Sherry couldn’t tell if it was just an illusion, but ever since they entered this twisted and bizarre "forest," Ah Gou had been acting a bit sentintal—it had been reminiscing a lot and even recalling past events that hadn’t been ntioned in a long ti, so of which Sherry herself had forgotten, yet it rembered them quite clearly.
After hesitating for a mont, Sherry decided to share her feelings.
"Sentintal? ?" Hearing what Sherry said, Ah Gou was first taken aback, then began to express its doubt, "Really? Have I been reminiscing and getting emotional?"
"Yeah," Sherry nodded repeatedly, "You do sotis act like an old woman, bringing up old stories, or giving a long list of lessons, but you never seed this... sentintal before. It made feel quite uncomfortable listening to you."
Ah Gou gradually halted its advance, and finally it subtly beca aware of the faint influences it was under. After pondering for a mont, it tilted its head, its empty and horrifying eye sockets scanning the gloomy dense woods, the blood-colored faint glow within its eyes slowly appearing and disappearing.
"The forest is influencing us... It’s so kind of emotion," it said solemnly, "The whole forest is pervaded by a heavy and oppressive ’atmosphere’; it’s making think wild thoughts, like... like being imrsed in a vast mind, constantly disturbed by it..."
Sherry’s eyes suddenly widened with anxiety, "Ah...what? Are you saying that this forest is... sentient?! You’ve been affected by it? Is it serious?"
Ah Gou shook its head side to side, "No, we shouldn’t say it’s the forest, but rather this Dreamscape... Don’t forget its na, The Dream of the Naless; dreamscapes are themselves fabrications of the mind... But don’t worry, it’s not severe. This influence doesn’t seem to be targeted, it’s just passive interference caused by the environnt. Sherry, are you alright?"
"I’m fine," Sherry pointed to herself, her expression also carrying a touch of puzzlent, "Yeah, if even you’ve been affected, how co I feel nothing... Could it be because I’m more carefree?"
"If it were really that simple, that would be great," Ah Gou muttered quietly, "Don’t let your guard down. Subtle influences are the most dangerous; the more you feel nothing’s wrong, the likelier it is that sothing will go wrong. If you suddenly experience a drop in mood or feel panic and anxiety, make sure to tell imdiately."
"Mm," Sherry hastily nodded her head, then she frowned again, looking uneasy at the seemingly endless forest, whispering, "What do you think... when will the captain find us? We can’t be so unlucky as to be stuck here forever, right?"
"It won’t happen, don’t think nonsense," Ah Gou imdiately responded, "Didn’t you just feel a faint call in your heart? That ans the captain already knows about this; he must be trying to figure out a way. All we have to do is protect ourselves for now."
"Oh."
Sherry obediently agreed, but just at that mont, a strange, sticky noise that sounded like sothing slowly lting and dripping invaded their conversation, coming from not too far away.
This hair-raising sound made Sherry’s skin crawl, and she sharply yanked at the black chain beside her: "Ah Gou! Did you hear that..."
"Heard it, close by, sothing’s there—"
Ah Gou spoke swiftly, already turning its head toward the direction the strange noise was coming from, and, almost at the sa mont, Sherry and Ah Gou witnessed a scene that defied understanding—
A clump of bushes began to grow wildly, as masses of pitch-black substance erupted like a burst from the dense foliage, forming countless flailing limbs in the air in the blink of an eye, ending in dense, eye-like slits at the tips of those limbs, while the towering trees nearby appeared to "lt" amidst strange noises, their thick trunks flowing down like mud, and the sun-blocking canopies, devoid of support, now began to grow toward the sky, twisting and deforming in the distorted, fla-like light into countless pale, dangling filantous objects. The ground was churning as if it had suddenly turned into a soft, sticky mbrane, or as if so terrible creature was burrowing through the soil, ready to break through...
In the next second, a range of chilling noises burst forth all at once, the sounds of phantom combustion, mucus-like squelching, and the hissing filled with noise instantly filled the surroundings. The mutating vegetation had, in almost the blink of an eye, spread to every visible area, and everything before them seed to have suddenly co alive, presenting the most nightmarish visages amidst frenzied, twisting growth!
Everything was mutating, distorting, assaulting the boundaries of perception and reason—right before Sherry and Ah Gou, the Dreamscape surged, and an entity filled with dark malevolence finally burrowed out from the ground, a flowing shadow enveloping indescribable forms and entities, as if countless eyes and sharp teeth were hidden in the rising sludge. With one glance, Sherry realized the only thing she should do.
"Run!"
