Addictions.
They cloud the mind, ruin lives, and destroy dreams.
Why would anyone willingly partake in them?
To cope? To escape? To seek pleasure?
Are those reasons worth the risk?
They can’t be.
Losing control of one’s life, going back on one’s decisions, watching one’s self deteriorate beyond recovery…
Nothing could ever justify them.
However, not a single soul existed which was not overcome by one addiction or another.
Drugs, thieving, overconsumption, pleasure, money, self-gratification, anger.
Those are the words that come to mind when the issue is brought up.
And yet…
Love, honor, control, religion, freedom, pain, fantasy, and many more addictions exist.
Therefore, both the pursuit and the escape of one’s purpose is the primary cause of one’s over self-indulgence.
An unspoken agreement that everyone has come to accept and partake in willingly.
Addictions, therefore, might not all be harmful. Perhaps they could be justified after all.
Addictions could be a thing of dreams.
And, at the same time, be that of nightmares.
***
Carmella was an addict, that much was a given.
It was only a matter of identifying that which she was most obsessed with.
It hadn’t been pleasure, or control.
Not pain, or danger either.
It was power.
Not the attainment of it, but simply being surrounded by it, surrendering one’s self to its full security.
And it was that addiction that clouded her mind, unable to fully grasp the world around her.
She had become a target for the punk scarecrow, a puppet with string to manipulate.
First, he had used [Resonance] to link his vision with that of his two familiars and their clones, switching between them as needed.
Watching everything from all possible angles, he sent his [Decoy Doppelganger] while putting his target under the full effects of [Distorted Fallacy].
While relying on [Silent Stalk], he made the straw clone appear out of nowhere.
[False Echoes] replicated the voices Carmella wanted to hear while under the illusion of pleasure.
After her last test of resistance failed, she had accepted her own metamorphosis.
And what followed only served to affirm her feelings.
She had found a new source of power to surround herself with, to indulge in her addiction.
As for Somnu’s addiction, however…
“BLURGHHH!”
“What?! What’s happening?!”
“This… he’s overusing his skills! Stop it, brother!”
Blood erupted out of Somnu’s entire face. His mouth, nose, ears, even, perhaps especially, his eyes.
He was hunched down on all fours, wheezing heavily in search of a clean breath.
Lulu and Mathros had sprang to his aid. The bunny girl sprayed him with her perfume bottle Dream Catcher to boost his natural healing prowess, while the lizardman tried to rub his friend’s back with shaking hands.
“You heard him, stop using your skills already! We can take it from here!” Lulu cried out, her eyes darting between the blood-covered ground and the scarecrow’s choking breaths.
“N-no… the plan… has to… work…” He mumbled while red liquid continued to fall from his mouth like a mini-fountain.
He knew the reason for this physical reaction. Ever since the fight with the slime Dreadbeast, Somnu had barely rested.
After everything that happened in the cursed lake of Lethe and in his agonizing visions, he went up against John Doe and the deity supporting him. Then, barely catching his breath, he went up against another Dreadbeast solo.
And now, he was abusing the one skill that took the most out of him, [Distorted Fallacy].
He wasn’t just using it on Carmella either, no. Perhaps that alone would have been fine.
However, his plan required a full take over.
That meant, Henry and his four henchmen would need to be redirected too.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Instead of following the path straight to Mathros and his party, where the attack was supposed to take place, Henry had been led to where Carmella was.
The last cheat, the last distraction needed to win.
Even if it caused him a pain so excruciating, any normal being would have passed out.
Such luxury was denied for the punk scarecrow.
There would be no rest for the wicked, after all.
That’s why, despite his friends’ pleas and the pain overwhelming him at that very moment, he pushed through it all.
We have to take care of this before they regain their Systems… There is no guarantee Carmella won’t switch sides again if Henry regains his ranked up powers… I just… Somnu thought through gritted teeth, then looked up at the two trying to help him. “I can’t do this… alone…”
““!””
As much as he wanted to keep them out of danger, as much as he wanted to protect them…
He had learned they weren’t simple bystanders for him to guard.
They were…
“Rely on us, brother! What do you need?” Mathros supported the scarecrow’s body and lowered him to rest his back on a tree root.
“...” Lulu watched, her shaking fists matching the tempo of her eyes.
“It’s almost time…” Somnu opened his eyes slowly, having checked on the progress. “One last… push…”
Then, Grudgekeeper disappeared from his body, leaving him naked once more.
***
Henry was faced with something he couldn’t explain. None of the three he had met earlier looked anything like the one standing in front of him now.
