The Dreamer's POV

[00 Months: 17 Days: 10 Hours]

~FWOOOSH!~

I could feel the wind brush past me as I swiftly traversed the landscape, closing in on my target.

I could hear loud explosions coming from within the city already, and the sheer amount of pressure I felt was enough to make my body tremble slightly.

'Damnit! I should hurry!' I told myself, accelerating my body using <Turbo>.

Everything around me blurred as I made my way to the hill, taking the path that would quickly lead to my destination.

"Hey... where the hell do you think you're going?" I suddenly heard a voice behind me.

'W-what?'

~SWIIISSSSSHHHHH!!~

I felt a powerful force heading in my direction the moment I heard the voice, so I swiftly resorted to the safest approach.

The approach I had been avoiding all this time.

<Grand Teleportation>

In an instant, I vanished from my position, the attack heading for me barely missing its target.

~VWUUUSHH!~

Appearing a short distance from my earlier position, a tactic I used to save as much Energy as I could, I glared in the direction of the attack—or rather, the attacker.

"Haha. Nice reaction speed. You're quite good."

I narrowed my gaze on the man who spoke. It was the same guy from last time—the brown haired person who approached me in the city.

'He's fast. How did he catch up to me.so quickly?'

<Danger Sense> didn't even pick up his presence at all.

That meant he had a Skill that could bypass my <Danger Sense>, or he was much faster than <Danger Sense> could register.

Either way, he was a major threat.

'He's most likely a Ranker as well. Talk about bad timing...'

~BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!~

I felt the earth shake as an explosion emanated from within the Lyma Capital. It seemed the wyverns and their leader dragon were making a mess of the things there.

'I don't have time for this. I should hurry to Sasha's corpse.'

"Come on, don't look at me like that. I just want to talk." The brown haired fellow smirked at me, his lips curling to form an awfully confident expression.

"My name is Levi. Why don't we both calm down and have a discussion?"

"You attacked me first." I retorted, using my head to think of a way around the current situation.

"Come on, that was just a greeting. There's no way someone who dealt with Sasha and Hakeem would lose their heads to such an attack, right?"

He surely had a point, but I doubted he was making such a consideration when he aimed for my head.

Based on confidence and speed alone, this guy was probably stronger than rest of his comrades.

Was he the most powerful of the tree? Were there others like him?

Perhaps I could use this chance to extract more information moving on.

"What about your comra—"

~BOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!~

Hearing the explosion from the city made me instantly desist from that idea.

The first thing I had to ensure was keeping the monsters in check. That meant obtaining Sasha's essence.

I could get all the information I wanted afterwards.

'But there are a couple of things I have to consider first...'

Would this guy allow me to simply revive Sasha as a <Fallen Foe>? I highly doubted it.

'Does that mean I should fight him first?' No, I couldn't do that.

Assuming he was the strongest of the three, that meant I had to approach this carefully.

He could have a lot of Skills hidden underneath his sleeve.

Besides, fighting him would waste my Energy, which I needed to raise a Ranker as powerful as Sasha.

'I also don't have luxury of carefully to studying and countering. Time is running out.'

But would things be any different if I abandoned my confrontation with him and went after Sasha?

Assuming I did get to Sasha on time and used <Fallen Foe>, wouldn't that mean I had to bleed out a lot of Energy to achieve it?

If I fought a Ranker after doing that, I would be at an extreme disadvantage.

Either way, it seemed the situation was bound to get annoying.

'Especially since he's able to catch up to me. Maybe he has a teleportation Skill or something.'

Either way... I had to resolve this quickly.

"Did you just ask about my comrades? How rude. You haven't even introduced yourself despite me telling you my name." Levi's words sprang me from my thoughts.

He looked friendly, though I couldn't help but feel unnerved by his presence.

It could be the effect of a Skill, or perhaps it was just me being on edge.

