Dragged Into Another World Because of My Otaku Friend

Chapter 188: Another Dream

Huff... huff... huff...

I gasped for air, my lungs tight and burning.

I had been running nonstop for what felt like an hour. An endless maze of twists and turns, corners without end.

Ahhh, here we go again.

Then I heard it.

A voice.

Getting closer. Closer.

I kept running, left, right, anywhere my feet moving without direction or sense. Panic drove me forward.

Until...

A dead end.

How many times have I dreamed this dream?

I slammed my fist against the wall. Nothing. Not a single crack.

"YOU CANNOT RUN."

The voice thundered, not through the air, but inside my mind, like a scream from within.

I turned around.

And saw it.

A towering humanoid figure loomed before me. Its body was lined with jagged, razor-sharp edges. Dark wings unfurled from its back, flapping slowly and sending a heavy gust through the narrow space. A grim, suffocating aura radiated from it, and in the darkness, its glowing red eyes pierced through me like blades.

Yeah, yeah. It will cast a spell, then a figure will save me, and I’ll wake up from my dream. Sorry to spoil things.

It raised its right hand.

And then...

Hundreds. No, thousands of floating structures formed in the sky above us. They shimmered with strange symbols, each one bearing a different shape, color, and pattern.

Then the voice came again.

"VANISH."

All at once, the structures fired.

Rays of light, deadly and precise, rained down on me.

Okay, bye-bye.

As I expected the spell to launch against me, suddenly things did not go as I thought.

BOOM!

A massive pillar of light. No, dozens of them, each shining in different colors, struck the humanoid figure and obliterated it into nothingness. The ground shook from the impacts.

I closed my eyes against the blinding light. When it finally subsided, I slowly looked ahead.

And I saw them.

From each pillar of light, silhouette figures floated in the air. Each had a different form, some tall, some short, and some enormous. Every silhouette possessed glowing red eyes, all staring directly at me.

As I counted them, there were about twenty-five at least.

And at the center stood a particularly menacing figure, its sharp gaze piercing straight into mine.

What is this!? I’ve never dreamed this before.

A rush of fear ran through me. I didn’t know why, but I could feel it. All those figures were sending me a message. They had descended from the sky and destroyed the calamity itself.

And now, they were taking the place of the harbingers of destruction.

The last words I heard before I woke up were...

"We will meet you again, Alan."

---

I slowly opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the ceiling above me. I turned my head and noticed I was now in a room, with a window on my left side. Suddenly, I heard a snoring sound.

"Krooh! Krooh!"

It came from Bob, who had fallen asleep on a chair with his body leaning against the wall, saliva drooling from his mouth. The chair he was sitting on miraculously had only one leg touching the ground while the other three floated in the air.

I tried to move when suddenly I felt something heavy on my lower limb. I looked down and saw a figure resting its head on my leg. It had purple hair. I knew who it was. There was no one else in this city with that hair color.

"Maya?"

Maya instantly woke up from her sleep. She looked half-asleep as she turned toward me.

"Alan! Are you alright?" She stood up and moved closer to me, her face full of worry.

At the same time...

BOOM!

"Ouch! My back!" Bob fell to the ground as the chair lost its balance. He woke up and immediately forgot about his pain as he rushed forward and hugged me.

"ALAN!! My brother! I was really worried about you! I thought you were gone already. Please don’t do that again, okay?" He cried like a child, tears running down onto my infirmary clothes.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay! Can you get off me already?" I pushed him away.

"Do you feel any pain, Alan?" Maya asked.

I checked my body. I swung my arms and moved my legs. I touched my torso, abdomen, and head.

"No. I don’t think so. I think I’m alright."

"Thank God." Maya said, a rare smile appearing on her face.

"How long have I been here?"

"Three days, dude! I’ve been sleeping on that chair for three days because of you." Bob wiped his tears."But at least you’re okay. At least my sacrifice was worth it for your safety."

"I don’t think it’s related at all." Maya glanced at Bob.

"Three days, huh?" I still couldn’t believe I had slept that long. But my mind kept drifting back to the dream I had just now. The twenty-five figures... what were they actually? And what did they mean by saying they would meet me again?

"What are you thinking about, Alan?" Bob asked.

"Ahh, nothing. I just... feel hungry. Is there anything I can eat?"

Bob and Maya then brought me some food. Bob even threw away the food that the infirmary had prepared, saying it didn’t taste good. This guy... he had been eating a patient’s food ever since I was admitted here.

Later, Evelyn, William, and Linus also came to visit me. They all felt relieved that I was fine. Then I asked them what had actually happened, and about the aftermath of the battle.

"So, that Azul guy is still alive?" I grasped the blanket tightly as my fist clenched.

"That wicked guy shouldn’t be left alive. He’s full of trickery. Who knows what will happen if he’s left alone." Rage burned in my chest as I remembered my friends getting hurt, especially Princess Reika.

Evelyn and Maya were surprised by my sudden anger. This was the first time they had seen me like this. Even back in the forest against the Phoenix, I had not been this furious.

"Calm down, Alan. He is now being held in the underground prison. Since it was built, there has never been a prisoner who managed to escape from it," William said as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

I calmed myself and took a deep breath.

Suddenly, a knock came from the door, and a guard entered the room.

"Apologies, Princess Reika is coming to visit."