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I suddenly woke up with a sharp pain coursing through my body.

A dark cave. Cold―― yes, I remember, this was in the Asbel Mountain Range, inside the Lust Rose’s den.

“Shit that hurt... but thanks, Evil Eater, old pal.”

The ‘Craving Wolf Sword’, Evil Eater, was currently digging into my left shoulder.

It had leapt up from my shadow like a killer whale, breaking through the spatial barrier of Shadow Gate to attack me.

“Huh... so it evolved. It’s not the same Evil Eater at all.”

I could clearly see change all across the large blade.

The most prominent of which was that the blade was now split along the middle, like a pair of scissors―― No, like a ravenous beast’s maw.

The split blade was carving into my shoulder in such a way that felt like a real Chaos Eater was biting down on me, using its power to drain my mana.

Maybe this is why Regin-san didn’t fix Evil Eater like he did my other equipment. He must’ve predicted that it’d evolve in some way. The ‘wound’ it had received from the Greed Goar, that is, the large hole in the middle of this blade had molded into a form much more suitable for devouring prey.

The first of which happened to be me. Or, it could’ve completed its evolution just now when it stabbed into me, getting its fill of my blood, meat and mana.

The inner sides of this new cursed blade were not smooth edges but rough and pointed like a saw blade. It looked perfect for digging into flesh and I could feel it even now sucking away my blood and mana.

It was now dyed jet black from the base to its tips and even had red, veiny lines running across its surface much like those of the current Neck Cutter. The veins pulsed harder the more it drained me.

Which was starting to feel like a little too much right about now. I didn’t want to pass out again right when I just woke up.

Right, it’s been a while since I used this, but now would be a good time to use Flesh Compensation, my only healing type magic.

Though I’d have to remove this thing from my shoulder before I started filling up the gouged out wound with the good old black mana jelly ――

“ ―― And how long are you planning on biting Goshujin-sama, you stupid mutt! Get back here right this instant!”

But instead of me, Hitsugi took the initiative to discipline the seemingly out of control Evil Eater, by which I mean she was jolting my brain with her loud yell.

Multiple jet black chains, the type that formed when I used Bind Arts, shot out from Shadow Gate and wrapped themselves around the hungry blade.

Evil Eater rattled against its chain bondage as if it really was a raving animal. But it was now being prevented from biting down any further.

Hitsugi was now able to directly receive my mana, so the chains she used of her own volition were strengthened quite a bit more. She’d be able to tear Evil Eater off my shoulder by force if she needed to.

She wasn’t able to do it in the dream, but here, in reality, she was stronger than the toothy sword. Right. Reality.

“Thanks Hitsugi. You did a good job getting Evil Eater to me in there.”

“Golly!! Goshujin-sama praised me just now, hurray!!”

Damn, I really owed her big time for this one. If Hitsugi hadn’t come to my rescue, I’m pretty sure I would’ve stayed there.

I needed to thank her somehow, no, I guess maybe I should call it a reward. Anyway, I needed to do something special for her, or I couldn’t keep my pride as her master.

“Yeah, you’re definitely the best maid ever.”

Hitsugi shrieked in joy and delight inside my head as she pulled off Evil Eater and handed it over to me.

The cursed wolf sword now had its unmoving grip firmly held in my hand, now only able to chomp down on thin air.

Now holding it, I could feel a sense of familiarity with the weapon even though it had changed so drastically. It was still the Evil Eater I knew.

The sword’s grip hadn’t changed at all from the evolution. It was still the same one that Vulcan used for many years.

My senses told me that the blade portion, that’d been made from a Chaos Eater fang, had evolved into a much more intense curse, while the grip still carried Vulcan’s malice.

These dark emotions flowed up my arm and into me ―― More, we need to devour more. Evil Eater is evolved and it hungers. I also hunger ―― the curse said.

“Yeah, you want more! I’ll give you more! But you’ll need a new name. From today, you’re Evil Eater EX, the Ravenous Fang Blade!”

I turned the bestially growling blade towards the ground. It would first devour my restraints.

When I woke up, I’d noticed that I’d been encased in ice up to my knees. My feet were very cold, and I was starting to lose feeling in them.

Using Evil Eater EX on these shackles easily shattered them into a million pieces, making the tiny glass-like fragments sparkle in the surrounding air as the ice burst.

“I was dangerously close to joining all the other frozen statues here... and not just me, all three of us. This could’ve gone really bad...”

Now that I had escaped the the Lust Rose’s dream, I had a good understanding of how this trap really worked.

