Whispers in the Nightmare
Bianca stealthily reached out and placed her hand on my face. Standing before her as she caressed my cheek like a lover gazing at her beloved, I had no choice but to remain still and accept her touch. 'I can't beat her in raw power.' I didn't have a usable sword on me right now, and with only a single day of sword training under my belt, there was no way I could defeat the Bianca standing before me. 'If she's strong enough to interfere with Philia's magic, she's at least on the level of a demon. Maybe even stronger...' I didn't know exactly what heights she had reached in the future, but surviving for so long in the age of destruction meant she had to possess formidable skill.
"I-Ian... y-you'll come along if I ask nicely, right...? Right?"
"...Just out of curiosity, what happens if I refuse?"
Bianca's eyes widened as though she had never considered that possibility. She simply stared at me in confusion.
"H-huh? Well, of course I'd..."
As she hesitated, all sorts of horrific scenarios flashed through my mind.
"Don't tell me you're planning to drag me off, cut off all my limbs, and use regeneration magic so you can eat me as rations every day?"
"...What?"
"Or maybe you'll just chop off my head and stitch it onto some other corpse to make a chimera?"
"W-what are you even saying, Ian...? H-how could you say something so horrible?"
Bianca looked at me in shock and lightly smacked my shoulder as if telling me to stop spouting nonsense. I let out a quiet sigh of relief in my head. 'Whew.' At least she didn't seem that far gone.
"S-so how exactly were you planning to convince me...?"
"Well, of course I'd..."
Mid-sentence, Bianca suddenly grabbed my left arm and held it tightly. 'Don't tell me...' Was she going to cut off one of my arms to make me painfully aware of the gap between us and force my obedience?
"Wait...!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the pain. But the expected agony never came. 'Huh?' When I cautiously opened my eyes, Bianca was staring straight at me.
"I-Ian..."
With teary eyes, she looked up at me and pressed her body against mine, squeezing my arm with all her strength.
"C-can't you just come with me...? Please?"
'Hmm.' I nodded without hesitation.
The legendary monster hunter, Cole Veron, cried out in horror.
"M-madness... How is that woman—?!"
In the distance, a white-haired madwoman was charging straight toward him. She carried no weapon, but her body itself was already a terrifyingly powerful one. It was a body capable of slaughtering inquisitors with her bare hands—an extreme physique. The body personally crafted by Solennea, the Goddess of Light and Memory, was closer to that of a demigod than a human.
The woman who would one day be called the Depraved Saint—Aria—pursued him with a look of disgust rather than her usual battle lust.
'How the hell did that monstrous bitch find me here?'
"How? I came to clean up trash like you, obviously."
Very few people had truly been moved by Ian in the future, Aria included. Most had been forcibly dragged along by his overwhelming strength, so there were plenty who harbored resentment. Among them, those who had slipped away right before the end—Aria remembered every single one of the cowards.
"It's my first time really seeing you, and you're just as disgusting as I expected."
Cole Veron, the monster hunter, possessed a form so repulsive it made one want to vomit. A chimera stitched together from demons, humans, and various other races. His body was grotesquely asymmetrical, with one arm and leg hanging limply in unnatural shapes that defied any normal standard.
When Aria looked down at him with contempt, Cole flared up and shouted.
"What the fuck! Why are you coming after me?! If you're back, then go deal with your own—"
Crack—
"GAAAAAARGH!"
"How shameless. That's not something someone who ran away like a dog right before the end should be saying, is it?"
"You people forced me to go back then! How the hell are we supposed to fight beings even higher than the gods...?"
No matter how far one walked the path of transcendence, Ian's enemies had been overwhelmingly powerful. Faced with such a crushing difference in strength, Cole saw no reason to sacrifice himself. The moment he finished speaking, Aria tore his head off with one hand.
Crunch—
"──!"
The chimera's unique regenerative power and tenacious vitality kept Cole alive even with only his head remaining. As he suffered unimaginable pain, unable to even scream, Aria smiled coldly.
"If you were going to run at the end, you shouldn't have devoured every opportunity and divine power you could get your hands on. A worm like you, who doesn't even know who he's indebted to for his life, sure talks a lot."
