Chapter 584

Chapter 584.

Clearly, Morris was now burning with a fierce passion to search for truth. In this old gentleman’s eyes, those cultists who scared ordinary people had probably already turned into stacks of walking papers and research materials.

“So the only question is how we drag those Annihilators who enter the Nameless One’s dream out of the Mortal Realm,” Vanna said. She looked at the energetic old gentleman beside her and quietly shifted a little to the side. “Tomorrow I’ll contact the Church and see if we can tighten surveillance and manhunts for Annihilators in every city-state. If they have to keep entering the Nameless One’s dream and they share command and information, they will be much more active than usual.”

Morris also nodded: “I’ll remind the Academy as well… though they probably don’t need the reminder.”

They discussed ways to flush those cultists out in the Mortal Realm. At that moment, Lucretia, who had been quietly thinking, suddenly raised her head and looked at Shirley and Dog: “If it’s inside the Nameless One’s dream, can you still find that cultist from last time?”

“That depends on whether he’s nearby, and whether he even dares to enter the Nameless One’s dream again.” Dog shook his head. “Last time, Shirley and I badly hurt that Annihilator. It didn’t damage his body in the Mortal Realm, but his mind won’t recover in a short time.”

Lucretia listened and nodded thoughtfully. No one knew what was going through her mind.

Outside the window, the Sun had slowly sunk behind the buildings at the edge of the block. The last crimson glow spread along the rows of rooftops. Golden sunlight spread from the distant sea and mixed into the fading evening clouds.

Nina suddenly lifted her head and looked at the sky growing dim outside the window. She muttered softly: “It’s getting dark again…”

Her soft words broke Duncan’s thoughts. He rose from the sofa, walked to the window, and quietly gazed at the street outside.

The “knowledge guards” of Truth Academy were already preparing for the shift change at dusk. In front of the security post on the corner, a squad of guardians was talking with the constables.

There were twice as many guardians today as on normal days. Among them were upper-ranked clerics with much better gear. They were probably elite forces transferred from the central university of the city-state.

A loudspeaker truck drove past on the road, urging citizens to finish outdoor activities and go home before the gas lamps lit up. Tonight’s curfew would start an hour earlier. The broadcast repeated the warning: if any citizens could not make it home in time, they should go to the nearest guardian post at once. The Academy would send people and vehicles to escort them back as fast as possible.

Farther away, the tall spire of the clock tower bathed in crossed sunlight and sunset glow. The golden-red light seemed to coat the tower in a crystal shell. Huge steam pipes stretched from both sides of the tower and puffed out thin white mist, warming up to ring the dusk Bell.

The city-state’s authority and the Academy had not announced any emergency. But in the eyes of those who knew what was really going on, the change in the air showed in many small details.

“They’re preparing for tonight,” Vanna also walked over and said softly beside Duncan. “Even though there is still no proof that the Nameless One’s dream will appear again tonight…”

“We don’t know what preparations they’ve made, or whether those preparations will actually work.” Duncan shook his head. “So far we still know nothing about how that ‘dream’ works. We only know it may be tied to some trait of the entire race of Elves. In that area, we can’t help them.”

“We have many problems of our own to solve.” Vanna’s tone grew more serious. “If the Nameless One’s dream appears again, we still don’t know what will happen. We might be scattered and swept into Dreamwalking again. We might arrive in different places than before. We might meet enemies, or step straight into those dangerous areas they call ‘corruption zones’.”

Duncan said nothing. He slowly turned around and let his gaze sweep across the living room.

The others had already gathered. Many eyes rested on him.

After a short pause, Duncan stretched out his hand with his palm facing up.

ghostly green flame surged and rolled beside him, turning his body into a phantom spirit form as if cast from fire. His eyes focused on his palm. The fire of his spirit form gathered there and slowly became the brightest, most lively little flame.

Duncan held up the weightless flame. Amid the faint crackle and pop, his voice reached everyone: “Come here and touch this fire.”

Everyone in the living room reacted in different ways, but most of all with unavoidable shock and hesitation.

Of course they were not strangers to the captain’s fire. In fact, they had already come into contact with this spirit form flame more than once and to different degrees. But instinct was hard to fight and oddly stubborn. This little flame was far more active and bright than the “gentle” fire they usually saw on the Vanished. That tiny difference made them tense without even realizing it.

