Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

Natasha was currently suffocating.

She felt like the entire weight of the world was being put on her very shoulders. The pressure kept mounting, building up higher and higher, and there was quite literally nothing she could do to get out of this situation.

As she was dreaming, wandering in the world of dreams.

In the depth of a dark sea, seemingly without an end in sight— a deep and horrid abyss that went on forever as she slowly sank deeper and deeper into the void of nothingness and desolation.

Slowly, ever so, her distorted mind chased toward the unexplored parts of her inner world. Her damaged psyche was trying to flee from the reality of her situation and the darkness that was surrounding her from all sides.

The world of dreams was truly a wonderful place.

Waking up from her deep slumber, Natasha found herself wearing her usual clothes— a pair of jeans and a loose sky-blue colored shirt; her go-to casual attire when she would go to the university or go out with her friends.

As funny as this might be for some people, for Natasha Antonovna Nikitina, the university was her escape ground— the place she would go to free herself from the reality of her life. In this place, she was not Natasha the Silver Princess, nor was she the future Alpha with all the expectations of their noble household weighing down on her shoulders at every passing moment of her unbearable existence.

She was not the one hosting the blood of some world-ending monster inside her— a ticking time bomb.

She was just Natasha. Natasha, the honor student. A 20+ years old girl going to school, having fun with her friends, studying, and sometimes acing her test to the frustration of her lovely quorum of friends.

In this world, she was just a normal girl. Well, a slightly rich type of normal girl. One who had the luck of falling in love and dating a wonderful boyfriend that she loved to death.

Things that people considered normal. Things that people took for granted.

For her— those very same things were special, precious, and utterly irreplaceable. They occupied a place in her heart that was in a way even beyond her own family. The people she often thought to be dearest to her heart.

A normal life. It was a life of dreams for a girl named Natasha.

"So, Natasha, what do you plan on doing after this?"

Natasha sat down with Sae, her bosom friend. The two of them were joking around about their relationship. In her dream, Sae was going out with Steven while she went out with Adam. They were having the time of their lives with their loving boyfriends.

"I don't know. I want to call Adam. I wonder if he is free at the moment?"

"Oh… Haha…"

She looked at her blankly for a while before smiling an impish smile, the trademark smile when she thought of something scandalous, The light in her eyes had completely changed and she stood up to observe their surroundings for a moment.

In the end, she looked down at her chest and weighted her breasts slightly before chortling to herself,

"I must say. I didn't think that even in your dream world you are doing your best to lower the size of my babies or should I call them big babies, I wonder?"

"Huh?"

Natasha looked blankly at the way Sae was acting right now.

"Sae?"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess in your dream I am more demure and less outspoken than I normally am. Pfft. But truly, you are throwing me to Steven to keep Adam all to yourself, huh? I guess my incredibly short absence somehow helped you guys become quite close to each other, huh?"

Sae ignored her gawking friend, who had no idea what in hell she was spouting, and started walking around and stretching her still voluptuous body ever so slightly. In the end, after she nodded to herself, she snapped her fingers and her appearance slowly changed.

Her breasts became slightly larger than before, far more eye-catching for sure, and her clothes became far more revealing than anything Natasha could ever conjure for the life of her. Her once demure clothing… now transformed into a one-piece black dress that barely went past her perky bubble butt and revealed the upper part of her breasts as well. All of her sex appeal was thrown on full display for the world to gawk and leer at.

At the same time, two slightly curved horns appeared on her forehead and two large demonic wings sprouted out of her back.

"Heh. I feel way more comfortable in this state."

By then, Natasha had stood up and distanced herself from Sae. Her eyes were darting everywhere with clear shock and definite apprehension in her restless and confused pupils.

"Wha— What is happening? Sae? What does this…?"

"Oh come on, already! Don't tell me you are so deeply asleep that you cannot even recognize me now?"

She inched closer and closer to Natasha, who was showing such a frightened face, but stopped her march when she saw the sky slowly becoming red and filled with hostility.

"Huh. So your subconscious is rejecting reality with all its might? Wow, this is something new…"

The impish smile, that seemingly always graced her tiny face, slowly slipped away as she looked at Natasha with clear sadness and melancholy in her purple-hued eyes, "I am sorry. I never noticed you were under so much stress when we were together. Guess, I was a shitty friend after all."

