Chapter 157 A Soul-Piercing Scream

Talan Eyl felt that the tender yet piercing scream had almost凿穿 pierced through his soul.

It was as if an invisible force was tearing at his thoughts, a vast mind was assaulting his memories, and that scream echoed repeatedly through every stage of his life that he could remember, transcending dimensions of time and concept. Although it lasted only a very brief moment, it still exceeded tenfold, a hundredfold, the pain and confusion he felt when he drank the Blood Raven Elixir.

Then, he felt the entire Dream of the Nameless begin to collapse. The wind howled, the earth tore apart, the wreckage of the distant World Tree rapidly collapsed, and the forest silhouettes even further away seemed to rise and twist as if gravity had reversed. And all of this sank into darkness within seconds. He realized the dissolution of the dream, and then the existence of the real world. Light appeared at the end of that darkness, flowing and swirling like a vortex on the opposite wall, gradually stabilizing. Then, he heard the voices of other people around him—

He woke up, in the real world in the early morning.

Everyone was waking up.

"What happened... How did the Dream of the Nameless suddenly collapse?"

"I don't know, it seemed like a gust of wind... I only remember the distant earth turning upside down..."

"Anyone injured? Is everyone here? What time is it?"

People were talking nearby, sounding lost and confused.

Talan Eyl struggled against the sharp pain in his mind—the effect of that scream had followed him into the real world with his awakening. He felt as if his head was about to explode—and then the frantically spinning scene before his eyes finally stabilized.

He found himself sitting on a low couch in the corner of the wall, surrounded by the Knowledge Keepers who were rapidly waking up and trying to figure out what was happening.

The curtains not far away had been drawn open, and the morning sun was spreading along the rooftops of the city streets. The streets outside were still quiet, with only occasional sounds.

Talan Eyl supported his forehead and slowly stood up from the corner. His thoughts were still confused, but after hearing the conversations of the Knowledge Keepers around him, he forced himself to focus: "It might be related to the last sound I heard..."

Finally, someone noticed the university scholar's terrible state. A Knowledge Keeper next to him quickly walked over and supported Talan Eyl, who was about to fall: "What did you say?"

"I think I might have come into contact with Shirandi's consciousness, but..." Talan Eyl frowned as he spoke, but stopped suddenly halfway through, then frowned tightly as he looked at a certain spot in the room, "...Lord Ted Riel hasn't returned?!"

The others in the room seemed to realize this only now, and several gazes instantly focused on the armchair in the middle.

That was the chair that Truth Seeker Ted Riel had been sitting in when he "entered the dream"—now all the personnel who had entered the dream had returned to the real world, but the chair was still empty.

After a moment of silence, someone broke the silence uneasily: "...Could it be that Lord Seeker woke up earlier than us, so he left first?"

"No, that's not in line with the Seeker's character, and the door to the room is marked. It will leave traces after being opened—whether from the outside or the inside."

Talan Eyl frowned, listening to the conversation around him. He gently pushed away the support of those beside him and walked to the chair.

On the small table next to the chair were the containers that had been used to hold the potion, seven droppers and a large beer bottle, quietly reflecting the glow of the morning sun shining in from the window.

Faintly, he heard some sounds from outside the window again—chaos that seemed to come from an unknown direction.

Someone was exclaiming in the street, someone was running in the corridor.

The shadows of the trees outside the window were swaying.

……

Nina woke up from the collapsing Dream of the Nameless and couldn't help but be stunned for a while after realizing that she had returned to the real world.

The ending process of this Dream of the Nameless... seemed to be different from before.

This time it was more sudden, more violent, with a feeling of chaos and collapse, as if it was not "waking up," but being torn apart from the inside out by a force.

She raised her head and saw that Mr. Morris across the table was also showing a thoughtful expression. Obviously, her teacher also felt that the end of this Dream of the Nameless was a bit strange.

And just then, she suddenly heard Sherry's voice coming from the direction of the window: "Hey, hey, you guys, look outside! Holy crap!"

Without bothering to nag the other party for using vulgar language again, Nina subconsciously got up and turned to look at the window.

Lush tree shadows swayed outside the window, catching her eye.

