Nightmare
Once I pulled myself together, Millie and I walked hand in hand into the room where Gilda was still working.
When she saw me, Gilda immediately became concerned.
"Are you okay, Willie?"
"Yeah. I just needed to sort my head out a bit. Millie helped me."
Gilda gave me a wary look. I could tell she wanted to ask me more questions. But before she could say anything else, Millie excitedly changed the subject.
"Hey Sweetie, do you think you could take a break to accompany us? I'm gonna call Cordie too because I have something neat I want to show you all."
Once Gilda agreed, Millie called Cordelia to meet us in the room where the tanuki couple was still studying holographic recordings of my fights.
Millie got their permission and changed the playback to be from her own fights in the simulations. What we saw stunned us all.
Millie revealed her new unknown magic, which she called Nightmare. Hearing the name alone sent chills down my spine. I felt as if somebody was standing on my grave. Under normal circumstances, I should have thought it was a really cool ability. But for some reason, I only felt a deep sense of dread when she described how it worked.
According to her, there was a connection between all consciousnesses. The way she described it, the idea seemed related to some stuff I had learned about in my earlier magic research. Most notably, the Collective Unconscious by Jung, and the Dreaming, which was a mystical worldview held by Australian aborigines. Her succubus magic skill to enter dreams used that connection as a bridge from this reality to the reality created within the dreamer's mind. However, Millie had figured out a new way to use that bridge.
She could read the subconscious of a target and release the most vivid dreams their mind held into this reality using her new Nightmare magic. As a weapon, what she looked for was the worst nightmares that haunted the target. By bringing that nightmare into this reality and allowing it to attack the former dreamer, she could cause the target to flee or even outright die from fear alone. Yep, literally scared to death. Even if they somehow managed to stand up against their literal worst nightmare, they would be attacked mentally by it until their mind was broken. She hadn't found any creature who could resist the attack except creatures that couldn't dream, like golems.
She really wanted to manifest these nightmares physically, so she could attack even more directly. But it was beyond her power to make the nightmares real physically. It turned out that she was envious of Cordelia's ability to summon creatures and was trying to figure out how to do something similar. However, something about how the magic worked kept her from being able to do it. She tried to explain the nature of dreams as a personal and unreal reality. They were unique to each individual but connected in some mysterious way. According to her, the reason why the worlds created inside dreams weren't as real as reality was that no mind could imagine in the depth of detail reality had. Pulling from a nightmare meant it could only be as realistic as the dreamer could imagine, which is to say not very real at all. It was more like a shadow or a ghost than a tangible, physical thing.
Still, all of this sounded incredibly powerful and useful in battle. However, it also set off loud warning bells in my head. All my instincts told me this was dangerous and that I needed to stop Millie. I trusted her more than any of my other companions, so those thoughts made me feel guilty. The only reason I was even thinking about this magic that way was because of some stupid nightmare that I could barely even remember at this point.
Had I not had my own nightmare earlier, I might not have even considered any potential downside of this skill. However, now that I did think about it, the problem seemed obvious. It required Millie to look into the deepest darkness contained in the mind of each target. As a result, she would need to continually witness horrors nobody should ever have to see. And even worse, she would then need to choose to bring those horrors to reality.
Sure, as a weapon, it was highly effective. But the potential cost to Millie's own sanity wasn't worth it.
I really didn't want to speak up after seeing how enthusiastic everybody else was. Nobody was happier for Millie than Cordelia, who was sincerely impressed after seeing her new magic in use. If I was gonna say something, it needed to be as soon as possible. Before too much damage was done.
I worked up my courage for a few moments before speaking.
"Millie, I don't think you should use this magic anymore."
Everybody turned to look at me like I was crazy. Clearly, nobody could see where I was coming from, so I would need to spell it out.
"What does that mean, William? I finally have a way to attack. And we need to use every weapon we can find to survive the coming fight."
"Indeed. Don't be so small-minded, you jealous peon. Her power is majestic, as is fitting for one bonded to someone as glorious as myself. Together we will burn the Demon Lord empire to the ground."
I guess Cordelia slipped back into her insulting default mode of speaking while I wasn't looking. Old habits are hard to break, I suppose. At least Gilda stayed silent, waiting for me to clarify why I was resisting the use of such an obviously powerful magic. The tanuki couple also remained silent, probably feeling like outsiders since they were still new here. I silently thanked all three of them in my head before continuing.
"Listen, Millie, you've gotta look into the most terrifying part of somebody's mind to pull the nightmare out, right?"
"Of course, silly boy. Where else would one find a nightmare worthy of the name?"
"Right. Well, that's exactly the problem. I don't want you to subject your own mind to those horrors."
I took a deep breath. I was about to say some embarrassing stuff, but these were things that needed to be said.
"Millie, I love your innocence and openhearted nature. It's the most beautiful thing about you. I'm worried that spending too much time looking into those dark places will rob you of the things that make you such a good person."
Even Cordelia was silent after I said that. Millie looked down at her feet for a moment before raising her head to look me straight in the eyes. I was surprised to see tears streaming down her cheeks. Cordelia looked flustered when she saw that. Gilda had a concerned look on her face. Idomu looked nervous, and Byakuren had her eyes open wide in shock, but for some reason, she blushed too.
I stepped over to her and raised my outstretched arms to give her a hug. I wasn't sure if Millie was willing to accept the hug from me after saying all that, but our places had been reversed just a little while ago. Reluctantly she stepped into my embrace. We were close enough to whisper to each other.
"I just wanted so badly to be able to fight... but you're right. Every time I brought one of those things into reality, I felt myself get a bit colder inside."
I felt a wave of relief that I hadn't made the wrong decision to speak up.
"We'll definitely find another way. Something that doesn't hurt you to use."
As I held her, the room was quiet. In that silence, I heard Byakuren whisper.
"... Millie-hime."
