Chapter 319: Game?

The Nightmare Saint looked at Asher for a moment as Asher continued waving at it, behaving as though they were best friends who had finally reunited after years of living apart from each other.

After a while, Asher finally stopped waving and began looking around. His gaze wandered across the surroundings, eventually settling on the nightmare orbs that were levitating all around them.

After observing them for a few moments, Asher turned his attention back towards the Nightmare Saint.

"You live in a place full of darkness. Are you afraid of light or something?"

The Nightmare Saint didn’t answer for a long time.

At that moment, it wanted nothing more than to tear the being standing in front of it apart. However, despite the anger and hatred filling its mind, it couldn’t do anything about the situation.

After all, the being standing before it wasn’t Asher’s actual body. It was merely a projection formed from Asher’s will and consciousness.

And the Nightmare Saint was certain of one thing: the will of the being standing in front of it was currently much stronger than its own. Even if it wanted to, it wouldn’t be able to destroy this projection of Asher’s will and consciousness.

Realizing that there was little it could do at the moment, the Nightmare Saint finally decided to ask the questions that had been troubling it.

"Who are you? And what are you?"

Asher stared at the Nightmare Saint for a moment before letting out a long sigh, as though he had just been asked an extremely troublesome question.

"Just how many times have I answered this question over the last few weeks? Well, you can call me Coward. And as for what I am, you would know if you were active in the outside world."

The Nightmare Saint fell silent for a moment.

It slowly repeated the name Asher had given it, as though trying to understand the meaning behind it.

"Coward..."

After muttering the name a few more times, the Nightmare Saint looked at Asher with an amused expression.

"Coward? What an amusing name for someone like you, who doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything."

Asher immediately nodded, showing no sign of embarrassment about the name.

"It’s the perfect name for me, though. It also sounds pretty good, don’t you think? And you know the saying."

He paused for a moment, deliberately creating a sense of anticipation before raising his chin slightly and declaring with confidence,

"Cowards Never Die."

The Nightmare Saint stared at him in silence.

For a few moments, it tried to remember whether there was actually a saying like that. Given how long it had existed, it had encountered countless beings and learned about the customs, beliefs, and expressions of various civilizations. Surely, if such a famous saying existed, it should have heard of it before.

But no matter how hard it tried to recall its memories, it couldn’t remember ever hearing those words.

Finally, the Nightmare Saint looked at Asher with a confused expression and asked, "Is that some new saying? I’ve never heard of it before."

Asher simply laughed.

"Me too! I’ve never heard of it before either. I just made it up on the spot because it sounded cool. Isn’t it good?"

The Nightmare Saint fell silent once again.

For a moment, it genuinely didn’t know how to respond to the being standing before it.

It had encountered countless strange beings throughout its existence, but Asher was undoubtedly one of the most peculiar.

However, before the Nightmare Saint could continue questioning him about his ridiculous name and equally ridiculous saying, another matter suddenly occupied its thoughts.

Something far more important than anything they had discussed so far.

---

The Nightmare Saint stared at Asher, its expression growing increasingly serious.

After remaining silent for a few moments, it finally asked, "What was that consciousness containing trillions of life experiences? How did you achieve something like that, and what exactly did you do inside the nightmare?"

These were the questions that had been troubling it ever since it had discovered the terrifying scale of the consciousness hidden within Asher.

The experiences and traumas contained within that consciousness were beyond anything the Nightmare Saint had ever imagined. If it could somehow access and absorb even a fraction of them, its strength would increase tremendously.

Yet, despite having spent so much time trying to reach that consciousness, it had been unable to accomplish anything.

The white mist had blocked its attempts, preventing it from reaching the countless experiences hidden within Asher’s mind. And now, after everything that had happened, the Nightmare Saint finally had an opportunity to ask the being responsible for all of this directly.

"Oh, about that..."

Asher fell silent for a moment.

He tilted his head slightly, as though trying to figure out how he should explain the situation. For a brief moment, he even appeared to be seriously considering how much information he should reveal.

"Well, how I achieved it is a long story. A really, really long story. But, to put it simply, it was all because of a game played by someone. And somehow, that game ended up giving me that many life experiences and traumas."

The Nightmare Saint froze.

Its mind struggled to process the words Asher had just spoken.

’A game?’

’Who played this game? And how could a game possibly result in something like that?’

The Nightmare Saint had existed for an incredibly long time. It understood the nature of nightmares, the relationship between consciousness and fear, and how the experiences of countless living beings could influence its own power.

But what Asher had just described made absolutely no sense to it.

A game had somehow resulted in a consciousness containing trillions of life experiences and traumas?

Who could possibly create such a game?

And more importantly, why would something like that even exist?

The Nightmare Saint was just about to ask these questions when Asher continued speaking, seemingly unaware of the storm of confusion raging inside its mind.