Chapter 586

Chapter 586: Desert.

The clockwork doll Lunie looked worriedly at Duncan, who had suddenly gone blank. After a few seconds, she could not help turning to Alice beside her and asked: “Old Master, what’s wrong with him?”

Alice only looked as if this was perfectly normal and tried to comfort her new friend: “It’s fine, he’s just spacing out. The Captain zones out all the time…”

Lunie froze for a moment: “Is that so?”

The two dolls’ voices reached Duncan’s ears. He finally blinked and slowly returned from his memories to the Mortal Realm.

After a brief silence, Duncan raised his hand and slowly pinched the spot between his brows, letting his lowered eyelids hide the turmoil in his eyes. Chaotic thoughts still swirled in his mind. He was still recalling the past. He even wished he could dig out every day he could remember, all the way back to the earliest moments of his childhood, and lay them all out before him.

He had finally noticed his dreamless past, noticed that corner of his subconscious he had always ignored. But he had to break free from these tangled memories and thoughts and force his attention back onto the Mortal Realm before him.

He raised his head and looked at Alice, who was staring straight at him, and at the clockwork doll beside her, who still looked a little nervous.

“I’m fine,” Duncan said softly. “I just suddenly remembered some things…”

He paused, looked into Alice’s eyes, and asked: “Where were we just now?”

“We were saying that Lunie and I were probably left on the ‘outside’ of the Nameless One’s dream because dolls don’t dream,” Alice answered at once. “Then we were talking about why you were left out here too…”

“Not dreaming may only be one factor. The mechanism of the Nameless One’s dream won’t be that simple, and it is very likely changing…”

Duncan spoke slowly. At the same time, he recalled the dream that had once trapped Taran Ael, the scholar—

There was no doubt that the dream Taran Ael had fallen into back then had also been the Nameless One’s dream. But that had only been the “shallow layer” of the dream, and the dream itself had still been in its early state. At that time, Duncan had still been able to use the mark he had left on Heidi to enter that dream quite easily, instead of being blocked on the Mortal Realm side as he was now.

This showed that the “rules” of the Nameless One’s dream were changing. As time went on, its range and influence were expanding, and at the same time a Dreamwalking mechanism for “filtering” had formed, like a kind of self?protection.

What would come next? Would this vast “dream” keep growing? Would its reach expand again? How would its self?protection change?

As Duncan pondered, Alice’s voice suddenly sounded beside him and reached his ears: “Captain, how are the others doing? Can you feel anything from here?”

Duncan pushed his messy thoughts down for now. He let out a quiet breath and focused his mind, feeling for the marks he had left on the others—

The leaping flames crossed the border between real and unreal and passed through the ancient, hidden curtain of the dream. In a distant other dimension, at a crossing of time and space that reason could hardly describe, Duncan “saw” those flickering sparks.

The flame marks he had planted in advance had taken effect. They only strengthened the connection a little, but Duncan could now sense Vanna and the others more clearly and should even be able to talk with them.

“They’re not in danger.” Duncan nodded to Alice and Lunie as he spoke.

Alice let out a breath of relief at once: “Ah, that’s good… Then what are we doing next?”

Duncan lifted his head. His gaze passed through the nearby window to the street outside, now shrouded in the chaotic veil of night.

That strange sight had appeared outside the window again. As the Nameless One’s dream pushed into the Mortal Realm, lush forest plants once more covered the city?state. Endless towering canopies blocked out the sky. The districts under the giant trees were dim and hazy, a blend of real and unreal.

Lightwind Harbor had already fallen silent. The world after Dreamwalking had replaced the Mortal Realm, just as Duncan had expected. The rushed preparations of the city?state’s authority and the academy’s Guardians had not done much. Now, once again, only he and Alice were awake in this city.

Oh, and this time there was also a clockwork doll.

“We’re going to where that vine appeared last time,” Duncan said calmly as he turned and walked toward the front door of the house. “We’ll see if it shows up in the same place.”

“All right!” Alice agreed at once. She reached out and grabbed Lunie, who was still a little dazed. “Come on, come on, we’re going exploring with the Captain!”

“Exploring?” Lunie followed Alice and Duncan on instinct, but her mind was clearly still a bit behind the pace. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to look for the other Vanished,” Duncan slowed his steps and said, glancing back.