"Sae…?"

"The two of us go a long way, don't we? We have been friends or should I say frienemies(?) for basically three years now. I thought I understood everything about you. But I never realized how far from the truth I had been. I have to say, I am incredibly ashamed of myself."

She chuckled bleakly, sadness reflecting in each and every one of her gestures, "The supernatural world, your identity, your risk of dying. All of this is so overwhelming for you. I feel like I am about to go crazy even though I only entered this world for a few weeks. Well, a few months now if you add my little trip back but it doesn't really matter. What matters is that… Natasha. You need to come back."

Sae looked down at her hand. She had only started learning how to dream walk incredibly recently and this was, in no way, an easy task for her. She had a hard time sustaining herself in this chaotic realm.

"Sigh. I wanted to give my first dream walk experience to Adam. All the funny things we could have done in the world of dreams, there was no end to them. I was already imagining the embarrassed face he would make after waking up and realizing he had a wet dream or something. It would have been quite an interesting sight, don't you think? Sadly, I was unable to enter his dream, and now, I had to come to save you."

She looked around, her eyes twinkling with a renewed light, "Well. I guess I won't be needed too much in here. He already had everything in his hands from the start, that guy. So let me give you a little boost so that things become easier for you."

She waved her hand, a pink mist released alongside the movements of her small hands. As a succubus, she was more specialized in making people dream than actually waking them up from said dream but…

… But in this case, raising Natasha's conscience and awareness while strengthening it ever so slightly was not something hard for her to do.

She could already feel someone with a soul signature close to Natasha's coming closer and closer with each passing second.

"Remember girl. You owe me for this. If a threesome ever happens, I will be the one on the top. Also, tell Adam that I said Hi! We will see each other in the Dreamscape! We will meet really, really soon! Don't forget it, okay?"

She waved her hand one last time before completely dissipating from her place. Her job in this realm was done.

When Sae completely vanished, the world comprising Natasha's mind started to quake tumultuously. It was as if a real earthquake was occurring inside her dream world.

What she had done was use the little bit of the energy she had left to wake up Natasha's dormant mind that was being slowly, but surely, swallowed by the abyss and the weight of Fenrir's hatred and desire for destruction.

Furthermore, she even went out of her way to share some of the information she had been gathering from the upper levels of Natasha's consciousness.

If possible, she would have loved going there herself. But doing so would have made her fight Adam's supremacy inside this domain and while he might be able to notice it was her, the lapse of time could cause irreparable damages to the situation at hand, something that she was never willing to bring or cause.

Either way, she knew that Adam would enter the dreamscape very soon. Though he might be completely out for some time after the stunt he had pulled to save Natasha.

Walking in the world of conscience while ignoring the bubbles and islands floating all around, someone asked her a question in a crawling voice,

"Are you not regretting it? You missed your chances again, didn't you?"

Sae shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly in response.

"I regret nothing. I helped a friend and soon I will see him anyway."

"Heh. You matured. I think I'm about to cry… Waaaeeow~"

Sae ignored the grinning Chesire cat as she walked her way. She had a job to do and a surprise for Adam when he came back to the Dreamscape.

As for Natasha, slowly but surely, her mind started to wake up.

Because of Adam cutting the string.

Because of Sae using her power.

Because of Hugrúnulfr trying to reach for her.

After all of this, how could she not wake up at all from her slumber?

The chains of the abyssal sea started to break and her body slowly came back to the surface.

When Natasha opened her eyes back to the upper levels of her consciousness, she was greeted by someone she would have never thought she would meet.

Herself. n/-01n

But at the same time, someone slightly different.

Where Natasha had golden hair and cerulean-blue eyes.

The one facing her had beautiful silver hair and blood-crimson eyes.

Natasha was worried. Was it her inner wolf? The one she had to fight for supremacy?

She wondered how to start when a shy and gentle voice reached her. It was a childish voice filled with pure awkwardness but unmistakable kindness.

"Hello… My name is Hugrúnulfr. But you can call me Hugr."

This was the start of a new sisterhood. and the embracing of her inner self.