'Young Mistress has disappeared.'

Those were the words I heard from the maid who was supposed to be tending the unconscious Cecilia.

It was sudden.

The maid came out of the room, informed me and brought me inside the room.

An empty bed entered my view.

And that how it was, the little sister I got today has gone missing.

...

......

"How did this happen?"

My father asked, seemingly still having trouble taking in what was in front of him.

In his embrace was my mother, weeping in sorrow.

The two came to Cecilia's room immediately after they were informed of her disappearance.

News of her disappearance quickly spread and caused an uproar throughout the mansion.

The servants have been worked up and were running all over the place.

Of course this would cause such an uproar.

On the same day the child was newly adopted into the Blackthorn family, she has gone missing

It was even more surprising for her to go missing inside the mansion which was the safest place in the whole territory.

There were a strong barrier around the mansion, organized patrol routines around the perimeter and even a maid was watching over the girl.

However, even under such conditions, Cecilia has gone missing.

It was unthinkable for something like this to happen but the truth speaks for itself.

Actions were immediately taken.

Search parties were sent out, in search of anywhere they suspect a child would go or any suspicious group would likely appear.

Even though there was no sign of anyone entering or leaving the barrier, the search was still conducted with the thought of the possible scenario where Cecilia was abducted by unforeseen methods.

Sebastian personally led the search, there was no one more capable than him in this regards.

I trust Sebastian will find Cecilia in no time...

...as long as Cecilia was still in this world.

"I blinked for a second and Young Mistress disappeared." The maid explained what she saw.

She tried putting what she saw into words, even using gestures to add more to her explanation.

However, the experience was too absurd even for her to believe whatever she witnessed.

That's right, Cecilia just disappeared.

Looking at the bed she slept on, there was no sign of her leaving the bed on her own nor someone took her out of it.

The windows were all closed even now, the only entrance to this room was through the door connected to the corridor.

And yes, I sat next to the said door right outside the room.

While I was there, no one entered nor left the room before her disappearance.

In other words, Cecilia disappeared on the spot, right on the bed she slept.

But...

...How did she disappear?

No way this was of natural occurrence.

There may be magic that could make people disappear but I can rule out the use of such magic in this case.

After-all, the use of magic would require mana and that will leave some sort of traces in the air.

Some people are sensitive to magic disturbance in the air and they will definitely pick it up if magic was used.

I looked at my mother.

"Why did this happen to that poor child?"

My mother was bawling her eyes out.

"I heard she was treated poorly by her parents... so I thought... I thought I could give her my love and warmth... but, but... how could this have happened to her..."

Her words was muffled by her crying voice and they became incomprehensible when she buried her face into my father's chest.

Seeing her in this state, I knew she didn't sense any magic disturbance within the mansion.

Yes, that was the range of her detection.

Also, she was the one who set up the barrier around the mansion so that has become another sense for her.

My mother was the best magic user in this mansion, also one of the top in the kingdom, if she didn't react to any abnormality then it's safe to assume there wasn't any form of magic involved in this case.

Of course, I should take into account that this could have been those rare times when her senses were dull.

However, my mother wasn't the only person in the mansion who has sharp senses.

Even if they were not on the level of my mother but a spell that could make someone disappear wouldn't go unnoticed.

Hm......

A thought slowly surfaced as I peered at all the possibilities.

The only possible answer to this mystery could only be 'that'.

While I did not want to admit it but I can only accept this conclusion.

I looked towards my father.

"..."

He looked back at me, he wore a difficult face.

Ah, so he came to the same conclusion as well.

"Let's take this outside, shall we?" I asked.

*****

At the corridor right outside of Cecilia's room, that's where me and my father decided to talk things over.

Our conversation shouldn't be heard by my mother in her current state.

My mother may be a strong woman on the outside but she's actually delicate in the inside.

So, the thing we wanted to talk about wouldn't be good for her heart.

At least for now.

We left her inside the room with the maid tending her.

Even though we were just outside, I doubt my mother would spare any thought to try listen in on us.

In other words, talking about this just outside the room wouldn't be a problem.

I sat on the chair I have left outside the room.

Facing his back towards me as he looked at the portrait hung on the wall, my father put his hands behind his back and let out a sigh.

"I believe both of us have came to the same conclusion in concern to Cecilia's disappearance." My father said as he turned around. "It's a Nightmare Realm isn't it?"

His expression was bitter.

"Yes." I nodded. "I find it hard to believe if this was caused by any other reason."

"I see..." My father closed his eyes.

He took a deep breath, seemingly having a hard time taking in the confirmation.

Of course it would be hard to believe in this, after-all, we were dealing with a dangerous threat.

A Nightmare Realm, in short, was a dungeon.

A unique dungeon that operated on its own law that our common sense could not perceive.

Something that doesn't seemed to belong to our world.

It can suddenly appear at any place in the world provided the conditions for its creation were met.

Once created, it will manifest constructs in accordance to the behaviour of the dungeon.

The constructs emit high concentration of unfamiliar mana that was not compatible with the mana in the natural environment and would disrupt the natural flow of mana in the surrounding, in turn destroying the environment in the process.

Living organisms, be it animals or plants, exposed to the high concentration of unfamiliar mana would either die on the spot or mutate into indescribable organisms.

They would lose their rationality and go into frenzy, this would pose a threat to the surrounding villages.

A Nightmare Realm, however, can be destroyed to prevent further corruption in the environment and even restore the mana flow of the area.

In time, the environment would slowly repair itself.

There were many ways to destroy a Nightmare Realm.

One of the ways to destroy a Nightmare Realm was to clear it like a dungeon, such as beating a boss-like existence deep within.

Once cleared, they would disappear just like they didn't exist in the first place.

However, destroying a Nightmare Realm wouldn't be easy.

A Nightmare Realm behaves differently from a usual dungeon, they even behave uniquely to one another.

