Chapter 318: Dream End

As soon as she turned towards Asher, he moved his arm, which held the knife. The tip of the knife was covered in mana, and in the next instant, Asher plunged it into the side of the girl’s head.

Before the girl could even understand what had happened, the attack was already over. She died instantly, without experiencing any pain.

Asher looked at the girl for a moment before letting go of the knife he had used to kill her.

As soon as he released it, the girl’s lifeless body fell backwards, producing a dull thud as it hit the ground. However, despite the noise, no one came to the room to investigate what had happened.

Asher glanced at the girl’s body for a moment. He could now feel as though something had also pierced his own brain, but it was only a sensation. There was nothing wrong with his body, and he hadn’t suffered any actual injuries.

He stood silently for a moment, waiting for the strange sensation to disappear.

Soon, the feeling of pain on the side of his brain gradually faded away. At the same time, a white orb emerged from the girl’s body and entered Asher’s body.

As the orb entered him, Asher felt his mana increasing. Immediately afterward, the girl’s entire life began flashing before his eyes, allowing him to experience her memories, fears, trauma, and negative emotions.

In real life, only a moment seemed to have passed, but for Asher, the experience felt as though several years had gone by.

After the memories finally disappeared, Asher looked at the girl’s corpse for a moment before muttering in confusion, "Just this much was enough for him to go crazy? Was I this weak and pathetic in the past?"

Asher thought about it for a bit before muttering again, "Maybe I was. Well, the past is the past. Can’t do shit about that now."

He then checked his mana capacity. It had increased a little, although not enough to reach the next rank. Still, the increase was useful, and he wasn’t going to complain about it.

Asher then tried to remember where the kitchen was in this place. After recalling its location, he made his way there and took some knives and forks to use as weapons.

There was no one in the kitchen, so he didn’t encounter any problems.

After taking the knives, Asher moved through the orphanage and began eliminating everyone inside. Everyone in the orphanage was non-awakened, and most of them were children around his age, so he didn’t have much difficulty dealing with them.

With each encounter, his ability grew stronger, making the next one easier than the previous one. However, using too much mana placed a considerable strain on his young body, and sometimes it felt as though his body could barely handle the power he was trying to control.

For a moment, screams echoed throughout the orphanage, but before long, the entire place fell silent.

Asher stood alone in the orphanage garden. Around him lay the bodies of the children who had lived there, all of them his age or younger.

After eliminating everyone in the orphanage, Asher finally reached the second rank, and his ability grew stronger as well. He could now sense the pain of living beings within a radius of ten meters.

Asher looked around him, trying to understand the scale of the nightmare he had entered.

This nightmare didn’t consist of a single location. Instead, it contained an entire planet, inhabited by billions of humans and billions of other living beings.

The world felt real, but it wasn’t. It was merely an enormous nightmare created through the combination of Asher’s first-life ability and the Nightmare Saint’s power.

Asher’s ability in his first life had been simple. It allowed him to take the abilities of others who were at the same rank as him, experience their trauma after killing them, and sense the pain and emotions of those around him within a certain radius. As his rank increased, the radius of this perception also expanded.

And this world existed because of that ability from Asher’s first life.

Asher had come to the Nightmare Saint to relive these experiences once again. By doing so, he hoped to gain what he needed for the war against humanity and for the work he was carrying out with the Empath Demon vessel.

Outside the nightmare, one week had already passed since Asher entered it.

The Nightmare Saint had repeatedly tried to break into the nightmare created around Asher’s consciousness, but no matter how much it tried, it couldn’t enter.

The more it thought about the situation, the more frustrated it became.

This had been the perfect opportunity for it to grow stronger. Asher’s consciousness contained almost trillions of life experiences and traumas, making it an extraordinary source of power. If the Nightmare Saint had managed to access those experiences, it might have had the opportunity to become one of the strongest Saints in the world.

However, everything had gone wrong because of the strange white mist surrounding the nightmare. It prevented the Nightmare Saint from interfering with anything inside, leaving it unable to access the experiences it desired.

The only thing it could do now was wait for the nightmare to end, and that depended entirely on Asher, who was still inside.

Almost eight years had already passed within the nightmare, yet the Nightmare Saint had no idea how much longer it would continue.

And just as the Nightmare Saint was thinking about this, it noticed that the white mist covering the nightmare had finally begun to fade away.

The Nightmare Saint immediately turned its attention towards the change, watching carefully as the white mist gradually disappeared. After waiting for so long, it finally seemed that something was about to happen.

However, before it could do anything, the entire nightmare was suddenly destroyed as soon as the white mist completely faded away.

The vast nightmare that had existed for so long disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

Near the place where the black orb had once been, a white humanoid figure was now standing. Its entire body was covered in white, making it difficult to distinguish any clear features.

The figure stood silently for a moment before turning its attention towards the Nightmare Saint.

After looking at it for a few seconds, the white figure raised its hand and waved enthusiastically, as though it were greeting an old friend.

"Hello!"