Crossover Anime: The King of Time? Actually, He's a Slacker!

As soon as Lin Shiye landed, three pitch-black tentacles tore through the air, piercing straight into his back with a sharp, piercing shriek.

"I like this welcoming ceremony." He dodged the tentacles by sidestepping their edge, then used his foot to close the distance instantly, kicking the shadowy figure hard in the chest with the force of a whirlwind.

"Behave yourself!"

The dark figure flew backward like a sandbag struck by a heavy hammer, crashing through three layers of walls, sending up clouds of rubble and dust.

Just as Lin Shiye was about to take a step to catch up, a woman's voice, both surprised and delighted, suddenly came from around the corner.

"Nighttime?!"

He turned his head and saw Ning Meng peeking out from behind the wall, her eyes wide open. After confirming it was him, she immediately jumped out.

"Wow, it really is you!"

"Are you here to deal with this dark figure?"

"What are you doing here?" Lin Shiye raised an eyebrow. Because the power of calamity was with Ning Meng, and with Rin Tohsaka's explanation, he knew that the other person would wander around in other people's dreams, saving those who were persecuted by the shadows.

But... with so many people dreaming, how did you find this place so accurately?

Seemingly noticing his confusion, Ning Meng struck a cool pose.

"Today, my persona remains that of a superhero who saves others' beautiful dreams!"

"Where evil exists, I will be there!"

In human terms, pure luck.

As the two were talking, the shadowy figure, having recovered, pounced again, several tentacles swarming towards them like venomous snakes. Lin Shiye casually deflected them, and Ning Meng darted back to the corner of the wall, peering out and shouting.

"Go for it, Shi Ye! You're the best!"

"Aren't you the superhero who saves dreams?" Lin Shiye teased as he dodged the lashing tentacles.

"What are you hiding for? Come on up and take it down!"

"Actually, I also work part-time as a cheerleader~" Ning Meng waved her hand.

"Shi Ye, you are the true hero!"

"I really can't do anything with you." Lin Shiye forced the shadowy figure back again, then abandoned his playful thoughts and a large gold belt appeared around his waist.

But suddenly...

"You're too naive, I was young."

"If you continue to treat life like a game, one day something will happen that you'll regret."

Old Shi Ye's words suddenly echoed in his mind. Lin Shi Ye was stunned for a moment. He looked at the black shadow in front of him that had grown a face exactly like Ying's, sighed, and put away the big gold belt.

"Hmm... let's use a slightly gentler method." Lin Shiye took out a watch face with his other hand, turned it upside down, and then slung a belt across his chest.

"Order"

A powerful melody began to play.

No car, no house~ ୧〃•̀ꇴ•〃૭

No car, no house~ ✌︎˶╹ꇴ╹˶✌︎

No car, no house～೭(˵ˉꇴˉ˵)౨

"Unraveling the mystery"

"Knight ZZZ!"

Covered in silver-green armor, the figure of Kamen Rider ZZZ appeared before him. The shadowy figure felt an unprecedented deadly threat and finally stopped holding back, unleashing all its power.

A surge of almost tangible magic erupted into the sky, causing the entire dream world to collapse instantly.

The earth beneath their feet shattered into countless pieces, rapidly rotating in different directions; thick clouds unleashed twisted purple lightning, weaving a net of electricity in mid-air; surrounding skyscrapers contorted and deformed like twisted ropes, shards of glass and steel raining down like a torrential downpour. Heaven and earth reversed, the laws of nature were in chaos, and this place had become a complete hell on earth.

"Ahhhhh—!" Ning Meng clung tightly to a protruding steel bar, dangling in mid-air and swaying back and forth, almost crying in fright.

So this is its true power? Then how come she was able to save so many people from it before? Was it because this thing wasn't hungry at all and was just toying with her?

"Have you made enough of a scene?" Lin Shiye simply raised his hand slightly.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no deafening roar. It was as if the world had been turned back on time; all the shattered stones returned to the earth, the twisted buildings were restored to their original state, the raging lightning dissipated into the clouds, and the dizzying world returned to calm in an instant.

Ning Meng didn't react for a moment, and sat down on the ground with a thud, her eyes looking confused.

The shadowy figure froze completely. It could control all the laws of this dream, yet with a casual wave of its hand, all its authority was stripped away.

Lin Shiye walked slowly to it, extended his right hand, and gently placed his palm on its face, which was exactly the same as Ying's.

The pale blue energy seeped into the shadowy body like gentle tides. He originally only intended to purify the spiritual energy it had consumed before slowly severing its connection with Sakura.

But the next second, Lin Shiye's brows furrowed sharply.

No, that's not right. Contrary to his expectations, this thing isn't consuming spiritual energy at all. Instead, it's consuming something much heavier, more viscous, and carrying the warmth of the very essence of life—the soul.

