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Nightmare Fuel / Delicious in Dungeon

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Spoilers are unmarked.


  • Chapter 12:
    • Living Paintings are paintings that trap people inside it. We even get a treat of Creepy Changing Painting as the portrait of a woman follows the group when they pass by her and then tries to capture them. Although being trapped by them doesn't seem to directly kill you, it's likely that you will die inside the painting: Chilchuck mentions the paintings might eat you once you're in, somehow, and according to Marcille in the extra chapter 14.5, starvation is the main cause of such death, followed by suicide and madness.
  • Chapter 13:
    • For what's essentially just a giant hermit crab in a box, the mimic is friggin' terrifying. Made much worse by the fact Chilchuck gets trapped in a room with the thing.
  • Chapter 14.5:
    • Being trapped in the Living Paintings is a Nightmare Fuel all on its own, but in this extra chapter, Laios has the idea of drawing himself into the painting so he can eat the food inside. His doodle self acquires consciousness inside the painting and seems to believe he is Laios himself having been successfully transported inside the painting... but the real Laios, who drew the doodle, is actually still outside the painting, and cannot see or hear the drawing. The doodle Laios then watches as the real Laios and the group walk away, and is left wondering how long he'll be there, why is he there, and who is he.
  • Chapter 22:
    • At the resurrection center, there's a body that's so badly charred that it's nearly impossible to identify, and it's shown entirely on-page.
    • Namari mentions that if a body is too badly damaged, it will become impossible to resurrect properly. She gives the percentage 1/13, which is a very small amount of the body, so adventures have to be very careful if they want to be revived.
    • Comments from Kiki and Kaka imply that adventurers (at least more experienced ones) have been completely desensitized to the thought of their own deaths, which can make one wonder just how often people die in the dungeons. It's also made parties pretty much dependent on having a good healer, meaning any teams without one are pretty much screwed.
  • Chapter 26:
    • Laios finding his sister's skull is horrific enough in the manga where he holds it up in an Alas, Poor Yorick pose. The anime turns up the horror tenfold by having the episode end on a Shot/Reverse Shot of the skull in Laios hands, and Laios' face seen through the skull's eyeholes.
  • Chapter 32:
    • Kabru's party run into an illusion spell which makes them see each other as enemies. Confused and afraid, they start attacking each other. Imagine killing what you think is a monster only to find you've just cut down your friend.
      • Perhaps worse is that the illusion is not conjured by just some monster, and is actually the work of one of the teams of men who work the upper levels of the dungeon reviving fallen adventurers for coin. Humans Are the Real Monsters indeed.
  • Chapter 34:
  • Chapter 37:
    • This is the first time we get a good look at Falin after being kidnapped by the Lunatic Magician ...and she's been mutated into a monstrous, dragon chimera. She's also completely under the Magician's control and attacks Team Touden and Kabru and Shuro's parties without mercy.
  • Chapter 42:
    • A near-literal example when Marcille is attacked by nightmares: monsters that feed on fear by trapping a person in a dream and forcing them to relive their worst memories and fears.
    • Also, in this chapter, once Laios enters her dream and tries to help her, he gets hit by the wyrm that's been chasing Marcille. Half his face melts off, and he's stuck running around like that. Then, he gets hit with Rapid Aging. Thankfully, Laios goes back to normal once Marcille's nightmare is over, but yeesh...
  • Chapter 56:
    • After the fight with the Bicorn, Marcille rushes over to see Chilchuck, and what she sees isn't pretty; not only is he bleeding from the head where he fell, his hand and wrist are hanging off the rest of his arm with blood spewing out.
    • The Bicorn sports a creepy Slasher Smile right before it attacks, unsettlingly reminiscent of the Rape Horse.
  • Chapter 59:
    • The omake regarding the Succubus is more serious than usual, with Chilchuck recounting his first dungeon experience, in which he looks even younger than usual and was actually hired on to be fed to succubi so their secretions could be harvested by more experienced adventurers. No wonder he's cynical and formed a half-foots union.
  • Chapter 62:
    • Mithrun's story leaves us with a lot of unsettling implications about the dungeon, the Winged Lion, and the setting in general, but nothing compares to its horrifying climax. Mithrun, weakened and bedridden, can only watch as the now-gigantic goat demon appears before him, forces its mouth into his chest, and begins to devour his soul. It gouges out his eye just holding him down as he meekly begs for it to stop, all to no avail. By the time the rest of the Canaries find him, he's nothing but a half-dead Empty Shell.
