After climbing up the cellar stairs and leaving the north tower, Gwen and Amber finally saw what had happened to the castle.
Just as Gwen had speculated, the whole castle was shrouded in a long-term illusion. Everything it showed was created by the dream creator Lilith Kant in the dream. But at the same time, it was not a pure dream. The boundary between reality and illusion was particularly blurred here. They overlapped and affected each other. Things that happened in the real world could interfere with the dream, and things in the dream would also be reflected into reality.
When the dream completely faded away, he could see that the castle had been eroded and was riddled with holes.
In the most severely eroded area of the dream, half of the lofty north tower had disappeared. It was broken in the middle, and the upper half had collapsed many years ago. The remaining stone structure was jagged and pointed to the sky like broken bones, looking hideous in the early morning light. The open space around the tower was filled with broken bricks and tiles that had been buried in the soil and vines. The main body of the castle, opposite the north tower, was still intact. It was the place where 'reality' was better, so the servants living in the main body of the castle had indeed maintained the castle. There were not many signs of collapse, but there were disturbing cracks, vines, and moss everywhere on the outer walls. With the power of the dream fading, some of the vines and moss had even climbed to the high spire of the main building. Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation The castle did not show many signs of collapse, but there were disturbing cracks, vines, and moss everywhere on the outer walls. As the power of the dream faded, some of the vines and moss had even climbed to the high spire of the main building.
On the way to the main building of the castle, Gwen and Amber met Knight Philip, who was hurrying over.
The young Knight had not experienced a battle, but destroying a huge magic hub with his own strength was enough to exhaust him. Philip looked very tired, and there was a deeper, psychological tiredness in his eyes. But after seeing Gwen, he immediately pulled himself together and stood up straight. "My lord! I'm glad to see you safe and sound! "
Gwen looked at Philip's expression and nodded slightly. "It seems that you have seen something very stressful."
"Yes, my lord. As you expected," Philip sighed. "The place where Butler Carter disappeared is the 'inner boundary' of the dream. There is a … ritual ground full of blasphemy and evil. I really can't describe the scene there."
Gwen nodded. "Take me there. You didn't tear down the whole place, right?"
"Of course not, my lord. Those are the evidence of the cultists' crimes." Philip nodded. "But those people … I'm afraid they are hopeless."
"… I guessed as much." Gwen sighed. "Take me there and see the situation. That's right, Amber, go to the castle first. I'm guessing that the people there have already woken up and are in a state of panic. Go and find the advisor, treasurer, chief knight, and that priest in the castle. Have them calm the people down and gather the managers and knights of the territory. I'll go to the main hall soon to take charge of the situation. "
Amber blinked. "Are you sure those people will listen to me?"
"You are now the duke's guard. Do you think you don't have the right to speak in front of the servants of the ordinary nobles?" Gwen glanced at the elf. "And now that the dream is over, the correct understanding of the castle for the past 30 years is returning to everyone's mind. This incredible impact will make everyone fall into a great panic. In this case, people will be easily guided."
The latter half of Gawain's sentence did not seem to register in the half-elf's mind at all. Amber began to float as soon as she heard the first half of the sentence. She quickly thought of at least sixty ways to make money and eighty ways to swindle people. Most of them revolved around the central idea of Amber using Gawain's authority. Unfortunately, she only floated for a few seconds before Gawain saw through her. The latter glared at her and said, "If you dare to use my name to swindle people, I'll smash you against the wall!"
Amber rolled her eyes. "Can't you threaten me in another way?"
"Then smash it on the ground." Gwen waved his hand and turned to leave. "In short, if you dare to swindle people, smash it on the wall. If you dare to steal, smash it on the ground …"
However, the honest Knight Philip caught up with Gwen and asked worriedly, "What if she cheats you and says she didn't steal anything?"
Gwen stopped and looked at Philip silently. "… Have you considered perming your head?"
"Huh?"
Gwen sighed in his heart. Sure enough, the most difficult thing about being stranded in another world is not being able to communicate with the locals, even if the other party is just a sidekick.
The two of them arrived at the underground hall that Knight Philip had discovered.
The magic power entrenched in the hall had dissipated, and the oppressive and crazy atmosphere had also disappeared. However, it was still a gloomy and terrifying place. In Gwen's eyes, the platforms that were neatly arranged around the stone pillars were like dissecting tables that reeked of blood. And on these dissecting tables, the 'lambs' that were waiting to be slaughtered were still alive.
Gwen noticed the tubes that connected the victims' skulls and stone pillars like some kind of biological tissue. They were intertwined blood vessels and nerves, but obviously did not grow and mutated from the human brain. One end of the tubes was connected to the base of the stone pillars, where there was a layer of swollen, twisted flesh and blood structure tightly attached to the runes on the stone pillars like some kind of independent biological body. The other end of the tubes was connected to the human body should be the result of some kind of parasitic (or possibly surgical) operation.
