Inside the cannibal family's house, just minutes before the incident with I.M.P. began, the family was gathered in the living room watching television. Everything was calm—too calm. Unnoticed by any of them, their shadows slowly merged, forming a much larger silhouette. From that mass of darkness emerged a familiar shape—the true origin of the shadow. Four pure scarlet eyes opened within it, and the living room radio suddenly began playing a slightly cartoony tune. The shadow stretched forward toward the family, swaying in rhythm with the music.
"Kids, behind me!" Ralphie shouted, pulling his children back as Martha grabbed a weapon and aimed it at the shadow. In response, the shadow only formed a wide grin lined with defined teeth. Space itself warped, transforming into **Reverie Haven**, and every weapon in the room vanished in a cloud of blue and purple spiders.
"Hello, dear humans! I am the God of Dreams—Armitage is my name—and I've come, as they say, to tell you you're going to die~"
Armitage rose from the floor as if it were liquid, the ground rippling like falling water as his body emerged.
"Go to hell!" Martha shouted, lunging forward to punch him.
Armitage merely smiled. One of his four arms caught her by the throat and hurled her back toward her family.
"My dear, if I wanted you dead, I would've simply waited until you were asleep and done what no one but me can," he said coldly. His smile vanished, replaced by a look of pure disdain. From the floor, countless white spiders poured forth, wrapping the entire family in webbed cocoons. Armitage approached one of Ralphie and Martha's children, staring directly into their eyes.
"You disgust me. A child should be free of malice, but you… blegh."
He conjured an armchair and sat down, creating a teapot decorated with spiderweb patterns.
"What do you want with me and my family…?" Ralphie asked. Armitage looked mildly surprised—he already knew from their world how deeply Ralphie cared for his family. Even as a serial killer, he truly loved them.
"To be honest with you," Armitage began, sipping his tea, "my original name was lost over humanity's long existence. I'm not angry—only accepting. You humans are young, with much yet to learn. If not for the miasma called *sin* that a certain damned angel placed upon you, I wouldn't fear opening my paradise to you once more. Hell is a deplorable place."
He calmly studied Ralphie and Martha.
"I noticed you were targets of certain repulsive beings from Hell. Let me put it simply: Hell is pure evil. There's the so-called annual extermination. Neither Heaven nor Hell can produce children—even the so-called champion souls are still stained by sin. Because of Heaven and Hell, the entire world suffers from what I call *permanent soul damage*. Everything and everyone acts through sin. In Heaven, they're xenophobic and racist. In Hell, it's all about survival and selling your soul."
He placed the teacup on his lap, watching them with eerie grace.
"That kind of life does not exist in my paradise. All I want is for you to become my subjects. There is no pain, no sin, no fear. You will be mine."
The spiders tightened their webs as the family stared at Armitage, who calmly set his cup aside.
"If what you're saying is true…" Martha said hesitantly, "…what will happen to those demons hunting us?"
"Simple," Armitage replied, standing from his chair. "I'll take care of them. All you need to do is spread my name once more. I'll give you some of my books. In exchange, your souls will belong to my name. You won't have to obey orders—you'll simply be subjects of your god."
The family looked at the Dream God standing before them.
"…Alright. We accept," Martha said.
Armitage smiled faintly and extended his hand. Something changed. A sphere formed from a black mass flowing out of them. Without their notice, ghostly spider shapes bit into their souls, subtly mutating them.
"I can't completely erase sin," Armitage thought, watching the spiders fuse with their souls, "but if I bind them to the Dreamscapes, I can free them from it."
"I feel… different," Martha said, staring at her hands. "And… disgusted by what I used to do."
"What did you do to us, my lord?" Ralphie asked—only realizing afterward that the honorific came naturally, almost automatically.
"Let me explain, my subjects," Armitage said calmly. "I didn't remove sin. I created a countermeasure—your souls will no longer be tainted. You won't feel sinful desires, only normal ones, carefully regulated thanks to a friend."
Old but well-preserved books appeared in his hands.
"These are—*cough*—ancient books—*cough*—about two hundred years old. Still in good condition. Does anyone here enjoy reading?"
Martha raised her hand with a genuinely gentle smile.
"Excellent. I want you to use your status as heroes to spread my existence. The youth can make memes or something—just no sexual jokes or anything that stains my image."
He created a door leading out of Reverie Haven.
"Just stay away from the kitchen. I'll handle the troublesome visitors."
With that, he vanished into a portal.
…
Outside the house, the I.M.P. team peeked through a window, searching for the family.
"Damn it, Moxxie, are you sure this is the house?" Blitzø whispered, staring inside—unaware of a shadow forming behind them.
"Sir, I'm sure. The client gave us the exact location," Moxxie replied. But as he looked at the glass, he noticed a reflection—four eyes staring back. The figure didn't look human… or anything close.
One of the eyes widened slightly.
"Down!" Moxxie shouted, yanking Blitzø and Millie to the floor.
An invisible projectile tore through the air with a piercing whistle—so sharp it hurt their ears.
Pew.
A small hole appeared in the window. Seconds later, cracks spread across the glass before it shattered, raining shards down on the trio.
"I swear I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch!" Blitzø roared, charging toward the figure as it vanished into the woods.
"Show yourself, you dead-ass bastard!" he yelled, pulling a flintlock pistol from seemingly nowhere and aiming wildly.
Guuuuuh…
Blitzø grinned. It was a muffled groan of pain.
"Got you, asshole."
He approached a large rock, ready to shoot whatever was hiding behind it—
Grrrrr…
Two massive hands suddenly grabbed the sides of the stone, cracking it under immense force. A tall, thin figure rose up. It wore a torn, old suit, its eyes never leaving Blitzø. Its face was rotten, worms constantly devouring its flesh—but never fully tearing it away. Its eyes were red—not bright, but nauseatingly deep within the decaying meat.
It had four arms, grotesquely misaligned. The left side was a single arm splitting into a bifurcation at the elbow, while the right arms emerged from the side of its abdomen. Two spider-like fangs jutted from its mouth.
"What the fu—mmph!?"
The creature grabbed Blitzø by the face, trying to bite his head off—until a gunshot blasted through one of its eyes. The monster recoiled, screaming gutturally as it clutched its ruined socket.
"Sir, we have to go!" Moxxie yelled. "If the family's not in the house, that thing must've already killed them!"
Blitzø retreated, opening a portal. The three of them dove through just as the creature lunged, its arm grabbing Blitzø's throat—
—but the portal snapped shut, severing the limb.
"What the hell was that…?" Millie said, staring at the arm lying on the ground
Before any of them could react, the limb began to swell grotesquely—then burst into a swarm of spiders that quickly vanished.
…
Back with the monster, red flames engulfed its body. Armitage emerged from the fire, glancing at the missing arm. Flesh regenerated rapidly, forming a new one.
"Bad news: I lost an arm during the performance," he said calmly. "Good news: my spiders give me eyes in Hell."
He pulled a small case from his coat, took out a cigar, clipped the end effortlessly with his claws, and lit it with his fingers. He looked toward where the portal had been.
"You're all trash… I have eyes in Hell and on Earth… but there's one place left where I need eyes."
He smiled beneath the smoke.
"And I already know who they'll be… don't I, Daddy Adam~?"
…
Author's Note:
Hello, my dear readers! What did you think of the chapter? Now then—hand over your Power Stones!