Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability

Chapter 899 Hunting in Dreams
When Lumian saw the bear-like shadow, he immediately confirmed it was a Black Dream Tapir based on his spiritual intuition.

He instantly drew the Sword of Courage, and under the illumination of the crimson moon in the dream, jumped down from the cliff top. The hood attached to his cloak flipped up, revealing black long hair, delicate features, and light blue yet deep eyes.

Boom!

Intense white-blue flames pinned the black bear-like shadow to the ground, blasting it into pieces.

Those shadow fragments quickly scattered and recombined into the shape of a tapir in the distance.

This wasn't a real dream. Most damage couldn't be reflected on the physical body, so it couldn't cause direct death, at most causing mental damage and turning one into a vegetable!

The bear-like Black Dream Tapir turned towards Lumian and let out a low growl.

With this growl, the scenery around Lumian changed, transforming from the primitive forest at the bottom of the cliff to Cordu under blue skies and white clouds, near green grasslands.

Lumian returned to Ol' Tavern, with a glass of absinthe floating with a dreamlike green color in front of him, surrounded by many Guillaumes and Pierres.

They were telling crude jokes and slandering people from other villages.

The familiar scent of alcohol pierced Lumian's nostrils. Outside the tavern window, Aurore's house was magically reflected, with a figure in a light blue dress and thick golden hair sitting on the roof, hugging her knees and gazing at the sky.

One of the Black Dream Tapir's abilities was to use the happy, joyful, and pleasant emotions it had absorbed to trap its target in the most nostalgic and beautiful scene, making it difficult to break free.

Seeing the female figure holding the iron-black giant sword freeze, the Black Dream Tapir ran over on all fours.

It wanted to devour this entire scene and all the positive emotions the other person generated from it.

At this moment, it felt something burning behind it and instinctively turned around.

It saw another Lumian, with invisible flames of anger burning in his eyes and intense black flames covering his sword.

The Lumian indulging in memories of Cordu quickly dissipated, leaving only a mirror.

Lumian raised the Sword of Courage burning with the Flames of Destruction, cleaving the Black Dream Tapir in two from top to bottom.

The more he longed for the beautiful life in Cordu, knowing it could never return, the more agitated and pained he felt, with anger surging!

In a slight explosion, black flames suppressing madness and violence clung to the two halves of the Black Dream Tapir's shadow, continuously burning them, making them noticeably fainter.

The Black Dream Tapir's shadow rejoined dozens of meters away, but was much weaker than before. Lumian's Flames of Destruction seemed to have truly damaged the part of its consciousness that had penetrated this dream.

Fear appeared in the eyes of this spirit world creature. It suddenly stood upright, its dark eyes tinged with blood-red.

It wanted to use the dream to transform into one of the target's most feared and terrifying forms, thereby intimidating the opponent and creating an opportunity for its consciousness to escape the dream and successfully return to the spirit world.

In the blink of an eye, the Black Dream Tapir's body swelled to an abnormal size, emanating an extremely insane, cruel, bloody, and violent aura.

It also created nearly invisible flames.

In the next second, the Black Dream Tapir itself let out an extremely terrified and agonized scream.

It was ignited by the invisible fire it had created, and its body was filled with the terrifying aura it had imitated, almost losing itself.

Seeing this scene, even Lumian was stunned for a moment, then curved his lips into a smile and said softly, "It's not so easy to imitate an image that can make me fear and dread."

"You think you can imitate the Blood Emperor?"

Imitating a true god inevitably means suffering backlash!

The Black Dream Tapir was already rolling in agony in the dream, unable to extinguish the invisible flames burning it.

It struggled extremely hard to detach from the dream. Lumian didn't stop it, but instead activated the black mark on his right shoulder and followed it to the spirit world.

The dream's owner, Kewell, in the form of dismembered corpse pieces, saw the girl who descended like the crimson moon falling twice slash the bear-like shadow monster and set it completely ablaze. His heart gradually became less fearful and afraid.

He stared blankly at that elegant and clean profile, at those slightly pursed light red lips, at the bright and beautiful face so different from the giant sword she wielded, feeling as if he were dreaming.

No, this really was a dream.

Lumian chased to a certain place in the spirit world and saw the Black Dream Tapir's true form already burning itself. Its agonized wails made the strange creatures around choose to stay away.

Lumian watched quietly and flicked a black flame bound with agitation and intensity towards it, letting it fall onto the Black Dream Tapir's body.

In just a few seconds, the spirit world creature burned to ashes, turning into a tiny amount of dark black powder.

Lumian reached out his palm and caught this powder.

…

In the apartment Lumian had rented for Lugano and Ludwig in Quartier de l'Observatoire.

The little boy dressed in children's formal wear with a small bow tie poured nearly 100 milliliters of Lanti Proof into a glass, then added the Black Dream Tapir's powder, lemon juice, ice cubes, a type of kilju, and other ingredients.

In the end, that full glass of strong liquor had a golden base, with green and black intertwining colors on top, looking quite beautiful.

"Wow, that drink looks very tempting," Franca exclaimed with an expectant look.

She sat very close to Lumian, while Jenna was on Lumian's other side.