As Knight Philip had destroyed the runes on the stone pillars, these 'biological tissues' attached to the stone pillars were now showing obvious signs of dying. They began to shrink and crack, and pale red liquid flowed out of the cracks. More than half of the victims connected to them had died.
Even those who were not dead could not be saved. They had been connected to the 'nerve cord' for too long. Their individual consciousness had been completely obliterated, and their brain tissue had suffered irreversible and destructive damage. Their remaining brain nerve cells were only providing computing power for this huge 'Human Brain Array Computer.' As the magic power here dissipated, they would soon die.
The only thing to be thankful for was that they could no longer feel pain in the process.
"I can't recognize what this is." Knight Philip suppressed his disgust and squatted near the base of one of the stone pillars with Gwen. He pointed the scabbard at the twitching and shrinking biological tissues in front of him. "Even in the ancient books that recorded the craziest black magic, and the crazy ravings of those heretics, I have never heard of such a … creature in the world. The Eternal Sleepers are not Druil. They don't have the ability to transform species or summon life. They must have found and bred these biological tissues from somewhere, specifically to extract souls. But … where did they find these things? "
"Maybe these are really cultivated by the Cult of Everything's End for the Eternal Sleepers." Gwen frowned. "After all, they are connected."
Knight Philip was surprised. "Are the cultists so close to each other?"
"If the reason for their fall is as I think, then the closeness of their cooperation is probably beyond most people's imagination." Gwen sighed. "Compared to this, I am more concerned about the 'technology' used by the Eternal Sleepers."
Philip was a warrior after all, and he was a little slow in this aspect. "Technology?"
"In the letter left by Viscount Viktor, it mentioned that this is a 'computing node' built by the Eternal Sleepers." Gwen pointed to the victims who were connected by the nerve cord. "They seem to be trying to create a 'Real Dreamscape' that can replace the real world and use the power of dreams to achieve something. And this requires a terrifying amount of computing power. You can simply think of it as brain power. No grand sorcerer's brain can accomplish such a feat. That's why they came up with this crazy idea, which is to connect the brains together and create a 'Human Brain Array Computer'. Do you know what this means? "
"It means that they will kill more people?"
"This is just the surface. The deeper meaning is that this group of cultists is not only crazy, but also have crazy technology!" Gwen said solemnly. "They are still developing despite being ostracized by the mainstream society and living in seclusion. They have even developed new technology that is far beyond the current level of magic. You know, the crazy cultists are not scary. What is scary is that these cultists have the ability to do research, and their research is not weak! "
As he spoke, he stood up and looked around the underground hall.
"The most frightening thing is that this crazy technology that they have created, if it is used in the right place, it will make the speed of their technological progress even more terrifying …"
After collecting some runes and samples of the remains, Gwen and Knight Philip left this place.
After the power of the dream faded, the main hall of the castle was one of the areas that had changed the least. Except for the traces of aging accumulated over 30 years on the outer walls, pillars, and ceilings, this place was still bright, clean, and shiny. The living servants living in the castle did their daily cleaning, and the characteristic of the intersection of dream and reality ensured that their cleaning was not limited to the dream.
In fact, due to the end of the dream effect, the faint gloomy atmosphere that had always been entrenched in this place had also disappeared. The main hall of the castle was now much warmer and calmer than before.
However, this warm and peaceful atmosphere could not calm the people gathered in the hall.
Fear was shrouding everyone's heart, including the Chief Knight who had been guarding this place loyally for 30 years.
When the dream ended, the people in the castle suddenly woke up. Their blocked consciousness and memories were all activated. The moment they regained the ability to think freely, everything that they had experienced in the past 30 years became a bizarre nightmare. Sleepwalking in an aging castle, taking care of a phantom that had been dead for decades, and a ghostly mistress wandering in the ruins of the north tower. All these were creepy.
For the servants, Knight, consultants, and supervisors who were old enough, things were even more terrifying. They clearly remembered when the bodies of the old master and the young master were secretly sent back to the castle. They also clearly remembered how the mistress used magic to control everyone's mind in her madness 30 years ago. What happened every day after that, the changes that happened every day in the castle flooded their minds.
Those who were summoned back and lived near the castle were also in fear because as long as they frequently entered and left the castle, they were affected by the dream. But compared to the servants and Knight who had not left the castle for 30 years, their fear was slightly less.
But no matter what, as long as one realized what they had experienced, no one could remain calm.
Amber was standing on the high platform at the end of the main hall, scratching her ears and cheeks anxiously.
Normally, only the feudal lord was allowed to stand there. But now, no one questioned the 'little girl' standing there. Everyone knew that she was the Duke's personal guard. In this emergency, she was the Duke's spokesperson. So instead of questioning her, everyone looked at her expectantly.
But this made Amber want to immediately find a chance to go back to the shadows. The feeling of being a big shot was not as good as she thought before.
"Don't panic, don't … don't be nervous! The Duke has gone to purify the last nest. He'll be here in a moment. Don't panic, he's coming! "
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