She had balanced his collapsing chimera body with divine power and helped him reach the threshold of transcendence, only to be repaid with this hollow betrayal. There had been others who turned their backs for various reasons, but surprisingly, Ian had let them go without resistance. Aria, however, had been waiting for every last traitor.
"I was planning to go find him... but I suppose I should deal with impurities like you first."
These were the ones who would be of no help in the future. Aria had decided to eliminate them with her own hands. When she truly intended to kill him, Cole screamed in terror.
"W-wait! I'll help! If I help too, then—"
Crack—
"Not needed."
'This isn't selfishness. Not at all.' The reason I followed Bianca wasn't because I planned to live with her forever. 'If I rebel now, who knows what she'll do to me...' Besides, escaping the Forest of Nightmares alone was impossible. And the fact that her personality seemed relatively mild also played a part.
'Rare temperament for a survivor of the apocalypse...'
Truthfully, my earlier misunderstanding of her as a cannibal had been entirely because of the original novel's genre. As a story faithful to dark fantasy, Chronicles of Haelan featured countless demons and corrupted lands after the fall. Among the survivors were not only cannibals but people who committed even worse atrocities. The descriptions were gruesomely vivid, and the "misunderstandings" I had were simply things that had actually happened in the original work. Since Bianca never appeared in the original, my misconceptions had only grown worse.
Of course, since we hadn't known each other long, I was still somewhat wary of her.
'Though even if I stay on guard, I'd probably just die without being able to resist if she attacked...'
Hmm-hmm— Humming a tune, Bianca walked ahead cheerfully, crossing the Forest of Nightmares with ease. Revealing such an obvious opening in a place teeming with monsters and anomalies meant only one thing: the surroundings posed no threat to her at all.
I had been briefly worried about the anomalies here at first, but judging by her reaction, they seemed to be within her manageable range.
'But if she became that strong in the future, why didn't she appear in the original story?' Someone capable of handling anomalies should have been on the same level as the protagonist, so there had to be another reason she never showed up.
These doubts kept repeating because today had been the day my own limits were laid bare. Objectively speaking, aside from relying on my knowledge of the original novel, the current "me" was completely useless. Even that knowledge was clearly inferior in quality compared to the regressors, and I had no response whatsoever when unexpected characters appeared. I was stuck in a passive position, constantly being dragged around by these regressor heroines.
'If only I had power too...' Instead of being swept along by circumstances like this, I could have taken the initiative. Deep in my heart, the desire for strength was growing stronger.
A seductive, almost bewitching voice dug into my mind.
Do you desire power?
"No."
?
As expected of the Forest of Nightmares, it seemed I was hearing hallucinations. 'I must be seeing and hearing things because I keep running into weird stuff.'
"Bianca. Shall we pick up the pace a little?"
"H-huh? S-sure, why not."
Bianca looked puzzled but still cast several spells on my body. As each one settled into place, I felt an incredible sense of refreshment. 'Wow, these are pretty impressive.' So this was what they called a buff. My body felt incredibly light.
'At this rate, I could probably use sword techniques without any trouble.' The Spinning Strong Sword I had created earlier only drew power from my upper body, so it had lacked force. But in my current state...
'Even if I draw power from my entire body, there won't be any strain at all. This is amazing.' Bianca's spells seemed far more effective than I had expected.
—If you worship and praise this body, then the power you so desperately crave—
"Alright, let's go."
"H-huh? Ian, are you sure you're okay?"
"Of course. Thanks for the consideration."
"Aww, i-it's nothing, really... hehe."
And so, we headed toward the deepest part of the Forest of Nightmares.
—....
The Forest of Nightmares. A place once called a forbidden land, it had completely transformed into something else after the fall. An anomaly so severe that space and time itself warped. In this realm that had formed a new boundary beyond natural laws, anomalies no longer appeared. The beings that had wielded strange powers and techniques had all been devoured upon the arrival of a single entity.
The ruler above rulers. The apex of anomalies. The Nine-Tailed Fox, Talian. That existence opened its eyes at the intrusion of an outsider.
—Who are you?
To that question, the man gave no answer and simply swung his sword. A blade that could split the world itself flew toward Talian without mercy.
—?