Book 2 - Chapter 69

Teddy is no longer giving Baku any quarters. I stood by with both my powered up gauntlets ready to help out at a moment's notice. I wish I can help my wife who is hanging on to her rapier for dear life as Teddy kept delivering punches after punches on Baku. With only an arm left, Baku won't stand a chance now.

Rose did her best to prevent Baku from escaping and kept flapping her wings forward to try and control Baku's movement while Teddy kept delivering flurry of punches to the face and stomach. I shouted at Rose telling her to escape as far away as possible when Baku looked as though he wanted to hurl a mouthful. I readied Lightning Strike hoping to be able to halt whatever he is planning to do next. As per my prediction, seeing that he could not overpower Teddy any longer, his last resort was to puke his black fluids on both Rose and Teddy. Good thing Rose had already flew far away and avoided the fluids but Teddy was unlucky got caught in the puke. I unleashed Lightning Strike on Baku's mouth forcing him to shut it.

To my surprise, the black fluids did not melt Teddy at all. As a matter of fact, he seems unfazed by it. He wiped away the fluids on his face and his eyes glared with an even brighter red. Teddy roared and threw himself at Baku to our amazement. He got behind Baku and performed a sleeper chokehold on Baku's neck, locking him in place. Baku struggled to free himself from the hold but having only one arm is giving him difficulty in breaking free. Teddy started roaring but it wasn't due to him struggling to keep Baku in place. It looked as though he was roaring at me instead. Is he.. asking me to attack Baku while he continue to choke the life out of him?

I nodded to him and sheathed Inazuma as I placed all of my attention in activating Focused Meditation. What Rose said before was true. It is easier for me to activate Bloodlust over Focused Meditation as it is tied directly to my temper. As for Focused Meditation, I have to put all my effort in getting myself to remain extremely calm and meditate myself for a couple of seconds. Not useful in the midst of combat but I have some leeway right now.

I exhaled and opened my eyes. Rose told me that my eyes looked dull and muddy whenever I use Focused Meditation. She also noticed that my eyes moved less in this state despite me having full awareness of my surroundings.

I'm all set. Kirin, I know this is a dream but I know full well that you are always listening no matter where I am. I will be a using a chunk of your powers now, do lend it to me. I readied my stance to use Twin K Thunderbolts at 100% power which I had not tried before. As I got into position, I realised that Teddy is going to be caught in my attack too. Will he be moving aside when I use it? Will he even make it in time as it strikes at lightning speed? I was caught in a dilemma on whether to attack or hold until Moi came up to my side.

"Just strike at that spot and everything will be fine. Don't worry, Teddy can take it," said Moi as she pointed at Baku and a skinny looking red X appeared on his body.

With Moi's assurance, I started gathering my powers with a roar. Baku seems to notice the danger that is about to come and he began struggling even more trying to break free of Teddy's sleeper chokehold. Teddy gripped Baku's left wrist and pulled it backwards. Now he will have even less struggling power.

I continued to gather as much power as I can. This will be the first time that I unleashed one of my strongest attack at full strength. I guess I had to when my opponent is literally the size of a giant mountain. Are you ready, Kirin? Let's go then!

"Go, onii-chan!" shouted Rose.

I roared as I unleashed Twin K Thunderbolts which happened at a split of a second.

"Remember, Zen Hawthorn. Even against overwhelming odds, an insect is still capable of causing destruction," said Moi as a second later, two straight lines appeared on Baku's body.

The lines grew bigger and a loud boom erupted. The sound of thunder was deafening but so is Baku's roar for pain. Black fluids erupted from his wounds but I was unsure whether I had sliced through cleanly and hurt Teddy. But I know for sure that I had injured Baku heavily as he was struggling less now. What now? I couldn't deliver the finishing blow. Is Teddy going to do it?

Seemly reading my mind, Teddy tighten his grip on Baku's head with his arm and hand. With a roar of victory, he twisted Baku's neck with a loud snap that echoed through the entire dream world. Ugh, I can never get used to that crunch sound. Baku should be dead, right?

