[Nightmare]

"This…." Tyrene muttered in shock.

[Name: [Nightmare]: Level 3.

Description: The genesis [Nightmare] wielded by Elise, the god of Myriad.

Allows the user to create illusions that bring nightmares to life.

Skills:

[Nightmare]: 50% SP: Summons a non-lethal illusion of the enemy's greatest known fear.

[Nightmare Hallucination]: (?) > 75 SP: Uses [Nightmare] skill but is only visible to user and victim(s).

[Minor Summoning]: > 10 SP: Call upon simple object illusions.

[Summoning]: > 150 SP: Call upon an illusion of your design.

[Summoning Hallucination]: > 150 SP: Uses [Summoning] skill but is only visible to user and victim(s)

[Conditional Summoning]: > 150 SP: Design illusions triggered through conditional parameters. Requires a full mental design blueprint.

[Multi-Party Summoning Hallucination]: > 250 SP: Create multiple related illusions yet experienced differently by others. Requires conditional summoning.

[Tracks Deletion]: 0 SP: Hide the Nightmare is an illusion by summoning and naturally releasing the illusion. Active skill with zero cost.

[Scent Addition]: 5 SP per/second: give your illusion a matching smell to increase the illusion's voracity.

[Heat Addition]: 5 SP per/second: fuses elemental heat spell to increase the illusion's voracity.

[???]: 10 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 15 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[???]: 20 SP per/second: you have successfully identified a use case for [Nightmare]. Requirements for unlocking unknown.

[All other skills and derivatives are locked. Requirements for unlocking unknown.]

—

"That's right." He replied with a charming, bitter smile.

"All five people who have gotten this in the last half-century have died within the first month of receiving it!" Tyrene commented with trembling eyes.

Helix gave her a wry smile.

"Correct. Its description alone is a death sentence.

The main problem is the first skill, which is all it started with.

I don't want to talk about it unless you request it, but I can tell you it's not pretty.

So it's not unlikely that most people died after using it once during training." He scoffed with bitter eyes.

Tyrene looked at Helix in shock.

"Does this have to do with why people were targeting you?

It seems like you've unlocked a lot of skills." She asked with a serious expression.

Helix shook his head.

"I've refused to use it from the minute I saw it, and it's been confidential since day one.

It has never been identified aside from using it during the deathmatch.

I've only used the skill a dozen times in self-practice, and it's only activated the first skill once.

Each use unlocked new skills through testing, which shows that it's extremely flexible.

However, until recently, I didn't have a high enough spirit particle reserve, so I almost died after every use because it unlocked new skills.

If I had accidentally triggered anything but the first skill, I would have died on the first usage.

The Earthians just wanted to kill me because they were jealous."

Tyrene's eyes trembled.

"This is… disturbing." She commented with wide eyes.

"You have no idea. This Nightmare is only a fraction of the death warrants she placed on me.

That doesn't include the assassination attempts from jealousy, either.

Do you understand why running away from her is impossible?

It's not that I've accepted my title.

I have no choice but to fight the bare minimum against her to survive."

Tyrene looked at Helix with pity in her eyes.

"Why would she actively try to kill the people that obtain this skill when she gives it to them?

Is it for her amusement?" She asked.

Helix shook his head.

"I don't think so. I think the Mad Queen is creating trials to see if someone's worthy of wielding this power." He reasoned.

Tyrene narrowed her eyes and her eyes gilded to the left in thought.

"How… is a skill of illusions the power the Mad Queen used?" Tyrene muttered aloud.

"This is an extremely broken skill that creates illusions that should be impossible.

It's not a simple Nightmare that creates images." Helix replied with a slight smile.

"Moreover, whenever I've performed summoning experiments, it seems receptive to things unrelated to illusions.

Saying it brings illusions to [life] may be literal.

However, if that's true, there's a massive barrier between illusion and life.

It's not something that can be conjured by thinking about it.

Thinking that a fire illusion should be hot triggered one of those breakthrough notifications.

But no amount of experimentation I did yielded results, and the Myriad Library hasn't helped.

I can use elemental magic to fuse into the illusion.

For example, creating heat increases up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit hotter.

However, this Nightmare locked my ability to learn real magic, which is the prerequisite for my experiments.

So while I believe it's possible to create [real] illusions, trials are blocking them."

Tyrene's eyes trembled in disbelief.

"If it is a god-like power that brings concepts to life, she's looking for someone to fight against her as a god.

Being clever, creative, and surviving its horrifying drawbacks are prerequisites." He hypothesized.

Tyrene stared at him with a pained expression.

Helix sighed and raised his hand.

"No." He declared.

Tyrene winced but played dumb.

"No… what?" She asked.

"I have no intention of fighting the god of Myriad, even if I'm the only person that can do it.

She should've picked someone with ambition if she wanted to play a game."

Helix's face was exasperated.

"Helix… if what you're saying is true about living illusions, then—"

"Monsters that dissolve after killing them are probably illusions that use stats created purely from spirit particles." Helix interjected, cutting her off.

"That explains why many animals are real and die like humans, but beasts and monsters dissolve.

The defense stat is made from spirit particles.