Which was why there were no standard strategies when entering and conquering them.

In fact, people describe entering a Nightmare Realm was just like entering a different world.

They behave differently, they follow a different law of nature compared to our own world and would even destroy our common sense.

Well, from experience, I would just say it was indeed another realm compared to ours.

Adding to what others have said about Nightmare Realms, there were even Creatures not seen in this world lurking inside.

The Creatures may take any form ranging from ones that looked like beasts to things that looked inanimate, but they all behave similarly.

They lack rational thinking.

And they will attack living creatures carrying mana from our world and eat them after killing them.

As long as those living creatures were within the Creatures' reach, they won't stop unless they kill them.

In short, the Creatures live by one rule: consume mana.

I suppose this was how they feed.

Though, I wouldn't consider the Creatures as living organisms.

After-all, they don't leave any corpse when killed.

Now, the Blackthorn family has to deal with the Nightmare Realm.

It wasn't the first time the Blackthorn's had to deal with a Nightmare Realm but it was a first to deal with it in our own territory.

In fact, it was our mansion that was facing this threat.

There was a possibility for a Nightmare Realm take form in this area and dangerous Creatures may come out of it.

The thought of the mansion infested with Creatures has made me feel unpleasant.

"Was it the Blackrose behind this?" My father asked.

Blackrose, the branch family where Cecilia was adopted from.

My father must have suspected that it was the Blackrose's ploy to bring ruin to the Blackthorn family with the use of a Nightmare Realm.

If the Blackthorns was to be wiped off from face of the map of the kingdom then they would moved up in the family tree and become the main family.

Suppose, them being desperate to have their own daughter adopted had seemed suspicious to my father.

On the day the said daughter was adopted, she has gone missing and the family that adopted her faced the threat of a Nightmare Realm.

No way would anyone think this was pure coincidence with such timing.

Also, one of the signs for a Nightmare Realm creation was it would always involve a missing girl.

Of course, not all cases of missing girls were related to Nightmare Realms, however, after years of investigations, it had been confirmed that there will always be a story of a missing girl for each Nightmare Realm appearances.

I don't know what sort of investigations they did to come up with this conclusion but so far there hasn't been any theory to prove this one wrong.

Even with that said...

"I doubt it was the Blackrose." I responded.

"Oh?" My father was surprised. "What made you think that?"

"It's not news to us how superstitious the Blackrose are. It wouldn't be strange for them to be eager to send away Cecilia, considering her appearance." I folded my arms. "Plus, ignoring how irrational they may be, you were the one who offered to adopt her."

The Blackrose family may have invited my father to their territory, having their daughter adopted was definitely not their main objective.

They may be irrational due to superstition but their management for their territory was the real deal, else they would've perished long ago.

It was a special case for them to be asking my father for help but at least their intention to improve their territory was genuine.

Also, both families may be connected by blood but we were not close.

Visits between the families do still happen, rarely.

Both families had almost no private social activities for one another and there would be no way for them to learn of my father's soft-heartened side.

Thus, Cecilia being adopted was something that just happened.

"I see."

My father nodded.

"If I think about it, there were many times they were trying to direct my attention away from the shed instead, the shed where Cecilia resided. I believe they didn't want any outsider to see her, especially me who was the head of the main family. It was by chance that I saw her walking aimlessly."

My father looked at me, seemingly relieved.

"It's a relief to know we weren't betrayed by them."

"If I may add, the timing for Cecilia's disappearance was too perfect." I said. "Cecilia disappearing on the same day she was sent to the Blackthorn and the Blackthorn family was destroyed by the appearance of a Nightmare Realm... it was as if the Blackroses weren't afraid to tell the whole world that they were behind this."

"Are you suggesting there was someone else behind this? Even going as far as to frame them?"

"It's highly probable that someone was behind this but I don't know if framing Blackrose was even part of their plan."

"I see... I wonder who it could be...?"

Right now, there should be a list of names running through my father's mind.

Be it nobles he offended over political reasons or enemies from other nations, he must have thought of possible candidates who could be responsible for creating a Nightmare Realm in the Blackthorn territory... more-like right at the home of the Blackthorn family.

Not that I'd know any of them as I'm not heavily involved in political matters.

Also, isn't knowing the method to create a Nightmare Realm something impressive?

So far other than a Nightmare Realm requiring large quantity of mana to be created there has been no other information in that regard.

A person with the knowledge to create a Nightmare Realm would be some kind of genius... and dangerous at the same time.

Well, whoever was behind it doesn't concern me now.

Thinking about that has made me realize something more important.

I need to come clean with my father.

"There's something I need to let you know."

I said to him, snapping him out of his deep thought.

"What is it?" He asked.

"In order to create a Nightmare Realm, how much mana would that require?"

It was a rhetorical question so I didn't wait for him to respond.

"If a little girl her age carry that amount of mana, do you think she would still be fine?"

"Well, she looked pretty miserable the first time I saw her."

"...Ah."

I was speechless.

He's got a point, Cecilia really did look miserable to me when I first saw her.

But I think that was due to a different reason.

"*ahem*"

I coughed to cover up this awkward feeling.

"Anyway..." I continued. "If Cecilia does carry an abnormal amount of magical energy within her, I believe someone would've noticed it when she came to the mansion."

"I see, Bertha and Sebastian would've noticed it if that was the case... ...W-WAIT!"

My father was astonished when he came to the sudden realization.

"Don't tell me what you are trying to say is...!" He exclaimed. "A Nightmare Realm has always been here? Right here under our feet?"

Seeing his reaction, I nodded in satisfaction.

"Correct. I believe it has always been like that."

"We have been living with a Nightmare Realm all this time?! That's impossible!" My father exclaimed. "How has no one noticed it?"

"It's precisely because we've been living with it all this time, that's why no one noticed it."

"What do you mean?"

