Chapter 371: 146. Stacked Dream (5k)
In the moment when Erwind, adorned in a pure white cloak, turned his head, the colors in Fisher’s vision became monotonous as if swallowed, as if the entire world was reduced to black and white. Erwind’s dream was distorted by his nearly mythical-ranked soul, beginning to exhibit characteristics akin to reality.
Before Fisher could raise the magic in his hand, he immediately felt immense power coming from in front of him. Erwind, moving at a speed many times faster than Fisher’s, struck fiercely against Fisher’s defending left arm, causing him to plunge down suddenly as the space around him erupted with a shattering sound like breaking glass.
“Crackle!”
Erwind’s entire dream shattered violently, and both of them continued to descend. Fisher coughed as he fell from the sky and crashed onto the steel deck, imbued with the salty sea breeze, piercing straight through it and into the cabin space below.
But the danger had not passed; before Fisher could get back up, a pre-arranged high ring lightning magic was triggered from his hand. However, Erwind did not evade and crashed down directly, breaking through the magical barrier Fisher had constructed, causing him to leap back onto the deck with another loud crash.
He took a deep breath and suddenly realized that the surrounding scene was incredibly familiar, right on the Iceberg Queen before he came to the Northern Region. On the deck, countless crew members fleeing from the Kingdom of Sardinia alongside Captain Alagina were bustling around, seemingly unaware of the large pit that Erwind had just smashed into the deck.
Looking up, Fisher saw Alagina, who had her white ponytail tied back, standing at the bow of the ship gazing out at the endless sea. A parrot named “Steel Knife” spread its wings and flew from the railing beside the deck back to the arms of the Cangniao tribe’s Aoxi on the mast.
Is this my dream?
Fisher barely glanced at the scenery in front of him before shifting his gaze away because in the next moment, a gust of wind swept in from below. Fisher had already prepared; with one hand, he pulled the spinner towards the mast, conjuring flames as he drifted down to engulf everything beneath the deck in fire.
He spun around in mid-air and jumped beside Aoxi, nearly knocking the phantom Aoxi over. Before he could apologize to Aoxi, Erwind’s pursuit came crashing down.
“Boom!”
Erwind emerged from the sea of flames, hugging Fisher on the mast, directly breaking it. The mast howled as it was about to fall, and the dreamlike Aoxi also nervously spread her wings to fly away. Yet, faster than the mast’s descent, Fisher and Erwind tumbled down together, crashing right where Alagina stood.
“Boom!”
Entangled, they fell, piercing straight through the iron ship, plummeting into the cold ocean below.
“Fisher, even in the strength of the soul, you are no match for me. Where did the techniques you read in the Soul Supplement Handbook go?”
“Right here.”
They sank into the depths of the abyss along with the Iceberg Queen, which was being completely penetrated. The startlingly real dream truly gave Fisher a feeling of choking, but he quickly reacted, pressing down hard on Erwind’s neck, and with the other hand, he unleashed a brilliant aura of destruction.
“Destruction” ring magic, erasing light.
As an invisible beam, like an eraser, erupted from Fisher’s hand, Erwind’s entire head was blown away in an instant. However, he showed no signs of losing life. The glowing cloak behind him violently whipped, pushing the floating Fisher in the water away.
Once again, as the sound of cracking space echoed, they both spun and fell again, but this time, Fisher landed directly in front of his tiny rented room in Saint Nali. The surrounding environment was bustling with activity, and the headless body of Erwind slowly descended in mid-air, where the wound left by his missing head continuously grew flesh and blood.
The white cloak billowed behind him, but the grotesque flesh expanded until it was larger than his entire body, transforming into a skinless blood dragon.
“Saint Nali, the pearl of human civilization, the flower blooming in the light.”
From the mouth of the giant blood dragon, a blazing stream of fire coalesced. As he spoke, he suddenly expelled a scorching beam of light that sliced through the ground of Saint Nali, severing it until that beam entered the ocean. The tremendous impact penetrated the central axis of Saint Nali, which was marked by the Golden Palace, and a wave of flame over a hundred meters high instantaneously engulfed the entire Saint Nali.
Fisher, having jumped to evade that strike, was just about to launch a counterattack when he suddenly felt something and turned his head, discovering workers wailing at the shattered environmental factory below; countless foreigners who had long lost their bodies and whose souls had been drained, a stream of blood gushed from beneath the magnificent Golden Palace. Family members, servants, and enemies bound by the chains of calculation fell into the raging hell, while the azure sea was not clear but aflame with the fires consuming other people’s homelands, housing countless slaves stripped of their dignity.
