The Dream Demon's True Form
Yuri, now fully revealing her form as the dream demon, wore a leather corset she would never have donned in her normal state. The garment cinched her waist, thrusting her chest and thighs into even sharper relief. Her already generous breasts strained against the corset, while her thighs—left almost entirely bare save for the most sensitive area—were devastatingly alluring. Had it not been for the tail sprouting from her hips and the horns crowning her head, Kyle might have found himself desperately courting her.
“What the hell are you?”
—What? What do you mean? You still don’t recognize me after seeing this?
The demon wearing Yuri’s face looked down at Kyle with a seductive expression and posture.
—It’s me. Your most precious person. Yuri Grace.
The demon declared her name to be Yuri Grace. Kyle stared at her for a moment, then let out a short laugh.
Yuri Grace, huh. Well, if that’s the case……
“My most precious person, you say?”
The Aura Blade gripped in Kyle’s hand flared with violent light. He leveled the blade, its surface rippling with razor-sharp energy, and charged straight at the demon.
Caught off guard by the sudden rush, the demon froze for an instant before darting aside.
Swish—!
—Kyaaaaah!?
“Would I really do something like this to my most precious person?”
—Y-you insane bastard!
The demon clearly hadn’t believed he would actually swing his sword at her. Blood began to drip from her severed wing joint. The pain reached deep into her bones. People often say a heavy blow hurts to the bone, but this was far worse. It felt as though her very soul had been sliced through.
—T-this body is your lover! If you kill me, your lover dies with me!
“Who in their right mind would believe a demon?”
—It’s true, you lunatic!
“Really? Sorry, Yuri. See you in the afterlife in about a hundred years.”
Kyle shouted the words and lunged again. This time the demon was watching and managed to take to the sky, but terror gripped her as she realized Kyle was beyond reason.
‘Why won’t he listen?! Is he actually insane?!’
Of course, the demon possessed no such power. Dying in a dream did not kill the body’s owner in reality. If that cheat existed, the demon could simply transform into Kyle and commit suicide. Once the real body died, survival in the dream world would be impossible. Still, any normal person would at least hesitate or consider the possibility. A madman who charged without a shred of doubt and swung his blade was something even an ancient demon had never encountered.
‘Is he too stupid to even think of that?’
Watching Kyle continue to swing his sword, the demon decided to change tactics. Her original plan had been to slowly seduce him and trap him eternally in the dream world, seizing his body in exchange. If Kyle had been satisfied with the world she created and believed it could last, it would have worked. Since that had failed, she needed a new approach.
‘No choice. He’ll probably just end up an idiot……’
Since soothing his mind had failed, she would do the opposite—destroy it. The dream demon, Apophis, glared at Kyle.
—You chose this.
Snap—!
The instant she snapped her fingers, a hellhound materialized behind her. One of the countless demonic beasts that roamed the demon realm. In a world of survival of the fittest where killing was constant, “common” only meant the creature was exceptionally strong.
“Grrraaaw—!”
The hellhound bared its fangs and charged. Kyle calmly swung his sword. The strike was so casual that it was impossible to tell where the blade had passed, yet the charging beast split cleanly in two.
—Huh?
Apophis let out a weak sound. She was a demon, and precisely because of that she had never understood the terror of an Aura Master. An Aura Master was merely human-sized. In the hellish demon realm filled with mountain-sized monsters, such a small being should have been insignificant. She had assumed as much. She was wrong.
“What is this?”
—H-how……
“Hey, demon.”
Kyle regarded Apophis, his sword gleaming like a star.
“Bring out your strongest.”
And in the next moment, starlight flooded the world.
* * *
Hellhounds that could chew through steel. Lava giants capable of lifting mountains. Banshees whose mere gaze drove victims mad. The most powerful and effective demonic beasts Apophis knew now lay scattered across the ground as corpses.
—Crazy…… crazy!
Even in a dream world, creating so many powerful beasts without cost was impossible. Only mental power functioned here. That meant Kyle, who continued to move and swing his Aura Blade, was expending an enormous amount of mental energy. Yet if that were true—
—Why is he still so full of energy!?
