I felt the tingling as life seeped from the eyes of my prey, but it became clear as it happened that he would have to be the first of many that I slew in this manner if I wanted to unlock the ‘Nightmare Form’. Compared to my previous forms, this one required far more attention to be acquired.

  The ‘Molten Form’ and ‘Plush Form’ had had difficult requirements, but conditions that were still technically quick to fulfil. Well… The former was supposed to be a bit difficult since it needed a high level of flame resistance, but I had run into a bit of a loophole, namely, an absolute idiot.

  In any case, I was getting the feeling that it would take a whole lot of nightmare visits before unlocking this form, and from the looks of it, one person being affected by the recurrent bad dreams wasn’t enough on its own to eventually trigger this visit.

  Even if someone was doing badly in half of the nightmares, they wouldn’t bring doom upon themselves. Only those who truly failed over and over again would end up at my mercy. It wasn’t that bad, though… Even those who performed excellently would eventually grow weary.

  While we are still in the nightmare, and I am allowed to speak… A person who does very well will eventually rid themselves of the nightmares. You should pay them visits and instil proper fear within them again to ensure that they don’t cure themselves

  Someone who gets rid of the bad dreams will be far harder to affect again. The best way to make sure that someone, regardless of their capabilities in surviving the trials, continues to experience nightmares, is to truly make a lasting, terrifying impression

  I see. Is there no time limit overall?

  No, if they can’t get rid of the nightmares in the way that I described, they’ll theoretically have them until they die. Being forced to survive every night–Sometimes several times in the same night–Will definitely wear down their will eventually

  That’s good to know. It’s quite nice that you’re able to express yourself more freely here.

  Well… It’s only concerning the ‘Nightmare Form’

  It’s still good, you sound so happy when you can just go on and on about something… I wish I could hear so many words concerning what you would want to look like if you had a body, that would help me think about what cute attire I would put you in.

  W-We don’t even know if I can get a body! And why are you so interested in dressing me up?

  It’s big sister stuff, you wouldn’t get it.

  …Is that so?

  The nightmare was beginning to collapse after my prey expired from blood loss.

  He wasn’t very funny as he died… I like it when they try to say something and are unable to, or when they try to reach for something, or even try to run away despite already being condemned. This guy did none of that. He just looked confused until the very end… It was a rather silly expression, but not one that I found particularly amusing to look at.

  I am a very visual gal. When I kill someone, I either want them to put on a little show or for them to be nice to look at. Especially when they can’t provide good entertainment before the kill.

  This prey was far too easy to trick, and did not realise anything until it was too late. In essence, it was a job well done, but I liked some action, a little bit of danger! I was in my human form as well. I may be undead-like, but let some adrenaline course through my veins!

  I was met with darkness, and I soon reappeared in the alleyway in my knightly form, which made the guards who were trying to roll the corpses into large pieces of fabric jump out of their skin in fear.

  I just raised my hand and waved slightly, turning around to leave the alley.

  “This- That- What the hell? When did she show up here?! Did she drop from a roof?”

  “I don’t know, I blinked and she was right next to me!”

  “Does she have the power to teleport? Remind me to bow next time I see her, I wouldn’t want to make her mad for any reason…”

  I heard them speak amongst themselves as I left unobstructed, as cautious as the local guards may be of me, they didn’t actually find any fault with my behaviour. I had helped them apprehend criminals on many occasions after all.

  If anything, they should worship the ground I walk on…

  Anyway, I still haven’t taken the time to check that new upgrade I could pick.

  I take a seat on a bench to look at my options, sitting like a refined lady with legs crossed. Right now, my dress is actually a little bit more colourful and detailed than usual. Ever since my adorable little sisters learned that I could make minor changes to what this form looked like, all six of them have been having little meetings inside the biomes of my mindscape, putting their brains together to come up with new looks.

  They were actually quite good at this, and with Ophelie’s developed sense of aesthetic, they were able to really bring their ideas to life. So there was no reason to refuse. I was dreading the moment they were going to realise that the dress could be another colour than black, though…

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  …Not to mention that the armour too could have its colouration altered rather greatly…

  If they realised this, they might just come up with ideas that had nothing to do with what I currently looked like.

  Still, they seemed to want to keep the feathery look of the bottom of my dress, which was welcome. I quite liked it as well…

  The upgrade options appeared before me.

