Chapter 391

「……」

Not... you just told me a moment ago that I had courage and admired me, even wanted me to join Scorpio Division—how come you've changed your mind in less than a few minutes and told me to get the hell out before I waste my life?

「Thank you for your kindness...

After a slight twitch of his lips, Leon clenched the half-horse archer seal in his palm and replied with a stiff face:

「But I'll pass. I'm paid by the Clearance Bureau, so I'll do the Clearance Bureau's work—and I want to contribute to the Kingdom too...

「Forget it!

Hearing Leon's words, the tall, thin man snorted and extended his hand further.

「How much does a Level Three Clearance Officer even earn? Is it worth dying for?

「And contributing to the Kingdom? Are you joking? Has the Kingdom treated you well? If you hadn't joined the Clearance Bureau, you'd have lost your family and home by now—why should you lift a finger for such a Kingdom?

「The Kingdom may not be worth it, but the people trying to survive within it are.

Watching the tall man's persistent outstretched hand, Leon's eyes narrowed slightly, then he asked flatly:

「By the way... how do you know about my past?

「Of course I investigated.

The Director of Scorpio Division frowned, then said with growing impatience:

「I already said—I see your potential and intend to bring you into Scorpio Division, so naturally I looked into you... Hurry up, don't waste my time—the Abyss of Fallen Souls is about to merge with reality!

「……」

「Alright, here you go...

After glancing at the 'Director of Scorpio Division,' Leon's eyes narrowed slightly, then he reached out and gripped the red hair coiled around his shoulder—but...

「Crack!

With the sound of bones dislocating and snapping, a thick-boned hand reached from behind and clamped onto the 'Director of Scorpio Division's' neck, twisting it like a celery stalk—his neck snapped at a ninety-degree angle.

Immediately, the tall man's corpse shuddered, and a hysterical, manic scream erupted from his chest and abdomen.

But before the 'Director of Scorpio Division' could finish screaming, the hand that had broken his neck burst through his chest again, seizing a tiny black figure shrieking and writhing in terror, then squeezing it with cruel force—crushing it instantly into nothing.

「You're such a waste!

With a voice dripping with mockery, Leon's world twisted slightly, and the familiar scene reappeared.

The middle-aged man, tall and thin, holding a large suitcase in his right hand, appeared silently before Leon once more.

But unlike before, the sun that had lingered on the horizon had vanished entirely; the people waiting in the dock's reception area lay sprawled and asleep, leaving only Leon and the man standing upright.

And the tall, dusty man before Leon no longer wore admiration or a smile—his high-cheekboned face was now filled with disgust and contempt.

「You're a Clearance Officer, and yet you got tangled up by some stray fragments of nightmare leaking through? If I'd arrived a moment later, you'd have handed over your hair... With your level, how the hell did you survive in front of Aquarius?

「...

Good. This time, it's right.

Looking at the tall man before him, head slightly raised, face cold and haughty, Leon slowly exhaled.

Back at headquarters, though he'd once offered me a hand, it wasn't because he valued my ability—it was to embarrass the Director. As for admiration? Absolutely not.

And then I turned the tables on him—he was forced to admit he'd contacted Director Aquarius, and lost face in front of the entire Clearance Bureau. It'd be strange if he spoke to me politely.

「Mr. Edward.

Pulling the pocket watch he'd handed out in the nightmare from his pocket, Leon replied with an equally stiff face:

「You're late. Twenty-eight minutes behind schedule—the Abyss of Fallen Souls has already begun descending!

「Heh, just showing up to save you is already enough to give Taurus Pavilion face. Besides, it hasn't even started yet... And by the way, your watch is set terribly wrong!

Taking the pocket watch Leon offered, the tall man pressed his pinky against the adjustment dial, grimacing as he turned the second hand forward by a third of a notch, then hung it from the clasp on his lapel.

「Let's go. Perfect timing...

Also, I have no time for you. Stay alert. If you don't, get out. I don't want to be halfway through fighting when someone stabs me in the back!

After shaking off the sticky black fluid clinging to his palm from crushing the nightmare, the tall man's right eyeball shifted from black to white, scanned Leon once more, then sneered in contempt, tossed his suitcase to the ground, and kicked it hard.

「Click!

With the sound of a spring mechanism releasing, a pale puppet wrapped entirely in thorns crawled out of the opened case, its hollow eyes fixed steadily on Leon.

At the same moment, a darkness deeper than the night sky silently seeped into reality from the depths of the vanished heavens.

Then, where the Milky Way had once hung, countless black-and-red specks filled the sky—a vast river, woven from shattered nightmares, followed the Milky Way's original path and poured straight down onto the utterly slumbering capital.

……

It's begun.

Watching the nightmare river cascade from the sky, Leon drew a deep breath and narrowed his eyes in anticipation.

「Boom!

At the instant the two worlds were about to fully merge, a brilliant but incomplete ray of sunlight pierced the heavens, briefly holding back the descending otherworld—and burned away nearly the entire sky's coverage of nightmares.

But after only three seconds of dazzling radiance, this sun—impossible in the night—faded and vanished beneath the dream realm's slow, smothering erosion.

The black waters of the Nightmare River flowed again, mingling with countless dream fragments, blending with the pitch-black night sky of the capital, and once more surged downward toward the countless sleeping souls below.

Headquarters' support has ended. Now it's time for the Director to act.

After the sun vanished, leaving Leon's eyes stinging with tears, he gazed upward—and saw a familiar figure plunge without hesitation into the dream realm through the massive hole the sun had "burned" open.

Immediately, a crimson tide unfurled gently above the descending dream.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand... In less than five seconds, hundreds of millions of soft, vivid red hairs stretched out between the nightmare-filled sky and the sleeping reality, carving a razor-sharp world saturated with the stench of blood.

Ashen shadows in gray robes, reapers wielding rusted, elongated scythes, mad ghostly figures clad in tattered prison garb, black steeds with hooves trampling fire—millions of dream-world creatures surged forward along the black river choked with nightmares, desperate to breach reality and feast.

But as they passed through the thin, razor-sharp crimson realm, they were like soft tofu falling into barbed wire—every single one sliced instantly into countless crimson fragments no larger than a thumbnail.

Even terrifying entities as towering as mountains had no resistance at all under the fully unfurled 【Blood of Slaughter Hair】—they were instantly shredded, blanketing the sleeping capital in a horrifying crimson rain.