Chapter 33 – Echoes of the Uninvited
The air inside the distortion shifted.
A ripple passed through the dream — faint, but sharp enough to make Rimuru pause mid-step. The fragments of light around her flickered out of sync, like an orchestra missing a beat.
She turned slowly, eyes narrowing.
"…That resonance…"
Another pulse came — heavier this time, resonating through the ground beneath her feet. The energy was familiar — steady, disciplined, almost irritatingly structured.
Rimuru sighed and rubbed her temple. "Oh, for the love of— Ren."
The dream around her reacted instantly. Shards of memory trembled, the colors distorting again as if the world itself didn't know how to handle a second intruder. Blue streaks cut through the crimson haze, the air bending to two opposing frequencies.
"Of course he'd jump in," she muttered. "Couldn't just text me like a normal person."
But even as she joked, her hand trembled slightly — a small tell she didn't bother to hide.
She closed her eyes and reached out through the distortion, tracing the new resonance. It was faint, unstable, the edges already fraying under the dream's pressure. Ren's energy was too ordered, too human for a space built from emotion and chaos.
He was burning through himself just to stay in.
"Idiot," Rimuru whispered, her voice barely holding its usual teasing tone. "You're not built for this place."
A low hum echoed through the air — not Aira's, not the distortion's. His. It came from somewhere deeper, toward the fractured horizon where the world bent like a broken mirror.
Rimuru exhaled. "Guess I don't have a choice."
The path ahead split in two — one direction led toward Aira's still form, trapped inside a blooming field of crystal memories; the other pulsed with Ren's energy, already dimming.
For a long moment, Rimuru just stood there. The blue light from Aira's side flickered faintly against her skin; the red pulse from Ren's side painted the other half of her face in shadow.
Then she smiled — small, tired, but genuine.
"Of course. Two emotionally complicated disasters, and I'm the babysitter."
The dream shook again, impatient.
Rimuru's eyes flashed — one red, one blue. "Hang on, you two," she said, voice soft but steady. "I'm coming."
She stepped forward. The distortion howled — but she laughed anyway, the sound cutting through the chaos like a spark of defiance.
> "You're not getting them," she whispered to the collapsing world. "Not while I'm still laughing."