Meanwhile, March led a large group of Bomb Men in a charge toward the Giant Sampo.
Perhaps because of Black Cut's animation ability, or perhaps because Nero had invisibly bestowed them with greater power, the Bomb Men twisted their round, plump bodies as they ran with bared claws and fangs. They were much faster than March.
Seeing this, Giant Sampo was caught off guard. Watching the Bomb Men rush toward him, it was already too late to dodge.
The Bomb Men spread their arms and leaped high into the air, one after another, like frogs, all heading straight for Giant Sampo.
Once they got close, they clung to Giant Sampo's legs like sloths. Those that jumped higher climbed onto his waist. Their hands gripped tightly, their knotted, muscular arms as solid as steel, digging into Giant Sampo's flesh and making him cry out in pain.
That wasn't the end of it. After grabbing onto Sampo, every Bomb Man lit its own fuse. As the fuses burned down, explosions went off one after another right against Giant Sampo's body, like setting off a string of firecrackers inside his pants.
Giant Sampo screamed in pain. He no longer had the spare attention to throw bombs at the garbage bin people. After all, every bomb he threw had come to life and run back to him.
The Bomb Men's explosions left Giant Sampo unable to keep his footing. Seeing he was about to fall, he hurriedly retreated and only barely managed to steady himself.
At the same time, March, who had been charging all along, arrived. She took two or three quick steps onto a high platform, then leaped toward Giant Sampo and threw a punch.
At almost the same moment, golden light flashed around her. The next instant, she turned into a gray garbage bin person, and her iron fist swung straight at Sampo's face.
Bang!
With a thunderous boom, Sampo staggered backward before throwing a punch of his own, and the two began fighting.
The two giants clashed like that, and the scene was indeed earth-shaking.
Firefly stared blankly at this absurd turn of events.
First there was Nero. Turning bombs into Bomb Men was a trick she had never even heard of.
She couldn't help wondering what would have happened if this kid had used that move on SAM during the battle on the Luofu.
In fact, Black Cut had mentioned that possibility back then, but Nero had rejected it.
Then there was March.
'How could she transform into something like this?'
'This... this was too outrageous... too ridiculous!'
'So anything really can happen in a dream?'
'And why was the King of Garbage that Sampo? He wasn't even a garbage bin person!'
For a girl who longed to become an ordinary person, the Fool's and the Nameless's imaginations seemed to be a little too much to take.
But thinking about it carefully, whether it was the Nameless traveling across the universe or the Fools causing trouble among the stars, people who lived such romantic and unpredictable lives having bizarre ideas actually seemed quite reasonable.
As she was thinking this, she heard little Nero beside her speak with some concern.
"Oh no, this won't do. If March and Sampo keep fighting like this, neither side will win. I should give her some help."
There's still more...
Firefly looked at Nero. Judging from the battle between March and Sampo, what Nero said was true, but she really had no idea what other tricks he could possibly come up with.
Just then, she heard Cirrus's voice.
"Remember what I told you before? With the foundation you've got now, it's a waste to just charge in head-on every time you fight!"
As those words sounded, Cirrus floated out. The eye surrounded by ghostly flames circled around Nero.
"Listen to me. I'll teach you how to make use of your talent."
"Huh?" Nero blinked. "Weren't you talking about hard swords and soft swords before?"
"I never said that!" Cirrus said.
"Listen. Just shout to these garbage bins, 'Help me, everyone! Please defeat the King of Garbage together with us!' I guarantee it'll work."
After hearing Cirrus, Nero didn't think much about it. He raised a hand and shouted to the army of garbage bins around him,
"Help me, everyone! Please defeat the King of Garbage together with us!"
The next moment, something unbelievable happened.
Roars and cheers rose from the garbage bin army. Large numbers of garbage bin people charged toward Giant Sampo as though they had been injected with stimulants.
That included some who had already fallen along the way and looked as if they were dead. They sprang up from the ground, stretched their limbs, and joined the charge.
What came next was even more terrifying. As the garbage bin people charged toward Giant Sampo, each of them began growing larger, until they were all the same size as March after her transformation.
Shouting things about Beauty, justice, trials, and the like, they swarmed forward, pushed Giant Sampo to the ground, and then began a righteous group beating.
Watching this scene, Firefly stared blankly and covered her mouth with one hand.
"My goodness..."
Just then, a loud voice rang out, interrupting this bizarre journey through the dream.
"Stop! Stop right now! No, no, no! This isn't right!"
Sparkle hurriedly stopped the dream. What had happened inside the memory bubble had already gone beyond her control. For a brief moment, she even forgot to disguise her tone.
'This is too strange!'
'The King of Garbage, Sampo, had actually been defeated like that?'
'What was this supposed to be?'
'What was with those garbage bins? The Knights of Beauty?'
'None of this happened in my dream!'
Doctor Edward, who had watched the entire dream journey from the side, had fallen silent at some point.
He felt that perhaps he needed to find a dream therapist to check whether his mental state was still normal.
As soon as the three of them left the memory bubble, Sparkle immediately went over to question Nero.
"My little ancestor, what kind of ability was that? That's way too ridiculous! This doesn't even feel like resisting a false king anymore. This is... this is... this is outright invasion and expansion!"
Nero met Sparkle's gaze with innocent eyes.
"..."
Sparkle opened her mouth several times, but each time she looked at his face and those innocent eyes, she stopped herself.
In the end, she sighed helplessly.
"Forget it. You came, you saw, you conquered. I've got nothing to say."
A moment later, Sparkle collected herself and looked at March.
"Alright, girl. After experiencing it, what do you think of this dream?"
March thought for a moment.
"It's a bit of a shame we didn't completely get rid of the King of Garbage."
Sparkle: "..."
"That's all you came up with? I put the truth about beautiful dreams into that whole thing. Don't be fooled by beautiful scenery, dear. Comfortable surroundings create blind people.
"Didn't you notice that this dream bubble is a lot like Penacony as it is now?"
Wearing Sampo's face, Sparkle said meaningfully, "A bunch of people with hidden agendas crowd together on a tiny stage. None of them wants to stand under the spotlight, so they push the poor little gray-haired girl to the front."
"Dreams aren't your bathtub. They're an unpredictable deep sea. To put it more clearly, don't be fooled by that tempting glow. If you end up falling into the hands of someone like that... I'll be very, very disappointed."
"Glow?" March asked, puzzled.
Sparkle pointed ahead.
"Do you see that little girl anymore?"
March turned her head.
Firefly was indeed nowhere to be seen.
Sparkle continued, "She kept saying she's a local of Penacony, yet she doesn't know any of the insider ways. She's pretty good at sneaking around and stealing, though. Just who is she, really? Dear, didn't you suspect her for even a moment?"
"Take my advice. If there's anything you want to ask, hurry and confront that girl. Don't let her slip away with her tail between her legs. Haha."
The cheerful atmosphere instantly turned cold.
March understood that Sparkle's words carried another meaning, and Firefly's sudden disappearance seemed to confirm it.
Without any hesitation, March immediately chased after her.
[T/N: Consider joining P@treon to keep the stories going. Enjoy~]