Rudger couldn't say anything when he saw the captured Rene.

The question "why" wouldn't leave his mind.

On the other hand, if he thought about it in reverse, there were more than enough reasons.

Nirva is insidious.

Considering the tendencies he had shown so far, it wasn't strange that he had even prepared this method.

"Your expression has changed. So I was right about you having a deep connection with this child."

"......"

"Oh my. Please don't glare at me like that. Even though I appear this way, I'm not the devil you all speak of. Have you never thought that I could use a hostage to threaten you before an important mission?"

Speaking like that, Nirva truly seemed to feel not a shred of shame for his actions.

His true feelings were that if he could stop the most threatening Rudger with just one hostage, he would do it a hundred or even a thousand times.

However, although Rudger was slightly agitated, the gap in his heart had not yet been revealed.

'Hmm. This isn't enough, is it?'

If that's the case, the only option was to shake him up a bit more.

"Remarkable. A person who seemed to have neither blood nor tears is overflowing with such compassion. Is this girl that important in your life?"

"From now on."

Rudger's voice dropped sharply.

"You'd better carefully weigh each and every word you speak."

A chill flowed through the air that seemed as if it would freeze anything touched by his blue eyes.

Nirva felt his skin crawl.

"If you don't want to end painfully in my hands, that is."

"Hahaha. That's amusing."

Nirva laughed as he mocked Rudger, but he didn't take that warning lightly.

From his perspective, Rudger was not yet using his full power.

The Rudger that Nirva saw was someone who could wield the power of a god.

For whatever reason, he was suppressing it, but there was an overwhelming possibility that he would unleash that power if pushed too far.

'And not the power of Lumensis, but the power of another god at that.'

According to the truth he had read through dreams, he was of noble lineage from the Holy Nation of Bretus.

But surprisingly, the divine power he felt from him was like that of the Dream Goddess, a god who had been exiled and fallen from grace by Lumensis.

He didn't know how this had come to be, but it was certain that Rudger's threat was not just empty words.

'Even during the fight, he didn't fully reveal it.'

Whether he couldn't or wouldn't.

Nirva assumed, at minimum, it was the former.

With a human body, borrowing the power of a god would demand a considerable price.

Knowing this himself, he was suppressing it as much as possible and not using it.

'If he takes the approach of dying together, it would be troublesome for me too.'

So Nirva had to stimulate Rudger just enough without causing him to explode.

It wasn't a difficult task.

Digging into the opponent's mind and subtly shaking it was what Nirva did best.

And Rudger was now revealing his weakness.

"Was this girl so important to you? Important enough to seal her memories and not only that, but to keep her close and continue to help her?"

When he first kidnapped Rene, Nirva thought she had a connection with Zero Order.

But when he quickly examined the dreams of the sleeping Rene, he discovered an even more surprising truth.

Her memories had been sealed, and rather than having any connection to Zero Order, she had far more points of contact with Rudger Chelici.

Nirva pieced together Rene's dreams to examine her sealed past.

The memories were only sealed, not completely erased.

It was entirely possible to peek just beyond the seal.

He learned about Rene's past and how Rudger was connected to it.

"The girl who lost her memories believed in and followed you like a benefactor, but how cruel a reality is this? That the person she respected was actually the enemy who killed her mother? Pitifully, she doesn't know this fact at all."

"......"

"Moreover, because you sealed her memories, she doesn't even know that she had a mother, let alone that her mother died at your hands. Isn't this truly a desperate tragedy?"

Sealing memories to make her forget the pain?

In Nirva's view, this was merely Rudger's self-consolation.

From the moment Rudger killed Rene's mother, the relationship between the two was broken beyond repair.

Distorted and torn.

Rudger forcibly stitched and patched that relationship back together.

Even though he must have known it was just a temporary measure.

If someone just lightly tapped it, or even if a very gentle breeze passed by.

This precarious relationship, like a wobbling tower, would collapse all too easily.

"At first, I thought you cared about that girl because she possessed the power of a saint."

Nirva, of course, had also read the power residing in Rene's body.

What kind of power she possessed as well.

"She's the owner of the Judgment Eye after all. I thought someone from the Holy Nation like you would be interested."

The Judgment Eye that Rene possessed is a power that has been passed down in the Holy Nation of Bretus since ancient times.

An eye that can judge right from wrong, and distinguish between good and evil.

And when that power reaches its peak, it's even rumored to be able to peer beyond the heavenly secrets and see into the future.

"In the past, since Saint Arkenis of the Lumensis Order, no more owners of the Judgment Eye have appeared in the order. Isn't that strange?"

"What's strange about it?"

"Don't you know, being from there? That there exists a saint of the era in the Holy Nation of Bretus. But there can only be one owner of the Judgment Eye in the same era. The fact that the owner is here now, what does that make the current saint in your home country?"

‘A fake.’

Nirva was claiming as much, just without saying the word and Rudger knew this as well.

The current saint put forward by the order was essentially nothing more than a fake.

Of course, she wasn't just a decorated facade put forward to deceive people.

In fact, it was said that the current saint possessed great divine power and wielded a power similar to the Judgment Eye.

That wasn't a false statement, the current saint really did have such power.

It's just that it wasn't a power she had attained on her own, but a power artificially created by someone.

"As expected of the cruel fanatics who believe in Lumensis. Replacing the disappeared saint with counterfeits made to imitate that power. Isn't this like a group scam against the believers who trust and follow them?"

It's not just the saint.

The priestess sisters wearing tiaras on their eyes too were test subjects prepared to create a saint.

