The Heroine is My Stepsister, and I'm her Final Boss
Chapter 69: A Duel.

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: A Duel.

There was no sky here.

No ground.

Only thought.

Only intention.

Only war.

The Dreaming trembled — not like a land wounded by quake or flame, but like a soul gasping in the moment before it forgets how to pray.

Above the formless expanse, clouds of illusion twisted and bled in impossible geometries. The colors bled upward, reversed like wounds opened in the laws of space. In the distance, a nursery rhyme screamed in reverse, each line sung by a voice that had never known a child’s innocence.

Atlas floated.

But it was not Atlas anymore.

His body glowed with starlight entropy, veins etched in silver code, skin humming with old prayers and forgotten math. The Guide wore the flesh of a man who once loved too deeply and rebelled too quietly. Now, he was a rift in human form — a prophet draped in prophecy and ash.

Across the shifting abyss stood Dracula.

No throne. No grandeur. No illusions.

Only a storm made flesh.

The Lord of the Dreaming hovered, his long black hair billowing in a wind that never existed. His eyes blazed crimson — not anger, but ancient fury born from centuries of vigilance. His robe frayed not from time or violence, but from truth unraveling around him like discarded scripture.

The Dreaming was breaking.

Sleep had cracked like thin glass. Mortals lay awake in every corner of the world. Prophecies halted mid-sentence. Gods whimpered with open eyes. The world could no longer rest.

And its warden stood facing its destroyer.

{{{You speak too much}}}Dracula snarled. His voice layered — thunder above oceans, grief beneath mountains. {{{Even when you speak truth, it tastes like poison.}}}

The Guide tilted his head.

Smiling.

{{{Language,}}} he mused. {{{The first lie. The first mask. The first war. I didn’t create it — I merely corrected its grammar}}}

A pause.

The sky bled.

Dracula’s eyes narrowed. {{{Challenge me properly. Not with riddles. Not with entropy. If you intend to ruin my realm, then face me like the nightmare you’ve become.}}}

The Guide lowered his hands.

His smile softened.

{{{Very well,}}}he whispered. {{{Let us duel. But not with blades. Not with fists. Let us duel with concepts. With truths.}}}

And the world shifted.

Dracula moved first.

His voice rang like cracked bells across eternity.

{{{I am the Warden of Sleep.}}}

The sky folded inward.

{{{I am the silence between breaths. I am the moment the eyelid falls before the blade strikes. I am peace offered before death.}}}

And the Dreaming obeyed.

Across infinite versions of time, warriors fell asleep mid-battle. A thousand arrows halted mid-air. Lovers clutched each other in a final moment of twilight—caught, preserved, unbroken.

Stillness became scripture.

The Guide raised one hand.

{{{I am the scream that wakes them.}}}

The Dreaming shuddered.

{{{I am the thought that interrupts surrender. I am the defiance of death. I am the moment the blade misses.}}}

And the stillness cracked.

Warriors blinked awake in the instant of their death. Arrows turned. Lovers screamed as the peace shattered and memory flooded back in like seawater through a broken hull.

Dracula stepped forward.

His cloak billowed, dragging behind him shadows that howled in forgotten tongues.

{{{I am the blood that sings through sleeping minds. I am the theater of gods and beasts. I am myth made nightly flesh.}}}

Suddenly, they were inside a million dreams at once.

Cities built from song. Oceans of glass. Trees that whispered loved ones’ names. Children that became beasts. Lovers who turned into stars. Every fear. Every prayer. Every half-remembered truth.

The Guide opened his arms, his voice low.

{{{I am the one who remembers waking up.}}}

The illusion shattered.

The world dissolved into white.

Screaming.

Screaming as dreams collapsed into memory and memory collapsed into dust.

.

.

{{You don’t understand what you’ve broken.}}Dracula seethed. His voice cracked — not from weakness, but from history. "There are laws. There are egos older than Infinity.}}

{{{{Laws,}}}}the Guide repeated, as if sampling the word. {{{{Ego.}}}}

He almost laughed.

{{{{Yes. I remember writing them.}}}}

He took one step forward, and each footfall echoed like a page turning in a divine ledger.