We’d been anticipating that the Lust Rose would have to approach us in order to cast its powerful mind control, but that theory couldn’t be more wrong.

This elusive monster had shown itself to us from the very start. It had done this slowly, gradually enough that we wouldn’t notice, and it’d been pulling us into its hypnotic trance all the while.

It was those thorny vines, the ones running densely along the walls and ceiling. That was the true form of the Lust Rose. Or at least, part of it. These vines were like its arms and legs, tentacles of sorts that extended out from its main body.

The curious part of it was that this whole trap didn’t involve directly using mana on us. At a glance and in reality, these vines were simple plants with nothing out of the ordinary.

And we’d ignore it, thinking it must be part of the plant life indigenous to the cave or something ―― which was all part of the Lust Rose’s plan. In short, the whole thing was a Magic Circuit that induced us to sleep. Rather than magic, this would fall in the realm of hypnosis.

The adventurers who’d come here would have to use some light source. With their common torches, they’d only see part of the patterned vines and inevitably ignore those in favor of advancing ahead. And as they would walk, the patterns would slowly start getting to them, eventually dominating their minds.

This technique was completely visual in nature so there was no way to detect the traces of a spell being casted.

My senses and Lily’s telepathy weren’t able to make anything of it, because there wasn’t anything we could make of.

This sort of visual hypnosis was a very weak sort of mind control but if not noticed, it was practically unavoidable.

And once one of its victims fell into their ideal dream world, they’d have no way of coming back ―― at least, that’s what I could say from my own experience.

“Both of them are in ice too... really close call this time...”

Behind me, I spotted Lily and Fiona, both also encased in ice, all the way up to their waists. Both girls were sleeping peacefully. It made me wonder what sort of sweet dreams they’d been having.

With the expressions they had, I’d hesitate on waking them if they were resting on a bed, but they’d go to sleep forever if I didn’t get them out of that ice.

I shattered their ice prison with one swing of Evil Eater Ex like how I’d done mine.

The reason this ice broke so easily was because this was ice made of magic. In other words, my ravenous sword was draining the mana out in addition to the powerful impact it produced.

This whole cave was the Lust Rose’s den, or maybe its ‘stomach’ would be a better analogy. In any case, its influence was spread throughout the whole place.

Once its prey was blissfully dreaming, the Lust Rose would use this ice magic to preserve them in its dwelling and slowly feed on their life force until nothing remained. In the end, we would’ve become skeletons in ice, with all our weapons and equipment still in place.

But this sort of enchanting death had been accepted by all its previous victims.

Which reminded me about something Jimmy-san mentioned. How the Cleric who’d once defeated a Lust Rose had said on his deathbed, that he only wished he could’ve been killed by the Lust Rose along with his party members.

“Makes a lot of sense now that I’ve experienced that world myself...”

The Lust Rose’s dream, its ability to create an ideal but complete world was none other than the magic of Telepathy.

The vine circuit only had the effect of inducing sleep. Once an adventurer was asleep and defenseless, the Lust Rose would hack into their brain using it’s powerful Telepathy and plant its illusory world.

The first thing it would do was filter through the person’s memories and goals. What they liked, what they hated, moments they enjoyed, moments they were hurt, their traumas, their desires―― everything.

Once it knew all of a person’s memories, the monster would create their most ideal world in the most realistic way possible.

Having things be too convenient wouldn’t be favorable after all. Its victims could wake up if they felt something was off. Hypnosis was a delicate process like that.

To achieve this balance, the Lust Rose was very patient, it sifted through the mind, and had the intelligence to determine what was viable to show in that blissful dream.

And then, when the oblivious victim started wishing for their happiness to continue forever, that would be the moment they’d be completely trapped.

In my case, that moment would’ve been the night when Shirasaki-san was going to stay over at my place, and we would, uh... engage in certain activities. Maybe I would’ve been too far gone after that happened, even if Hitsugi and Evil Eater came to the rescue.

I was deeply ashamed. That was, after all, something born due to me being a stupid virgin. I should’ve realized it was a dream the moment she confessed to me. I mean seriously, it’s so dumb it hurts!

“Wait, they’re still, okay... right?”

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. I’d caught them as they were falling after I broke their ice cage, but they were still asleep, they still had that same peaceful expression. They might even have trouble distinguishing dream from reality once they wake up... No, there’s no point in worrying about that.

Right now I needed to focus on killing the Lust Rose, first and foremost.

“Your telepathy won’t work on me any―― more!”

With it’s jagged maw closed, Evil Eater EX was even larger than it was pre-evolution. I struck the cave walls with this now greatsword sized weapon.

