Part 1
"DIE!"
Kimura's voice split the air, warped and broken, layered as if a dozen throats screamed in unison. His body twisted unnaturally, purple veins glowing like molten cracks across his flesh. From deep within, a colossal wave of despair erupted, flooding the battlefield in suffocating pressure.
"Heh!" Vanko sneered, though his grin twitched with unease.
"Great work, soldier. You're breaking all expectations." His eyes gleamed with cruel amusement.
"But still… you can't do anything to me."
Rumble! Rumble!
The ground trembled as reality itself groaned.
Countless purple chains tore into existence, writhing like serpents.
They coiled toward Kimura, snapping and twisting, trying to bind him in their endless embrace.
But Kimura was no longer the man, who had once struggled against them.
ROARRR!
A monstrous roar tore from his throat, shaking the air.
His form was swallowed in a veil of blackish-purple sludge, dripping and writhing like living tar. His face darkened, consumed by shadow — and where his mouth should have been, a new maw split open.
Rows upon rows of jagged, glowing teeth — a hundred in total, burning with violet energy.
The nightmare-mouth lunged forward, devouring the chains as they struck. The sound of grinding bone and shattering metal echoed as the bindings vanished in an instant.
Vanko's grin faltered. His pupils shrank.
Kimura moved.
In the space between one heartbeat and the next, he was upon Vanko. His fist drove into the mercenary lord's gut, faster than sight, faster than thought.
THUD!
Vanko doubled over, eyes wide with horror.
"DIE!" Kimura screamed again, his voice fractured, layered like a demon's chorus. This time his fists blurred, striking pressure point after pressure point across Vanko's body with inhuman precision. Each blow was a multi-layered attack — designed not just to wound, but to multiply pain a hundredfold.
"Aghhh! Ahhhhhh! Aghhaaa!"
Vanko's screams tore from his throat. His armor rattled, his body convulsed. The agony was unlike anything he had ever endured. It wasn't just pain — it was suffering that bypassed the nerves, flooding his very soul.
He was a mercenary lord, a man who had mastered torment and lived in the midst of blood. Yet in that moment, under the storm of Kimura's fury, he was reduced to prey.
"Suffer!" Kimura bellowed, his arms moving faster than the eye could follow, his fists a blur of shadows.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Bones groaned under the endless barrage.
"Suffer! Suffer! SUFFER!"
Each word dripped with venom, each strike echoing with years of rage.
"Like I said…" Kimura's tongue slithered unnaturally, demonic and slick, his face twisted into something inhuman. He leaned close, whispering in a voice that chilled the marrow.
"You will suffer a million times more… than I ever did."
His words clung to the air like a curse.
Vanko's defiance broke. His scream rose again, raw and terrified.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
The nightmare had begun.
Part 2
A few hours later.
The battlefield was silent, save for the faint hiss of miasma crawling over shattered stone.
Vanko lay sprawled on the ground — if he could still be called a man. Every bone in his body was splintered, organs shredded beyond recognition. His scalp was torn bare, hair ripped from the root, leaving only a grotesque, bleeding husk. He twitched faintly, a mass of broken meat that somehow clung to the edge of life.
Kimura — or what remained of him — loomed above. His shadow stretched long and jagged, his form half-swallowed by the sludge of nightmare.
"Ahhh~" His voice was a low, guttural purr. "The despair… isn't it amazing,
Vanko~?"
He crouched low, his monstrous grin splitting wider. His many teeth gleamed with purple fire.
"The very gift you gave me, just a few years ago… has returned to you."
A distorted laugh bubbled from his throat.
"Heh! Heh! HeH! HEH!"
He leaned closer, his aura suffocating, dripping malice like venom.
"Now~ you can die."
With a grotesque snap, the nightmare mouth opened wide, eclipsing his face. Rows upon rows of violet teeth glistened. It clamped down, devouring Vanko whole in a single horrifying bite.
But there was no struggle. No scream.
Vanko had already died — not in flesh, but in spirit. His mind shattered long before his body was consumed.
The silence afterward was heavier than any scream.
Kimura's — no, the monster's — voice broke it, dripping with amusement.
"Hmm~ that had a great pleasure to it. Don't you think… me?"
He grinned into the void, his giant nightmare-mouth curling unnaturally.
Silence answered.
"Hmm? Not talking, huh?" His grin widened further, splitting too far, too sharp.
"Then allow me… to make you talk."
The creature raised its hand. Purple claws shimmered into existence, razor-sharp and dripping with a dreadful aura.
Ka–chank!
Without hesitation, it plunged its claws deep into its own chest.
Creak.Crunch.
Bone shattered. Flesh tore. Black sludge spilled like tar. The monster's arm dug deeper, deeper still, until it clenched around something solid.
"Heh! Gotcha."
ZZK!
With a violent pull, it ripped something free — something that wasn't flesh or bone. A figure was dragged from within, kicking and screaming as if torn out of reality itself.
And in its monstrous grip… was Kimura Takatou.
