Inheriting the Novel

Chapter 71 : Chasing Dreams (2)

Chasing Dreams (2)

Sior's quietly closed eyes opened.

At the same time, the identical clones surrounding him also opened their eyes.

"......"

An odd sense of dissonance rippled through the minds connected to him. At first, he thought it might be an illusion, but the sensation gradually became clearer.

And it was unmistakably approaching a single direction.

"A foolish act."

He could clearly feel it drawing closer, little by little.

If left unchecked, it would soon reach him.

"...... Master of the sword."

A being whom, originally, he might have greeted and tested with a sword's trial.

But that was already in the past.

Now, he remained here not as a guardian but as a calamity.

* * *

After stepping into Sior's domain, I passed through countless dreams.

Following the sword's resonance, I ran, traversing the many dreams connected to Sior.

"Which way this time?"

"Right!"

Whenever Rutia grabbed my hand and pulled me into a corridor, it turned out to be another world.

Human dreams were vast, and no two were alike.

'Are we here?'

The moment I thought blue light flickered over grass-covered plains, the now familiar blue-haired boy leaped out.

'How many are there?'

More than a dozen blue lights flew across the plains.

Thankfully, since Zenon had already defeated the clone with the greatest strength, the power each clone possessed wasn't particularly threatening.

"Master of the sword!"

Seeing so many clones flying toward me gave me chills.

"I'll hold off as many as I can, so hurry and find the corridor leading to his real body!"

Within dreams, a succubus could exert power exceeding reality. If the clones were weakened, she should be able to block most of them.

Trusting Rutia, I ran quickly, following the sword's resonance.

'Surely, the real body is where Solaris is.'

With the clones weakened, it was highly likely that the real one would be standing guard to protect it, just in case.

Otherwise, one of the clones would have already brought Solaris.

"Damn!"

At that moment, a few clones slipped past Rutia's defense and flew toward me.

They slashed at me with arms shaped into sharp blades of ice.

"You are not the one designated for this world! Why are you stopping me? You have no reason to block me!"

Shyeek! Shyeeek!

Sharp sword strikes ripped through the air one after another.

The assaults were relentless from all directions, but I deflected them with little difficulty.

'I didn't just sit idly by for a month!'

After learning about Maria's abilities, even in my sleep, I trained the Moon Severing Divine Sword.

With the teachings of Grancesia, no less.

'Moon Severing Divine Sword, First Technique.'

Crescent Moon Slash (月牙).

The blinding white moon bared its fangs, deflecting the assaults of the charging clones.

When I blocked their attacks so effortlessly, the clones looked visibly startled.

"How can this be...!"

Even if they were weakened, these were still clones of a 'calamity'.

They probably thought it impossible for a mere human to give them this much trouble.

"You're not even the savior, just an ordinary human!"

"Of course, maybe I'm still far behind Fabian. But..."

'Now,' I possessed something even the protagonist didn't have.

That was the Moon Severing Divine Sword (斷月神劍).

Fabian only acquired it after defeating the calamity of dreams.

At this very moment, I stood ahead of the protagonist.

Kaaang!

Pure white moonlight raged around me, blocking and repelling Sior's frenzied onslaught.

I fended off the falling shards of ice and slashed the neck of one of the five attacking clones.

"Kgh!"

When one of the clones shattered like broken glass, the rest faltered.

Seizing that opening, I passed through another corridor.

Kwaaaaang!

This time, what appeared was a gruesome nightmare.

Corpses stacked like mountains, with a soldier clutching a comrade and wailing.

It seemed to be the manifestation of someone's nightmare.

"I have waited a long time."

A blue-haired boy stepped out, wading through the flames.

This clone was different from the others so far.

'Solaris!'

This time, the clone appeared with Solaris in its hand—unlike before.

'Then where is the real body?'

On the burning wasteland, only bodies could be seen; the real body was nowhere in sight.

'Damn. How did Fabian solve this?'

The strategies I'd learned from the synopsis and from Rutia's prophetic dreams ended here.

Fabian certainly chased after Solaris by following the resonance with Genova.

From that point, even the synopsis moved on to the next chapter, and Rutia didn't know what happened to Fabian afterward, being busy holding off the other clones.

"You would not know."

Sior, gripping Solaris, murmured quietly toward me.

"I have waited a long time for the master of the sword in this frigid temple, where no one ever comes."

Unlike the other guardians, Sior, the winter spirit, possessed self-awareness.

At first, he was happy with his assigned role, and he waited for the human who would someday arrive.

"For ten, a hundred, a thousand years... I waited in the little temple given to me, for what seemed like eternity. Then, one day, I began to wonder."

Why must I endure such solitude?

Kaaang!

At that word, Sior lunged at me, brandishing his sword.

As if pouring out all his pent-up resentment.

I could feel that weight in the blade itself.

"What is a calamity, and why must a spirit like me be sacrificed for humanity?"

Sior's wish was simple.

To escape that small temple and gain freedom.

No grand mission was needed. He simply longed to leave that tiny temple.

"That is why I became a calamity."

Sior spoke through gritted teeth.

"I refused the mission given to me, became a calamity to gain freedom. To destroy the small temple and be free!"

To some extent, I empathized with his cry.

If I too were trapped in a tiny temple for thousands of years, I'd have gone insane.

I'd have done anything to escape.

'Why did Father...?'

The only being who conceived and completed this world.

