Chapter 872: The Birth of Beast Emperor Tohka, Turning Nightmares into Beautiful Dreams
Ren's "miracle medicine" had thoroughly cured every lingering ailment.
Miku Izayoi's deep-seated misandry? Gone, replaced by the way she currently snuggled against his side, perfectly at peace with a man's touch. Natsumi Kyouno's crippling inferiority complex? Washed away, leaving a serene, confident flush on her sleeping face. Yoshino's fragile timidity, Kotori Itsuka's fiery tsundere defensiveness, and even Mio Takamiya's hollow emptiness toward the world—all of it had been thoroughly dismantled and remedied by his highly specialized, hands-on treatment method.
It was just that administering this "treatment" to so many at once was quite the workout.
Time had lost all meaning in this space. Ren leaned back against the plush pillows, looking down at the sprawling tangle of beautiful Spirits sleeping soundly around him. Their expressions were universally blissed out, lips curved in soft, satisfied smiles.
He couldn't help but rub his nose, a dry chuckle escaping his lips. "Ah, I might have been a bit too indulgent."
Though his words sounded like a weary sigh, to the members of the Chat Group watching the live stream, it was a blatant, shameless flex of his achievements.
[Mikoto Misaka: "You know you're over-indulging too! Aren't you afraid of going completely soft and weak?"]
[Ren: "Hey, hey, hey. Is it really okay to talk about your man like that?"]
[Ren: "If I were that weak, you'd be the one crying the loudest, my little glutton Mikoto."]
[Mikoto Misaka: "Wh-who cares about that thing of yours! Don't talk nonsense! I-I'm not a little glutton!!!"]
[Misaki Shokuhou: "I can testify~ Mikoto isn't like that at all. She's just eagerly preparing herself to handle Ren-kun's Level Eight behemoth~"]
[Mikoto Misaka: "???"]
[Bronya Zaychik: "Cough, cough... please don't phrase it so strangely."]
In her office, Bronya's cheeks burned a bright, furious red. Even with her dignified status as the Supreme Guardian of Belobog, she couldn't suppress the intense shyness bubbling up from watching such a brazen display. Sitting behind her heavy oak desk, she unconsciously crossed her legs, squeezing her thighs together.
"Bronya, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Seele noticed the unnatural flush on her face and hurried forward, leaning over the desk with a concerned frown.
"N-nothing. I'm just a little tired," Bronya muttered, lowering her head to hide her flustered expression with a perfunctory excuse.
At the same time, a traitorous thought wormed its way into her mind. If I really go to Ren's side... will I end up like them too?
[Kiana Kaslana: "Cough, cough... Ren, let me ask you a serious question. Where is Durandal?"]
Watching the stream, Kiana's face was equally flushed, but her sharp eyes had caught a glaring inconsistency. Durandal hadn't returned to their world. Yet, scanning the sprawling pile of pale, exhausted beauties on the screen, Kiana couldn't spot the blonde Valkyrie anywhere.
"Durandal...?"
Ren blinked. He froze.
He had actually forgotten about her.
In the heat of the moment, surrounded by the eager Spirits, he hadn't pulled her into the fray. His gaze swept across the vast, dimly lit space. Finally, in the far corner of the room, he spotted her.
Durandal was squatting on the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs, burying her face into her knees.
Uh... Ren's mouth twitched. He had been so caught up in the excitement that he had completely left the strongest Valkyrie on standby. To watch. Everything.
With a mere thought, a fresh set of clothes materialized over his body. He stepped carefully over the sleeping Spirits and walked toward the corner.
He cleared his throat, breaking the heavy silence. "Cough. Actually, you could have just gone back, you know."
Durandal slowly lifted her head. Her golden eyes were swirling with a chaotic, incredibly complex mix of emotions. She had just sat there and personally witnessed hours of absolute, unbridled degeneracy. If this had been anyone else, she would have coldly condemned the act as utterly defiled, drawing her lance and keeping a thousand miles of distance.
But the man at the center of it all was Ren.
Instead of disgust, a strange, heavy heat lingered in her chest, twisting her usual ironclad discipline into something entirely foreign and confusing.
[Kiana Kaslana: "Durandal was scared stiff by you! Look at the mess you made!"]
[Saeko Busujima: "Scared? I don't know about that. Why do I get the feeling Durandal's gaze toward Ren is... rather strange?"]
[Tsunade: "Sigh. They're already entangled. It's only a matter of time."]