It was not strange for my father's question, it was an absurd thought to begin with.

Also, he lacked the talent in magical abilities and, from what he has said before, he could not feel mana flowing in the air.

However, as the lord of the territory, he knew Blackthorn territory was rich in mana.

The mana was the right amount for environment to flourish and suitable for people to live in.

This was why my father's management skills were important for the development of the territory, the natural advantage the previous heads of Blackthorn family failed to see and utilize.

The flow of mana in the air could easily be sensed by people with magical talents, and the more sensitive ones could even feel the abnormality.

Such people within the mansion were my mother and Sebastian.

Being the top of magical talents, they would have immediately catch on if there was anything strange with mana flow within the manor.

"Well, that is only if the reference they used was normal to begin with." I said.

"The reference they used? You don't mean the mana in our territory?" My father questioned. "Are you saying the mana here has been abnormal right from the start?"

"Exactly that! If mom and the others were told the mana here was normal and then gotten used to it, they would also think this abnormality was actually normal."

"Unbelievable..."

My father held his hand over his face, he seemed like he was about to faint.

He was shaking his head, then suddenly, he realized something.

"Wait!" He took his palm off his face. "What if the mana from this Nightmare Realm was concealed by some unknown means? This could also explain the reason why Bertha and Sebastian could not detect the existence of Nightmare Realm."

"Hm, it's possible. Having to deal with a Nightmare Realm in our own home is ridiculous already, I wouldn't doubt there'd be a mysterious magic that could conceal its existence. It's a big world after-all." I said as I shrugged my shoulder. "Regardless what the truth is, it doesn't change the fact that the Nightmare Realm was under our nose all this time."

"Since when did this happen?"

"Hm..."

That was a question I don't know how to answer.

'Possibly a very long time' was the best answer I could come up with, not that it would have answered anything.

In fact, coming up with an answer to this mystery was not the point I was trying to make in this discussion.

The main point of this discussion was to let my father cast away any suspicion he has on Cecilia.

Well, in the case her involvement in the cause of Nightmare Realm were true, it's hard to say this incident and her disappearance was all a coincidence.

By the timing, I would even say she was the catalyst that sparked the activation of the Nightmare Realm that has been sleeping under us.

But saying a child as small as her to take part in a plan to ruin the Blackthorn family was too much of a stretch.

At least that's what I believed in.

It was a decision I made based on the information from reading her Status Window previously... if that Status Window does have any creditability at all.

"Could it be...?"

My father turned to the portrait.

It was the portrait of all our family heads drawn into one picture, they look as if they were taking a family photo.

A new portrait gets drawn every time a new family head gets appointed and it gets hung on the wall in the main hall.

Old portraits were not thrown away but instead hung on walls at different places around the mansion.

To be honest, they looked rather annoying.

Seeing family portraits after portraits at every corner of the corridor has gotten me sick.

I was about to ask my father to burn away a few some days later.

In any case, this portrait was drawn before my grandfather was appointed as the family head.

"Your guess is as good as mine." I said to my father. "Only they would know the answer."

Whether it was an enemy from the other nations or underhanded tricks of opposing nobles, there was no way they'd be able to set up something as big as a Nightmare Realm under the nose of our predecessors.

The combat talents possessed by them were no jokes, try do something in their homeland was like asking for a free ticket to afterlife.

Well, it's a fact that they weren't bright when it comes to managing the territory so this was one weak point that could be taken advantage of.

However, there were no records of suspicious activities done in our territory.

I also heard nothing from my grandfather of anything related to a Nightmare Realm being under our mansion, chances that he doesn't even know was high as well.

Well, in the end all these questions doesn't matter.

Given our current state, what we should be focusing on was dealing with the Nightmare Realm.

"So." My father turned around. "What are you going to do now?"

It was a sudden change in topic but it was understandable why he has put aside unfolding the truth to the mystery.

Countermeasures to the Nightmare Realm was given top priority in his mind.

He definitely has something in mind which was why he's asking for my plans in this situation.

My father knew full well that I will be acting on my accordance.

It's how I do things.

"That..."

Just as I was about to speak up, I felt a small impact coming from the leg of my chair.

Then, a large tremor violently shook the mansion... no, it was the whole ground that was shaking.

The lights in the corridor were flickering, sounds of things falling to the ground could be heard from different directions.

I was fine, the chair was firm.

On the other hand, my father struggled to keep still from all the shaking but at least he got his footing afterwards.

It didn't take a long for the tremor to come to a complete stop.

Just like how it suddenly started the tremor ended abruptly.

Even though the tremor didn't last but it sure did make its presence known.

The tremor was not a natural phenomenon, the shaking was abnormal in itself.

It was obvious what has caused the large tremor.

That's right, it's finally starting and we don't have the time to have a leisure chatter here.

I too should get a move on.

I stood up from my chair.

"You going somewhere?" My father asked.

"The kitchen." I said. "That girl, she hasn't eaten anything."

"I see, so you are planning on saving that child."

"Of course I am. I may have met her for the first time today but it doesn't changed the fact Cecilia was adopted into our family."

"Then I will leave her in your care."

"... ..."

My father's words left me speechless.

He patted me on my shoulder as he walked past me.

Then he got to the door and opened it.

"It won't be easy." He said before entering Cecilia's room. "Be careful."

I watched him enter the room and closed the door behind him.

My father will evacuate everyone in the mansion and execute the countermeasures against the Nightmare Realm.

He went inside Cecilia's room first to explain the situation to my mother.

I can already imagine the chaos when she hears what he has to say.

Well, it's all up to my father to deal with it.

My goal was saving Cecilia.

*****

As I was on my way to the kitchen, my father's words rang in my head:

'Then I will leave her in your care.'

I thought he would try to reason with me and asked me why I'd go through such lengths to save Cecilia.

My father may be soft-hearted but he doesn't let emotions get the better of him, which was why he could successfully manage our territory.

