Isagi could feel it — the "nightmare" now blanketing the city was something he had created.
And what's more.
It seemed like he could actually do things with it.
For instance — inside it, there were countless tiny little figures, and above each of their heads floated small, round bubbles. If he just gave one a gentle tap—
Every person's nightmare was different.
Throughout the Pleasure Quarter, neither clients nor workers had noticed a thing. The night sky had become something entirely different, and they were none the wiser.
When you are inside a dream, it is terribly difficult to realize that you are dreaming.
Not even the Gods were exempt. The many goddesses who ran establishments throughout the Pleasure Quarter felt nothing at all — as if this were nothing more than an utterly ordinary night.
But very quickly.
Many people realized something was very, very wrong.
First.
It was the Amazon women — countless of them — who discovered that their clients had suddenly... stopped functioning.
"!!"
Whether they were just about to get started.
Or already deep in the thick of it.
Or had just finished and were gearing up for another round.
The long night had barely begun — this was supposed to be the most delightful hour of all — and yet, somehow, inexplicably, it could not continue?!
No matter what they tried. It simply would not work.
Countless Amazon women felt as if the sky itself had caved in.
And not just them.
The clients felt the same way!!
This was the most terrifying "nightmare" imaginable for the majority of people in the Pleasure Quarter.
A nightmare, after all, is not merely something frightening or horrific.
It is something you refuse to face — something you refuse to accept — and yet it happens anyway, undeniably, in front of your eyes.
The emotion woven into it, that overwhelming, desperate resistance, is something that a simple word like "fear" could never begin to describe.
As Isagi's power spread outward.
The nightmares unique to each and every person continued to unfold throughout the Pleasure Quarter, blooming one after another, and drifting further and further out.
And even...
...
Deep in a pitch-black dungeon.
Compared to the gaudy, clamorous, indulgent sweetness of the streets outside — thick with perfume and powder — this dark, foul-smelling, damp underground chamber was its polar opposite in every sense.
From the darkness came the deep, shuddering reverberations of the floor — the sound of a woman of extraordinary, enormous build moving through the space.
[Man-Slayer] Phryne Jamil.
Or, alternatively, [Toad].
The former was her title among the people. The latter was the formal alias the Gods had bestowed upon her.
Neither was a flattering name, to say the least.
As a Lv.5 adventurer and captain of the Ishtar Familia, it wouldn't have been difficult for Phryne to earn a more dignified title — yet she embraced both of these "black marks" with gleeful pride, as if they were the highest of honors.
Over two meters tall.
Her weight was unknown, but the sheer enormity of her exterior — a hulking, mountain-like mass of flesh — said everything that needed to be said.
And when, in the darkness, her face was finally revealed.
One could only marvel that the title [Toad] was truly the most fitting thing imaginable — because the resemblance was, frankly, uncanny.
Phryne herself didn't see it that way in the slightest.
She was rather fond of her title [Man-Slayer], because to her it represented a certain kind of allure — proof that all fine men would fall before her "beauty," and willingly offer up everything they had. Yes, that's right — she genuinely believed that she, who looked every bit like a [Toad], was the most beautiful woman in the entire world.
And yet.
Much like her own self-assessment, her interpretation of the title [Man-Slayer] had gone spectacularly, catastrophically off-course.
In reality, people called her that for one reason, and one reason only: the literal meaning of the words.
Every man that Phryne got her hands on ultimately ended up half-paralyzed, or developed severe psychological trauma in the aftermath.
Fellow Amazon she may have been, but Phryne's tastes ran to the extreme — so extreme that no man could endure her particular methods of entertainment. As a result, she had no choice but to seek out her own prey, drag them down into this secret dungeon, and only then could she truly enjoy herself to her heart's content.
Weak torches flickered along the walls.
Their light fell across the still-wet bloodstains on the floor, the barbed whips, the triangular "sawhorses," and the array of restraining devices designed to hold a human body in every conceivable position — all of it illuminated in the dancing, orange glow.
Phryne's heartbeat quickened with excitement, because just tonight, she had caught herself a brand new "toy."
Now she could finally go and have some proper fun with it.
Except.
Before long, Phryne sensed that something was off.
Why was the dungeon so quiet?
Surely her little darling hadn't actually escaped?!
She flushed red with fury in an instant. The woman quickened her pace, and the entire dungeon shook violently with her every step.
But of course, the more you fear something, the more certainly it comes to pass — Phryne arrived at the cell where the man had been locked away and found it completely, utterly empty.
"How is this possible?!"
She let out a screeching, ear-splitting howl.
Fuming with rage, Phryne made to rush out and drag the escaped man back. But just at that moment.
From somewhere in the darkness, a different kind of disturbance stirred.
"Hmm?"
Could it be that the man hadn't left after all?
Or perhaps someone had come to rescue him?
Could they actually be here to teach her a lesson? To get revenge?
Phryne split her massive mouth open in a grin, her face twisting into its most hideous, gleeful expression.
Oh-ho-ho.