Hundreds of fragmented souls, like moths trapped in a spiderweb, were confined deep within the heart of the shadow. Their consciousness was blurred, with only the most primal instinct for survival pulsating weakly in the darkness.

Lin Shiye continued to delve deeper with his spiritual power and suddenly touched several thin, almost imperceptible transparent threads.

These threads were welded firmly to the core of the shadowy figure at one end, and connected to each of the trapped souls at the other. The thickest and strongest of them all pierced straight through the barrier of the dream and extended into the real world.

That is the soul of Matou Sakura.

Causal binding.

Lin Shiye's heart sank suddenly.

This was no ordinary consumption; the shadowy figure had completely bound its existence to the souls of all its victims. It was a parasite, and also its sole anchor. Once it was forcibly destroyed, all the souls bound to it would instantly disintegrate.

If he had used the power of the Oma Zi-O to ignore the risks and violently dismantle the package, there would have been no way to save it.

Unless you reopen it.

Is it sweat?

This suffocating feeling, like being coiled by a python, is it because I'm drenched in sweat?

...No, the pressure was overwhelming; it was just raining.

I knew that such underhanded tricks couldn't possibly make me sweat.

Lin Shiye looked at the rain falling from the sky and sighed.

It's true that with the Demon King's Blessing, I've lost all sense of reason. It's time to turn off auto-battle and switch to manual control.

With this in mind, Lin Shiye kept the shadow in place and began to carefully and slowly pull it away. Besides Sakura, there were probably hundreds of other souls involved. It was a delicate task.

Ning Meng was perched on the wall not far away, and she wanted to shout a few words of encouragement, but when she saw the unprecedentedly serious expression on Lin Shiye's face, she swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue.

She covered her mouth and squatted there quietly, not daring to even breathe.

Time passed by, second by second.

Lin Shiye's entire attention was focused on the silk threads at his fingertips, and his perception of the outside world was minimized. He didn't even notice that a dark figure, like a venomous snake blending into the shadows, had silently appeared behind Ning Meng.

Just as Ning Meng felt a cold wind blow against her back, she was struck hard on the back of the neck. Without even uttering a sound, her vision went black, and she collapsed limply to the ground.

The mysterious figure, carrying a long, gleaming sword, moved with the lightness of a cat, slowly approaching Lin Shiye's back. A strange black energy swirled around the blade, seemingly capable of severing time itself.

He timed it perfectly.

Just as Lin Shiye finished cutting a soul thread, and a brief gap appeared in his mental energy—

Pfft!

The sharp blade pierced Lin Shiye's chest without any resistance, the tip of the blade protruding from his chest and dripping black venom.

Time seemed to stand still around us.

Lin Shiye froze on the spot, his silver-blue armor instantly crumbling. A strange, black cursed power, like a leech, surged wildly into his body.

"Ugh—!"

He let out a suppressed cry of pain, his body went limp and he fell forward, crashing onto the cold ground.

"Hahaha!" The mysterious man withdrew his long sword and laughed wildly.

"You fell for it so easily! You're still just a little brat!"

"I'll accept the power of Kamen Rider without hesitation!"

He reached out to remove the belt from Lin Shiye's chest, but was shocked to find that the body lying on the ground had turned into specks of silver ash, which dissipated in the rain with the wind.

"You dreamt that you defeated me?"

A familiar voice sounded behind him, calm and undisturbed.

The mysterious man turned his head sharply and saw Lin Shiye standing unharmed in the rain not far away, still cutting the soul threads in his hand, as if the one who had just been pierced through the chest was just an insignificant phantom.

"How interesting." The mysterious man stroked his chin, his face showing no sign of panic, but rather a smile of great interest.

"Who are you?" Lin Shiye asked without looking up.

"A time-jackal?"

"Haha, so you really do know about the Time Jackers." The man laughed even harder.

"If I said I was, would you be afraid?"

"What a mess." Lin Shiye finally raised his head, glanced at him, and said with disdain.

"A bunch of rats hiding in the gutter, afraid to face the light, all they know how to do is play these backstabbing tricks. What am I afraid of?"

"Hmm, I'm definitely not a time jacker," the man said.

"But are we in a cooperative relationship?"

"In their minds, there was a more than 70% chance you wouldn't find the mines buried here, but it seems they made a mistake."

"So what exactly are you?" Lin Shiye looked him up and down. In his vision, the other party was a ball of pure black nightmare energy condensed into a human shape, with even the specific outline blurred.

"You can think of me as the nightmare of this world," the man said with a smile.

"Does it have a name?"

The man paused for a moment, seemingly surprised by the question, but still answered truthfully:

"No, they usually call me Nightmare."

"Then you'll be called Zig from now on." Lin Shiye stopped what he was doing, and the belt on his chest suddenly upgraded.

"Why?" the man asked, puzzled.

"Because it'll be easier to fight this way." Lin Shiye grinned.

"EXDREAMRISE CAPSEM"

(Dreams can overcome nightmares)

"FULL RISE!!!"