Trees, trees everywhere, as tall, lush, and unknown as the towering trees seen in the forest in the Dream of the Nameless, filled the streets, crammed the city, and filled every inch of space in her vision. The unrestrained green seemed to be another "Boundless Sea." Countless crowns of trees converged into滔滔 surging green waves, covering the sky between the buildings, and even blending with the tallest towers and bell towers, presenting a bizarre and grotesque symbiotic posture.

This scene was like a forest directly "overlaying" the city-state, as if dream and reality were merging into one, eroding each other into an incredible posture.

Vanna, Morris, and Nina came to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room, staring dumbfounded at the scene on the street outside. None of them could speak for a long time.

Sherry saw that chaos had already begun to appear on the distant streets.

The residents of the city-state had woken up in the morning, and the astonishing changes on the streets had obviously broken through the previous "cognitive boundaries." The forest scene covering almost the entire city brought great panic, and the plants that merged with the buildings directly destroyed the city's operation from a physical level. Some people were exclaiming, some were trapped in their houses, and some buildings were almost completely swallowed up. Only a few broken walls and roofs could be seen between the entangled lush trees, and the people who originally lived in those buildings were probably in mortal danger.

A loud explosion came from the sky above a nearby block. A steam pipe had leaked, and high-temperature and high-pressure gas spewed out of the valve, evaporating into large patches of scattered white mist between the crowns of the trees. Again, a water pipe ruptured at an unknown point, and a huge column of water broke through the ground between the streets, forming an amazing "spring" between the towering trees.

The sharp and piercing siren of a steam walker came from a distance. The city-state guards seemed to be trying to take some action. The Knowledge Keepers of the academy also seemed to have reacted. Nina heard a familiar whistle coming from the street—

Although still in chaos, although everyone had woken up from the dream in a hurry, years of training and a series of complex and strict emergency response procedures still played a role—those forces maintaining order rushed into the dense forest covering the city-state without hesitation.

However, at this moment, what they faced was a challenge far beyond their imagination.

That was a lush forest, full of life.

That was something only recorded in ancient and absurd legends and corrupted books.

The elves who lived in the Deep Sea Embers era embraced their ancestors' homeland in a way that no one had expected—that boundless green hell.

In a trance, a wind blew through the city-state, and the wind stirred the branches and leaves in the forest. Countless leaves rippled in the wind, and between the waves seemed to come the murmur of the forest—

"...You are not elves..."

Brilliant colored paper scraps spun and danced in the dense forest, lightly passing through the twisted and mutated buildings and the towering trees of varying heights. The wind in the forest carried the waves of leaves, bringing layers of rustling sounds, as well as blurred murmurs.

Lucrezia's figure condensed from the whirlwind formed by the colored paper scraps and landed on top of a giant tree near the academy district.

She held on to the branches beside her, carefully stepping on the treetops, and looked towards the streets that had been covered by the forest and distorted by the dream.

She heard the whisper that permeated the wind, and could even feel the unspeakable disappointment and anger mixed in that whisper.

"Rabi," she whispered in her heart.

The Nightmare Rabbit's voice quickly sounded in her heart: "Rabi is listening oh~~"

"What's the situation with those cultists? Did they do it?"

"Rabi isn't sure oh—but they seem to be quite chaotic too. The speed of the dream collapsing seems to have exceeded their expectations... Even that saint was alarmed, and the people who entered the dream were called in for questioning. Rabi almost got exposed... Fortunately, Rabi scattered myself and hid in their bodies in advance..."

Lucrezia frowned.

"Did you still 'eat' them all? I remember I reminded you to control your appetite."

"No, no, just those cultists who entered the dream. Rabi left some cotton on them. This is to safely and securely complete the mission assigned by the mistress," Rabi quickly explained. "There are still many cultists on the ship, Rabi didn't touch them..."

Lucrezia was silent for a few seconds. After feeling the tension and fear gradually transmitted along the soul connection in her heart, she slowly said: "Remember my orders firmly, this is for your own good—don't forget, that ship and everyone on that ship are my father's prey."

The Nightmare Rabbit's voice immediately sounded, this time with undisguised panic and tension: "Yes, Rabi understands, Rabi absolutely..."

Lucrezia directly cut off the communication with the rabbit.

Then she calmed down and called out another name in her heart, albeit a little rusty.

She soon heard a response from afar—

"Lucy, I'm listening."

"Dad, something happened in the city-state," the "Sea Witch" said with a solemn tone. "Big things in the real world—you'd better come back quickly."

(End of this chapter)