The Dream Continues (1)
"You free tomorrow?"
Nova lifted her head.
"Whyyy~"
Her voice was thoroughly drunk.
"There's something I need help with on a Mercenary work. I was hoping you'd come in with me."
The corner of Nova's mouth slowly curled up.
"Oh~ Then why not just take Team Leader Mir~?"
"…"
"Don't tell me… you're finally about to pull something?"
"It's nothing like that. Just help me out this once, Senior. If Team Leader Mir catches wind of this, a couple hits won't cut it."
"Hearing that just makes me more nervous~ Don't tell me… you want me to do it for free~?"
"…One week's worth of Enkephalin. No more than that. Anything more and I'd rather go alone and die."
"Well~ I was gonna help for about that much anyway. It's just a Barb-class, right? So… what do I actually have to do?"
"The Red Hooded Mercenary might go berserk tomorrow. No… she definitely will."
"So it is an incident. You want me to clean it up?"
"…"
"Fine."
Nova rose from her seat.
The long rifle slung across her back swayed faintly.
Abraxas.
Honestly, that gun at least was reliable — unlike a certain someone who used it.
The next day.
The first assignment that came up was Insight Work.
Clack.
The containment unit door opened.
The Mercenary was sharpening her axe as usual.
Then she spotted Nova standing by the door and raised one eyebrow slightly.
"Two of you today. Who's that?"
"Yeah. My senior."
"Come to tell me some fun story?"
Nova leaned against the wall and smiled.
"Something like that."
"You. Get out."
The Mercenary spoke while looking at Nova.
"I don't like your smell."
"Harsh."
Nova laughed and slung Abraxas over her shoulder.
"I'm the insurance today, though."
"Insurance?"
"Yeah."
"The kind that stops you if you try to blow someone's head off."
The Mercenary snorted.
"Then I should just blow your head off first."
"Oh."
Nova grinned.
"Brutal~"
I drew a slow breath.
Then I sat down in front of the Mercenary.
"Mercenary."
"What."
"Let me ask you something."
"Ask."
After a brief silence, I slowly opened my mouth.
"You're an Abnormality."
"…"
"You know that."
"Yeah."
The Mercenary answered while sharpening her axe.
"What's with the sudden talk. What, you don't like an Abnormality speaking to a human like you?"
Her tone was sharp. Probably because I'd brought Senior Nova along.
"And."
I continued.
"You're a subspecies."
The sound of the axe stopped.
"What…?"
Beneath the hood, the Mercenary's blue eyes slowly lifted.
I didn't stop.
"That means an original exists."
"…"
"And subspecies like you aren't unique. Countless subspecies exist across our company's branches. The original is at headquarters, of course."
"And while subspecies differ in small ways, they carry memories split off from that original. More precisely — nothing but a grudge against the Wolf, and a handful of other fragments."
The Mercenary said nothing.
Instead, the hand gripping her axe tightened.
"What… the hell are you talking about."
"Mercenary… those memories."
I looked at her.
"Are they really yours?"
"…"
"The flower shop. Your family. The Wolf. The Fixer. Revenge."
With each word I spoke, the Mercenary's expression twisted a little further.
"Is that really your life."
"Shut up."
A low voice.
But something inside it was cracking.
"…Are those memories really yours?"
No sound came.
The Mercenary didn't move.
Only the hand on the axe — trembling, bit by bit. Just barely.
"…"
"…"
"…"
Her blue eyes wavered.
Like someone hearing words for the first time.
Or like someone hearing words they should never have heard.
"No."
A low voice, almost a whisper.
"No."
Once more.
The grip on the axe tightened.
Veins stood out.
"No."
And then—
"I SAID NO!!!!!!"
KRAAAAAASH!!!!
The axe shattered the floor.
The entire containment unit shook.
Concrete fragments sprayed in every direction.
Red warning lights began to flash.
> Danger Level Rising
> Abnormality Status: Unstable
> Qliphoth Meltdown
"Aah~ Our newbie actually set her off."
The Mercenary was no longer looking at us.
No — more precisely, she wasn't looking at anything.
Trembling eyes. Ragged breath. A body shaking violently.
She looked like someone whose very existence was collapsing.
"No…"
"No…"
"No…"
Clack.
The long rifle came up.
"Newbie~ You might want to dodge~"
BANG!!!!
A gunshot rang out.
Before, I would have died.
That much was certain. Last time, if I hadn't memorized the combat patterns, I would have been dead.
But not this time.
My body moved first.
The bullet grazed past my cheek.
KRAASH!!!!
The wall behind me exploded.
"Oh~"
Nova murmured briefly.
"You actually dodged. Team Leader must've worked you hard."
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
Continuous fire.
No aim, no judgment — pure destruction.
Like a berserk Abnormality, nothing but raw savagery without reason.
I drew Penance.
—Clang.
I deflected one bullet.
BANG!!
Another came flying.
This one for the torso.
Clang.
I blocked it again.
My wrist went numb. My right arm trembled.
But I didn't stop. I could feel it — I could do this.
