"Hey, hey! Emile! This is not how we expected before?!"

I shouted anxiously in my mind.

Emile lazily yawned and casually replied, "I only asked you to drag her out. Who told you to give her such detailed information?"

"Huh?!Was I wrong?! You clearly said earlier that we should make her face the cruel reality!"

"That's what we need to do after dragging her out... at first you just need to tell her that this place is not real and let her wake up by herself. But now, you made her recall her own mental shadows..."

Shouldn’t you make a bit clearer for me before, you jerk?! Anyone would think that "destroying the beauty of illusion" and "infusing the cruelty of reality" are parallel after hearing your statement!!

By the way, is this illusion really so beautiful?!

"Molly Ann, get out of here!"

Before I could turn my complaints into actual words, Emile immediately reminded me.

I rolled to the side just in time to dodge an attack from one of the tentacles.

The tentacle emerged from the deep depths of the lake, which had turned back into normal lake again, and ruthlessly whipped the ground next to me and left behind a deep black mark. Not only the path it struck, but even the flowers nearby withered and turned yellow like weeds.

Did it just evolve itself into corrosive black mud after that attack?

Right, Nana!

I rubbed my eyes and quickly searched for Nana's figure, found her silently kneeling by the lake with her arms crossed in front of her and can’t even stop her sobbing.

"Hey! Nana, come over here! It's dangerous there!"

She continued to kneel there, sobbing...

Ah, she's not listening to me now...

"Emile, keep me updated. I'm going to rescue her!"

"Huh? Under this situation, you still not give up on her? It's better to say that this is already the worst situation. Should I send you out of that world?"

"Emile!!"

"Alright, alright, I was kidding... Um... Go around to the left... Lower your head! Don't raise! Keep going forward while crawling... Stop!"

Following Emile's instructions, I grabbed Nana and ran as far away from the black mud as possible.

Nana said that she had set up a barrier that the black mud couldn't pass near the lake, so as long as we moved away from the lake, the mud wouldn't catch up with us.

After that, I just need to implant certain settings in Nana's mind and make her believe them, and then defeat the black mud again so I could bring her back to the real world.

Yes, that's the plan...

As I was secretly planning, a sudden sharp pain came through my shoulder.

"Ah!?"

Nana, who had been struggling since I grabbed her, angrily bit my shoulder.

This kid.. She's going to bite off a piece of my flesh from my shoulder!

“No time to think about that! Quickly, to the right!”

"..."

I gritted my teeth to silently endure the pain, then tried to turn my body to the right, but it was too late. The incoming tentacle instantly flung both me and Nana ten meters away.

Nana, whom I was holding in my arms, was also thrown out.

It hurts... My back hurts... My shoulder hurts too...

But... we should be safe here...

I struggled to crawl to Nana, propped up her upper body, then placed my hands on her shoulders, and stared into her lifeless eyes.

"Nana, listen to me, I was wrong just now, things are not like that, I didn't die, but..."

...

Nana blinked her eyes then fell on the ground complete powerlessly.

Fainted... Is she fainted!?

Just as I was trying to wake her up, a disturbing banging sound came from behind us.

The black mud broke through the railing in front of us and rushed towards us.

The red markings resembling a sorrowful expression on the face of the black mud seemed to vent its own anxiety and panic.

There's no time to wait. I immediately grabbed Nana and continued to flee.

"Hey, hey! Emile! This is not what we expected! Is it not supposed to pass through the railing?! How is it possible for a setting made by the world owner in her own mind to be overturned?!"

"That's probably because she, as the owner, passed out... and... "

"And what else!? Stop hesitating! I can't hold on much longer over here!!"

The intense pain from being hit on my back was unbearable as if it is constantly reminding me of its existence. Thanks to this pain, I was able to maintain my consciousness.

"And also... the barrier or the railing disappeared... which means this world no longer needs such a thing..."