Chapter 129: Chapter 133: The Strange Shadow
To be fair, Duncan was not an expert in the Transcendent realm, nor was he knowledgeable about the disciplines related to the Dreamscape and the spiritual domain. Nevertheless, he faintly discerned that the scenery displayed on this street should be more than just what Sherry “saw in her dream.”
Because the whispering ashes for help gave him a peculiar déjà vu—
He thought of that factory, thought of the people burned to ashes in the fire, hidden behind the curtain.
Of course, the ashes in the factory did not call for help—the ashes gave him a more direct and intense signal: they let him directly see the “echo” of the fire that occurred eleven years ago.
Subconsciously, Duncan believed there was some connection between the ashes on the street in Sherry’s dream and those in the factory.
He raised his head and surveyed the surroundings. In the trembling dim red light, the entire street depicted the aftermath of a great fire, with incessant falling sparks and dust, innumerable piles of ashes, and suspicious dark shadows imprinted on the nearby walls.
“You were only six years old then, and even if you observed a lot subconsciously, it shouldn’t be enough to sustain such a massive dreamscape—let alone create these calling remnants and such a vast illusion in the distance.”
Duncan softly spoke, and his voice made Sherry, who was somewhat anxiously uneasy, suddenly feel a bit more grounded.
Sherry raised her head and looked at Duncan standing beside her—Mr. Duncan now didn’t resemble his everyday appearance. Here, he presented himself as a gloomy and authoritative captain, honestly quite terrifying. Even without an Abyssal Hound’s “True Sight,” she could feel a profound pressure emanating from him.
But in this increasingly unfamiliar nightmare, such a powerful presence still provided her with some reassurance: at least for now, this entity stood on her side.
“Let’s move forward and see how far the dreamscape can extend.”
Duncan’s voice suddenly came from beside her, and Sherry blinked, then quickly grasped the Abyssal Hound’s leash to follow him.
Surrounded by the continuous faint whispers for help from countless ash piles, the two of them and the dog traversed the street covered with remnants and sparks, gradually heading towards the twisted, wavering shadows of the building cluster.
They walked on the street for an indeterminable duration, with Duncan seriously observing the changes in the nearby scenery along the way; what struck him as odd was that the landscape on the street remained the same as always.
There were no additional distorted illusions, nor did it become more blurred, bizarre, or show any “dangerous dream constructs” like the Abyssal Hound had described.
Duncan suddenly stopped, his brow slightly furrowed.
“Mr. Duncan?” Sherry looked at him curiously, “Did you discover something else?”
“…How far have we departed from the ‘origin’? Duncan raised his head and looked back in the direction from which he and Sherry had come; the house where they started had already vanished into the hazy red mist.
“‘The origin’?” Sherry paused, “Oh, you mean the room where my dream started? It should be… quite far by now, I think we’ve walked at least half a city block.”
“Sherry, something isn’t right,” the Abyssal Hound also suddenly realized something and anxiously regarded the surrounding mist, its voice grave, “Let’s stop for a moment.”
Sherry still hadn’t grasped the situation, her expression puzzled: “What’s wrong?”
“Dreamscapes are centered around the subconscious perception of the Dreamer as the ‘core’, and your cognitive foundation in this dreamscape is that room, along with all your memories and emotions contained within,” the Abyssal Hound rapidly explained, “Areas outside the room are ‘imaginary supplements’ of the dreamscape; theoretically, the farther away you move from that room, the more these imaginarily supplemented scenes should deviate from logic and common sense, and the edges of the dreamscape should become more absurd, dangerous, and might even feature precipitous cliffs that appear out of nowhere, but we have walked so far… and this dreamscape still continues!”
Duncan listened and gently nodded his head—he did not have as precise and complete a theoretical understanding as the Abyssal Hound, but his guess was much the same.
Sherry finally caught on, her breath lightly taken: “So… I should have already walked out of my own realm of dreamscape. Theoretically, this place should either be distorted beyond recognition or should be nothingness… So where are we exactly now? Is this still my dream?!”