The movements learned from being beaten hundreds of times by Mir.
The time spent falling hundreds of times and getting back up hundreds of times.
That time was moving my body now.
BANG!!
A bullet grazed my shoulder.
Hot pain flared, and blood ran.
But it was fine.
I could still move.
"AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!"
The Mercenary screamed.
Then she hurled the long rifle aside.
Phase two, then.
A metallic ring sounded.
She seized the axe.
The atmosphere shifted. A sharp killing intent flooded the containment unit.
"Han."
Nova's voice — just a little, only a little more serious than usual.
"She's coming~ And for the record, a fragile marksman like me dies real fast if nobody covers the front~"
Fuck, I know without looking.
KRAAAAAASH!!!!
The axe came down.
The floor split open.
I threw myself sideways.
The shockwave sent countless fragments flying, tearing the containment unit apart.
"Crazy…"
Before the word finished, she came again.
First at the head.
Then the torso.
Then the right hand holding the weapon.
Again.
Again.
Again.
She didn't stop.
No thought, no technique — just raw power, raw rage, swinging.
A berserk Abnormality's strength had no logic.
I barely caught the axe coming down toward my legs with Penance.
My arm went numb.
My grip felt like it would burst.
But this time, I wasn't pushed back.
Before, I wouldn't have lasted more than a few exchanges.
But not now.
Mir's voice brushed through my mind.
"Don't block with force."
"Redirect it."
"Change the angle."
In that instant, my body moved first.
When the next axe came for my right arm, instead of catching it —
I twisted.
I let the force slide off.
The axe slipped sideways.
And I drove in.
Slash!!
Penance cut into the Mercenary's shoulder.
Dark red blood sprayed.
But the Mercenary didn't even register the pain.
"AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!"
She swung a bare left fist straight at me.
CRASH!!
Impact slammed into my gut.
My breath locked in my throat.
My body flew backward and smashed into the wall.
"Guh!"
I couldn't breathe.
Felt like a rib was gone.
"Get up~ You've got a fragile ranged marksman to protect~"
Senior Nova's voice.
BANG!!!!
Abraxas spat fire.
A golden round punched through the Mercenary's thigh.
Her body swayed. One knee buckled.
But she didn't stop. She charged — even with one leg bent at an unnatural angle, unusable.
"Figures for a Barb-class. Disgustingly tenacious."
BANG!!
BANG!!
BANG!!
Abraxas fired in rapid succession.
The Mercenary staggered but kept coming.
Senior Nova kept aiming for the head, but unlike last time, some mobility remained — she instinctively dodged and closed the distance.
As if even dying didn't matter.
Of course it didn't. She didn't even know what she was.
"No…"
"No…"
"No…"
Muttering under her breath.
Then the Mercenary, now in close range, swung the axe at Senior Nova.
"Aah~~ Maybe I drank too much… Starting next time~ I should cut back on the Enkephalin~"
KRAASH!!!!
I lunged forward and raised Penance.
From the earlier impact, my ribs were broken.
My shinbone was broken too.
My left hand wouldn't move from the shock.
But I moved anyway — for that single instant when Senior Nova could take aim and land a clean shot.
In that moment of lost balance, her posture tilting, her right arm left completely exposed — I cut it off.
The Mercenary's eyes went wide.
And then—
BANG!!!!
Abraxas's golden round pierced straight through the Mercenary's heart.
From the severed right arm, the axe fell from her hand.
The long rifle was already rolling on the floor.
The Mercenary's body swayed hard.
Her knees buckled.
She sank to the containment unit floor on her knees.
Ragged breath. Trembling hands. Unsteady pupils.
Some measure of reason seemed to have returned.
"…I."
A small voice.
"…"
"…I…"
Red eyes stared into empty air.
"…Who am I."
In that instant, space itself split open.
At first I thought it was the wall.
But it wasn't.
Space itself was tearing apart.
Beyond the red fissure, flower petals scattered on the wind.
Thousands of blossoms. A burning flower shop. A forest dyed red. An endless winding path. The howl of a wolf. And fragments of memory filling the sky.
Like shattered glass, thousands of memory shards floated in the air.
The entire space warped.
Red threads stretched out in every direction.
Nova's expression hardened. First time I'd seen that.
"…A mindscape."
"What?"
"A Mindscape Dungeon. This has never even occurred at headquarters… The founding researchers only ever proposed it in theory…"
Nova chambered a round into Abraxas.
Clack.
"That's her mental world. Normally we'd call the rest of the team and the Team Leader before going in… but that would take too long. Her mind looks like it's about to completely collapse…"
The fissure grew larger.
From inside, the howling of a wolf kept coming.
Low. Ominous.
I gripped Penance tight.
Nova gave a short laugh.
This time it wasn't her usual playful grin — it was a serious one.
"Alright. Time for an adventure."
Abraxas's muzzle pointed toward the fissure.
"Let's go."
"In there."
Senior Nova said slowly.
"Because that's where the answer she lost will be."
The red fissure yawned fully open.
And Senior Nova and I stepped into the Mercenary's mindscape.