Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 704 - 648: Soul Blossoming into Two

Like soaking in boiling hot soup, the kinetic air around his body rejected his presence, the irritability of being rejected, the discomfort transmitted from his body’s surface to his brain, compelled Lyle to open his eyes.

Vision dim, a fantastical collage of illusions formed the canopy overhead as he lay on the ground, strikingly similar to the scene above, the difference between heaven and earth blurred in thought.

"I feel somewhat nauseous."

No tangible objects could be discerned in his field of vision, only the blending fuzzy masses of color, like a river clogged with oil slicks.

Lyle was hardly any cleaner at this moment.

"He" lifted a leg and proceeded in any given direction, his black, pole-like long leg parting the surface, leaving deep black traces in the chaotic colors. Lyle watched his lower half with some surprise, the slanted black mire already forming a watery band in the colors. Looking up into the distance, his gaze pierced the brilliance, looking towards the unchanging, endless horizon.

The Omen Giant stood like a solitary, desolate tower within the dream.

[Is this the Emerald Dream? It hardly qualifies as emerald.]

"This feeling, it seems familiar..." His bony palm slid through the oily muck, Lyle observed the intricate erosion between the black and the chaotic colors, "This belongs to someone’s dream, and we are seen as the enemy."

[That’s pretty unfortunate, a person’s dream reflects their true self, and considering the environment we’re in, the owner of this place is probably in a bad state.]

"These dreams, they seem to be deliberately manipulated."

[A Dreamwalker can twist their own dreams, yet here, we are restricted by a ’shapeless’ barrier, theoretically, no consciousness or thoughts should take any concrete form...]

The Omen Giant touched its body, which had taken shape thanks to an abundance of shadowy tendrils.

"Only the Evil God can maintain its existence amidst chaos, this dream... it’s like a sieve for filtering the Evil God."

[That means you’re exposed now... Here comes the real deal.]

The Omen Giant turned slowly, its hanging tendrils glowing with a faint, dismal green, resembling a shimmering night sky. On its obscure face, a pair of malicious voids stared at a point in space not too far away.

Where there was nothing, light and shadow started behaving oddly, space rippled, then bulged, and eventually, with a tearing sound, a large crack appeared in midair, and a bunch of thick willow branches bound together emerged from the void. The rift continued to expand, and the monster hiding inside slowly revealed its body.

Carved with strange patterns, the enormous wooden mask housed two deep phosphorescent fires, set in this six-meter-wide elongated mask, a pair of dark black thorny antlers grew out from under a lion’s mane of deep brown hair, emitting a mixed sound of hissing and gnashing teeth, this quadrupedal behemoth, or rather, demon beast, moved leisurely around the Omen Giant.

There was an astonishing resemblance between the Omen Giant and the Nightmare Demon in their construct, but the Omen was as skinny as a stick, its piled tendrils mere puffiness. The Nightmare... Its fierce claws, its robust body, the muscles hidden under the willow shell, strong enough to overpower the Lord of Hell, even the Warrior Dragon breed. Especially when Lyle took advantage of the moment the Nightmare Demon looked up, noticing the armor-like hard muscles on its body. She had explosive abdominal muscles, exaggerated as if any minor movement might squeeze them off like ripe fruit.

"Your true appearance has indeed given me a surprise, Susanna." What made Lyle feel even worse was that, like the Omen, she had a clear form in the intangible dream. Susanna, was also an Evil God akin to himself. She went through a lot of trouble to pull herself into her dream, clearly not with the intent to connect with a relative on the evil god’s side.

The Nightmare Demon let out a low roar, like thunder heard through a wall, filled with malevolence familiar to Lyle.

"I am not surprised to see you in this way, Evil God Infant." Spikes grew raspily on the surface of the Nightmare Demon, Susanna took steps forward like a beast entering a hunting stance, moving closer to Lyle step by step. "My longed-for kin, my cursed kin. Your journey ends here, let me... kill you!"

The pouncing beast tore the giant apart. The Omen’s body broke into fragments, the splattered black muck fell like rain. Each drop on the ground sprouted new branches, legions of Omen Giants stood erect, numerous Omens speaking in unison, enveloping the behemoth in their midst.

