WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 29: Just by Encountering It

──────

Binding Hand, holy armor, and even a rowan rosary.

After slathering them with holy oil and completing the blessing sacrament, I had expected to see what upgrades those sacred items had gained.

"But there's no way to check."

The Binding Hand's anti-demonic power, the holy armor's bulletproof and blade-proof qualities. The rowan rosary was supposed to give me restful sleep, but what had its upgrade done?

I'd only know if I used them, and there was no reason to use them right away.

Then, that night.

【Devour~!】

Chirp chirp~!

"Oh!"

I dreamed.

In my lucid dream, the friends who had entered it were connected to me, protecting me.

"Where's Gari?"

Gari was nowhere in sight.

Still, I knew.

Somewhere out there, the "gazes" I felt were watching over me.

From that day on, I began living in lucid dreams.

Dreams in a garden safer and more comfortable than anywhere else in the world.

* * *

【Devour.】

At the chilling sound, Sunmi whipped her head around.

It was huge.

A tall beauty in a white dress looked down at her.

"Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost!?"

【Devour!】

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost grabbed Sunmi by the face and lifted her up. Sunmi struggled and resisted, but there was no way she could fight someone at least a torso taller than her.

【Devour~!】

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost flexed her strength savagely, as if enraged.

Crack!

Sunmi's skull split apart.

The dream demon's body was being torn apart in real time by sheer grip strength.

"Ghk, ghaaaaaaah!"

Riiip!

Starting from her forehead, Sunmi's body ripped open. Just before her body, split in half, could fall, it scattered into a cloud of smoke and reformed about ten meters away.

"Gasp! Gasp! Damn it... Even if this is a dream!"

She had survived because it was a dream.

If it had been real, her body would have truly been torn in half and she would have died.

"Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost? Why is an urban legend here?"

Ah!

Knowing this was Yohan's dream realm, Sunmi came to a conclusion.

A familiar.

A familiar bound by a contract of subordination could exist even within its master's mental world.

How could that be?

Even if it was a familiar, it protected its master in the spiritual realm of the mind?

Could such a powerful mental connection really be possible?

"Ha ha. Jjaekjjaeki, can't you just eat what you're given?"

Chirp chirp!

Sunmi looked at Yohan, peacefully enjoying his dream in the world she had invaded.

"A rowan rosary?"

It was a sacred item that provided restful sleep and resisted the intrusion of dream demons.

But it was only supposed to give its wearer peaceful dreams.

Could that thing really be the reason?

"No, that can't be. I've never even heard of a rosary like that!"

She had no way of knowing.

The rowan rosary that Baek Yohan had personally performed a blessing sacrament on had reached the level of a holy relic.

【Devour~!】

For the sake of that peaceful sleep, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost had been summoned as a defensive mechanism. No, Eight-Foot Sister charged at Sunmi with savage force.

"Ghk...!"

【Devour!】

Realizing Sunmi had not died, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost charged again.

The dream demon spread her wings and put distance between them, but she was caught in an instant.

"She's too fast?!"

Bang!

Sunmi was sent tumbling across the ground by the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's punch.

"Guhk!"

She had died.

That blow had killed her once.

If it had not been a dream, she would have truly died.

"You monster bitch...!"

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost was an urban legend that tracked anything.

Once it marked someone, they were destined to be caught and vanish, unable to escape by any means.

That was the nature of the urban legend known as the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

Running away was impossible.

The same was true in reality.

Sunmi had already poured all her demonic power into forcibly dragging the exorcists into the dream world.

If she left without accomplishing anything, it would be like serving herself up to be caught and killed.

Inside this brutal sealed room, where the holy oil barrier prevented both escape and outside help, she had to settle this somehow.

"Heh heh heh! It's a dream anyway! You can't even feel pain!"

【Devour?】

As if asking what she expected it to do, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost kicked, split, and beat Sunmi senseless.

