Heidi was blank-faced, then her expression turned to one of panic.
For she knew who the father of this "sea witch" was—that horrific joke was not even remotely funny!
"I’m a Believer of God of Wisdom Rahm, ma’am," she blurted out hastily, as if fearing that any delay would deepen the misunderstanding and truly establish so secret connection with that dreadful Subspace Shadow, "I’m just an ordinary psychic doctor, you must be mistaken!"
However, Lucrecia only frowned slightly, her gaze calmly resting on the chest of this "psychic doctor," where that seemingly unremarkable athyst pendant was still faintly emitting a familiar aura—she might mistake other things, but her father’s presence...
She even felt as if her father’s eyes were silently observing her through that pendant.
"Where did you get this pendant?" Lucrecia suddenly asked.
"This... it was a gift from my father, he bought it from an antique shop," Heidi quickly explained, not giving it much thought, "It’s nothing special, rely having so protective effects on the psychic level..."
"Antique shop?" Lucrecia seed puzzled, "Your father is..."
"Oh, this young lady is the daughter of Morris Underwood," it was at this point that Taran El, who had been quiet until then, finally spoke up, sensing sothing off in the atmosphere, "Relax, Madam Lucrecia, this Miss indeed is a psychic doctor, and she’s helping leave this place."
Yet upon hearing Taran El’s words, Lucrecia looked stunned for a mont, then turned to Heidi with a subtle expression, "Morris Underwood?"
"Yes... yes," Heidi nodded, "That’s my father’s na..."
Lucrecia’s face was expressionless as mories of the last ti she t the new crew of the Holoss through the Crystal Ball surfaced. She rembered that respected scholar—her father’s current "knowledge adviser."
The world is truly small.
The iciness in her eyes lted away, and a sincere smile returned to her face as her gaze softened toward Heidi, "Hello, Miss Heidi."
"You... hello," Heidi was utterly confused, feeling as though her life had experienced several intense ups and downs in just a brief mont without understanding what had happened, so she nervously returned the greeting of the "witch," "You know my father? And you know Master Taran El?"
"The world is smaller than you think," Lucrecia did not answer directly, offering an offhand remark before turning to the elven scholar opposite her, "From a self-perception standpoint, how long do you feel you’ve been trapped in this Dreamscape?"
"I’m not sure, my sense of ti is off now, maybe a few days? Or possibly longer."
Lucrecia frowned, "Judging by the cognitive shift, it’s starting to get dangerous... I guess you’ve already tried all sorts of wake-up thods, including the Falling thod?"
Taran El spread his hands, "Yeah, except for the ’Sudden Death thod’."
"If conventional subconscious awakening thods aren’t working, other thods won’t either. This is not a normal Dreamscape—nor is it an external Curse or psychic attack," Lucrecia waved her hand dismissively, "I have already checked your condition in the real world and set up a lab to control psychic contamination, ruling out these possibilities... Miss Heidi, can you tell us what information you have so far?"
Heidi, at first stunned, took a couple of seconds before she belatedly realized what was happening and quickly relayed everything she knew to the "witch" before her, even starting with her invitation to Prandle City Hall—she didn’t dare omit a single detail.
Lucrecia patiently listened to the string of information, her expression changing several tis.
"From a Dreamscape far in Prandle into Taran El’s dream... the distance between these two City-States is not trivial, and now that dream entrance has disappeared..." The "witch" spoke with a grave look, "It seems if the guidance is poor, even you, a psychic doctor, might be trapped here."
"So do you two experts have any conclusions now?" As the only "patient" on the scene, Taran El remained quite composed, now just curiously asking, "What exactly is going on with this Dreamscape?"
"...Before drawing any conclusions, I need to confirm sothing," Lucrecia did not answer directly but asked seriously, "How did you fall asleep? I found your draft in the tower; it looked like you were about to send it to the academy via ’Rapid Dispatch’. Were you attacked on the tower? Or did you ’see’ sothing in the process of observing the sun?"
Taran El was lost in thought.
After a long while, he spoke uncertainly, "I wasn’t attacked... I only rember using the equipnt in the tower to see many vague shadows and lines in the sun, wanting to record them all, but those things were too chaotic and blurry, impossible to see clearly, so I just drew a rough sketch, and then..."
His voice suddenly beca greatly hesitant, his eyes also filled with intense confusion and bewildernt, as if the more he tried to rember what he saw at the mont he fell asleep, the less he was able to confirm his mory.
