The creature’s neck was yanked back into the rift, and then several more heads pushed their way out. Their mouths gnashed as they let out harsh, grating screams.

  "Watch out. There are plenty more of them behind that crack," Acher said.

  "You get their family outside,” Aaron turned to Luther and said. “I can handle them."

  "No. Not fighting alone. Dangerous," Luther refused, shaking his head. "Kratoskia."

  A massive shadow hand emerged, gently lifting Tony, Derek, and Vivian. It carried them through the front door and set them down on the lawn outside.

  "That’s amazing!" Aaron marveled.

  The portal to the dream realm widened until it almost consumed the entire ceiling. The monsters crawled through and gave the trio a clear look at them.

  They had bodies like those of blood-red spiders, with four pairs of long, hairy legs, each covered in backward-facing barbs and tipped with sharp claws. Their bulbous bodies stretched about six feet in length.

  Their heads were connected to their bodies by writhing strands of flesh, and each blank face opened into a red mouth full of jagged teeth, shrieking curses as they advanced.

  "They are longnight spiders," Acher remarked. "These bugs are pretty common in Mirrorface Valley and the Half-Awake Constellation of the Nightmare World. They’re famous for their midnight prison curse. Unfortunately for them, that trick doesn’t work on either of you."

  Realizing their magic was useless, the spiders lunged forward, baring their fangs. One opened its bucket-sized mouth to bite down on Aaron, but the boy’s fire sword forced it back with a blazing slash.

  Luther lifted his right hand, and shadow claws appeared, seizing one monster after another and tossing them into a waiting hellgate in Aaron’s dropping jaw.

  “So… strong!”

  "Leave a few for him to practice on," Acher said.

  "Yeah! Let me have a go, pleaseeee. I’ve just warmed up," Aaron called out.

  Luther nodded, leaving five of the spiders for him.

  At first, Aaron found himself a bit clumsy in the chaos of being surrounded. He had zero real combat experience after all.

  During one leap, he slipped up, giving one spider the chance to clamp its jaws around his leg.

  Luther’s eyes widened, and he raised his hand up.

  "Don’t bother, he’s fine. These things can’t break through his armor," Acher said.

  Just as he claimed, Aaron was completely unharmed.

  In fact, whenever the spiders’ fangs or claws touched the noon armor, those parts would ignite and melt away, making the monsters scream in agony.

  Aaron adapted to the fight bit by bit.

  This is how Orpheus would react. Swinging the sword like this does more damage. Dodge that way, it works better… He fought while applying the combat techniques he had inherited in his mind.

  His sword strikes became sharper and more lethal, his movements quicker and more agile.

  In just fifteen minutes, three of the longnight spiders lay defeated. As Aaron prepared to finish the remaining two, a deafening roar thundered from the rift above.

  Following the roar, a massive creature crawled out from the rift. It was another longnight spider, but this one was three times the size of the others. From the center of its forehead jutted a backward-curving horn, and in addition to its four pairs of spider legs, it possessed an extra pair of human-like arms, each gripping a sharp spear made of bone.

  "A ferocious-rank monster!" Aaron shifted into a guarded stance.

  Luther drew his scythe, intending to join the fight.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  "Just watch for now," Acher said, his voice carrying a note of amused scorn. "At the same rank, if a Sunkindler loses to a puny little spider like this, it would be laughable enough to make me drop dead. If this thing knew the truth about who it’s facing, it would’ve run for its life. Seems like it thinks Aaron is just a normal fighter. And I suppose that’s fair, at a lower level, he does look a lot like the standard fire type."

  The monster didn’t rush in to attack right away. Instead, it stared at where Luther stood, unblinking. It could vaguely sense something out of the ordinary.

  The cloak of ambiguity thickened, drew the creature’s attention away, and it began scanning the surroundings. When its gaze landed on the corpses of the other longnight spiders, it roared with fury and charged straight toward Aaron.

  Its speed far surpassed that of the fierce-class spiders. Aaron twisted his body aside, dodging the slash of its sharp claws, but he wasn’t quick enough to avoid the bone spear.

  The weapon drove straight into his chest, sending him hurtling backward until he slammed hard into the wall.

  "Aaron! Are you alright?" Luther called, rushing toward him.

  "Don’t worry, I’m fine. Just let me handle this. It is more fun this way," Aaron replied, grinning with excitement.

