“Are we really doing this?” Rakna deadpanned as he looked at Flavia sitting on a bed and tapping the spot next to her. “There’s another bed right there…” He insisted and pointed at the unoccupied bed of the large room they were in. “I could just-”

“Denied.”

“…”

Evelyn giggled as she cleaned all the alchemical equipment on her bed. “Give up, you won’t be able to escape this by talking,” she said. “Though I would have liked it to be me instead…” She muttered inaudibly the last part.

Rakna sighed and glanced at Nyx who was already lying down on her bed with a book open in her hands. “Was this ‘sleeping together’ your idea? I don’t believe these two would try to ask me that like this.”

The night goddess let out a faint smile and turned the page. “They were pestering me about being unfair and whatnot. I replied; why not make it fair then? Take it however you want.”

“{What a clever response! Did you hear that?}” Higure said laughingly.

‘…’

“{What’s wrong? Did you begin to salivate as you recalled my body through my voice?}”

‘Shut up, horny cat.’

“{And proud of it. More seriously, however, are you truly that nervous about this little thing? And here I thought nothing could embarrass you…}”

‘The situation itself doesn’t bother me. It’s the social implications of spending the night in a room with three other women, on top of sharing a bed with one.’

“{I think I understand that feeling,}” Fray hummed. “{It is one of those cases that scream ‘there is something wrong going on’ but you can’t do anything about it.}”

“{Is that from experience?}”

“{You could say that.}”

Rakna shook his head. “There’s something even worse,” he muttered loud enough for the girls to hear and look at him questioningly. He sighed. “Fine… I’ll do it. At one condition.”

“What is it?” Flavia asked confusingly.

“If I start thrashing around, don’t try to wake me up.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to kill you.”

“…” Flavia was struck speechless for half a minute while the others fell silent.

“I never truly slept with someone nearby before except my uncle. Only he could safely deal with me. He told me that during my nightmares I had tried to kill him unconsciously,” he said with an even colder tone than usual. Something he was doing on purpose to dissuade her. “Think about it carefully. Are you sure you-”

“Yes.” To his distress, she interrupted him before he could even finish.

He sighed. “That’s just reckless…”

“Don’t worry!” Flavia replied smilingly and leaned over the edge of the bed and hefted Tyran up onto her lap. “He will protect me if anything happens. He doesn’t need sleep and now that he is my pet, I’ve already started to feel the empathic connection. He’ll know right away.”

Rakna blinked and cast Appraisal on the little T. Rex.

❮ ◈ ❯

Name: Tyrannos Mors

Age: 13 | Level: 55

Race: Undead Ancient Dreorin – Tyrannosaurus Asura Rex

Title: King of Dreorins – Anti-God

Masters: 1. Rakna Xiorra / 2. Flavia Jeina

❮ ◈ ❯

‘Two masters…’ Rakna thought. “Did you two form a contract when you entered the Dungeon?”

“We did. My AI me told me it was possible.”

“Well… if Tyran watches over, it should be all right,” he said and turned toward his pet. “Pronos, if you feel that something is happening too, don’t hesitate to do anything to stop me.”

The little snake seemed a bit hesitant but nodded nonetheless.

“I would also like to say to say that I’ll intervene if needed but…” Nyx scowled. “Your supposedly recent skill will make it hard.”

Rakna felt a bit wry at that. He hadn’t even thought of that. This Sin of Sloth had the potential to make things even worse. But at the same time, now that he was reminded of it, he supposed it was not a bad idea to try and do something about his nightmares so that he could get full advantage of the effects.

“Right… I’m sorry, I can’t turn it off now. And it will ironically be even stronger when I sleep,” he said with a helpless tone. “Fortunately Pronos should be able to bypass that.”

“So, we’re all set then?” Flavia followed up and he rolled his eyes.

“Sure…”

“Good! Now, here,” she said victoriously and tapped the pillow next to her with a wide smile.

Rakna sighed and under the eyes of everyone, let out a inoffensive snarl without warning and his fangs elongated along with his fur. In the midst of the transformation, he jumped on the bed as a wolf no taller than half a meter thanks to Gigantism’s shrinking.

Flavia blinked several times as she watched the lupine curl around on the bed and lay his head on his crossed legs. “…eh?” She uttered stunned and the wolf snorted.

“Makes it less awkward,” he replied impishly. “You never specified. Don’t worry, as far as I’ve seen of this form, I don’t shed any hair.”

The Chaos Witch blinked again until she ultimately pouted. “That’s cheating…” She mumbled and pulled the sheets over her body in one tug but Rakna’s form didn’t stop her from scooping over to him and borderline place her head on him.

Nyx let out a chuckle at the sight and when Evelyn was ready to go to sleep, the lights of the room were automatically switched off and the windows darkened until no light could shine through.

Rakna sighed silently as he could feel Flavia’s warmth as well as her breath. He remained still for about half an hour without moving an inch and keeping a steady breath. It was a feat he could do without a problem and for a while, after he was sure she was asleep, he contemplated whether he should start meditating or not.

He would effectively be betraying Flavia’s goodwill but he would avoid risks. He could try and get over his nightmares on his own at a later date.

‘Can I even do that though?’ He thought to himself deprecatingly. He had no qualms lying to others for the most part but Flavia was one of the people he almost felt incapable of deceiving. He could keep things to himself as much as he wanted, but he could never lie to her.

