The earth was shaking.
Something enormous is approaching from the horizon.
Karna, Heracles, and Jeanne d'Arc all looked up at the same time.
Under the moonlight, a huge silhouette was approaching.
The height of that silhouette was easily over a hundred meters.
His entire body was covered in jet-black muscles, and he retained two enormous goat horns on his head, the tips of which pointed straight into the night sky.
Three pairs of enormous, purplish-black bat wings spread out from its back, spanning half the sky.
His entire body was wrapped in heavy chains, and there were red lines on his chest that pulsated beneath his skin like blood vessels.
Huge claws sprouted from the ends of its arms, with green Hellfire swirling around their tips.
Belphegor - Rage Mode.
But this is not the real Belphegor.
This is merely a phantom projected by the sleeping demon doll in the dream world.
A tool used to endlessly kill the three Servant who had attacked Mukuro Hoshimiya.
The giant beast's mouth opened.
roar.
The sound waves spread outwards from it, and Jeanne d'Arc of Arc's banner trembled violently under the impact of the sound waves, tearing it in half.
Karna raised his spear.
Heracles gripped his axe-sword tightly.
Jeanne d'Arc raised the flag.
The three of them rushed forward at the same time.
Karna's spear pierced the giant beast's leg, and the moment the spear tip touched the black skin, it felt as if it had struck a wall made of steel.
Heracles ' axe struck the giant beast's knee, the blade bounced off, and his arms went numb from the impact.
Joan of Jeanne d'Arc's banner left a white mark on the giant beast's calf, and that was all.
The giant beast lowered its head.
A giant claw rose, Hellfire, and slammed down towards the three people.
Karna was slammed into the ground, his entire body embedded at the bottom of a crater tens of meters deep.
Heracles blocked the claw attack with his arms, but his body was sent flying hundreds of meters, crashing through a row of trees.
Jeanne d'Arc was swept away by the air currents, the banner slipped from her hands, and her body tumbled through the air like a kite with a broken string.
The three of them got up and rushed forward again.
Karna has freed Brahmastra Kundala.
Heracles freed the Nine Lives.
Jeanne d'Arc raised the banner and declared, "Our Luminosité Eternelle place."
None of it worked.
Brahmastra Kundala struck the giant beast like a match flame falling onto a dam.
The nine slashes that Nine Lives were blocked by one of the giant beast's hands, and the chain didn't even break.
Our Luminosité Eternelle were torn to shreds like paper before the giant beast's claws.
Three people were killed.
Then.
Karna felt a moment of disorientation.
He stood in a vast, open field.
The surrounding area was a Romania countryside illuminated by moonlight, with the outline of a fortified town in the distance.
He held a long spear in his hand.
Heracles stood a few meters to his left.
Jeanne d'Arc stood further away, her banner planted in the ground, a deep, bone-revealing wound on her left shoulder.
The three people looked at each other in bewilderment.
The sound of tremors came again from the distant horizon.
The 100-meter-tall silhouette reappeared.
Let's start over.
Let's start from the beginning.
Infinite loop.
Another dream.
Atalanta opened her eyes.
She found herself sitting in a small, low chair.
The chair was very low; your knees almost touched your chin. This wasn't a chair for adults; it was for children.
She looked down at her body.
She wasn't wearing Spiritron Dress, but a light green apron-style dress over a white long-sleeved T-shirt.
Modern clothing.
A smiley face was embroidered on the chest of the apron.
Atalanta was stunned for several seconds.
She looked up and glanced around.
This is a brightly colored room.
The walls are decorated with crayon drawings of suns and flowers, and several small succulent plants sit on the windowsill.
The floor was covered with colorful foam puzzle mats, and the corners were piled with building blocks, plush toys, and picture books.
A faint aroma of milk and biscuits wafted in the air.
This is a kindergarten.
Then she felt something tugging at her skirt.
Atalanta lowered her head.
A little girl, about four or five years old, was looking up at her.
A round face, big eyes, and cookie crumbs still stuck to the corner of her mouth.
"Teacher, I want some water."
Atalanta's mind went blank.
She understood the word "teacher".
But she had absolutely no idea what was going on.
She doesn't remember the Great Holy Grail War. She doesn't remember coming to the modern era.
She couldn't even quite remember why she was wearing this outfit and sitting on this low chair.
But she remembered one thing.
She knew she was Atalanta.
She knew she liked children.
Then more children gathered around.
"Teacher!"
"Teacher, Xiaoming stole my building blocks!"
"Teacher, I'm hungry."
"Teacher, your ears are so special, are they real? Can I touch them?"
More than a dozen children surrounded her.
On Atalanta's head, the pair of lion ears stood up, then flattened slightly to the sides.
These children are not fake.
They are the children in reality who have truly entered the dream world.
Real children.
A real child with body temperature, who cries and fusses, who needs water, food, and care.
Atalanta's hand reached out involuntarily.
She cupped the little girl's face in her hands and wiped the cookie crumbs from the corner of her mouth.
"Wait a minute, let me get you some water."
Atalanta herself was taken aback when she said those words.
She stood up and walked to the water dispenser in the corner.
More than a dozen children chattered behind her, like a flock of ducklings following their mother.
Atalanta's lips unconsciously curved into a slight smile.
The dream world continues to operate.
Apart from the three Servant trapped in the infinite loop, none of the people trapped in the dream noticed the changes in the world.
For them, everything was the same as usual.
Even better than usual.
A middle-aged taxi driver in Berlin discovered he didn't need to work today.
It wasn't that I was laid off, but simply that I wasn't needed anymore. I had plenty of money in my bank account, the rent was paid in full, and the refrigerator was stocked with food.
He can stay at home all day playing his guitar that's been gathering dust for years.
A programmer in Tokyo, who was working late into the night, discovered that his company had given him a day off.
It wasn't a public holiday; it was just a sudden break. He couldn't even remember the last time he had a holiday.
He lay in his small apartment, staring at the ceiling, then rolled over and turned on the anime he'd always wanted to watch but never had the time for.
A little boy in Cairo was always afraid of his grumpy neighbor.
But today he discovered that the old man was gone, as if he had never existed. The little boy could now safely play football in the open space by the door.
In a slum in São Paulo, a mother opened her refrigerator and found it completely full of food.
She didn't remember when she bought these things, but she didn't think about it too much.
She just smiled and started cooking for the children.
There is no real death in this dream world.
Sick people don't die; they just fall asleep and wake up feeling better.
Hungry people don't need to worry about food; there is always plenty.
Lonely people will meet those who are willing to accompany them.
And those unforgivable villains, those who cannot stop harming others even in their dreams, will disappear in a certain moment.
The villains who disappear do not die.
They will be transferred to another separate dream world.
In that world, they will forget everything they experienced before.
Name, memory, personality, values.
Everything is reset to zero.
They will start over like newborn babies.
A new personality will replace the old one.
A new life will replace the old one.
The old him, in every sense, no longer exists.
This is Belphegor's dream.
An Avalon built on Sloth.
No effort is needed, no struggle is needed, and no pain is required.
Eat whatever you want, play whatever you want, and get closer to whoever you like.
All worries disappeared.
All the suffering has been smoothed over.
Seven billion people are immersed in their own beautiful dreams.
Nobody wants to wake up.
No one knew that they needed to wake up.
Meanwhile, somewhere in outer space, a young girl, curled up in the position of a fetus, is still fast asleep.
The purplish-black Astral Dress swayed slightly in zero gravity.
Her long, golden hair was scattered in the void, like the tentacles of a jellyfish.
The goat horns on its head gleamed dimly in the starlight.
The corners of her mouth seemed to turn up slightly as well.