"Really just returning to
You see, the place he had just been in was the restroom of the Ninth Division of Military Intelligence headquarters. Even a fully armed army couldn't possibly break in.
Slowly exhaling, Wendel walked out of the restroom and headed towards the hall entrance.
Behind him, in an unnoticed corner of the restroom, the pitch-black crow draped itself in a veil of shadow, losing its sense of material presence. Even if one directly looked at it, it would be hard to notice it.
Then, its body became more and more transparent, rapidly dissipating until it vanished.
By this time, Wendel had already walked several meters into the hall, seeing a police officer in a black-and-white checkered uniform entering from the entrance.
This was the young officer Byers who had invited him to testify.
"I knew you would definitely come, because you are a kind person," Byers greeted Wendel with a smile.
Hearing this compliment, Wendel's heart finally settled back into place. Then, he instinctively looked back over his shoulder, seeing that the restroom he had come out of had completely changed; it no longer felt familiar.
...
Inside the dream maze assembled from many minds, the massive white rabbit walking upright forcibly squeezed through the wide-open door and entered a wilderness filled with towering gray-white pillars and magnificent palaces.
Mr. Wrath... Although the other party wasn't wearing that persona mask, the unforgettable characteristics still helped Audrey recognize who it was at a glance.
This was somewhat unexpected for her, but it didn't surprise her too much.
In her opinion, to deal with Arihog, this ancient mind dragon, Mr. Wrath alone should not be enough, even if Mr. Fool had reminded her to be wary of this one.
After all, the leader behind the
At this moment, with the entry of the giant white rabbit, Arihog, whose scales were huge and greyish-white, let out a loud rustle as he spread his membranous wings, covering the surrounding area in an instant with a layer of shadow.
The white rabbit stamped its feet and abruptly became extremely huge, like a small hill.
At the same time, directly above Him, the gloomy sky suddenly brightened. Beneath his feet, the earth split open with one crack after another, spewing out crimson magma.
Then, behind him, a blurry and distorted figure emerged.
This figure was clad in a simple white robe, its face hard to see, its age impossible to discern. One could only vaguely tell it was a male.
Behind his head hung a halo radiating brilliant light, like a miniature sun. Beneath his feet was an illusory clock divided into twelve segments, each segment containing a symbol representing a different time. Behind him hung a shadow like a curtain, within which an eye seemed to be silently peeping outside.
The mere appearance of the outline of this figure caused the entire dream maze to shake violently, with grey fragments constantly falling from the void.
Two completely opposite feelings—filthy depravity and pure sunlight—rapidly spread towards the surroundings of the giant white rabbit, eroding or assimilating this area.
However, the figure in the simple white robe always struggled to take form completely, unable to walk from history and illusion into reality. Whenever his outline was about to become clear, his figure would distort violently, like a machine being jammed by a signal.
At this moment, Audrey instinctively averted her gaze, not daring to look directly at the giant white rabbit anymore.
Perhaps because she was in a dream, closely connected to the mind islands and the collective subconscious sea, she intuitively understood what Mr. Wrath was doing without needing an explanation.
The other party had seen through the potential mental issues of the ancient dragon Arihog, knew what He feared the most, and based on that, wove a nightmare containing specific images.
— In the high-sequence battles of the "Spectator" pathway, if both sides are on the same level, various means can hardly produce real results. One can dive into the islands of consciousness and perform deep hypnosis, while the other can tightly guard the door of the mind, preventing any foreign consciousness from entering. One can spread a mental plague and use the collective subconscious sea to imperceptibly erode the enemy, and the other can soothe itself, treat psychological illnesses, and maintain mental health...
Therefore, battles between "Spectator" Pathway Saints of the same Sequence often take on one of three fixed styles: First, set traps in advance, prepare all aspects, then subtly induce, run the operation step by step, and finally break through the enemy's mental defenses in one fell swoop, completing the hypnosis. Second, lean heavily on defense and support, relying on powerful sealed artefacts to defeat the enemy. Third, when Beyonder powers like "Mental Plague," "Mind Deprivation," "Dragon's Breath," and "Consciousness Manipulation" can't do much to each other, resort to self-hypnosis, undergo "dragonification," and engage in a fierce brawl of clawing and tail-slapping.
In the third style of combat, whoever has a deeper research into the psychic domain, whoever has the stronger and more resolute will, can gain the advantage through a longer "dragonification" time and build up an advantage, of course, provided the opponent doesn't find a chance to escape.
At the Angel level, everyone is a true mythical creature, and the length of "dragonification" no longer matters. At this point, the primary reliance is on "Insight." Whoever can better find the opponent's mental loopholes can weave a corresponding nightmare, directly attacking the enemy's psychological weak points, step by step destroying their mental defenses, achieving the effect of "scaring them crazy" or "scaring them to death."
Since Audrey was within the same "dream," even though this nightmare was not aimed at her, she would still be affected by it, influenced by the corresponding emotions, traits, and persona, potentially even contaminated.
Just like now, she clearly knew that the nightmare woven by Mr. Wrath represented the
When the time came, when Audrey woke up, she would either become a mental patient without the instinct to heal, or transform into an incomplete mythical creature, completely losing her reason and frenziedly attacking the living beings around her.
Of course, there was another possibility: she would fall without any self-awareness, unconsciously becoming cold, cruel, and bloodthirsty, as if replaced by another person.