I hit a part of the wall that was curved, but where I aimed didn’t matter in this case, so long as I struck the ‘inner’ side. What I mean is, this whole portion of the cave connected back to itself in a circle.

And the Lust Rose sat in an enclosed space at the center.

“There we go.”

Both inner and outer sides of this circular tunnel might look solid, but this wasn’t quite the case. The cave was originally a large circular area which had been later made into the tunnel by the Lust Rose to hide itself. This inner side was in fact not hard to break into.

Hypnosis, dream weaving, telepathy, and even wall manufacture. This was quite the versatile monster we were dealing with. It deserved its 5th tier rank.

The inner wall quickly fell apart. And inside, I could see only darkness, even with my eyes now adjusted to the dark. The Lust Rose shouldn’t require light to do its thing so obviously, it’d have no problem nesting in the pitch dark.

“It had its hypnosis, but I broke through that. And now, I even have its location. It’s completely cornered...”

The reason why I suddenly knew so much about this monster was because just like it did to me, I also happened to scour through its mind.

When Hitsugi and Evil Eater were ravaging my ideal dreamscape, the Lust Rose tried to maintain control by pulling out all the stops. It decided to telepathically hack my mind much more forcefully.

Shirasaki-san was suddenly displaying superhuman feats of strength and technique. And that’s when I realized that―― yes, I knew them, these were abilities I’d seen demonstrated by the strongest individual I knew of.

Sariel, the 7th Apostle.

The fight between Hitsugi and that fake Shirasaki-san reflected the fight I once had with the Apostle herself on top of the walls surrounding the Daidalos capital.

She’d used her spear to repel my Sword Arts coming from the top, front and sides, she’d countered my close range pile bunker by reversing its flow, she’d even parried my surprise attack with the Basilisk bone. The series of events were almost identical to the one in the dream.

It had really peeked deep into my memories... and for that reason, I was able to peek back.

Telepathy was also like Hypnosis in that it was very delicate, easily brushed off with the help of some outside help. I’d forgotten that fact since Lily made it look so overpowered, when in reality, using such mental techniques carries a good deal of risk.

The worst of which was the existence of a Backdoor.

It was a phenomenon where the assailee could in turn read through the memories and emotions of their mind delving assailant.

If the assailee could also use Telepathy, it was entirely possible to construct a Backdoor on their own. And even if they didn’t if the assailant got confused enough via some sort of jamming, they would lose part of their control, and their own information would start leaking out.

In addition, if this was a particularly powerful Telepathy and you successfully scattered their control, it was even possible that the caster would start receiving information from all the minds in the surrounding area. This overflow of information into the caster had the risk of causing amnesia or even split personalities.

Incidentally, the one who taught me all this wasn’t Lily, but Nell, back when she was giving me private lessons. Surprising how small things like that became useful in the long run. And Nell, she’s been saving me in lots of ways now that I thought I about it. I’ll be sure to get her more of that pudding she liked.

But I digress. So the way I was able to read the Lust Rose’s thoughts was with the Backdoor method.

The Lust Rose might’ve had incredibly strong telepathic prowess, but Evil Eater could just eat it. Which it did.

Hitsugi hadn’t chosen to come with Evil Eater on a whim. She did it knowing that without Evil Eater draining the mana that made up that world of dreams, it couldn’t be broken. Any of my other weapons would have inflicted pain only, not dispel the hypnosis.

When I remembered who I was again, I had Evil Eater devour anything and everything, which was exactly when the Backdoor opened.

The Lust Rose was born with its absurdly strong Hypnosis and Telepathy, which it had used all this time without a single failure. So once I’d broken it for the first time, it had no idea how to react. It lacked the knowledge and experience to deal with this scenario.

For 30 years the monster had fed on its victims, always using the same, tried, true and tested method. Once I started receiving these memories, I started to know how the Lust Rose thought, what made it tick.

And then, until the time I was finally awoken by the sharp pain in my shoulder, I received the torrent of information that was the Lust Rose. I was confident that right now, I was more knowledgeable about this creature than anyone else.

I knew all of it, I knew fully how blissful it’d be to simply give in, simply stay in that dream. And while understanding everything, my resolve to defeat the Lust Rose didn’t waver in the slightest.

Maybe I’ll say the same words of regret as that Cleric when I die, that it would’ve been better if I’d been killed by that Lust Rose. Maybe the next time I meet Sariel and end up dying, yeah, I could see myself doing that.

“Still... I want power.”

And you’ll be the one giving it to me, Lust Rose.

The power to defeat Apostles, the 4th divine protection.