Siderius opened his left palm. Immediately, strands of orange light appeared around the creature of many things. His body disappeared from sight, turning into a bullet cutting through the past Jude’s neck.
He grabbed the necklace in mid-air.
When Siderius landed on the ground again, the creature was beheaded. It fell to the ground, blowing up dust and dirt.
A giant bead of sweat rolled on Jude’s face. He slowly turned back into his human form. He couldn’t help but think if he could fare any better than the projection if he faced Siderius.
"Caterina was right. This witch was much more powerful than he actually showed." Jude thought.
He didn’t even consider that Siderius’ power in the dream world was different. Jude’s own power in the dream world matched the physical world so he thought Siderius was similar.
Siderius dropped the piece of necklace on the ground and stomped it into pieces. Faint strands of silver Light Aether appeared around his feet and quickly gathered inside his hand.
"Killing Phantom grants Light Aether just like before. This world operates within the same concept as my old world." Siderius thought.
The vengeful hunter then turned toward Jude.
"Now what?" Jude said.
"Now we kill the phantom." Siderius said.
Back in the first layer of the dream world, where Siderius’ Mind Palace resided.
Black smoke suddenly appeared at the far North of the castle. Nora took a look at the window.
"It’s here." Nora said.
"It?" Caterina approached the window and saw the black cloud. "Is it the Phantom? It can chase us to his dream?"
"Of course. It is an Oneiros after all. A creature of nightmares. Follow me. You are needed."
Nora opened the window and jumped straight down. Her white robe expand into an umbrella shape. Alchemy Seal lit up on the fabric, slowed her down from the falling.
Caterina followed Nora right after with her black wind magic.
"What is this magic? I can’t feel any mana at all." Caterina said.
Nora smiled but didn’t answer.
They landed gently on the courtyard. Nora ran over a stone platform and put her hands on two pillars.
"Teacher is busy finding the anchor. His soul won’t have time to spare its energy for the barrier. I will try my best to maintain the barrier. But you must make sure none of its minions will reach me."
"How can they reach you? Won’t they have to get through the barrier first?"
"Look and you will understand."
A gold energy seeped out of Nora’s hand and got absorbed into the stone pillar. She was only a Gold-Rank Alchemist, not a Platinum like Siderius.
The faint barrier became more solidified.
The black smoke covered the entire sky of the Mind Palace. Then the head of Jerath, the Nightmare Phantom appeared like a sun in the far North sky.
Its black smoke reached the castle and touched upon the barrier. The blue sulfur repulsed all foreign energy back.
Caterina’s brow furrowed. But she quickly understood what Nora meant.
The smoke didn’t reach the barrier but it was able to corrupt the ground beneath. Some of the ground inside the barrier was also affected.
Gravestones appeared at the edge of the Mind Palace and rotting corpses emerged from within the dirt.
"These undead again?"
Caterina rushed forward like a wind. She landed with a cyclone spinning around her. The corpses couldn’t touch Caterina. All of them were swept by the wind and blown in a circle around Caterina.
The rotting corpses were easy to deal with. But the Phantom finally played its trump card, the power of nightmare. Read full story at 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⚫𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⚫𝘯𝘦𝘵
Its needles and knives reached out from within the cloud. The Phantom held a metal bell in its left hand. The bell was a long metal rod with a triangle shape. Its right hand held a metal rod.
The Phantom rang the bell. A green shockwave spread from the bell to every corner of the Mind Palace.
"Phasmon Energy? Cover your ear, Caterina!" Nora shouted.
She removed her hands from the pillars and swung her loose sleeves around, conducting a quick Alchemy Seal to block off the noise of the bell.
Caterina didn’t have any way to deal with the noise. The Phasmon Energy crawled into her ear like centipedes. Her legs wobbled and she stumbled around, hands holding her ears tightly.
"What is this?!" Caterina’s body felt fine but her soul was shaken to the core.
The Phantom let out a high-pitched snicker then hit the bell again.
Caterina screamed as her soul was pushed beyond repair. In the real world, Caterina’s body fell into a seizure. Blood started to leak out of the corners of her eyes and her nostrils.
Nora flew over to Caterina and brought her onto the stone platform. The Alchemy Seal blocked the noise outside and Caterina was able to calm down.
"What was that?" Caterina groaned in pain.
"Phasmosis Damage. A unique way of attacking a specter. It is very hard to defend against." Nora said.
"Then what are we going to do?"
The two of them looked over to the Phantom’s direction.
The Nightmare Phantom had hidden the bell away. But the corpses were raised once more. They slowly approached Nora and Caterina.
"You can’t deal with Phasmosis Damage. Stay close to me. You have to prevent those corpses from reaching me. If they do, the Phantom will finish you off with that bell again."
Caterina nodded grimly.
Nora pushed her palms to the stone floor, creating a second smaller barrier around her and Caterina. Then she returned to the stone pillars to maintain the Tri-Primes Barrier.
Caterina was flying around in the small barrier, blowing all the corpses away and keeping them off from Nora.
In the castle, Siderius opened his eyes and stood up. He snapped his head toward Jude and saw a smoke releasing from Jude.
"The anchor is removed. But he will probably sleep for a little more while. His mind needs to process it."
Siderius grabbed the True Steel sword on the bedside counter and jumped outside the window.
Contrary to Nora using an Alchemy Seal to slow down, Siderius used his body and landed heavily on the ground. His bones, skins and tendons were all enhanced. They stayed rigid even with all those gravity forces.
"I miss this kind of strength. The real me in the physical world is too weak." Siderius said.
He unsheathed the sword and walked toward the stone platform, where Nora and Caterina were. This entire series of events was coming to an end.