My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 228 Time Cycles, Real and Virtual Boundaries
Shock is an understatement to describe Roland's feelings at this moment.

After realizing the possible origins of the building before him, Roland began to question his own situation.

An unprecedented sense of tension and panic began to well up in his heart.

Roland began to analyze the various anomalies that had occurred to him after he entered this dream.

but……

He still couldn't come up with a clear answer.

Roland swallowed hard, then continued walking forward.

Clearly, this dilapidated temple was not some lost ruin, and the old man who had brought them in, as well as the character they were playing, knew very well what was here.

They even believed that what existed in this temple could reverse the current unfavorable situation in which human nations were suffering repeated defeats against the Demon King's army.

And it's very likely that what's hidden here is actually useful, because the Demon King's army was indeed slowed down after the Allied Forces of the Federation of Nations were defeated, preventing them from heading south immediately and causing the Demon King to miss the best opportunity.

Finally, he was chopped down by the brave hero, Simmel.

Filled with nervous curiosity, Roland entered the dilapidated temple.

Unfortunately, apart from the faint light emanating from the dome overhead and a few pieces of rubble, Roland found nothing.

That's true; it's ultimately just a dream spell cast by an individual.

It may be able to restore this space, these buildings and the light, but it may not be able to restore what was originally hidden here.

The old man had implied that the items here could only be obtained through a certain ritual.

Moreover, it was no ordinary ceremony. From his words, Roland could tell that the ceremony would last for at least days, or even months or years.

Otherwise, the old man wouldn't have said to wait until the ceremony was completed.

It seems my plan to see the mysterious treasure has failed.

But... perhaps we can find something here?

For example, words carved on stones.

Roland was unable to explore the temple he had seen in his dream because the dream abruptly ended.

But now it is possible.

Clearly, the stability of the dream magic here is far greater than that of the dreams Roland himself creates.

Based on at least some of the details so far, this spell was cast by a powerhouse at least at the level of a ninth-ring legendary expert.

Even if it wasn't, it must have used some special amplification method.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to unleash a dream spell with a vast area of ​​effect, extremely high precision, and the ability to blur the boundaries of reality.

Although Roland has not yet seen any lethality from this spell, it seems more like the caster is trying to conceal something than to attack.

He wanted to hide Isfar away for the time being.

As for their intentions and purposes, those are beyond Roland's current knowledge.

After all, the dream he is currently in should not be related to what is happening in Isfar now.

It's more like a memory of history.

Roland searched through the ruins but could only find a pile of broken stone slabs.

The text recorded on it was also blurry and flickered from time to time, and finally it even disappeared directly from Roland's hands.

Clearly, these stone tablets with inscriptions are not something that this dream spell can reproduce.

"Looks like I was overthinking it. I should just go back the way I came. Even if the stone gate can't be opened, I can use Flash to pass through it."

"But before that... it's better to figure out the truth about this technique."

Roland sat down cross-legged, then took out the large green sphere from his consciousness, which was given to him by the World Tree consciousness and condensed by the art of thought manipulation.

He wanted to get the answer from it.

Relying on Roland's powerful mental strength, after inputting the conjectures and clues about this dream technique that he had collected over this short period of time into the green sphere, he began to index relevant knowledge fragments within it.

Soon, three similar answers were given from the green sphere, which likely contained all the magical knowledge in the world.

One is a spell called Thousand Layer Mirror Abyss. As the name suggests, the caster can project the deepest and most fearful memories in the target's heart through the mirror, forming a dream that drags the target into it. The deeper and more numerous the fears in the target's heart, the more layers there will be in this dream.

Until its spirit and soul wither and dissipate in fear.

Of course, if the target's will is strong enough or they overcome their fear, they can break free from the spell's influence, but they will still be trapped in the dream until the caster runs out of magic, dies, or actively cancels the spell.

The second is a spell called Eclipse Heart.

It requires a specific celestial phenomenon to activate, specifically a waning moon phase.

By projecting the moon, all targets and spaces within the spell's influence are dragged into the dream world; those who die in the dream will also die in reality.

As for the third one, it is the most likely technique in Roland's opinion.

It is called a spiral hourglass.

It didn't sound like a dream spell, and it certainly was.

This technique seems to have taken advantage of the dream world, exploiting a loophole to achieve its desired effect.

That is, the past years on the land within the influence range of the spell are reproduced in the form of a dream, and the dream will be eternally cycled within a fixed period of past years.

Unless the person trapped in the dream has the ability to change the key moments of the past years projected in the dream.

To illustrate this with an example based on the knowledge provided by the World Tree, if during this period a general raised an army in rebellion and ultimately succeeded...

The way to break through this period of time is to prevent the general from successfully rebelling.

Regardless of how the technique is disrupted, it will be declared invalid.

Knowing this, Roland became hesitant.

Because he was unsure whether he should break the spell.

This kind of plot often appears in stories.

The protagonist believes he has thwarted the villain's plot, but in reality, the restrictions imposed by the "villain" are precisely to prevent the real threat from escaping.

The protagonist's actions, on the contrary, aid and abet the evildoer.

He was unsure whether he was in a similar situation.

Moreover, he didn't even know the exact time period he was in.

Furthermore... if it really is that technique called Spiral Hourglass.

Therefore, the time and space in which one exists may not be the whole picture.

cycle……

If a cycle truly exists, then one might be able to obtain more clues.

Just as Roland had this idea, the scene before him suddenly changed.

A wave of disturbance filled the cave.

The next moment, Roland appeared directly on the street.

However, he had changed back into his original attire, and even the gauntlets that housed the remnant soul of the Demon King had reappeared.

Of course, the Demon King himself remains out of contact and unable to answer Roland's questions.

However, the situation is somewhat special.

