Whether in body or will, he was incinerated by agonizing pain... until nothing remained but a heap of filthy ashes.
"...What just happened?"
Koschei came back to his senses in his own residence, recalling that brief moment when his mind had gone blank.
"How could this be... How could the mighty Ursus be divided... How dare these ants!"
"I'll make a comeback. Snakes cannot be killed... Ah, how is this possible?! Aaaah!"
"What just happened?"
"Yaaawn~"
After yawning, Griseo blinked her moist, wide eyes and set down her paintbrush.
It had taken nearly the entire night, and dawn was almost here by the time she finally finished her second painting, creating a perfect closed loop for the Black Serpent.
Tonight, she had not only accidentally unlocked Grandma Mobius, but also dealt with the somewhat troublesome Black Serpent.
"..."
Just as Griseo raised her hand to rub her misty eyes and take a break, the azure knight silently appeared beside her.
"...?"
After appearing, Mister Knight gently grasped Griseo's slender wrist, stopping her from rubbing her eyes.
Then, seemingly from nowhere, he produced a basin of water and a towel, gently wiping the little girl's hands.
Only then did Griseo notice the paint that had somehow gotten onto her hands.
"Thank you, Mister Knight..."
After washing the paint from Griseo's hands, the azure knight vanished once more, hiding himself away.
After rubbing her eyes with her clean little hands, Griseo removed the painting she had just finished from the easel, jumped down from her small stool, and headed toward the bed.
Although she had set up a nightmare loop for the Black Serpent, there was still one task left unfinished.
When she reached the bed, Griseo placed the painting beside Talulah, whose body was still giving off black mist, then picked up her brush again.
As the colorful brush lightly touched the painting, dazzling colors exploded across it. The surface of the painting began to twist, slowly absorbing the black mist surrounding Talulah.
When the last wisp of black mist entered the painting, the Talulah originally depicted within it, entangled by black mist, rapidly transformed into a huge black serpent coiled up with its eyes shut, as if trapped in a nightmare.
"Urgh... So sleepy."
Griseo was currently in a strange state of being very happy... but also very sleepy.
Still, she could finally rest easy this time. The Black Serpent had been sealed inside the painting. If she wanted to kill him, all she had to do was tear it apart.
Of course, Griseo did not intend to act just yet, because Grandma Mobius had not been unlocked.
Once she unlocked her, she planned to give the painting imprisoning the Black Serpent to Talulah as a second gift.
"..."
After lightly blinking her half-open eyes, Griseo looked at Talulah lying on the bed, apparently dreaming of something due to the painting's influence, and suddenly had some bold ideas.
Once she had a new idea, she immediately began acting on it.
Griseo first put away the painting before her, then carefully climbed onto the bed and slowly moved toward the Dragon Girl.
Finally, she lifted her smooth, snow-white bare foot... and straddled Talulah's waist in one motion.
"..."
Then, Griseo's little face remained expressionless, but her eyes brimmed with amusement as she raised the paintbrush in her hand...
After finishing everything, Griseo finally lay back down on the bed. Although staying awake all night had no real effect on her as a Fusion Warrior—
She was truly sleepy now...
And if Griseo were in the Honkai world right now, Aponia would probably have already "kindly" persuaded her to go to sleep over her bedtime tonight.
"Haa..."
She gently turned over, stretched out her little hands, and hugged Talulah's long, warm dragon tail before slowly closing her big eyes.
"Goodnight... Talulah..."
P.S. Come to think of it, I only realized afterward that—
I had quit the game for so long and hadn't played through the story, so I forgot a detail.
I kept writing that the protagonist called Mobius "Auntie," but it seemed Elysia had tricked her into calling her "Grandma." I'll change it in a bit.
Send some votes. Chapter 2 should be updated after midnight today, since I still have some things to do tonight.
Abandon Fantasy, Begin the Struggle
Early in the morning, just as the sun rose over the horizon and cast down rays of sunlight, everyone on the snowy plains gradually awoke from their dreams and began moving around the camp.
"..."
Talulah, lying in bed inside the tent, slowly opened her eyes. Unlike when she usually woke early... her eyes were now filled not only with confusion, but also sorrow and guilt.
But when her gaze focused and she saw the scene before her clearly, her pupils instantly contracted, and her face filled with shock.
Talulah quickly sat up to inspect the situation, but at that moment, the sensation and tugging from her tail made her turn her head.
When she saw the adorable little girl hugging her tail, her memories from before instantly came flooding back, and she understood what had happened.
But precisely because those memories had returned, Talulah was even more shocked. She lowered her head to look at her palm and murmured, "So this is... the power of paintings?"
"Mm... Talu... Talulah."
As if sensing the movement of the person beside her, Griseo shifted slightly, tightened her arms around Talulah's tail, and sleepily mumbled.
"Haa—"
After exhaling deeply, Talulah stopped moving her tail and allowed Griseo to keep holding it. Then she reached out and gently stroked Griseo's soft hair, as though confirming that she was real.
At that moment, even though all her memories had returned, Talulah still felt as if an age had passed.
In last night's dream, she had personally gone through the journey from having everything to losing everything...
