Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 786 - 785: Return to Reality

The mental storm howled wildly, forming a real "storm" in this world created by psychic power. Wherever the powerful magic power swept through, things made of dreams and projections crumbled and vanished into thin air!

Archbishop Magnan raised his hands high, a pleased smile on his face.

In such a bizarre place, facing a group of distorted projections, confronting perilous mental traps was really not a light and pleasant experience.

Truth be told, when it comes to unraveling these layered, inescapable mental traps, he wasn’t really skilled.

But if it came to the point where both parties revealed their health bars... oh boy, then he’d be in his element!

After all, before embarking on this bleak future of being an evil cult follower, he served as a Priest for the War God.

The Sect of the God of War had little influence in the Anzu-Cecil region, with few believers, but in the Typhon Empire, it was the most influential religion, filling Typhon’s army with Priests of the War God, all of whom were hot-tempered old doves...

In the howling mental storm, Gawain, in a state of psychological invisibility, slightly squinted his eyes.

The pale golden magic symbols summoned by Archbishop Yuri flickered around the exploration team, forming a solid mental barrier. Outside the barrier was a powerful storm that seemed to want to destroy everything, while inside the barrier, it was calm and quiet.

So, these golden runes were meant to protect teammates from harm...

With a thought of mixed amusement in his heart, Gawain’s gaze passed over the Eternal Sleepers’ exploration team and looked at the church steps not far away.

The mental storm could only deal with those fragile projection residents and unresisting square spaces. That elderly priest with bizarre divine arts still stood steadily at the end of the church’s steps, a type of protective spell helping him withstand the mental storm’s damage. His face displayed a look of fanaticism mixed with shock and anger as he stared intently at Selena Gerfen, who was stepping up the stairs.

The fact that Selena now appeared like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl didn’t change the fact that as she held up her lantern and walked forward step by step, a vast and terrifying aura emanated from around her. That aura gradually suppressed the sacred and majestic hymn hovering above the church, overpowering the divine arts the elderly priest cast with all his strength.

Gawain was not surprised by this situation at all.

After all, this exploration team was the elite among the elites of the Eternal Sleepers, led by a legendary powerhouse who had been called a "Saint" seven hundred years ago.

Even though this legendary powerhouse had fallen in the real world, in this world supported by soul and mental power, her strength wouldn’t be diminished in the slightest— it might even be stronger.

During the initial exploration, it was Illusion Town’s own bizarre traits and the overflowing power of Sandbox One that exceeded everyone’s understanding, creating the crisis and pressure. But now... it had already reached the stage of face-to-face confrontation, and in a direct confrontation, how could a mere projection priest possibly be a match for Selena?

"O Supreme Narrator! Descend your power! Punish these rioters who disturb the church’s peace!" Facing an extremely unfavorable situation, the elderly priest roared aloud, finally making up his mind, preparing to use great cost to unleash a power capable of reversing the situation. The layers of halos behind him suddenly expanded, even covering half the square. His voice also merged with the omnipresent hymn, resounding throughout the entire town, "May your kingdom come on earth, your will be done; may you act in the mortal world as in the pure land of the kingdom—"

Above the church square, the magnificent and sacred "Sound of Heaven" became loud and clear again. Within the halos behind the elderly priest, layer upon layer of virtual shadows seemed about to break through some barrier and "squeeze" into this world. This scene, similar to divine descent, clearly exceeded Daniel and the others’ expectations—

Such a projection, a projection believing in the "Supreme Narrator," not only could release ordinary divine arts but could even perform divine descent?!

In this moment, Archbishop Yuri even hesitated for a moment, wanting to see what this elderly priest could summon by completing the divine art— but he immediately extinguished this dangerous thought, for this very notion was likely induced by the enemy.

But before he was prepared to join the other Eternal Sleepers in interrupting the enemy’s divine descent, the grand and vast divine art suddenly came to a halt.

The celestial hymn in midair abruptly stopped, and the virtual shadows emerging from the layers of halos instantly vanished—the divine descent the elderly priest had exerted all his might to perform received no response.

Even the elderly priest himself was momentarily stunned, then showed an expression of terror: "Lord... why... why?!"

Selena stepped onto the last step before the church, lifting her head to look up at the elderly priest now in a state of bewildered despair. Though she was looking up, her aura seemed as if she were gazing down: "You look very surprised... does this mean that originally your divine art indeed could summon a part of the Supreme Narrator’s power projection?"

"You heretic, what have you done!?" The elderly priest snapped out of his shock, retreating half a step in alarm and anger, looking at Selena with the lantern, "Why... why can’t I feel the Lord’s power, why can’t I hear..."

"I haven’t done anything," Selena quietly looked at her opponent, "Do I need to remind you again? You are just a projection, this town is a projection, everything here is a projection.

"If you could hear your ’Lord’s’ voice during your prayers, then it was surely an illusion.

"If you could still utilize the divine arts granted by your ’Lord,’ then you were merely overdrawing the power of this Illusion Town.

"Because you are just a projection."

The portable lamp in Selena’s hand emitted a milky white glow, penetrating like the sun into the depths of dreams, awakening the mind, penetrating the elderly priest’s mental defenses.

And the word "projection" repeatedly raised by Selena followed this light’s power, piercing into the enemy’s sealed consciousness.

The entire Illusion Town began to tremble violently.

The jagged spires disintegrated silently, streets filled with cracks in the blink of an eye, and everything began to irreversibly disintegrate, as if some pillar supporting this world had vanished, this town maintained by fragmented projection information was now on the brink of demise.

