24 hours ago.
Nameless, Dusk Bringar, and Ash had just fought a decisive battle against Night Bringer.
"Hah, hah, hah!"
Nameless breathed heavily.
She shot all the light remaining in her soul at Night Bringer. It was a strike with all her might, but Night Bringer barely twisted his body to avoid it.
Even though it just grazed him, it left a large wound on Night Bringer's chest, but ultimately, it missed.
The missed strike shot helplessly into the air, touching the curtain of darkness in the sky before fading away.
The moment the sword missed, Nameless realized she had no means left to confront Night Bringer.
So, while Night Bringer was in pain from the wound on his chest, she quickly took Dusk Bringar and Ash and left the place.
"Ha, ha, hoo..."
Fortunately, the wound on his chest was severe enough that Night Bringer did not pursue them.
Only after escaping into the depths of the southern forest under the darkness did Nameless breathe a sigh of relief.
"Sister Nameless..."
"Little Dusk!"
Nameless was startled when Dusk Bringar in her arms groaned and checked on her.
After the Dragonblood Frenzy ended and Dusk Bringar returned to her human form, she was trembling in pain.
Since she had used the last stage of the Dragonblood Frenzy, her body was gradually breaking down.
Moreover, she had taken Nameless's strike while holding onto Night Bringer to create an opening.
A clear wound from the light strike was engraved on Dusk Bringar's small body.
If it weren't for the curse of immortality, she would have already fallen and died. Her body was breaking down in real-time and being restored by the curse.
Dusk Bringar looked to the side with a face covered in cold sweat.
"I am, alright... more importantly, Ash..."
Ash, who was lying next to her, was also in a bad state.
He had been battered by Night Bringer's concentrated attacks, and crucially, his ego was starting to collapse.
He was still unconscious. At this rate, he wouldn't last long.
And Nameless as well.
"Ugh...?!"
Nameless suddenly discovered a long, dark chain wrapped around her ankle.
The chain extended endlessly from the distant south... from the black lake, binding Nameless.
Clink, clink-
Moreover, it was gradually pulling Nameless.
"Damn...!"
Only then did Nameless realize why Night Bringer hadn't bothered to pursue them.
All three... would soon perish anyway.
If left alone, they would die or become something worse, so there was no need to go to the trouble of eliminating them.
"Now, at least Ash..."
Dusk Bringar, with trembling hands, dragged her body next to Ash.
"At least... we must save this child."
"But, how?"
Nameless had already heard from Ash in the underground village.
Ash's soul was broken. He had endured by overlaying a proxy personality on top of his soul.
But that proxy personality was destroyed, and there was no way to restore it. And Ash's soul was collapsing again.
"...There is a way."
Dusk Bringar bit her pale lips and reached out her hand.
"When Ash came to ask me how to 'become a dragon,' he told me, just in case this happened."
"What?"
"It's in here."
What Dusk Bringar picked up was... a ritual longsword at Ash's waist, which could transform into a staff.
The Nightmare Slayer, [Light and Shadow], made from White Night's twin magic cores.
"Ash preserved his personality in here."
"...!"
Just as White Night continually replicated himself to be reborn as new doppelgangers, this equipment had the characteristic of replicating its owner's traits and applying them twice.
And, to exert this replication ability.
[Light and Shadow] replicated the owner's personality, storing it within itself.
Like a shadow cast by light... the equipment itself was a doppelganger.
Nameless's mouth opened slightly upon hearing the explanation. Dusk Bringar nodded.
"The Ash we knew, those memories... are inside here."
"Can we call those memories Ash?"
Nameless murmured hesitantly, and the answer came from another place.
"Theoretically, yes... Ugh!"
The real Ash, who had been lying down, was breathing heavily as he got up.
With trembling hands, Ash put a cigarette in his mouth, but his lips just quivered without lighting it, and he forced a smile.
"From the start, the person you know is just a personality overlaid on me, copied from the outside world."
"..."
"If you can overlay the personality preserved in that Nightmare Slayer onto me... the principle is the same. That person can come back. Ha, they left an escape route like this..."
The real Ash, who was laughing as if it was absurd, brushed back his blood-clotted bangs.
"But how do you plan to access the equipment, extract that personality, and overlay it on me?"
"That's..."
"I don't have the mental strength left to perform such a difficult task now. And Aider, that damn guy... even if he were here, he wouldn't be much help, but he's not even around."
