Nightmare
Nightmare.
Crunch.
My vision flooded red.
Right before my eyes, the beasts tore through my family.
And I ran.
Ha… things had been quiet lately, so of course.
I was only a child then. I don’t remember the day the first Gate opened with perfect clarity. But I knew one thing for certain: the world had collapsed.
The streets ran with blood. People screamed in despair. Even Mom and Dad’s faces had already gone hazy.
What remained in my memory was…
A warm hand.
The hand that held me.
The arms that wrapped around me.
The moment that hand let go.
I knew it instinctively.
There was no going back.
After that, for years, every time I closed my eyes I fell into the same hellish nightmare. A nightmare thick with stench and the reek of blood, with no end in sight.
…
Stench…?
My eyes snapped open.
The air was thick with a foul, choking smell.
In Tales of Etheraisha, the appearance of a stench was never a good sign.
Don’t tell me…
Contamination…?
Contamination—one of the powers the sealed Evil God left behind in the world. The most dangerous calamity of all, the primordial force that birthed monsters. Every monster currently attacking humanity in Tera was born from Contamination.
But…
That’s impossible.
Why would Contamination appear here?
This was the domain of the Saintstone inside Bastille Prison. According to the game’s lore, Contamination should never be able to form inside this zone.
Bang.
The door was kicked open with brutal force, and a familiar face appeared in front of me.
“Mason?”
His expression was frantic.
“My lady! This is no time to linger! You must flee at once!”
He seized my hand and dragged me out of the room in a single motion.
The corridor reeked of blood.
The servants who had attended me and spoken with me right up until I fell asleep— their corpses lay scattered everywhere.
Crunch… grind…
The sickening sound of flesh being torn scraped against my ears.
I swallowed hard.
When we finally reached the mansion entrance in a daze, what greeted us was…
A massive beast devouring the corpses of countless guards.
A form that looked like a wolf and a lion fused together. A towering body that stood at least five meters at the shoulder.
I recognized it on pure instinct.
Upper-rank monster: Grunbark.
Without at least a Level 6 ability user, there was no hope.
“Run!”
Neither of us needed to say it first. We spun around on pure reflex and fled.
“Kyaaaah!”
A scream rang out near the back door.
There, a maid lay motionless, crushed beneath the beast’s enormous foot. Lower-rank monsters blocked the escape route behind them, while Annie and the other servants huddled together in terror.
Vision dyed red.
The metallic stench of blood.
It was exactly the same as back then.
Once again, someone was dying right in front of me.
My whole body locked up.
Was it fear?
My breathing suddenly turned ragged. My lungs felt like they were burning; my heart hammered wildly.
This time, too…
Once again, I took a step back.
Even though I claimed I wanted to help the people I cared about.
Even though I claimed I wanted to save the characters I had loved in the game.
I was still exactly the same.
“My lady, snap out of it!”
The escort knights cut down the lower-rank monsters in rapid succession as they shouted.
My mind cleared in an instant.
I couldn’t become dead weight like this.
“Annie, are you okay?”
Annie’s face was deathly pale, but she managed a shaky nod.
“I’m fine. What about you, Master? You’re not hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine. We need to get out of here now. Everyone! Escape through the back door and head for Bastille Prison! You’ll be safe there!”
The survivors broke into a run toward the rear exit. Mason, Annie, and I followed behind them.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Crunch!
In that instant, a thunderous roar shook the mansion and the ceiling came crashing down. The falling debris swallowed the survivors ahead of us without mercy. In the blink of an eye they vanished right before our eyes.
The maids who had been chatting with me only moments ago.
The knights who had sworn they would train hard to protect me.
All of them were reduced to bloody pulp without even time to scream.
I instinctively swallowed and stumbled backward.
“Ugh…”
The taste of iron and the reek of blood flooded my mouth.
Then the noise and the monsters’ howls continued.
It was exactly the same as that day.
Was this the fate that awaited everyone I formed a bond with?
“Found you.”
Savage red eyes gleamed.
My entire body froze solid.
Found me?
Was it talking to me?
An upper-rank monster had been searching for me?
Why?
“Haha…”
Even in this situation, a laugh slipped out.
Because I was so pathetic—standing here trembling in fear, unable to do a single thing.
“Annie! I’ll draw it away—take the young lady and run right now!”
The moment Mason’s shout rang out, Annie forcibly dragged my frozen body into a run.
“Mason…”
Disgusting.
Once again, I was the one running away.
“My lady!!!”
Annie’s scream right against my ear jolted me back to my senses.
I started running with her in a blind panic.
Running away was just as easy and comfortable as it had been back then.
When I played as the protagonist in the game, I slaughtered monsters without a second thought. I followed the quests and fought with the power the protagonist was given, carefree and easy.
But once everything became real… I couldn’t do a damn thing. I was useless.
I remembered how pathetic I had looked on Earth, envying the Hunters.