  He didn’t have so much as a scratch on him. Instead, the tip of the bone spear was scorched black. The spider clearly became more wary after that; it stopped, refraining from another immediate strike.

  "Oh, looks like this one’s a bit smarter than the others, huh?" Aaron raised an eyebrow.

  He rose to his feet, gripping the fire sword in both hands, lifting it up to eye level with the tip aimed at the demon.

  The flames of the Noon armor began to draw inward, becoming brighter and more condensed until they transformed into a suit of pure light.

  Aaron dashed forward, moving faster than before, leaving a luminous streak in his wake. He swung the fire sword down at the creature’s neck. The spider crossed its two bone spears to block the blow. While it managed to stop the attack, one spear’s shaft had a crack along its side.

  The monster struck back while retreating toward the rift. But when it turned to run, the entrance had vanished.

  The surroundings blurred and wavered, and the creature realized that it and Aaron now stood on a square stone arena suspended in midair.

  It scurried in every direction, searching for a way out, but all around them stretched an endless abyss. This realization made it throw back its head and let out a loud scream, its eyes flashing with madness.

  "Illusion. Mine,” Luther said. “It can’t escape."

  "That’s awesome!" Aaron exclaimed.

  He pressed another wave of attack, his strikes growing relentless. As the moments passed, the spider’s body accumulated more and more wounds.

  Within minutes, it was down to just four legs, three on the right and only one on the left. Its left arm had been severed up to the elbow, with thick, dark-purple blood gushing over its body.

  Slash!

  Aaron delivered another precise cut, severing the last leg on the left. Now, the creature couldn’t keep balance anymore, its body tipping to one side before collapsing altogether.

  Aaron took the opportunity to slice off the remaining limbs before finishing off the last two fierce-rank spiders.

  "Mr. Acher, can you ask it whether Diana and Josh are still alive?" Aaron called out.

  "The woman and the man you captured from this house,” Acher asked in the dream-mutter language, “are they still alive?"

  The spider hesitated, then shook its head.

  "Damn it," Aaron muttered, clenching his fists.

  He figured this was how it most likely would turn out … but still.

  "Let’s try going in there to see if we can bring their remains back for burial," he said.

  Luther gave a small nod in agreement.

  Acher flew over and gave each of them a hard peck on the head, two sharp thunks that stung like hell.

  "Idiots! The Dream Realm is one of the five supreme dimensions, and its danger level surpasses many of the heavens! You think you can just stroll in there and not end up as someone’s dinner?"

  "Ow! Alright, alright! Sorry, Mr. Acher, I won’t do it again!" Aaron said, both hands going up to shield his head.

  "The dead are dead. Risking your lives just to bring back their rotting bodies is one of the most foolish acts imaginable. In the end, what matters most is the living," Acher continued, his voice stern. "This rift is just big enough for a ferocious-class creature to pass through, but I can feel there are monsters even stronger waiting on the other side for you to stick your heads in."

  "Now destroy this gate, using your power or Luther’s scythe; either will do the job."

  Aaron slew the head of the ferocious spiders with a clean, blazing strike. For a brief moment, silence fell across the room; only the faint crackle of his lingering flame sword could be heard. He lowered his sword, breathing heavily but still sharp with adrenaline. The grotesque bodies of the longnight spiders lay twisted across the floor, steaming and oozing a dark, tar-like blood.

  “I don’t think we should let Derek and Vivian see this,” Aaron said. “Let’s clean up.”

  He stepped forward, intending to throw their remains back into the rift. But before he could even move, the corpses began to shudder. The black flesh quivered, then dissolved, breaking apart into countless shimmering bubbles of light in every color imaginable. They drifted upward, glowing softly like fragments of a fading dream. One by one, the bubbles popped, vanishing into the air without a trace.

  “So beautiful.” Aaron and Luther watched the scene in awe.

  The eerie sight was both mesmerizing and unsettling, as though the nightmare itself was dissolving back into the realm it came from.

  “This is how the Dream Realm reclaims its own creations,” Acher said, “turning horror into illusion, and illusion into nothingness. Now let’s destroy the portal.”

  Aaron raised his right hand. The fire sword and the light armor dissolved, condensing together into a blazing sphere, and he hurled it into the rift. They saw a massive explosion on the other side, its blinding light flooding through the gateway.

  The shockwave shook the passage, making it blur, until finally it faded out of existence like a dream unraveling at dawn.