As Dusk Bringar hesitated, she exhaled a breath and then, as if having made up her mind, placed her hand over her chest with a determined expression.
"I will pass my heart and blood to you."
"..."
"At the moment of inheritance, the previous and future heirs' mental worlds are connected. When the two mental worlds are connected, if we use this Nightmare Slayer as a magical bridge... I can search for that personality instead."
The real Ash, who had been listening quietly, spat his cigarette onto the floor and showed a hollow smile.
"Hey, Duchess. You know why he didn't inherit from you and instead stole the black dragon's blood to forcibly gain its power, right?"
"..."
"It was to save you."
The Dragonblood of the Duchess of Bringar is a solitary inheritance.
At the moment of passing the heart, blood, power, and rights to the next generation, the previous Duchess of Bringar dies. They have no choice but to die.
When Ash learned this law of Dragonblood inheritance from Dusk Bringar, he gave up inheriting the red dragon's blood.
Instead, he devised a plan to forcibly use the black dragon's blood.
Ash had cheerfully said, 'Wouldn't it be stronger if we had two dragons on our side? So let's go this way,' but... Dusk Bringar knew well.
Sacrificing her was never an option for him from the start.
That's why he chose this difficult path, and that's why they were in this messed-up situation now.
"...To inherit the Bringar Duchy, one condition is necessary."
Dusk Bringar took a deep breath and then spoke the words she had heard from the previous Duchess of Bringar.
"A strong heart that will not give up living as a human."
"..."
"In the one hundred and twenty years I've lived... I've never seen anyone who fits this condition more than Ash."
Nameless, who had been listening, also nodded silently.
Nameless's reason for feeding Ash the Dragon Heart of the Black Dragon Legion without hesitation was similar.
A Dragon Heart can elevate the one who consumes it, but it can also corrupt them. Usually, they become living corpses, devoured by the karma tied to that blood.
But Ash possessed an unbelievably strong mental strength.
That's why they trusted and administered it, and he was able to maintain himself even after taking the Dragon Heart of the Black Dragon Legion.
Dusk Bringar raised her voice.
"Therefore, as the Duchess of Bringar, I want to make this child my successor. No, it has to be this child."
"..."
In the end, it was just another way of declaring suicide.
However, Dusk Bringar's face had the nobility of a queen responsible for a nation. So, the real Ash decided to stop arguing.
He knew well from their long relationship over many cycles.
Once the Dragon Lady made up her mind, no one could stop her.
"...The inside of this equipment is probably purgatory. It's a closed world completely isolated in time and space from the outside, designed to imprison the replicated personality."
The real Ash drew the ritual longsword and then combined it with the scabbard.
The Nightmare Slayer, which had turned into a staff, scattered an ominous and eerie light.
"And it's made from the magic core of White Night. No one knows what kind of nightmare awaits inside."
"..."
"Even if you connect safely, you don't know where the replicated personality is stored. You'll have to search for it... and since you're not the original personality but a complete stranger, you won't have any clues. It will be very difficult. You might wander around in there for a very long time."
"It doesn't matter."
Dusk Bringar took a breath and declared.
"If I can bring this child back."
If she could feel that warmth again... if she could meet that child once more.
If she could bring him back to this world.
"He really is loved, that guy."
The real Ash laughed quietly and placed one end of the staff on his heart. Dusk Bringar placed the other end on her chest.
"...Little Dusk."
Nameless hesitated beside Dusk Bringar, not knowing what to say.
Dusk Bringar looked at Nameless,
"Sister Nameless."
"Yes?"
"Thank you."
Dusk Bringar covered her mouth and giggled like a teenage girl.
"It's been a long time since I called someone 'sister.'"
"..."
"I was happy. While I was with you, truly."
Nameless's expression slowly brightened,
"...Me too, Little Dusk."
As if there was no darkness around them... she smiled brightly.
"It was the first time I called someone 'sister' in my life. I was happy while I was with you."
After exchanging smiles,
Dusk Bringar looked at the real Ash.
"Alright, let's start."
"...I don't have the energy to say much, so I'll keep it simple, Duchess."
"Go ahead."
Facing the Ash who was unknown to her, Dusk Bringar gestured.
Then the real Ash slightly bowed his head,
"Have a good journey."
He said.
Dusk Bringar was momentarily surprised,
"...You too."
She bowed her head silently in response.
Both took a deep breath simultaneously.
And in the next moment, Ash and Dusk Bringar gritted their teeth and stepped forward-
Thud!