  Overcharge - Faraday Box Upgrade - Let the lightning course through you, the lightning coat your body entirely and grant you increased power on top of electrifying the surroundings

  Rest Mode - You gain an additional mode between active and dormant. You can still move, but your eyes and certain other functions will act as though you are dormant

  More Eyes - You now grow dot-like eyes all over your body. They do not shine purple and can't channel eye-related upgrades, but will expand your sight

  Killer Rabbit - Your feet and legs gain increased power

  Extra Maw - Your body forms a secondary, smaller maw inside of your existing one

  Limelight - Your body forms a powerful light within your maw, casting a powerful, warm light capable of causing people to pass out

  Six options this time… And a few new ones too.

  Proceeding in order, ‘Overcharge’ could be of great use, and it was also the first upgrade that was… Well… An upgrade to an upgrade? It would grant the ‘Faraday Box’ a new usage, allowing me to not just use it to send lightning currents through my wires, but also use the lightning stored within for a flat power boost.

  The one thing I wondered about was the sort of side effects it could potentially have, and also just how strong the electrification of my surroundings would be. Upgrade description had the bad habit of omitting details.

  For all I knew, using ‘Overcharge’ might leave me temporarily stunned afterwards.

  Food for thought.

  ‘Rest Mode’ sounded quite good as well, being able to stop my eyes from glowing whilst still moving around would be quite practical, but once again, just what were these other options that would also become dormant? I assumed it was talking about certain of my other upgrades, but I had no way of knowing for sure.

  “More Eyes’ was a returner, and I was quite tempted to take it this time. Being basically immune to being blinded sounded very good. At least in my base form, my knightly form had no eyes, so I had no clue how I could see in it.

  Would getting my head blasted off actually leave me blind in this form? I had no clue.

  ‘Killer Rabbit’ seemed like an upgrade similar to ‘Crushing Bite’, but the very flavourful name made me wonder if it wasn’t a one-time deal that did not have any tiers to it. If so, it might actually be a massive boost to my lower body.

  I wasn’t too willing to gamble. I wasn’t exactly getting the chance to pick upgrades often these days.

  The ‘Extra Maw’ option was a curious one… I had only recently learned that my false counterpart in the nightmares had several maws inside of its maws, and now I was getting an option to do the same thing? It sounded staged.

  In any case, I wasn’t quite certain what was attractive about this one. I understood that it could be some sort of backup if my main maw was broken in a fight, but a smaller maw sounded far less wieldy, and probably weaker as well.

  I presumed that it would have the same upgrades as the jaws I currently owned, but still…

  Lastly, there was yet another upgrade that had to do with me pulling some light hijinks. There were really a lot of those.

  The description sounded nice, but I know what it’s talking about. This is just a regular limelight. I saw those when my parents would take me to the theatre. Many places didn’t want to use energy or spell-based illumination and instead used a more authentic means to brighten the stage.

  For this thing to work, you just needed a piece of quicklime that you would heat. This would cause it to shine with a bright white light, which you would then condense and direct with some sort of magnifying glass.

  And tada! A strong shine.

  Those things were so strong that actors on the scene would start sweating like pigs rapidly, and yes, I had seen the fact that it could cause people to pass out due to the sheer strength of the light.

  Theoretically, coupling the heat with my ability to forcefully instil negative emotions into people… I could technically provoke targets to lose consciousness by making their heart beat faster through panic and then warm them up to a high temperature.

  The combo of the two should definitely be capable of making people fall over like bags of bricks.

  But is this combo really worth it compared to some of the other options I had available?

  The first three are definitely more attractive.

  ‘Overcharge’ seems nice, but the ‘Faraday Box’ does not pass into either of my forms, and at the moment, I am spending far more time as a knight than as my base self. I only interact with helpless victims in my ‘Base Form’ so…

  ‘Rest Mode’ sounds like it could come in handy in many situations, and besides, all my forms actually had a dormant mode, so this upgrade should be one shared across all forms.

  And ‘More Eyes’ is purely great utility. It would give me vision basically everywhere around me, and make me immune to having my eyes taken out.

  This is a bit difficult this time… I think I am worrying too much because of the rarity of upgrades nowadays… What do you think, Nara?

  In terms of sheer usage, ‘More Eyes’ will definitely be far more useful. The addition of eyes all over your body is something that you can use in all fights to get an edge, especially when facing multiple enemies

  The fact that they do not shine purple is also useful, enemies will not realise that you are covered in eyes

  I would ask my other little sisters, but they weren’t the greatest advisors in that area. Elowen is the sort that would love for me to have a buzzsaw instead of an arm, for example.

  And Annie would definitely think that getting stronger legs is the best thing in the world…

  Let’s go for ‘More Eyes’, then.

  I chose the option, and nothing happened.

  Ah, yes. It will only happen when I switch back.

  I’ll get my sweet agony tonight…