Once again seemingly reading my mind, Teddy hugged Baku above the waist and somehow performed a suplex on Baku. How is Teddy strong enough to lift a being the size of a mountain is beyond me. Baku is definitely dead now alright.

Teddy ran closer to us and shrunk his size to be a little bit taller than Moi. He petted Moi on the head and gave her a warm smile. The both of them hugged as the dream world began to shatter. Rose gave me a hug as well, as though we were expecting the world to end. We continued our hug until my vision was enveloped with nothingness.

***

I opened my eyes with a gasp. Where am I? Oh right, I lost consciousness while I was on the floor. I felt something heavy below my chest area. Is it Rose? My hand instinctively went to stroke on what I assumed was her hair but.. something is not right. It felt like I was stroking on some thick skin rather than hair. I moved my hands downwards and felt something soft and squishy which is awfully familiar. I instantly sat up and gave a shriek of my life.

Lying on top of me was a creature that I had not met before with its tongue out. And on top of it was Teddy which looked like he had choked this creature to death. Was the hell happened when I was in the dream world? If I am not mistaken, this is the exact creature that peeked on us through the window before. Hmm, this creature.. looked familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It had four legs, black body with a large patch of white colour on its hind back. It was like a mini elephant that had its nose and ears sliced off.

My head started to hurt as I tried to recollect my memory about this creature. It was not long when I finally figured out the name for this creature, tapir was what came to mind. Yes, that's right. This is a tapir, but.. what is it doing here?

Rose woke up and gave a shriek of her own when she saw the creature that was lying on top of me. I guess no one had ever seen such a weird creature before. As I was trying to push the tapir aside, Moi came over and picked up Teddy that was lying motionless on top of the tapir. She whispered "Thank you, rest in peace and sayonara" to Teddy with a soft gentle tone. Has her brother's soul left the teddy bear?

Rose helped me moved the tapir's body aside. Geez, how much does this thing even weigh? Definitely a few hundred kilograms at the very least. What does it even eat to gain so much weight? John would be interested in using this creature as a dumbbell or something. As I recollected myself, voices could be heard outside. We went out to check and found that people who were trapped in the dream world were waking up now. Thankfully it was snowing lightly right now as some of the people were dangerously thin and frail looking. They seems to be in a daze after sleeping for such a long time.

Everyone was confused that their city was covered with such a thick layer of snow. Some people might be completely stuck in their houses, unable to open their doors due to the snow blocking their entrance. Moi invited everyone to have a meal at her place while Rose and I went around helping anyone who is stuck in their houses.

***

Nightfall approaches and Moi's house was filled with people taking shelter including us. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for them to do "spring" cleaning for the whole city but Rose and I will finally be returning to the City Of Pines. Daisy should be wondering what happened to us seeing that we were gone for about a week or so.

To our surprise, none of the survivors remembered anything about being stuck in a dream world. They have no recollection of what happened for the past few months while they were asleep. Damn, now I can't investigate further on why Baku decided to attack here of all places. Is Baku actually powerful enough to cast illusion all the way to the Northern continent?

I spoke to Darcy and Danny, asking them about Moi's brother. None of them had heard about her having a brother before. They had met her parents before but both of them passed right before the dream incident happened. A few of them were discussing on who should take care of Moi now that she is alone. They were extremely certain that she never had a brother before as they were close with her parents. How weird, was Moi lying about her brother's soul residing in her teddy bear then? But that farewell scene between her and Teddy was genuine. No way would someone smile that warmly to her if it's not one of her family member. There is certainly more secrets to Moi than what she is hiding but I have no reason to pry on it. She had aided us in our fight against Baku and I have no reason to interrogate her and possibly turn her into my enemy.

Rose was busy helping Moi in providing hospitality to all the survivors. She turned to look at me with a pleading face and I knew that was my cue to help out. Thankfully there were quite a lot of survivors here otherwise the city is going to be in dire state of being underpopulated and under repairs due to months of snowing and no human activity or maintenance.

