The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1158

The Max Level Hero Has Returned!-Chapter 1158

Chapter 1158
“Good girl, good girl.” Reina smiled as she gently hugged the small girl who burrowed deeper into her arms.
“
Hrk... Hrk...”
Nightmare clung to Reina even tighter, eyes welling with tears, as if the soft warmth must’ve stirred up something deep inside it.
According to Davey, Nightmare held two distinct powers.
The first was its ability to consume the overflowing Dream Worlds in place of Goddess Freyja. Since it was too risky for Davey to erase himself, he opted to use Nightmare to naturally and safely reduce the amount of Dream Worlds.
The other was Nightmare's ability to soothe the confusion that people—especially those whose individualities had been distorted by the world’s twisted laws—were all suffering from. Davey figured that if it could ease their pain, then perhaps they wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.
Reina had also heard the story of the Grand Duchess of the Lyndis Empire, Kathryn Carabella.
She didn’t fully understand what kind of system was involved, but if someone like Davey O’Rowane had come to that conclusion, then the credibility was beyond doubt.
Reina closed her eyes and gently stroked the back of Nightmare’s head. “I wish I could do what you do, too.”
Nightmare blinked up at her with wide eyes. It seemed like it was asking why she was feeling down. As Reina caressed her small, pale hand across its cheek, Nightmare tilted its head.
“I often dream.”
Those painful memories had come back to her as dreams, tormenting her even while she slept.
Dreams about the Demon War; the onslaught led by Nyx; the kingdoms collapsing; and of people who groaned in agony. Dreams of the resistance fighters gathered to fight back, sharing their hopes and cheering one another on for a better future. She saw those same fighters, bleeding and dying one after another on the battlefield, as the memories came alive in her dreams, far too vivid and unbearable.
From the moment she was taken prisoner, the horrific memories of those ten long years surfaced in her dreams with terrifying detail, even though she wasn’t consciously aware of them while awake. They slowly ate her away from within.
It seemed Davey had started to sense something was off about her, but she hadn’t told him the details. She thought the reason was too ridiculous, believing it was her survivor’s guilt as the one he had saved. She couldn’t bring herself to admit that she was still suffering even though she was rescued just as she had wanted.
“They’re old dreams, but they still hurt.”
The being in front of her may have been Nightmare, but it wasn’t the one making the nightmares she dreamed.
The source of her nightmares was the guilt she carried for being the only one to find peaceful life while everyone else was left behind.
Hearing her quiet murmurs, Nightmare looked at her in silence with innocent eyes, then slowly leaned in closer. It then gently kissed her cheek.
Zzzt!!
Nightmare’s eyes went wide in an instant. Startled, it quickly pulled away.
“What the—What just happened?” Davey rushed over, alarmed by the sudden spark.
“
Ah... Ahh!
” Nightmare stumbled back, clearly flustered.
“Hey. You didn’t do anything weird again, did you?” Davey pulled out a flash orb and questioned it further, but Nightmare shook its head hard and hid behind Reina.
“Stop. I think it’s just as surprised as we are,” Reina intervened with a bitter smile.
She instinctively understood what Nightmare had tried to do. It had attempted to do something about the vivid nightmares Reina had.
At the very least, Nightmare’s feelings and intentions toward Reina were undoubtedly kind. Alas, whatever it tried to do hadn’t worked. Even with its power to interfere in all dreams, Nightmare couldn’t touch Reina’s own traumatic memories.
“
Uuu... uuuhh!!
”
When Davey picked Nightmare up with one hand, it flailed in panic.
“Settle down. I’m just taking you back to where you belong.”
“
Uuuhhh!!
” Nightmare desperately tried to escape from Davey. It reached toward Reina with teary eyes, pleading for help.
“
Ummm.
Can I come too?” she hesitantly asked.
“
Hm?
”
“I’ll carry it back myself.”
Davey looked at her for a moment, then nodded and let Nightmare go. It immediately dashed to Reina and clung tightly.