What kind of monster could defeat dozens, even hundreds of demonic beasts without breaking a sweat? Did he possess infinite mental power? Did such a being even exist? Apophis began to question the meaning of her own eons-long existence. Anyone would feel the same watching a human who had lived barely a dozen years casually accomplish things even a demon could not imagine.
“Is this all?”
—What if it is?! Just die already!
“Pretty pathetic for a demon.”
—W-weak?
Enraged by Kyle’s provocation, Apophis glared at him with wide eyes. Enduring such an insult would disgrace the entire demon race. While searching her memories for her strongest possible summon, she instead began rifling through Kyle’s memories.
‘Let’s see you piss yourself.’
She would summon whatever the opponent feared most. Apophis called forth the being Kyle dreaded above all else. What appeared was a massive lump of metal fitted with a long barrel.
—What is this……
“……Huh?”
The moment Kyle hesitated at the sudden appearance of the metal construct, Apophis realized she didn’t need to know its identity—only that Kyle feared it. Identity didn’t matter. What mattered was that he was afraid.
—Dieee—! You bastard!
The instant she ordered the unknown weapon to attack, a distant shout rang out.
[Three, two, one! Fire!]
With a thunderous roar, the barrel spat out a shell. A 155mm round screamed through the air, shaking heaven and earth. A high-explosive shell detonated above Kyle’s head, reducing everything within dozens of meters to scorched earth. Apophis, stunned by the sheer firepower, gaped blankly before clenching her fist and shouting.
—H-how’s that?! Serves you right! You were so careless—
“This stings a little.”
—……Huh?
“Using modern weapons, huh. Makes sense in a mental world, I guess.”
Apophis felt her mind go blank as she watched Kyle walk out of the blast zone. He wasn’t completely unharmed—his skin was lightly scorched and marked with small cuts—but the fact that bombardment capable of erasing hundreds of people had left only scratches was unbelievable.
“More interesting than the others. Let’s see what else you’ve got.”
—You absolute lunatic…… You call this fun……?
Unable to comprehend Kyle’s words even by demonic standards, Apophis decided to test the limits of his endurance. She reached into his memories and pulled out the strongest weapon that existed only as knowledge—the one she had doubted could even be manifested.
—Die.
The microscopic world invisible to the eye. A weapon that split the unsplittable atom and unleashed its energy as explosive force. Nuclear Weapon.
—Atomic bomb. Nuclear fission and the resulting radiant heat erupted. Intense heat and radiation reaching 150 million degrees slammed into Kyle’s entire body. Even though his form was composed of mental power within a mental world, he could not withstand the miniature sun created by human hands. Kyle realized that something beyond mental power was required. Aura.
‘Drawing life force inside a mental world sounds ridiculous……!’
Pulling real life force into a dream world constructed from mental power was contradictory and illogical, yet Kyle had already done it once. He had succeeded in manifesting an Aura Blade grown from within his heart. If that was possible, then drawing Aura itself into this mental realm should also be feasible. He did so. Aura wrapped around his burned skin like roasted pork rind, repelling the heat and radiation. Perfect isolation between inside and outside. The Aura Blade that cut through everything became Aura Armor that blocked everything.
‘This is……’
Kyle knew the name of this ability. Protective Gangqi. An imperfect imitation of the power wielded by martial masters from novels. If he could do this, perhaps he could do more.
—……You withstood that?
Apophis cried out in shock at the sight of unscathed Kyle. Surviving inside that miniature sun was impossible even for her true body. Kyle had accomplished the impossible. Even demons offered praise to heroes. In her eyes, Kyle was exactly that.
—Haa…… Fine. It seems I can’t kill you. I’ll give up—
“Give up? What are you saying?”
—Huh?
“Don’t you dare give up.”
He released Aura outside his body. The structure was similar to what he had always used, yet this time it extended farther—straight to the enemy’s heart.
Thud—!
—Huh……?
“Heart Sword—success.”
Kyle hooked his foot around the falling Apophis and smiled, jagged Aura spilling from his body.
“I still have a few more experiments to run, so don’t give up. Understand?”
—A, aaah—
Soon after, Aura Blades began bursting outward from inside her body. Feeling the agony of blades erupting from within, Apophis began to die.