Maybe I’ll never be able to become like them…
Then, the instant we cleared the mansion—
A massive shadow fell over us.
Grunbark.
That enormous beast cut us off with movements far too agile to believe.
“Mason…”
I remembered how he had gone with me all the way to the slums just because I asked, and treated Annie’s mother.
I clenched my teeth.
“I don’t want to keep running anymore…”
I wanted to change.
“Annie. I’ll draw it off. You run.”
“My lady!”
“That monster’s after me. You know I’m stronger than you, right? Get to Bastille Prison and call for help.”
“My lady, but—”
“Go! Now!!! Annie! You’ll only get in the way!”
Annie squeezed her eyes shut and bit down hard on her lip.
Then she started running.
I watched her back and forced myself onward.
Yes. This is right.
The version of myself I truly wanted to become—when I lost my family to the monsters, when Mason stepped forward to protect me.
Not running away in disgrace, but standing tall and facing danger for the people I loved.
“Grrrr—!!!”
“….”
I drew a deep breath and, dredging up memories from the game, began locking its movements into my eyes.
I didn’t expect to win.
I just needed to buy time.
Its hind legs crouched slightly; its neck twisted to the left.
A tell.
After that motion…
It would leap and charge from the left.
I moved right on pure instinct.
Crunch.
“Hngh…”
A sharp pain raced up my arm.
My left sleeve bloomed red.
Didn’t quite clear the elbow?
But this…
It felt…
Way too good…?
…
Even running full tilt from the mansion, Bastille Prison was a full hour away.
I knew that.
I knew the young lady wouldn’t last until I reached the prison and brought help.
She had saved my mother, yes—but she was still the person who had tormented me for six whole months.
I felt sorry for her, but I had no obligation to die with her.
There shouldn’t have been any.
And yet…
Annie stopped mid-stride toward the prison and turned back, racing toward her master once more.
Going back now was pure suicide.
Wouldn’t it be better if at least one of us survived?
Survival instinct screamed at her without pause to run.
Her feet still refused to stop.
The master who had once terrified her more than anyone—her own age—had one day become a completely different person.
She remembered the way that girl had laughed and joked with her without any airs.
The way she had gone all the way to the slums herself to treat Annie’s mother, then played with her little siblings.
Yeon was already her benefactor and her friend.
Annie threw her own body in front of Yeon on pure instinct.
“I must be crazy… Why am I…”
That fearful mutter was the last thing she said.
Crunch.
The monster’s claws tore through her insides.
…
Yeon’s unique ability, Masochist, was broken far beyond imagination.
An ordinary person would have been completely incapacitated the moment their left arm was ripped off from the pain alone. I was different.
Instead of pain, a delicious rush of pleasure and overwhelming euphoria flooded me. I felt a vast power surging up from deep inside my body.
Enough that a mere Level 2 character could buy three full minutes against an upper-rank monster.
“Hah… hah…”
Was it because the wounds were so severe?
Enormous power overflowed through my entire body.
The problem was that I no longer had hands or feet left to use it with…
I somehow managed to protect vital spots like my heart and head while enduring the attacks, but the raw gap in ability was simply too great.
The agony of losing my limbs transformed into pleasure that raced through every corner of my body.
Better than suffering from the pain, at least.
Did Annie make it out safely?
The thought that I wouldn’t be able to dodge the next attack flashed through my mind.
Is this the end…
The monster’s massive claws filled my vision, growing larger and larger.
In that moment when everything seemed to freeze—
Something like a shadow slipped between the beast and my body in an instant.
Crunch.
“Annie?”
Her name left my lips just as the claws had already punched straight through her body.
Grunbark casually flung her aside. Annie’s blood-soaked form slammed into the ground.
Three seconds.
That was the time she had bought by sacrificing herself.
She really was an idiot.
“What difference does three more seconds make…”
You should have just saved yourself.
If I’d known it would end like this, maybe I never should have gotten close to you.
Through vision blurred by tears, I could dimly see the monster approaching again.
I quietly closed my eyes.
…
…
…
But the pain I was waiting for never came.
Had my head already been crushed, and Masochist simply erased the pain?
When I opened my eyes, the headless corpse of the Grunbark lay beyond my hazy vision.
In front of it stood a man with ash-gray hair, casually shaking blood from his hand.
And beside him…
Mason?
He was alive?
How…
“Thank goodness. The seal is intact, Your Grace.”
“I expected something like this, but this is excessive… Summoning an upper-rank monster after only two months…”
Your Grace?
The only person Mason would address that way—ash-gray hair, red eyes.
Isaac Bennet.
One of only five dukes in all of Tera, a Level 8 powerhouse.
And…
Yeon Bennet’s adoptive father.
“Hmm…”
He turned and swept his deep crimson gaze over me.
“Who are you?”
Those were the last words I heard before I lost consciousness.