"Haaah, haaaah, haaaah—" Ivan let out deep breaths, perspiration visible on his forehead as he dropped to his knees and panted to restore his breath.
When he woke up from the dream he was surrounded by amber, thick orange-brown translucent amber buried in the center of a tree's trunk.
With his whole body covered in amber, he was unable to make any movements to break out, so after overcharging his hand of destruction he was finally able to break out.
He stood up on his legs as he stared around in confusement. It was dark, so dark he couldn't see his own hands in front of him.
Without saying a word he activated his 'Cat's Eye' ability, effectively granting him night vision at the cost of color blindness.
"At least I have a wider field of view," He muttered to himself. Compared to a human's 180-degree view his transformed eyes granted him a full 200 degrees of vision.
Ivan's pupils changed from their usual round form into that of red ellipticals. He dropped a colorful stone on the ground before walking toward the nearest thing he could see.
"Yue…" He subconsciously muttered before putting his hand up against another tree full of amber, however deep within that amber was his dearly beloved.
"Phew, well at least we know her body's safe. All of her items seem to be on her person as well…" Ivan smiled before turning around and spotting another amber-filled tree. Then another, and another, and one more, and—
You get the point, right?
There existed a tree for every single member of the group. Each member embedded deep within likely experiencing a dream of their own.
Ivan contemplated breaking them out before concluding that this trial was vital for being considered a 'clearer' of the labyrinth.
After all, it seemed the avatar of the labyrinth liberator had approved of him themself. He sat down near Yue's amber before taking things out of his ring to form a camp.
A fire in case someone breaks out without him noticing, they'd have no choice but to walk up to it when surrounded by this darkness. Not to mention he wanted to prepare some food for them when they woke up.
It wouldn't be nearly as good as Claire's food, or Yue's, to be honest, but it was better than nothing. The two aforementioned cooks might even be too tired to cook after they break out.
And in case they were going to be sleeping in here, Ivan set up a tent and enough sleeping bags for everyone.
It was over the top and probably overkill considering his group's capabilities but with no one to talk to he didn't see a reason not to go all out.
"Now, what else…?" A smile formed on his face as three logs appeared out of thin air surrounding the campfire before he took a seat and stirred the pot boiling over it.
"If they take too long it might get cold… mah, a microwave will be good enough. Besides, they'll deserve a fresh meal if they break out fast enough."
Ivan placed a microwave powered by magic crystals right next to the tent before returning to his spot at the fire.
"A cordless microwave huh… I wonder how much of a killing it'd make in my old world~" Musing about pointless things brought a smile to his face, he stirred and stirred before hearing cracking noises behind him.
CRACK CRACK
"Ah, just on time~!" Ivan smiled warmly before making his way toward Yue's amber, opening his arms wide as he prepared to catch the girl that was about to fall out of the tree.
POMF!
Yue fell gracefully into Ivan's embrace, feeling his arms wrap around her waist her eyes twitched slightly before opening slowly.
"...Are you… the real Ivan…?" She muttered quietly. In response to that Ivan only smiled before nuzzling his head against hers.
"Of course, there's no other Ivan who's as handsome as I am~!" He brought her to his chest, smiling wryly as she deeply inhaled his scent almost as if to ascertain his existence.
Ivan pushed her away slightly before placing his palms on her cheeks, "Welcome back, Yue!"
"Mm! I'm back!" She gave back an earnest smile, dazzling Ivan as she moved in for a kiss.
=====================================================================
"I see, so that version of me was a vampire king?" With nothing else to do Ivan talked with Yue about the dreams they each experienced.
"Mm… you looked so cool sitting on your throne…" She smiled coyly before holding one hand up to her cheek. Ivan was smitten by her captivated look and blushing cheeks. Only being broken out of his stupor by the smell of something burning.
SIZZLE SIZZLE!
"Huh…? Oh no—!" He quickly pulled the burnt sausage at the end of his rod before sighing desperately as its fate had already been sealed.
"But it was only for a few seconds… Wait, who am I kidding? With looks that beautiful it wouldn't be strange for time to have gone for longer than I thought…"
His words bloomed another smile on Yue's face, though at the moment he was more preoccupied dealing with the damage caused by his earlier lust.
It had been hours since Yue broke out of her dream. A dream that consisted of her vampire empire having never diminished, nor did it ever betray her, instead Ivan and her ruled over it successfully taking over the world.
Meanwhile, Yue seemed quite glum when Ivan told her that she never appeared in his dream, though a little less so as he explained that he didn't even leave his own house so odds were she could've been right outside his door.
It was only an 'if' or even a 'maybe' but that was enough to satisfy her. During this time of transferring stories, Ivan went ahead and started making a buffet of different foods.
Forget the glutinous homunculi who don't even need food to sustain themselves, Ivan was starving after Yue drained him of his blood.
As being locked in amber for hours and using mana to break out of her dream had cost a lot of her reserves.
In any case, their group was big so extra food wouldn't hurt anyone.
CRACK CRACK!
"Oh, here comes another one." Ivan handed his iron rod to Yue as he got up, shuffling to another corner of the dark abyss before appearing right in front of Tio's amber.
SHATTER!
