The monster, which was shimmering like starlight and constantly wriggling, launched a fierce attack on Gwen. Its indescribable strange limbs seemed to be able to transform into countless destructive forms. Whether it was sharp claws, huge swords, or even crossbows and tentacles, they could continuously condense from the "starlight amalgamation". This changeable form perhaps hinted at its essence: a product of a dream. It was as indescribable as a nightmare, endless, and always in change.
Gawain, on the other hand, blocked every single one of its attacks, cutting off the new limbs and mimicked weapons time and time again.
"Steel Storm!"
Gawain's blade was activated by magic and turned into countless scorching blades of light. The shockwave swept out from right in front of him. The stone floor and the mutated limbs of the monsters along the way were instantly torn to pieces by the powerful impact. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Gawain immediately jumped up and released the Champion's Slash that he had been charging for a long time. The sharp blade wrapped in white light fell from the sky and slashed at Lilith Kant's body from the air.
Lilith Kant's body was almost torn in half by this blow. But the next second, the lantern emitted a lavender light again. Her torn body was quickly repaired and reassembled in the shining starlight. The crazy woman held the lantern and laughed. "It's useless, hahaha, it's useless! I've merged with the power of the dream. You can't kill a dream! As long as I refuse to wake up, I'll never die! "
Gawain smiled faintly as he casually chopped off a sharp claw that was attacking him from his blind spot. "Is everything possible in dreams? It seems that the doctrine of the Eternal Sleepers has been deeply ingrained in your mind."
"Give up. I admit that you're powerful. No one in this land can defeat you in combat. But no matter how powerful you are, you can't destroy a dream. Similarly, I can't kill you." Lilith Kant's manic expression calmed down in an instant. She looked coldly at Gwen and said faintly, "You can pretend that nothing happened here, and I can promise you that I won't attack your people."
"I can see the madness in your eyes, my lady. The power of the dark artifact has eroded your mind. I won't believe any promise you made while holding the lantern." Gwen once again regrouped and stepped towards Lilith, who was in a semi-merged state with the "starlight amalgamation". "And why should I give up? Haven't you noticed? Your regeneration is getting slower and slower. "
"Huh?" With Gwen's reminder, Lilith Kant finally noticed the changes in her body. She gasped and looked at her enemy in shock and anger. "What have you done?"
"It seems that Knight Philip has found the real 'pillar' that maintains your dream." Gwen raised his sword. "Now, how long can you hold on?"
In the ruins of the stable behind the main building of the castle, Knight Philip smashed the secret door in front of him. With the weakening of the power of the pyrolyte, the doors that were originally indestructible due to the blockade of the dream had now lost their power to protect themselves. With a slash of the sword wrapped in magic, whether it was wood or steel, everything would be torn apart in an instant.
Behind the secret door was a staircase leading underground, and at the end of the staircase was a vast underground space.
Looking at the scene in the underground space, Knight Philip's brows knitted tightly together.
The vast underground hall was dimly lit by the magic crystal lamps. Under the obscure light, square stone pillars were neatly arranged there. Each stone pillar was engraved with countless obscure magic runes and lines. But what really angered the young Knight was not the evil runes on the stone pillars, but the 'things' around the stone pillars.
Rectangular platforms were arranged with the stone pillars as the center, forming a neat structure like a matrix. On each platform, there was a thin, twisted, and shriveled human body. These people were still alive, but they were better off dead. They were lying on a layer of dark brown soft material, and there was some kind of 'biological tissue' like umbilical cord or blood vessels connecting them to the square stone pillars. One end of the biological tissue was submerged in the stone pillars, and the other end was divided into several branches, piercing into the head of each person on the platform.
Those people maintained the operation of the entire dream world under such circumstances. Their brain power was squeezed and drained, and they fell into a continuous dream and could not wake up. Their limbs in the real world would occasionally twitch slightly, and their throats would occasionally let out a low and hoarse murmur, but all of this was just the most basic nerve reflex.
On the ground between the rectangular platforms and the square stone pillars, there were bones everywhere. Those were the exhausted 'firewood', homeless people who had disappeared on this land in the past 30 years and did not belong to Kant's territory.
"What … evil … is this!!"
Philip roared angrily, raised his sword high, and slashed at the stone pillar closest to him.
In the basement of the north tower, the runes on the stone pillars were extinguishing one by one, and the power that maintained the continuous regeneration of the 'starlight amalgamation' was also declining rapidly. Gwen easily cut off every limb of this changeable monster, once again exposing Lilith Kant's body to the outside world. This time, the latter's regeneration had almost completely stopped. Only scattered lavender light floated in the air.
The crazy woman growled, "How did you know … how did you know!"
"Because you asked the butler, Carter, to divert our attention, but accidentally exposed your last secret." Gwen knew that the situation was settled. He could not help but sigh softly. "If I'm not wrong, the butler is probably also a product of the dream. The real Carter should have died many years ago. No one can disappear from Amber's sight, because even the most powerful shadowy master in the world can't do this. He disappeared near the ruins of the stable, which can only mean that it is the 'inner border' of the dream …"
"At the end of the day, you are not a professional nightmare master. Although the Eternal Sleeper allowed you to grasp great power, that power was unleashed with the help of an ancient lantern. As for you yourself … you are just a dabbler."
The expression on Lilith Kant's face became more and more twisted. When she heard Gwen's words, she suddenly grinned. "You reminded me, I still have this lantern … Although it is not complete, but the accumulated energy of this lantern has already … What?!"
She looked down at her hand in astonishment, but the magical lantern had been replaced with an ordinary lantern at some point in time. Amber's figure appeared in the distance at this time, and the lantern was already in her hands at some point.
