Blaze stands up, and the divine power that is enveloping him dissipates. The six-winged blue star on his head seeps under the skin and disappears. Not only that, the marks of myth on his two wrists also hide themselves.
Blaze can feel his very own power draining by a mystical force. An unexplainable energy that is both invisible and elusive.
[You have gained a temporary effect: Woodland Terror]
[Woodland Terror: All of your power is locked.]
[You have gained a temporary effect: Woodland Decomposition]
[Woodland Decomposition: All of the Hidden Powers of your item are locked.
[You have gained a temporary effect: Daywalker]
[Daywalker: For those who entered the sixth layer of the Void physically. The effects of Woodland Terror and Woodland Decomposition are reduced slightly. You may use so of your power.]
"What is this situation?" Blaze’s eyebrows draw together. He opens his palm to summon the newly acquired S-Rank power Thunder Ascended God, but the only thing that pops up is only a weak blue electricity.
The muscles on that arm contract aggressively when Blaze tries to use his power. It is similar to when he was using this power in the lower rank, when it was still around E or D-rank.
"The power has beco much weaker. I wonder why..."
Blaze looks up into the sky. A grey, sunless sky with a sorrowful and desperate feel to it. This is definitely not the sky of the Mirror Layer. His Daywalker status effect proves this fact also.
This is the sixth layer of the Void. So call it the Woods, while officially, it is registered as the Dream Layer in the police report.
The Mirror Layer is very annoying as it can spawn a Voidgate at any ti. Causing unwanted death to many lower-rank Awakened and ordinary people. However, this is only true for that layer.
Every other layer is not subject to this characteristic and most of the ti is completely different from one another.
The Dream Layer, for example, drags their victim into it from their sleep. There have been many docunted cases throughout Akansa. People were dragged into the Dream Layer for a night, and when they woke up in the morning, their minds died due to the long amount of ti they existed inside the Dream Layer.
That’s right. Ti works differently here. Just like every dream you have. A night in the real world can be months inside the Dream Layer. So people even state that they stay for decades inside the Dream Layer, while outside, it was simply a few days.
"You could have dragged anywhere. But why did you drag here, System?"
Blaze wonders if it has a reason to choose the Dream Layer. Logically speaking, this realm is the most unique out of the layers of the Void, as it isn’t physical. Most contacts of this layer to the real world have been docunted to happen within a dream.
This causes Blaze to wonder if the dreamland is where the gods cannot reach out.
Gods can be powerful and all-knowing, but in ancient scriptures since the dawn of ti, they could never touch the free will of the mortals.
Free will creates thoughts. Thoughts create hope. And hope creates dreams.
This isn’t a re deduction from Blaze. A lot of necromancers and mythomancers also ca to the sa conclusion. It even has a big section explaining this subject inside the Spellbook of Fables.
"This place for sure can shield from the eyes of the Cosmic Order. But how do I get out?"
Blaze equips the Shadow Tattered Cloak. The previous tamorphosis has completely turned his clothes to dust. He doesn’t bring any extra, so he can only use the item as a temporary costu.
The Cloud Coat is too revealing to wear alone, so Blaze can only pick the Tattered Cloak.
When the Cloak appears on his body, his skin lights up in blue slightly. It seems like the new divine energy inside him does not like the Shadow Tattered Cloak one bit.
[Detecting conflict between your Thunder Ascended God (S-Rank) and your Shadow Tattered Cloak (Rare)]
[You won’t be able to use Thunder Ascended God (S-Rank) while wearing Shadow Tattered Cloak (Rare)]
"Heh. Locked powers and now energy conflict. What a sha. Let’s just hope that the monsters in this place are not that dangerous."
Previously, the Sun Bird also had the sa reaction to the Tattered Cloak. It must also have divine energy inside. Now that his power is also related to godhood, it is only logical that it despises the Shadow Tattered Cloak.
Blaze takes a look around. He is in an open grass field. The grass has a sickly yellow color and is shorter than Blaze’s ankles. Afar is the vast land of woods that he cannot see the end of.
He tries to take out the Blue Bolt, the forr Destruction Wand. The magical wand appears in his hand no problem and doesn’t seem to reject the Shadow Tattered Cloak. At least until he activates its Divine Conversion.
Blaze tries to shoot out a lightning bolt from the wand, but none appears. The blue jewel at the tip of the wand only lights up a little when the Hidden Power is called.
The thunderous and destructive Lightning Wrath is now reduced to nothing but a mobile light source. Blaze tries the Necrosis Destruction Beam also. This ti the jewel exudes tiny black smoke and goes straight to the sky. The Destruction Beam has also beco useless.
Blaze switches out the Destruction Beam and replaces it with the Moonlight Karambit. He keeps it in its Karambit form and tries to use the power of Darkness.
The black sphere of shadow is now reduced to black smoke that expands in a limited area. It can still be used as concealnt but is nowhere near as effective as it used to be. Now it is no different than a smoke bomb.
Blaze slashes the air with the Karambit. The blade no longer creates a blade fang that shoots out to the distance. Instead, it creates distortion near the edge of the blade and extends its range by a little bit.
Its power is limited, but at least it has sothing useful.
Then Blaze takes out his last weapon on his body, the newly acquired Irony.
The gun seems normal in his hand, and he tries to will the bullet to appear in the cylinder. Surprisingly, Irony works perfectly fine. Blaze fires a bullet into a tree to check. The bullet no longer creates a white laser light but now acts as a normal bullet and digs out a hole on the surface of the tree.
"Weaker but still the strongest amongst my arsenal right now..."
Blaze finally decides it. For now, Irony will be his main ranged weapon, while Moonlight Karambit will be his lee weapon.
He also calls forth the other items. Tattered Mask, Lantern of the Damned, Running Shoe, Cloud Coat. The Grappling Hook is always on his wrist.
Unexpectedly, the uncommon and common items suffer the least penalty and changes. The Grappling Hook works exactly like it did before, denying physical laws to pull Blaze flying in the air.
The white Running Shoes are still fine, but Blaze doesn’t even know what they do in the beginning.
Cloud Coat’s Sky Barrier now turns the fabric into a Christmas tree that glows brightly. Blaze doesn’t have any other clothes, so wearing Cloud Coat only is very embarrassing. He sticks with the Tattered Cloak.
The Tattered Mask seems normal. He can’t activate its powers, though. Fear is completely neutralized, now only making Blaze’s eyes turn red. While the other powers need a subject to test on, he doesn’t know what they are capable of at the mont.
The Lantern of the Damned has turned into a pure, normal lantern. He can’t pull out the souls or interact with them. However, he can still use its very first power, the power that he has never used offensively, only to torture the poor souls. Soul Flare.
It makes the Lantern beco brighter.
After checking the item, Blaze tries to use other powers of the System.
No Beast and Clones are in System Storage so he can’t summon any. The Shop Window now has an error symbol and notification.
[Unknown Error!]
[Shop is disabled for now due to intervention from the world]
"Intervention from the world, huh? What exactly is this Dream Layer?"
The Status and Skill Windows seem fine, nothing is wrong with them. Then, Blaze tries to communicate with Isaac.
Isaac? Are you there?
No response back. He can’t feel their connection either.
For the first ti in days, he is alone once more.
After checking everything, he cracks his neck and ventures into the endless woods. He has to find a way to get out of this layer and return to the real world.
The world suddenly turns dark. It doesn’t happen gradually but changes in an instant. The cloud moves extrely fast, and black clouds cover the sky. The trees wither and all have skinny, leafless branches. The light is out, and darkness takes hold.
Blaze holds the Lantern of the Damned in his left hand, using it to illuminate the way.
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