Before Aaron's eyes, a massive medieval European-style castle appeared.
No matter how you looked at it, this thing was not something that should appear in Nagazora City.
Plus, Yuno, who was beside him, was now missing... No, even after he activated his Magnetic Field Rotation, he couldn't sense the existence of any other 'living beings' around him.
This looked exactly like getting off work only to be suddenly forced back into the office to work overtime.
And after Aaron voiced his complaint, the System didn't react at all.
"So there are enemies camping nearby, huh? Good one."
"Forget it, I'll take it one step at a time... Wait, have I really not seen this place before?"
"Why does it feel increasingly familiar?"
Walking into the interior of the castle, Aaron began to vigilantly observe everything around him.
The interior of this ancient European castle looked extremely dilapidated.
Combined with the dimly glowing candles and some dark red traces on the ground, Aaron felt this place looked more and more familiar.
After walking for several minutes, he saw a large gate ahead.
Pushing the gate open effortlessly, Aaron saw the scene inside.
On the other side of the gate, a massive lion, a giant dragon that didn't look easy to mess with... Wasn't this the Danger Beast from [Infinite Uses: Crosstail]???
Wait, if I'm not mistaken, that thing squatting over there is Tyrant, right?
Fine, none of these are the main point. The main point is...
"Yo."
Why does Esdeath, this lingering spirit, appear in front of me???
Directly slamming the door shut with a *bang*, Aaron took three deep breaths.
"Okay, I must have opened it the wrong way."
"Damn it, a bunch of dead Danger Beasts, how could they possibly appear in front of me—unless I'm dead too."
"But I just returned to the Honkai world, my body is fine. It can't be that the goofy System didn't fix my injuries and instead let them worsen, causing me to croak directly so it could go find Number 234."
"Calm down, it's all an illusion. Just open this door again, and I shouldn't see them anymore."
Then, Aaron opened the door again...
—And sure enough, he still saw the scene he had deemed an illusion.
"What's wrong? The man who once defeated me, are you shaken just by seeing these boring Danger Beasts?"
Sitting atop the giant dragon's body, Esdeath gazed at Aaron with a smile on her face.
"If that's the case—then you've truly disappointed me."
"Good lord, it really is a revival match. Don't tell me there's some ahoge saber knight king or golden sparkly hero king squatting somewhere else."
After walking into the room, Aaron heard the large door behind him lock automatically with a *click*.
Upon realizing this, he finally understood what strange place he had arrived in.
European ancient castle, incredibly dilapidated, gloomy inside, locks the door automatically upon encountering a Boss fight...
—Isn't this damn Castlevania???
"What exactly is going on? Why are you here?"
"Hah, want to know the answer?"
Leaping down from the giant dragon's body, the smile on Esdeath's face grew deeper.
"Then you should know what you need to do to get an answer from me, boy."
"I've said it before—I'm no younger than you. 'Boy' my ass."
Looking at those tiger-watching Danger Beasts, Aaron walked toward the group of enemies with immense annoyance.
One minute later...
"Damn it, insisting on wasting my time just to ask for a beating."
Aaron, having knocked all the enemies flat, stepped on Esdeath's head and spoke with extreme irritation.
"Are you satisfied now?"
"Ah... sure enough... I didn't misjudge you..."
Esdeath, beaten to the brink of death, smiled and passed out completely.
Aaron, who didn't get his answer, kicked her away directly and looked at the Danger Beasts he had flattened.
In this special space, he didn't know why he couldn't use his Teigu.
But by combining Magnetic Field Rotation with other moves, knocking down this group of Danger Beasts was no longer a difficult task for the current Aaron.
Whether it was the massive giant dragon or the incredibly arrogant lion from before, they were now all huddled in the corner like wronged kittens, licking their wounds.
"Making it look like I'm the bad guy."
"But now, looking at these guys, I think I know what the situation is."
At the end of *Akame ga Kill!*, Tatsumi's doctor companion once made a speculation.
Tatsumi fused with Incursio, and this event made him realize that using a Teigu for a long time might cause the Teigu and the user to further assimilate.
Lionelle, which uses transformation abilities, is one of the Teigu most prone to completing assimilation. Other Teigu—might also carry this risk.
And the Danger Beasts appearing here now were all Danger Beasts used as materials for Teigu.
In other words—these Danger Beasts should be from the Teigu in Aaron's possession.
Tyrant, as a material, is undoubtedly alive. So the other Danger Beasts... are they really dead?
Combining [Teigu require a good first impression to become a compatible user], [Teigu require mental energy to use], and [Using two Teigu simultaneously brings a huge burden, ordinary people can't use them at all], it's highly likely the materials of these Teigu are still alive.
No, it should be said that a part of their soul fragments still exist within the Teigu, which is why Teigu have so many rules and that incredibly emotional rule of [Teigu require a good first impression to become a compatible user]—after all, Danger Beasts are living beings too, and they have preferences.
If you find the other party displeasing, they certainly won't want to indulge you.
As for Esdeath... Aaron also roughly knew why she was squatting together with these material soul fragments.
After Aaron extracted her blood from her body, he never used it. And the soul existing inside Demon's Extract, which had already fused with Esdeath, naturally became Esdeath.
It was precisely for this reason that this woman managed to survive in this manner. What dumb luck.
Combining the current situation—these guys are all souls or soul fragments, this is Castlevania, and the Power of Dominance he just obtained is Dracula's power...