No one could answer Sherry’s question, Duncan could only look around with a thoughtful expression.
Everywhere he looked were streets blackened by fire, the city area after the disaster like an ugly scar, deeply cleaved into the City-State, and this mark of fire extended endlessly into the distance, its reach unknown through how many city blocks.
He looked in another direction and saw some towering buildings nearby. One of the factory’s distillation towers pierced the sky straight through the smoke and haze, its surface tangled in pipes and its skeleton rugged, resembling a bizarre mountain peak.
Duncan couldn’t help but stare at the tall distillation tower, thinking that if he stood atop it, he might be able to overlook the entire burning city.
Suddenly, his gaze froze.
The scene Nina had once described to him emerged in his mind:
From a great height, he looked down upon a city scorched by fire, its streets like a scar running through the entire City-State…
This was the scene Nina had seen in her dream—only from a different perspective!
An astonishing speculation sprang into Duncan’s mind. He turned to Sherry, “We… might have entered another Dreamscape.”
“Another Dreamscape?” Sherry was startled, “Whose dream?”
“Nina’s—follow me.” Duncan said briefly, then promptly started walking toward the direction of the distillation tower.
He didn’t summon Ai Yi in the Dreamscape for transport because firstly, he didn’t know if the pigeon could enter this dream via the Spirit Realm like him. Secondly, he still needed Ai Yi outside to “stand guard” and monitor if any other Transcendent forces interfered with their action.
Luckily, the distillation tower wasn’t far from this street block; it was just a factory next door, connected by a straight alley between two blocks.
Sherry followed, utterly confused as to why Mr. Duncan insisted they had entered Nina’s dream. Meanwhile, Duncan walked briskly, occasionally looking up at the towering structure.
He was trying to spot Nina.
If this was indeed Nina’s dream, her figure should be standing atop the distillation tower—it was the highest building in sight and perfectly fit the position to oversee the entire fiery scene.
However, as the two of them and the Abyssal Hound neared the factory, Duncan had not seen any figure on the distillation tower.
He was slightly puzzled, yet before he could think further, a strange sensation of being watched suddenly came from not far away, making him abruptly stop.
Duncan looked toward the direction where he felt the presence, and in his line of sight, a figure dressed in a bizarre black long coat, tall and thin, holding a large black umbrella, had somehow appeared at the corner of the alley!
In this Dreamworld littered with traces of fire, the emergence of such a strange umbrella-carrying figure was utterly bizarre. And this time, not only did Duncan see that figure, but Sherry next to him also stopped abruptly.
“There’s someone over there!” Sherry exclaimed in surprise.
“Did you also see it?” Duncan asked subconsciously, and as his words fell, a muffled, eerie muttering suddenly emerged from the direction of that figure.
It was not any language known to Duncan, and the overly complicated, twisting tremolo and multiple echoes made him question if it was a language at all, but he nevertheless detected a hint of astonishment in that voice—
The umbrella-carrying “strange person” seemed utterly surprised, as if he had never expected to encounter some wandering “uninvited guests” here.
And right when the muttering fell, the eerie figure with the umbrella suddenly moved!
Duncan could not see clearly what the other did, but his sharp peripheral vision keenly noticed several shadow-like figures suddenly darting out from the hem of the long coat. They were purely “shadows,” rapidly surging toward him along the nearby walls and streets. Meanwhile, the distant figure with the umbrella vanished into thin air, and the next second, his body, using one of the swiftly approaching shadows, reappeared, teleporting directly in front of Sherry!
But by then, Sherry had already reacted, and in sync with the Abyssal Hound, she too had a reaction speed just as fast. Before the figure had fully materialized and could make a move, she had already suddenly raised her right hand—
“Either way, throwing a punch can’t be wrong!”
The girl yelled loudly, with an unusual excitement; the black chain in her hand creaked and twirled as she swung the hound round and smashed it toward the figure!