Chapter 280 Chapter 66.1 - Grave
"Haaaaah...Haaaaah….."
As I continued to release heavy breaths as if I was just about to drown underwater, I looked around.
"Astron!"
As the familiar voice of the certain girl echoed in my head, I turned to face her.
"Are you okay? Here, drink this."
For some reason, I wasn't able to remember anything. As if I had awakened from a dream, every memory of mine was blurry, it felt like.
'What was I doing?'
I knew inwardly that something inside me had changed. Something that was missing. Slightly narrowing my eyes, I resisted the pain that tried to overlap my head and took the water Sylvie gave me.
"Thanks," I mumbled as my brain started recalling the information of what I could remember to last.
'I was looking for some observations and then…..'
Then, everything suddenly became dark. After that, I don't remember much aside from some blurry moments.
"You won't ever leave me, right?"
Once again, a voice echoed in my head as I recalled one of the blurry moments. The voice that is familiar.
'It is her voice, isn't it?'
Most likely, I had awoken from a dream. If it was that, everything seemed to make sense. However, there were many other things in the environment that I couldn't quite put my feelings on.
'The atmosphere….'
–THUMP!
Just as I thought about it, suddenly, I felt a sensation in my chest. The same sensation I got countless different times.
'A demon…'
But this time, it was different. Much more different.
This sense of dread was so much that I was even about to have a hard time breathing. My heart started beating incredibly fast, as if I was running for a long amount of time.
'Everywhere around is filled with demonic energy.'
Whether it was because the demonic energy was incredibly potent or, for some reason, I could see everything better; I was able to notice the energy surrounding us. The dark energy was covering almost every other location around and those dark threads connecting in the air.
It was disgusting, as if something was feeding from it.
"ASTRON!"
Sylvie's urgent voice brought me back to the present. She asked if I was okay, and I nodded, reassuring her that I was fine.
"What happened?" I asked. I had an idea in my head, but right now, I needed to understand the situation first.
"Sigh…." Hearing this, Sylvie released a long sigh as she looked at my right side with a face filled with unease. "I want to explain everything to you, but we need to wake Irina up first."
Before Sylvie could answer, she suggested waking up Irina first. I turned my attention to the side, realizing for the first time that Irina was lying on the ground, unconscious.
'Irina is unconscious as well?'
But something seemed different about her, as her body was slightly convulsing.
'She is about to wake up.'
Realizing that it was the symptoms of waking up, I waited.
–PAH!
"Haaaaah..."
Irina's eyes snapped open as she jolted forward, her sudden awakening accompanied by a sharp intake of breath. The surroundings seemed to take a moment to register for her as she glanced around, confusion evident in her amber eyes.
"Irina, are you alright?" Sylvie asked, her concern palpable. I moved closer, offering a hand to help Irina, and she accepted it, using the support to steady herself.
Her initial disorientation faded, and she nodded in response to Sylvie's question, reassuring us, "I'm fine, just a bit disoriented."
'Everything seems too weird.'
My memories were blurry, and from the looks of it, Irina was in the same condition; she looked blankly around.
But at that moment, suddenly, she bolted from her place.
"We don't have much time!"
And she shouted. Her complexion turned paler as well, and her blood circulation sped up. It was evident that she was now in a state of excitement, but that wasn't what I needed right now.
"What do you mean? Elaborate."
I answered. 'We don't have much time, what does it mean?' While asking this question to myself.
"That…..I don't know."
However, the reply she gave me made everything weirder.
"You don't know?"
"I mean…..I know something is going wrong, but I can't quite put up what it is." She replied, trying to understand what she meant as well.
'Is it related to her memories?'
If that was the case, then maybe she had seen something inside that dream, and even if she had forgotten the contents, that feeling of dread might have affected her subconsciousness.
Right now, inwardly, I was starting to get angry. I knew one thing for a fact: the emotions I suppressed were getting out once again.
The existence of demons around me was getting on my nerves.
Sylvie intervened, reminding Irina of their purpose before entering my dreams. "Remember, we came here to find answers about Phantom's Land and its mysteries. We were investigating the magical properties and the strange occurrences. Maybe something triggered this reaction."
