Pfft—

Just as Merka was carefully examining Turing, wondering what to do next... a hiss sounded inside the cramped pipe.

A faint pink gas poured into the air through injectors hidden inside the pipe.

Merka could clearly see that the gas seemed to pass straight through the skin and enter the body, acting on it without needing to be breathed in through the nose.

Turing seemed completely unaware of the pink gas. She’d already absorbed quite a lot of it without even realizing.

“Quit messing around... Sit still. I’m getting kind of sleepy.”

“Haa...”

Turing yawned deeply. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she turned her face to the side. Just like that, she fell asleep.

Though she was asleep, her tentacles showed no sign of settling down.

The tentacles extending from Turing’s back held her body firmly against the inner wall of the pipe.

Countless tentacles extended from beneath Turing’s skirt. Like an octopus’s arms, they wrapped around the entire machine and shielded it, leaving only a small section of air holes exposed.

Merka was buried in a thicket of tentacles. The worst part was, he wasn’t sleepy at all.

He’d completely lost the mood to admire Turing’s sleeping face.

“Why can’t I fall into the hallucination...? How is this possible?”

“Oh, right! Could it be...?”

Merka suddenly realized something. He hurriedly opened his mouth, raised a hand, and felt around inside for the lozenge.

But there was nothing in his mouth. The little lozenge had already dissolved.

“Huh? It dissolved?”

“Oh no. What if I can’t fall into the hallucination now?”

Merka carefully shifted his body and peeked outside through a gap between Turing’s tentacles.

What he saw nearly made Merka scream.

Countless Ice Bees surrounded Turing’s tentacles in layer upon layer. The sight was just like thousands upon thousands of vultures wheeling over a great desert, waiting for their dying prey to breathe its last.

Merka knew that even a single Ice Bee’s beating wings could freeze an entire city block solid. If all the Ice Bees swarming overhead swooped down at once, they could freeze a lake as large as Bocheng.

Merka covered his mouth and took a deep breath, inhaling a large amount of the pink gas. At last, his body began to feel a little sleepy.

“...Phew. Finally.”

Merka calmed himself down, lay close beside Turing, and slowly closed his eyes.

The god of sleep came clanking toward Merka, carrying a flail.

A hint of bloody sweetness filled Merka’s heart.

A dangerous sensation of weightlessness finally arrived, making him shudder.

A glimmer tinged with fantasy flowed across Merka’s vision.

It felt like a night of deep drunkenness, with someone carrying a lantern past the gauzy window screen.

Merka felt wonderful.

But he didn’t know that the next hour or so would be the happiest time of his life.