Chapter 12: Grievance

—–

The moment Elizabeth’s seal was unlocked—the seal her father had placed on her three years earlier, fearing she might not control her abilities—something her father had half-anticipated but no one else expected occurred.

An explosion.

Fantasium erupted from her body. All the power she had accumulated in just three years unleashed a massive, near-atomic blast that reduced the entire castle and its surroundings to rubble.

The servants within were powerful enough to protect themselves. They cloaked themselves in Fantasium Auras and reinforced their defenses with Draconic Energy. Louis, still slightly stunned, compressed the explosion’s damage and scope using his Fantasy Heart Domain, isolating the castle’s space from the outside world.

Even so, people in the capital witnessed a colossal rainbow-colored mushroom cloud rise into the sky, its hues gradually fading into stark white and black.

“What’s happening over there?!”

“Incredible—I can’t believe it!”

“Another huge explosion?”

“It hasn’t even been a day…”

“What’s going on now?!”

“Ah, please stay calm, everyone. It shouldn’t be anything too dangerous.”

“I hope Princess Elizabeth is alright!”

As concern rippled through the crowds, inside the ruined castle Louis and Mirai stood within a completely warped space, eyes wide with disbelief.

As they advanced, they saw the world split in two: one side pure white, angelic, and harmonious; the other shrouded in darkness, shadows, chaos, and nightmares.

Monstrous, nightmarish beasts prowled the dark side, roaring with fury as they charged. Louis and Mirai braced themselves, unable to fully grasp what was unfolding.

But suddenly, from the harmonious realm, enormous winged angelic beings soared through the skies. Dozens of eyes gleamed as they unleashed hundreds of radiant beams, obliterating the dark creatures.

The nightmarish entities retaliated with savage intensity, tearing into the harmonious beings and distorting their forms.

Both sides clashed in an endless war of annihilation.

“W-What is this place?” Mirai finally whispered, breaking the stunned silence.

“This place is…” Louis murmured, hands trembling. “This is… a Fantasy Field.”

“…?!” Mirai gasped. “What?!”

“No—more precisely, this is a Fantasy Realm!” Louis said, voice strained. “I expected Elizabeth to have stored a tremendous amount of power, but this is beyond anything I imagined. When we broke the seal, all her accumulated Fantasium detonated at once. It warped space and time, creating a fractured fragment of our reality shaped by her fantasy—or rather, by an aspect of her power. Chaos and Harmony… so this is what she truly wields.”

“And it manifested as a world torn between two opposing sides?” Mirai asked, voice shaking. “One side Chaos, the other Harmony… The creatures from each realm are endlessly trying to dominate the other. Does this count as her Fantasy Heart Domain? Has she awakened?”

“Normally… this kind of manifestation only occurs when a Sinner or Spiralwalker mutates into a Grievance due to overaccumulation of Fantasium without control!” Louis’s voice cracked with panic. “C-Could it be?! Has Elizabeth…?”

RUMBLE!

A deafening tremor answered their fears. Amid the swirling black-and-white clouds, a colossal figure emerged. Each footstep shook the land, sending cracks spiderwebbing across the entire fractured world.

“GROOOOHHHHH!”

A monstrous roar echoed, a terrifying fusion of countless beasts crying out in unison. The creature loomed overhead, so enormous that both father and mother had to crane their necks to see it fully. Its five heads vanished behind the clouds, their eyes blazing with gold and red.

“Elizabeth?!” Louis gasped.

“N-No… why?! We just wanted… we wanted her to become strong…” Mirai whispered, her voice trembling with disbelief and creeping despair.

Their eyes filled with shock and sorrow. Their beloved little daughter, unable to contain her overwhelming power, had exploded outward and transformed into an aberration that defied all logic.

A Grievance of immense might.

“So this is how strong she truly is…” Louis sighed heavily, his voice thick with regret. “I was a fool to ever apply that seal! If I hadn’t, she could have slowly adjusted to the growth of her power. Now that I’ve unsealed it… this is all my fault…!”

“Louis…” Mirai murmured. “No, we can… we can still do something. Like we did with you once before—remember? When you became a Grievance? We have to find her Fantasy Heart and wake her up. Everyone who mutates into a Grievance is trapped in an endless dream-like state. Her consciousness is in another plane. We just have to reach her and bring her back!”

“…I remember,” Louis said quietly, grief and a bitter smile crossing his face as he recalled that dark time.

He had been only eighteen when Frostbane fell under attack by the Vultarn High Dominion allied with rebellious nobles staging a coup. Fresh from training in the Dimensional Labyrinth, he had fought desperately to protect as many lives as he could, to halt the invasion with every ounce of strength he had gained.

But when he finally reached the castle…

He found his father being beheaded.

In that moment, endless grief, despair, and agony shattered his Fantasy Heart, mutating him into a Grievance that devoured the entire kingdom.