Not qualified enough to become a saint, but their qualifications were outstanding enough that it would be a waste to discard them, so they received the position of priestesses.

They also possessed powers similar to the Judgment Eye and continued to live a life of service to the order as mid-level officials.

"So I thought that you approached that girl for similar reasons. Being a descendant of the Holy Emperor of Bretus, I thought you were trying to find traces of the saint for your own use."

To Nirva, the relationship between Rudger and Rene was strange enough to make one's tongue drop.

An abandoned lineage of the Holy Emperor.

Moreover, he even possessed the power of a heretical god.

Conversely, Rene was the owner of the Judgment Eye that the order had lost.

And she was also the bearer of non-attribute magic power, which could be considered an incurable disease.

These two people had already met once 10 years ago in the past.

That meeting was by chance, but the end was driven to tragedy.

"But now, seeing your actions, there seems to be no such noble cause at all. It's for an extremely personal reason. Did the fact that she's the daughter of the woman you killed weigh so heavily on your mind? Did you want to find comfort in your heart by bestowing such cheap sympathy?"

Now, as time has passed.

The two met again in Theon but one remembered the other, while the other had her memories sealed.

"What a cruel play of fate this is. Even to me, who has seen countless dreams under the Goddess, it's too tragic."

"......"

"So I thought I'd give a little help. I'll cut off her cruel fate here."

Nirva's tongue moved cunningly, shaking Rudger's mind.

Rudger tried to rush towards Nirva with widened eyes, but Nirva raised his index finger and shook it left and right.

"Don't do anything rash. Right now, I'm holding the lifeline of the girl you cherish."

Seureu-reuk.

As if to prove that this wasn't just an empty threat, dream sand was circling around the neck of the lying Rene.

A warning that he would cut her throat if the other side made the slightest reckless move.

Rudger could only clench his fist.

"Can you handle it? The only reason I'm entertaining your provocation now is because Rene is held hostage."

"Yes. The moment I kill her, all the brakes that could stop you will go crazy. That's why I don't kill her and remain like this, right?"

"Yes. Then you must know that such actions are essentially meaningless."

"That's right. What else is there besides buying time like this?"

Nirva unexpectedly agreed with Rudger's words.

Wondering what kind of trick he was up to, Rudger glared at Nirva, who grinned and said:

"All I want is to shake your mind a little."

"You're going to try to shake me with just such words?"

"Didn't I say? That I'd cut off her cruel fate here. That wasn't meant in a physical sense."

At Nirva's smile, Rudger felt a chill run down his spine.

He had an intuition that something irreversible had happened.

That's what his instinct kept whispering.

He didn't know what Nirva was trying to do, but he had to stop it.

However he realized it was too late.

"That girl has already heard everything."

"...She heard?"

Rudger's trembling gaze turned to Rene.

Rene's eyes, which had been lying as if dead, captured by the dream sand, had been open, though since when, it was impossible to tell.

Towards Rudger, who couldn't open his mouth as if he couldn't believe it, Nirva sneered.

"From the moment we started our conversation, I carefully adjusted so that only that girl's mind was awake. In other words, she heard all the conversations we had."

Nirva's voice was inaudible to Rudger's ears.

All the sounds and colors of the world receded, and only Rene's figure appeared in Rudger's eyes.

Rene, who had woken up, was staring at Rudger like someone still dreaming.

The shock was so great that it went beyond surprise to a point where no reaction could be felt.

Rene's closed lips opened slowly.

"Is that, true...?"

"......"

"Did you really, teacher, my memories...?"

"Rene, I......"

Cracks began to form in the solid mind that had no room for even a needle to enter and the smile on Nirva's lips deepened.

His mouth, split up to his ear, represented his emotions.

Finally the opportunity had arrived.

"As much as I'd like to watch the end of this catastrophe more, the curtain must fall here."

With those words, Nirva snapped his fingers.

Rene's eyelids drooped, and her body collapsed onto the dream sand.

Rudger just watched the sight quietly.

He could only watch.

Minute dream particles circled around the standing Rudger, sticking to his body.

The dream sand particles that had no effect at all before but now it was different.

Nirva's authority wedged into the gaps in Rudger's heart and Rudger's eyes, which had been directed at Rene, slowly closed as his consciousness sank to the depths of the deep abyss.

A dream within a dream.

To Rudger, falling into that deep place, Nirva's last words echoed:

"Good morning. And it will be a good afternoon. So, good night, sweet dreams."

* * *

"It's over."

Nirva was confident as he looked at Rudger, who had completely fallen asleep.

He wasn't pretending to be caught in order to deceive this side.

This time, he could tell with certainty that Rudger had fallen asleep.

Nirva, who had approached very close to Rudger, raised his hand.

Dream sand condensed along the edge of his hand, taking the form of a sharp blade.

If he swung it now and cut Rudger's neck in one go, it would all be over but he didn't swing the sword.

Nirva withdrew his hand.

"There's no need to touch him and create a sore."

Now he will dream a dream from which he cannot wake up.

Dreaming in a dream, and dreaming in that dream, an infinite dream spiral.

That was enough.

It would be troublesome if he disturbed Rudger here and the divine power he possessed reacted.

Nirva's gaze shifted back to Rene, who had fallen asleep.

"Owner of the Judgment Eye, and bearer of non-attribute magic power."

This girl was truly born with a bizarre fate but considering what's to come, this might be better.

If the Lumensis Order becomes aware of her existence, worse things will happen then.

"Perhaps it's better for this child not to wake up from here."

Don't worry child, the Goddess will embrace you warmly.