Ludwig suddenly picked up that glass of "cocktail" and hid it behind his back.

He said very firmly, "There's only enough for two people to drink!"

"You and Anthony drink it." Lumian made the decision directly.

While Franca felt slightly disappointed, Ludwig beamed with joy. He took another glass and poured nearly half of the "cocktail" into it, handing it to Anthony.

"This cocktail is called 'The Color of Dreams'.

"It takes effect one minute after drinking."

After Anthony took The Color of Dreams, Ludwig began gulping down the portion in his hand.

Franca deliberately said, "Isn't it not so good for someone so young to drink hard liquor? He should be properly educated."

She had already prepared her test papers, just waiting for Anthony to finish advancing to "test" Ludwig.

As Ludwig inexplicably shuddered, Anthony adjusted his state and drank that glass of The Color of Dreams.

It was both bitter and sweet, both strong and mild, both igniting the esophagus, mouth, and stomach, while bringing an intoxicating feeling.

This was a dreamscape.

While waiting for "The Color of Dreams" to take effect, Anthony began preparing the potion.

Franca took the opportunity to say to Lumian and Jenna, "The leader of the Emperor Party is a man called Louis. He claims to have blood from the Gustav family and to be a descendant of Emperor Roselle.

"According to Niceea's intelligence, some core members of the Emperor Party feel that on that day, after the Vortex incident, Louis Gustav became somewhat strange, more mysterious and more majestic.

"He's secretly planning something, and only a very few of his confidants in the entire Emperor Party know what it is.

"Niceea has a strong desire to express herself and take revenge on society. She volunteered to make contact with one of Louis Gustav's confidants. I plan to ask 007's side to cooperate and create an opportunity for her…"

Louis was as common a name in Trier and Intis as Pierre, Guillaume, and others.

Lumian nodded slightly, but before he could say anything, Anthony had finished preparing the potion and drank the dark liquid speckled with grayish-white light.

The taste of Dreamwalker was very similar to The Color of Dreams, both complex and chaotic, containing many elements.

Lumian and the others stopped talking, focusing intently on Anthony to guard against any accidents.

They saw their teammate's face sometimes covered with grayish-white scales, sometimes becoming bloodless, as if his soul had left his body, while his eyes were empty and lifeless, having lost self-awareness.

After a while, Anthony's eyes first became dark, then lit up with light.

"It succeeded," Anthony said, showing rare outward emotion. "That feeling of looking down on the world, on everyone's dreams, is truly addictive. I almost didn't want to wake up."

After this exclamation, he composed himself and briefly described the abilities brought by the Dreamwalker potion.

"I can directly see the appearance of the spirit world, see the sea of collective subconscious, and can 'guide' the target step by step to reveal their inner secrets through changes in dreams…

"I can also gradually influence the target by 'modifying' dreams, making them do things they wouldn't normally do. This is equivalent to a gentler, more hidden form of Hypnosis that's less likely to be detected by higher-level targets, but it takes quite a long time to complete…

"Now I can directly enter dreams, hide in dreams, and jump from one dream to another, but the distance between two dreams can't exceed 500 meters…"

"A form of teleportation whose use is limited by environment and distance," Lumian commented briefly.

Anthony agreed with a nod."It's called 'Dream Traversal', and for me, the spirituality consumption is very small."

Lumian smiled and stood up, saying, "Now, every member of our team is at Sequence 5 or above."

…

A few days later, Anthony was working normally at Green Tree Clinic.

Near noon, a nurse brought in a patient.

It was Kewell, the young man aspiring to enter politics, currently serving as a staff member in the National Convention.

"Dr. Reid, I've been much better recently. I haven't had nightmares for several days," Kewell said happily to Anthony.

He still trusted Anthony quite a bit, after all, this psychiatrist had indeed improved his condition before.

"This is your own victory. You've passed through that stage," Anthony congratulated him without showing any abnormality.

Kewell touched his golden sideburns and hesitated before saying, "My condition improved four days ago. That night, I was having a nightmare again, but in the dream, a young girl descended under the illumination of a huge red moon and saved me.

"Sh-she was the most beautiful and charismatic girl I've ever seen, but my memory of that dream is becoming increasingly blurry. Mr. Reid, can you find a way for me to remember her permanently, to not forget her? Or let me draw her? Maybe there's a girl as beautiful as her in reality…"

Anthony looked at Kewell and said carefully, "I'm sorry, but I can't help you with this. Indulging in dreams will lead you to another extreme. As your psychiatrist, I can't push you towards an abyss. I must tell you, that's an illusion you can't reach."

Kewell was silent for a while, then let out a sigh of extreme disappointment. "Alright."

…

Quartier de l'Observatoire, Rue de la Gauche.

Alone in the apartment, Lumian stood by the window, pondering what he needed to do recently.

The treasure vault of the Blue Avenger… But Mr. Hanged Man only agreed to let me explore once…

Go to Bansy Harbor to find that potentially problematic place, use the corpse wax candle…

Just as Lumian thought of this, he instinctively half-turned his body and saw Madam Magician appear with starlight.

This Major Arcana card holder said with a smile, "Your reward should be ready to collect today. I'll take you to a place."