A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 54 Shattered Dream, Forest of Glowing Light

I am in a dream.

Rorschach sensed this clearly. At this moment, he was like a ghost, passively watching everything unfold.

In the dense forest, giant trees fell one by one and sprouted new ones from the ground. Fiery stars fell from the burning sky, but strangely, they were blocked by the seemingly fragile canopy.

The burning leaves scraped and trembled against the other upright tree trunks, and with the mournful sound of the main trunk collapsing, the entire forest contained the cries of birds and beasts in the background.

The perspective was passively raised, and Rorschach went from looking up at the forest of giant trees to looking down at it, and all he could see was a near-apocalyptic scene.

The boundary between heaven and earth, the simultaneous burning and rebirth of forests, seems to be a tense tug-of-war between two forces.

In the heart of the forest, a colossal, dark green beast rose and roared to the sky. In response, an even more concentrated and fierce barrage of fire rained down from the heavens.

The roar that could incite even more fear than the Beast King was drowned out by the deafening explosion.

The giant beast's scalded and torn wounds oozed purplish-black blood, then healed rapidly, growing back excess polyps.

This means that with each injury, the behemoth becomes more ferocious and terrifying. Similarly, with each recovery and replenishment of the tree canopy, the newly grown giant trees become more chaotic and unrestrained. The trees around the behemoth have already transcended the realm of plants, transforming into thick tentacles waving towards the sky.

The forces in the heavens seemed to realize the deterioration of the beast and the forest, and stopped the falling flames until a golden light pierced through the beast and continued to burn it.

The deafening roar abruptly turned into complete silence. Rorschach could hear nothing more, only able to discern from the beast's movements that it was still unleashing its pain and fury. Birdsong and beastly roars ceased; utter silence reigned.

Not only could he not hear, Rorschach also felt suffocated. He tried to expand his chest cavity to inhale, but to no avail; only a wave of heat rushed into his lungs, bringing a desperate burning pain.

His vision receded rapidly, finally moving away from this strange battlefield. Something seemed to precipitate out in the silence and heat, crystalline and fragmented.

In the final moments of the reversal, Rorschach saw countless shimmering fragments, the sky collapsing, the earth shattering, and crimson clumps rising from the ground.

Heaven and earth turned upside down, and dreams shattered.

This dream was so vivid… there was definitely something dirty in it. Rorschach sat up, wanting to check the time.

"The felt is quite thick; not a single ray of light got into the room..."

When Luo Xia lifted the temporary curtain, he realized that it wasn't that it had a good light-blocking effect, but rather that there was no light at all.

Night fell.

Luo Xia stepped out of the cave and was surprised to find it pitch black outside. Suddenly, tiny, hazy fireflies were scattered in the distance.

He reached out and saw five fingers—also draped in a milky-white fluorescent light. It was precisely this faint, impenetrable light that made the world seem even darker.

Rorschach did not rashly use the [Light Spell]. He returned to his cave and waited in the darkness for a while to allow his eyes to adjust. After a while, the outline of the room gradually became clear.

When he went out again, it was no longer completely dark; at least he could see the rough ground. He carefully walked toward the other glowing lights and found many humanoid orbs of light lying directly on the ground.

No tents? Looking back, the cave dwellings are still there, and looking at the highest point, the temporary clock tower is still there.

These glowing lights... belong to the mages and apprentices, and a few workers also have a fainter glow.

Rorschach decided to find the humanoid figure with the brightest light, and judging from its position, it was indeed Nemo leading the team.

But as Rorschach groped his way forward in that direction, a group of bouncing pink orbs of light blocked his path.

Rorschach tried to step over it, but the pink ball of light immediately rolled to his feet, stopping him from walking towards Nemo.

Completely unaware of the origin and nature of the orb of light, Rorschach dared not step on it rashly and withdrew his foot. The pink orb of light immediately began to bounce around, and Rorschach could even sense its joy.

Where did all these come from...? Rorschach noticed that the dumplings were multiplying and forming a glowing path, like a glowing runway that guides planes to land at night.

Clearly, these dumplings were also trying to guide Rorschach somewhere.

A trap? There shouldn't be any malice... Even with this thought, Rorschach still channeled his magic to prepare for casting a spell. As the aether was mobilized, he noticed the light around him brightened.

He walked along, guided by the others, trying to observe the surroundings, but the other areas remained pitch black, too dark to see clearly.

Rorschach could only feel himself descending most of the time, and after an unknown amount of time, he seemed to have reached the bottom of a ravine.

"You'll take me back, right? I can't find my way." Luo Xia tried to communicate with the obviously conscious ball of light, but only got a ball bouncing around. He didn't know if the other party understood or not, or agreed or not.

Rorschach raised his hand to look at his wrist; the brass ring was still bound to his hand, and the seal within it was now glowing. "It should be Nemo's [Secret Mark]... Is everything related to ether being highlighted? And these little orbs of light..." Luckily, he hadn't taken off the name tag before going to sleep for comfort.

A sharp turn revealed a view previously obscured by earthen cliffs to Rorschach:

A blue forest, its surface shimmering with a glow, resembled… the Cherenkov radiation from a nuclear power plant reactor during startup and operation. Rorschach thought of a fitting but not magical analogy.

As he entered the silent forest, Rorschach could sense shadowy creatures moving through the trees, casting their watchful gazes.

As you stroll deeper into the forest, a clear spring ripples outwards, its waters not connected to any flowing stream. As the ripples spread to the shore, blue fireflies rise and cover the entire forest.

A shattered reflection appeared in the water. Then, the figure of the reflection appeared before Rorschach: a tall, deer-headed creature seated on the ground, draped in a robe woven from leaves. He was surrounded by orbs of light and small beasts, like a deity in this place—sublime and holy.

Good afternoon, exorcist.

The voice was elegant and dignified, extremely deep by female standards. It spoke Old English. In its words, "master" seemed to mean "one who commands spirits."

"Hello... ma'am. Who are you? And where is this place?" The response was very hesitant.

Rorschach's original owner was a farmer's child and did not have the opportunity to learn from Jacob from a young age. Although he studied hard at the Royal Academy, his level was about the same as Rorschach's "mute English" as a college student.

"I have already shown you why I am here and why this place is here."

"My dream? You are that behemoth..."

"The afterimage, the echo. This world was stripped from where you came from, from the 'wasteland' of the Delyuaz Forest."

The Forest of Delyuaz, as ancient scholars called it, lies the Black Forest at the border of the Empire and the Kingdom, a forest that can never be fully explored and seems to have once had an owner.

The deer's eyes were covered by long eyelashes, and it lowered its gaze, no longer looking at Rorschach.

Luo Xia followed the other's gaze and saw a new scene reflected in the deep spring: on the crimson earth, the pink sky was torn apart and watered into every patch of earth and gully.

"Those who come from beyond, if unprepared, you will all become wandering souls in this place."

(End of this chapter)