Seraphim is a Bystander

Type 1: Sleeping in a bad position

 
The books, usually neatly lined up on the shelves, were now flying through the air with the overwhelming mass of a tsunami. In the sky (?), explosions of astronomical scale—like those I’d seen in space documentaries—were occurring and then getting sucked into a black void. The usually tranquil, unbroken surface of the water that stretched to the horizon was now twisting like a giant serpent, creating raging torrents.
    “……zzz”

And at the center of it all, Seras sat peacefully in a rocking chair, gently breathing in her sleep.
...What the hell is this hellscape?
Faced with a scene that might be even worse than a dragon disaster if it were happening in the real world, my brain instinctively tried to escape into memories from just a moment ago, to understand how things came to this.

It had only been about a minute in real time—or at least that’s how it felt. A little while ago, I had been thinking “Maybe I can meet Seras in a dream,” and, after dinner and a bath in this unfamiliar body, I got into bed a little earlier than usual.
Then… this scene unfolded before my eyes.
…It made so little sense that it didn’t even help me escape from reality.

No—thinking too hard won’t help. Right now, I need to focus on Seras. I’ve managed to meet her directly, so I need to wake her up. Who knows when I’ll get another chance like this? I need to somehow get to her... but can I even get close?
Before me, the waves of flying books and water-serpent torrents continued rampaging, with massive explosions lighting up the sky.
    “Whoa! …Whoa there!”

I barely dodged a direct avalanche of books by leaping to the side. Yeah… getting close to Seras is going to be tough with all these lethal attractions flying at me from every direction.
    “Phew… alright!”
I took a deep breath and steeled myself. I shifted my mindset into battle mode and reassessed the situation. It looked impenetrable, but the chaos wasn’t entirely random—there were gaps in the movement.

I tensed my legs and sprinted forward, running along the sides of the book tsunami and serpent torrents that circled Seras.
As I ran, I noticed something: I wasn’t in Seras’s body anymore—I was back in my original male body. The speed I had shown in P.E. class would usually require full-on ability-enhanced leg strength, but this kind of obstacle course? I could manage.
    “Up! Hup! Ugh—?!”

Jumping and dodging one after another, I was suddenly struck by an upward surge of water, launching me into the air. Even though it was a dream, the pressure and pain were very real. Glancing back, I realized I was getting dangerously close to being caught in one of the sky explosions.
    “This is bad…!”
Even though it’s just a dream, dying here in some weird way might not end well! Usually, dying in a dream would just mean waking up in a panic, but this place is far from normal… and if I wake up now, who knows when I’ll get another chance to meet Seras?
    “Ghh…! Hah!!”

I thrust out my hand and converted my ability into fire, blasting it with all I had. The flame burst at a right angle from the direction of the serpent, pushing my body out of its grasp and into free fall.
    “This… I’ve trained for this!”
I’d once tried to control my fall with fire and ended up crashing into a tree, but I trained afterward! Thanks to that experience, I now had some control.

Looking down, I spotted an open space in the middle of the book tsunami—where Seras °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° was.
    “If I can see it… I can reach it!”
I turned my hands back, aligning myself in a straight line toward Seras, and blasted flames for propulsion. Even in a dream, my body strained under the full-powered burst as I shot forward.

    “…!”
Up ahead, the gap in the torrents was rapidly closing.
    “Grr… It’s just a dream—whatever happens, happens!!”

I redirected all my energy from physical enhancement into fire to maximize thrust, pushing my speed even higher. As Seras and the wall of books loomed ahead, I forced myself not to flinch and charged straight in.
    “……!!!”
A thought hit me—I angled my hands slightly and started spinning my body. At this insane speed, I was spraying fire like a pinwheel, turning myself into a drill or meteor barreling into the gap in the books.

    “Sorry if I damage any of your books!!”
In an instant, I closed the distance—and just as my spinning vision was filled with something directly in front of me, an immense impact reverberated through me.