He knew entering and surviving a Nightmare Realm would not be easy.

I may have past experience with it but there's no guarantee I'd come back in one piece.

This would also mean I will be risking my life for a person I just met today.

Well, it does make things a lot easier for me when he just entrusts saving Cecilia to me.

This also shows how much confidence he has for my ability.

But in the case where I have to give a reason...

Well, it was not only because she was a part of the family.

I'm not that noble when it comes to the code of nobility.

My real motive?

It's shallow. A rather selfish one to be honest.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Villainess." I repeated the word stuck in my head.

It was the word I saw when I looked at Cecilia's Status Window earlier in the evening.

The word given to people of evil-doings, just like the villain title in my own Status Window.

Both the villainess and villain title were greyed-out when I checked up on them, even to this point I still don't have a clue why they were like that.

But I do know I can't change my title to the greyed-out ones, not that it'd do anything in particular.

Still, as of now, her title cannot be changed to a villainess title but surely Cecilia would be branded a villainess when people finds out she was related to the cause of a Nightmare Realm in Blackthorn territory.

Her timing was not good; being adopted to the Blackthorn family and disappearing on the same day.

Words would get out and the superstition towards her in bringing misfortune will be even deeper than before.

I could foresee the Blackrose spreading that news.

Unpleasant.

How unpleasant.

That was the feeling I had as I walked to the kitchen.

*****

*Clank*

The sound of wood was loud and clear inside the empty kitchen.

I was the only one left sitting by the counter, everyone else has been evacuated from the mansion.

The meal that was in front of me has disappeared some time ago.

It was the meal I had the chef cook in advance just after Cecilia fainted from our disastrous first meeting, it was prepared for when she wakes up afterwards.

While things may have gotten out of hand, it was all good as long as she was the one who ended up eating the meal.

That's right, Cecilia was right in front of me.

I may not be able to see her but I could sense her being in front of me.

Earlier, when I was talking to my father outside of Cecilia's room, I felt a small bump to the chair I sat on, that was when I sensed a concentrated mana right next to me.

I grasped on to that and identified the mana was in the form of a little girl, that was when I knew it was Cecilia.

Catching onto that, I have sharpened my senses to get hold of her mana and made sure not to lose her.

To lead her to the kitchen, I left trails of my mana hoping she could see them and follow... and luckily she did.

Cecilia may have disappeared but it did not mean she ceased to exist.

It would seemed like she has disappeared from the world but in truth she was inside the Nightmare Realm which was another world separate from this world.

Suppose the two worlds were starting to merge as the Nightmare Realm's formation reaches to its complete state.

The unstable connectivity was what caused the phenomenon where Cecilia could interact with objects on this side of the world.

This was my assumption to explain whatever was happening.

But whatever the truth was, it all worked out that she managed to get something into her stomach.

Well, my main objective was not to feed her.

I was looking for a way to get into the Nightmare Realm myself.

This state of disconnectivity between the two worlds won't last.

Slowly, the two worlds will merge and the Nightmare Realm will emerge into our world.

The large tremor earlier was a sign of the Nightmare Realm emerging.

Dangers within Nightmare Realm can be unpredictable.

The longer Cecilia stayed inside the Nightmare Realm the more dangers she'd face.

But this was not the time to make hasty decisions, rather patience and keeping my level-headedness would rise the chance of me saving her.

Some time has passed and the length of the candle next to me has shorten by quite a bit.

I was waiting, still waiting, waiting for an entrance to the Nightmare Realm.

I thought of a way to enter the Nightmare Realm before it fully emerges.

If Cecilia was able to interact with objects in this world then the opposite should be possible.

The unstable connection between the Nightmare Realm and real world was something I could make use of.

Then, a strong tremor happened, one that was stronger than before.

On top of the powerful shaking of the ground, I also felt a large flow of mana filling up the atmosphere.

This was the sign.

The connection of Nightmare Realm and real world has became significantly stronger but there were still some time before it fully emerges.

Now was my chance.

I gathered my senses, controlled the flow of mana within my body and forced them out of my body.

My mana reached every corner of the kitchen, their flow were normal.

However, there was a point I felt an unstable flow of my mana.

That point was by the door of the kitchen.

Bingo.

That was what I was looking for, the way into the Nightmare Realm.

I stood up from the chair and walked to the door.

Then I walked into the unnatural flow of mana gathered in front of me.

=======================================

After a strong unpleasant feeling hits me, I was engulfed by complete darkness.

The darkness gave off a mysterious yet suffocating silence, the air within the space was filled with unfamiliar mana.

I know I was no longer in the Blackthorn mansion.

This familiar yet unpleasant feeling was the sign that I have successfully entered the Nightmare Realm.

I could still feel a solid footing below my foot, this was a great start.

It would've been a nightmare if I ended up floating and not able to make out my direction.

However, this doesn't mean I could just walk blindly in this darkness.

There's no telling that I'd miss a step and fall into a bottomless pit.

Creating a source of light was the first thing I should do.

I let the mana within me flow out of my body and gathered them in one point behind me.

Compressing and exciting them, the condensed mana let out heat as it brightened up.

I adjusted its brightness by controlling the mana I poured into the small orb of light.

Suddenly, as if it was reacting to my action, lights began appearing above me.

They appeared in pairs, each pair lights up in a timely fashion as they stretch out further away from me.

And finally, a large full moon slowly appeared above all else revealing the truth hidden in the darkness.

A street.

This was the place I was in.

Though, it was quite a strange street.

Street lights with strange design were above me.

Under the street lights was a dark-coloured road, seemingly stretched endlessly with intersections at fixed points of the road.

At the side of the road were tall rectangular buildings, walled off by thin and short walls only capable of keeping the eyes of passersby away.

I could see many windows at the exterior of the buildings, the windows were spread out in a fixed pattern.