The outfit alone could have easily been explained, but it was the presence and the pressure that exuded from the figure that made him question his eyes.
THUD!
“Ugh…”
A groan escaped Carmella upon hitting the hard ground, having been released from the bulky guy’s grip.
Her eyes quickly shifted back to the walking nightmare.
Both she and her previous party leader stood in puzzlement at what they were witnessing.
This was the accumulation of Somnu’s skills.
[Decoy Doppelganger], [Hollow Gaze], [Silent Stalk], [Feral Instinct], [Night Terror State], [False Echoes].
Not to mention, [Resonance] and the skills of his familiars.
And to make matters worse…
“?!”
[Straw Storm!]
Suddenly, straws hurriedly enveloped the figure, then immediately burst from his body in all directions. The relentless rush quickly threatened to consume the two enemies.
“Dammit!”
“Ah!!”
While the bulky guy swung his great sword left and right, the woman on the ground behind him looked up with flushed cheeks, welcoming the straws’ embrace.
However, just then…
“!”
Everything disappeared.
All the skills, the effects, the hollowing chill, the visions, it was all gone.
And in their place…
“Seismic Stomp!!”
“What?!”
Henry shuddered as he looked up, noticing a bunny girl aiming a flying dropkick right at his head. He immediately moved his sword to intercept, but he had been too late.
DOOMPPPHH!!
KLANG!
Henry’s rising blade shattered into pieces beneath the bunny girl’s stomp. The moment she landed, the entire ground began to shake with enough tremors to split the swamp’s humid earth.
“!”
“Agile Footing!”
In a split second after her foot touched the ground, Lulu shifted her body around, and delivered a kick in the torso with her other dependable limb.
“Argh!”
CRASHH!!
The bulky guy’s figure flew into multiple thin tree roots before stopping at a nearby tree trunk.
“That’s what you get for planning to kill us in our sleep!” Without stopping, Lulu kicked off the ground once more and ran to her target again. Her mind seemed made up, her consciousness clear. She, too, needed to do her part, to change. “Boundless Momentum!”
“Stop! Why are you doing this?! I thought we agreed to go back together?!” Henry cried out, holding his side while getting back on his feet. “Why would you think I was planning to kill anyone! That woman is a liar!”
“Hmph! Just die!”
CRASH!!
Barely dodging another drop kick in time, the bunny girl created a small crater on the tree trunk behind him. Wasting no time, Henry strained his body and ran towards the other person that had shown up.
“Mathros! Think about this! We both follow the Fortmaster for a reason, right?! He’s going to get us out of this whole mess!” He pleaded, seeing the runner pick up after him again.
“It was clear you were lying from the moment you said the fort would be in a different direction of where your camp was.” Mathros explained, standing in front of the now tied up Carmella.
The lizardman had easily bypassed Lulu’s stomp and tremors using his [Terrain Adaption] and [Light Foot] skills. Then, using his [Discoverer’s Pouch], he took out a rope and tied up the unusually cooperative woman.
“Why would you say that?! And tell this mad bunny to stop chasing me!” Henry barely sidestepped another kick that shattered the ground.
“The one thing the Fortmaster didn’t know about, was the truth about my Dream Catcher.” Mathros looked down at his palm. “When I checked it earlier before shaking your hand, it had aimed for the direction you were heading in. That told me all I needed to know. There was no reason to keep us waiting here, but one.”
“You’re doing all this just because of that?!”
“Seeing as you aren’t using your skills, it only means you have been killing left and right, abusing your authority like an addiction!” Mathros furrowed his brow as he looked at the four corpses lying around. “Did you kill these poor folk too?”
“An addiction? How stupid! This is the meaning of true strength!” Henry chuckled, standing in place as his eyes seemed to suddenly turn to his side where nothing was visible. “If it has come to this…”
“Dropkick!”
Even with her momentum, Lulu’s natural kick was promptly stopped, her target having shielded his face with both arms.
“?!”
“I was timing my return perfectly, but for some reason I made it earlier than I wanted to.” Henry muttered beneath his breath, a new, faint blue light enveloping his suit and body.
“Watch out!” Carmella called out from behind, a faint reddish glow encompassing her own body.
THRASHH!!
In an instant, resulting from a single wave of a hand, Lulu’s body collided with the same crater she had made in the tree trunk earlier.
Henry fixed his posture, standing tall with his imposing bulky figure. The four headless corpses rose up from all around him, their weapons mechanically clenched in hand.
“Let me show you how strong a CEO really is!”
Crow-Shit… this is bad! He recovered his System!
Somnu bit his lip, watching it all happen through his familiars’ eyes.
