"A dream... a nightmare?"
Ratatoskr didn't tell Takamiya Shinji in detail about Nightmare or what she looked like, but at the Gokah Family, she occasionally overheard Kotori discussing Nightmare with her son.
From them, we learned that Nightmare is an extremely dangerous elf who has killed many humans for unknown reasons, which is why Kotori considers her the most dangerous elf.
When Shinji Takamiya learned that this seemingly gentle black-haired girl was Nightmare, his jaw nearly dropped in shock.
But she was too close to the nightmare; she was afraid that the moment she showed any desire to escape, she would be strangled to death.
Takamiya Shinji had no doubt that this would happen, after all, the other party was a murderous spirit, the most evil spirit in history, just those titles alone were enough to scare her to the point of wetting herself.
Takamiya Shinji could only look at Takamiya Mana with a trembling expression and a pale smile, as if to say: Sister, you can run away, you don't need to save me.
Kurumi rolled her eyes at them. "I have no interest in killing you. If you want to leave, then leave as soon as possible. I don't like to take in strangers overnight."
Mana glanced at Kurumi suspiciously before carefully pulling Shinji away.
After they stepped out of the house, they both felt a cold sweat break out all over their bodies, as if they had been reborn.
Kurumi then explained the details of what had happened.
Sawa also felt sorry about Mio Takamiya's death, because she never saw any remorse on Mio Takamiya's face, which was very regrettable.
As for the other elf who was still resting in the room...
Sawa frowned. She didn't want another spirit moving into her house. Yoshino and asked without consulting her, and given Yoshino's naivety, Sawa didn't care. But this Natsumi...
Although she felt that the other person might not have those feelings, Sawa didn't want to put herself in a precarious situation and create a rival for him.
"So what do you plan to do with this elf?"
Through Kurumi's explanation, she learned that the spirit named Natsumi was very pitiful, but that could not be a reason for her to stay in this house.
Kurumi sensed Sawa and laughed, "It's alright, I'll send her back to Ratatoskr. Anyway, she's one of Shido's harem members."
Sawa nodded, indicating her agreement with this approach.
Night.
Natsumi woke up after lying in bed for half a day; she was hungry.
I smelled the aroma of food.
"Here it is..."
The unfamiliar environment left Natsumi feeling a bit disoriented, and she felt that many things were not quite right. Her mind seemed to be completely blank, which made her feel a little panicked.
Summon the Book of Angelic Messages.
Through the angels' search, she understood everything. Her memories had been erased, but she learned about everything from another perspective through the angels.
Although she couldn't empathize with them, she understood that these were the terrifying things that had happened to her.
The Natsumi looked at her, the heavier her breathing became. Countless scarlet wounds, like stigmata, were etched on her skin, terrifying and abhorrent.
Unbeknownst to them, the Spirit Crystal began to show signs of darkening energy and entered a reverse state.
The long-term torment did not change Natsumi, but after learning that she had been rescued and her memories had been erased, experiencing these things again instantly made her feel suffocated.
Kurumi, currently the Origin Spirit, immediately sensed the strange activity upstairs.
He ran up quickly, reached out, and scooped out the Spirit Crystal of Natsumi.
The Spirit Crystal instantly stopped reversing, lying quietly in Kurumi's palm like a car that had lost power.
"Why look at it when you've already forgotten it? That's why curiosity can kill you~" Kurumi chuckled. "I'm taking your Spirit Crystal. From now on, just be an ordinary person."
Natsumi stared blankly at Kurumi. She knew from the whispered tale that it was this spirit who had saved her from hell.
Tears streamed down her face instantly. The feeling of being reborn after death was like a torrential rain washing over her entire body, and the scarlet wounds gradually disappeared in this process.
Kurumi sighed. She was a pitiful person. If it weren't for Mio Takamiya, she would never have been captured by DEM and cruelly persecuted for years.
But that's all in the past now.
"Alright, you must be hungry too. Come down and eat."
Kurumi's gentle voice interrupted her crying. Natsumi gave a soft, sweet "Mmm" and followed Kurumi downstairs.
