novelonline Chapter 3636 The World of Stories
Chapter 3636 The World of Stories
Chapter 3636 The World of Stories
All the supplies that could be turned into toys were collected by Shad, while everyone took some supplies such as potions and alchemical items to carry with them.
The floor, once covered with items, was quickly reduced to just their feet. After confirming that everything was taken, Miss Novare looked at the still-burning fireplace with a touch of reluctance. It was somewhat like when she was a young vampire and her companions played hide-and-seek in the sarcophagus of an ancient castle, but had to go home at dawn.
But she quickly dismissed the thought and asked Shad:
"Everyone has matches, but we only have three lamps. How do you plan to distribute them?"
“You and Miss Coens are both injured now, so I will be responsible for fighting if we encounter any danger. These three lamps are not suitable for use in combat, so the three of you will carry them. Winnie and I will just stand in the light.”
He also knew that the witches didn't particularly trust Winnie, so he didn't suggest that the ice crystal girl hold the lamp.
Everyone accepted the arrangement, and together they thanked the shrine in the corner of the room. Shad said:
"Then let's go. Unless something unexpected happens, we won't be coming back."
"But I still don't understand why there would be a safe room in this hotel."
The three lamps create a large enough area of light, and once inside the elevator, it's large enough for five people to stand together.
No one spoke as the elevator ascended to the 39th floor. After the elevator came to a complete stop, just as Shad was about to push open the door, Miss Cohens handed him the "Dawn of the New World".
She didn't say anything, but Shad understood what she meant.
Just like last time I came, despite being a relatively high floor, the 39th floor felt safer than the 10th floor.
The corridor was pitch black, but there were no strange smells or traces, and the temperature and humidity were normal. The location of the stairwell required some exploration, but the group didn't separate.
"Let's go to the left first."
Shad said that after passing six doors to the left and seeing that the stairwell still hadn't appeared, they turned back to explore the right side. But just then, clear and hurried footsteps came from the darkness ahead in the corridor.
Everyone stopped immediately, and Shad held his breath, sword in hand, waiting. Ten seconds later, footsteps entered the area illuminated by Miss Cohens's torch, and Shad saw a giant sphere.
The pale sphere was composed of countless curled and compressed souls, which silently wailed on its surface. Beneath this sphere, however, were connected a pair of human legs.
"Huh? What is this?"
The firelight only slowed down the strange creature's movement, not made it retreat. Without hesitation, it attacked the group, opening its mouth to the three faces in front of it and spitting out three fireballs burning with pale soul flames, which then flew rapidly toward the group.
"Moonlight Slash!"
The moonlight intercepted the soul fireballs, but then, from the surface of the pale "soul sphere," nearly twenty faces simultaneously opened their mouths. The soul fireballs they spat out floated on the surface of the "soul sphere" before flying towards the group all at once.
The group immediately prepared to raise their shields, but at that moment, a crystal-clear right hand reached out from beside Shad. A howling gust of cold wind formed a vortex and blew forward, extinguishing the pale spiritual flames.
When the extremely cold vortex came into contact with the enormous "Soul Sphere," it slowly slowed down until both its physical and spiritual parts were completely frozen. Its feet were stuck to the ground by the ice reflecting the firelight, and every face on the surface of the "Soul Sphere" was frozen in place.
"Smash it."
Although surprised that Winnie's displayed power did not match the power perceived by others, Miss Novare quickly reminded Shad.
Then the cold moonlight split the "soul sphere" in two, and amidst countless overlapping wails, it slowly dissipated.
Before disappearing completely, that one sentence reached everyone's ears with crystal clarity—
That damned queen!
Only after confirming the danger had passed did Shad lower his sword, while Winnie stood silently beside him. The three witches hesitated, then Lady Gerd spoke:
"This is a soul sphere created by the evil 'Soul Hunter,' a product of dangerous soul experiments conducted by people born in the Fourth Era. It takes at least 100 souls to create. It will spontaneously absorb the soul power of nearby souls, so the best way to deal with it is to destroy it remotely."
"Its number is 4088, but since it's not particularly dangerous, this room number should belong to the 'Soul Hunter' you mentioned. It's just an accessory that was captured."
As Xia De spoke, he and the others continued walking forward, and the stairwell soon appeared on the right.
"It escaped from the 40th floor? The rune lock broke?"
Miss Novare asked as they walked up the stairs to the corner and looked up, where the purple runic barrier still stood.
"Regardless of its origin, it at least reveals valuable information. Queen Gerd, did your mother mention anything related to this?"
