Nirva, who had been staring at the sleeping Rine, lifted his head and looked up at the sky.
He had subdued Ludger Cherish, the greatest threat, but there was no joy in it.
He had merely crossed a single great mountain.
Plenty of smaller tasks still remained to be settled.
In Nirva’s eyes appeared the figures of those who had entered the Sacred Library.
“They’ve come this far already? Quite fast.”
It meant his fight with Ludger had dragged on, but more than that, the speed of the humans was surprising.
“That woman, the Headmaster of Seorn, joined forces with the Dreamwalkers.”
Nirva had sent five of his vassals to eliminate the dangerous elements.
All five had been defeated, three of them by those very humans.
An impressive power indeed.
Their threat could not be ignored.
“Hmm. And that old woman looks familiar somehow.”
Nirva stroked his chin as he fixed his gaze on Clara Cowen.
The vast dream energy emanating from her showed she was far from an ordinary mage.
Golden dust flew about and circled Nirva’s head.
Through Dreamland, he read her consciousness and the minds of those around her, gathering information.
When Nirva opened his eyes again, Clara Cowen’s details were etched clearly in his mind.
“The Dream Master of the Dream School? So she’s the leader of the humans barging into the Goddess’s world. Now that I think of it, someone similar came here decades ago.”
Nirva rubbed his chin, dismissing the thought.
Dream Master or not, she was an enemy to be wary of.
She might be an old crone, but that was reason enough not to underestimate her.
The years and weight of experience she carried would surely manifest in Dreamland as power beyond imagination.
For a moment Nirva considered eliminating them all here, then discarded the idea.
‘I’ve spent too much strength.’
The reason was obvious.
His gaze shifted to the slumbering Ludger.
Though he had fought as though wielding absolute authority, even Nirva had found the battle with Ludger overwhelming.
He could show overwhelming force in Dreamland, but it was not omnipotence.
The stronger the power, the faster exhaustion crept in.
A large portion of his authority had already been wasted covering the entire city of Rederbelk with dream-sand.
‘As I am now, I cannot toy with the guests above.’
Nirva too needed time to recover his strength.
‘To think just one human would push me this far.’
He should have been searching for the other small fry who had fallen here with Ludger, but he had no leeway.
Ludger alone had bought the lives of many.
Now Nirva understood why Zero Order boasted so much of him.
“But it won’t take long.”
He did not need to restore his power fully.
He only needed enough to crush the humans when the time came.
And that recovery would not take long.
Time was on Nirva’s side.
Even now, dream-energy from those fallen into Dreamland was arriving in the depths.
Translucent green soul-lights streamed across the sky, drawn toward the distant Obelisk.
Like a meteor shower being pulled in by some unseen force.
The more of that energy he absorbed, the more steadily the slumbering Goddess would rise into consciousness.
And when her eyes opened fully, this world would cease to be dream—it would become reality.
For that, he too would need to rise to his utmost.
“I have grown old indeed.”
With a quiet sigh, Nirva closed his eyes and sank into meditation.
To prepare for the guests soon to arrive.
* * *
“Oh no. I think we just saw the very last thing we should’ve seen.”
Hidden away, Zantman wiped cold sweat as he watched Nirva meditate.
With him were Sedina, Seridan, and Hans.
“Wh-what happened? We’re too far to see anything.”
They were concealed at a distance far removed from Nirva.
Distance alone wasn’t enough; Zantman had cloaked them with magic as well.
The reason was obvious: the fight between Ludger and Nirva.
“H-how’s the teacher? The fierce battle just... suddenly stopped.”
Sedina’s voice trembled.
Even kilometers away, they had felt the clash of great forces clearly.
The giant sword that fell splitting the storm clouds.
The waves of sand that rose to touch the sky.
The clash of powers that made their very skin shudder.
Now that it was over, the eerie silence was almost unbearable.
Instinct whispered: something terrible had happened.
Zantman wrestled with how to answer Sedina, then spoke plainly.
“Ludger lost.”
The impact of those words was enormous.
Hans, Sedina, and Seridan’s eyes went wide.
Ludger lost?
They could not even picture such a sight in their minds.
“Th-then, does that mean... teacher is dead?”
“No. Not that.”
Zantman’s gaze went to the distant figure of Ludger lying unconscious.
“He’s still alive. For some reason, Nirva cannot kill him outright. So instead, he’s been cast into slumber, suppressed.”
A small blessing amid misfortune.
As long as Ludger lived, hope remained.
“So, he was subdued, not slain.”
Hans stroked his chin.
The fact that Ludger had fallen was shocking and confusing, but they could not afford to panic.
“What’s the state of that demon now?”
“Eyes closed, lost in meditation. It seems the battle with Ludger drained him greatly.”
“In that case...”
“Don’t even think it. This is no opportunity. Ludger exhausted him, yes, but if we approached now, we’d be destroyed instantly.”