[Shiroyasha: "Another girl falling into Ren's clutches! Ah, damn it! (Pounding her chest and stamping her feet) It's not fair! It's too unfair!"]
In Little Garden, Shiroyasha was practically bursting with sheer, unadulterated jealousy. Forget the Spirits—even Asuka Kudou and the other girls in her own community had started running to her place constantly. But they weren't coming to visit her. They just wanted to ask about Ren!
What is so great about this guy who just radiates pure, unfiltered carnal desire?! Shiroyasha lamented internally.
Seeing the rapid-fire messages in the Chat Group, both Ren and Durandal stiffened.
"You..." Ren started, raising a hand.
"I'm going back," Durandal blurted out quickly.
Before he could say another word, her figure blurred and vanished from the spot, fleeing back to her original world to escape the suffocating embarrassment.
"Well then..." Ren shook his head, a wry chuckle escaping his lips. This was genuinely the first time he had seen the unflappable Durandal lose her composure like that.
Still, there was no rush. Now that he possessed the ability to freely traverse between worlds, he could take his time winning her over. Right now, he needed to finalize the matters of the Date A Live world.
He shifted his focus inward, sensing the massive, ethereal structures of the Sephiroth—the Tree of Life—and the Qliphoth—the Tree of Reverse. These two monumental constructs represented the absolute origin and power of the Spirits.
With a single, commanding thought, he gripped their conceptual roots and pulled them directly into his own Infinite Tree. The integration was smooth. From this moment on, the power of the Spirits truly and entirely belonged to him.
"Hmm? There's another one?"
Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. His gaze snapped back to the bed, landing specifically on Tohka Yatogami.
A strange, dense black miasma was beginning to bleed out from her sleeping form.
"So it's her."
Ren instantly recognized the source of that suffocating dark aura: the Beast Spirit. Or rather, the fully Beastified form of Tohka, known as Beast Emperor Tohka.
Normally, an Inverse Spirit—one born from the Reversion of their power—loses their consciousness to pure destructive instinct. But Beast Tohka was different. She retained a distinct, albeit despair-driven, consciousness.
Right before his eyes, the black miasma separated from Tohka's unconscious body, coalescing into a distinct, physical phantom. A second Tohka materialized, completely enveloped in a shadowy, jagged Astral Dress. Her eyes were cold, hollow, and radiating an aura of absolute despair that chilled the surrounding air.
Ren frowned, his mind racing. In the original timeline, Beast Tohka was born from the ultimate despair of witnessing Shido Itsuka's death. But in this world, Shido Itsuka and Shinji Takamiya didn't even exist.
He immediately tapped into his administrative authority to investigate the exact trigger for this anomaly.
When the truth flowed into his mind, he froze, utterly stunned.
Her birth was... ridiculous.
It happened simply because Tohka had experienced a nightmare a little while ago. While sleeping in the pile, she had dreamt that Ren disappeared.
That was it. That single, fleeting nightmare of losing him was enough to trigger a full-blown Beastification.
"This is really..." Ren rubbed his temples, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
It was glaringly obvious that Tohka's emotional dependence on him had reached an absurd, almost terrifying extreme. Just a bad dream was enough to spawn an apocalyptic Beast form.
This newly separated Beast Tohka was an illusory Spirit born entirely from a nightmare, somewhat similar to the initial existences of Mayuri and Rinne Sonogami.
After a brief moment of standing there in cold, hollow confusion, Beast Tohka slowly raised her head. Her vacant eyes locked onto Ren's figure.
Instantly, her entire frame trembled. The suffocating despair in her aura violently fluctuated, shattering her cold facade.
"Ren-kun..."
A black blur flashed across the room.
Before Ren could even brace himself, Beast Tohka had already thrown herself into his arms, burying her face into his chest. The oppressive aura of despair rapidly melted away, and the sharp, jagged blades of her dark Astral Dress softened, dissolving into harmless shadows.
Yet, despite the fierce hug, a lingering trace of sorrow and fear still clung to her trembling shoulders.
"Sigh. I really am a walking disaster, aren't I?" Ren murmured softly, wrapping his arms around her and gently stroking her dark hair.
He pressed a reassuring kiss to the top of her head. "Since you were born from a nightmare, then let me turn that nightmare into a beautiful dream, Tohka."
After all, his miraculous medicine could cure all illnesses. Curing a nightmare should be child's play.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]