The middle-aged witch shook her head:
"No."
"Alright then, let's see what the answer is."
Shad strode up the steps, raised his fangs, and thrust them at the ouroboros symbol in the center of the rune lock. The pale purple halo gradually dimmed before his eyes until it scattered into specks of light and disappeared.
Before him lay an eerily quiet, pitch-black floor. Shad turned to look back and saw that, apart from Winnie, who remained calm, the other three witches were all tense.
However, he did not see the appearance of the gods.
"Then let's go."
He addressed the people behind him and then stepped into the 40th floor first.
In an instant, the world spun around him, and darkness twisted into a vortex before him. Shad felt as if he had fallen into an abyss, yet also as if he had entered a dream.
A wave of dizziness made him instinctively close his eyes, but his right hand remained tightly gripping [Dawnbreak]. However, the light outside his eyelids quickly alerted him to something amiss, and when he opened his eyes, the blinding sunlight forced him to turn his head away again.
"what?"
He was sitting on the ground, leaning against a banyan tree in the middle of a country road intersection, with what appeared to be his luggage beside him.
The bright sun hung high in the sky, shining in all directions. Standing up, I saw farmland on both sides of the road. A gentle, warm breeze blew by, and judging from the condition of the tree and the farmland, it must be springtime.
The discrepancies in his memories were so great that for a moment, Shad thought he had left the hotel and returned to the real world. But he immediately realized that everything before him was still happening in the hotel, Mia was still in his pocket, and the sun, the warm breeze, and the smell of the countryside were all real, yet also all fake.
This was not an illusion. His perception of the spatial structure told him that it was a man-made space, similar to the Maze, only this space was more stable than the Maze.
"So there's a trap behind the barrier?"
But if it's a trap, then he should be facing danger, not waking up under a big tree.
As I was pondering this, a figure approached from the crossroads ahead. The person was wearing an old-fashioned brown double-breasted long coat, muddy boots, and a worn-out military backpack on their back, with a rusty water bottle hanging from the side.
The stranger wore a shield badge that Shad didn't recognize on his chest. He looked weathered and worn, and Shad judged him to be around thirty-five years old as he got closer.
A spark of inspiration struck, and Shad blinked:
"Edwards' Eye".
The other party was almost entirely covered in red light. This person was indeed human, but he was an artificial human.
The weathered middle-aged man spotted Xia De from afar, stopped ten meters away, bowed, and then asked with the utmost respect, as if reciting lines on stage:
"Honorable knight, where are you headed?"
Shad looked down at his clothes to make sure they were still the same style:
Who are you? And where are you going?
He countered with a question, to which the other person replied quite politely:
"Honorable knight, I am a retired squire of the Kingdom's Green Knights, and I am now returning to my hometown, Mead Village."
As Xia De pondered the name, he continued to make his demands:
"Take me to your village, I need to replenish my food supply."
"It is my honor. Honorable knight, please follow me."
Shad picked up the package containing the water bottle and dry rations from under the tree and followed the retired soldier as he turned right at the crossroads. In the distance, Shad indeed saw a small village, and three minutes later they reached the village entrance. A flock of free-range chickens clucked and wandered around the village entrance, and Shad struggled to restrain Mia, who was trying to escape from the bag.
"Wait a minute, this is way too fast!"
She smiled gently.
The village was small, but it looked as peaceful and serene as the warm, comfortable springtime it was. The villagers all knew the retired soldier and called Shad "Lord Knight".
So the soldier invited him to his home for lunch and let him stay there temporarily. At home were his elderly parents, his hardworking wife, and two children, a boy and a girl. Shad took out some money from his bag to pay for his journey.
The coins were all copper coins, one side bearing a number and the other a woman wearing a crown whom Shad didn't recognize. Considering that almost all the villagers here were androids, Shad had good reason to suspect that the woman on the coins was Lady Gerd's mother.
He then had dinner at the veteran's home and went to sleep in the bedroom the family had given up.
From entering the village to nightfall, Shad's perceived time was no more than ten minutes. Too many details were skipped over, yet at the same time he became aware of the problem, everything felt coherent, with no logical flaws.
It's like watching a stage play; the story may span a long period, but only a few scenes are actually performed.
Even falling asleep wasn't his intention; he didn't want to sleep at all, but he unconsciously walked into the bedroom, lay down on the bed covered with a straw mat, and closed his eyes.
It was a strange feeling; although he had closed his eyes, he wasn't actually asleep. Sure enough, around midnight—though it felt like only three minutes had passed since he lay down—there was a commotion outside the house.
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(End of this chapter)