Make Them Love Me Or They'll End The World-Chapter 144: The Dream

After saying goodnight to Tenka, Kentaro's wave of tiredness struck him like a hammer. It was so overwhelming he barely had time to breathe, let alone think. His body sank into the mattress, every bone and muscle demanding rest.

"This is weird… Why am I so tir-" Kentaro's murmur trailed off, unfinished, swallowed by the darkness of unconsciousness before the sentence could escape his lips.

Silence.

Not the silence of a quiet room, but the suffocating, oppressive silence of a place where even the concept of sound had been erased.

Kentaro's world went dark. That was normal; dreams always began in darkness, but something was wrong. Normally, the dark would shift into light, into scenes, into landscapes. Tonight, only a faint, choking purple aura pulsed like veins across the abyss.

When Kentaro opened his eyes, he wasn't lying in bed. He was floating. Suspended in a space with no floor, no ceiling, no walls, only emptiness stretching forever. His clothes were gone. His body felt weightless, as though air itself refused to hold him up, yet some invisible current kept him adrift.

"What the…" His own voice echoed back to him, distorted, like it didn't belong to him.

He raised his hands. Pale under the dim purple glow, they trembled slightly. No warmth. No heartbeat pulsing beneath the skin.

"Am I… dreaming?" His voice sounded smaller the second time, swallowed almost immediately by the abyss.

He turned, searching for anything, land, walls, doors, but there was nothing. Nothing but endless dark, speckled with faint violet flares that twisted like embers under water.

Then he saw it.

A light.

Distant at first, the size of a candle flame, but alive, pulsing. It was white gold, a defiant sun in the middle of the void, haloed by shifting purple shadows. Inside the glow, he thought he could see the faint shape of… Grass? A field? And at its heart, towering high into the endless ceiling, a single massive tree.

"Maybe… That's the way out," Kentaro whispered. His voice shook, yet his chest pulled him forward. Curiosity burned stronger than fear.

He willed himself toward it, and the void obeyed. His body floated, slow but steady, drifting closer.

The closer he came, the brighter the light grew. Grass sharpened into view, swaying faintly. The tree's roots curled deep into the soil, its branches stretching higher than the sky. The sight was surreal, but something deep in his chest told him he needed to reach it.

"Almost there…" he breathed, reaching out a trembling hand.

Until...

Something touched him.

A hand.

It rested lightly on his shoulder, so soft at first, he thought he imagined it. But then its grip tightened. Too tight. Bone-grinding tight.

"Ngh! Hey! Stop!" Kentaro shouted, twisting.

But when he looked, there was nothing. Nobody, no face, only the pressure of invisible fingers digging into his flesh. His shoulder screamed, yet nothing held him but empty air.

His heart pounded like a war drum. The void pulsed darker.

"That… Wasn't me hallucinating…" He muttered, eyes darting everywhere, trying to pierce the suffocating purple haze.

He turned back toward the light, which was close now, close enough for the brightness to sting his eyes, close enough for him to glimpse the blades of grass at the field's edge, when another hand slammed down on his back.

This one wasn't gentle. It crushed him like a vice, shoving him backwards, flinging him away from the light. He tumbled, spinning through the abyss until the glow shrank back into a distant speck.

"What the hell!" Kentaro roared, clutching at his shoulder as the phantom grip faded.

Breath ragged, he stared at the light. He could feel his pulse in his throat. His mind screamed at him to stop, but his body, his heart, demanded he try again.

"Who's doing this…? Why?!" His voice cracked with both fear and anger. "Why won't you let me see it?!"

No answer. Only silence thick enough to choke on.

Gritting his teeth, Kentaro forced himself forward again, straining against the invisible weight. But the hands were waiting. He couldn't move an inch. Invisible chains wrapped him tight.

"LET GO!" he bellowed, veins straining in his neck. "Why?! What's in the light?!"

And then...

"I can't let you. Not yet."

The words slithered through the void. A woman's voice, soft yet everywhere at once. It wasn't loud, but it filled the abyss, pressing into Kentaro's ears, his chest, his bones.

Kentaro froze. His breath caught.

"That voice…" He muttered, glancing upward, around, anywhere. The sound came from nowhere and everywhere at once.

"It's a girl…?"

For some reason, his chest tightened. He couldn't see her, but the warmth of the voice, the weight of the unseen hands, felt familiar.