Because in the prestigious Royal Academy, the stench of drugs had ignited, and members of the New Party stood at the podium, holding Naliou in hand. The Mother God statue in the church faced away from the praying hall, and an abominable exchange of equivalent trading took place in this sacred yet hidden place.
In the blaze of Saint Nali, the transformed blood dragon Erwind lowered his head slowly, looking at Fisher and asking,
“How many times must we repeat the same mistakes? What kind of punishment will prevent them from repeating such foolish errors? How advanced must technology be, how superior must systems be to change these monstrosities?”
In Fisher’s momentary daze, peering at the scene before him, he felt a sense of familiarity. Yet before he could identify where that feeling was coming from, he was pinned down by the roaring Erwind. The immense force crushed the space again, and Fisher could only devote all his strength to constructing magic.
Erwind’s power was beyond his imagination, and defeating him required even more sacrifice.
Thus, the next second, amid the collapse of space and the dream, he bore the pain of extracting soul power, tirelessly constructing combat magic.
“Zizizi!”
As they fell, streaks of lightning burst from Fisher’s hands. Initially, Erwind paid no attention to such attacks, but as the magic came in quick succession, he finally let go of Fisher’s body in pain. However, he was still constructing magic.
“Roar! That’s it! Show me what the Soul Supplement Handbook has given you!”
“Bzzzzz!”
Erwind, transformed into a blood dragon, suddenly spread its immense wings, covering the sky. With a sonic boom, the surrounding dream shattered again, revealing another layer of encapsulated dreams.
The dream enhanced by the Magic Lord’s ring seemed endless, materializing the latent consciousness buried deep in both of their minds.
Fisher and the giant dragon cloaked in white tangled in their descent, during which sonic booms, flames from activated spells, and sounds of lightning and ice rang out, their figures cycling in different dreams, showcasing their ongoing battle in an eerily bizarre manner.
Two ethereal figures flew from the tip of the feather pen held by Jasmine, tracing the beautiful characters left during her homework.
On an endless lavender field caressed by a gentle breeze, in front of a luxury carriage, a dragon race being covered in red scales was gazing into the distance, watching a figure that had lost consciousness placed at the port, reluctant to leave. He paid no mind to Fisher, who was plummeting rapidly to earth, shredded by Erwind in the sky.
“Crackle!”
The sound of endless space cracking echoed, and like a kaleidoscope, the dream flickered with light.
Countless complex and intricate research manuscripts on Dead Rot Disease fluttered in the wind. A doctor, Torga, who had tired from working, hurriedly fell asleep before his research table, unable even to remove the simple protective beak mask from his face. Fisher unleashed a spatial spell that struck Erwind, shattering part of his massive chest.
Then, the entire dream was drenched in an exceptionally warm hue, illuminating both Fisher and Erwind like the sun.
“Fisher, I personally invite you to my coming-of-age ceremony. Do you have plans that day? I’ve prepared a gift for you, plus I can take you to the Nali Lake library; you can borrow any book you like.”
Before him, a young Elizabeth smiled, leaning her pink lips closer to Fisher’s ear, whispering to him.
At that moment, the young and impoverished Fisher looked helplessly at Elizabeth beside him and said, “It’s your birthday, and you still want to give me a gift? Shouldn’t I be the one giving you a birthday gift?”
“Well, logically, that is true. But your coming is the best gift for me. Hmm, but if you could kiss me once more, that would be even better.”
In such tender words from their youth, amidst two dreams that seemed to grow closer, the library’s bookshelves began to topple. The terrifying blood dragon unleashed flame, cornering the current Fisher to a dead end.
In the dream, as the young Fisher gently reached out to cradle Elizabeth’s beautiful face, touching her soft lips, the surrounding dream vanished with a violent sound of shattering glass.
“Clang!”
Fisher and Erwind plunged again, until at some point their faces were silhouetted by the red sunset, and the carefree chirps of cicadas in the Shivali fields accompanied the gentle breeze.
“Torga, look! Our wheat is ripe!”
In the golden rippling farmland, a little girl with red hair, dressed in burlap, her head wrapped in white cloth, ran barefoot through the wheat field with her arms spread wide to greet the breeze, turning back to call the figure sitting in the shade of a dilapidated eave. In their not-so-wealthy room, their only precious possessions were a few weathered books whose origins were unknown and a metal statue of the Mother.
“Crackle!”
The dream shattered layer by layer in their fierce battle, continuously weaving together their most cherished and beautiful memories. However, beautiful stories ultimately come to an end, and their battle began to show an extremely obvious upper and lower hand.