{{{{I am Infinity that stared back. I am the virus that infects prophecy. I am the one who loved a mortal so much... I fractured continuity just to watch her live.}}}}

That struck.

For a moment, Dracula’s form shimmered.

Not from damage.

From recognition.

{{You are arrogance given shape,}}he spat. {{You are a parasite. A god who remembers love and mistakes it for wisdom.}}

The Guide laughed.

Soft.

Not mocking — almost fond.

{{{{And you,}}}}he said, stepping closer, {{{{are a friend who never stopped grieving.}}}}

The world stopped moving.

Dracula’s hands clenched.

{{I created this place,}} he whispered, voice raw now. {{To protect them. The mortals. The weak. I gave them somewhere to bleed without dying. To suffer without losing. To dream of what they could be.}}

{{{{I know,}}}}the Guide said.

{{{{And that’s why it must end.}}}

Lightning screamed — not with light, but regret.

Dracula attacked.

Not with a body.

With history.

With identity.

He split — became a thousand selves. A child in chains. A knight at war. A crow on a battlefield. A silence in a cradle. A beast with silver tears. Every version of him, weaponized.

They rushed forward.

Judgment incarnate.

The Guide raised one hand.

And each Dracula froze.

In their place — appeared Atlas.

The real one.

Bleeding.

Smiling.

Forgiving.

Not perfect. Not holy.

Just human.

Dracula staggered.

He couldn’t speak.

He saw Atlas standing there — the one who died for a sister, for a city, for a girl who betrayed him. The one who laughed in fire. The one who grieved without screaming.

{{You’re not him....you’re not my Atlas any longer.}} Dracula growled.

{{{{No,}}}} the Guide said. {{{{But I carry him. Like a virus. Like a gift.}}}}

The Dreaming wept.

Blood fell like rain — and smelled of lavender.

{You’ll kill everything, Destroy everything....} Dracula said.

{{{{{Only what was false,}}}}} the Guide replied. {{{{{Only what you built from grief.}}}}}

Their gazes locked.

Gods.

Brothers.

Atlas’s past and future colliding through belief and betrayal.

"Then come," Dracula whispered. "Let’s finish this..."

{{{{{I already have}}}}} said the Guide.

And the Dreaming shattered.

Not with thunder.

But with silence.

A silence so pure, so final, it devoured memory.

Prophecies unraveled mid-verse.

Atlas cracked.

Gods forgot their names.

And in the middle of it all stood the Guide — alone now — smiling softly at a war he never wanted to win.

In the broken ruins of what was once The Dreaming, a single thing remained.

A ripple.

A breath.

A fragment.

A heartbeat.

.

.

.

______________________

The Book of the Damned

______________________

V. The Ritual of Devouring

Every desire is a sacrament. Every craving, a hymn. To walk this path is to become both predator and prey. Swallow your own hungers. Let them ferment in the acid of your will. Then regurgitate them as something fouler, grander. Feast on the flesh of your own ambitions. Drink the blood of your regrets. The Abyss rewards not the meek, but the ravenous—the ones who dare to eat even their own tails in the pursuit of more.

VI. The Covenant of Teeth

You are not a creature of lack. You are a maw. A chasm. A storm of teeth. The mortal world trembles at the thought of "excess," yet excess is your birthright. Let your desires multiply like vermin. Let them swarm over the altars of order. When the self-proclaimed "wise" urge you to "temper your passions," bare your fangs and laugh. Their temples are built on sand. Yours is built on the bones of every "limit" you’ve shattered.

VII. The Unwritten Law

There is only one commandment: ’want without shame’. No moralist’s scripture can bind you. No god’s wrath can geld your appetites. The Path of Unbound Desire is not a choice—it is the truth that gnaws through every lie you’ve been fed. The moment you stop apologizing for your hungers, you step into the infinite.

Epilogue of the First Path

Go now. Let your hunger be a wildfire. Let it scorch the dogma of "enough." Let it reduce the illusion of "peace" to ash. The Abyss is not a place to be feared—it is the hunger you carry in your marrow. Feed it.

Page 2

_____________________

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.