closed his eyes with a faint smile.
Pop...
More memory clumps flew in. Isabella stepped up.
"Argos."
The ice peacock spread its wings wide. Ice crystals on its tail feathers sparkled like stars, slowly bursting several bubbles.
"Take this, boy!"
-Woof!
To Choi Tae-won sprawled with a hole in his forehead.
To Bang Tae-hoon dying slowly, right arm severed.
[Peanut] placed wreaths on them.
Their forms, spreading from the heart's abyss, faced each other with grins.
Then toward the group.
"Take care of that punk ■hun."
"Kid's got the luck."
Their chuckling faces melted away.
Professor Georgia faced the next clump.
He gripped the dice in his hand tightly.
"Professor!?"
──He didn't dodge the bubble, letting it wash over him.
Adella's panicked voice faded muffledly as Georgia recognized himself clutching a field shovel again.
But unlike before, his mind was clear.
"I'm a professor."
In his psyche now, a teacher's duty burned bright.
"These new students are a handful of troublemakers."
Instead of smashing an enemy skull, he thrust the shovel into the ground.
"That's why their homeroom teacher has to watch over them."
He glanced at the fleeing enemy, then dug deep. He buried Im Hoon-sik's corpse beside him.
"A proper burial's on you, Bardi."
He murmured softly, extending a hand back.
"Belluna, wreath."
"You scared me!"
Georgia smirked at Adella's puppy-like growl, placing the steadily made wreath on Im Hoon-sik's chest.
Im Hoon-sik's wide-eyed mouth slowly opened.
"Kim Ji-hoon."
The name boomed heavily. But he grinned to finish.
"Spin the wheel, bro's heading out."
His form faded─
Screech, grind, creak.
Before the group loomed [Nautilus], writhing in agony.
Its size had shrunk dramatically.
[Peanut] had slipped the dog tag from its mouth into the coffin the [Marionette] dragged.
-KYAAAOOOOO──!!!
[Nautilus] shrieked spasmodically.
Unlike before, it cleaved through the water rapidly, maw gaping toward the group.
"Terraforming Drone."
Ricardo's calm voice echoed then.
The [Marionette], now risen, shifted face: ash-platinum hair, red eyes—a boy's visage. His dawn-warmed crimson gaze swept the group, etching them into his heart.
Simultaneously, a battered [Drone] flew overhead.
Unlike other Machinery beasts, its blue headlights pierced the dark.
Ricardo extended a cautious hand to [Peanut], panting and wagging, and stroked its head.
"Thanks."
"Young Master!"
"Ricardo!"
"Bardi!"
"Lord Bardi!"
He turned to their calls, nodding lightly, and reached out.
A card formed at his fingertips.
The rage-symbol [Red Line] began to change.
United Operation - Tactical Fusion: Retake
Mana crystals floating in the air dissolved into the magic circle without his left hand crushing them, fueling it.
"Fuse Terraforming Drone and Peanut!"
The rippling blue [Terraforming Drone] settled on [Peanut]'s back, meshing lightly to become its wings.
"Machinery Hope - Summon Peanut by Fusion!"
-Woof!
Propellers on its back whirred, lifting [Peanut].
It fired the first green capsule from its conveyor.
Originally carried by [Terraforming Drone].
Until now, it only brought the dead Lost World.
But in one corner of Ricardo's heart hid a wish to regenerate the old world. The drone's capsules symbolized that.
A dream that might never come true.
But enough to soothe the darkness sunk in his heart.
The capsule burst mid-air with a pop.
Fresh scent spread, light flooding the dark depths.
Still dim, no other life besides [Nautilus].
But there was light.
[Peanut] spun propellers and tail powerfully, mounting [Nautilus]'s head, and licked it with a wet tongue.
-Kyaooo...
In response, the Abyssal Dragon halted its swallow, slowly retreating.
It stared at Ricardo and the group, then turned and vanished into the sea.
Pop... Bubbles rose. Clear and pure, unlike before.
They floated to the group, enveloping their faces like a gentle embrace.
With that, vision faded.
How much time passed?
The group blinked awake, disheveled.
Not the dark wasteland of black snow.
Not [Nautilus]'s pitch abyss.
Professor Beltum's office came into view.
"Young Master!"
Isabella bolted up. Adella, Erhun, Professors Georgia and Beltum raised their heads.
Toward the light filtering in.
Where their gazes led—Ricardo, curtains drawn, gazing at the morning sun—turned with a soft smile.
"Good morning."
A smile he hadn't worn in 17 years—no, far longer.
A bit more at peace.
Still dim, but dawn had come.