Irina's eyes widened as she brought her hand to her forehead as if trying to grasp elusive memories. "Oh, now I remember... We were trying to find a way to understand the magical energy and the anomalies in this land. Before entering your dreams, we were planning to—"
Suddenly, realization dawned on her face. "Wait, it's all coming back to me. I remember everything now, Astron. Something dark and menacing. It felt like a malevolent force trying to consume everything."
"What? You need to elaborate more."
"I can't. That is all I know from the dream, Urghk-!." As she pressed her temple, she looked at Sylvie. "I am fine, just a second."
After that, she grabbed the water Sylvie gave her without even using her hands but only using her 「Telekinesis 」. And the way she did it was certainly in a proficient manner.
'Was she this good at Telekinesis?'
I asked myself, but I didn't linger on that topic for now.
"So, you seem to know what is happening here?"
I asked. From how Sylvie acted and how Irina was trying to talk, it seems these two found something about this whole issue.
"Yes." Irina nodded. "Let me start from scratch. After I had completed the theory, I went to check the facts…..–"
As Sylvie and Irina recounted their experiences, the air inside the bungalow grew thick with tension. Their words painted a picture of Phantom's Land as more than a mere enigma, revealing a malevolent force at play.
I listened intently as they shared encounters with phantoms, the intricacies of magical influences, and the calculated nature of the entity shaping the land.
Irina's amber eyes held a focused intensity as she emphasized, "It's shaped by a powerful entity, with intentions unknown and potentially dangerous."
'It must be the source of this demonic energy.' I thought to myself. The entity Irina was talking about was the demon, but most likely, she was unable to identify it because she had never encountered a real demon before.
After all, demon followers or demonic humans are a lot different from demons.
Sylvie added with worry. "The entity's malevolence explains the dark spells and the complexity we encountered while probing Jasmine's heart. This isn't just a random occurrence; it's a calculated influence."
To sum up the findings, Irina had confirmed that this demon was the reason why Phantom's Land was formed in the first place, and the demon was looking for something.
'Such a large-scale thing, and the original never mentioned something like this.'
There were many questions that needed to be answered, but one thing came first.
"Then, what are those phantoms….."
If those phantoms appeared once someone entered into this sleep-come state, then it meant either those phantoms were their souls or something related to their consciousness.
'What happens to those phantoms once the body is dead?'
This was another question. After all, if the phantoms were somehow related to souls or consciousness, there was a chance that those phantoms who wandered around like that after the clock hit 06.06 would still have their bodies somewhere around.
At that moment, as I contemplated the information, I heard Irina mumbling something under her breath. "Parallel world…"
The words caught my attention, and I immediately asked, "What do you mean, Irina?"
However, she seemed unable to answer; her expression clouded with frustration, as if the answer slipped through her fingers. "I don't know, I can't point anything….."
But the mention of a parallel world triggered something within me.
I started looking around the room as if expecting to find a clue in the shadows or the mist that permeated Phantom's Land.
Then, my eyes fixated on the spell that was connected to the heart of Jasmine. It was a complex array of magical symbols and psions, and as I observed it, a realization struck me.
"Spatial psions…" I muttered to myself. The gears in my mind started turning, and a crazy idea began to form. It was both because of what we found and, at the same time, I knew an enemy from the game.
'What if these phantoms are not just illusions or manifestations? What if they are souls from another world?'
'We all felt like it was like a dream. But what if we actually replaced our parallel selves.'
The notion seemed far-fetched, even to me. However, the spatial positions in the spell hinted at a connection to the manipulation of space.
What if this demon was attempting to create a rift between worlds, a space crack that allowed the souls from another realm to seep into Phantom's Land?
'Then, everything would make sense. Even the identity of this demon.'
After all, there was no way that such a strong boss that could somehow get this amount of humans under its spell would left out in the game.
It was bound to be mentioned, and it was certainly done.
'So, it came from here, huh?'
I asked myself. To think that the boss of one of the future side-
quests was actually something related to Phantom's Land.
'I guess the game can never reveal all the details at once after all.'
If the idea in my head was correct, then from then on, things were about to get both troublesome and good.
Facing an enemy that would normally be far more powerful in the future made it easier for me to respond in any case.
'Then, there is only one thing left.'
To kill the enemy.
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