The moment Zhe peered through the keyhole-like slit in the Gate of the Mind, a raging flood of memories swallowed him whole.
He was not merely seeing them—
he was feeling them.
He felt the cautious, almost redeemed joy of the little Nicole being led by the hand into the orphanage by Headmistress Demara.
He felt the warmth of sunlight on her face as she ran through the yard, and the wholehearted laughter she shared while roughhousing with the other children.
He felt the clumsy yet sincere concern in her heart when, deep at night, she secretly tucked the blankets more snugly around the sick headmistress.
Then came the mountain-heavy resolve—
the trembling in her hands and the determination in her eyes when she signed that "contract of sale" in order to prolong the headmistress's life.
And after that, the coldness of losing everything:
the headmistress was gone in the end, the orphanage scattered, and Nicole, dragging a small suitcase all by herself, stood in the middle of a bustling neon-lit street, not knowing where she should go, swallowed by bewilderment and cutting loneliness.
The joys and sorrows of Nicole's life over more than ten years, all her persistence and all her fragility, carved themselves into Zhe's heart like the sharpest blade.
His chest filled with overwhelming, tangled emotion—
heartache, understanding, and an indescribable heaviness.
At the same time, inside the Golden Palace—
As the final little girl, Xiao Luo, appeared in the room, every single child from the old Warm Home had now gathered around Nicole, none missing. They surrounded her, calling out "Big Sister Nicole," as if time had never passed at all.
"Everyone... everyone's back..."
Nicole looked at the reunion she had dreamed of for so long, and tears welled up again.
But this time, they were tears of fulfillment.
The vast hollow deep inside her heart finally seemed to be filled by this false dream.
And yet—
the very instant her wish was fulfilled was also the moment when her mental defenses were at their weakest.
The Cunning Hare Nightmare, which had been lurking in the shadows the whole time, feeding on her obsession and growing stronger from it, let out a silent shriek.
"Your wish has been granted."
Now.
Dense darkness, black as tar, surged in from every direction and instantly swallowed Nicole, who had been immersed in happiness. The satisfied smile had not even fully left her face before all the light in her eyes was devoured by endless blackness.
Crack—!
As Nicole was consumed, the pure white Gate of the Mind looked as though someone had splashed it with ink. Darkness rapidly spread across it, staining and corrupting it. The symmetrical human figures carved on the door twisted and screamed—and then, with an ominous sound, the door slowly swung inward, revealing an abyss of bottomless darkness beyond.
Elsewhere, in front of the Gate of the Mind—
Zhe's heart lurched violently, as though something irreplaceable had just shattered.
"Nicole!!"
He shouted the name without thinking, instantly realizing that the worst had happened.
In the next second, thick darkness gathered behind him. The Cunning Hare Nightmare, having devoured Nicole, appeared in an even larger and more hideous form. It had already taken control of the entire dreamscape.
It did not even need to attack him directly.
With a single thought, an overwhelming repulsive force struck Zhe like a giant hammer.
"Nightmare—!!"
Roaring in utter unwillingness, Zhe's body flickered like a badly tuned image signal and was forcibly ejected from Nicole's dream, his consciousness snapping back into his real-world body.
The troublesome Rider was gone.
The fully evolved Cunning Hare Nightmare radiated a suffocating pressure as it slowly stepped forward, crossing through the now completely blackened Gate of the Mind and heading deeper into the very core of Nicole's consciousness—
to turn it into an eternal prison of nightmares.
In the real world, inside Nicole's rented room—
Almost at the exact same moment the Nightmare crossed the Gate of the Mind, Nicole's sleeping body twitched violently on the bed.
Thick darkness, almost physical in its density, began seeping out of her body, wrapping around her layer by layer like a cocoon.
When the darkness slowly sank back into her body and she was revealed again, the figure lying on the bed was no longer the pink-haired girl—
but a black-skinned being with blood-red glowing eyes and a grotesque grin spreading across its mouth:
Cunning Hare Nightmare (Nicole).
It slowly sat up, rolled its neck with a sickening crack of bone and tendon, and muttered in a warped voice that mixed Nicole's tone with the Nightmare's rasp:
"...Next... I'll bring all the 'family'... into 'reality'..."
At the same time—outside in the world—
Darkness had swallowed everything.
Under a blood-red sky, New Eridu was completely sealed within a purple barrier.
In Lumina Square, citizens looked up at the heavens in alarm, whispering uneasily, not understanding what was happening.
At the top of a high-rise building, a masked figure of indeterminate gender slowly raised a hand and clenched a fist toward the sky.
"Let the whole world... sink into nightmares."
With that motion, countless purple dream-butterflies poured into the city like a flood.
Like beasts, the butterflies spread through the streets, constantly seeking hosts.
In time, they would bring endless nightmares to whoever they found.
———
The Cunning Hare Nightmare had already appeared in the streets and begun madly destroying city infrastructure.
The Public Security Bureau responded immediately, and Zhu Yuan and Qingyi both arrived on the scene at once.
"Senior, that's a Nightmare?"
Holding the K22 Pacifier in one hand, Zhu Yuan fixed a sharp gaze on the twisted figure causing chaos in the distance.
Qingyi rapidly scanned the data streaming across her terminal and the ominous violet energy fluctuations radiating from the Nightmare.
"Based on the anomalous energy signatures being detected across the city and the eyewitness reports, preliminary judgment identifies this as a physicalized 'Nightmare.' This is our first direct contact with one."
