Chapter 36 – The Crown of Desire and the Shattered Mirage
The heat of Muspelheim was more than environmental — it was alive.
The air shimmered with hatred, longing, and the faint hum of magic so dense it distorted perception itself.
The deeper I went into the Crimson Veins Plateau, the more I felt the atmosphere pulling at me — not my body, but my mind.
Every heartbeat seemed louder. Every thought, slower.
Even HIME's voice — normally clear, composed — flickered with static.
> "Ren-sama, data interference increasing exponentially. Illusory fields detected across three layers of reality. Recommend immediate deployment of counter-measures."
"Yeah," I murmured, scanning the landscape. "She's close."
The magma fields stretched endlessly, broken only by obsidian pillars that rose like spires toward a blood-red sky.
And at the center — suspended above a molten chasm — hovered a throne of glass and flame.
On it sat a woman made of light and shadow both.
Her form was perfect — too perfect — shifting subtly every time I blinked, as if she was trying to become everything I desired and feared at once.
Her hair flowed like liquid gold, her eyes burned like twin suns behind a veil of smoke.
When she smiled, the air itself trembled.
> [WORLD ENEMY DETECTED – CLASS: "Lust"]
[Level: 112 | Classification: Illusion Incarnate | Sin-Type Entity]
[Battlefield Modifier: Infinite Mirage Field Active]
---
"Traveler_R," she said, her voice wrapping around my mind like silk.
It wasn't speech — it was sensation, warmth, temptation.
"You wandered so far just to see me. Tell me… what is it you crave?"
I grinned, summoning my twin blades from my inventory. The red glow of World Break pulsed faintly through my arm.
"Right now?" I said. "Your data."
Her laughter echoed through the plateau — melodic, haunting, echoing across layers of sound and illusion.
And then, the world fractured.
---
The Battle of Infinite Mirrors
The throne exploded into light as dozens of spectral copies of Lust appeared across the lava fields, each shimmering like heat waves.
Every one of them smiled, moving in perfect unison.
> "Illusion field expanding," HIME reported, her eyes glowing golden as defense barriers manifested around me. "Estimated active constructs: seventy-three."
"Then seventy-three targets it is."
I activated Doppelganger Form, my body splitting into multiple after-images — each an independent combat shell.
The magma reflected a dozen versions of me, each brandishing energy chains that shimmered like ribbons of silver light.
The battle erupted in silence — explosions of color and distortion.
My Shackles of Karmic Silence lashed out, cutting through the illusions, binding two — no, three — of her projections.
But each one I caught dissolved instantly into ash and light.
> "False signatures," HIME said sharply. "Her core remains unidentified!"
Then came her charm — a wave of crimson light sweeping outward from every illusion.
For a split second, I felt my vision blur, my heart race — commands stuttering.
> "Warning: Status abnormality detected — [Frenzy], [Madness], [Confusion]."
> "Counteracting!" HIME's voice sliced through the haze. "Deploying absolute resistance barrier."
A luminous wall of golden hexagons burst into existence around me, and the charm shattered against it.
I gasped as clarity returned.
"Thanks," I breathed. "That was close."
> "My function is defense," she replied simply. "Yours is victory."
---
Data Collapse: Revision
Lust flickered again, her voice now whispering from every direction.
"You hide behind your machine. You're so afraid of wanting something… why not let me show you what desire feels like?"
"Tempting," I muttered. "But I already have everything I need."
I extended my arm.
Reality twisted.
[Ultimate Skill Activated: Data Collapse – Revision]
Every illusion around me shattered into streams of binary — fragments of her code unraveling midair.
The system screamed in response, trying to rebuild her shattered projections, but I was already rewriting their parameters.
"Let's see how you handle this," I said.
From the broken data, I emerged — dozens of copies of myself, forged from the remains of her illusions.
Each one carried fragments of her abilities, turned against her.
Her voice broke into a furious hiss. "You… dare corrupt my reflection?"
"Who better to manipulate illusion than another illusionist?"
The battlefield became chaos incarnate — my constructs clashing with hers, collapsing and reforming faster than the eye could follow.
Reality warped, heat waves froze midair, magma turned to glass.
Every few seconds, a new copy of her appeared — stronger, faster — but the real her remained unseen.
---
HIME's Intervention
"HIME," I said through the combat link. "Switch defense priority to full magic resistance."
> "Confirmed."
Light enveloped her form as her wings unfolded — radiant constructs of blue and silver.
Her eyes blazed as she projected an Absolute Barrier, the strongest defensive spell she possessed.
[Skill Activated: Absolute Domain – Nullification Field]
The air went silent.
Every illusion that touched the barrier disintegrated instantly, their data unable to sustain form.
Lust screamed — not in pain, but in rage.
The voice that had once been sweet now dripped venom.
> "You can't cage what doesn't exist!"
Her body flickered into the air above the magma, manifesting at last — her true form, burning like molten glass.
She raised her hands, and the entire plateau erupted into crimson flame.
A sphere of pure heat and madness expanded outward, warping space itself.
> "Ren-sama!" HIME shouted. "The illusion field has merged with the environment! No safe zone remains!"
I smiled grimly. "Then we burn together."
---
World Break
I drew on everything — every ounce of MP, every fragment of focus I had left.
The red sigils of World Break, my World Champion Ultimate Skill, ignited along my arms.
The air vibrated as the boundary between code and creation tore open.
[Ultimate Skill Activated: World Break – Origin Rewrite]
Crimson energy spiraled outward, ripping through her mirage like paper.
The world froze, reality suspended mid-frame.
I lunged — Doppelganger Shift — flickering behind her, my form splitting into five mirrored copies.
Each one lashed out simultaneously with my Shackles of Karmic Silence.
The chains struck true, binding her arms, legs, and throat.
For the first time, Lust screamed.
Her illusions collapsed. The false sky shattered.
The battlefield reverted to its molten core — magma roaring beneath us like applause.
> "Target containment successful," HIME said. "Resonance field stable for twelve seconds."
"Twelve's all I need."
I raised my hand, focusing the last fragments of energy I had left.
The sigils of Data Collapse reappeared, overlapping World Break's circle.
Reality itself stuttered.
"Data Collapse: Revision – Execute."
The explosion wasn't sound — it was silence.
The kind that devoured everything.
When it cleared, there was nothing left of Lust but fractal dust dissolving into light.
---
Aftermath
I fell to one knee, gasping, my vision flickering red.
HP: 5%. MP: 0%.
Every system alert screamed in my interface, but I was still alive.
Barely.
HIME landed beside me, her wings dimming.
> "Ren-sama, victory confirmed. The World Enemy entity Lust has been deleted. Estimated recovery time required: extensive."
I laughed weakly. "I'll… take your word for it."
The lava around us was quiet now — no illusions, no whispers, just the steady hum of a dead world breathing one last time.
> "Ren-sama," HIME said softly, kneeling beside me. "You risked everything."
"Yeah," I murmured, looking up at the flickering sky. "But it was worth it. She was strong."
> "So are you."
I smiled faintly, my vision dimming as fatigue finally caught up.
"Maybe. But let's… not do that again anytime soon."
> "Agreed."
And as the light of Muspelheim faded behind me, my consciousness slipped — not into darkness, but into quiet.
---
In the silence, as data currents drifted, a single notification pulsed faintly at the edge of my vision:
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: You have defeated a World Enemy – Lust.]
[Unique Data Fragment Acquired: Sin Core – Desire.]
[Warning: Integration attempt not recommended.]
I smiled to myself before sleep claimed me.
"Yeah," I whispered. "We'll see about that."
---
End of Chapter 36 – The Crown of Desire and the Shattered Mirage