Wasteland Echoer.

Chapter 499 A New Dream (Part )
"Dak Tillis, do you know what a real dream is?" Nicholas asked Dak in a voice as low, trembling, gloomy as a devil, with a hint of greed and temptation.

At the same time, those mechanical hearts began to break free from the tentacles, one by one, slowly and rhythmically falling to the ground, and then quickly flying upwards.

The red glow of these hearts, hovering like birds, gradually gave way to a ghostly blue, and then to a hint of light green.

Under the control of the dark magic power in Nikola's body, they began to extend steel-colored metal sections with rust and corrupt liquid on them, which looked like sewage pipes.

These pipes connected the mechanical hearts together under the spells chanted by Nicholas, forming a mysterious network that was complex enough yet impossible to crack.

Soon, violent air currents blew violently from the middle of the corridor to all sides. After a few flashes of lightning and thunder, Dak found that the space where he was standing was widened at least ten times, and the mechanical hearts above his head began to tighten inwards, trying to stick together.

"What do you want to do, Nicholas?" Dak asked warily, subconsciously taking a half step back out of fear.

"I'm not doing anything, I just want to tell you what a real dream is. In my dream, in my newly created dream, everything, no, everything will obey my orders, and I... only need to pay a small amount of magic power." Nicholas said proudly:
"Reality is illusion and delusion, and illusion and delusion are reality. Everything in the world is just a terrible dream that a certain creator who mistakenly broke into our chaotic world is experiencing, but he can never wake up. What you see, hear, think, touch, feel, and know are all indispensable parts of the dream. When you cling to those things that are out of reach, you are also bound by the devil and can never be freed."

"I don't want to hear you talk about philosophy, Nicholas. If you want to fight, then just charge at me. You [deceivers] and [prophets] always do mysterious things to disrupt the will of those fighting, but a true warrior will never surrender to the enemy no matter where he is!" Dak roared, and the magic power belonging to the water source in his body quickly surged and condensed into his right hand.

What surprised him was that the ice weapon condensed from the magic power turned out to be a sharp axe he had never seen before.

"Do you feel anything unusual, kid? In my dreams, your magic power will be guided by me subtly. The time is almost up, Dak, you should have felt that your body can't move." Nicholas said proudly. A fist-sized mechanical heart, which was nearly scarlet in color like a real heart, suddenly appeared on his right hand. Looking closely, there was a thin silver thread connected to the middle finger of his right hand.

Then, Nicholas slowly put down the little mechanical heart in front of Dak, and like the hypnotists who were widely present in the Western Continent during the transition from the Human Era to the Steam Era, he swayed the increasingly round little mechanical heart dripping with fiery blood from side to side, trying to further hypnotize Dak in his dream.

"Dark Tillis, do you know? The most terrifying thing is not the first dream constructed by us [Dream Makers] or [Prophets]. After all, this dream is constructed based on what you extremely desire in your heart, what you cannot get, and what is out of reach." Nicholas said in a deep but much softer voice:

"Everything here depends on your cognition, what you see and hear, and the variations of what you think is reasonable. Everything cannot escape your cognition and knowledge, and as long as there is a slight disturbance, you will immediately wake up and return to reality.

"This is the deep reason why Dylan, the Hinet man, was unable to capture the 'Echoer' in his dream. Compared to the 'constructed' dream, the most terrifying is the 'dream within a dream', or the 'multiple dreams'. Entering this kind of dream often means madness and delusion in the end."

"What do you want to say?" Dak asked, still holding the icy axe in his hand, watching Nicholas' performance calmly.

After all, it was a dream created by Nikola, and Dak did not dare to guarantee that he could take the absolute initiative. He wanted to see Nikola's moves first and then counterattack based on the actual situation.

"This kind of dream..." Nicholas continued:

"It will make you fall into a seemingly endless dream cycle. Every time you wake up, you will think you are back to the real world, but soon, you will find yourself in another dream. The deeper the dream, the slower the flow of time.

"Often, in your deepest dreams, you are already gray-haired and approaching the age of seventy, as if you have lived a long and painful life. But in reality, you have only lived a short time of less than five minutes. The deep 'year' is the shallow 'moment', and the only way to escape from the nightmare is to die.