There were lights coming from the windows too, seemingly there were people living in there.

Yet, I don't feel any lifeform from any of the building.

Then, there was one thing that has caught my attention.

Right next to me was an open area.

At the end of the empty space was a shorter building that seemed to be made up of mostly glass.

The glass building was bright, so bright that I could even see what was inside it.

It has vibrant colours on both its interior and exterior, unlike the dull-looking tall buildings.

At one corner of the open space, away from the glass building, was a tall pole with a sign decorated with the same colour scheme as the glass building.

Is this some kind of a store?

There was a symbol on the tall sign, one that looked exactly the same on the roof of the glass building.

I suppose the reason for the tall sign was to make it easier to be spotted from far away.

Even though I could tell it was a store but I have no clue why it has a large unused area outside.

The glass building perked my interest.

Before I took a step, I noticed some movements outside of the glass building.

A dark humanoid figure walked from the side of road to the glass building.

*Ding Dong Ding Dong*

A series of strange sharp noise came from the glass building as a large piece of glass split open into two.

Through the opening, the dark figure stepped into the glass building.

Then the dark figure stopped, turned around and looked straight at me.

At first glance, one would have thought the figure was a human judging from its humanoid form.

However, the humanoid figure remained black even under the strong brightness coming from the glass building.

It was obvious why this was the case, the humanoid figure was not a human to begin with.

In fact, I couldn't sense any life from that figure.

That black figure.

Even though it was of a different form, it was not unfamiliar to me.

It was one of those Creatures that lurks within the Nightmare Realm.

They would lurk within the realm until they come in contact with a source of mana.

Then they would attack and consume that source of mana.

That source of mana... was me.

Suddenly, the Creature ran towards me.

It ran just like how a human would, with its two legs.

On one of its hand was a black rectangular object, the other hand held something that seemed like a sharp object.

I had no way to tell whatever it was holding, they were all black after-all.

At least I do know, it was coming to attack me.

I conjured the mana within me, gathered them at my palm and shaped them into a small dagger.

Then I tossed the dagger towards what seemed to be the head of the Creature.

The Creature reacted to the dagger and jumped to the side.

The mana dagger hits nothing, then it lost its form and disintegrated into small bits of mana.

O-Oh? It dodged?

I was surprised by its action.

The Creatures I've fought so far never shown any form of intelligence.

This Creature on the other hand was able to react to my attack and even dodged, definitely a first for all these years I've dealt with Creatures.

Could this be related to the behaviour of this Nightmare Realm?

Of course the Creature would not give me time to find out, the dagger did not slow down its pace.

Then how about this?

This time I conjured 3 more mana daggers, tossed them at the Creature.

I had one dagger aimed at its head and the other two covering the side where it may dodge to, adjusted according to the distance of its jump from earlier.

The Creature immediately fell backwards, landed on all its four.

Again, the daggers missed.

The daggers disintegrated into smaller bits of mana after they missed my intended target.

You gotta be kidding me... And what the?! That's so disgusting!

The Creature, instead of standing back on its feet, it stayed in that position and continued running towards me on all four.

It was a horrific sight to behold.

The Creature has covered a lot of distance, it won't take long for it to reach me with the speed it was going.

In preparation for that, I gathered mana into my left palm.

The Creature noticed and jumped to my right.

Having gotten close enough, the Creature picked up its body and stood on its feet, then struck at me with the sharp-looking object.

A sharp light flashed for an instant.

The Creature was split in half, slowly lost its form and crumbled to bits before disappearing completely.

Phew.

I sighed as I let go of the mana sword in my right hand.

The sword disintegrated into smaller bits of mana and vanished into thin air.

I looked at the empty space where the Creature used to be.

The Creature certainly had enough intelligence to dodge my attacks but that's all there was to it.

It fell for the feint I prepared for it: Gathering large amount of mana in my left hand, seemingly preparing for a large attack, the Creature took the bait and jumped to my right side which it thought was the safe side to strike me down.

Of course, I struck at it when it was least prepared.

Too bad it didn't know I could create my weapons instantaneously.

This was also a good experiment.

Even though it ended quickly but I at least got to learn of the extent of its intelligence.

There probably still be more to the Creatures of this Nightmare Realm, however, I don't have the leisure to test each of them out.

I looked around me, seeing if there were other things worth noting.

There were only those tall buildings with dim lighting and one eye-catching glass building.

The realistic feeling coming from this place could easily fool anyone who wandered in here, but in truth, this was just a world created within the Nightmare Realm.

In other words, it's all fake. They were just creation formed by the Nightmare Realm.

The constructs in these world depend on the behaviour of the Nightmare Realm, thus making them unique to one another.

One common thing amongst the Nightmare Realm was the unfamiliar mana flowing in the air.

The unfamiliar mana cannot be used to recover the mana I've used, they were completely two different things.

With the Status Window, I could even check if that was the case.

Yep, it's not moving at all.

I stared at the blue bar on my Status Window, the bar that indicated my MP wasn't moving.

Methods to recover mana include natural recovery by absorbing mana within the air and ingesting products that contain mana like mana potions.

By the way, according to a famous research, eating food would also help with recovering mana.

Well, there's nothing like that right now.

I came into the Nightmare Realm without anything, therefore I have no means to recover my mana.

Well, I don't plan on spending too long in one place, my priority was to find Cecilia.

No merits in lingering in an unknown place.

Without any information at hand, my best bet was the eye-catching glass building.

It was then, I sensed movements.

Multiple... coming from all directions...

The mana in my left palm was still there, I kept it just in case something unexpected was to happen.

Something just like now.

The street lights flickered.

Black figures that lurked deep in the shadows revealed themselves.

From behind the walls of intersection, from the windows of the tall buildings and from over the walls.

They creeped out all at once as if they have rehearsed this beforehand.

The street was filled with black figures.

They were all around me, filling up every possible space there may be.

