After a while, Maya, who was sitting there, remained unmoved. She neither fiddled curiously nor turned to look at Malin. Time seemed to have frozen for her. Malin instinctively felt that something was amiss, but the two Divine Masters seemed to have already noticed the problem.
Together, they conjured a mirror made of Water Elementals in front of Maya.
In that moment, Malin saw many versions of Maya in the mirror, wearing a black wedding dress, her everyday clothes, tattered armor, and holding books.
More and more Mayas appeared in the mirror, of different ages and appearances: red-haired, grey-furred, silver-braided; old women, young children, proud-bosomed adults, and girls armored like bulletproof vests.
"What’s with those leopard creatures pulling up a water mirror? I can’t see anything," Xingyan frowned. "Is their potion working?"
"Now is not the time for you Dwarves and Black Orcs; that’s Malin’s sister," Colin said, frowning. "But I also don’t know what use this mirror has."
Then he saw Malin walking forward. "Malin! Where are you going?"
Malin turned and looked at him. "I can see Maya in the mirror, so many of them."
"By the Goddess, this is great, Mr. Malin. It looks like you are the chosen child of Maya’s destiny. Please come here quickly," Ollie sighed, her summoning hastening Malin’s steps until he stood in front of the mirror. "What’s going on now?"
"There’s been a problem. Cultivating Spiritual Energy works for most children, but for a very few, it’s overly effective. If normal cultivation is like creating a Spiritual Energy Pool in a child, then Maya’s pool is too large right now... like a dried-up lake."
"Simplify it. What do I need to do to save Maya?" Malin decided to make things simpler, fearing that before the Divine Master could finish explaining, his little leopard sister might transform for real.
"You must enter her dreamscape, which is highly dangerous," said another Divine Master, Mina. "The risk is, if you fail, you and your sister will die together. In the dreamscape, you won’t have Blood Roar, your World Tree Sapling, your little Spirits pet, or the little friend in your hood. You will confront your sister in the form of your soul. Tell me, Malin, what choice will you make?"
Malin pursed his lips, hesitated at the prospect of facing Maya in the form of his soul, but eventually, he smiled. "How do I enter the dream?"
Maya felt sleepy because her head was slightly dizzy, but the surrounding fog made the Leopard Girl wary, as she felt she shouldn’t be here, not here nor under a car... wait, what’s under a car?
The confused Leopard Girl looked around, took a couple of steps, and the fog seemed to flow with her movements, the ground’s appearance changing, gaining pieces on the parched earth. Maya crouched down, picked up a piece; it was metal, like a weapon?
She picked up another couple of pieces, carefully fitting them together, realizing it was a Longsword.
Maya stood up, walked a couple of steps, and this time, she saw a victim killed in a pit. It was skeletal, with an unrecognizable, rotten metal pipe on it. Maya picked up the pipe... it looked like her brother’s gun barrel?
Who was the brother? The Leopard Girl scratched her head... what was his name?
Feeling rather prematurely aged, the Leopard Girl pursed her lips, her tail uncontrollably moving to her mouth, stopping just as she was about to bite.
Maya removed her tail from her mouth; she didn’t know why she was about to do that, but instinct told her not to.
Right, not to do that.
With that thought, Maya continued forward.
The dead became more numerous, weird Skeletons began to appear, and gradually, as the fog cleared, Maya found herself inside the western gate of the city. The former slum was gone, replaced by a massive battlefield before her eyes.
It was like... like the experience her brother had described from his time in the north.
What had happened to Carterburg?
Maya leapt over the trenches, looking at the dead inside, who had died in mutual combat. She suppressed her discomfort—she had never seen so many deceased before.
In peacetime, the death of one could bring sorrow for a lifetime.
For some reason, this phrase popped into Maya’s mind, accompanied by another.
In war, the death of a million couldn’t bring anyone to tears.
Maya was increasingly confused; she didn’t understand how all this appeared in her mind.
While the girl looked around at a loss, down the distant street, a figure appeared that made Maya’s hair stand on end—a huge skinless different kind.
She had seen them before. Two years ago, the north side of Carterburg was crawling with such monsters.
But hadn’t they all been killed?
With this question in mind, Maya saw it starting to run toward her. The Leopard Girl glanced quickly around and then picked up a decayed shortsword from the ground—the only weapon she could find. A child of the Gaiate family could die, but not without a fight.