The staff pierced both of their hearts simultaneously.
***
Dusk Bringar slowly opened her amber eyes.
Whoosh...
It was a world covered in snowstorms, a pure white, frozen world.
Everything in sight was covered in snow and ice, with mountains of frost and hail clinging to the sky.
Under the dark, gloomy sky, there was only biting cold on the glacial land.
The kingdom of nightmares established inside the Nightmare Slayer [Light and Shadow].
"Somewhere in this world..."
Her long hair fluttered wildly in the blowing frost wind.
Clenching her teeth against the cold, Dusk Bringar gripped her rapidly freezing shoulders with her fingers and took a step forward.
"If you're here."
Each step on the piled ice felt like being burned, but Dusk Bringar did not stop walking.
Breathing out white puffs of frosty air, Dusk Bringar declared.
"Wait for me. I will find you."
Thus, Dusk Bringar began to wander in this frozen nightmare, severed from time and space of the real world.
The world trapped in endless winter seemed infinitely vast. Perhaps it was endlessly expanding.
But Dusk Bringar did not give up. She traversed this frozen world, crossing mountains and deserts, exploring every valley and cave.
Years.
Decades.
Centuries.
Perhaps, millennia...
Dusk Bringar wandered endlessly.
To find the campfire of that child, flickering somewhere in this frozen world.
No cold, no pain, no loneliness could compare to her will to protect that child's warmth.
Dusk Bringar walked ceaselessly without giving up for a moment.
At the end of this endless trial...
***
"...Ah."
Finally.
Dusk Bringar found it.
"Is that...?"
On the white frozen sea.
There stood a fortress made of solid ice.
Dusk Bringar instinctively knew that this was the place she had been searching for. She staggered towards the ice fortress.
Creak-
Boom...
Pushing open the firmly closed giant ice gate and entering the fortress,
Inside the fortress was a large mound covered in white snow—a burial mound.
"..."
And sitting atop the mound was a lone shadow.
Wearing a robe with wide sleeves and a ceremonial crown adorned with small beads, his face was covered by a large talisman attached to the crown.
It was a shadow that closely resembled White Night.
The shadow clicked its tongue and glared at Dusk Bringar.
"You finally made it. How tiresome."
Dusk Bringar moved her frozen lips and spoke in a hoarse voice from her parched throat.
"So, you must be the master of the nightmare residing within the Nightmare Slayer."
"..."
"White Night, it's you."
White Night's shadow didn't bother to respond and tapped the snow-covered mound with his fingertips.
"The personality sleeping here is mine."
"..."
"I will devour this personality, take over its body, and be reborn as a new White Night. So, don't interfere, half-dragon."
"The truly tiresome one is you, undead..."
With stiff, frozen fingers, Dusk Bringar managed to clench her fist and slowly prepared for battle.
"Step aside. That child is too beautiful for something as vile as you to touch."
White Night's shadow laughed out loud.
"Aren't you equally vile, half-dragon?"
"...You're right. I am also vile."
Dusk Bringar smiled bitterly.
"But no matter how rotten and decayed my body is... it can still serve as fuel to keep that child's fire burning."
White Night's shadow said no more.
Instead, she spread her arms wide, aiming Dusk Bringar at this ice fortress she controlled—and the entire frozen world.
The entire fortress trembled as the ice walls soared into the sky, and from all the ground and all the sky, ice spears and frost spikes poured down like a snowstorm.
In the midst of the rushing winter, Dusk Bringar did not retreat and kicked off the ground.
And then...
***
...
...
...A faint warmth.
It wrapped around my frozen body.
A small, feeble, but unmistakable warmth caressed my forehead.
I slowly opened my eyes.
I saw a cloudy sky with snowflakes falling.
I realized that my body was lying in a transparent ice coffin.
That the coffin was buried in a white grave, and its lid was wide open.
That someone had dug up the grave with bloody bare hands, broken the coffin, pulled me out from within... and was holding me.
"Just a moment."
With a cautious touch, as if caressing a camellia flower met on a snowy mountain.
Someone was gently tracing my face, whispering with a voice choked with tears.
"Just a little while... let me hold you like this..."
"..."
I slowly reached out my arms and embraced her frozen body.
As the frost melted from Dusk Bringar's closed eyelashes, it turned into transparent droplets that flowed down.
Reunited in the ice-covered nightmare by a miracle, we held each other for a long time.
It was winter.
It was warm.