The half-elf thief proudly shook the lantern in her hand and said presumptuously, "I'm telling you, not being able to pry open your door is the biggest shame of my career! If I can't steal your lantern, I won't work in this business anymore! "
This time, even Gwen had to look at Amber with a surprised and admiring expression. He really did not expect this girl to be able to succeed. How many points did she put in the skill tree of stealing?!
But on the other side, Lilith Kant, who had lost her lantern, strangely calmed down. The amalgamation of starlight behind her gradually dissipated, and another kind of dark shadow gathered under her feet. Looking at Gawain and Amber, the viscountess of Kant suddenly revealed a strange smile. "You think you've won?"
Gwen frowned.
"Our son … is coming home."
Lilith smiled and opened her hands, as if to welcome her son who had traveled far away for many years. Her tone was full of joy and pride. "Belm, my proud child, he has traveled for decades, and he has grown into a real man, a real heir! Today is the day he comes home … Did you hear that? The bell of the carriage is ringing on the stone road outside the castle. He is returning to the place where he was born and raised, as the heir of the Kant family, to inherit the family business and glory … And you, will never be able to stop him from inheriting! "
Gawain instantly tightened his grip on his longsword. He had indeed heard it. He had heard the sound of a horse carriage ringing in his ears. He had heard an inhuman creature born from a nightmare getting off the carriage and walking towards the castle!
This was what the dream that lasted for 30 years really gave birth to. This was the real explanation of the sentence he heard in the memory fragments of the Cult of the Eternal Sleep:
"Those who have passed away will eventually return. Not only will they return in dreams, but they will also return in reality …"
For thirty years, everyone in this land had a "Young Master Belm" who was traveling outside in their hearts. Although he had never appeared in the estate, the letters from other places, the descriptions from the lords, and the rumors from the streets had completely outlined the existence of this person. And Liliskant had used thirty years and countless people's lives to accumulate a huge amount of magic power, she had created this "individual" that originally only existed in the dream.
Her real purpose was not only to let her husband stay by her side, she even wanted to resurrect her son in reality!
But in this dark and corrupted ritual, she could only resurrect a monster — an indescribable monster in human skin that was piled up by the subconscious whispers of countless people!
The lantern had been separated from Lilith Kant, so killing the viscountess in front of him was meaningless. But Gwen had foreseen what the worst situation would be, so he was not afraid. Instead, he clenched his sword and waited for the heir of the Kant family to step into the castle and come to this place.
The newborn nightmare creature was not invincible. After Knight Philip destroyed the power that maintained the dream, the "Young Master Belm" was just an ordinary monster of flesh and blood that could be defeated.
At the entrance of the castle, a black carriage was parked in the rainy night, and a "visitor" wearing a long black trench coat with no facial features came to the front of the castle. He knocked on the door, and a moment later, the heavy door opened. Butler Carter stood behind the door with a smile on his face.
A welcoming team appeared in the main hall of the castle, and the band began to play, welcoming the return of the heir of the territory.
In the cellar of the north tower, Lilith Kant's life began to fade at a speed visible to the naked eye. She was as pale as a corpse, and her legs could no longer stand. She knelt beside the stone hall in the middle of the cellar, looking at Gwen and Amber in front of her with a provocative smile on her face.
But at this moment, the oak door of the cellar was suddenly pushed open.
Viscount Viktor Kant appeared at the door.
Lilith's eyes widened at this moment, and she looked at the figure standing at the door with surprise and even horror.
"My dear … Why are you here?!"
Viktor Kant's body seemed to be shrouded in a layer of gauze, appearing hazy and even somewhat transparent. He walked to the center of the cellar, and his voice was low and gentle. "I came to see you, come to see me, come to see … our son."
"No … Don't come here, you can't come here!" Lilith exclaimed, and even miraculously stood up again. "You can't come here!"
"My lady, don't stop me." Viktor Kant's figure shook, and then he continued to walk forward. "And don't disturb my mind anymore. This is my last wish in this nightmare."
In the main hall of the castle, the faceless visitor walked past the servants lined up to welcome him, and the butler, Carter, accompanied him. A hoarse and chaotic voice came from the visitor's body. It was a language that could not be understood by the human brain, but Carter seemed to understand it. He kept nodding with a smile on his face, and accompanied his "young master" through the hall and through the corridor.
In the cellar of the north tower, the viscount's wife rushed to her husband in vain. Her fingers went through his body, and this made her shout, "How can this be a nightmare? How can this be a nightmare! This … "
"This is a nightmare for all of us, Lilith." Viscount Kant lowered his head to look at his body, and then at his wife in front of him. "Give up. You should wake up. You are already awake."
He walked straight past the viscount's wife, came to the front of the stone coffin, and put his hands on the coffin lid.
Before pushing it away, Viscount Kant looked back at Gwen.
"Thank you for your help, Duke Gwen Cecil. As described in the epic, you are a hero who saved the people."
The heavy coffin lid was pushed away.
Viscount Kant looked inside. He saw a broken skeleton. Beside the skeleton, there were a few pieces of obviously thinner bones.
And between these two skeletons, there was a woman lying quietly with her eyes closed. Lilith Kant's real body had been sleeping in this stone coffin.
"The sky is finally bright …"
With a sigh, Viktor Kant's figure gradually dissipated in the air, and "Lilith Kant" standing outside the stone coffin also disappeared at the same time.
An angry roar came from the direction of the castle's main building. In the end, the faceless visitor did not step into the real world.
Knight Philip left the underground hall tiredly. After climbing to the surface, he looked at the sky with a little surprise. The storm had stopped, and a glimmer of light was rising from the horizon.
"The sky is finally bright …"
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