Chapter 794: The Director Acts

「……」

Not... you just told me I had courage, admired me, and wanted me to join Scorpio Division—how come in less than a few minutes you've changed your mind 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 draw a salary from 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 pay? Is your life worth that much?

「And contribute to the Kingdom? Are you joking? Has the Kingdom treated you well? If you hadn't joined the Clearance Bureau, you'd have been ruined—would you really serve a Kingdom like that?

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

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

「I already said—I see your potential and plan 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 a crunch of dislocated and snapping bones, a thick-boned hand clasped the 「Director of Scorpio Division」's neck from behind and twisted it like snapping a celery stalk—his neck bent at a sharp 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 crushing it mercilessly—squeezing it into nothingness.

「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 filled with disgust and contempt.

「You're a Clearance Officer, and yet you got tangled up by some stray nightmare fragments leaking through? If I'd arrived a moment later, you might've actually 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 Leon a hand, it wasn't out of admiration for his ability—it was to embarrass the Director. As for appreciation? Absolutely nonexistent.

And then he'd been outmaneuvered by Leon himself, forced to admit he'd contacted Director Aquarius in front of the entire Clearance Bureau, losing face publicly—so why would he speak to me politely now?

「Mr. Edward.

From his pocket, Leon pulled out the pocket watch he'd handed over in the nightmare, his face just as stiff:

「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 honor the Taurus Pavilion. And it hasn't even started yet... Also, your watch is set terribly wrong!

Taking the pocket watch from Leon, the tall man pressed his pinky against the adjustment dial, scowling 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...

「And I won't babysit you. Stay alert, or get the hell out. I don't want to be halfway through a fight and get stabbed 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, swept over Leon once more, then sneered in contempt. He hurled his suitcase to the ground and kicked it hard.

「Click!

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

At the same time, a darkness deeper than the night sky silently seeped into reality from the depths of the sky where the sun had vanished.

Then, where the Milky Way had once hung, countless black-and-red specks replaced it; a vast river, woven from shattered nightmares, flowed along the Milky Way's former path and poured straight down upon 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 advance.

「Boom!

At the instant the two worlds were about to fully merge, a brilliant but incomplete ray of sunlight pierced the heavens, briefly halting the descending otherworld and burning away the nightmares that had nearly blanketed the entire sky.

But after only three seconds of dazzling brilliance, 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, mixed with countless dream fragments, blending with the pitch-black night sky of the capital, and surged downward once more 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—there, a familiar figure plunged 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 between the nightmare-filled sky and the sleeping reality, carving out a razor-sharp world saturated with the stench of blood.

Shadowy figures in gray robes born from darkness, reapers wielding rusted, rotting scythes, spectral prisoners in tattered prison garb laughing madly, black steeds with hooves trampling fire—millions of dream-world creatures surged forward along the black river choked with nightmares, desperate to flood into 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 fingernail.

Even terrifying entities as towering as mountains were severed without resistance beneath the fully unfurled 【Blood of Slaughter】—a horrifying crimson rain of shredded flesh blanketed the sleeping capital.

(End of Chapter)