The [Nursery Rhyme] Noxanna had used bestowed dreams upon all.
Most of them were nightmares.
They floundered within their dreams, unable to escape, forced to witness the painful memories of their past again and again.
She did not kill them.
Noxanna, Goddess of Death and Dreams, was merciful toward humans.
Even if they bared their teeth against her, instead of killing them, she chose to subdue.
Because dreams embrace everything.
Though it might be painful now, once all is over, happiness would return.
But Noxanna had overlooked one truth.
That there were those who did not crumble in any nightmare.
That some would choose cruel reality over a sweet dream.
She did not know.
The more one tries to avert their gaze from a painful dream, the deeper the suffering.
But Ludger, Clara, and Franz did not.
They did not avert their eyes from their wounds.
Every day, every moment, they had lived with their scars close to their hearts.
That tiny mistake created a variable.
The unconscious began to wake one by one.
Had the current state lasted even a little longer, the fainted would have all had their minds shattered and lost their will to fight.
But thanks to Ludger, Clara, and Franz’s swift response, people regained their senses in time.
What filled their eyes was not confusion, nor fear, nor bewilderment.
It was fierce anger.
Compared to gods, humans are insignificant.
But no matter how insignificant, no one would accept their memories being toyed with.
Like the saying goes, even a worm will writhe when stepped on. Noxanna’s so-called mercy, ironically, became the spark of human wrath.
“This feels unpleasant.”
Grrr—
Phantos growled from behind his mask.
Though he was more arrogant than anyone, there were memories even he did not want to recall.
The first time he had failed a hunt, when he had tasted bitter defeat.
Though it had not been the prey he originally sought, for Phantos—who had never once lost against a strong opponent—the shock had been immense.
A man bathed in immense mana and mysterious power, eyes blazing with ominous red light, who had subdued him so easily.
Ludger Cherish.
He had followed that man’s words not out of submission.
It was only because he had received the promise that they would fight again someday—a bargain he could accept.
But at some point, working with him had stopped being unpleasant.
Perhaps this was where he belonged.
Even when facing Ludger’s strange companions, he had thought the same.
He had believed himself a freak no one could understand, but the ones gathered here were also freaks with stories of their own.
Yes.
‘I liked these freaks.’
But the nightmare whispered otherwise.
Are you satisfied to leave it at that?
Don’t you want revenge?
Don’t you?
Yes, back then he had thought he did.
‘But not now.’
What enraged Phantos now was not old memories—it was the petty intention that dared to shake his heart with such cheap whispers.
Clatter.
Black chains appeared in his hands.
A massive harpoon on one end, an enormous anchor on the other.
His true weapon, shaped from his mind, had manifested.
“Rise.”
Phantos spoke quietly to the Owens still staggering.
“Rise. And rage. Fight against this injustice.”
“You needn’t say it. That was already my intent.”
Violetta bit her lip against bitter memories.
Though the scar on her face was gone, the memory of the day it was carved remained a trauma.
—How dare a lowborn woman act so arrogant? Do you think your pretty face is all you need?
The words of that fire-wielding brute as he sneered at her.
—Let’s see if you can keep that pride once that face is ruined.
The flames flickering before her eyes.
The searing pain across one side of her face.
Violetta touched the spot on her mask where the scar once lay.
“Are you all right?”
Arfa approached her and asked.
She was about to say she was fine, but then froze at the expression on his face.
“Arfa, you...”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Your face right now...”
The boy who always smiled brightly now wore an expression twisted with sorrow.
Arfa touched his own face and belatedly realized his state.
“You’re right. This is what it means to truly be angry.”
“Are you the one who’s all right?”
“Mm. To be honest, not really. A strange memory surfaced.”
“A strange memory?”
“Yes. The memory of a little boy who failed to protect his only younger sister. A pitiful child, trampled by power, unable to do anything.”
Arfa stared down at his palm.
It looked human, but was made of countless parts of cold steel.
Even here, in the world of dreams, it was the same.
In reality, he could never be human.
He clenched and opened his hand, his gaze turning toward Ludger.
Teacher.
Arfa called to him silently with his eyes.
The moment he had first opened his eyes.
The teacher’s face, softly sorrowful as he spoke to him.
Back then, he had not understood why Ludger wore such an expression.
Even now, he did not know the true feelings behind the naming.
Only that it must have been unbearably sad.
That he must have swallowed it desperately.
‘These are my memories.’
The dream Noxanna had given revealed every memory buried deep in the soul.
Thanks to that, Arfa had remembered everything.
Who he was. What he was searching for.
‘That’s right. I had a sister.’
He had to meet her. He had to apologize.
Though his body had become cold steel instead of flesh,
the soul within him was still that of a boy, a human being.
So he could not remain idle here.
He felt an ironic sliver of gratitude toward Noxanna for revealing this truth—yet he had to fight.
Bellaruna and Seridan were the same.
They too had suffered unspoken pains, driven from their kin into the human world.
But Seridan did not complain.
Instead, her gaze turned toward a small rise, buried under dream-sand.
She walked toward it and spoke to the thing beneath.
“Hey. Are you just going to stay there?”
Buried in the sand was a huge beast, curled up like a coward.
Suppressing the wild urge to burst free, a silent cry of a young man trying to resist was clearer to Seridan’s ears than anyone’s.
“We’re going to fight. Everyone here must be thinking the same.”
“......”
“What about you? Are you going to keep running? Keep hiding like a coward? That’s not it, is it?”
“......”
“That’s not what you want.”
Seridan reached out her hand.
“Come with us. Everyone’s waiting.”
“......”
No answer.
But the response soon came.
Thump.
