I am back to the usual routine now.

  Nothing was really progressing much. All that was new was that I had triggered recurrent, lucid nightmares in a few more of the children in the orphanage. Now, it was impossible for the caretakers to chalk it off to something else, especially as the side effects of the nightmares were rather severe.

  Those affected would start to do everything in their power not to fall asleep, and the resulting lack of sleep would lead to all sorts of rather nasty things as well. The ones who seemed especially bad at ‘surviving’ through the nightmares would genuinely start going crazy.

  Some would start banging their head against the walls, or otherwise cause themselves pain in a desperate attempt to remain awake. They were apparently convinced that doom awaited them if they were unable to survive the nightmares enough times.

  Even I had no idea what was going to happen, so it might just be their paranoia and sleep deprivation making them speak nonsense, but I felt that there was probably truth to their fear…

  In any case, no one came up to me to ask for help, so apart from occasionally finding myself a criminal that I could legally maim under the cheers of the crowd, and absolutely destroying knights from the local establishment, I didn’t do much during the day.

  And even at night, it was just the same stuff as usual. I just sought more victims to torment with endless nightmares. In doing so, I quickly noticed that people had different levels of tolerance.

  Some of my prey would be plagued with bad dreams after just a single visit, but some would resist for days on end, and likewise, those who seemed capable of ‘winning’ the nightmares more often than they lost wouldn’t show signs of crippling paranoia.

  They would certainly be disturbed and wary of sleep, but it seemed like they couldn’t sense the so-called ‘doom’ that awaited those who failed… In general, I could somewhat get a feel that the victims that were succeeding in getting through the nightmares without being killed weren’t progressing the tingling like their less competent fellows.

  So, the logical assumption was that I need to infect people with nightmares, but also that said people needed to be very bad at surviving. It seemed that if the rate of survival of a single person was above fifty per cent, they wouldn’t contribute at all to pushing the tingling closer to completion.

  By now, it was basically certain that this was related to the ‘Nightmare Form’–Mmh…?

  “Miss Knightess! Can you help me?!”

  A small girl with long hair pulled onto the bottom of my dress, looking up at me with wet eyes. It was a girl that I had only interacted with once, which was during one of my vigilante actions, during which I broke the arms of a thief. She should be the daughter of the merchant who had basically gone on his hands and knees to thank me.

  I slightly tilted my head. My first instinct was to deck the little vermin across the head, but this was in public, and I had a bit of a reputation to maintain.

  “Please! Bad guys are hurting my dad!”

  Bad guys? Guys I can enact violence upon free of charge? Good thing I didn’t knock her out instantly, she’s delivering good news… Though…

  I swat her hand away from my dress and motion with one hand for her to show me the way. She understands and starts running with her short little legs, taking me to the same place I had shattered arms last time, and then into a small alleyway behind the shop her father owned.

  There, a group of local brutes had already beaten her dad up and were in the process of attempting to extort some money from him, but, credit where credit is due, the sheepish-looking man wasn’t cooperating.

  “Huh…? Damnit! I told you not to let the little fucker go, look what she’s brought!”

  “The guards shouldn’t be around, though. We made sure of-”

  “Idiot! Does this look like a guard to you?! It’s the freaking mad knightess!”

  The thugs were momentarily distracted, and the shop owner was quick to get away from them, running past me to grab his daughter and get the hell out of here whilst thanking me… Buddy, I didn’t even do anything besides show up. These criminals are just little scaredy cats.

  “Hey, listen… We’re just conducting business, alright? Everyone’s got to eat somehow… Let’s not escalate the situation any further”

  One of the criminals, a young one with a black eye, attempted to negotiate peacefully, but I merely clenched my fist in response.

  Somehow… This situation felt somewhat familiar, and it made my anger boil over in record time. The criminals must have sensed that something was off as the blacked-eyed youth paled a little bit as he heard the steel of my fingers being subjected to high amounts of force.

  Ah… I didn’t think I would still have that reflex after so long…

  Before any of the brutes could say anything else, I ran forward, landing a direct kick straight to the mouth of the black-eyed youth, throwing him against the end of the alleyway as he choked and coughed on his own teeth.

  “You bitch!”

  An older criminal with a bushy moustache swung a wooden club at me without thinking. I merely ducked underneath the attack, and the fool committed friendly fire. That was the risk when you swung like an idiot.

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  I slightly modified my gauntlets to turn the tips of my fingers into claws, swiftly tearing out the fool’s throat whilst he was realising his mistake. The two other criminals completely desolidarised from their fellows and tried running.

  I threw the torn-out throat at the first one’s face, simply raising one foot and stepping down on the side of his knee. This action produced a most satisfying crunch, and an equally enjoyable scream would have followed had I not immediately chained this hit into a punch to the throat.