"Onii-chan.. help~" said Rose with an adorable pleading face as she tugged on my clothes as I approached her.

Alright alright, enough of talking to myself. Time to help out my beautiful wife in serving the survivors. Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be safe enough to travel back to our city. I do not wish to be stranded here any longer if I can help it. I wish to see the face of my beloved daughter.

"Tomorrow will mark the first day where this city will be embraced with warmness," said Moi as she was washing the dishes while I was busy cutting fruits.

"If you don't mind me asking, how do you know so much, Moi? Can you predict the future or read minds?" I asked her.

She turned and gave me a cute smile. That was the only answer that I got from her for my question.

***

Morning arrived and the people were busy doing whatever they could to clear the snows from the city. A lot of them were still frail but they had to start cleaning or search for firewood. The good thing about cold weather is that it can preserve food and water albeit in the form of ice or frozen food.

Rose and I stood at the entrance of the city while Moi and Darcy sees us off. Danny will be bringing us back to the City Of Pines. We were surprised that Moi had actually kept a horsette fed and alive throughout the few months when she was alone. Without this horsette, we would had to walk all the way back to City Of Pines which was not what I was looking forward to.

"Farewell Moi, perhaps we may see each other again when I come to visit," I smiled to her as I petted her head.

"We will meet again, Mister Zen. On that I am certain," she said when something warm hit the back of my neck.

I turned and saw sunlight piercing through the dark clouds. Snows had stopped falling now. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the ray of lights that were getting larger and basked all over us. It felt so unreal that I thought that I was in a dream world again. But somehow this one felt real as the faces of the people changed from confusion to awe and finally smiles or laughters. Once again, Moi had predicted something that somehow came true. She is certainly someone special and I hope that her prediction about meeting me again will come true.

***

"Moi sure is something, huh?" said Rose as we rode the carriage.

"She's definitely something else. No doubt she's someone with strange powers. My only worry is that who's side she is going to end up with. Will she end up being our ally or our enemy," I said with a thinking face.

"She won't be our enemy, onii-chan. If she wanted to, she would had let us die while we were fighting against Baku. But she chose to help us out of that nightmare instead," Rose explained.

"The way I see it, it felt more like the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of scenario. She needed our help in escaping from Baku's nightmare which is why she helped us," I explained to her.

"Onii-chan… have a little faith in humanity," sighed Rose.

"After seeing those fanatics at the Northern continent, I had already lost it. I would rather be faithless or even maidenless," I puffed up my chest.

"What are you talking about? You already married your maiden," said Rose as she placed her index finger on her lips while acting sexy.

"Speaking of which, what did Baku showed you that made you so mad? I asked her.

"I… don't really wanna talk about it," said Rose as she looked away.

"Aw c'mon. I'm sure it's not as bad as me being a mother-kisser," I shrugged.

"Y.. you kissed your mom?" asked Rose with a fearful look.

"I.. I thought it was you, okay? Baku disguised himself really well and I genuinely thought you were brainwashed or something to act as my mom," I explained.

"You kissed Baku?! Ewwwww.." chuckled Rose.

"Rose.. quit it. I am dishearten here and don't wish to remember it," I sighed.

"I guess that would make me a brother-fucker then? Haha!" she laughed.

"We are both on the same boat on that. Nothing shameful about it," I smirked.

She smiled and kept quiet. It would seemed that she is not willing to tell me what Baku had showed her. While I am certainly curious about what happened, I guess I shouldn't pry further. I am sure she has her reason for not telling me about it. Maybe Baku had showed her most darkest desires and maybe it involved Lily and me or perhaps even Daisy. I should leave things as it is for now.

I thought about the things that I needed to do once I get back to the city. There are a lot to discuss with the guildmasters on what had transpired on this quest of theirs. I will need to talk with the members of the New Order should I wish to get some answers about the church. I peeked my head out of the carriage and looked towards the city that was slowly getting bigger as we approached. Somehow I knew that what had happened thus far was only the beginning of what is to come.