Clearly, having confirmed the projection priest’s power limit within the town, and realizing the "Supreme Narrator" in Sandbox One might connect with this Illusion Town through "divine arts," Selena Gerfen had no intention to retain this dangerous "sample" any longer.

"No... it shouldn’t be like this..." The elderly priest at the small chapel retreated in terror all the way to the door bearing the Supreme Narrator’s insignia. His body was covered with black cracks, like porcelain rapidly breaking, the sight truly horrifying, "The Lord will protect me, the Lord should be omniscient and omnipotent, the Lord... why can’t I hear..."

With a slight hint of pity, Selena looked at the projection priest who had begun to doubt his own existence and even the Supreme Narrator, then she stepped forward, heading towards the church door ahead: "Task completed, retreat."

The members of the exploration team silently followed the silhouette holding the lantern. One by one, they passed by the fading projection priest, who fruitlessly reached out his hand as if wanting to stop something, but he was so thin and illusory that he could no longer stop anyone.

All along, Gawain stood quietly in place, watching as the members of the Eternal Sleepers’ exploration team passed one by one through the church door, their auras disappearing one by one in this "Town after the Bells Tolled," until the last person left. Only then did he move forward, arriving at the church door.

The sky had darkened, and the town began collapsing from the outside in. Buildings in the distance crumbled, and black fragments broke apart like fallen leaves being swept up towards the chaotic and somber sky.

The projection priest’s shattered body leaned against the church door, his eyes a mix of fanaticism and bewilderment.

Suddenly, within his soon-to-shatter eyes, the reflection of an unexpected visitor appeared.

Gawain deliberately disengaged the psychological invisibility, as if to confirm something, and quietly stood before this projection.

"Can you see me?" he asked slowly, lowering his head.

"You are..." The projection priest’s eyes widened gradually, staring in astonishment at the stranger before him, "You are... what?!"

"Interesting that you can see..." Gawain smiled slightly, then shook his head. "It’s a pity you’re just a projection, and the connection with Sandbox One has already been severed. Otherwise, I really would have asked you to pass a message to the Supreme Narrator."

The projection priest’s consciousness began to fade, subconsciously repeating, "Pass a message?"

"Wanderers from Outer Realm will soon visit your master."

The last glimmer of light in the town vanished.

This projection that had persisted the longest in the mental network disappeared along with Sandbox One.

Amidst the familiar transition of light and shadow and brief vertigo, Gawain returned to the real world.

Beside him came the cracking sound of melon seeds. As Gawain turned his head slightly, a handful of seeds was offered to him: "Here, have some melon seeds."

Gawain didn’t take what Amber offered, instead, lost in thought, he murmured as if talking to himself, "After this, the Eternal Sleepers should take direct action against Sandbox One..."

In the Illusion Town, that nameless projection priest indeed wielded the power of Divine Arts—although his final God’s Incarnation failed, the "Divine Arts" itself meant that the "Supreme Narrator" within Sandbox One had already acquired god-like characteristics on some level!

And the deep contamination Yuri and the others encountered during their mental calibration further indicated that the "pseudo-divine existence" was not superficial—it could genuinely exert hidden contamination and tangible influence on the outside world!

The Eternal Sleepers would not let this development go unchecked, even if it meant taking risks, they should take further actions.

As for Gawain himself... the words he last spoke to that projection priest were not said lightly, for he had already foreseen that the Eternal Sleepers’ actions had a high probability of failure.

The Supreme Narrator that the Eternal Sleepers had "created" was indeed too restrained by their own powers.

Gawain had decided to find a way to intervene in the subsequent actions of the Eternal Sleepers, and even... try to enter and investigate when they open Sandbox One!

Amber had grown accustomed to Gawain’s occasional dazed moments. As she skillfully retrieved the melon seeds back into her snack box, she continued cracking them with a casual comment: "Things are getting bigger over there, huh?"

"Hmm." Gawain casually responded, his gaze then falling onto Amber.

There was a need to pay attention to matters within the mental network, just as there was a need to focus on things in the real world.

The figure of Selena Gerfen floated to his mind.

"Amber—are you still carrying out the search mission I assigned you?"

"You mean the whereabouts of Selena Gerfen?" Amber nodded, "The investigation is still ongoing, and I now already have a highly suspect target..."

"A highly suspect target?" Gawain raised his eyebrows with some surprise, "What is it?"

"The Kant Region and Gran Region—I’ve temporarily pinpointed these two suspect locations," Amber placed the melon seeds down, clapped her hands, and said earnestly, "The former appeared with the ’dream lantern’, a ’sacred object’ of the Eternal Sleepers’ sect, and the latter... Patty’s coronet is a very suspicious object.

"If Selena Gerfen is transferring her soul using magic supplies, then those two things are the most suspect. They could both be ’containers.’

"Of course, the dream lantern has now been transferred to Cecil Castle, but it has been dismantled into parts by Rebecca and studied multiple times by Kamel. It’s been determined to be ’empty’ internally, so I believe, if it was a container, Selena should have already left before then..."

As Amber analyzed the situation methodically, Gawain’s gaze towards her grew more surprised.

It seemed that, even if he didn’t obtain crucial clues in this exploration, this goose before him would inevitably find Selena Gerfen’s trace with her intelligence-gathering prowess. Even if she couldn’t directly pinpoint Patty herself, she could narrow it down to those around her.

Gawain laughed, shook his head, and interrupted Amber’s subsequent words.

"Make arrangements, I need to go to Gran."

Amber’s eyes slowly widened.

After observing Gawain’s expression for a second, she blurted out, "Oh my... have I been busy for nothing lately?"

Gawain: "..."

How is this fellow becoming more perceptive lately?