Zantman had watched enough of the fight to gauge Nirva’s power.
Even he could not face Nirva head-on.
Alone perhaps, but with three people to protect with the Siesta artifact? Impossible.
If he charged in recklessly, it would only add more corpses.
“So we’re just to sit and watch?”
“There’s nothing we can do right now. But once reinforcements arrive, it will be different.”
Zantman laid out the situation.
Even with Ludger’s efforts weakening Nirva, he still could not stand against him.
It wasn’t fear—it was reality. Nirva had shown enough that even a fragment of his power would obliterate Zantman utterly.
What they needed was reinforcements.
Old woman Clara would surely sense the gravity of the situation and hurry here.
They needed to join her and fight Nirva together.
“Damn it, this is trouble.”
By reason, that was the best plan. Yet instinct scratched at him.
Zantman imagined the worst.
What if Clara Cowen and the reinforcements lost to Nirva?
At first, he could not imagine such a future, but after what he had just witnessed, his mind changed.
To defeat Nirva, Ludger Cherish was the key.
‘Come to think of it, the old hag asked me again and again to watch out for him.’
Ludger had already seemed unusual before, but seeing him against Nirva confirmed it.
Ludger Cherish was the only one who could defeat the demon Nirva.
‘And now he’s been subdued.’
If it were by raw strength, Zantman would despair.
But that was not it.
Nirva had cunningly taken a Seorn student hostage to drag Ludger into a dream.
‘Even that demon has reason not to kill him outright. So he bought time by trapping him in dreams through an hostage.’
In a fair duel, Ludger would not have fallen.
The problem was his safety now.
“Thankfully, it looks like the demon cannot harm him directly. But that doesn’t mean he’ll ever wake on his own. The dream he’s fallen into is no ordinary one. We must assume he cannot wake unaided.”
The others sensed where Zantman’s words were heading.
“We have to plan for the worst. Which means, in my view, we must get the hostage—our teacher—out of there.”
“And once we have him, then what? Shake him awake?”
“You think a shake will do? If we’re doing it, we’ll do it properly.”
Zantman reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a small flask.
“That is...”
“In Dreamland, how do you think people die?”
No one answered.
After all, the concept of “death” in Dreamland was unfamiliar.
So Zantman explained kindly.
“There’s something called Submerged Sleep. When one falls asleep again inside Dreamland, merging with this world. It’s treated as death.”
“Asleep inside a dream?”
“When all of one’s dream-energy is consumed, that’s what happens. One falls into dreams within dreams, never waking again. You understand that’s no different from death.”
Zantman shook the flask.
Inside, a bluish liquid swayed.
“This is medicine to wake someone from that state.”
“Such a thing exists?”
“Yes. But it’s not simple. Only Dreamwalkers capable of diving into the lower depths are given such a lifeline.”
A rare item for only the gravest emergencies.
The ingredients alone took immense time, so only a handful of Dreamwalkers ever had one.
“But if you use it, grandfather, then—”
Sedina’s worried voice faltered as Zantman grinned.
“If I don’t use it here, we’re all dead anyway. So why hoard it? And don’t get too hopeful. Even with this, there’s no guarantee he’ll wake. At best, it improves our odds a little.”
“But it’s worth trying, isn’t it?”
Seridan asked.
Zantman nodded.
He could have scolded her for her rude tone, but he didn’t.
“Still, we can’t rush in now. That demon is meditating, but if I even approach, he’ll sense it instantly.”
That was why they had stayed distant and cloaked.
If Nirva wished, he could expose them even # Nоvеlight # now.
That he didn’t was only because he had no intent or energy to spare.
But if they moved closer, he would stop meditating and hunt them down without hesitation.
“So we just wait? And if he fully recovers in the meantime?”
“Exactly. That’s the problem.”
This was the choice Zantman faced.
The surest chance at victory needed Ludger.
To do that, they had to retrieve him—but Nirva’s presence made that impossible.
The safest path was waiting for reinforcements.
But they did not know when they would come.
If Nirva finished recovering by then?
Even Clara and the Dreamwalkers would not withstand him.
‘At best, we can buy time. Victory is not something we can calculate.’
To improve their chances, they had to hinder Nirva’s recovery.
And the only one who could move was Zantman himself.
“...Tch. In the end, it comes to this.”
Zantman muttered, removing one of the Siesta gloves from his left hand and passing it to Sedina.
She instinctively received it, staring up at him in confusion.
“Grandfather? Why give this to me...”
“You’ll need it if you’re going to move apart from me.”
“Why are you saying this now...?”
Perhaps she sensed something in his tone.
Sedina’s eyes trembled with unease.
Seridan narrowed her gaze.
“Grandfather. Don’t tell me... you’re planning to fight that demon alone?”
Hans and Sedina turned wide eyes toward Zantman at her words.
Zantman only chuckled, stroking his beard without answering.