“{Is that it, devourer?}” Higure spoke up quietly, without her roguish energy which she replaced with a calmer tone that didn’t break the peace of the night. “{Are you scared?}”

‘…scared?’ He replied oddly. He wasn’t mad about her claim. In fact, he was rather curious to know what she meant.

“{You know it yourself. Don’t act as if you’re unaware of it. Rakna, you live with both a craving and a fear of emotions. I already told you this. You are scared of lying to her because you do not want to lose her, in more ways than one,}” she said. “{You are such… such a well-oiled machine.}”

‘…what?’ He exclaimed confusingly.

She chuckled. “{You have so many cogs turning in that head of yours. But sadly, very few of them are tailored as they should be. But you are trying everything you can to build them. I find that to be one of your best traits, you know?}”

‘What are you getting at, Higure?’

“{Sleep, devourer,}” she replied curtly. “{Believe her. Believe that you can feel what you seek. I also know the other reason why you are scared of lying to her, hurt her.}”

‘…’

“{You have smelled it many times already; the affection that she holds for you. And as much as you would like to accept it, you are scared of doing so because of something that terrifies you even more; yourself. So, why not take the first step today? Learn to trust the feelings others have for you and believe that they can reach you and help you.}”

‘…horny cat, were you a sort of psychiatrist before dying?’

“{…did you have to ruin the mood like that?}”

Rakna huffed and cracked one eye open. His iris moved to look at the sleeping face of Flavia and with a small squint, he triggered Gigantism again. He employed it to its limit for the first time and soon realized that he could get even smaller than Tyran.

He shrunk until he was about the size of a kitten. He looked around at the proportionally bigger surroundings and slowly walked closer to Flavia. He curled himself right below her pillow. He was essentially leaning under her chin at that point.

He looked at her for a second, noticing a small smile forming on her face, before closing his eyes and letting himself be carried by the comfort.

* * *

.

..

…a young man marred in blood walked down the quiet road of a small village. With each step he took, a bloody imprint of a foot was left behind him. The knives he held in his hands dripped this same life liquid at a morbidly consistent rhythm. Two other drops were trickling from his face.

In every direction around him, the light of the moon was shining over even larger pools of blood and if you followed their traces back to their source… the corpses of men, women, children, and elderly were lying motionless.

After walking for what felt like an eternity, the young man stopped. In front of him stood an older man with hair grayed by age.

“…kid, what have you done?” He spoke to the boy but there was no answer. The young man stayed silent and kept his head down. The blood on his knives still dribbling blood.

Not even a few seconds had passed, but an obscene amount of blood was pooling at his feet. It was flowing out of his body as if he was made of it. The old man didn’t seem to notice it. He simply glared sharply at the boy.

“I will give you one last chance. We talked about this, kid. Answer before I’m forced to-”

“The pool…”

The old man was silenced. Rather, he seemed stunned. The young man slowly lifted his head and he was even more dazed. The boy’s eyes were bloodshot to unreal levels. Every vein in his retinas had burst. The two streams of blood that had been sliding down his face were his tears.

“The pool…”

The boy looked more like a demon given flesh rather than a human.

“The pool…”

He started walking again and blood started coming out of his mouth as he spoke the same words over and over again.

“The pool…”

He did not walk toward the old man. He approached one of the bodies and loomed over it for a time before lifting a knife with clear intent.

“The pool…”

But before the blade could be brought down, a hand grasped his wrist.

“Rakna!” The old man shouted with thunderous authority. “Snap out of it!”

The young man didn’t seem to hear any of it. The blood at his feet suddenly changed from a small puddle to an entire sea flooding the village. It was growing higher and higher.

“The… pool… will… drown… you…”

He uttered one last time and like a mirage, the old man disappeared, he drove his knife toward the body at his feet, and at the same time, the blood drowned the world. The buildings, the corpses, and the very earth vanished as if swallowed by the red sea.

Within it, the boy lifelessly lifted his second weapon and pressed the blade against his throat with the same line coming out of his mouth over and over again. After repeating it more than a hundred times, he was about to drive the knife into his flesh when he suddenly froze.

His hand trembled and blue lines were lit all across his arm. His eyes spewing tears of blood dilated and looked downward. He tried to use his other hand to push the knife but it was also invaded by blue lines. His head mechanically tilted and his empty bloodshot gaze roamed without focus.

“The pool wi-!”

His mouth was shut by a pair of arms formed from the blood around him. They wrapped around him and sealed all of his movements. They gradually became warmer and warmer; the blood was heating up and turning paler in color.

Then, the pain came and along with it, he resurfaced, and gasped.

* * *

Rakna clamped down his mouth. He woke up with his limbs in pain. His pupils shook as he took in his surroundings. He quickly noticed that he couldn’t move. The first reason was the blue glow illuminating his fur from its roots.

With the small control that he had over his body, he glanced to the sides and spotted the head of a worried Pronos who had evidently bit and poisoned him. Most likely because his claws had extended without his knowing. He could imagine what he could have done with those while asleep, small or not.

The second reason was obviously the arms tightly wrapped around him. Flavia was hugging him as if he was a plushy and pressing him against her chest. Thankfully, she was still asleep so that meant she was unharmed.

Rakna grunted and used his tails to move his body to a better position. While still constricted by her arms, he turned around so that he was facing her. When he saw her peaceful smile, his mind went back to the arms that grasped him while in the sea of blood.

Higure was right. They had reached him.

‘Believe, eh?’ He snorted and his lips formed a smile that wouldn’t be seen by anyone. ‘I’ll try.’