Finally, Taran El stopped, unable to recall anything more about what had happened in the last second before he lost consciousness. With a dazed look, he slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping over Heidi and Lucrecia, then around him, at the incredibly lush and inconceivable dense forest.
And so, he gradually beca still, finally not making any more movents or sounds, even his breath and the minute movents of his eyes ca to a complete halt. A breeze blew through the woods, no longer able to stir his hair or clothing.
Taran El had beco a "statue" frozen in a Dreamscape.
And with his stillness, everything within the Dreamscape finally began to change. A strange and deep roar perated and echoed throughout the world, as if an infinitely massive thing was slowly collapsing. The towering trees gradually lost their color and began to disintegrate from the crown down, while the lush undergrowth withered away into wisps of smoke.
Heidi watched in astonishnt as this all unfolded, then suddenly turned to look at Lucrecia, "Is this a ’veil’? Not a real Dreamscape?!"
"It seems you’ve learned well in school, Miss Heidi," Lucrecia raised her eyebrows, "Indeed, just as I suspected, this is not a real Dreamscape, but a protective ’veil’ woven atop it. What we see is not Taran El, but a ntal construct he created to protect himself temporarily, so no matter what we do, we can’t possibly awaken him from here—the true Dreamscape is hidden deeper within."
"Why is it like this?" Heidi was utterly surprised, "I... have never seen such a realistic protective veil; it completely obscures the deeper Dreamscape..."
"I haven’t seen it before either, and Taran El is no expert in the psychic realm, despite so targeted training. Theoretically, he shouldn’t be able to weave such perfect ’protection’," Lucrecia shook her head, "But one thing is for certain, the weaver of this ’veil’ is attempting to hide sothing deep within the Dreamscape... If this is indeed Taran El’s doing, then he must have sensed a great danger after entering the dream..."
She suddenly stopped.
Because the "collapse" of the forest had gradually halted.
Not only stopped, but after a few seconds, the entire process of the forest’s collapse began to reverse—the towering trees started to reassemble, and the dissipating colors rapidly returned to the ground. The "veil," which seed on the verge of shattering, was regenerating at an astonishing speed!
"The veil is regenerating!" Heidi exclaid.
Lucrecia, amidst her surprise, imdiately looked toward the ntal construct of Taran El—who still stood motionless as a statue, showing no sign of reactivation.
The protective veil of this Dreamscape had regenerated, but it wasn’t Taran El who was the "weaver"—it was another force protecting the profound truth deep within this Dreamscape!
In the mont Lucrecia realized this, two things beca apparent:
First, aside from the "elven girl" Heidi ntioned and Master Taran El, there was at least a third "drear" within this Dreamscape, who was the true controller of this "disguised Dreamscape."
Second, the invaders were still nearby, the pollution source was right here!
The protective "veil" of the Dreamscape was regenerating spontaneously, for it perceived a great danger and started to reverse its vanishing—judging by the scale of the entire forest and the commotion of its reassembly, the source of danger was certainly beyond imagination.
Neither the devotees of annihilation that Heidi previously vanquished nor the invaders Taran El had dealt with were the real cause behind this Dreamscape’s closure!
As Lucrecia ca to this realization, Heidi also suddenly grasped the reason for the veil’s regeneration: "There’s sothing hidden in this Dreamscape, the invaders are still here!"
"Be aware of any abnormalities around us!"
Lucrecia imdiately warned, then quickly began to search for any suspicious entities within her sight, sensing the air’s flowing essence, trying to find out where exactly the "pollution source" that the veil was desperately trying to resist was hiding.
The air, the fragrance of flowers, the sound of wind through the trees, the distant flow of water, the sunlight filtering through the canopy...
Everything was so vivid, so natural, so seemingly normal.
Which one of these was out of place in the Dreamscape?
Wait... sunlight?!
Lucrecia’s heart jolted.
This forest harbored countless towering trees, nurous lush canopies, which were ant to shield against the sunlight.
But despite such dense coverage, "sunlight" still bathed the entire forest, illuminating every nook and cranny.
"The sunlight is the invader!"
She realized in an instant, alerting Heidi aloud, who then instinctively looked up through the gaps in the canopy toward the sky of this Dreamscape.
Among the layered canopy, large and small gaps had mysteriously erged, through which the sky and sunlight were visible, along with the sun that shone upon the Dreamscape.
Dark and twisting tentacles entwined and converged, twisting into a ball interspersed with countless pairs of enormous, pale eyes, like a horrendous spawn floating in the sky, looming over the forest.
The bright sunlight, like a cast of light, covered the surface of this malford entity, quietly shining over the entire Dreamscape.
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