Since he had already agreed, Elias would never go back on his word. The very next day, he brought Ai and Rita to the regions of the dream world that had been corrupted by the [Nightmares].
Because this dream world was filled with fantastical elements, the three of them currently looked like a party of heroes from an RPG setting out toward the Demon King's castle.
Elias thought that Kiana, Bronya, and Seele would definitely love a world like this. After all, to a supreme foodie, a world where one could enjoy an endless supply of delicious cuisine merely by imagining it was practically heaven.
For Bronya, this would be the perfect place to play a real-life RPG, while Seele would love its fairy-tale atmosphere.
"Ai, take more pictures of the scenery."
"Yes, Captain."
Ai nodded. In truth, even without Elias telling her, she had kept the recording function active the entire time. As for when she had started recording, naturally, it had been the moment the two of them embarked on their journey.
Such a magnificent adventure would be regrettable to miss even a single second of. Moreover, she wanted to record everything about this man... so that she could show off properly to the others once they returned!
"By the way, Rita, may I call you Rosemary?"
"You may address Rita however you please, Lord Elias. But why?"
"Ahem, didn't I mention it before? You have the same name, surname, and appearance as my maid. Whenever I call you by name, I can't help mistaking you for her."
Although they were counterparts from different bubble worlds, Elias' Rita and the Rita before him were two independent people.
"Does Lord Elias like that maid very much?"
"I love her. Also, please call me Captain."
"I-Is that so? Very well, Lord Captain."
When Elias spoke those lethally powerful words to a woman without the slightest hesitation, Rosemary Rita could not help feeling shaken. At the same time, she realized that her curiosity toward this white-haired youth was truly growing stronger and stronger.
At that moment, Elias suddenly thought of something. The corners of his lips curled into a mischievous smile as he took out his terminal, opened the photo album, and brought up several pictures of himself with Rita.
"Look. These are some pictures of Rita and me. My maid is the most perfect woman in the world."
"This truly is..."
Rosemary stared at the photographs on the terminal in astonishment.
A young woman who looked exactly like her was pressed intimately against Elias. There were pictures taken during battle, while cooking, during lap pillows, and even while they were on dates.
Even Rosemary's cheeks grew hot as she looked at them.
After all, the woman in the photographs looked almost identical to her. The only difference was the length of their hair. Rosemary nearly wondered whether she had a twin sister she had never known about.
Moreover... anyone unaware of the truth might assume that she and Elias had once been lovers.
"Still, why Rosemary?"
"Hm? Because you carry a pleasant rosemary fragrance, and there's a large rosemary garden beside your flower shop. Forget I said anything if you dislike it."
"...Although sincerity is a virtue, please do not be quite so direct, Lord Captain. Openly commenting on a young woman's natural fragrance is hardly the behavior of a gentleman."
Rita folded her arms across her chest, her cheeks slightly flushed, but her gaze remained cautiously fixed on Elias, as though warning him not to assume that being handsome allowed him to do whatever he pleased.
"All right, all right. I understand. Strange, wasn't sincerity supposed to be the ultimate finishing move? Never mind. Haven't we reached our destination? Can we start farming monsters now?"
Elias shrugged and looked ahead.
Only moments ago, they had been walking through beautiful scenery straight out of a dreamlike fairy tale, filled with birdsong and floral fragrances. Yet the atmosphere had abruptly changed, and the land ahead had become desolate and dark.
Withered forests, pitch-black rivers, and the low growls of monsters filled the region, as though it were the dark side of the world. At that moment, seemingly sensing the presence of living beings, one [Nightmare] after another appeared.
They were monsters whose appearances fully lived up to the name [Nightmare]. They would have fit perfectly into any kind of horror movie.
Elias did not immediately attack with his own Authorities. Instead, he first used his imagination to construct a rocket launcher.
Boom!
The moment he pulled the trigger, the rocket streaked toward the [Nightmares] with a trail of white smoke before exploding in a thunderous blast. However, it had no effect whatsoever.
"So objects from the dream truly can't harm them. Ai, what did the data from that attack show?"
"The targets showed no reaction at all. Their energy readings even increased slightly. It appears they absorbed the dream energy composing the rocket and used it to strengthen themselves."
"All right, it's exactly as Rosemary said. In that case, it's about time I got serious. Let's start with... Shamash Assault!"
As Elias spoke, he activated the Authority of Truth and constructed an enormous flaming sword. No matter how much time passed, he still loved swinging a massive blade of fire around and cutting everything apart.
Rosemary Rita, meanwhile, was completely dumbfounded.
She felt that she needed to retract what she had said yesterday about being confident in her own strength.
Before flames so immense that they seemed capable of setting the entire sky ablaze, what could her meager strength possibly accomplish?
Countless flames surged toward the [Nightmares] before them.
Boom!
In the face of absolute violence, every monster could only be reduced to ashes... and the same was true of the territory behind them that had been corrupted by the [Nightmares]. At that moment, a sea of flames set the earth ablaze.
"Phew... How many did I kill with that?"
Elias asked the AI girl beside him.
"With that Shamash Assault, Captain eliminated a total of 186,575 [Nightmares] and set ablaze a nightmare domain approximately the size of the Far East... You held back?"
Ai reported the precise kill count. As she looked at the nightmare domain that had been reduced to scorched earth, she knew that Elias had definitely held back with that basic attack. Otherwise, the affected area would have been at least ten times larger.