Although Erwind came to the Northern Region to ascend to a mythical rank using the spirit realm or rather, the Soul Supplement Handbook, he truly seemed only a step away from that rank. This slight distance was negligible, allowing him to be considered a mythical being of the fifteenth rank without issue.
The “unity of body and soul” nature of mythical beings somewhat compensated for the fragility of his soul, granting him formidable combat abilities even within the crevice between the world and the spirit realm. Fisher’s rapid construction of magical spells using his soul power provided him the capital to counter Erwind. However, as time passed and soul powers continued to deplete, both sides were suffering damage, but undoubtedly, the longer it dragged on, Fisher would lose.
“Boom!”
As magic runes were engraved and released in an instant, Fisher’s mental strength and soul energy were nearly exhausted. At this moment, he was somewhat grateful for the “Reproductive Enhancement” ability provided by the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans. If it weren’t for him and Valentina just completing their holy marriage recently, he wouldn’t have gained a soul recovery ability stronger than before; otherwise, he would have already run dry.
Even so, he could not delay any longer; he had to resolve it quickly!
“Crackle!”
The surrounding space and dream shattered once more as Erwind, with his immense stature, and Fisher plunged down again with the dream’s collapse. At this moment, the descending force forcibly interrupted Erwind’s original attack. Although Fisher was also momentarily shaken, he was affected far less than Erwind.
“Roar!”
Watching the terrifying giant dragon cloaked in white spiral with claws bared in the dream’s descent, Fisher quickly realized this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He summoned all his magic strength, condensing an extremely dangerous glowing spell in his hands, one of Heilson’s ultimate techniques. In the entire Nali, aside from himself, no one else had learned it, characterized by two traits—speed and power.
Fourteen ring “Destruction” magic, Annihilating Star.
As that deep black hue manifested in Fisher’s hand, even though he cleverly only constructed its materials and engraving process, the consumption of this magic was still considerable. At the moment this spell appeared, an excruciating pain coursed through his body, and blood began to pour from his seven orifices.
Yet he was not hindered by the pain and swiftly flung the magic he held outward.
As a series of points carrying invisible destructive force sped toward Erwind, who was also plummeting, that immense power instantly engulfed Erwind’s massive body, and the entire dream’s space shattered once more, gradually enveloped in the profound blackness of the fourteen-ring magic.
As the pitch-blackness, interspersed with star-like sparkles, spread, Erwind’s strong and colossal body began to dissipate little by little. But before Fisher could fully comprehend this scene, he fell heavily to the ground.
“Cough! Cough!”
The massive force combined with his already extremely weakened soul caused him to cough violently. He covered his mouth and nose, gasping for breath, but could find only blood, which was not real blood but merely his soul reminding him that his state was very poor.
The pain of the soul was very similar to the pain caused by injuries to the body in reality, merely serving to remind you that you had been harmed.
Fisher lay in agony on the ground of this layer of dream, breathing heavily. In the distance, as the dragon’s form was being consumed by magic, a pool of crimson blood fell once more, landing slowly nearby, forming the figure of Erwind cloaked in pure white again.
“No magic left? Fisher, if you don’t use magic now, you’ll die.”
“Thud! Thud! Thud!”
In the distance, a series of extremely familiar, intermittent bell sounds chimed simultaneously with Erwind’s words. However, Fisher ignored the massive threat that had fallen before him. He could only bear the pain coursing through his body, instinctively turning to look back.
Indeed, he wasn’t mistaken; before him was a church school with the symbol of the Mother God Church painted on its walls. He was extremely familiar with that distinct intermittent tone of the bell, as he had sneaked up to the bell tower as a child to study the mechanisms of the bell, only to disassemble it and be unable to put it back together afterward.
The priest had to call in a mechanic to repair it, and after spending money to fix it, it still chimed intermittently. Fisher had thought about getting it fixed before he attended Saint Nali High School, but he never succeeded; he lacked the talent for steam machines.
But none of that was the key. The crucial point should be—
Fisher’s pupils narrowed slightly; he seemed eager to follow his gaze down from the bell tower, beyond the ginkgo trees growing beside the wall, past the noise of children from the orphanage playing around, to the rather simple gate. At the entrance of the orphanage, he finally spotted a nun sitting there on a small stool.
The nun wore a very elegant black robe. A bit of golden hair peeked through a small gap in her black veil, facing away from him, holding a Genesis in her hands, looking quite angrily at a child of mixed-race Koduna who had made a mistake and had not changed his sulky face.
“Fisher Benavides, you’ve gotten into trouble again, haven’t you!”
The nun spoke like that, but responding to her was not the young, ignorant, stubborn child, but Fisher Benavides, twenty years later.
“Sister Teresa.”
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(End of Chapter)