"…Are you an Alberline?" Kentaro blurted, the only explanation his mind could reach for.

The silence stretched long enough to hurt. Then the voice returned, velvet and cold.

"If that's what you call us… Then yes."

His blood ran cold.

"What?!" He recoiled, panic sparking in his eyes. "Then why stop me? Why not let me see? What's in the light?!"

"Because it isn't your time," the voice whispered. "Not yet."

The words seeped into him like poison. Not yet. That meant someday. That meant there was truth waiting inside that light, but one too dangerous, or too damning, for him to know now.

Kentaro's jaw tightened. His fists shook. He stared at the distant tree.

"…At least tell me your name," he whispered, almost pleading.

The void inhaled. The air stilled. The world itself seemed to hold its breath.

Finally, the voice spoke.

"It's Tenrae."

The name hit him like a knife to the chest. His body locked, every muscle trembling.

"T-Tenrae…? No. That… That can't..."

"Oh?" The voice almost purred. "Do you remember me? That's interesting..."

The temperature dropped. The void's purple haze constricted, wrapping him tighter. Kentaro gasped, his breath visible, white in the freezing air. His heart screamed at him to run, but there was nowhere to go.

"No, wait, don't do anything!" Kentaro stammered, words tumbling over each other. "It was… Weeks ago. A girl, an Alberline, caused a Fracture Bloom. I went inside to save her… to bring her back. And in her dream… She had a friend. A friend named Tenrae. The one who gave her power… And her curse. That was you, wasn't it?"

The silence lingered just long enough for Kentaro's chest to seize.

"I see," the voice finally said, softer now, unreadable. "Then you've seen more than you should. That truth… You must lock it away. Do not speak of it to anyone else."

Kentaro swallowed hard. His throat was dry, his lips cracked. Sweat stung as it slid down his neck.

"…Alright. I won't. I promise," he muttered, voice cracking under the weight of the demand.

"Good," the voice whispered, curling around him like velvet chains. "Then let this remain between us."

Kentaro gave a small smile, though he wasn't sure if Tenrae could see it, and swallowed nervously. "How do you know me? The way you're talking… It's like you, like you know me too well," he said softly.

A pause. Then, barely audible, so fragile it almost fractured in the air:

"I've always known you, Kentaro… And I will always. Because I love you.

His eyes widened. His chest collapsed in on itself. But before he could answer, the light flared. The void quaked. His vision snapped.

"Human, wake up!"

"Ken, please, wake up!"

"Kentaro, you'll be late!"

Three voices. Familiar, overlapping, dragging him back from the abyss.

Kentaro's eyelids fluttered. His body felt like stone, pinned to the mattress, every breath shallow and reluctant. A groan rattled in his throat as he forced his right hand up to scrub at his eyes. The left refused to obey, trapped beneath something warm, soft, and unyielding.

Blinking against the haze, his vision sharpened by degrees. Shapes swam into focus.

Yura hovered above him, arms crossed, her sharp eyes narrowed with irritation.

Serica, beside her, looked pale, her lips parted as if she wanted to say something but couldn't.

Aria lingered behind them, her cheeks flushed so red it almost looked painful, gaze darting anywhere but at him.

Their stares pressed down on him.

"What… Why are you looking at me like that?" Kentaro muttered hoarsely, voice thick with sleep.

None answered. Only Yura gave a sharp scoff, her tone laced with venom.

"How ignorant. He doesn't even realise when a girl clings to him like that."

Confused, Kentaro turned his head and froze.

Tenka.

She was curled against him; her hand coiled tightly around his arm as though afraid he'd vanish if she let go. Her breathing was steady, lashes resting on her cheeks, her face deceptively peaceful in sleep.

But then he saw it.

Her ring.

The faint glow pulsed against his skin, brushing his senses like static, an ominous, unnatural purple, identical to the suffocating void he had just escaped.

Kentaro's breath caught in his chest. His heart hammered, and a shiver ran down his spine. The memory of that endless abyss, the hands pulling him back, the voice that whispered his name, it all bled into the sight of that glow.

"Not yet…"

The words echoed in his head unbidden, his pulse quickening.

And then, as if to drive the nail deeper, Tenka stirred in her sleep. Her grip on his arm tightened almost possessively. Her lips parted, releasing a sound closer to a sigh than a word, low, fragile, but enough to send ice through his veins.

"…Mine…"

Kentaro's blood ran cold...