"Now, Dak, you seem to have been staring at this small mechanical heart for a long time. Do you feel that the time around you has begun to slow down, and the flow of time has weakened a lot, just like a movie being slowed down? Don't be nervous, this is just a dream, enjoy it, relax~ In the dream, you will experience the same painful and dangerous life, and your reincarnation will never be extinguished. "You will cycle through death and rebirth endlessly until you finally have a mental breakdown and wake up in reality. At that time, you will no longer try to think about whether the place you are in is a dream or reality. You just want to end your stupid and painful life and ascend to the heavenly world filled with [love], 'hope' and 'light'. "

While Nicholas was using words to induce Dak, the speed of the mechanical heart in his hand became faster and faster, until a slight explosion was heard, and the mechanical heart suddenly stopped working, exploded, and emitted a choking smoke.

After fanning it a few times, Nicholas simply threw the mechanical heart aside and walked straight to Dark, who had a dazed look in his eyes.

He first tentatively reached out his hand and pushed Dake's chest, but seeing that he had no reaction, he still maintained his original posture of raising the ice axe and preparing to chop, frozen in place like a sculpture. The corners of Nicholas' mouth rose to a very abnormal degree, almost revealing his ugly yellow teeth with a little blood.

Seeing that Dark's eyes were beginning to become blurry, Nicholas was almost certain that Dark had entered into "multiple dreams". He laughed, stretched out his bandaged right hand, and roughly lifted Dark's chin, preparing to declare victory.

However, the next second, Dark's gray eyes suddenly flashed a resentful icy blue, and blue lines like electric currents appeared all over his body.

Almost at the same time, his eyes regained their brightness. Facing the unprepared Nicholas, Dak "smiled slightly" and chopped at his arm.

puff!
A black shadow flew out from where the two were standing, and actually pierced straight into the ground that had turned back into concrete.

With the blue light gradually brightening around him, Nicholas saw that it was his own arm, an arm that had been separated from the body, with half of the skeleton exposed!

From the moment it hit the ground, the flesh and blood inside the arm sprayed out in unison, like a sprinkler used by women to water flowers.

Within a few seconds, the sleeve and bandage attached to the arm turned into a pile of debris and dust. The arm, which was already sallow in color and still strong, quickly developed mold spots. The skin also lost its elasticity at this moment, and bloody cracks began to appear. Yellow fat tissue flowed out, revealing the bright red but quickly shriveling muscle tissue.

"How are you...what is this...why...how could this happen? You...what on earth?" Nicholas was so surprised that he was incoherent and speechless, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Although his emotions were overshadowed by the sudden shock, his body and animal instincts still drove him to leap back quickly, keeping a distance from the ferocious-looking Draca that he thought was safe.

"You want to know why I am not under your control, right?" Dak said with a contemptuous smile:
"To be honest, I don't know. Maybe it's a gift bestowed upon me by two reincarnations, or maybe it's a blessing bestowed upon me by the Creator at the beginning of my life. Mr. Nicholas, as the 'Spear of Odyssey' and the 'Shepherd' of the Lost Organization that has been fighting against the Federation for many years, are you too lazy to collect this little intelligence?"

"What...information?" Nicholas asked in surprise and stammered.

"My spiritual power." Dak replied, and this time it was his turn to be proud.

He first withdrew the water-based magic power that was surging toward his right hand, threw the sharp axe aside, and then drew out the weapon from his waist that had turned into a brass dagger. He held it in his hand and played with it while explaining to Nicholas:
"My mental power is very strong. Like the Echoes, we cannot be seduced, charmed, or controlled by anyone. Apart from minor cognitive confusion, our minds will never have any problems. Any attempt to interfere with our minds will end in failure.

"Nightmare, dream, multiple dreams, how ridiculous! You Lost Ones always live in your own self-righteousness. You think you have escaped the shackles of illusion and delusion, but you don't know that you, like those idiots in the Federation, have already fallen into the abyss without knowing it."

(End of this chapter)