Looking at this was just like staring at black-coloured ocean.

This shows how big their number was, this made the emptiness of the street from earlier seemed like an illusion.

The Creatures that showed up were all humanoid in shape but they were not all the same.

I'm seeing at least 4 different forms of Creatures.

One that looked like a bulky man.

One that looked like a woman.

One that looked like a child.

Lastly, the one I dealt with earlier, the slender one that seemed to be holding a sharp object.

I already knew what the slender one was capable of.

I'm worried for the other three kinds of Creature, it would be difficult to deal with if they also behave the same.

Of course it will be even more difficult to deal with if they have more unknown behaviours.

Well, I'm not gonna stand here to find out.

I raised my left arm, formed an image within my mind and released the mana into the air.

Upon my signal, the mana split and descended down onto the ground.

32 thin poles impaled into the ground.

They made a circle around me with fixed distance apart from one another.

Each pole were emitting high concentration of mana, as if the massive energy inside couldn't wait for the time to be unleashed.

Alright, preparation is done. Let's see how they will react to this.

The Creatures got close, marching as a whole.

They stopped their advance when they were close to my poles.

Then, the foremost Creatures jumped high into the air, at the height taller than my poles.

The other Creatures followed suit, row after row made their jump, a jump to an exaggerated height with the aim to land inside the circle of my poles.

I was surprised by the height they were able to jump... but at least they did act according to what I have in mind.

Before any of them were to land, I made a beeline towards the bright glass building.

I pull out two thin poles as I ran past them.

I poured mana into one of the pole and altered its shape to have sharp edges, then threw it spinning into the crowd of marching Creatures.

The spinning pole mowed down the Creatures in front of me, the Creatures further at the back has time to react and dodge out of the way.

Pity that the spinning pole didn't hit more of them but at least they got out of my way.

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

Multiple sounds of objects landed on the ground came from behind me.

There was no need to look back and confirm what those were.

Those Creatures that tried jumping over my poles, huh.

That was the moment I sent signals to the poles I left behind.

The large amount of mana within each pole was released in one go.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Multiple explosions happened all at once.

The harmony of the explosions enhanced their destructive strength, strong enough to even shake the ground.

I almost mistimed my step because of that.

Presences disappeared behind me but this was not the time to confirm my kill.

The Creatures were filling up the gap in front of me even at this time.

I altered the pole in hand; extending its length and giving a sharp edge to its side.

Then I poured mana into the pole, it gave off a dangerous looking glow.

I sped up my running speed, made a leap and turned the momentum from the run-up into turning speed of my upper torso.

"Hmph!"

A powerful wide swing with the pole struck the Creatures around me.

Many crumbled into nothingness.

The other Creatures saw the opening in my attack and rushed at me when I was still up in the air.

I put a strength into my arm and threw the pole down with all my might.

The pole dug deep into the ground, making the sound of crushing the ground.

With the force I used for throwing the pole, I was carried a little bit higher than before but that won't be enough to avoid the Creatures that tried to catch me in the air.

So I gave a signal to the pole I just planted to the ground.

*BOOM*

More black figures disappeared in the explosion, the explosion was big enough to catch those Creatures in the air too.

With the help of the explosion, I was pushed even higher and further into the air.

When I reached the maximum height of my jump, I began to descend.

From the ground, some Creatures sprung up into the air wanting to attack me during my descent.

I changed the pivot point of my body and gave it power to turn my body in the air, grazed past the consecutive attacks launched at me.

Then I conjured a mana sword when I was close to the ground.

A unfortunate Creature was pinned into the ground with the mana sword as I landed.

The Creature disintegrated into thin air.

I didn't bother pulling out the sword and let it disappear on the spot.

I made a run towards the glass building.

The glass building was suspicious.

It was brighter than any other buildings in this place and so far I haven't seen any Creature coming out of it.

I have a hunch that the key to leave this place would be in there.

I conjured more weapons and made my advance.

Any Creature that stood in the way were struck down.

The Creatures do display the same intelligence and behaviour like the slender Creature but that's all to them.

They still vanish when I struck at them with my weapons.

At times I would alter the forms of my weapons, sometimes even making them explode if needed, and then I conjure more weapons.

One by one the Creatures fell.

Though, their numbers doesn't show signs of decreasing.

The closer I got to the glass building, the more reckless the Creatures became.

They would do everything to make my advance difficult; they would slash at me with the sharp object, grab onto my clothes and even tried to tackle me down.

I prioritize taking out Creatures that would hinder my advance, thus I wasn't able to avoid every attack they threw at me.

Surprising, their attacks were not able to harm me physically, even with the sharp-looking object.

Though, I can't say the same for my clothes.

I do, however, feel my mana being drained whenever they made contact with me.

Suppose this was how they feed on their victims.

It wasn't my first time facing enemies with such ability but definitely a first when it comes to Nightmare Realm.

Another trait of this Nightmare Realm?

Regardless what that may be, dragging on the fight was meaningless.

I combined the weapons I was holding, poured mana into the condensed energy; then I grabbed the mana and pounded the ground.

A burst of mana erupted from beneath the ground in a small radius around me.

The strong impulse cleared out the Creatures in the area, giving me a short breather.

Before the Creatures at the back replaced their fallen, I gathered mana within my hand and formed a large lance with it.

I readied the lance, poured mana into my feet and kicked the ground.

A straight line towards the glass building.

The wall of Creatures crumbled when pierced by my lance emitting mana.

Mana used for this was great but I was able to cover more ground.

The glass building was just right ahead.

Just a small push and I will-

Suddenly.

Glass building turned dark, the lights were gone.

A large and heavy war horn noise sounded the whole place.

Then a large black figure broke out of the glass building.

Shattered sounds of glass entered my ears as the large figure became fully visible in my eyes.

The black figure was no doubt a Creature, unlike the humanoid Creatures this one was in a rigid rectangular form.

