Chapter 168: Ice-Cold to the Core

The tiny dormitory was barely a hundred square feet in size, yet the entire space was now permeated with a pungent scent of blood, strong enough to turn one's stomach.

From utter normalcy, to the two of them slowly dissolving into particles of light and disappearing, to a wound abruptly appearing on Hiroyuki's abdomen—a gash that looked less like it was inflicted by a sharp blade and more like it had been gouged open by some irregular, jagged point.

Immediately following that was this overwhelming, impossible-to-ignore stench of fresh blood.

How had all of this happened? How could it have taken place so brazenly right under his very nose?

Taro truly had no idea how this wound had materialized. From the moment those particles of light appeared, he had expanded his perception to every single corner of the room. It was a form of absolute mastery over everything that "existed" within the space, where not the slightest movement could escape his "gaze"—and yet, he had stood there and watched helplessly as a bloody hole ripped open across Hiroyuki's stomach.

For a moment, even his confidence wavered. Could it really be that some hidden enemy lurked within this space, launching a stealthy assault upon the two of them?

Following a momentary shock, Taro swiftly regained his composure. He could feel himself entering the zone—a state that only ever emerged on a fiercely burning battlefield. Right now, he was capable of grasping every minute detail in his surroundings, able to confront all enemies and difficulties with an impregnable posture.

It was perhaps what they called the state of a "mind as clear and calm as a mirror."

With decisive promptness, Taro turned and strode toward the door, pulling it open to summon everyone who had been keeping watch outside.

The group rushed in, only to be utterly startled. The room was unlit, illuminated solely by the faint moonlight filtering through the window, rendering it quite dim. Even so, the reek of blood filling the chamber was horrifying—it possessed the exact stench one would expect from a freshly minted murder scene.

Next, almost everyone instinctively looked straight at Hiroyuki.

As for Tregear, he seemed to have been automatically ignored by everyone. Whether it was the Kujo couple, Soya Hono, or Riku and the others, they all subconsciously assumed that if someone had been injured among the two, it was bound to be Hiroyuki. As for Tregear... in their minds, he was an immensely powerful and cunning entity, making it simply impossible to imagine that he would be the one to suffer such a blow.

And the reality indeed bore this out.

Seven pairs of eyes gazed at the wound on Hiroyuki's stomach, each heart skipping a beat in alarm. One after another, they turned their heads back to look at Taro, as though silently demanding an explanation: What is the meaning of this? Did this happen right in front of you?

"This—anyway, we need to stop the bleeding first!" Pega spun around anxiously in place, rambling incoherently, "With a wound this huge, and the weather still so hot—no, this won't do, I'm going to get the first-aid kit!"

With that, Pega squeezed through the crowd and bolted out the door. Having lived here the longest, he knew the exact location of every single item. Seeing Pega run off, Riku pondered for a moment. The room was so packed there was barely any room to stand, and lingering here would only be a hindrance, so he followed Pega outside.

With the two of them gone, the room felt slightly emptier.

"This situation is untenable; I have to enter the dreamscape and take a look."

At this juncture, Taro also laid his cards on the table before the group. His tone was level, but within his chest, turbulent waves were crashing. Earlier, it was Hiroyuki who had begun emitting particles of light first, and when he turned his head, Tregear had started as well. Now that Hiroyuki had a gaping bloody hole in his abdomen, he truly feared that if he looked back, Tregear would also...

Thus, Taro could no longer remain seated. He had to take action, otherwise he would simply be sitting idly while waiting for the two of them to return, something he could never bring himself to do.

***

Hiroyuki felt as though his entire mind had turned to mush; nothing felt right, and his thoughts had completely stagnated.

He was half-dragged, half-pulled by Tregear beneath the shade of a tree, where he was propped up into a seated position against the trunk.

It was only then that Hiroyuki caught sight of the bloody chasm on his own stomach. Never had he imagined that within this world's script, it wouldn't be Taro who was run through by Tregear, but himself instead.

Did it hurt?

He tried hard to perceive it, and indeed, a sensation of pain registered, but far more overwhelming was a profound exhaustion, leaving him at the mercy of Tregear's grasp.

What had Tregear done?

When Tregear had set him down beneath the tree, Hiroyuki had caught a fleeting glimpse of something he was clutching in his hand... a mass of something truly difficult to define, utterly sanity-shattering in appearance. Even through the fog in his brain, Hiroyuki had instinctively averted his gaze, refusing to look.

One didn't need to guess to know that it was a fragment of Grimilde. Originally just a tiny sliver, it must have spent the past two months incubating and growing within his body. Hiroyuki felt a mixture of relief and lingering dread: had he not lived through the experiences of these past two months, had he not formed a connection with Tregear, had he not bridged the gap with Hikari and the Science Technology Bureau—if he had simply allowed it to grow unchecked inside him without any suppression, would he have been completely consumed and hollowed out by this parasitic monster without even realizing it?

Viewed in that light, letting Tregear take the creature back wasn't necessarily a bad thing; it was just that the extraction method had been far too... "direct."

Right at that moment, the ground beneath him began to tremble faintly, as though a heavy steamroller were rumbling toward them.

"Have they found us... Heh, Grimilde feeds on negative emotions like fear; it can be said to be an aggregation of negativity itself, so it's hardly surprising."

Tregear murmured, seemingly talking to himself, though his voice was not particularly low, and Hiroyuki heard every word clearly.

Hiroyuki felt strength drain entirely from his limbs, unable to maintain his upright posture any longer. After leaning against the tree for a brief moment, he slumped onto his side, finding the position far more effortless. Sitting up was simply too exhausting. The turf beneath him was soft, making the recumbent posture quite comfortable.

Tregear glanced down at Hiroyuki once, then turned his gaze toward the steadily approaching tremors, and without the slightest hesitation, turned and walked away.

Scarcely ten seconds after Tregear vanished from Hiroyuki's field of vision, a dark, serpentine head emerged into the clearing ahead. It flicked its forked tongue in and out, as if sensing something. The crimson tongue probed left and right until, finally, it located Hiroyuki.

By now, the human was lying flat amidst a pool of blood, breathing his feeble last. The gaping hole in his abdomen continued to ooze blood, and coupled with his side-lying posture, the crimson fluid had rapidly spread into a large stain across the grass beneath him. In the real world, this volume of blood loss would have been fatal.

The bright red serpent's tongue brushed inch by inch over the blood-soaked turf, coming to a halt right in front of Hiroyuki.

It caught the scent—a faint, alluring sweetness radiating from this human. But as it probed further, it discovered that the sweetness merely clung to him; the true source was not here.

Where had the source gone?

The serpent hissed, and its tongue once more set out to track down where the core of that sweet fragrance had gone.

Then, the serpent's head snapped abruptly upward.