On the other side.
Mana followed Shinji back to the Gokah Family and learned about what had just happened through Shinji.
"What?! Why did DEM arrest me and my brother?!"
Shinji sighed and told Mana everything that had happened back then.
If it weren't for Westcott's explanation, she wouldn't have known why Mana hadn't grown at all in the past thirty years. Mana herself probably didn't know the reason either, so it was convenient to bring it up.
"I was actually someone who was put on hold by DEM..." Mana frowned deeply upon hearing this news.
From the moment she woke up, someone told her that her home was destroyed by elves, and that she suffered amnesia because she witnessed the death of her relatives. It was because of this that she desperately learned to operate the manifestation device, joined the AST, and hunted elves.
Now someone is telling her that it's all a lie, and that the people who woke her up are the real enemies...
I really have a bit of a headache.
Kotori took a bite of her lollipop and said, "Alright, let's not upset Mana anymore. I'll have the doctor from Ratatoskr take a look at her body and see if it can be treated."
Mana is still a young girl. It would be too tragic if she only had ten years left to live.
Shinji nodded in agreement. Compared to the past, Mana's physical condition was the most important thing now.
"By the way, Kotori, what happened after that? I fainted after that elf with black aura all over her body appeared." Shinji quickly asked Kotori, remembering this.
To this day, she still doesn't know how she escaped Westcott's clutches.
As the commander of Ratatoskr, Qinli must have known what happened back then.
"That elf emitting black mist should be the 'phantom' we saw through the surveillance. Westcott calls her the Origin Spirit. We don't quite understand what happened, so you should watch the video yourself."
Kotori played the video that Ratatoskr had recorded for Mana and Shinji.
"Mio..."
As soon as Takamiya Shinji saw the figure, he knew who it was.
Then, seeing the end, with Mio disappearing into the world, she inevitably felt sadness.
Shinji still had feelings for Mio, and now that she saw Mio's death, she felt a void in her heart.
"In the end, I still couldn't protect you, Mio..."
Zhenna didn't know who this person was, because she had long lost her memories from thirty years ago. She couldn't empathize with her brother, but when she learned that she had died to save her brother and herself, she inevitably fell silent.
She had always thought that elves only knew how to kill and bring disaster.
"Through the analysis of this video, we learned that Nightmare seems to have another form of ability. When she is in this form, her abilities are very strong, and she can also manipulate space. Kannazuki suspects that she may be even stronger than the Origin Spirit."
Kotori crushed the lollipop before continuing, "So, she eventually killed Westcott and sent his body to some furnace to be burned."
Actually, at first, Ratatoskr didn't know that Kurumi was Nightmare, because after Kurumi's transformation, her clothes and hair color were very different from before. If it weren't for Takamiya Shinji saying that they woke up in Nightmare's house and then used the facial recognition system, they wouldn't have realized that this white girl was also Nightmare.
"Nightmare..." She lowered her head, feeling utterly dejected Mio Takamiya's death made her feel powerless, especially now that her spirit core had been taken away.
Speaking of this...
Takamiya Shinji suddenly raised his head and said, "Kotori, my spirit core has been taken by Nightmare."
Kotori: "???"
"Nightmare seems to be able to take the spirit core out of the spirit's body. My spirit core has already been taken by her."
Kotori stood up in surprise. "What?! There's actually such a thing?!"
Then I couldn't help but want to see Nightmare.
But remembering the nickname "Nightmare Killer Elf," he stopped in his tracks.
As Fire Spirit, her power is not easy to control. Every time she uses this power, she can't help but want to destroy and kill. Moreover, the more she uses this ability, the more out of control she becomes. Therefore, if someone appears who can separate the spirit core, she would definitely want that person to help her separate it.
"Could it be because of the Origin Spirit? It seems I still need to find an opportunity to personally confront Nightmare..."
Kotori murmured, thinking of the crystal she had seen in the video that emitted a strong black aura.
The next day.