The amber broke into dozens of pieces and a beautiful buxom girl fell from the tree, she groaned slightly the moment she made contact with something warm.
Without bothering to open her eyes, she snuggled in closer, nuzzling her head against the rigid yet warm object. A smile adorned her face as she fell into a deeper slumber.
Except—
"Lightning Clad…"
"Ababababababa—!" Her body went straight as lightning coursed through her, by the end of Ivan's trick her body was left twitching on the ground as black smoke rose into the air.
"Wake up, princess! As much as I'd love to coddle you, now's not the time to be sleeping, especially after that long dream~!"
Ivan ignored the writhing of Tio's body, not because he thought she would be fine, but because the face and noises she made were a bit too disgusting.
"Ah, it is only thee, my true master! Yee who can bring me such please exists only in this reality~! Hah…hah…hah, that faker truly amounts to nothing compared to my true lord. Fufufu… I surely made the right decision… Mm…. Mnn….Ah!"
'Where the hell are you putting your hands!?' Ivan retorted inwardly, zapping Tio again as she finally rose to her feet.
He smiled at her, placing his hands on her ears as she stared back stunned. Then embarrassed, to finally joy. Ivan watched her face go through these phases of emotions before staring into her eyes kindly.
"Welcome back, Tio!" This time he was a hundred times more considerate than when he spoke with Yue. While that slightly peeved Yue off she understood Ivan's sentiments.
Out of the entire group, Tio was the oldest, living an outstanding five hundred years. And in those five hundred years, she endured many tragedies, the death of her parents, the annihilation of her clan, the weight of her title as a princess, and the expectations of her people to restore her clan to its former glory.
For over five hundred years she endured all of it. It didn't take much effort to guess what she had seen in her dream.
The happiness of her people. Her parents still being alive. Her clan as prestigious as it had always been in its prime. The only odd thing that stood out was that for some reason he had been there.
"Y-You ruled beside me, together we were the strongest! W-W-We even had children…" Tio spoke shyly as a blush adorned her face from the neck up, her pointy ears twitching gave Ivan a tantalizing desire to tease them.
"Children huh…" Ivan spoke absentmindedly upon hearing her explanation, to think that she'd go so far as to imagine their future together.
"So… how many children did we have?" He asked hesitantly, as this wasn't exactly a conversation someone should have right next to their partner.
"...Nine…" After a minute of silence she finally spoke, this time not having enough shame to face his eyes. She brought the hem of her kimono's sleeves to her face, a futile attempt to cover her tomato red skin but a cute effort nonetheless.
Ivan on the other hand stood still in shock. 'N-N-Nine?!' He thought inwardly. 'At most I only ever hoped to have two children…' It seemed he got so caught up in these fantasies that he started seeing them as possible futures.
"Ehem…" It was surprising to see Yue show a semblance of jealousy, sure she was very possessive of Ivan but to make her express that instead of her usual calm demeanor was praiseworthy in itself.
Once again Yue and Ivan returned to the fire, this time sharing their stories with a very curious Tio.
And as minutes became hours, each member of the group broke out one by one.
Felis had dreamed of becoming Ivan's real daughter. Surprisingly the fact that she was made in a lab had bothered her quite a bit since birth. Coaxing her with affirmations like, 'blood relations matter not so long as we believe we're family' was enough to allay most of her concerns.
Canis just dreamed of a quiet room where she read and relaxed for all of eternity. But she broke out of it eventually complaining that it was boring.
Ari remembered what her childhood was like, this time living a life where she was never kidnapped from her home and sold off as a slave.
Shea dreamed of being just a normal rabbit girl, having fun with her family not worrying about being exterminated because of her differences. Surprisingly Ivan and Yue were in her dream as her best friends.
And as for Claire, her dream was somewhat mundane. According to her all she dreamed of were those days she and Ivan spent cooped up in his atelier.
Mixing potions, annoying his classmates and bantering with each other while playing around the city. She had dreamed that those peaceful days never ended.
Together they lived as humans, loving each other till the end of their lives, even having children and grandchildren.
It wasn't until the end of her life that she spoke to herself in an empty room, saying she was satisfied with the visions she had seen. But nonetheless, her duties as a maid came before her desires, and so the dream broke.
"So… that's everyone huh…" This was an interesting trial in Ivan's mind, he ended up learning a lot about his companions and their aspirations… even if some of them were more lustful than he preferred…
As if activating upon his words, a hole in the darkness opened up. Revealing a ray of light that shot into the air seemingly infinite.
"This is…" It was another teleportation circle. He stared into it before locking arms with his companions once more, Tio to his left while Yue locked to his right.
"I really hope this is the last trial…" He gave a wry smile, the trials so far had been more mentally draining than physically demanding.
And without another word, they stepped into the circle.
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This chapter was really fun to write, in fact I'm one hundred percent certain that this was the most fun I had writing a chapter. There was no pressure, no anxiety over whether people would like this somewhat filler creation, it was just writing whatever was on my mind. And like a river--- the words flowed. Even though it took longer than normal to write, I never felt like I was wasting time.
I don't know, it's weird to explain. I'm quite certain where it's coming from but I'll save it for the final entry. But anyways, thanks for reading today's chapter. Have a great evening, and I'll see you all next time.
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