Its form does remind me of rare monsters I've encountered before.

Its sudden appearance surprised me.

But what surprised me further was when it split open before my lance was able to pierce it.

"What?!"

The exposed inside were black spikes, they move as if they were alive.

I was not able to stop in time

My lance went past through the opening the Creature deliberately left open.

Its body closed up on me, clamping me tightly.

I could feel the spikes moving about but they weren't able to pierce my skin.

Same deal with the other Creatures, I do feel my mana being drained.

So it was a trap.

Without doubt I was caught inside a trap.

The Creature has the ability to counter my advance and seal me inside its body.

And such Creature only came out just now, when I approached the glass building.

Glass building was just to lure me into an ambush by this Creature.

Thinking back, the whole scene seemed orchestrated.

A lone Creature to test my ability, the entrance of the large crowd of Creatures to make me think the glass building was the way out and finally the trap that awaits for my arrival.

The Creatures may show intelligence but they were simple; dodging my attacks and taking actions to get around my defenses.

Then there's this Creature that has perfect counters to my ability and struck at a perfect opportunity.

I see... So they have a brain on their side.

A commander to lead the Creatures and give them simple instructions.

That's what I realized, and yet another surprising trait of this Nightmare Realm.

I never thought of the possibility, but given I'm inside a Nightmare Realm I shouldn't be surprised to learn of such existence.

However, I don't seem to be in the position to find and eliminate their commander.

I try moving my muscle, the spikes grasped at me tightly.

Even worse, I couldn't see anything inside the complete darkness of this Creature.

With my mana being absorbed by the spikes, using mana to get out of this situation was difficult as well.

My flow of mana was disrupted and creating weapon was not possible in this situation.

A tough situation I got myself into.

But this was not the end for me.

I let go off the lance in my hand and let it disintegrate into mana.

The broken down mana flowed to the condensed mana orb I used for lighting.

Yes, all this time the mana orb has been floating behind me.

Fortunately, it was still outside of this Creature's reach.

The mana orb should be bigger now, as it has been absorbing the mana from the weapons I discarded during my battles.

It's a method I used to recycle any lost mana when mana was scarce in the area.

The mana orb, floating outside of this Creature's reach, with gathered mana.

I gave it a signal.

Gathered mana within the orb were unleashed.

The destructive explosive power blew the Creature into smithereens, along with all other Creatures around it.

The darkness that once blinded my sight were blown away by blinding colour of white from the explosion.

=======================================

A plain of whiteness unfolded in front of me.

Unnatural white wind were swirling around the place, stopping me from seeing whatever was beyond it.

I tried taking a step and my foot sunk into the soft whiteness.

Snow.

That was the identity of the whiteness.

The plain was cover in snow, and suppose the white wind was of a snow storm.

Strange that I don't feel cold from this place.

Yet another strange place to be.

Out of the dark street and into a snow plain.

As expected of the Nightmare Realm, I could not tell what will happen next.

Then, a loud screech came from the direction of the storm.

Slowly, a shadow creeped up behind the storm.

The shadow got larger as it got closer to the boundary, and finally it came out of a storm.

A giant black figure ran on its two feet, coming towards me.

No doubt it was a Creature.

A Creature in the form of a bird, a bird without a head.

"~~~~~~~~!!!!!"

Another loud screech as the large Creature flapped what seemed to be its wings.

Having experienced unexpected surprises from this Nightmare Realm, I thought it would be a good idea to stay away from it and...

*BOOM*

...nuke it.

Just like that, the bird-like Creature was blown into nothingness.

Very simple.

I even made the radius of the explosion wider so the Creature would still be caught into it even if it dodged.

Turns out the Creature just kept running straight at me and took the explosion head on.

Regardless, the desired result was achieved and that was the important bit.

Right after the Creature disappeared, the surrounding storm died out.

A vast plain of white was revealed, a pathway laid out in front of me.

At the side of the pathway were trees with snow piled up on top of their leaves.

It was just like any natural place one can find on the land.

However...

This place seemed familiar.

I had a strong feeling that I may have been here before.

Though, I couldn't recall immediately.

I didn't give myself time to ponder about this matter as it wasn't the time to do so.

Hm?

I noticed blood marks on the snow, they formed a trail that led down the pathway in the direction where the bird-like Creature came from.

No moment of hesitation, I followed it.

At the end of the pathway, a familiar mansion appeared in front of me.

It's the Blackrose.

There may be a few small details that differed from my memory but I was still able to recognize this mansion belonged to the Blackrose family.

The family where Cecilia was adopted from.

The place was covered in snow, from the roof of the mansion to the walls surrounding the mansion.

The snow at the door were cleaned, it showed how well maintained this place was.

Finding this mansion here explained why I felt I've seen the plain from before.

I was in Blackrose's territory after-all.

Though, this was the Blackrose inside of a Nightmare Realm, in other words this was just a recreation.

Seeing a recreation of Blackrose territory inside this Nightmare Realm further reinforced the truth of how much involvement Cecilia has in this Nightmare Realm.

I believe this place was recreated from Cecilia's memory when she was still in this place.

If this place was recreated from her memory then what about the strange street back then?

Was it also created from her memory? Or was it something else?

No way I'd know the answer to that and I won't get any answer just by standing here.

The blood trail led to the mansion's back gate and continued on from there.

I went to the metal gate, unlocked its sidelock and gave it a push.

Some snow fell off from the top as the gate swayed open

The trail of blood led off the path from the main building, it led to much further back of the mansion.

Following the trail, I arrived at a shed far from main building of this manor.

Unlike the area near the main building, this area seemed unattended.

The shed that looked like a storage for tools was badly maintained.

Snow has piled up around it, mixed with withered leaves and stones that I don't know how they got on top of the snow.

