I manifested on top of a somewhat luxurious-looking habitation, the air was warm and stuffy, the sun was slowly setting in the distance, and looking across the horizon, I could see a desert in every direction beyond this compact city, and in fact, I could even see the shapes of a whole bunch of immense pillars and pyramids.

  Huh… Which country on this continent has those? I remember hearing a little bit about pyramids in the desert… I only remembered because, to me, pyramids were a type of structure typically found inside deep jungles.

  Giorsalbe was the name, I believe. Far north of Rootriska, a small kingdom, but one situated in the heart of a huge and extremely dangerous desert. With this natural method of defence, the kingdom has been able to go about its business with the only legitimate threat being the desert, and… itself.

  Curiously, my form in this trial was just my good old regular human self, and I was even wearing my usual attire. I wasn’t made to suit the desertic theme at all. Though I could feel myself being stronger than normal, and there was something more about me as well–I had definitely been granted a special ability for the purpose of this trial.

  The special Nightmare Trial’s goal for the prey is as follows:

  Survive until sunrise. You are tracked by a single entity with two special abilities

  Good luck

  The trial was as simple as it could get. My victims were thrown into this city just as the sun was setting, and their only objective was to survive for a certain period of time… However, the fact that I had been given not one, but two special abilities on top of being granted a much more powerful physique told me that my prey was of a high-grade. If I had been hunting rabbits before, then I had switched over to hunting big game.

  Any additional information, Nara?

  I crouched down overlooking the street just below. This trial featured bystanders, groups of locals just going about their fake day in this false reality. They were humanoid, but had lizard-like features… I suppose that it wasn’t too weird for cold-blooded people to decide that a warm desert was a good place to settle.

  Of course! First of all, there is no need to worry about prey attempting to escape the city. The barren sands beyond the edges will not only behave like especially treacherous quicksand, but are also home to countless violent creatures that come out at night

  As for the changes that were made to you–It would seem that you were manifested with the physique you would have had if you had pursued knighthood and never met your demise in the backroom of Harvey’s Diner

  Additionally, you were granted two special abilities: The first being that nightmare beings–Such as the passersby–Who you kill will transform into monsters akin to the ones we met in the tall building in that other trial… The second definitely sounds much more powerful, however…

  You can freeze everything inside this nightmare, but you are still capable of moving around freely. Of course, it comes with certain limitations, but it is nonetheless an extremely powerful ability!

  …Alright, what sort of freaking monsters are my prey this time?! No way I was given the ability to stop the goddamn flow of time to deal with moderately powerful people. They had to be way stronger than me to elicit such generous bonuses.

  I took some time to get used to this stronger physique of mine, leaping from one roof to another with ease. It was way different from when I was turned into a savage tigerfolk. This was just my human body, but better. Further trained down the path of knighthood. As such, I found it much simpler to adapt to this new strength.

  However, it definitely felt a bit weird. It genuinely felt like I could turn someone into mist by bumping into them too hard… Was this truly what I could have been as a human as long as I had persevered down the path of knighthood? I always knew I was meant to be a knightess.

  After several minutes of looking around, I spotted people who definitely did not fit the setting. Humans and beastfolks. I quietly got down into the street and, with perfect nonchalance, walked into their midst. The key to simply walking in plain sight where you had no right to be was to act as if you belonged. It was always surprising, but most people wouldn’t think twice about seeing a stranger walking inside a private place as long as said stranger behaved like their presence was normal.

  Since I was a human and had nothing about me that could tell them that I was the entity hunting them down, no one batted an eye. At most, someone greeted me.

  I was hoping to hear some interesting information, but those people were all civilians. They weren’t the ones who had warranted my strength inside of this nightmare. Nonetheless, since I had an entire night to slaughter them all, I decided to continue following them around as if I was nothing more than a poor victim like them.

  It did not take too long for more groups to join the mass, and it turned out that a huge number of people had been dragged into this one nightmare. Far more than I had ever seen before.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Ah… Seems like I found why I am so strong…

  It was hard to miss them, a duo I had met rather recently and had not interacted much with.

  A large lionfolk, and a lightly-dressed tigerfolk… Rarelian and Tilimia, it seemed like their closeness to the people had led them to develop into hosts of nightmares. However… I was no fool. Those two had managed not just to fail their trials despite their incredible strength, but to fail them in unison to the point of ending up in the exact same final trial? I would be an idiot to believe this.

