Chapter 623

Chapter 623: The Beginning of the Collapse

Taran Ael felt that young yet piercing scream almost chisel straight through his soul.

It was as if some invisible force were tearing his thoughts apart, as if a vast mind were striking his memories. That scream crossed time, space, and every layer of meaning. It echoed again and again in every stage of his life that he could remember. It lasted only a very short instant, yet the pain and chaos of it still far, far exceeded what he had felt when he drank the Blood Raven Elixir, ten times, a hundred times over.

After that, he felt the entire Nameless One’s Dream begin to collapse. The wind roared. The ground tore open. The distant ruins of the World Tree fell in on themselves at great speed. The silhouettes of forests farther away rose and curled, as if gravity itself were rolling backward. Then all of this sank into darkness in just a few seconds. Taran Ael became aware that the dream was melting away, and right after that he sensed the existence of the Mortal Realm. Light appeared at the end of that darkness, flowing and spinning on the far wall like a whirlpool before slowly settling down. Then he heard other people’s voices around him.

He woke up. He woke in the Mortal Realm, in the early morning.

Everyone was waking up.

“What happened… Why did the Nameless One’s Dream suddenly collapse?”

“I don’t know. It was like a blast of wind started… I only remember the land in the distance rolling backward…”

“Is anyone hurt? Is everyone here? What time is it now?”

People were talking nearby, sounding confused. Everything seemed to be in chaos.

Taran Ael fought against the sharp pain in his head. The effects of that scream had followed him back into the Mortal Realm. Now his headache felt so bad it was as if he really might drop dead. After that, the wildly spinning scene before his eyes finally began to steady.

He found himself sitting on a low couch in the corner by the wall. Around him, the knowledge guardians were quickly waking and trying to figure out what had happened.

Someone had already pulled open the curtains not far away. Morning sunlight was spreading along the rooftops of the city blocks. The street outside was still quiet, and only now and then came a few sounds.

Taran Ael held his forehead and slowly stood up from the corner. His thoughts were still in a mess, but after hearing the knowledge guardians talking around him, he forced himself to focus a little: “It might be related to the voice I heard at the end…”

Someone finally noticed the Grand Scholar’s awful state. A nearby knowledge guardian hurried over and caught Taran Ael just as he was about to fall: “What did you say, sir?”

“I think I may have come into contact with Atlantis’s consciousness, but…” Taran Ael frowned as he spoke. Halfway through, he suddenly stopped. He furrowed his brow and looked toward a certain spot in the room. “…Lord Ted Lier hasn’t come back?!”

The others in the room seemed to realize it only then. Several gazes instantly turned to the armchair in the middle.

It was the chair Lord Ted Lier, the Truth Keeper, had sat in when he went Dreamwalking. Now all the personnel who had gone on the Dreamwalk had returned to the Mortal Realm, but that chair was still empty.

After a brief silence, someone broke the quiet in a worried voice: “…Could the Truth Keeper have woken earlier than us and left first?”

“No. That doesn’t fit the Truth Keeper’s character. And there is a mark on the door. If anyone opened it, it would leave a trace, whether it was opened from outside or from inside.”

Frowning as he listened to the voices beside him, Taran Ael gently pushed away the supporting hand and stepped up to the chair.

On the small table next to the chair still sat the container that had held the potion. Seven droppers and a large beer bottle rested there quietly, reflecting the rosy light spilling in from the window.

Faintly, he heard sounds from outside the window again. It seemed like chaos coming from some unknown direction.

Someone cried out in the street. Someone was running in the hallway.

Tree shadows swayed outside the window.

…

Nina jolted awake from the collapsing Nameless One’s Dream. When she realized she had returned to the Mortal Realm, she could not help spacing out for a moment.

This time, the way the Nameless One’s Dream ended seemed different from before.

This time it was more sudden, more violent, full of a feeling of chaos and breaking apart. It was as if the dream had not “woken up”, but had been torn open from the inside out by some force.

She raised her head and saw Mr. Morris on the other side of the table, also looking thoughtful. Clearly her teacher also felt that something was wrong with how the Nameless One’s Dream had ended this time.

Just then, she suddenly heard Shirley’s voice coming from the direction of the window: “Hey, hey, hey, you two, look outside! Holy crap!”

Nina did not have time to complain about Shirley using crude words again. She stood up without thinking and turned to look toward the window.

Thick shadows of trees swayed outside, filling her sight.