  • Chapter 64:
    • Laios is in search of dungeon rabbits to make a meal and expects them to be gigantic warriors. He's slightly disappointed to find they're relatively normal sized rabbits, but then one jumps up, and lightly kicks off against his neck. We're then treated to the lovely reveal that they're incredibly strong as his throat has been crushed and his mouth is full of blood. Not only are they strong, they have bladed joints.
  • Chapter 65:
    • In no time at all, the rabbits kill Senshi and Chilchuck, with Marcille only surviving due to wearing Laios' neck guard.
    • Marcille resorts to reanimating the corpses of her dead friends to get close enough to the rabbits without having to kill them (or having them kill her).
    • The malicious, predatory expression on the Winged Lion's face once Marcille confides her wish of having every race's lifespan be the same to eliminate barriers between them and it praises the strength and scope of her desires. It seems it might not be any different from the goat demon that Mithrun has sworn revenge on after all.
  • Chapter 67:
    • Laios mercy killing Chimera Falyn via strangulation is as messy as it sounds. Farlyn is thrashing relentlessly, digging her fingers into Laios' arm deep enough to draw blood and slamming him into the walls, all while looking utterly terrified as she dies of asphyxiation. Marcille is unable to watch and has to look away.
  • Chapter 69:
    • While it's darkly funny seeing the recipe annotation show up for each member of the party while they get wiped by Thistle's dragons, as well as Chilchuck's expression upon death, all of them save for Laios are still dying in terrible ways: Senshi gets baked alive when he tries to escape by crawling under an inverted pot, Izutsumi drowns in the washbasin, Chilchuck freezes to death in a matter of seconds, and Marcille inhales poison gas, causing her to cough up and cry blood before keeling over.
  • Chapter 70:
    • Laios Nightmare Face upon accosting Thistle, having run through poison gas and having to get out of a giant explosion's way. His eyes are crying some blood, he's bruised and battered, and he's got a exhausted glare. It's good that he didn't have any violent intentions upon subduing the Lunatic Magician.
  • Chapter 72:
    • The Winged Lion shows its true demonic nature when it slowly devours Thistle's desires in a twisted parallel to the way the protagonists savored meals throughout the series. The aftermath isn't pretty either - bereft of all desire, Thistle is reduced to an Empty Shell.
      • Even more chilling when you remember the vast majority of titles for chapters are things that become food. It's been foreshadowed all along by the last five chapters being called "Thistle".
  • Chapter 74:
    • So... Marcille has released the Winged Lion. Which has already grown much larger and stronger from eating Thistle.
  • Chapter 82:
    • This chapter is unique, as it features none of the known cast and is only ten pages, but what a ten pages. It is focused on everyone on the surface losing their shit, with the elves and dwarves declaring the end of the world as the Winged Lion through Marcille is emerging from the dungeon. From a gaping mouth in the island comes a skyfish larger than any dragon.
  • Chapter 83:
    • Marcille is still hesitant about confronting others to reach the surface, even after the Lion gives her an Evil Costume Switch, so the Lion bends down and gives her a kiss on the head. After a dazed, blank-eyed couple of moments Marcille realizes she's not scared anymore. As it turns out the Lion ate her desire to resist her other desires.
  • Chapter 88:
    • Despite his best efforts, Laios succumbs to the Winged Lion's temptations. While the rest of the party believes he's defeated the demon, Izutsumi knows better and immediately kills Laios by decapitating him, just like they agreed upon. Unfortunately, it's to no avail — the possessed Laios picks his own head up and reattaches it.
  • Chapter 91:
    • Laios in his new monster body attempts to stop the Winged Lion possessing his old body by eating him. The Lion reacts by cloning himself and overwhelming the beast, eventually culminating in hundreds of Laioses cutting him open and eating their way through like parasites. Laios comes horribly close to a severe Death by Irony: dying at the hands of a version of himself who wants to know what he tastes like.
    • No matter how horrible its actions, the Winged Lion has always been entirely amiable in personality. Even after having its appetite consumed, it seems willing to accept its defeat and fade away peacefully. Then Laios just has to open his big mouth by insisting the Lion is better off this way really, and for the first and only time, we see the demon well and truely pissed. Its last act is to grab Laios with seething rage and lay a Dying Curse upon him.

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