Chapter 103: Nightmares and Monsters

Chapter 103: Nightmare and Monster

Aether thought they were going to kill him in the chaos and braced to fight back, but the dwarven girl grabbed him by the collar and yanked. The very next second, a torrent of flame erupted from her palm, and the two of them shot out the door together, flying toward the ground, leaving the black mist behind.

Aether never in his life imagined a dwarf would carry him through the air, but there it was, happening anyway...

Lyman dissolved into shadow and followed Tove up to the surface. Dorian's desperate shrieking hit his ear: "Aaaah! There's a monster here, somebody save me! Bloom! Bloom! Bloom!"

Lyman pictured Dorian screaming and hurling petals at the feathered monster, and wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

Speaking in Xiaoqi's voice, he gave orders to Dorian, Sylen, and Sylvira: "The Waking Nightmare has been summoned! Lure the feathered monster over here and let those two tear each other apart!"

They reached the surface. They'd barely left the study when an explosive boom sounded behind them. The Waking Nightmare oozed out of the doorway like a swelling mass of sludge, and the whole building crumbled under its crushing weight.

Tove dropped Aether onto a nearby street, then launched herself back into the air on a jet of flame. She hurled fireball after fireball at the Waking Nightmare to draw its attention.

Lyman floated beside the dwarven girl. He pulled out the Celestial Totem and summoned a thunderstorm, then dove at the Waking Nightmare like a black arrow, slicing off one of its screaming faces in a single stroke before pulling back fast, drawing the Waking Nightmare toward the mountain alongside Tove.

Meanwhile, the governor's mansion had turned into a bloody slaughterhouse. The impeccably dressed nobles and rich elites were now mangled corpses. The feathered monster clamped its jaws around Governor Bivar, bit through his waist with one crunch, then tilted its head back and gulped down half his body.

As if fueled by the meal, the monster's body kept swelling. In the third cycle it had only been bear-sized, but now it loomed like a moving mountain.

A few servants and guests who were quick enough had fled the mansion. Sylen sprinted downhill, hauling a literary scholar way taller than him. Dorian's hands were still producing an endless stream of petals.

Sylvira kept firing arrows at the feathered monster, baiting it down the mountain.

An arrow hit the feathered monster square in the chest. It let out a furious roar, snapped the arrow's shaft with its claws, then snatched a corpse off the ground and swallowed it whole without chewing.

A wet, squelching sound of flesh writhing came from its back. The feathered monster's back suddenly bulged, and a pair of blood-soaked wings ripped through skin and muscle.

The wings beat, hoisting the feathered monster's body into the sky.

Once airborne, the feathered monster moved far faster than any human. It quickly caught up to the fleeing people and gulped down a servant in one go. Its eyes, burning with madness and rage, locked onto the merman youth sprinting ahead with a man slung over his shoulder.

Instinct told it those two carried greater power! Devour them, and it would get even stronger!

It shrieked and dove. But just as it was about to reach the merman youth, a gale slammed in from behind. The wind condensed into blades, slashing a bloody gash across the feathered monster's body.

An old woman in white robes came riding the wind. Her left hand held a young girl also dressed in white, while her right palm gathered a fast-spinning orb of wind.

Sylen was still running, so he couldn't see what was behind him. But Dorian, slung over his shoulder, could look up and see the feathered monster squaring off against the wind-riding old woman.

"Ah! That must be Wind Granny and Little Bird, the ones Mr. Shadow mentioned!" he exclaimed in delight. "So they really are on our side, not against us!"

Wind Granny hurled the wind orb at the feathered monster, luring it down the mountain. The feathered monster had completely forgotten the people running on the ground—now it only wanted to tear apart the flying old woman and little girl!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The deafening explosions jolted the whole island of Ninoville awake. From the docks to the hillsides, from the lower-city slums to the upper-city noble estates, everyone rushed out of their homes, staring at the sky in terror.

A column of black mist rose from the church, churning with countless screaming faces inside. It was the kind of monster that only existed in nightmares.

At the same time, from the direction of the governor's mansion, a creature like a giant four-legged bird came flying toward them, lurching unevenly through the air.

Storm clouds churned overhead, lightning flashing. Amid the flashing bolts, the black mist and the feathered monster slammed into each other.

With every flash of lightning, in that brief daylight-bright glow, people could see the two monsters tearing at each other. The feathered monster shredded the screaming faces in the mist, while more screaming faces grabbed onto its wings from behind.

Blood rain mixed with severed feathers painted the ground red. A tremendous crash rang out as the feathered monster's wings got completely shredded. It plummeted headfirst, slamming hard into the forest.

But the Waking Nightmare didn't fare any better. It was now just a thin wisp of black mist, its screaming faces gone translucent, and faintly visible at the center floated some kind of crystalline entity.

"Lyman! Now!"

Lunast's voice blasted through Lyman's mind.

"Destroy the Waking Nightmare's core, and you can send it back to the other realm for good!"

Lyman, high in the sky, saw the crystal in the black mist too. So that was the core?

He gripped the Blade of Revelation, unleashing all the agility stored in the transparent ring.

Countless bolts of lightning rained down from the heavens—twisted pillars of pale blue light like colossal trees connecting earth and sky—accompanied by a world-shattering roar. And between those pillars, a bolt of lightning blacker than night itself, trailing a crimson comet's tail like a herald of divine thunder from myth, plunged into the black mist.