Why did Father give him such a mission?

Why do this, of all things?

'... Could it be?'

Father was a god, but also 'human'.

As I reached that line of thinking, a possibility flashed through my mind.

Kaaaaang!

Clashing with Sior's attack, I looked into his eyes—those of a mad, yet beautiful, spirit.

"...... A tragedy."

"What?"

Sior reacted at my muttering.

His eyes, as he looked at me, were filled with grief accumulated over a long time.

"Yes, a tragic setup... a dramatic development is what was needed."

It's a common device in novels.

A tragedy, to create a more dramatic development.

A trial to make the protagonist grow.

A sacrificial lamb created to produce the necessary setup for the plot—that was the 'profile' Father had given to Sior.

'Without crisis, the story cannot be complete.'

This was a problem created because this world was written by an author—not a god, but a human.

'So...'

I had to take responsibility.

For now, I was the author with the authority to rewrite this world.

Slowly, I gripped Genova.

The by-now-familiar weight of the sword settled in my hand.

"Nonsense!"

Perhaps sensing the change in my aura, Sior charged at me.

But my movement was faster.

I dashed at full strength into another corridor. This time, what popped out seemed to be a child's dream—a brilliantly colored, bright world.

"Are you still trying to find my real body!"

Fighting off his relentless pursuit, I scanned my surroundings desperately.

'Where is it?'

I had seen the dreams of countless humans.

Crossing countless paths, traversing the boundaries between dreams.

Yet, the real body was nowhere to be found.

'As long as a clone holds Solaris, I can't find the real body by resonance anymore.'

All I could do was blindly barge through corridors.

At this point, it was down to luck.

'Am I missing something?'

Fabian couldn't have beaten the calamity of dreams with sheer luck.

What was I missing?

"Give up! You will never find my real body!"

Crossing space, Sior swung Solaris for my neck.

I barely deflected it with the Moon Severing Divine Sword.

As expected, the clone wielding Solaris was much stronger than the others.

'If I waste any more time, the other clones will join in.'

If that happened, I'd lose any chance of winning.

I couldn't afford to waste any more time.

'Think.'

I parried Sior's frontal attacks and calmly exhaled.

Grancesia had said:

The greater the crisis, the more one must control emotion.

A healthy tension was fine, but fear would only cloud judgment.

Suppress the distortion of information caused by emotion, and extract the correct information from within.

Grancesia called this 'Only Mind' (唯識).

'Just like that time.'

Like when I missed a few words and lines in the synopsis during the calamity of disease and demons.

Surely, I was overlooking something again.

How did Fabian defeat the calamity of dreams?

'Ah.'

I had it.

There really was something I was missing.

After the calamity of dreams, when Fabian returned to the domain, he wore only a single sword at his hip.

Nowhere in the synopsis did it say that Fabian ever wielded two swords.

Even when passing through perilous corridors to meet Damian, it was 'the power of Solaris' he used, not 'Solaris itself'.

Maybe it was just wordplay.

Or perhaps it was simply omitted for brevity.

"What are you trying to do?"

Perhaps sensing my change, Sior pressed hard with Solaris, giving me no time to respond.

Kaaang!

"You will never defeat me. Even if you somehow defeat me, I am only a clone. Until you collapse, new clones will appear endlessly."

"No."

When Solaris and Genova's blades collided, a jarring metallic screech rang out.

Ka-kak, ka-ga-kak!

The clamor of colliding metal.

But before long, the sound changed.

Jjeojeok!

"What...?!"

A cry of shock burst from Sior's lips.

It was only natural.

Right now, Genova's blade was breaking through Solaris's blade.

"That Solaris's blade would be shattered... Impossible! This is the Sword of Boundary, a blade forged by the power of gods!"

"I know."

I gripped Genova even tighter and grinned.

"But... As a guardian of the sword, you must know about the power of the Sword of Man Genova, don't you?"

At my words, Sior's eyes shook violently, realizing my intention.

Sword of Man Genova.

This power had cut down even the calamity of disease and demons—a being without physical form.

'If the profile given by Father is absolute...'

Genova could cut anything.

Even if it was another of the Seven Swords Under Heaven.

"Hah, but you're not the true master of the sword, so you shouldn't be able to wield Genova properly...!"

Seeing that I hadn't released Genova until now, he seemed to have assumed I couldn't wield its power without using the Eye of Insight.

"That would be true—if this were reality."

Uuuuuung!

Genova's blade vibrated, turning reddish-gold.

Genova was a sword that grew stronger in response to the origin and wish of humankind. Its power was maximized when filled with their wishes.

And this place was a dream.

A world created and linked by the wishes of countless people.

If anything, it would be strange for me not to draw out my full power here.

Dudududu!

Genova's blade transformed, digging even deeper into Solaris.

Like a sword made of glass, cracks spiderwebbed across Solaris's entire body.

"I never needed to find your real body in the first place."

I tightened my grip on the sword and laughed ferociously.

"You were the very spirit dwelling in Solaris."

The reason he couldn't leave the royal castle was simple.

It wasn't because his real body was elsewhere. He simply couldn't stray far from the temple where the sword was kept.

Kwa-deuduk!

Genova's blade buried itself fully within Solaris.

Faint golden light started to trickle from the cracks spreading over the blade.

"No...!"

"Yes."

With Sior's brief, dying scream, a burst of gold light filled with blinding radiance erupted.