Chapter 1248 - Monster of Dreams and Reality (1/2)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A series of loud bangs came from all directions as the black fog collapsed like an avalanche, and the illusion disappeared like a puff of smoke. Lily shook her head, trying to regain her balance. When her vision stabilized, she found herself back in the Shadowy Forest.
Lily blinked, there was a hint of confusion in her eyes. The false perception and the reality clashed for a while before her memory finally broke free from the ice. She had regained her consciousness and now remembered how she had come to this place, that the army of beasts she led, and Mr. Landlord who had been separated from for many days.
Recalling the bowl of braised pork ribs that she did not manage to eat in the illusion, her lips flattened.
She then saw the monster on the ground struggling to escape, surrounded by smoke and dark fog.
“Where are you going to run to?” Lily cried and raised her hand immediately, but only to find that the slab she used in the illusion did not exist here. Though the conflict between reality and illusion was a bit confusing, she managed to recover and summoned her Frostmourne and Flamejoy and pointed them at the distorted lump of meatball. “I will pierce a hole in your brain if you run again! I can poke five holes with just one paw!”
By now, the noise had alerted the others. The humans had woken up with Calaxus and two other high-ranking templars grabbing their weapons and lunging out of their tents. Two demonic wolves on their night-watch shift at the edge of the campsite came with the old demonic ape, Gruglu. The monster shrouded in smoke and dust might be a terrifying spiritual power in the illusion, but it seemed to be much weaker in reality—of course, it could be the result of Lily smashing it with a concrete slab, traumatized and paralyzed. Before the monster could even make it three meters out, everyone had surrounded it.
Two demonic wolves came up to Lily, respectfully touched her shoes with the tip of their noses. The old demonic ape, seeing the smoky thing on the ground, appeared in fear. “Alpha, I was on the lookout just now. This strange thing is—”
“I know, it’s not your fault.” Lily pointed to the two imps on the ground. “They brought it in.”
The leader of the imps came before the alpha. Learning what his two men had done, it shrilled in shock and wanted to punish them. But Lily stopped him. “Hey, easy. It’s not their fault too—if I’m not mistaken, the monster of Chaos had parasitized them.”
The imp leader and the old demon ape looked at each other, seemingly konjac face each other, apparently at a loss.
Calaxus stepped forward. “Alpha, what happened?”
“This thing hid in the shadows of these two imps.” Lily pointed at the smoke monster on the ground. “When I saw the imps got up and moved toward your tent, I knew something was amiss. I stopped them immediately, but before I knew it, it attacked me.”
Explaining the incident, for a dog that had graduated from Peking University four times and been working as a writer, was as easy as ABC. She had also expounded her view on the event. It was a result of following Hao Ren for three years, seeing enough—if not learning—things the various strange things could no longer surprise her. She figured that this smoke monster might be something born out of the victim’s mind, or even become a parasite in the spiritual world of the host.
Calaxus was shocked upon hearing Lily’s analysis. As a church scholar for so many years, he had never heard of any parasites in the spiritual world. He had read many ancient books about a chaotic monster that was capable of mental attacks. But one that could come from a nightmare and get into the real world was a bit hard to believe.
He stared at the alpha, wondering how the mysterious and powerful alpha came to this conclusion, and where she got this incredible knowledge.
“It’s not a wild guess.” Lily knew what Galaxus was thinking. “First, when the two imps came back, you were all there and had not seen the thing came in. Second, I saw it with my own eyes that the monster came out from their shadows. Finally, we fought.”
Lily’s lips flattened again when she remembered her bowl of spare ribs. Shaking her head, she said, “It created an illusion in my mind, then I knocked it down with a brick in the illusion. When I woke up, the thing already on the ground in the real world. The brick might be imaginary but this thing…”
As she spoke, she flipped the smoke monster with her foot. Sure enough, from the part where many tentacles had fallen off, an unknown black fluid was oozing out, forming a puddle of mud-like substance on the ground. This smoke monster was wounded.
The wound had confirmed her speculation.
She hurt the monster in the illusion, and the monster carried the same wound into reality—this thing came from the spiritual world.