That explains why you can obtain monster cores, skin the beasts, and take their teeth and claws before they dissolve if you use the Intent Spell.

Their hides are the same as the defense stat, and their hide provides you with spirit particle defense.

That also explains why beasts and monsters don't have a defense stat like humans." He continued.

Tyrene closed her eyes in anguish.

"I know you're thinking. If that's true, she has an unlimited army as long as she has spirit particles."

Anxiety washed over Tyrene, and her heart became downtrodden.

"Helix… why…. If that's true, then…." She whispered with conflicted eyes.

"Master. Weak to god is the worst cliche in existence.

A weak protagonist obtains a system, and 900 chapters later, they are as powerful as a god.

p Some kill a god.

It's so overused, dry, boring, and pointless that I wish authors would suffer from copyright infringement so the genre would die out." Helix declared.

"Copyright infringement, cliche…?

What are you talking about, kid?" Tyrene tilted her head with a nonplussed expression.

Helix took a deep breath when he remembered that people in Myriad don't have access to light novels or web novels.

"Let's put aside the terminology." Helix sighed.

"Think about it for a moment. There are seven spirit particle types and seven potential skills I triggered with 20 SP per second requirements.

There's an unknown unlock requirement.

If the Mad Queen is playing a game, there are certain to be seven artifacts that allow me to manipulate elements.

Perhaps they're in labyrinths, or they come from absurd trials. It doesn't matter."

Tyrene's face couldn't become more confused.

"Are you saying that you might be able to manipulate the laws of reality if illusions?

Perhaps creating a fire illusion and making it real?" She asked.

Tyrene's eyes lit up with amazement and wonder.

"Yes. That's what I'm saying.

I'm bitter that I got a notification telling me I can't learn spells above the elemental level during my testing.

Otherwise, I could summon a fire like the rest of you when I thought about it and use it to prove my illusion." He confirmed.

—

Helix stared at his interface with disbelief.

[Nightmare skill has temporarily prevented you from learning spells above the beginner level.

Unlock requirements for using magic intermediate spells and above are unknown.]

Besides basic spells like [spark] that allow you to light fires, magic spells above elemental spells require over 100 SP.

Now that he had ample reserve, he could officially use a real spell instead of a magic circle.

He tried to learn a basic skill known as [Wind Blade] that allowed him to cut enemies like a sword at a distance.

However, his system notified him that he needed something to unlock them.

—

"The message is that the Mad Queen doesn't want a wielder to lose ambition and use magic spells with illusions to create bluffs.

I can successfully heat an area to make an illusion feel slightly real.

If I had more skills, I'd be tempted to learn them and not desire real power." Helix sighed.

Tyrene's jaw dropped in confusion.

"Helix… couldn't you protect the people you love better if you obtained such power?"

He winced with anguish after seeing her internal greed-like amazement.

"Master. Do you think that it's going to be that simple?" He sighed.

She raised an eyebrow in response.

"I understand that obtaining an artifact would require difficult trials.

However, you can obtain help to do so." She argued.

Helix laughed with a twinge of madness in his eyes, causing Tyrene to shudder.

"Difficult?" Helix scoffed lightly with bitterness oozing from his pores.

"Master. If this is a power that can create armies from illusions, the trials to obtain the seventh artifact will require god-like power.

You saw the SP costs, right? Even if they lower when I level up, imagine what level I'd need to be to wield an army to fight her!"

Helix chuckled with eyes filled with insanity.

"If I go on that journey, I might as well kill my lovers before I go.

I'll hear the words: [Don't be sad, Helix. The world needs you to succeed, and I believe in you. You must succeed. I love you….], three times."

Tyrene frowned in slight understanding.

Helix matched her gaze with a serious expression.

"Master. I understand your point of view. I can't stop thinking about it." He confessed.

Tyrene looked at him with a complicated expression and sadness in her eyes.

"However, I sacrificed all of my stats with the shaky promise she wouldn't present trials that were impossible to overcome.

In other words, so long as I remain near their level, we can fight together.

So even if the artifacts increase their power, it won't help anyone survive.

That's why obtaining the power to fight the Mad Queen does not help me protect my loved ones."

Tyrene fell into silence as she contemplated the words he spoke.

After a few minutes of silence, she gave him a serious gaze.

"Helix. I understand your points and support them without question."

Helix looked up from the floor and looked at her with a complex expression.

"You're right. Assuming that your theory is true, your future will be wrought with conflict and suffering." She affirmed with a pitying gaze.

"As a protector of Myriad, I've vowed to fight the Mad Queen.

So it's my duty, not yours, to contribute to that fight."

Helix studied her unreadable facial expressions.

He knew he wouldn't enjoy her next words.

"I have no expectations or requests of you to follow the path you've been given.

However, I must keep you alive if you're someone with the potential to lead the human race against the Mad Queen.

If you choose the route to lead the fight against her, you must be trained and prepared.

So we must prepare you at all costs."

Helix stared at Tyrene for a moment before giving her a defeated smile.

"Well, that aligns with my current goals. So I'd appreciate it." He sighed.

"Good. Let's get Tilo in here. I'm going to break bones in his body until he accepts a blood pact with you."