  The criminal was left writhing on the ground like a worm whilst emitting most pitiful yelps as I approached the last criminal. In his fright, he backed himself into a dead-end, and unlike a cornered animal, he proved to be of no danger whatsoever.

  He ended up in a chokehold that quickly turned into a broken neck. His lifeless body was thrown on top of the idiot who had rapidly bled out to death on the dirty ground.

  The first one I had struck was not dead, but unconscious. The second one was soon to be dead. The fourth one was dead… The third was the only one that was still alive and with the potential to actually recuperate from his injuries.

  I had no intention of leaving anyone alive today, though.

  Despite realising that my anger was merely due to an impression of deja vu, and thus wholly misplaced. I still couldn’t help but use lethal force against them, despite the fact that I really shouldn’t have killed any.

  Not like anyone cares if low-lives get butchered, but still…

  Are you alright, Mara? That felt out of character…

  It’s nothing. Just the old reflexes of a big sister.

  I placed my foot against the back of the thug's neck, pressed down on it slowly, and then twisted my ankle suddenly, breaking his neck in one motion.

  The father and daughter duo will surely have gone to fetch the guards… I probably don’t have time to change back into my ‘Base Form’ to eat all of this and then switch back before they arrive…

  What a shame to leave perfectly good food behind! Maybe I’ll need to raid the local cemetery eventually, I heard they have mass graves, that should have created some resentful spirits for me to snack on…

  Mmh… Why is the tingling getting so strong all of a sudden?

  It was like I was just on the edge of completing whatever condition this was…

  Mara, do prepare, you’re going to-

  Before Nara could even finish, I suddenly found myself somewhere other than the alleyway. Moreover, I was in my human form, just like when I was inside my mind palace, but this most definitely wasn’t my mindscape. This place was… It wasn’t familiar to me, but I felt a strong sense of nostalgia for some reason.

  What the hell just happened?

  Sorry, I didn’t see it coming… But now that you’re here, I can reveal a lot more information!

  Oh, that sounds sweet.

  You are within someone’s nightmare, but this isn’t a normal nightmare. As you guessed, this is one of the nightmares that is caused due to coming into contact with you and being afflicted with abnormal amounts of negative emotion

  This nightmare is a manifestation of the still locked ‘Nightmare Form’, and what you are experiencing is basically a sort of lesser variation of what the form will allow you to do in the future

  In these nightmares, the victims are brought to a place that does not exist and are given an objective, as well as rules. It can simply be to survive for a certain period of time, finding an exit, or completing certain tasks

  Before, the nightmares were occupied by an entity that imitates you, but does not truly have a mind of its own. It is bound tightly by the rules of the trial and is actually rather easy to deal with as long as you know what you are doing

  Oh, so some of my prey just sucks?

  Yes, pretty badly at that…

  But that is to our advantage, you have entered this nightmare because your first victim has just passed out due to sleep deprivation, and thus, began ‘sleeping’. However, he has failed too many times to survive

  Killing him in this nightmare will cause his death in real life as well, and will result in one condition toward unlocking the ‘Nightmare Form’ being completed

  I am allowed quite a lot more leeway than usual right now, so let me tell you that the other conditions are the same as this one. You simply need to repeat the same thing many more times before unlocking the form

  Although this event is very similar to what the form can do, it is merely a lesser version with many missing components and capabilities

  At the moment, you are bound solely to your form within the mindscape, for example

  I see… So I just need to find and murder him to seal the deal?

  Precisely

  The trial you are currently in seems to be a rusted steel boat. There is no true escape. His goal is to survive for a certain period of time, and his main tools to do so would be the heavy doors as defence, and hiding

  Sounds pretty fun… Just asking, but was I legitimately teleported here? My body isn’t just sitting in that alley, is it?

  No worries, you did disappear from the alley physically as well

  Good to know. Alright, where is this fucker? I guess I don’t get any hints? It must be one of the limitations of going into a nightmare without the appropriate form, I suppose… I am more akin to another participant than the master.

  Well, no matter.

  I looked around. The room I was in was illuminated by a dull yellow light that kept swinging from right to left as the ship I was in moved. I could hear the sound of waves crashing against the hull alongside some rather worrying, monstrous cries and loud scratching…

  Does this place include some other creatures or something?

  Wait, you know what, Nara? Don’t answer that, it’s more fun if I don’t know…

  Please be careful, Mara…

  When am I not careful? Sometimes I am bold, but reckless? Never.

  I reached out for a knife that was stabbed into a nearby table. It was a chef’s knife with an arrowhead triangular tip and a rather wide blade.

  I spun it in my hand for a moment and found the weight distribution to be very nice, so I put it away in one of the pockets on the inside of my coat.

  The advantage of being in my human form here was that it came with my trusty old coat. Which featured a pocket that I had specifically modified to accommodate a blade.

  Let’s get to playing.