Roland could sense the remnant soul of the Demon King, but the Demon King's soul was in a deep slumber.

However, Roland didn't have time to carefully check the Demon King's condition, or even glance at his surroundings, when a flesh-and-blood mutant that seemed to have once been humanoid slid towards him at high speed, its several hideous faces emitting terrifying roars. Roland initially considered using the Spear of the Sun to deal with the monster before him, but he quickly abandoned the idea.

He has no teammates around him right now, and his total mana and recovery speed are only average.

It would be unwise to expend magic power at this time.

"boom!"

As Roland activated his innate spell, the mutated monster that was running towards him exploded into a cloud of flying blood mist.

Not even a trace of flesh or blood remained.

Roland also began to manipulate his Moon Spirit Essence Liquid, creating a semi-spherical barrier around himself.

Clearly, for him at this moment, the best option was to fight using relatively less Moon Spirit Essence Liquid and his innate spells that did not require mana.

Moreover, Roland felt as if he had gained a new power, and when he checked his status bar provided by the system, it confirmed his guess.

His protection was activated.

This is a mixed bag of news.

The good news is that my blessing has been activated, and according to the system's prompts, I have gained a 90% damage saving grace.

The bad news is that the Great Source's Will seems to feel that it needs this 90% damage reduction buff.

This also indirectly confirms that Roland was in an extremely dangerous environment at this time.

that's the truth.

After Roland destroyed the monster, what followed was not peace, but even more monsters.

Roland did not linger in the fight. Instead, he used Flash to create distance and then activated his Super Stealth technique, which combined the strengths of Cherinina and Flam, to hide himself.

After arriving at the roof of a house and confirming that the surrounding environment was temporarily safe, Roland began to assess his own surroundings.

He first looked up... the colossal circular structure hovered above the burning city, and towering walls in the distance trapped all the monsters within the city.

Then Roland looked toward a dilapidated makeshift position on the street corner, which was littered with the corpses of border guards.

Their bodies did not undergo any mutations, but the monsters killed them, tearing their bodies apart like rag dolls and leaving them on the battlefield.

The only good news is that at least those monsters don't eat people.

Roland is now able to make one thing clear: his current location should be in the real world.

The appearance of the Demon King's remnant soul is the best example.

He remained silent, yet he did not disappear; so too did the gauntlet.

The past timeline that one was in must be part of the dream.

The combination of these two factors has led to the current state of Isfar.

It seems that this place has indeed been affected by a spell called the Spiral Hourglass.

Clearly, the monstrous creatures with severely mutated flesh that are now almost everywhere in the city must be the transformed forms of residents whose consciousness has been corrupted.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain such a huge number of them—they practically filled every street.

This is not good news.

Although Roland hadn't had much trouble dealing with that monster, that guy still possessed at least a third-ring level of magical power.

Roland now hopes that the mutants he is dealing with are transformed from soldiers of the Border Guard Corps, not ordinary citizens.

Otherwise... this would be a huge disaster.

This situation is different from before.

Roland's previous experiences were all about preventing a major disaster from happening.

But this time... I can no longer stop it from the source.

No wonder the system, which usually loves to join in the fun, didn't issue any tasks this time.

"Now... let's find those three ninth-ring experts first."

"I hope they're alright... at least they haven't turned into monsters."

Roland took a deep breath. Although he wasn't completely helpless against a ninth-ring expert, his chances of winning in a one-on-one fight were indeed slim.

Especially since his opponent was not a magician, but a big, burly warrior from the military.

Even if I make all the preparations in advance, at most I can only rely on the effect of the Sun Rune to fight it for the duration of the skill.

Once the skill ends, even if one isn't completely helpless, one can only flee in a sorry state.

Before going to find those ninth-ring experts, perhaps I should go to the academy first?
I hope the members there can still be saved, or at least I can get some reliable information.

But just as Roland was about to use the map he had prepared before entering the main city to find the residences of the military's high-ranking officers and the Isfar Society branch, the scene before him began to change again.

The burning city returned to its usual tranquility.

Those twisted monsters also turned back into ordinary residents, walking quietly on the streets.

Roland himself changed back into his familiar armor.

But by then, he had already left the underground cave.

He also had a sheepskin scroll tied with a red silk cord in his hand.

Unsurprisingly, Roland's Demon King Gauntlets disappeared again—they had become his basis for judging dreams and reality.

Roland looked around at the environment, which was exactly the same as when he first entered the city, and sighed.

Well, it seems that the stability of this dream spell isn't very reliable either.

Moreover, after witnessing the reality of Isfar, Roland's previous conjecture was confirmed.

The person who released this powerful dream spell was indeed trying to prevent something within Isfar from escaping.

The caster did indeed succeed.

By blurring the lines between reality and dreams, he did indeed prevent something from escaping.

A dream spell, imbued with elements of time manipulation, transformed Isfar into a prison.

only……

Judging from the rapid shift between dreams and reality, this technique doesn't seem likely to last much longer.

Although there was no evidence, Roland's intuition told him that this technique was unreliable.

At that moment, the wealthy old man he had met before reappeared in front of Roland.

However, he had already changed into a black night outfit.

The slightly tight-fitting clothes accentuated his muscles, which he had honed through countless hours of hard work.

Of course, the opponent's missing right arm was more noticeable at this point.

Upon seeing Roland, the old man immediately knelt on one knee and said with slight excitement, "Your Excellency, it seems you have succeeded!"

"Great, it's not too late!"

"The Demon King's army has breached our last line of defense and is about to approach Isfar!"

"Now it's up to you!"

Roland: “???”

Am I really going to take on the Demon King's army single-handedly? Seriously?
Could this be the reason the damn blessing was activated?
(End of this chapter)