Of course, pain could not be felt in the dream world.

Still, experiencing her body being crushed and torn apart was not pleasant.

"You seem to have forgotten that this is a dream world, but we dream demons are beings that travel from dream to dream!"

At that moment, holes opened all over Yohan's dream.

One by one, they appeared as if gates were opening, multiplying until they covered the dream like a honeycomb.

"What, sis? You're going through all this over one guy?"

"I came because you called for help, but why did you bring in so many?"

Laughing brightly, dream demons surrounded the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

There were well over a hundred of them.

It would not have been an exaggeration to say that every dream demon in Seoul had gathered here.

Even against those hopeless numbers, the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost did not retreat an inch.

【Devour!】

When she spread her hand, a huge iron staff appeared.

It was a massive iron staff suited to an eight-foot ghost.

"Ha! So what if she's got a weapon now?"

"Girls! Get her!"

The dream demons rushed the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost all at once.

Sharp nails, spells infused with surging demonic power.

Within dreams, they could become more than bewitching prostitutes. They could become monsters feared by humans.

One turned into a werewolf. Another became a giant even larger than the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost and charged.

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost swung Musashibo Benkei's Iron Staff.

Thwack!

"Guh?!"

The first one struck was a half-undressed dream demon.

The dream demon had charged with a seductive smile, but the moment she collided with the heavy iron staff, her waist bent backward.

"Guaaah?!"

"What are you doing? Stop faking it and get up!"

"I, I can't breathe!"

"What?"

They should not have been able to feel any pain in a dream.

Then a dream demon transformed into a giant charged in, only for the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's iron staff to strike her knee. She let out a shriek.

"Kyaaaaaaah!"

"I, it hurts! What is this? What's happening?!"

They were feeling pain.

Sunmi, who had felt no pain even while being torn apart by the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost moments ago, realized what had changed.

"The iron staff! It's that iron staff!"

The only difference was that the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost now held an iron staff.

But what was so special about it?

'An iron staff used by Japanese warrior monks? It's a weapon that can drive out spirit bodies through sacred chants, but that shouldn't work even in a dream, should it?'

Musashibo Benkei's Iron Staff, wielded by a Japanese warrior monk, was hidden behind its sheer weight and size, but its function was not greatly different from the monk's ritual staff.

The ritual implement of Vajra Demon Subjugation was a mace that broke flesh with its weight and size, while the supernatural power of its sacred formula served as a spell to drive out evil spirits.

It had value as a holy relic, but that was all.

It was the sort of collection that Pastor Kim, the Collector, would sell for a few coins. Nice to have, but no great loss without it.

That was its level.

The instant it received Yohan's blessing sacrament, it advanced beyond simply driving out evil spirits to crushing them.

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost's raw physical power tore flesh into pieces.

At the same time, it functioned as one of God's holy relics, crushing evil spirits.

It had become the ultimate weapon for beating down spirit bodies themselves.

"Kyaaaaaah!"

"It hurts! It hurts!"

The dream demons screamed as the iron staff struck their spirit bodies directly.

Fighting was never their specialty.

They were beings who lurked in the dark, corrupting people through sinister schemes and wicked seduction.

Ruses and temptation could not stop the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost!

"R, run!"

"What? Don't run! Fight back! Are you really servants of Lord Asmodeus?!"

Sunmi tried to rally the fleeing dream demons, but demons had no loyalty to begin with.

The dream demons had gathered because they thought they could easily overwhelm the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost together. As soon as the situation turned against them, they tried to flee.

Then.

"Huh? What's this?"

"I, I can't cross through space!"

"What the hell is going on?!"

It was as though they could enter whenever they pleased, but were not allowed to leave.

"Ha ha ha ha! Jjaekjjaeki, do a backflip, roll forward, roll left, roll right~"

The dream demons were trapped in Yohan's dream.

They now had two choices.

Get beaten to death by the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost.