"Kin? There is still a gap between us, Susanna..." The Omen Giant revealed a sinister smile, "The omen tells me, you are not like us, you’re but residue of a god, a tool born with divine command, separated to execute will... see, I am standing, while you, you can only crouch."

"Crawling is better than lying down. This is my dream, foolish God Infant." The entire world began to twist around the massive beast, the heavens and the earth spinning, the Omen being compressed and devoured, confined before Susanna’s claws. In an instant, the claws of fear struck at the core of the Omen, and the power of utmost force and the Power of Nightmare exploded within the Omen Giant. Lyle was torn apart like a rag doll, floating in the air, pieces of him everywhere. "I am but the remnants of a division by the Father God, while you are the sneaky piece of meat, the illegitimate child of rebellion. What is there to be proud of, you fool?"

"The dreamscape is my home turf, my world where only my power can traverse." The giant beast skillfully peeled away the still active and writhing core, stripping away the power of the Evil God, "A soul’s entity has been shaped, just one step away from maturing and contaminating reality. Oh? Noticing that other abilities are ineffective, you’ve started to proficiently use the power of the Evil God to contaminate the dreamscape, not bad for God’s Child. But you’re still lacking."

The colorful, blurred dreamscape suddenly churned, and the black tentacles hiding behind the scenes turned into thousands of blades stabbing toward Susanna. She didn’t move, letting the tentacles pound on her body like raindrops.

The core she held in her hand disappeared. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Using the distractions of the attack, Lyle escaped, or rather, he forced himself out of that dreamscape, waking up.

Lyle pulled down the Iragen hanging above his head, and the sleeping Susanna and Irason lay not far away. Lyle’s back was soaked with sweat.

"Damn, I should’ve been more careful, that crazy woman Susanna is trying to kill me. Survival is crucial; time to get out of here, she’s about to wake up."

Lyle spent a whole day fleeing back to Andrey; he even reverently stayed in the Church of Holy Light for three hours until the glory of Mr. Raymond swept the shadows from his heart.

Everything returned to normal.

"Oh, so this is what you’re relying on? King of the Crusaders, Angel of Light..." That deadly voice echoed in Lyle’s ears like a nightmare. As he looked at Mr. Raymond before him, the Church of Holy Light shattered and dissipated like glass, and he once again fell into a nightmare, still in Susanna’s grasp.

All that had happened was just a dreamscape constructed by Susanna.

"A dream within a dream?" Lyle looked at the Nightmare before him, his heart filled with bitterness.

"To be precise, it’s a dreamscape that keeps falling. You can keep trying to surface, searching for the reality of awakening. But trust me, you will sleep forever in my dreamscape. If you want to keep trying, I’m always here to accompany you. There’s no concept of time in a dreamscape, and I would very much enjoy watching your soul get swallowed by despair, bit by bit." Susanna’s light laugh echoed in his ears, and Lyle’s self-conscious struggling decreased significantly.

Without obstruction, Susanna’s Power of Nightmare began to penetrate deeper into Lyle; the power of the Omen was stripped away bit by bit, "I will prepare a separate cell for you in the Emerald Dream, right beside Father God Terton. To prevent the possibility of you being assimilated by him and escaping, I will strip all the powers you’ve acquired off of you."

"Let me find, your most tainted and true essence..."

As his spirit was continuously dismembered, Lyle felt his consciousness weaken, growing more and more tired.

A cool touch appeared on Lyle’s face, the chilling sensation made him shiver and come to his senses. He opened his eyes, looking at the monstrous Nightmare scrutinizing his diminutive self with a peculiar gaze.

"You really are... as special as Elan said..." Susanna looked at the Evil God Infant in her palm, filled with mixed feelings. In the deepest part of Lyle’s soul, in her hands, it shone like a gem, radiating a warm white light, utterly free of any impurity.

"Not only are you an Evil God Infant but also a Pure Spirit? Splitting evil and good into two interdependent parts..."

"Cultivating a Twin Flower on the soul, or an Alien Flower."

"Parting your wholeness into two pieces..."

"Are you mad?"

"Are you an idiot?"