Arknights, but the Family Has Fallen into Decline Again and Again and Again

Such simple, effortless actions instead made Oute deeply uneasy. Such power could not come without a price, yet the price he paid was negligible, and the girls seemed to have paid nothing at all...

Was he truly that strong, fierce, and overbearing, or was someone else paying the price for Oute?

Within this false vision of the stars, the galaxy's outer edge was faintly connected into a broken ring. As the star map turned, its four spiral arms nearly merged into one, yet the gaps between them remained evenly distributed around the broken ring...

Like four nails embedded within a jade disk.

W cleared away the newly spawned tentacles once again. Watching the other three fight with such abandon, she could not help curling her lip.

Why had Oute assigned the job of clearing fodder enemies to her?

Yes, she was indeed rather good at it...

An order came through the mental link: Ride Mon3ter.

What!?

Almost accompanied by the howl of tearing air, the monster formed from Kal'tsit's spine charged straight at W.

Kal'tsit sat expressionlessly atop Mon3ter's back, her arms folded across her chest.

How was this letting me get on!? Kal'tsit wants to kill me, doesn't she!?

W had no time to curse. She leapt up awkwardly, hoping to avoid the frontal collision.

But Mon3ter lightly jumped before W as well, hooked W's coat with its claw, and flew above The Shambler.

Amid the sound of tearing cloth, W tried to secure her "passenger seat" on Mon3ter using her hands rather than her coat.

"Kal'tsit! He told me to ride it! Are you trying to disobey his orders!?" the Sarkaz girl shouted, thinking quickly in her desperation.

The one currently controlling Kal'tsit's body was actually Oute.

And Mon3ter's actions just now... had been Mon3ter's own will.

She seemed more than happy to make W embarrass herself.

A voice even colder than usual emerged from Kal'tsit's throat.

"Same thing."

"Throw bombs into The Shambler's mouth."

But its mouth is still closed!

"...Two, one, throw."

At the same time, Oute sent a thought: Skadi, prepare to retrieve Specter.

Ignoring the further tearing of her clothes, W forcibly pulled out the few remaining Originium bombs from behind her back and hurled them at The Shambler's tightly closed maw.

The Sarkaz girl could also vaguely sense energy gathering in Mon3ter's mouth.

The buzz of a circular saw rang out. Just as the bombs were about to bounce off The Shambler's hide, it sliced off a large piece of its upper jaw.

The Originium bombs were squeezed into The Shambler's throat amid its whimpering.

A long boot stomped down hard, crushing one of The Shambler's red eyes and using the force to leap into the air.

Skadi gripped the strap tightly. After spinning several times, the greatsword flew from her hand and arrived before Specter.

The calculation was slightly off...

But it was all the same.

Specter's red eyes lowered. After confirming that she could not step on the blade, she seized the hilt when it reached her.

Grasping the strap fashioned from Aegir technology, Skadi forcibly dragged the speeding greatsword—and Specter along with it—back to her side.

"Detonate."

As she gave the order, Kal'tsit braced herself against Mon3ter and reached down.

With one final wail of cloth, W's body swayed, and she nearly fell from Mon3ter's claws.

A glowing green cannon blast finally shot from Mon3ter's mouth, destroying most of The Shambler's body alongside the explosion of the Originium explosives.

Then, with a shake of Mon3ter's body, W finally slipped free of Mon3ter's claws in a way she absolutely did not want...

But a hand caught her.

"Don't just stand there. Climb up."

After bombarding The Shambler, Mon3ter moved toward the two Abyssal Hunters, and W finally took a seat on Mon3ter's back.

Once she was seated, she had intended to immediately curse Kal'tsit out, only to spot a familiar expression in her eyes.

It was Oute's gaze.

Lonely, indifferent, calm, and utterly disdainful of everything.

"You..."

Mon3ter jolted again.

W looked up to find the viscous darkness around them swirling like liquid once more. Everyone's positions were once again altered by the twisted space itself.

Oute, holding Alina in his arms, was seated right before her.

And the look in Oute's eyes made W's skin crawl.

That look was exactly the same as the one in Kal'tsit's eyes right now!

This damn place was too bizarre!

Once this fight is over, even if Oute wants another round, I sure as hell won't be joining him!

She secretly made up her mind.

Then the fluid darkness flickered again and suddenly vanished.

As it turned out, after their positions changed, Skadi had happened to arrive right in front of The Shambler...

The Abyssal Hunter's massive blade harvested the last remnants of The Shambler's health.

Kal'tsit finally let out a sigh of relief.

In her view, one of Oute's "fragments of self" had been recovered, greatly reducing the likelihood of Oute suffering a mental abnormality.

Since the Proxy Protocol was still in effect, Kal'tsit's thoughts were finally sensed by Oute as well.

So that was why!?

Oute wore a strange expression.

The dream... when had it returned to the dream?

Kal'tsit only found it absurd.

The final portion of that adventure at the end of the dream was exceptionally hazy.

Her last clear memory was of Oute directing her, and her directing Mon3ter, to make some minor repairs to the stagecoach at the waystation.

It had the ridiculous feel of a father ordering the mother around, and the mother ordering the child around...

Everything after that rapidly blurred and was rapidly forgotten, like a real dream.

Do robots... dream of electronic sheep?

You're Doraemon, thanks.

For Kal'tsit, such a "real dream" was almost absurd.

There was no need to verify the situation with Doc Otter anymore... he really had done that sort of thing!

But what time was it now?

Kal'tsit looked at the PRTS terminal Oute had left on the table with complicated feelings.

December 25th, 12:08 a.m.

As Kal'tsit moved, Oute turned over beneath the covers and hugged her again.

On this makeshift double bed, Kal'tsit lay in the middle, Oute to her left, and Specter to her right. At this moment, innocent sleeping faces lay on both sides of her.

For some reason, the warmth of it all made Kal'tsit unwilling to break the peace.

If Amiya were on the right instead...

She closed her eyes and continued searching through the illusionary dream.

Too Early for the Bread Maker

After returning to the bedroom, Kal'tsit stared at Oute for a while before placing breakfast on the table.

Come to think of it, I remember...

Kal'tsit pulled her bare feet from her boots and climbed back onto the bed. Her two still slightly reddened, cute toes clamped around Oute's nose bridge.

Oute frowned, released his Specter-brand body pillow, and rolled over to embrace the empty air.

Kal'tsit immediately withdrew her jade-like feet and stood still, as though nothing had happened, arms folded across her chest. "It seems, Doc Otter, that I should prepare a shark-shaped body pillow for you."

That calm mockery was even more invigorating than what she had just done. Oute opened his eyes with a frown.

Kal'tsit had awakened him while standing with her legs apart, one foot on each side of Oute's shoulders.

Oute stared blankly beneath her skirt, his already muddled thoughts becoming even more muddled.

Who am I? Where am I? Whose are these?

"Are you awake, or are you still dreaming?"

Oute scratched his head, his no-longer-sickly fingers raking through his dry white hair. "Seeing this, I really can't tell."

Kal'tsit looked at him with disgust. "Your brain should be focused on our future."