“Alright,” he said in a calm voice.
* * *
[I’ll hold them off. You need to move. You must not die.]
[Survive, and avenge me in my place.]
There had been so many times she had escaped death thanks to the resistance fighters sacrificing their lives for her.
“
Hup!!!
”
Reina jolted awake with ragged breaths, her eyes snapping open.
She was alone in a completely silent and dark room. The only thing her hand touched was the large teddy bear she always held while sleeping.
The room’s silence was deafening.
“That dream again...”
Since returning to Earth after taking Nightmare to Goddess Freyja, Reina had felt her temperature drop from all the cold sweats she got at night.
The symptoms were definitely less severe there than when she was in Heins Territory, at least. Earth, after all, was foreign soil to her.
Heins Territory had become a place of comfort, almost like home. That comfort was the root of it, since the more comfortable she became, the tighter the guilt from her past memories coiled around her.
She covered her eyes with a hand and took a slow breath, then lowered it and turned her head toward the window. Looking up at the dark night sky above Earth, she silently repeated the same thing to herself.
‘I’m still in pain. I’m still suffering. I don’t deserve to feel guilty yet.’
Even she found the self-brainwashing ridiculous. Still, as long as it helped ease the guilt even a little, she didn’t care.
“You really don’t want me to rest, do you...” she muttered bitterly as she looked down at her hand.
It should’ve been pale. Yet since she had just woken up, she felt as if her palm was stained with fresh blood.
Still wearing her bunny-print pajamas, she opened the window and leaned out slightly, gazing up at the moon.
-
You’ve pushed yourself so hard that you’ve rotted inside.
Goddess Freyja had said those words when she took Nightmare to her.
She had manifested that guilt herself, and it had shackled her so tightly that she could no longer rest, not even for a moment.
Goddess Fryeja had looked at her with eyes that silently asked why she hadn’t sought Davey for help. Her sympathetic look had made Reina feel completely exposed. In the end, she fled from her.
“
Phew.
It’s fine. It’s all over now.” Murmuring quietly, she walked over to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of red wine.
Anyone who caught sight of her sipping wine alone in the middle of the night would surely find it pitiful, but she couldn’t have cared less. She took deep swigs from the bottle.
The sharp, burning taste made her frown. She dropped back onto the bed.
She couldn’t burden Davey with her childish clinginess. After all, she was well aware how busy he was.
Davey was the one who had forced her to retire and settle down in Heins Territory, though it was all for her own sake. That had been what she wanted, and he had used every means at his disposal to save her. The idea of telling him that she was suffering because her body and heart had finally found peace was quite laughable for her.
When she was truly alone and in pain, there hadn’t been room for guilt. Yet once she settled down, things were different. It wasn’t a disease, nor was it something caused by magic. It was psychological—that was why Nightmare couldn’t help her with it.
Smiling bitterly, she hugged the teddy bear close and shut her eyes once more.
Once again enduring through a restless night, she found herself repeating and clinging to the names of those who had died in her place long ago.
* * *
Just after daybreak, Reina sat up in bed, blankly staring at Nightmare curled up in her arms.
She had definitely left it with Goddess Freyja. There was no reason for it to be with her.
Yet there it was, nestled against Reina like it had no intention of ever leaving.
She couldn’t hide the confusion as she carefully asked the little girl clinging to her, “Hey... Nightmare, what are you doing here?”
In response, Nightmare beamed and pulled out what looked like a black permanent marker.
It waved its arms and made gestures, clearly trying to explain something. However, Reina couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Knock, knock.
“Reina, are you in there?” Super Ribbon asked from the hallway.
Still holding Nightmare, Reina got out of bed and opened the door for her.
“
Whew!
Whoa, this is where you were.”
Instead of Super ribbon, Davey greeted her, wearing a tired expression.
“What’s going on?” Reina asked, startled.