The sand hill suddenly swelled like a balloon, then deflated like one losing air.
From within the shrinking mound, a trembling human hand reached out weakly.
Seeing it, Seridan bared her teeth in a smile.
“Did you know? You were the last.”
Seridan grasped Hans’s hand and pulled with strength.
The one who emerged from the mound of sand was not a beast but Hans in his human form.
His expression was complicated—tinged with sadness, yet somehow relieved. Seridan laughed aloud at the sight.
“Ahaha! Why are you making that face? Let’s go!”
“...All right.”
The members of Owens had all gathered together again.
Ludger welcomed Hans with his eyes. That wordless gesture alone filled Hans with gratitude.
The Dreamwalkers had also all regained their senses, and Seorn’s instructors were one by one rising to their feet.
“So then, how do we destroy that?”
Elisa Willow squinted at [Nursery Rhyme].
The bell, which had rung once at its summoning, was silent for now.
But everyone there could feel it.
If that bell rang again...
That would truly be the end.
“Intercepting it from afar is meaningless. Noxanna will do everything in her power to defend [Nursery Rhyme].”
At Franz’s words, those present all nodded.
“It’s dangerous, but we’ll have to get close and destroy it directly. With this.”
Franz revealed the dagger in his hand.
A weapon that had slain even Nirva, Apostle of Dreams.
To those who had witnessed its power, the possibility was real.
“Then the priority is getting close to it.”
Noxanna was at least several kilometers away.
She seemed close only because her immense size distorted perspective. Reaching her on foot was impossible.
And not everyone could fly through the air like the Dreamwalkers.
Naturally, some would fall behind—and that would only mean being struck down one by one.
Like cavalry of the Middle Ages, they would need to move as one, in a single charge.
“Isn’t there any way?”
As everyone wrestled with the problem, Seridan spoke up with an “Ah!”
“What if we build an airship to move?”
All eyes turned to her—some wondering who she was, others questioning if it was possible.
“If everyone’s going to move together, we’ll need something big to carry us, right?”
“And how do you plan to build that?”
Franz asked, but Seridan countered with another question.
“Why not? This is Dreamland.”
“Not every airship is fast. And they’re vulnerable to attack. To build one you’d need to understand every part of its structure. Who here could possibly...”
“I could.”
Everyone’s gaze shifted.
The one who spoke was Merilda.
She pointed timidly at Brino, who shrank under the attention.
“If we consider what Professor Brino has already shown us, it’s more than possible.”
“W-wait a moment, Professor Merilda! Steam golems and airships are completely different things!”
“But you’ve memorized all the schematics, haven’t you?”
“That’s...”
Brino could not deny it.
Airships, too, had advanced greatly through magitech, and he had studied them thoroughly—nearly to the point of rote memorization.
“But their stability, their systems... there are too many flaws.”
“Then we’ll modify them!”
Seridan grinned brightly, and Brino’s eyes widened.
He recognized her.
That girl—the one who had once looked at his steam golem with sparkling eyes at the Magic Festival.
Though that golem had been lost in an unfortunate accident, he still remembered the child who had seen its value.
“You’re...”
“Creating what doesn’t exist. Isn’t that what someone like you loves most? Isn’t it? That’s what I think.”
Seridan’s words struck the deepest desire inside him.
“This is the chance. If not now, then when? We’re close to death anyway—why worry? Just do what you want.”
Brino was left speechless.
That this girl had seen straight through the wish he’d never voiced for lack of realism...
‘So she’s the same as me.’
Seridan might have looked like a simple, innocent girl, but he saw past the surface.
She was an inventor with explosive potential and ambition—and the talent to match.
“I think so too. Professor Brino, you’ve already done it once, haven’t you?”
That massive steam golem he’d manifested in the battle with Déjà Vu of Premonition Dreams.
Incomplete, yes—but without doubt something that had never existed in reality.
“Even so... to create something like that with imagination alone...”
“I’ll help you. Wouldn’t it be better with two?”
Her earnest gaze made Brino waver.
And then Merilda drove the final nail.
“Oh, come on! You’re really going to hesitate now? Be a man and do something big for once!”
Brino’s eyes opened wide.
That Merilda would say such a thing to him was shocking—but even more so was the realization that those around him truly believed in him.
Teachers greater than him, mages of higher circle, even Dreamwalker masters—
All of them desperately needed him.
He had never thought he’d receive such recognition in his lifetime.
Brino clenched his fist.
“Understood. I’ll do it.”
“Yes!”
Seridan punched the air in triumph.
But then a warning rang out.
“Noxanna is preparing something!”
The sky of the depths darkened with massive storm [N O V E L I G H T] clouds.
Like a stampede of beasts, the clouds gathered around Noxanna and began to whirl.
Above her head, a colossal hole appeared, and beyond it, faint scenery shimmered like reflections on water.
“That’s Rederbelk, isn’t it?”
“No way... is she trying to cross into the real world? Directly from Dreamland’s depths?”
It was something only the Goddess of Dreams could do.
If Noxanna entered reality, the outcome was obvious.
“Everyone steel yourselves.”
At Clara’s words, the Dreamwalkers nodded grimly.
Just before the work on the airship was to begin—
Ludger called out to Seridan.
“What is it, milady? We’re extremely busy right now.”
“Seridan. Do you remember what you once said? That your dream was to cause the greatest explosion the world has ever seen.”
“That’s right. But why bring that up now, all of a sudden?”
“Because I’ll give you the spark for that explosion.”
In reality, it would have taken countless resources.
But here it was different.
This was a place where imagination became reality.
A place to spread the wings of freedom and creation.
“Have you heard of nuclear fission?”
This was Dreamland.