The original. The man. The soldier. The human self that once fought, once bled, once loved.
The nightmare held him up like a toy, dangling.
"So…" The monstrous mouth spoke, curling into a grin lined with endless teeth.
"Did you enjoy the immersion-type nightmare?"
Its tone dripped with mockery, with venom, with twisted delight.
"My so-called… past self?"
The grin widened. The original Kimura's eyes widened in terror.
And the abyss laughed.
Part 3
"Wait—what!?"
Kimura's voice cracked with panic. His chest heaved, his eyes wide with confusion. At the moment countless Questions assaulted his mind. "What's happening!? I… I just killed Vanko! Then why—why is my body calling me its past self!?" His breath came faster, ragged.
"If he's standing in front of me as my future… how did I get here!? And more importantly… how the hell did I become him, only to be torn apart right after victory!?"
His words dissolved into the void.
Suddenly, his vision wavered. The world flickered between fog and clarity, solid and unreal, each shift leaving him more disoriented. His head throbbed. His mind spun.
"What's… happening to me!?"
The monster — the twisted version of Takatou — tilted its massive, fanged mouth in something like a smile. Its voice rolled out, deep, casual, unnervingly calm.
"Ohhh… you're returning? So soon?"
It shook its monstrous head with mock disappointment.
"Sad."
It heaved a sigh, exaggerated and cruel.
"Don't worry. The parasite will explain it all clearly."
[Hey! I'm not a parasite!]
A screen flickered into existence before them both — its surface shimmering with violet light. But the voice that flowed out wasn't robotic, not cold and mechanical. It was smooth. Mature. Feminine.
"Ohhh," the voice purred.
"You must be the new applicant. Right? Your system did apply to me."
The nightmare-Takatou faked a cough, scratching its massive chin with claws still dripping black sludge. "Ahem. Sena… don't."
[Hmph. Whatever.]
The voice grew clearer, and the text on the screen shifted into elegant glyphs.
[I am Sena. One of many future versions of your system.]
Kimura froze. His heart dropped.
[And this big guy here? He's your future self. Or… one of your many possible alts.]
The nightmare form loomed closer, its grin grotesquely wide, echoing Sena's words with a casual shrug.
"Don't worry. Your system will explain everything clearly. And hey—" Its monstrous laugh rumbled low, disturbing the silence.
"Try not to crash after that, okay?"
Kimura's lips trembled. His fists clenched helplessly. Just moments ago this beast had devoured Vanko alive, its teeth gnashing with malice. Now it stood here, speaking casually — as if tearing apart his soul was just a footnote.
He shook his head, eyes burning. His voice cracked.
"What the fu—"
Before he could finish, the world rippled. His body shivered. His outline fractured like glass.
And then—
Kimura Takatou disappeared from existence.
Part 4
[Hope he survives his fate… and doesn't get corrupted like you.]
Sena's voice rang gently, her tone betraying the faintest trace of worry as she watched the boy vanish into nothingness. The screen dimmed, its glow reflecting against the monstrous figure beside her.
Monster Takatou — a nightmare made flesh — exhaled in a long, heavy sigh.
"Yeah, yeah… I hope so."
Sena's glyphs pulsed softly. [But… it's not like the laws of his universe are the same as ours. He should be fine.]
Then, in an almost cheerful pivot, her voice brightened.
[By the way, host — do you want to go back to heaven? To your wife and daughter? All your achievements have earned you the ticket.]
The nightmare tilted its monstrous head, and for the first time, its grin softened.
"Yeah?" His voice was lazy, almost relieved. "Okay. Finally. All my objectives… completed." Satisfaction dripped from every syllable. He leaned back as if a great weight had been lifted.
"But…" His grin stretched wide again, sharp and cruel. "That kid's got a longer… and crueler path ahead, then i or any of my version ever had. You know that, right, system?"
[Affirmative.]
"Tch." The monster scoffed, clicking its jagged teeth. "Stop acting like a damn robot, you damn parasite."
The void swallowed their laughter.
(Scene Shift)
Safe Zone – The Sacred Land of Cosmic Trinity "G.O.D."(Kimura Takatou's Universe)
Kimura's body lay motionless on the marble ground at the edge of the Safe Zone. The golden trees and runic pillars around him radiated serenity, yet his unconscious frame twitched faintly, caught in the grip of his lingering nightmare.
A translucent screen shimmered into existence above him.
[The Host has slept for 6 hours.]
[System-specific skill — Dream Walker — has been deactivated.]
[System-specific curse — Curse of the Nightmare — has been deactivated.]
[The Host will be forcibly awakened in… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1.]
A surge of electricity crackled through his veins. His body jolted violently, breath tearing back into his lungs.
Kimura shot upright, eyes wide, gasping.
"What… the flipping shit!?"
Sweat dripped down his temples. His pulse hammered.
Once more, Kimura Takatou had been dragged back from the border of dreams — or nightmares.
But for the first time, he wasn't sure which one was real.