  It was something that I had worried about, but that I had hoped would not happen–People willfully getting infected and failing their trials… The little mouse and caretaker must have been interrogated a lot, and it must have come up that the ‘enemy’ of the final trial was strangely sapient and possessed a distinct personality. The two kingdoms must have guessed that the final trial was special in more than just its setting or dire consequences for loss.

  They must have realised that they could potentially fight and defeat the master of nightmares directly within a final trial–Which was annoying for me, but not really dangerous. There weren’t any consequences for losing on my end, and I was fairly certain that even if they splattered my brain all over the ground, it wouldn’t mean the end of me… Can you confirm, Nara?

  It will only leave you in a state of dormancy for a short while. They would require specific means to actually hurt you inside of a nightmare

  I would assume that they had no clue what these ‘means’ could be just yet, so I should be safe.

  I looked in the direction of the two powerful beastfolks. I wanted to see right now if my purple eyes would draw their attention, are they aware of what I look like? The caretaker had seen my true human face, and the little mouse had seen me as a tigerfolk, but regardless of the form I took, my eyes remained a unique purple.

  It should be the one thing no one would forget to mention after meeting me… Yet neither of them reacted. They just glanced at me like most people would when noticing the peculiar colour of my eyes. I detected nothing odd.

  …Are they very good actors waiting for a chance to strike, or did neither of the nightmare survivors actually snitch on me? I can get the little mouse since I helped her, but the caretaker? I actively tried to murder her. I guess the knife I threw into her back has left her knocked out and unable to answer any question…

  It was excellent news! I am especially pleased that the adorable mouse girl had my back and didn’t even mention my eye colour. I really like well-behaved girls like her. They know how to be grateful, unlike the majority of brats.

  “Is this everyone? I didn’t expect a nightmare to be capable of having so many people inside…”

  “It just goes to show that we are dealing with a powerful, malevolent entity if it is capable of not only conjuring what are essentially realms, and bringing people from different countries into the same space… Makes you wonder what exactly those bastards sealed a pact with…”

  Huh… They already know Beelmart is involved, do they? I'd better try to slip a word to Denaiel. I would prefer if my time as nobility lasted as long as possible.

  I paid close attention to the two true threats standing between me and total victory. Tilimia was definitely swift and agile, on top of having shamanistic capabilities, but I could get a good hit on her. I strongly believed that her natural toughness would not be enough to resist.

  Rarelian, on the other hand… This guy was even more imposing from up close. I feel like regular swords turn dull when used against his bare skin and fur, and my currently impressively powerful punch would probably only result in me getting hurt.

  I had the advantage of endless stamina and other undead-like attributes on top of the specific boons of this trial, but it seemed like my time freeze would be the main player if I wanted to bring down those two.

  It would be easy if the time stop had no limitations, but it wasn’t just about willing time to come to a halt and just going around doing whatever I wanted. First of all, it only lasted for six seconds, which was a lot, but also not.

  Also, there was a small cooldown in between activations. It was rather short, but thanks to Nara telling me, I knew that if I overused this ability several times in a row, it would end up having to go through a much longer cooldown, something that was quantified in minutes.

  If I were caught in a fight against the lionfolk and this happened, I would be dead meat.

  There was also a bit more to the ability. For example, when used at first, I would also be frozen, but conscious. The six-second countdown would only begin once I moved, so I could also use the time stop to think and analyse the situation for as long as I wanted.

  Obviously, items frozen in place could be moved by me in the same way that people would react to my actions. So, if I were to stab someone through the chest, the blade would go through, or not go through, depending on the person. The fact that time was stopped wasn’t really a factor in how I interacted with people and objects.

  Which I was thankful for, I remember the one time one of my instructors began explaining to me how time stop was actually a crappy ability because of a bunch of reasons I really didn’t want to wrap my head around.

  Honestly, trying to apply physics to a supernatural ability that manipulated the fucking flow of time when there were places where you could step and find yourself under a green sun, only to back off and be back under the sun you were used to–It was honestly pure insanity to expect everyday logic to apply to something as crazy as freezing time.

  I was literally murdering people in their dreams by making the wounds inflicted here appear in real life. How did it work? Hell if I know. It just does, and I accept it.

  I really hated this instructor, so smug about his intellect despite being one of the most idiotic people I have ever met. A haughty noble may be annoying too, but at least they actually had something to be haughty about, but this guy? He had had nothing.

  …Truly, I hope that he is not dead yet so that I can be the one to do it.

  Anyway, It should be time to get started here.