Kurumi was planning to take Natsumi to meet with the people of Ratatoskr.
We still need to trouble them to recycle the Spirit Crystal, so we have no choice but to make contact with them. Besides, if we don't go to them, Natsumi has nowhere to go.
However, the other party arrived at her door before she left.
As soon as the door opened, they saw several people standing outside, hesitating whether to ring the doorbell. It was Tobiichi Origami and Shido, carrying a large pile of gifts.
"You've arrived early."
Kurumi chuckled, then thought for a moment that she probably learned from Takamiya Shinji that she could extract Spirit Crystal, so she couldn't resist coming over.
However, because of his great reputation, he stood outside the door, hesitant to ring the doorbell.
"It's good that you're here, I don't need to go out anymore."
Kurumi finished speaking, she yawned and let the people standing outside come in.
The group lingered outside for a while before tiptoeing in.
There's no other reason than that, although they had already seen the Killer Spirit's house through the surveillance cameras, everyone was still very wary of Kurumi.
"Please sit down. You must have come so early in the morning because of something concerning Shinji."
Kurumi poured a glass of water and then asked everyone to sit on the sofa.
Yoshino obediently gave up her seat and poured everyone a glass of water.
Shido was flattered and accepted the water that Yoshino handed him.
Yoshino's sister said, "Oh my, you must be exhausted with so many girlfriends around you, bro."
Yoshino's sister Taoist Shido was the harem master of this world, so she jokingly teased him.
Shido was embarrassed, not understanding what Yoshino's sister was saying.
He's still single; he doesn't have a girlfriend.
Zhenna understood and retorted, "I'm his aunt, not his girlfriend!!"
Shinji quickly waved his hand in rebuttal. "I'm not her girlfriend either!!"
Tohka: "What is a girlfriend? Does eating at Shido's house mean she's his girlfriend?"
A group of people were making a lot of noise.
Kotori, however, was not swayed by Yoshino's sister's words and said to Kurumi, "We did come for the Spirit Core. Shinji told us yesterday that you can take the Spirit Core from a Spirit and turn it into an ordinary human."
This suggestion is risky. After all, Nightmare is a killer spirit. If Nightmare takes away her Spirit Crystal and then tries to kill them, they will be powerless to resist.
But Shinji and Mana were rescued by the nightmare and successfully left her home.
Therefore, Ratatoskr determined that the Nightmare Elf currently has only about a 5% chance of killing someone.
This is a probability worth taking a gamble on, which is why Kotori brought people to her door so early in the morning.
That's right.
"I hope you can take the spirit core from me," Kotori said through gritted teeth.
Kurumi, finding it amusing, said, "Oh? After I take your spirit core, you'll no longer have the power of the Fire Spirit. Even your brother won't be healed by the Fire Spirit's power anymore. You'll both become ordinary people~"
The Spirit Core isn't exactly a great thing; at best, it's only slightly better than the Magical Girl powers bestowed by that bastard Kyubey. But if you lose it, you'll feel a sense of loss.
After all, this is a fall from Superman to an ordinary person, which is not so easy to accept.
"I'm sure."
Tobiichi Origami thought about the trouble that the power of the Fire Spirit had caused her all along. Even with her brother's help to seal it, her power would still intermittently go berserk. She thought about the ordinary people she had killed because of her power going berserk.
Kotori's face paled slightly, then she said firmly, "I hope you can take my spirit core!"
"Oh, you said it yourself."
Kurumi said with a smile, she hadn't expected the Spirit Core retrieval to go so smoothly.
I thought we were going to have a match, but it seems like we won't have to.
Kurumi didn't hesitate and reached into Kotori's chest, pulling out a fiery red Spirit Crystal.
A strong sense of weakness arose from the depths of Kotori's heart. She had had this crystal for a long time, so her body had become accustomed to its power. Suddenly losing this power inevitably made her feel weak.
Looking at the red crystal in Kurumi's hand, she felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from her heart, but her feelings were still somewhat complicated.
"Now you will no longer be troubled by the power of the elves."
"... Thanks."