Fire Mage

Chapter 458: Dream within a Dream

Charles watched the scene in surprise and soon cast [Sun's Guard] spell on himself while maintaining the connection with the Faith Realm through the [Hand of Wonder] skill.

On the other hand, the bird creature shivered suddenly and let out a screech!

Although it appeared more like a painful scream, Charles felt that the creature seemed to be enjoying the pain.

The next instant, illusionary images of Nash's memories appeared above that creature's head. 

Charles learned that they were Nash's precious memories with a simple glance! One image showed Nash's childhood memory with his mother, another image showed him marrying a blonde-haired woman, and so on.

'It eating his memories?' He was shocked a little. Although he knew that some Nightmare Creatures could steal memories, he didn't think they also had similar skills like his [Mind Fire] spells!

At that moment, he couldn't help but frown.

'Should I attack this creature now?' Just as he was about to cast his [Finger of Destruction] spell, he suddenly thought of something, activated his [Arcane Eyes] skill, and looked at the bird monster.

No, he searched for Nash's soul!

Soon, he realized that his soul was sealed inside the bird creature's belly. Moreover, Nash's main consciousness was broken into pieces at that moment, and his memories were disappearing quickly.

'What kind of creature is this?' Even he felt somewhat threatened by this creature. But after he looked at its status, his worry eased a bit.

'A Rank-5 Nightmare Hollow, huh. It also has some troublesome mind-attacking abilities. Should I back away?' 

While he was thinking, a new illusionary image appeared in front of his face. Unlike other images that appeared above the bird creature's head, this one contained an image of a winged serpent. It was a large creature with a blue crystal-like cone on its forehead area, had two greyish wings, and diamond-like scales. 

The slender serpent slithered silently in the image, its scaly skin shimmering in the sunlight as its tongue occasionally flicked out to taste the fear in the air. Charles also saw a symbol around its neck area. It was a circle with a cross inside and looked more like a solar cross! Currently, the winged snake was hovering above an abandoned palace and seemed to be hissing at the sky for some odd reasons. 

But for some strange reasons, Charles felt strangely familiar as he looked at the symbol!

'I've seen this symbol! But where?' He tried to recall the memories, but suddenly something extraordinary happened.

At that moment, the bird-creature that was pleasantly devouring Nash's memories froze due to some odd reason, made an ear-piercing screech, and started staggering. Simultaneously, its body made glass-breaking noises and began to bulge like a balloon.

Meanwhile, Charles also received a forewarning from the future and learned about what would happen next.

'Hmm? A black cloud? It will transport me to the abandoned palace?'

Before he could even understand the situation, an illusionary cloud appeared out of nowhere and completely enveloped the bird monster. It wasn't a normal cloud, but tens of thousands of minute cube-like black crystals formed into a cloud and covered the bird monster! The creature tried its best to shrug off those strange minute crystals, but everything went futile.

Before long, the whole 7-meters tall bird-creature exploded and soon turned into similar black cube-like structures!

The next instant, Charles noticed that those black cube-like structures moved towards the illusionary image and then entered in.

A moment later, a mysterious force came out of the image and caused the whole surroundings to break away like broken mirrors.

Although Charles tried to back away and return to Faith Realm, he was a bit too late. Alas, a greenish layer and sunshine layer appeared around his body and blocked the mysterious force from moving towards his body. 

Before long, he found himself standing in front of an abandoned palace! But unlike before, he couldn't remember where he was a moment ago!

He tried to recall but couldn't! It was as if something obstructed him from even thinking about his past.

'What am I doing here? How did I come here? Is it a dream?' He raised his right hand, pinched his skin, and soon frowned as he felt a sharp pain.

'This is not a dream?' 

The change was so abrupt that it made him raise his eyebrows in confusion.

'Maybe an illusion?' Charles got deeply startled by this strange situation and hurriedly cast a fireball.

A second later, a head-sized ball of chaos fire appeared before his face and soon disappeared with a puff.

'I still can use magic. That means someone else transported me here.'

He frowned deeply and shifted his attention towards the palace. Although it appeared old and abandoned, he felt a strange sense of familiarity. It was as if he had seen this thing a while ago.