Unlike Alina, who had watched from an observer's perspective, everything Talulah dreamed last night felt as though she had experienced it herself.
Alina's death, her own grief and hatred, and even being controlled by the Black Serpent in the end and allowing her companions to die one after another... all of it felt incomparably real.
It was so real that when Talulah first opened her eyes, she had begun to wonder whether she had been reborn, returned to two years ago...
However, she had also noticed that things on her side were not exactly the same as in the dream. There was an... adorable yet remarkably capable little one who had changed the course of the story.
"I thought Alina had exaggerated, but who would have thought..." Talulah withdrew the hand that had been stroking Griseo's soft hair and mocked herself in a voice only she could hear.
"?-?)?"
Though still very sleepy, Griseo was constantly having her little head stroked, so she finally slowly opened her eyes and squinted as she checked the situation.
But when Talulah's face entered her view...
"???)!"
Startled awake, much of Griseo's sleepiness instantly vanished. However, she quickly recovered and remembered that the thing on Talulah's face had actually been her own doing.
"Ah, sorry. I got a little excited and woke you up."
Seeing Griseo startled by her, Talulah instinctively softened her voice and spoke quietly.
"Mm... It's okay. Sister Talulah, are you getting up so early?"
As she spoke, Griseo rubbed her half-open violet eyes, still heavy with sleep, and sat up.
"Mm, it's about time. Breakfast should be soon." Talulah nodded lightly and once again reached out to stroke Griseo's little head.
"Also, I plan to talk with Alina later. Griseo, thank you for your painting."
"Mm... Looks like it did have some effect."
"No, how could that be just some effect? It helped enormously." Talulah sounded rather helpless, even slightly amused, at the little girl's words.
After all, the effect had been so powerful in her eyes, yet Griseo described it as merely having some effect.
The dream had passed... Nothing in reality had happened, but Talulah's thoughts had become more mature and measured.
At that moment, the fighter Talulah who had abandoned her naive ideas had returned. She would treat reality as a new life, abandon fantasy, begin the struggle, and lead the Reunion Movement forward.
"..."
Listening to Talulah's words and seeing the mature air she had developed overnight—
Griseo blinked her big eyes and seriously began considering the consequences of Talulah discovering that she had painted on her face.
After thinking for a while, the little girl concluded that at worst she would get scolded, and Alina might even protect her.
Having reached that conclusion, someone quickly relaxed...
Then, as if remembering something else, Griseo opened her system panel and glanced at Mobius's unlock progress.
Mm... 48%. It was much higher than she had expected, but not entirely unexpected.
After all, the painting Griseo had created last night had not merely affected the Black Serpent attached to Talulah. It had affected all of his consciousness. So long as there was a connection, none of it could escape...
That was how domineering the power of Griseo's paintings was, especially since this one had been painted using the Black Serpent's own colors. Its effect on him would only be even stronger.
Previously, when Griseo thought that "Griseo" had no way to kill the Black Serpent, she did not mean that he could not truly be killed. She only meant that there was no way, or rather no opportunity, to kill him.
Although she knew Talulah had been possessed by the Black Serpent and could see some differences through her eyes, she had never seen the Black Serpent himself.
Under those circumstances, Griseo's painting could affect the Black Serpent, but she had no way to paint him and seal him inside a painting.
So yesterday had truly been a coincidence. Through a fortunate chain of events, the Black Serpent had been caught by the painting, revealed himself, and been picked up by the little girl.
However, Griseo did not plan to tell Talulah the good news just yet. As for why, she had not finished collecting snake scales yet, and besides... she was about to sleep again.
This body's schedule was simply too healthy. She had not noticed while immersed in painting last night, but now she was truly overwhelmed by sleep.
"Little Griseo, didn't you go to bed pretty early yesterday? Why are you still so sleepy this early in the morning?" Talulah asked curiously as she watched Griseo relax and prepare to lie back down.
"Mm... Because I painted two more paintings last night and didn't sleep." By the time she finished speaking, Griseo had already fallen back onto the bed.
"Hm? Why did you suddenly paint two more paintings? And children can't stay up late. Pulling an all-nighter is even less allowed!"
"Mm... Okay, Talulah. Goodnight..."
Listening to Talulah's lecture beside her ear, Griseo softly responded a few times before closing her eyes again.
P.S. I didn't understand the Black Serpent's abilities properly, but he had no further chance to appear in the later outline anyway, so I decided to send him off this time.
I'm so sleepy I'm about to pass out. I think I'm even sleepier than Griseo. Goodnight, everyone.
The Fawn and the Dragon
"You really are something."
Looking at the little one beside her, who had once again fallen sound asleep, Talulah revealed a helpless smile. After gently tucking Griseo in, she carefully got out of bed.
Talulah's feelings were complicated, yet she was very happy. She had not noticed anything unusual about herself at all.
She planned to freshen up a little, then go out for breakfast and discuss the coming situation and arrangements with Alina.
But before Talulah could even begin washing up, someone came to find her first.
"Talulah, are you awake?"
Alina's gentle voice came from outside the tent, making Talulah stop what she was doing and quickly head toward the entrance.
If she were meeting someone else, she might have paid attention to her appearance and asked them to wait outside for a while.
Before you continue