"Mm-hm. I was only testing it. The results appear satisfactory. As outsiders, we truly can eliminate the [Nightmare] creatures that leave the natives of this world helpless."
Elias rested the Judgment of Shamash against his shoulder. Looking at the land that had already been reduced to scorched earth, he immediately constructed a simulated Sixth Divine Key, the Abyss Flower, before reciting its incantation.
"I am the Black from the abyss, I am the White descending from the heavens. Born before Creation, existing beyond Oblivion. Sixth Divine Key, Abyss Flower, Second Power—Holy Lance Countercurrent!"
"Th-This is?!"
Rosemary Rita's eyes widened in astonishment.
When the tip of the Abyss Flower pierced the earth and Elias poured Honkai energy into it, a pure and gentle power of creation healed the scorched land. Before long, countless flowers and blades of green grass sprouted once more from the restored, fertile soil.
It was the instant in which hell became heaven.
It was the sacred moment when a miracle descended.
It was the hour in which the great undertaking of salvation began.
"That should be enough. Occasionally, we do encounter bubble worlds that are somewhat troublesome to deal with. As if collapsing due to the Sea of Quanta's erosion weren't enough, a crisis capable of destroying the world has also appeared within it."
As Elias spoke, he pulled the Abyss Flower from the ground and carefully wiped the dirt from its tip... After all, this holy lance was his favorite Divine Key. Even the Judgment of Shamash could only rank second.
As for what he had just said, it could be understood as meaning that this bubble world was currently facing two separate apocalyptic crises.
The first was the corruption of the [Nightmares]. Had Elias and Ai arrived any later, the dream world would have been completely devoured by the [Nightmares], and everyone living in this bubble world would have lost themselves within the nightmare and died.
The second was that the bubble world itself was already on the verge of destruction. After all, as long as a bubble world existed within the Sea of Quanta, its only possible end was collapse. This bubble world was likewise approaching its end.
However, that was not a problem either.
After all, the savior had arrived.
Once the [Nightmare] crisis was resolved, Elias could absorb the bubble world into his body. Naturally, it would no longer be affected by the Sea of Quanta's erosion.
Both apocalyptic crises could be handled without issue.
Elias: (In other words, when it comes to salvation, I'm a professional!)
"Rosemary, are you satisfied with these results?"
"Huh? Yes! Of course. As expected of Lord Captain."
Rosemary Rita replied with a strained smile.
Although she had anticipated that Elias and Ai would be quite powerful, she had never imagined that they would be absurd to such a heaven-defying degree! With a single attack, he had eliminated nearly two hundred thousand [Nightmares]!
Moreover, it appeared that Elias had still been holding back! He could even restore the territory corrupted by the nightmares to its original state!
Good heavens, what kind of person have I encountered?
"It's still too early for praise. According to my senses, your dream world... seems rather enormous. What I just did appears to have eliminated only a tiny fraction of the total [Nightmares]."
Elias gazed into the distance. In truth, this dream was not the bubble world itself, but a spiritual world constructed from the wills of the people living within the bubble world.
The perfect utopia created by gathering everyone's will together had caused the dream world to grow to an unimaginable size.
Elias' previous Shamash Assault had eliminated two hundred thousand [Nightmare] creatures and purified a nightmare domain approximately the size of the Far East. It appeared highly efficient, but compared to the total affected area, it amounted to only around one percent.
"This doesn't seem efficient enough."
"Lord Captain, why not use that Authority?"
"That Authority? Which one?"
"The one you obtained recently, of course."
"...Oh!"
Elias struck his left palm with his right fist before giving Ai a thumbs-up. Sometimes, because he possessed too many abilities, even Elias occasionally forgot a few of his own skills.
Rosemary blinked and quietly watched Elias perform.
However, in the next second, she lost her composure once again.
More than a million puppets suddenly appeared out of thin air. Their bodies seemed to be made of wood, and their joints produced the distinctive clack-clack of puppets whenever they moved.
Moreover, every puppet had been modeled after Elias, possessing a golden right eye, a blue left eye, and long white hair as radiant as moonlight. The sight made one want to steal a puppet, take it home, and admire it at leisure.
However, these puppets were clearly anything but ordinary!
Rosemary Rita's body trembled slightly. She felt that even if she fought with all her strength, she could defeat only one of them. If she faced two puppets at once, defeat would be inevitable!
Unless she used that object...
"Form groups of two and eliminate the [Nightmare] monsters."
Elias issued an order to the puppets.
"Yes!" x1,000,000
One million puppets responded in unison. However, Elias did not simply send them out immediately. Although each puppet possessed strength equivalent to an Emperor-class MANTIS...
There might also be troublesome Emperor-class entities among the [Nightmares], so Elias strengthened the puppets first.
He temporarily distributed more than a hundred thousand Honkai Beast abilities and several Herrscher Authorities he possessed among the puppets.
Although there were too many puppets for the powers to be divided evenly, the puppet army's strength still rose by several levels. For this dream world, it was already an overwhelming excess of military power.
"All right. Go."
The moment Elias finished speaking, the army of one million puppets immediately set out and began hunting the [Nightmares] throughout the dream world.
"L-Lord Captain, what exactly is this...?"
"Don't worry. My puppets will eliminate every [Nightmare] within two days at most. More importantly, Rosemary, I want pancakes and molten chocolate cake today."
Elias looked at Rosemary Rita with eager anticipation.
"Uh, very well. Then let's hurry home."
Rosemary looked at Elias with a helpless smile, wondering whether she should also prepare a few of her other specialties.