Nightmare burrowed deeper into her arms and stuck out its tongue.
“Apparently, it doodled all over Goddess Freyja’s face last night and ran off.”
Davey let out a dry chuckle. He couldn’t think of any other being in existence that had the nerve to scribble on the face of Goddess Freyja and make a run for it. In fact, he wasn’t even sure if it was possible there’d be one to begin with.
Yet there it was, a mischievous brat called Nightmare. In its eyes, Goddess Freyja wasn’t some revered deity, instead a target for pranks.
Reina glanced down at Nightmare in stunned silence, realizing this was what it had been trying to mime earlier.
“Goddess Freyja stormed in out of nowhere, demanding that I bring it back to her immediately.”
To begin with, Davey needed Nightmare next to Goddess Freyja in order to use its power, since Goddess Freyja could refine and draw out the power he needed from it. The purified energy was the only real painkiller for the people suffering from memory dissonance.
However, for the playful and restless Nightmare, staying next to the silent Goddess Freyja was as boring as it could get. It couldn’t even last a few hours before getting antsy.
“Hey, I told you to wait a little longer,” Davey muttered, grumbling at it.
Nightmare poked its tongue out again.
“You little—”
“Stop it. It’s still just a child,” Reina said with a weary smile. “I’ll try talking to it.”
She turned to Nightmare. “Can you hang in there just a little longer? Please?”
“It listens to you, at least. I’ll count on you,” Davey said with relief.
“I’ll send Nightmare back soon.”
Davey had made an effort to be considerate for once. After he left, Reina said nothing and simply lay back down on the bed, still holding Nightmare.
The little one had made its way all the way there just to stay close to Reina. So, she figured she could let it stay if it was just for a little while.
“Just two more days. After that, you can stay with me all you want. So just hold on a little longer, okay?”
Nightmare gave a pouty look, but eventually nodded and agreed to her request. If she had comforted it while it was next to Goddess Freyja, she figured it wouldn’t have run away in the first place, and maybe none of the mess would’ve happened.
Either way, Nightmare soon drifted off to sleep, still in her arms. Watching it, Reina remembered that she herself hadn’t slept properly the night before.
The exhaustion hit her all at once. She knew that the moment she closed her eyes, those nightmares would return. Still, despite tasting the bitterness ahead of time, she couldn’t resist the pull of sleep. It was almost as if Nightmare was drawing her into it.
Eventually, she gave in and fell asleep as well.
For the first time since arriving at Heins Territory, and since the nightmares began, her dream didn’t take her to the past. Instead, she stood in the middle of a wide open and idyllic green field.
Nightmare, dressed in a cutesy animal costume, let out a cute roar to scare her. It had crafted the dream specially for her. Others called it a nightmare, but to Reina, it was something else entirely.
It was the first time in a long while that someone had given her a space where she could truly let go of her guilt and simply rest.
* * *
The massive lump of clay that had crash-landed and taken shape on the silent island should’ve scattered and crumbled, like any other unfinished creation.
However, after it bit Nightmare and ingested its blood, it had gained a certain kind of power. With that power, it attempted a leap that should’ve been impossible: crossing the boundary between the reserve world and Middle Earth.
By doing so, it began producing consequences that could never occur in the realm it had come from.
The half-formed mass of clay began to rapidly grow by feeding on the mana, divine power, and vitality spread throughout the world. Neither Nightmare nor Davey had foreseen that variable.
It slowly began to awaken and expand, its form swelling even further. A piece of it broke away and formed a new shape, becoming a stunning woman with short sky-blue hair and massive butterfly wings, looking down at the moonlit sea below before softly clapping its hands together.
Following its clap, bursts of radiant light like fireworks flared around it. Satisfied with the movement, the figure began to soar away toward an unknown destination.
The appearance of the butterfly-winged woman was only the beginning.
This was the moment when the unforeseen variable born from Nightmare, a twisted form of Nightmare, first came into being.

.
!
Chapter 1158