Trees. Trees were everywhere. They were the same tall, lush, unknown giant trees she had seen in the forest of the Nameless One’s Dream. They filled the streets, packed the whole city district, and crowded every inch of her view. The wild flood of green looked like another “Boundless Sea”. Countless crowns of trees rolled together into waves of green, covering the sky between the buildings and even merging with the tallest towers and clocktowers, forming strange, twisted symbiotic pact shapes with them.

It was as if a forest had been directly “laid over” the city-state, as if the dream and the Mortal Realm were merging into one, corrupting each other into a shape beyond understanding.

Vanna, Morris, and Nina came to the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room and stared, dumbfounded, at the scene on the street outside. For a long time, none of them could say a word.

Shirley saw that chaos had already begun on the distant streets.

The residents of the city-state were already waking up in the morning. The shocking changes in the streets clearly went far beyond the old “limits of perception”. The forest that almost covered the whole city filled people with terror. The plants that had merged with the buildings also destroyed the city’s workings on a physical level. People cried out. Some were trapped inside their own houses. Some buildings were almost completely swallowed, and between the thick, tangled trees, only bits of broken walls and roofs could be seen. The fate of the people who had lived in those buildings was now unknown.

A loud bang came from above a nearby block. A steam pipe had burst. High-temperature, high-pressure gas sprayed from the valves, turning into huge billows of white mist between the crowns of the trees. Somewhere else, a water main ruptured at some node. A huge column of water shot up through the street, forming an astonishing “fountain” between the towering trees.

From far away came the sharp, piercing sirens of Steam Walkers. The city-state’s Guard Corps seemed to be trying to take action, and the academy’s knowledge guardians also seemed to have reacted. Nina heard familiar whistles from the street.

Even though everything was still in chaos, even though everyone had only just jolted awake from the dream, the years of training and the strict, complex emergency procedures still took effect. The forces that kept order charged without hesitation into the dense forest covering the city-state.

But at this moment, they faced a challenge far beyond anything they had imagined.

This was a thick forest, full of living plants.

These were things that had only ever been recorded in old, strange legends and in corrupted books.

The elves who lived in the Deep Sea era had embraced their ancestors’ homeland in a way no one had expected, that endless green hell.

In a daze, as wind blew across the city-state, it stirred the leaves in the forest. Countless leaves rose in green waves, and between the waves it was as if whispers came from the forest.

“…You are not elves…”

Brightly colored scraps of paper spun and danced through the dense forest. They drifted lightly past the twisted and changed buildings and past the towering trees rising at different heights. The forest wind carried waves of rustling leaves and faint, whispering murmurs.

Lucretia’s figure gathered out of the whirlwind of colored paper and landed on the top of a giant tree near the academy district.

She held a nearby branch with one hand and carefully balanced on the treetop, looking out at the streets that were now covered by forest and twisted by the dream.

Lucretia heard that whisper spreading in the wind. She could even feel the indescribable disappointment and anger mixed into it.

“Rabby.” She called softly in her heart.

The Nightmare Rabbit’s voice soon sounded in her mind: “Rabby is listening~~”

“How are those cultists doing? Was this their doing?”

“Rabby isn’t sure, but they look pretty confused too. The dream collapsed faster than they expected… Even the Saint was alarmed. The people who went Dreamwalking were called in for questioning. Rabby almost got exposed… Good thing Rabby split herself up in advance and hid inside their bodies…”

Lucretia frowned.

“Did you still ‘eat’ them all? I remember reminding you to control your appetite.”

“No, no, only the cultists who went into the Dreamwalking realm. Rabby just left some cotton in their bodies. That was to safely and properly finish the task Mistress gave Rabby,” Rabby hurried to explain. “There are still lots of cultists on the ship. Rabby didn’t touch them…”

Lucretia stayed silent for a few seconds. She felt the tension and fear flowing to her along their soul link. Only then did she speak slowly: “Remember my order clearly. It is for your own good. Don’t forget, that ship and everyone on it are my Father’s prey.”

The Nightmare Rabbit’s voice came at once, this time full of barely hidden fear and nerves: “Yes, Rabby understands. Rabby will absolutely…”

Lucretia cut off the link with the rabbit at once.

Then she steadied herself and, a little awkwardly, called another name in her heart.

She soon heard a reply from far away.

“Lucy, I’m listening.”

“Dad, something has happened in the city-state,” this “Sea Witch” said in a grave tone. “It’s a major event in the Mortal Realm, you should come back quickly.”