But Nina was the first to walk over. There was even a bit of expectation on her face. She looked up at her “Uncle Duncan”, and her usual bright smile appeared.

Then she reached out and lightly touched the flame in Duncan’s palm with her index finger.

Thin strands of fire wrapped around her fingertip like water and then quietly faded.

“It’s nice and warm.” Nina laughed and waved at Shirley. “Your turn!”

“Yeah, yeah…” Shirley grumbled. She dragged her feet as she took two steps forward. She reached out her hand while muttering: “The captain wouldn’t hurt me anyway…”

Duncan nodded to Shirley with a gentle look, then added: “Dog needs it too.”

Dog, who had just been about to turn away, jolted. He raised his head to stare at the flame, and his blood-red eye sockets seemed filled with solid fear: “I… I don’t really need it, right…”

“You do.” Duncan looked seriously at this Abyssal demon. “Don’t worry. It’s just a harmless temporary mark. Without my command, this fire won’t harm you at all.”

Dog still hesitated: “I…”

Before he could finish, Duncan flipped his hand over and pressed it down on Dog’s head, rubbing hard at that rough, solid skull.

Pale green flame poured down over him from above and flickered through the bony body of the Abyssal Hound.

Dog’s whole body shuddered at once, and he only had time to yelp: “Oh crap—”

Duncan ignored him and looked up at the others.

Vanna and Morris also stepped forward. Each recited a prayer to their own deity, then touched the flame in the captain’s hand with solemn faces.

Now there was only one person left.

“Lucy.” Duncan looked calmly at the “sea witch” standing not far away. “Don’t worry. This is just a special mark. If the Nameless One’s dream appears again, the power inside the mark may help you.”

“I know.” Lucretia spoke softly, with a faint, complicated look in her eyes. She looked up at her Father standing there as a hazy spirit form in the flames and at the bright, dancing flame in his palm. After a few seconds, she finally stepped forward and slowly reached her hand toward Duncan: “…Is this the power of Subspace?”

Duncan looked at her calmly: “This is my power.”

Lucretia took a slow breath, then stepped up and touched the fire.

There was no pain, no burning, none of the corruption or mental disturbance she had expected. She only felt a calm warmth, gentle and soothing.

A ghostly green light flashed in Lucretia’s eyes.

Then the “sea witch” turned around, hurried to the corner of the room, grabbed the huge stuffed rabbit doll, and brought it back to Duncan.

The stuffed rabbit doll, which had been playing dead for most of the day, finally moved. It twisted hard in Lucretia’s hand, and a little girl’s terrified voice came from its cotton-filled body: “Mistress, what are you doing! Rabby is just a rabbit! Rabby is just—”

“Quiet.” Lucretia pinched the stuffed rabbit’s back hard, making the creepy little doll fall silent at once. Then she held it out. “Dad, give Rabby a mark.”

At first Duncan did not react. When he saw Lucretia bring the stuffed rabbit over, he had already wondered why. Only now did he faintly guess: “Is this… because you want to take this doll into the Nameless One’s dream?”

“Rabby can move around in dreams—it does dream,” Lucretia said. “I want to see if, when the Nameless One’s dream expands, it will also get pulled into the dream. Before, when the Radiant Star stayed in the Harbor, Rabby said it did not sense anything strange in the city at all. That might be because the Harbor was too far from the center of the dream’s outbreak, or because Rabby was affected too little by your power.”

The stuffed rabbit doll struggled again and let out a tiny voice: “If Rabby had known, Rabby wouldn’t have come…”

Lucretia raised her hand and pressed the rabbit’s face against Duncan’s palm.

Duncan said nothing.

He suddenly felt like a training dummy that did nothing but hand out buffs… This was not quite how he had planned it, was it?

But anyway, he had finished all the preparations before Dreamwalking. Next… he only had to wait and see whether the Nameless One’s dream would really appear again tonight, and test his many guesses and plans inside that dream.

Just then, footsteps came from the doorway of the living room. Alice and Lunie appeared in Duncan’s sight, pushing a serving cart.

“Dinner time!” Alice said happily. She seemed completely unaware of the mood in the living room. “Are we eating in the dining room, or right here in the living room?”