Chapter 4: Who Can’t Stack Boxes?
A scorching shockwave, gathered from pure light and heat, rose and swept through everything within the Lingering Dream Illusion.
Even the illusion itself began to shake precariously. Annrina’s delicate face turned deathly pale, not a trace of blood color left. She concentrated all her mental energy, barely suppressing the tendency for the illusion to collapse.
Although within the Lingering Dream Illusion, as the Master of the Nightmare Butterfly, she was theoretically omnipotent, like a Creator.
However, this skill was by no means truly perfect.
Once, a master of beast taming theory proposed: “There are no useless familiar beasts, only useless Beast Tamers.”
Although this theoretical master was stuck at the second tier his entire life and died in obscurity, and most of his theories were later proven to be pure nonsense and toxic chicken soup—
High-tier beasts could indeed crush low-tier ones. Why not let an awakened-tier BoBo Bird challenge an Emperor Rank young Red Dragon?
However, one point in his theory was still applicable: all powerful familiar beasts inevitably have flaws and weaknesses.
At least for Annrina, a mid-tier Beast Tamer, her Nightmare Butterfly was still far from invincible.
While the Lingering Dream Illusion was extremely bizarre, the nightmare illusions it simulated would consume Annrina’s own mental energy.
Especially when the manifested illusions, their form of existence and principles of composition, were completely beyond Annrina’s understanding, her mental energy consumption would accelerate significantly.
Just this short period had already shown signs of Annrina’s mental exhaustion.
“However, this must be your final struggle.”
Annrina’s face was pale as she stared at Shaya, who had his hands in his pockets in the distance.
Although his facial expression showed no change.
She could imagine such complex illusions, completely beyond her understanding, meaning his mental energy must have been greatly depleted. He was merely putting up a brave front.
For Beast Tamers whose foundation was their soul, complete depletion of mental energy essentially meant becoming lambs to the slaughter.
As long as she held on a little longer, she could exhaust his remaining mental energy.
At that time, it would be time to savor his soul.
Thinking this, a flush reappeared on Annrina’s previously bloodless face.
Within the mental illusion, she could already vaguely sense the fluctuations of his soul.
So clear, so pure, with unfathomable depth and a mysterious aura. If the other prey she had hunted in the past were casual home-cooked meals, then Shaya before her now felt like an unparalleled delicacy served at a state banquet, exuding an alluring fragrance at all times.
This was only natural.
A genius Beast Tamer from the Saint Roland Academy in the Imperial Capital, the quality of his soul was bound to be incomparable to the apprentice Beast Tamers from the countryside.
Perhaps after completely consuming him, her Nightmare Butterfly could gain the opportunity for its next evolution.
As soon thought flashed through her mind, Annrina saw the previously flickering, distorted nascent forms of the illusions gradually becoming clearer.
They were magnificent cities composed of buildings. For some reason, Annrina found the illusion of these cities somewhat familiar.
It seemed like the Imperial Capital she had visited as a child.
But why would such a thing appear in her Lingering Dream Illusion?
Annrina’s expression was filled with surprise and uncertainty. The illusions manifested in the Lingering Dream Illusion were supposed to be the things the target feared most and deemed most powerful.
Based on her past experiences of using “Lingering Dream,” the nightmare illusions generated by those who fell victim were usually various evil dragons whose scales were merely a different color, or infamous kings of monstrous beasts like Silver Moon Dire Wolves, Abyssal Giants, and Starry Ancient Beasts.
She could barely guess the origin of Shaya’s initial illusion; perhaps it was some one-time self-destructing mechanical familiar beast newly developed by those people from the City of Knowledge’s Steam School.
But the city illusion before her left Annrina completely baffled. Who would fear a city?
It was at the Next Moment that the illusion of the city suddenly began to change.
The perspective of the illusion was suddenly pulled back, and the originally magnificent and unparalleled city abruptly shrank. From its former grandeur, which occupied half the illusion space, it was now reduced to a barely visible speck.
In its place appeared a vast, earthy yellow plain, like a map. Cities and scattered small and large kingdoms stood within it, like tiny models.
This… is the map of the Continent?
Annrina’s pupils contracted slightly, but the change in the illusion did not stop.
The perspective continued to pull back.
Soon, a blue sphere appeared before Annrina’s eyes. Most of it was occupied by the sea, and the previous earthy yellow plain was merely a few scattered colored patches.
And in the distance, far from the blue planet, a much larger, scorching sphere was burning against a background of pitch-black nothingness.
Annrina’s pupils contracted again.
Although she was only a lowliest Baron, she was, after all, a hereditary noble of the Empire, with connections and information sources beyond ordinary people.
The scene before her reminded her of a rumor that had circulated from the City of Knowledge a few months ago, circulating only within noble circles but causing a stir in academia—
The land we stand on may not be flat, but a gigantic sphere.
And the entire World does not revolve around our planet, but revolves around the blazing sun.
Although it was only a rumor, he understood it so clearly, even able to imagine a concrete picture.
Could it be that he was related to the City of Knowledge and the Steam School?
Before she could ponder Shaya’s origins carefully, it was almost the next breath.
Annrina blankly watched as the originally massive and unparalleled blazing sun surprisingly shrunk again.
Soon, from the sun that had once obscured the sky, it transformed into a minuscule speck of light, like dust, emitting a faint glow.
Beside it, there were tens of millions of similar light spots, flowing slowly in the pitch-black curtain.
Suddenly, a large hand reached out from the void, grasping this Star Sea World constructed from billions of light spots.
Then, it gently placed it on a chessboard.
And around the chessboard were countless similar pieces, each crafted from an entire cosmic Star Sea.
*Pfft—*
A look of horror flashed across Annrina’s face, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.
The entire illusion could no longer be sustained and shattered into pieces in an instant.
“You can’t hold on anymore? There were still a whole bunch of boxes left to stack.”
Looking at the illusion that had turned into countless shimmering fragments around him, Shaya sighed with a hint of regret.
If the other party had been able to hold on, he had already planned the next steps—
This universe containing countless stars was merely a lesser world. Three thousand lesser worlds formed an intermediate world, and three thousand intermediate worlds formed a great world. Countless great worlds constituted an immeasurable pure land.
To make a Transmigrator feel fear, one would need at least the power of a Lord of the Immeasurable Pure Land, right?
Alas, for a petty noble living in a border town, the Continent and the Planet were already the limits of her imagination.
Therefore, her downfall was rather swift and decisive, wasting Shaya’s effort.
The illusion dissipated, and the manor’s ceiling reappeared, along with the dim sky outside the window.
Not far away.
Annrina lay limp on the ground, her mental energy drained, showing an “ahoge” expression alongside the pitch-black butterfly that had fallen to the ground.