Screaming faces lunged at Lyman, trying to cut him off from the core.

One face opened a maw like a black hole and bit into Lyman's arm—only to get blasted apart by a fireball out of nowhere.

Another face blocked Lyman's path, and in the blink of an eye, a wind blade tore it apart.

Then there were the pinpoint arrows, and the petals that were useless but at least pretty to look at...

Lyman broke through obstacle after obstacle. Despite his companions' help, his body was covered in countless wounds.

A light rose from the Divine Casket, condensing into the shape of the hourglass pendant. The silver serpent coiled around it writhed, and the sand rose up, vanishing into the void.

Lyman's wounds began to heal. But he realized this wasn't healing—his time was reversing, rewinding to the moment before he'd been hurt!

The core was right before him!

It was a black crystal with countless smooth facets. It had a strange magic: one glance revealed all its faces at once.

The crimson tip of the Blade of Revelation pressed against the core. Just a little more—one inch would do—and Lyman could shatter it!

The sand in the hourglass ran out.

The screaming faces burst into shrill laughter at that moment. They knew this Shadow Transcendent had no power left to recover. And he couldn't advance a single inch!

Someone grabbed Lyman's wrist.

It was a hand—just a hand, severed and alone. The disembodied hand gripped Lyman's and drove the Blade of Revelation forward.

The crystal shattered silently.

It scattered into a thousand fragments drifting on the wind, each one reflecting a human face.

Lyman saw the Pirate Lord in his youth, full of swagger and ambition. Saw him leading his crew across wind and wave, risking everything for treasure. Saw him pushing open his front door, only to find a wrecked home and a crippled girl. Saw him holding the girl, kneeling before a beggar whose body had mutated, bowing his proud head. Saw him digging a small grave. Saw him confessing under the Sun Emblem.

All the arrogance, wildness, greed, regret, grievance, resentment, anger, and fear coalesced into a beautiful dream of family basking in sunlight—then twisted into a terrible nightmare of falling alone into the abyss.

That nightmare traveled from the world of dreams, through the cracks of human nature, into the waking world.

Now the dream had shattered. Beautiful or terrible, it all faded away in thunder, flame, wind, and night.

*

Sylen set Dorian down on the ground. They stood shoulder to shoulder with Sylvira, while Tove hovered above them, held up by flames.

They watched the black mist slowly disperse and the countless fragments drift away on the wind, crumbling to dust. For a long time, none of them could speak.

Finally, Dorian was the first to break the silence: "What a sight! My inspiration's overflowing—I've got new ideas for the script. And I should write a poem!"

He happily conjured petals of all kinds to show how delighted he was.

"So, the Waking Nightmare's been taken care of?" Tove asked.

"I guess so," Sylvira said.

"And what about that feathered monster?"

Everyone turned to look at the forest. They all heard a low growl as the feathered monster dragged its wounded body out from the fallen trees, using its claws.

Sylen and Sylvira drew their weapons, while Tove conjured a ball of fire in her palm. Dorian frowned and moved to shield the others behind him.

Just then, two white figures appeared above them. An old woman and a young girl came riding the wind, like an old white bird and a young one.

"Everyone, please lower your weapons," Wind Granny said.

She then turned to the girl and patted her back: "Alright, it's weak now. It's time. Go on."

"Mm!" Little Bird nodded firmly and let go of Wind Granny's hand.

She flew toward the feathered monster, which raised its blood-soaked head and stared at her, half confused, half terrified.

Little Bird dove down and bit the feathered monster's throat!

As the others watched in astonishment, the feathered monster's body began to shrink. Feathers fell off one by one, and its wings withered and shriveled. Soon, it transformed into a young man covered in wounds—presumably his original form before he became an experiment.

At the same time, Little Bird's body started to change. She grew a sharp beak, and feathers sprouted from under her skin like tender shoots pushing through soil. Unlike the feathered monster's filthy, ragged plumage, her feathers were clean and pure white, each one gleaming like a diamond.

She became a massive, graceful white bird.

Only her innocent, childlike eyes stayed the same. She flew toward Wind Granny, trying to link arms with her like she used to, but Wind Granny got knocked off balance.

"Wind Granny, I'm so tired and sleepy," the white bird said with a yawn.

"Then go to sleep, Little Bird," Wind Granny said gently. "There are no more nightmares on this island. You can sleep well. Kids need lots of sleep to grow up big and strong."

"Mm! Good night, Wind Granny!"

With that, the white bird spread its wings and flew toward the tall tower on the mountain peak. It slipped into the spire and disappeared.

Wind Granny landed lightly. Even though she was a white-haired, stooped old woman, she moved through the wind with remarkable agility.

Meanwhile, Lyman flew over from where the black mist had shattered and landed in front of Sylen and the others.

Seeing that Mr. Shadow was safe, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The old woman in white bowed to the superhuman dressed in black.

"Thank you all. Thanks to you, the crisis on this island is over. On behalf of every living thing here and the god I serve, I'm grateful for everything you've done."

Lyman raised his hand, signaling the old woman not to bother with formalities. He'd also seen from the air Little Bird transform into a white bird and fly toward the tower.

"Skip the pleasantries. Right now, I just want to know what part you played in all this."