Her voice remained as calm as ever, as though she were discussing lab data—but the hand gripping her three-section staff, Gavel, was already primed to strike.
"No matter what it is," Zhu Yuan said, her eyes unwavering as she raised the muzzle slightly, "we can't allow it to keep disrupting order in New Eridu."
"Agreed. Execute expulsion protocol, junior."
Before Qingyi had even finished speaking, her body had already shot into the battlefield like an arrow loosed from a bow.
The Cunning Hare Nightmare let out a shrill laugh and swept one claw, grabbing the wreckage of a police car and hurling it straight at Qingyi.
Qingyi's footwork remained steady. She neither dodged nor retreated.
With a sharp swing of Gavel—
"Drunken Flower Cloud!"
The staff struck the side of the flying wreck with precise timing, explosive technique redirecting it off course before it crashed to the ground with a thunderous slam.
Using that opening, Zhu Yuan's K22 Pacifier opened fire.
Bang bang bang—!
A dense suppressive barrage of standard rounds shot out, precisely targeting the Nightmare's joints and movement path.
But the bullets merely sparked against the creature's surface before ricocheting away uselessly.
"Standard ammunition ineffective!" Zhu Yuan reported quickly, moving at speed to seek a new angle.
"Attempt to restrict its movement."
Qingyi had already closed to melee range. Gavel lashed out like a serpent emerging from cover, a continuous blur of strikes—
"Moon over Begonia!"
Carrying strong electrical current, the three-section staff smashed downward in a powerful blow.
The Nightmare's claws accelerated violently and met the strike head-on with a harsh metallic screech, actually forcing Qingyi half a step backward.
"Haha, boring!"
The Cunning Hare Nightmare let out a crazed laugh in Nicole's distorted voice.
Its body blurred—
Shhk! Shhk!
In an instant, two identical copies appeared at its flanks.
All three Nightmares grinned savagely and lunged from different directions at once.
"Confirmed: duplication ability. Zhu Yuan, maintain distance and provide alternating cover!"
Qingyi fell back immediately, forming a pincer position with Zhu Yuan.
"Understood! Switching to shotgun mode!"
Zhu Yuan spun the selector quickly and, facing one charging duplicate, pulled the trigger with perfect calm.
Boom!
The tight spread of pellets staggered the clone and tore slight damage into its outer layer, but failed to destroy it.
The other two clones pressed Qingyi, claws flashing with afterimages as they attacked from vicious angles.
Qingyi spun Gavel into a seamless defensive web. Her Flash Network held firm like an iron wall, the blue-green blur of the staff creating a barrier that deflected and dispersed one deadly claw strike after another.
But her brows tightened slightly.
Ordinary attacks were proving unable to deal decisive damage to either the true body or its copies, and the battle was slipping into stalemate.
"Senior, at this rate we'll just be worn down!" Zhu Yuan shouted while evading, rolling clear of a clone's pounce. The ground where she had stood was carved into a deep trench by its claws.
"Analyze energy weakness... attempt ether weaponry."
Qingyi blocked another heavy blow and issued the instruction coolly.
"Ether buckshot, loaded!"
Zhu Yuan swiftly replaced her magazine with a special ammunition clip glowing faint blue.
The instant one clone was driven back slightly by Qingyi's pressure, Zhu Yuan seized the chance and fired.
A streak of blue light cut across the battlefield, striking the clone square in the chest.
"Skreee—!"
The clone cried out in a different kind of pain this time. Brilliant ether sparks erupted from the hit area, and its movements visibly slowed.
"It works!"
Zhu Yuan's spirits rose.
But the true Cunning Hare Nightmare appeared to be enraged.
It roared, and all three bodies merged into one again. Purple-black energy began gathering wildly between its claws, releasing a terrifying fluctuation that made the air itself start to distort.
Its next attack was clearly going to be catastrophic.
Both Qingyi and Zhu Yuan's pupils shrank at once.
Sensing immense danger, Qingyi held Gavel horizontally before herself, electric energy racing along the staff. Zhu Yuan's K22 Pacifier glowed red at the muzzle as it entered annihilation mode.
The two of them braced themselves, ready to receive the unknown and devastating strike.
In an instant, the battle reached its blazing peak—
And then, at that very moment, a crimson meteor plunged onto the battlefield.
Boom—!
A heavy crash rang out amid a shower of sparks, forcibly interrupting the energy the Cunning Hare Nightmare had been gathering.
When the smoke cleared, Kamen Rider ZZZ was there, astride the Code Zero-Eroder.
"The officers of public order have had a hard day."
His voice, filtered through the mask, carried an electronic resonance as he rose slowly to his feet.
"Leave this one... to me."
The Cunning Hare Nightmare let out a furious shriek.
"You again! Troublesome Rider!"
"Senior, this is...?"
Zhu Yuan kept a wary eye on the newly arrived figure, though the K22 in her hands remained aimed at the Nightmare.
Qingyi's terminal rapidly scanned ZZZ's energy signature.
"Unknown energy response... same origin as the Nightmare, but opposite in性质. Temporarily classifying as an allied unit."
ZZZ said nothing further.
The Zeztz Driver on his chest began flashing.
He pulled out the orange-and-white capsule and, without hesitation, slotted it into the Driver.
[TRANSFORM!]
Blazing orange light wrapped around his whole body as the armor began to change shape. His gauntlets and greaves became visibly reinforced, and the pressure radiating from his entire form surged upward.
"Round two begins now, Nightmare."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 26
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