Or corrupt Baek Yohan and rule this dream world.

"Everyone, combine your power! Use every bit of Lord Asmodeus' authority!"

"What are you trying to do?!"

"We're joining forces and breaking into this human's deeper consciousness!"

Beyond human dreams lay the deeper consciousness, a realm of mental imagery filled with chaos and disorder.

A human whose deeper consciousness was taken over would either have their mind broken or become a puppet that moved only as the dream demons commanded.

"B, but the Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost...!"

"Accept that a few of us will die and focus! If we can't break through, we're the ones who die!"

Sunmi immediately focused her power on creating a crack in Yohan's dream world.

It was strong.

The "restful sleep" of the blessed rowan rosary was firmly defending his deeper consciousness.

The protection was so powerful that merely trying to create a crack at the edge of his consciousness and concentrate made it feel as though her brain would burn out.

"We're dream demons! We rule dreams! Don't give up!"

"W, we can do it! If we all combine our strength!"

The dream demons all focused their demonic power on creating cracks in Yohan's deeper consciousness.

As dream demons with absolute authority within dreams rushed in as a group, the garden slowly began to distort.

【Devour!】

The Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost swung her iron staff and beat dream demons to death, but every time she did, the others gritted their teeth and focused.

Then the expressions of the eighty surviving dream demons changed all at once.

Desperation became delight.

Tension became relief.

"We did it!"

They had created a crack in human consciousness.

In the deepest part of Baek Yohan's mind.

"Jump in!"

The dream demons leaped into his deeper consciousness all at once.

The deepest consciousness of life, where thoughts gathered.

Many religions and schools of thought called it the core of the soul.

They had succeeded in infiltrating it, so now it was time for thorough mockery and corruption.

"Corrupt him."

"Awaken his desires."

"Make him realize his malice."

Eighty dream demons seeped into the depths.

Then they arrived at an abyss as black as pitch.

A world of darkness where they felt as though they were floating without limits, as though it stretched on forever.

The dream demons were briefly confused.

A human's deeper consciousness should have been a chaotic space where blatant desires, obsessions, regrets, and fears mixed together.

But this place was... too black.

As if clouds of darkness that concealed everything had settled over it.

"What is this? What's going on?"

"Where is everyone? I can't see anything!"

Without their wings, they might have fallen forever.

They beat their wings as they wandered through the dark space.

Thud!

Something collided.

Shrrrk!

At the same time, they heard the sound of meat being ground apart.

"What was that sound just now?!"

"I can't see anything!"

"Rosanna! Was that you just now? Come toward where you can hear my voice..."

Thud!

"Yuni? Yuni, why did you stop talking..."

Slaaash!

"There's something here! Be careful!"

Sunmi shouted, but the sounds of flesh bursting and grinding rang out one after another.

What was it?

What the hell was in here?

A freezing chill climbed Sunmi's spine, filling her with a fear deeper than anything she had ever known.

The fear of the unknown affected dream demons just the same.

Even though they served a great evil, even though they had faced the malice of the wickedest being in the world.

Before these "pouring gazes," they seemed to have encountered the very peak of fear.

Whoooosh!

"Eek!"

It was almost an instinctive movement.

Following the warning of her survival instincts, Sunmi beat her wings and saw something pass right by her.

"A ring?"

It was a huge ring.

So huge that its size could not be measured.

Yet countless eyes were embedded in that huge ring.

Was that the true nature of the "gazes"?

If the gazes were rotating rings... there had to be a main body at their center.

Slowly.

She looked up.

She raised her head and looked at the sky.

No, she looked at what she had mistaken for the sky.

Huge teeth.

Teeth so large that calling them huge felt stupid.

Inside the mouth, so enormous she had mistaken it for the sky.

There was an eyeball.

She met its gaze.

She had met it.

"Ah..."

The blood drained from the dream demons' faces.

Their pale, beautiful courtesans' faces twisted in terror.

Blood poured from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried