Sometimes, in the middle of a dream, you realize, “Ah… this is a dream.”

There’s a term for when you are aware of this and can control your actions to some extent while dreaming: a lucid dream. But Tooru wasn’t in one of those.

All he could do was recognize it: this is a dream.

He found himself floating in a space that felt like the middle of the cosmos. There was no sense of ground beneath him, no clear orientation in any direction, and while countless lights twinkled far away, the space immediately around him was empty.

There was light, yet everything was pitch black.

As he drifted in this void, a ball of light appeared.

It wasn’t solid like a ball in the usual sense—more a lump of glowing energy.

Its size was roughly that of a human head, maybe slightly smaller.

Ah… this is me, Tooru thought.

There was no reasoning behind it. Just as seeing the back of your hand tells you it’s yours, or hearing your familiar alarm at your bedside confirms it’s your phone, this light… was himself. Not understood, not judged—simply known.

There was no doubt. The light before him was undeniably him. A sensation of knowing.

The light glowed a color somewhere between white and orange, flickering gently, almost gaseous rather than solid. He could have thrust his hand through it and felt nothing.

Then, suddenly, half of it vanished.

“…Huh?”

It was as if a giant cleaver had sliced the light in two. The left half disappeared.

The crescent-shaped remainder began to fill back in, like a solar eclipse ending—but the color had shifted. Where it had been orange, it was now pale blue.

A sphere of light, split into two colors, right down the middle.

Half of him had been devoured, replaced by something else.

No reasoning, no logic—just that undeniable, instinctive feeling.

“…No, wait a second. Hey—hey, hey, hey…!”

Just when he thought that was the end of it, the original orange side began to stain red from the edges inward. Not the red of a sunset, but a scarlet that called blood to mind.

And then—

Half blue-white, half deep crimson: a single sphere of light.

“…No, but… yeah… this is still… me.”

That was what he thought.

Again, it wasn’t understanding or judgment so much as a sense of prior knowledge.

He knew this was himself.

Even though the original color was completely gone.

Even so—this was Hayasaka Tooru.

◇◇◇

He felt like he had been dreaming something like that, but when Tooru woke up, the very first thing he checked was whether he was alive or dead.

His arms and legs were intact. His heart was beating. For the moment, there was nothing wrong with his body.

He was still in the room beyond the “illusion wall.”

As he wondered whether the black ogre might have been unable to pass through the illusion wall, he looked toward the room’s entrance—and saw someone there.

A woman with pale, almost white-blonde hair.

She was dressed in Western-style gear, wearing pale blue light armor on her chest, shoulders, shins, and legs, kneeling and facing the direction of the entrance.

She didn’t seem very tall—probably about a head shorter than Tooru, who stood at 174 centimeters. Even through the armor, it was clear that she had a slender build, and her platinum-blonde hair was simply tied back at the nape of her neck.

And—

She was holding the Western sword Tooru had drawn, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Oh, you’re awake. How do you feel?”

She glanced back at Tooru and gave him a warm, friendly smile.

A smile that seemed to embody the idea that being kind to others was simply normal.

“…How I feel… I mean… who are you…?”

Still lying there after checking his condition, unsure whether he should be on guard or not, Tooru answered her question with one of his own.

“I’m Tia. I’m something like a spirit that was bound to the Holy Sword ‘Lightbringer’ you drew. I’ve manifested physically like this for now, though.”

She said it with a faintly embarrassed air.

Her expression and manner were cuter than most idols—but far more important than that were the implications of her words.

“The Holy Sword Lightbringer? And a spirit that was bound to it…?”

“Lightbringer is this,” the woman in light armor—Tia—said, lifting the Western sword she was holding as she spoke. “You were the one who pulled it out,” she added.

Despite the blade being about a meter long, she handled it as casually as if it were a wooden stick.

“…And what do you mean by ‘something like a spirit’?”

“Yeah. It’s a bit embarrassing to say, but… it seems my memories, thoughts, and soul were clinging to Lightbringer. I think it’s probably because this sword connects to its owner’s soul… but even I was surprised.”

She gave an awkward little laugh that matched her words, but it wasn’t something Tooru could just let slide.

He stood up, shook his head a few times, then pressed her with more questions.

“No—no, no, wait a second. Your memories, thoughts, and soul were clinging to it? A weapon that connects to the soul? That’s a mythical item.”

After the world fusion, several legendary items had been discovered.

For example: a ring that allowed its wearer to fly freely just by putting it on.

A magic staff that devoured the wielder’s mana and the ambient mana around them to fire blasts powerful enough to bore through mountains.

A sword that amplified the user’s mana and wreathed its blade in lightning.

A device that enabled instantaneous teleportation between designated spaces at zero cost.

Items that surpassed even those—so-called mythical items—were said to number only two that had been officially confirmed. If the contents of Tooru’s middle-school textbooks hadn’t been updated since then, no new ones should have been found even now.

One was the core of a barrier-generation device possessed by the elves of the Atlantis continent that had appeared during the world fusion.

The other was the “Divine Spear” wielded by an S‑rank explorer who was said to have slaughtered the monsters unleashed during the chain of “Dungeon Stampedes” in the early 2000s.

Magic, magical tools, or cursed tools that directly interfered with a living being’s soul had never been discovered. If what Tia was saying was true, then Lightbringer was a sword that concealed a mythical effect.

Direct interference with the soul was impossible.

That was what he had learned in middle school, and that prevailing theory still hadn’t been overturned.

The easiest way to taint another person’s soul was said to be group bullying—but even that wasn’t considered external interference. Rather, the accepted view was that the victim themselves altered their own soul in response.

“Yeah, that might be true. A spirit gathered stardust, an ancient dragon swallowed it, and it was forged within the dragon’s body—that’s how the holy sword was born. It connects to its owner’s soul and rejects anyone else who tries to use it. Of course it goes beyond human understanding.”

Tia smiled with a hint of pride.

But a beautiful smile meant nothing to Tooru right now.

He let out a long breath, covered his face with his right hand, and thought.

For now—he set aside what exactly the Holy Sword Lightbringer was. He also put aside the question of what Tia truly was.

“…First things first. We need to get out of here…”

Completely ignoring the blond swordswoman, Tooru pulled his personal terminal from his pocket and checked the stream, but it wasn’t even connected to the network.

Dungeons were simply too vast for ordinary signals to reach, and even on the surface, various magical devices interfered with radio waves. As a result, magical communication had become the standard in the modern era.

Likewise, modern “batteries” weren’t storage cells but mana-charging devices, with items like the magic cores Tooru diligently collected used as raw materials.

In any case, if magical communication wasn’t getting through… either his terminal was broken, or he was too far from the relay devices installed in the Sugai Dungeon.

Just to be sure, Tooru checked his body camera as well, but it was malfunctioning. It probably hadn’t been destroyed by the black ogre’s attack—if he’d taken a direct hit, Tooru would have died long before the camera did.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Tia tilted her head, looking genuinely curious. For a moment, Tooru’s eyes were drawn to the blade of the holy sword she held, but its dull iron-gray sheen somehow made it look… not very sharp.

“I’m trying to get a grasp on the situation. Mind if I ask you some things too?”

“Of course. As long as it’s something I can answer.”

She nodded without hesitation. From the start, she had been openly friendly. She didn’t force conversation on Tooru while he was at the peak of his confusion, and she was willing to wait in silence if needed.

She seemed like a good person.

If she turned out to be secretly malicious, Tooru would have to crank his distrust of others up another notch. He didn’t really want to live like that, so he could only hope that Tia’s kindness wasn’t an act.

Setting that aside for the moment—

“That sword… Lightbringer. It looks like it doesn’t even have a blade.”

The sword’s steel—well, a blade in the Western style—was a dull, lead-colored gray. Even from a distance, it was obvious there was no sharp edge.

Of course, swinging a meter-long piece of iron would still pack a punch, much like Tooru’s own trusty iron rebar.

But a mythic weapon, forged from stardust inside an ancient dragon, couldn’t simply be a blunt instrument.

“Oh, this? Sure, it produces a magical edge when you slash, but Lightbringer isn’t really specialized for cutting. Its true strength lies against the unholy: under, spirits, evils, demons, mana creatures—stuff like that.”

Tia proudly raised the sword. Whether she was lying or not, Tooru didn’t get the sense she was being dishonest.

“Alright… fine, next question. You said you were a spirit attached to the sword, but now you seem… real. You’re holding the sword yourself.”

“That’s because I’ve taken a physical form. It’s easier to show than explain—watch closely.”

Tia held the sword aloft, then—literally—vanished.

Clang! The sword hit the floor with a strangely heavy sound.

“…You disappeared.”

“Yeah. I can re-manifest like this too.”

A voice came from slightly behind him, and Tooru instinctively jumped back a step. Tia’s apologetic smile looked fully human, full of warmth. Nothing about her had the alien, uncanny vibe of a ‘malevolent spirit’ you’d see in adventurer streams. She was a young woman with an inherently good, almost boyish energy.

Frozen in place, Tooru watched as she walked—making no sound of armor scraping—picked up the fallen holy sword, and looked at it with a slightly complex expression.

“Lightbringer connects to its owner’s soul. Its holy attribute allows it to strike unholy beings, sure, but it also has power to affect the spiritual plane outside the material world. It strikes not the physical form of a demon, but its essence—the astral body. That’s what makes it holy. And it can do this because it’s linked to its owner’s soul.”

“…I don’t really get it. Astral body?”

“Well, I’ll explain the details when necessary. The key point is, Lightbringer has now designated you as its owner.”

“You said it rejects all other users, right?”

“Guess that makes me part of the sword too. I called myself a spirit attached to it, but probably a part of my soul was left in the sword all this time.”

Once again, Tia’s apologetic little smile. Then, with practiced ease, she twirled the sword, hooked the fittings on the back of her armor, and slung it across her back.

It had to be heavy, but she made it look impossibly light.

“Hey. Could you tell me your name?”

Tia asked with a smile, her voice carrying something faintly prayer-like beneath it.

It might have been his imagination.

But he was certain he had felt it.

“Hayasaka Tooru. Hayasaka’s the family name, Tooru’s my given name. When I enter a dungeon, I go by Tooru.”¹

“Then I’ll call you Tooru.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Then let me introduce myself properly. I’m Tia—the former wielder of the Holy Sword Lightbringer. Right now, I’m something like a ghost bound to the sword, using your soul as a vessel to incarnate in this world.”

“……”

Rather than being surprised, it felt like he had already known.

Yes—known was the right word.

The half of his soul that had been cleaved away and shone blue-white in that dream—that had been Tia.

A pure, unsullied radiance, fitting for the bearer of a holy sword.

“…Wait. Hold on. What happened to the other one?”

If Tia was using half of his soul—

Then the other half, stained a deep crimson, must have belonged to the other blade.

“Hm… that one wasn’t really a sword so much as a cursed tool. A cursed object shaped like a blade. It should be embedded in your soul too, so you’ll probably be able to draw it out.”

She said it with a tinge of distaste.

Tooru didn’t ask what she meant.

Because—yes, once again—there was that same sensation.

He knew.

1. Tooru uses katakana spelling (トール) when going by his dungeon name. I considered using Tohru or something but I’m not a fan of it. If people wish to differentiate I might change it. There is no difference in pronunciation unless stated otherwise down the line.