Her absolute favorite thing in the world was when someone came looking for trouble — and then, after being caught, found themselves thoroughly and lovingly attended to. That expression of utter despair and horror, slowly giving way to a blank, hollow numbness, like a puppet that had lost its soul... just imagining it made her mouth water.
Sticking out that thick, fat tongue to lick her lips, Phryne was already trembling with anticipation.
However.
What awaited her in the darkness of that dungeon was not any man at all — but a nightmare. A nightmare so horrifying and so grotesquely warped that the mind reeled at the sight of it.
---
"Samira, go find that Phryne woman, damn it — where the hell has she wandered off to now!"
The Ishtar Familia's compound had descended into complete chaos.
Haruhime's sudden disappearance had sent the Goddess into a furious, screaming rage, and she had mobilized the entire Familia to scour every corner for the fox-girl.
And yet trouble, as it so often did, chose this very moment to come knocking.
The Freya Familia had arrived.
When Aisha first heard the report, she could barely believe it — but it was the undeniable truth.
The Goddess of Beauty had sent her own Gulliver Brothers to launch an assault on the Ishtar Familia!!
By now, the main gates of the [Pleasure Palace of the Goddess] had already been broken through. The Ishtar Familia had fielded a considerable number of Lv.3 and Lv.4 adventurers — among them, no small number of secret operatives the Goddess had kept hidden from the Guild, soldiers held in reserve precisely for a surprise strike against the Freya Familia.
But they were no match for the Gulliver Brothers whatsoever.
Those four small Pallum warriors of the Goddess of Beauty had cut through their defenses as if walking through an empty field — completely, effortlessly, without resistance.
[Just as I thought.]
Aisha had known it would come to this.
The truth was, anyone with even a shred of sense understood: the gap between a first-tier adventurer and a second-tier adventurer was immense. Even with Haruhime's level-raising magic, victory was only theoretical.
But having personally experienced [Uchide's Mallet], Aisha knew that Haruhime's magic had its limits — it was simply not enough to truly bridge the chasm between levels.
Regardless, the Goddess, consumed by jealousy and long past the point of reason, was not going to listen to any of that.
Aisha shook her head.
For now, the most pressing priority was finding Captain Phryne. As the Familia's sole Lv.5, only she had any hope of holding off the Gulliver Brothers — even if just barely.
On the other side of things, the reinforcements from the Kali Familia were nearly here as well. Once those two Lv.6 adventurers arrived, the situation could be brought under control.
And yet.
Aisha could never have imagined what Samira would come back and tell her.
"What?!"
"It's... it's absolutely true... Aisha... you'd better... just come see for yourself..."
She seemed entirely at a loss for words to describe what she had witnessed.
And so.
Aisha quickly followed her to the secret dungeon tucked against the side of the Familia's compound.
And then she saw it — a sight she knew she would carry with her for the rest of her life.
Phryne's enormous, blubbery body was being coiled, writhing, and tightly wrapped in midair by several slick, glistening things — things that moved like the tentacles of an octopus. And they were... entering her... mouth... and...
Not only that.
There in the darkness of that dungeon, there were also pale, squirming maggots. And... Goblins?
A single glance was enough to make Aisha's knees go weak — and she was a second-tier adventurer. She nearly wanted to gouge her own eyes out on the spot.
Now she understood exactly why Samira had refused to describe it and insisted she come look for herself. Because there were truly no words for this. None at all!
Honestly, if she had been the first one to see it, she would have done the same thing — dragged someone else down here to witness it. There was absolutely no way she was bearing this alone!!
Bleeugh—
They got out of there. Fast.
She had no idea what had happened — and she had no intention of thinking any further about what Phryne's ordeal might continue to involve... No. No. She was not going to think about it.
Not that anyone had a shred of sympathy for Phryne, anyway. Even within their own Familia, Phryne had the worst reputation of all — not only because her personality was repulsive, but because she habitually stole other women's men and then left them in that kind of state. She had long since become a kind of terrifying urban legend in the Pleasure Quarter.
If it weren't for her sheer strength, nobody would have given that insufferable woman the time of day.
Besides — there was simply nothing to be done!
Given what they'd just seen, who in their right mind would go in there to save her?!
If they ended up getting caught too— Aisha and Samira found themselves involuntarily quickening their retreat just from the thought.
Forget it forget it forget it forget it forget it — just scrub every last scrap of that eye-contaminating horror from memory!!
The Captain was a complete write-off.
Fortunately.
The Kali Familia's reinforcements moved quickly. Upon returning to the compound, Aisha immediately had the injured members pulled back and tended to.
What kind of night was this?
Haruhime's disappearance.
The Freya Familia's assault.
And Phryne's... that...
All of it piling together at once made Aisha feel, deep in her bones, that this was no ordinary night.
And what's more —
From high atop a tower balcony, Aisha could see the courtyard far below: the four small Pallum warriors clad in golden armor, and opposite them, the freshly arrived reinforcements — two Lv.6 Amazon warriors from the martial nation's Kali Familia.
Both sides had fallen into a standoff.
And yet, for some reason Aisha could not explain, she suddenly realized — in the midst of that battlefield which should have been utterly unapproachable — a dark shadow was slowly, silently taking shape.
____
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