Mirai, together with the few survivors, fought back against him with everything they had. Eventually they entered his Fantasy Heart, found his true self, and pulled him back.

Only for both of them to die at the end—somewhat peacefully, yet filled with sorrow.

After that timeline ended, Louis returned once more, vowing never again to fall into despair, no matter how many times he lost everything.

He never faltered.

Now, stripped of his ability to regress in time—the Heart of Time, given by his future self after he shattered it to destroy and rewrite the Fantasium Dimension with Mirai—he could no longer rely on rewinding fate.

He had to face every challenge head-on, using the strength he had forged across thousands of timelines.

He clenched his fists tightly, staring up at his dear daughter, brows furrowed with fierce determination.

“It’s not the same as before.”

“Huh?”

“She’s not grieving anything, nor has she fallen into despair… I can feel it. Can’t you?”

“…!”

Both parents gasped as they looked at their daughter’s colossal form.

She radiated no malice. She simply wandered, gazing around with wide, bewildered eyes—shocked at how small the world had suddenly become.

“S-She’s conscious?!”

“Not entirely… still, she might attack us. We have to awaken her.”

“Indeed. Let’s do it then! And as you said, it’s not the same as before, right?”

“Right… we’re strong now. We have the power we’ve cultivated through all this time.”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Father and mother stepped forward together.

At the same moment, from the castle, servants rushed toward them, gathering into a formidable force of over thirty powerful individuals.

“Everyone, our daughter has accidentally become a Grievance-like being,” Louis announced. “We are going to awaken her Fantasy Heart and bring her consciousness back!”

“All of you will help us. We charge at once. Follow our commands and remember every bit of training you’ve done,” Mirai ordered. “Gigantia! Vlad! Take the lead. Warriors, advance! Monsters will block our path—do not approach Elizabeth. We will handle her ourselves. Your task is to clear the way and make sure no monster escapes the Fantasy Field!”

“UNDERSTOOD!”

All servants—mostly clad in butler and maid outfits—unleashed their Auras in an instant. Soul Weapons and magic surged forth; some even became fully encased in dragon-scale armor from head to toe.

“We’re dividing and conquering! Three Squads!” Gigantia commanded. “First Squad, Frontliners—move, move, move! Second Squad, Long-Ranged Attackers, right behind them! Third Squad, Supporters! This is your toughest job—keep everyone alive!”

As she spoke, her own aura exploded outward. Full-body armor materialized around her, forged from white dragon scales interwoven with the ores and crystals her body naturally produced.

She summoned a colossal stone hammer and stepped forward.

“CHARGE!!!”

Her roar shook the earth. Elizabeth’s titanic form loomed ever closer, towering over a kilometer tall. Each footfall unleashed shockwaves and earthquakes that threatened to tear the Fantasy Field apart.

If they failed to stop her soon, the girl might accidentally destroy the entire field, escape, and crush the city below beneath her steps.

As the group advanced, the Harmonious Beasts and Chaotic Beasts sensed their hostility. Both roared in unison, unleashing Auras of Harmony and Chaos before charging.

The Chaos Beasts resembled savage predators—black wolves, lions, tigers, towering dinosaurs—all bristling with sharp spikes, jagged scales, extra limbs, glowing red eyes, writhing tentacles, and monstrous size.

The Harmonious Beasts appeared as angelic entities or elemental spirits of nature. Some were vast amalgamations of countless wings and eyes; others were radiant, god-like figures composed of fire, light, wind, or other primal forces.

“EEAAAAH!”

Gigantia bellowed, swinging her massive hammer. Earthquakes erupted beneath her, shattering the ground and hurling enormous, razor-sharp boulders and spears of stone, metal, and diamond that skewered dozens of beasts at once.

“It’s time, bwahahahah!”

Vlad laughed maniacally as he spread his long arms wide. An endless, distorted darkness unfurled beneath his crimson cape. Countless monstrous Shadow Beasts and Blood Beasts of his own creation poured out, forming his personal army that tore into the Harmonious and Chaotic Beasts with savage glee.

Elizabeth’s Fantasy Field was undeniably powerful—but these fighters were seasoned veterans who had faced and conquered such threats many times before.

After all, every one of them had survived countless Fantasy Fields. They had been forged through relentless life-and-death battles. Louis and Mirai had hand-picked only the absolute best.

Seeing the squads handle most of the beasts, Mirai and Louis surged forward.

Mirai summoned a long black-and-red demonic sword forged from her own blazing soul, infused with hundreds of demons and chaos spirits.

They did not scream; all remained perfectly obedient under her iron control. She swung the blade. The world shuddered as a searing; horizontal slash burned and cleaved every beast in her path.

At the same moment, Louis called forth his Soul Weapon: the Celestial Heavenly Spear, Gungnir. It blazed with brilliant golden light. He thrust forward. The spear pierced hundreds of monsters, riddling them with countless bloody holes until they burst apart in explosions of gore.

“We’re getting closer!”

“Almost there!”