The Nameless One’s dream had once again appeared in the Mortal Realm, and this time Duncan meant to test many of his ideas. The “enhanced temporary marks” he had left on Vanna, Morris, and the others were only one of those plans, meant simply to strengthen the link between him and his followers. What he cared about more was whether the Vanished that sailed in darkness and fog would appear again.

No matter how the Nameless One’s dream grew next, Duncan had to find a way around its “self?protection mechanism” so he could intervene further in this vast dream. His instincts told him that the eerie Vanished sailing in the mist was his best chance to break through that self?protection.

Because the enchanted sea chart on that ship showed that it was very likely sailing right above the forest of the Nameless One’s dream.

Under the chaotic night sky woven together by sunlight and the World’s Wound, the streets of the city?state were as eerily silent as last time. Duncan and the two dolls left the witch’s now?silent mansion and stepped into the veil of night, where city and forest intertwined.

As he stepped into the veil of night, Duncan also began to carefully reach out to the temporary marks that were now on the “other side” of the dream, trying to call his followers.

This time, he had to be very careful and learn from what had happened last time in that dark, fog?filled space. He had to use the Power of Flame with caution, so he would not… wake Atlantis in the depths of the dream.

…

Strange dark?red rifts covered the sky. Twisted, hazy clouds spread along the edge of the ominous red glow. Under that light, everywhere the eye could see was endless yellow sand and huge rocks.

Rolling dunes filled the view. Jagged rocks stood under the sky like the twisted, struggling bones of countless giant beasts. Yellow sand buried their bases. Their sharp edges rose like blades. In this vast, hopeless sea of sand, a “person” looked smaller than ever.

Vanna lifted her head. The wind lifted her long silver?white hair. The dry wind, filled with sand, swept over the land without rest and made her narrow her eyes.

She had come again to this desert, this boundless, dead and withered land.

Looking at the hazy silhouettes of huge rocks in the distance, Vanna let out a small breath and reached into the wind. Misty water vapor gathered out of the dry sandstorm in a way that defied common sense and condensed in her hand into a greatsword that radiated cold.

Feeling the heavy weight of the greatsword in her hand, Vanna nodded in satisfaction.

This boundless desert in the dream was dry and scorching, not a pleasant place at all for a believer of the storm Goddess. Luckily, her power as the Saint of the Deep Sea Church still worked here. The dream could not block power granted by a god. That would at least make her trek here a little easier.

Drawing coolness from the greatsword, Vanna stepped into the sandstorm and walked in a chosen direction.

She was not walking aimlessly, of course. Her goal was that rugged band of shadows in the distance, those shapes that looked like jagged rocks but also like the ruins of a city.

As she walked, Vanna suddenly felt a stir in her heart.

She stopped without thinking and focused, performing the Listening rite toward a voice that had suddenly appeared deep in her mind. A moment later, the voice grew clear—it was the Captain.

The Captain’s calm, steady voice echoed in her mind: “Vanna, can you hear me?”

“I can,” Vanna answered at once in her heart, and without noticing it she let out a breath of relief inside. “Great. It looks like your plan worked.”

“Yes, just as expected,” Duncan’s voice continued. “I have to be careful when I contact you now. I can’t pass too much power at once. From what we learned last time, Atlantis, sleeping deep in the Nameless One’s dream, doesn’t seem to like my flames.”

“I understand,” Vanna said, starting forward again as she answered. “How are the others?”

“The others are scattered in the depths of that forest. Their groups are basically the same as last time. Shirley is with Dog, Nina is with Morris,” Duncan told Vanna about the others. “Also, after entering Dreamwalking, Lucretia managed to find the rabbit Rabby—they almost ‘landed’ in the same place.”

“Miss Lucretia found that strange rabbit? They landed in the same place? And the others’ ‘groups’ are the same as last time?” Vanna’s steps slowed for a moment, and she grew thoughtful. “It seems… the way we enter this dream really does follow a pattern…”

“Mm. So far it also looks like their positions in the forest are about the same as last time,” Duncan said. Then he asked about Vanna’s side: “What is it like where you are?”

Vanna stopped and lifted her head to look at the endless sand before her.

After a few seconds, this Saint of the storm Goddess let out a sigh.

“Sand, rocks, dry hot weather—the ‘place’ where each of us enters the Nameless One’s dream doesn’t seem to have changed much. I’m still in this desert. Honestly, I don’t like this place…”