She could only manage to shout so much before spinning around and dashing off towards a direction that appeared sowhat "stable" for the mont—the rough and uneven forest floor rolled beneath her feet with every step, every stride felt like stepping on cotton or the skin of so soft-bodied creature, bringing a nauseating and terrifying sensation.
Her body, enhanced through Demon Symbiosis with the Profound Demons, unleashed its full potential in this mont; she felt like she had never run this fast in her life!
The dark and ghastly chain stretched taut in an instant, with Ah Gou being pulled by Sherry and soaring into mid-air, undulating as she ran full speed.
Sherry pulled Ah Gou along, hurtling through the woods, but after running a distance, she glanced back to see that the surging nightmare was still chasing behind them, prompting her to shout again, "Switch!"
Without even waiting for the echo of her voice to fade, she threw the chain forward with all her might, sending Ah Gou flying ahead—
Before landing, Ah Gou had already adjusted its posture, landing on all fours with absolute composure, then without any delay continued to sprint forward, using the montum from being swung.
Now it was Sherry’s turn to be flying through the air.
And during such repeated relays, that ever-mutating, nightmare-like "forest" relentlessly pursued them from behind, as if it were a nightmarish phantom they could never shake off.
It even gave Sherry a terrifying illusion, as if the entire forest had co to life, and with furious malice, as though determined to devour her and A-Dog whole, it hunted them down from all directions!
Fortunately, just when she felt she truly couldn’t escape, the pursuing and spreading "nightmare" behind them abruptly slowed its pace.
As suddenly as it had begun, the forest’s twisting corruption ca to an unexpected halt—
Sherry, dragging A-Dog along, ran forward for dozens of ters before she belatedly realized this, and she skidded to a stop beside a toppled giant tree, turning her head to look at the distant dark corruption that had ceased spreading, her eyes wide with astonishnt as she gasped for breath and said, "A-Dog... huh... it stopped over there..."
A-Dog’s massive fra whizzed past her, propelled by montum, and crashed into a nearby pile of rocks.
After the booming crash, A-Dog struggled out of the stone heap, shaking its head while loudly asking, "What?!"
"Ah..." Sherry glanced at A-Dog, still feeling sheepish, and pointed to the distant area of darkness that had abruptly stopped spreading, "It just suddenly stopped over there."
"You wait a second..." A-Dog grumbled, running to the side of the rock pile, and opened its mouth, "Ugh—"
With the sound of foul, corrosive material eroding the earth and stone, the disoriented Abyssal Hound finally finished vomiting, and then it shook its head and slowly returned to Sherry’s side, looking up at the frightful, halted corruption.
A sharp "boundary" lay in the middle of the forest, with lush greenery full of life on their side and, on the other, a chilling, unspeakable land filled with strange twisted shadows and undulating matter.
Countless animated vines and shadows erging from the soil still moved slowly within that dark area, and even though they were no longer spreading closer, the sight filled one with a profound sense of alarm.
Sherry didn’t even dare to look over there for too long, barely managing to control her breathing, her voice still trembling, "What... What the hell is that thing?"
"I don’t know... I’m not an expert on the Dreamscape," A-Dog said, coming to Sherry’s side, staring at the distance with utmost vigilance, "But this might be the true form of ’The Dream of the Naless’... Sothing deadly is spreading in the depths of this Dreamscape, it’s just the scale of this dream is so vast, Captain and the others didn’t make it last ti—we did."
"Why does the bad luck always hit ..." Sherry began to mutter with a frown, but she quickly shut her mouth, her face full of alertness as she turned her gaze towards a certain direction.
A-Dog too imdiately withdrew its gaze from that area of decay, growling low in its throat, fixating on a clearing a few ters away.
There was a strange presence getting closer.
Although they didn’t know how this strange presence had appeared, evidently... soone was entering the Dreamscape.
Friend or foe?
Sherry and A-Dog felt a certain... familiarity mixed with an irritating wariness from that unfamiliar presence.
The next second, under their watchful eyes, a vague phantom suddenly materialized on the previously empty clearing—just like a dream bubble gradually becoming clear, the phantom slowly took on a human shape.
A young man in a dark blue coat, tall and slender with a sinister face, appeared on the clearing.
As the young man’s figure materialized, Sherry and A-Dog both noticed a brief flash of a dark chain near his shoulder blade, with an inauspicious avian phantom faintly visible at the end of the chain.
Sherry’s eyes subtly shifted, as she instinctively tugged on the chain connecting her to A-Dog.
The uninvited guest also swiftly reacted, turning his gaze sharply as he sensed the presence of strangers.
The girl in the black dress standing with the Abyssal Hound ca into his vision.
He was surprised for a mont, then frowned:
"...There’s already soone in this area?"
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