While in confusion, he looked up at the sky and searched for something.

'Wait... Why am I searching for something? No, what am I searching for?' Confusion appeared on his face. 

Meanwhile, the sky appeared greyish black color with only a white sun hovering at the center, causing him to relax a little.

Then, he shifted his attention towards the palace and stepped forward to explore this new place. Although he didn't understand what he was doing here, he didn't dare to neglect any strange incidents.

'An anomaly happens due to two reasons. One is because of accidents, while the other is because of some else's manipulation. I might be in Dreamworld or under some realistic illusion. In my whole life, I only heard a few people who are experts in Dreams related abilities. They are Goddess Rodia's artifact, Sun God, God of Dreams and Nightmares Ithos, and finally, the strange 'Nightmare' creature that attacked the Holy See in Faith Plane. My main suspects are Sun God and the mysterious 'Nightmare.' In my opinion, this image might be due to the accident. But I can't rule out the possibility of the second reason.' He thought inwardly, walked on the entrance stairs, and observed the exterior structure of the palace. 

The three-storied palace and a 145 feet five-storied tower were built using fine grey granite, while deep pink marble was used for the domes. The exterior of this marvelous structure was enriched with two durbar halls, several arches, canopies, columns, and bay windows. There was also a sprawling green garden surrounding the palace.

As he stepped inside, he couldn't help but pause in surprise. 

The interiors were opulently designed with carved doors, stained glass ceilings, glittering glazed flooring tiles, spectacular chandeliers, and works of art from everywhere. All the rooms of the palace are stunningly luxurious and quite appealing.

Above the central arch, a divine sculpture of a person– with two creatures standing on both sides. One creature was a winged serpent, while the other was a parrot-like bird with three-long feathers as its tail. But what made his face stiffened was that the divine statue was none other than his own!

'What kind of sorcery is this? When did I have these two pets?' He couldn't help but take a deep look at his statue suspiciously.

Then, he shifted his attention towards the parrot-like bird and realized that this one was Midea! 

'But what about this winged serpent?' Charles moved his gaze towards the other creature and soon felt that he had seen it somewhere before.

'Hmm? That cone-shaped blue crystal. Hadn't I seen something similar on the shadow princess snake's forehead? Now that I think about it, Eddie indeed said that he had created fake souls to let the shadow princess and other creatures live for a long time in the Dream World. After I left Riverdale City, I almost forgot about that snake. But it seems this one is still alive and kicking somewhere in the Dreamworld.' He showed a surprised look on his face and shifted his attention towards his current situation.

'I'm clearly in Dreamworld. Hmm, I think Eddie also once told me that the Dreamworld has a link with past, present, and future timelines. I might've entered the Dreamworld when I was asleep.' After some thought, he stopped exploring the dream palace, touched his space ring, took out a sharp knife from it, and directly stabbed it into his stomach!

A second later, Charles opened his eyes abruptly in the Dreamworld and noticed that he was still in the Dreamworld. 

Currently, he stood a few meters away from the bird-like monster and appeared unharmed. The main reason was due to his other consciousnesses. One of the three consciousnesses took control over his body when his original consciousness disappeared into the abandoned palace and protected his body.

'Good job.' He nodded inwardly and shifted his attention towards the bird monster. 

Indeed, the bird monster was still alive and seemed to have entered a similar Dreamworld like him.

At that moment, the previously blocked memories also appeared before Charles's eyes and showed the seriousness of the situation.

'It's too dangerous to stay here!' He hurriedly linked his mind with the invisible string that connected him to the Faith Realm and left the Dreamworld.

A second later, he reappeared in the middle of ashen grassland and let out a heavy sigh.

At that moment, the morning sun had already risen from the eastern sky and showered him with warm light.

'I wanted to capture Nash and erase his memories to learn more about his background, but that bird monster ruined my plan. No, it's not the bird monster, but that anomaly. That thing put me into a real dream and gave me a shock.' He clicked his tongue and then shifted his attention towards the mysterious butterfly letter. 

It was the only memory Nash left behind!