The feeling didn't last long, though, and I ended up returning to my calm, rational.self.in no time.

'The way I see it, there's only one good option. I should hurry to Sasha and take her Essence. Once I have that, I'll deal with this guy. Afterwards, I'll take care of the monsters.'

With that settled, there was no time.to be hesitating any longer.

'<Grand Teleportation>'

In a flash, I vanished from my position, rushing straight for the top of the hill, which I had already sighted.

~VWUUSSSHHH!~

'I'm finally here!' My thoughts echoed as I swiftly looked around me.

The area was littered with remains of the two enemies that my Carnage Beasts devoured.

I could see blood and gore scattered around, and my Carnage Beasts on standby, as well as my Shadow, all bowing in my presence.

'No. Now isn't the time for that. I should be more focused on Essence. So where is i—'

"Haha! You can't run from me!" I heard the same voice as before, this time, dangerously closer than ever.

Expertly using <Grand Teleportation> again, I evaded the strike I knew was coming, but before I knew it, I felt the same presence appear in the location I was teleporting to.

'What? He studied my reaction?!' My eyes widened as I watched the man's blade draw closer to me.

<Haven> was more useful for projectiles, and something told me it wouldn't be enough to handle a Ranker's full swing.

That meant I could only rely on one thing at this point.

'Grand Rock!'

~CLANG!~

My trusty Rock appeared just in time, clashing with the blade of my adversary.

"G-guh!" It pushed him backward, most likely a result of the recoil.

I watched as he gritted his teeth and staggered, quickly regaining a proper stance.

'Damn this guy...'

Before summoning Grand Rock, I was using it to constantly attack the wyvern to see how long it would take for it to die as a result of consistent damage.

'To think this guy would force me to summon it.'

This guy was really getting on my nerves already.

It was bad enough that I couldn't find any Essence here, but to think this guy was getting in the way of solving the monster issue... it was infuriating.

'And it's not like I've forgotten my vendetta against these people either.'

"Pfft. I thought you were a proper guy, but you're just a scaredy cat."

Hearing gum snicker as he stared at me pissed me off, but I kept my cool while considering the other options I could employ to—

"You remind me of those important people I killed a while back. That butler and that family... they looked like royalty or something, yet they were running away like thieves." He flapped his gums as he chuckled even louder.

"How hilarious!"

Hearing him say all of those things caused my earlier thoughts to be suspended.

There seemed to be something more important now.

It was something he said.

"Hey..." I whispered, my voice so low that I almost couldn't recognize myself.

It felt... like someone else was speaking.

"What did you just say?"

"Huh? You didn't hear me? I said you're being a pussy ass bitch. Running away like those stupid natives from earlier."

Natives, huh? That was quite a broad brush, I would say.

No... that wasn't the word I was looking for.

He said something else, didn't he? Something about some important people... and a butler.

"Were you the one who attacked the Lyma Estate?" I asked, once again surprised by the tone of my voice.

The tempo was growing, but it still felt odd, almost coarse.

It felt like the rapid noise from my racing heartbeat was drowning the sound.

"Lyma Estate? Is that what the place is called? Whatever, I suppose. So you're affiliated with them, huh? Why? You're from Earth, right?

Don't tell me you were working for them or something..."

This guy... so he was the one who did it, huh? And he admitted to killing Oswald, Duke Damien, and Seraphina.

"Ah, you were probably trying to control them, right? Yeah... that makes more sense. Well, sorry that they're all dead, but what could I do? Orders from the top." Levi, or whatever his name was, wouldn't stop running his mouth.

It was beginning to get on my nerves.

"So you're the one, huh...?" A grin slowly formed on my face as I stared at him.

Suddenly, I didn't feel uneasy anymore.

"I'm glad." Taking a proper stance, I loosened my tense muscles and stared at him, fully encapsulating his stature from top to bottom.

"I don't have to go searching for you... you're the one who should suffer the most."

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[A/N]

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