Windows were nailed with planks in place of broken glass, and each plank of the wooden wall was in bad shape... the damage on the surface was apparent.

I wouldn't be surprised for this shed to break at any moment.

The blood trail ended by the wooden door that was hanging on its last connection to the door frame.

It's basically telling me to go in.

I remembered what my father told me about Cecilia, I presume this was the shed where he encountered Cecilia.

This means the possibility of finding Cecilia here was high.

I reached out to the door and opened it.

Black mist gushed out, they rushed at me and engulfed my surrounding.

The black mist was gushing out at high speed and it felt endless.

Even though they were just mist, I could feel a continuous force pushing me away.

At first I was taken by surprised and was pushed back quite a bit, then I got my foothold and stood against the black mist.

Moving forward against this high speed mist was a problem but that doesn't stop me from trying.

In the midst of my struggle, I heard some kind of voices.

At first they were soft and less frequent so I thought I misheard them.

However, each step I took towards the door the voices became louder and more frequent.

There were multiple voices coming from the mist all at the same time.

They spoke different things, at different timing and at different pitch; I wasn't able to hear clearly what was being said amongst the chaotic order.

One thing I learnt of the voices was the emotions they emitted.

Anger, madness, confusion and sadness.

It was complete chaos.

I could feel the heavy pressure from the voice and how it messes with my mind.

Blocking my ears didn't help the situation, I could still hear the voice.

Such an aggressive mental attack.

The dark mist has the ability to take away my sight and then mess with my mind.

I feel my rationality was being drained the longer I listen to them.

Wait... how long have I spent here?

Am I even taking a step forward? Am I going in the right direction?

Strange doubt appeared in my mind... I even questioned if those were even from me.

It was hard to concentrate when I'm inside this madness, and I would've been swept into its flow if I don't stay focused.

I could feel my power seeping out of my body and my mana being drained.

My body felt heavier the more time I spent in this dark madness.

What seemed to be a step away from entering the mansion has never felt so far.

Then, I heard a strange voice.

A distinctive voice that didn't seemed to belong in this chaos.

The voice was soft and small but I could still catch on to it.

I could feel the despair from the voice as it was swept along with the flow of this madness.

Yet, deep inside the despair I heard a call for help.

I don't know the reason but I have a hunch that this was the voice I was looking for.

It was Cecilia.

I gathered what seemed to be left of my mana, letting them flow aggressively within my body and making my blood boil.

I have the feeling this was the moment I am needed to save this girl, there was no way I'd let this chance slip by.

I will be going all out!

Empowered by my mana, my body felt much lighter.

I took a step, a powerful one, one that could not be stopped by the black mist.

The black mist became even more violent than before but to me right now they felt like light breeze.

I took more steps, deep into the darkness.

I extended my hand into the madness.

"aaaaaAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

I burnt my mana and give light to this madness.

The light was small and dim in this black mist but it will continue to burn.

It won't be swept away by the flow of chaos.

Then I felt a small hand grabbing onto mine.

A helpless grip filled with determination.

I returned it with a strong grasp.

I gave it my all and pulled!

=======================================

My surrounding brightened up.

Well, it wasn't as dark as when I had the black mist blown into my face.

But it was still dark in this place.

I was inside a building.

There were no lights coming in through the windows nor was there lights lit up inside the building.

Even so my eyes have already grown adapted to the dark so I was able to make out whatever was in the dark.

My eyes widen when I found the answer to the familiarity of this place.

Hoh, interesting.

I was back to the Blackthorn's mansion.

Basically, I was home.

Right now, my current position was at the entrance of the left wing of the mansion.

To be specific, it was just outside the kitchen where I have the food prepared for Cecilia.

If I was to leave the kitchen without entering the Nightmare Realm then this will be the place I would end up in.

Does this mean I have returned to the real world?

The answer to that was a big no.

No doubt this place looks just like the left wing entrance of the Blackthorn mansion.

The double door to the outside, the two staircases next to the door that led to the second floor and as well as the placements of the furniture.

Everything looked the same except for the large vase resting on the low table next to a staircase.

That was a vase that was said to be an antique from a fallen kingdom long time ago.

It was rare, so rare that there probably wouldn't be a second one to exist in this world.

I sold that vase to some foreign merchant some time ago and its whereabout was unknown after that.

My father wasn't happy about what I've done.

Anyway, for this vase to still be in the mansion could only mean one thing.

I was still in the Nightmare Realm.

Well, if I could detect mana then I should be able to feel the unfamiliar mana in the air.

Too bad that was not possible for me right now as I have exhausted every last bit of my mana.

Zero, huh...

That was shown to me when I looked at my Status Window.

The empty bar right below my HP bar.

I shrugged my shoulders and willed the Status Window away.

Looking at the Status Window won't help my mana from recovering.

It will be troublesome to roam inside a Nightmare Realm without mana.

But...

I looked at my hand, I could feel the lingering warmth.

The hand that grabbed onto mine was real.

I don't see Cecilia anywhere so it means my job was far from complete.

I turned around and looked up.

I saw a large portrait hung proudly on the wall of second floor, at the same time the lights next to it all lit up at once.

The portrait was a picture of a black-haired woman.

She had a black dress that matched her hair colour, exposing the skin of her shoulder showing off the confidence she has.

The woman wore make-up that enhanced her beauty, though it does not hide away the threatening sharp eyes of hers.

However, I would still call this woman a beauty and I can confidently say she can easily make many men fall head over heel with her.

This woman seemed familiar.

Considering the person who was the important figure of this whole incident, I could immediately connect this woman and the person I have in my mind.

This was a portrait of the adult Cecilia.

...Also, that smile of hers, truly does make her look like a villainess.

A villainess huh...

The same word appeared in my mind and overlapped with the memory of her Status Window.

Oh no... The little sister I met today has really did become a villainess!

...

......

Well, whatever, this was not the time to be playing around.

I better get a move on.