"So the special effect of the Power of Dominance is creating a soul world like Castlevania... The problem is, what use is this? (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻"
He didn't know how to attack an enemy's soul, nor did he know how to drag an enemy's soul here for a duel. Now having a seemingly cool but practically useless Castlevania—what function could it have besides causing him trouble?
[How can you say it's useless? Look, if you accept other souls in the future, you'll need to give them a place to stay, right? There are so many rooms here; isn't it the best apartment?]
"Oh, finally decided to come out and die—now explain to me why the situation turned out like this."
[What does this have to do with the System? Before fusing the power, I didn't expect you to manifest Castlevania immediately either.]
[Or rather, your inner self is deeper than I imagined, Tester 233. Otherwise, there's no way to explain how you could instantly and unconsciously create this vampire's castle.]
"I'm convinced. So you can even frame me for this."
"And leaving aside whether I'll ever need the ability to manipulate souls, if you save other souls, do you have the nerve to let them come to this gloomy place to continue suffering?"
[That depends on how you think about it yourself. Also, your storage space has already connected with this place. This is also due to the Power of Dominance.]
[And because of the Power of Dominance, those soul fragments inside the Teigu don't dare to act up anymore. In the future, the mental energy required by these Teigu will decrease significantly. The characteristic where using multiple Teigu consumes massive mental energy has also been cancelled. After all, you did indeed beat them into fear just now.]
"Oh, that counts as good news."
[Also, Demon's Extract can be drunk now. Esdeath has completely submitted to you; she definitely won't dare to continue acting up.]
"Hmm, things are looking up."
While chatting and moving forward, Aaron approached a locked room, and the lock suddenly opened.
Looking inside, Aaron saw the Noble Phantasms and Teigu he had snatched, along with the motorcycle, bicycle, refrigerator, water heater, dishwasher, electric fan, freezer, battery, wheelchair, and other tools he had bought. He suddenly felt a bit speechless.
On one side were Noble Phantasms representing fantasy; on the other were living tools full of the breath of life...
"When these two things are put together, why do I feel it's so strange?"
"Forget it, never mind all that."
[Also, by the way, everything in this space will eventually be completely dominated by the holder of the Power of Dominance. In other words, these Noble Phantasms will sooner or later become things you can use normally.]
[The Noble Phantasms inside the Gate of Babylon should be usable already. But the Noble Phantasms of Artoria, Diarmuid, and Lancelot still need some time to complete domination because their connection to the Servants is relatively tight.]
"Now things are completely looking up."
"But now I have a question—how do I get out?"
[Walk back. If you had walked back instead of entering Castlevania at that time, you could have left here and returned to the real world directly.]
[Also, just to mention, since you've already excavated this information, it's not a violation for the System to tell you some news.]
[As long as your proficiency with the Power of Dominance continues to increase, next time you enter, you can teleport to any location within Castlevania at will.]
[However, along with the increase in proficiency with the Power of Dominance, the mental requirements the Power of Dominance places on the user will also increase. When you gaze into the abyss—]
"The abyss is also peeping at me. Got it. Be careful not to turn into Dracula, right?"
[That's about the gist of it.]
"What a troublesome ability. But whatever, at least it solved the problem of not being able to use the Noble Phantasms."
After returning to the real world, Aaron immediately looked at the watch on his wrist.
"Hmm, only three seconds passed... The time flow inside and outside the soul world is different..."
[Of course, this can't be used to practice Magnetic Field Rotation. Go obediently practice your Perfect Realm.]
"Didn't expect to ascend in one step anyway."
Glancing at the girl whose wounds he had emergency treated, Aaron thought for a moment, then used healing magic to treat her injuries again, completely healing her external wounds.
As for the wounds of the heart... that wasn't his business.
He wasn't a psychologist; he couldn't handle problems in that area.
"Say, Sys."
"Sys?"
"...What's the situation???"
"No, I've only been back for a few minutes, why is a battle about to start again?"
"Forget it. Nagazora City is so chaotic; it's normal for fearless idiots to pop up."
"Raiden Mei has been sent away by me, Yuno was knocked out by me. Now, the only ones remaining who might drag me into a fight, besides Cocolia's squad of idiots, is Higokumaru."
"Let's stay put and observe the situation for now. If that fearless smelly fox dares to trouble me..."
"—Then when the time comes, I can only say 'sorry'."
................
Minutes earlier. Soukai City.
Inside Soukai City, the awakened Raiden Mei currently kept her eyes shut woodenly, not wanting to pay attention to the voice in her head.
[Hello? Hello hello hello? Miss Mei, settlement is complete. Time to claim your rewards.]
[Um, the System knows you can hear. Can you give a little reaction???]
"Please... don't... come looking for me again..."
"If I become stronger... if I get dominated in body and mind by that guy again, sooner or later I will hurt the people around me..."
"Kiana, Mr. Aaron... after recalling the past battle, I indeed felt that they are far stronger than I am."
"But they are too gentle; they couldn't bear to kill a disaster like me..."
"If next time, that guy dominates my body and mind and attacks Kiana and Mr. Aaron while they can't spare a hand..."
"I don't want such things to happen in front of me again."
"I am a monster that shouldn't be alive."
[No, wait a minute, why are your thoughts so extreme?]
[Ah, forget it, whatever. The System isn't a psychiatrist either. Mission complete, pulling it is.]
[If you really don't want to redeem, then the System will just randomize it.]