Chapter 134 – The Eerie Shadow
Chapter 134 The Eerie Shadow
To be fair, Duncan was not an expert in the transcendental realm, and he also lacked knowledge of the disciplines related to dreams and the spiritual realm, but he still vaguely judged that the scenery on this street should be more than just something that Shirley had seen in her “dreams”.
For the ashes of those murmuring cries for help really gave him a marvelous sense of the past –
He thought of the factory, and of the people in that factory who were hidden by the curtain and burned to ashes in the fire.
Of course, the ashes in the factory did not ask him for help – they gave him a much more visual and strong signal: they gave him a direct vision of the “echoes” of the fire eleven years ago.
Subconsciously, Duncan thought that there was a connection between the ashes on the street in Shirley’s dream and the ashes in the factory.
He raised his head and looked around him. In the dim red light, the whole street looked like the aftermath of the fire, with countless piles of ash in the falling sparks and dust, as well as suspicious black shadows imprinted on the nearby walls.
“You were only six years old back then, and even if your subconscious had observed as much as you did, it shouldn’t have been enough to support such a huge dreamscape – and to create all these cries for help for the embers, as well as phantom shadows over such a large area in the distance in the middle of a dreamscape.”
Duncan said softly, and the sound of his voice suddenly grounded Sherry, who was getting a little nervous.
Shelly looked up at Duncan, who was standing next to her – Mr. Duncan was not the same as she had seen him in the past, but he was in the posture of a gloomy and dignified captain, which, to be honest, was quite intimidating, even if he was not as “powerful” as Dog. To be honest, he looked quite intimidating, even without Dog’s “true vision”, she could still feel a deep pressure from him.
But in this nightmare, which was becoming more and more strange to her, such a powerful being could still give her some peace of mind: at least now, this being was on her side.
“Let’s move forward and see just how far the scope of the dream extends.”
Duncan’s voice suddenly came from the side, Sherry froze for a moment, and hurriedly pulled Dog to follow the other’s footsteps.
Amidst the murmured pleas for help that kept coming faintly from the countless piles of ashes, the two men and the dog crossed the streets covered with embers and sparks, and gradually walked towards the twisting and swaying complex of shadowed buildings.
They walked along the street for an unknown length of time, while Duncan watched carefully for changes in the nearby scenery along the way, and to his surprise, the street was as picturesque as ever.
There were no more distorted visions, no more blurred, grotesque, or “dangerous dream-creations” as Dog had described them.
Duncan stopped suddenly, his brow furrowing slightly.
“Mr. Duncan?” Sherry cast a curious glance, “Have you found something else?”
“…… How far have we left the ‘origin’?” Duncan looked up and back in the direction he and Shirley had come from, the house they had set out from had disappeared into the hazy red mist.
“‘Origin’?” Shirley froze for a moment, “Oh, you mean the room where I dreamed? It should …… have been pretty far away, I think it was at least half a block out.”
“Shirley, something’s not quite right,” that’s when Dog suddenly reacted as well, he looked nervously at the fog around him, his voice low, “Let’s stop for a moment.”
Shirley, however, hadn’t reacted yet, she looked confused, “What’s wrong?”
“Dreams are ‘centered’ on the cognitive base of the dream entrant’s subconscious, your cognitive base in this dream is that room, and all of your memories and emotions are inside of that room as well,” Dog explained quickly, “The realm outside the room is the ‘deduction supplement’ of the dream, theoretically, the farther away from the room, the more these deduction supplemented scenarios will deviate from reason and common sense, the edge of the dream will become more and more absurd and dangerous, and there will even be a precipice zone that disappears out of thin air… but we’ve already traveled so far! …… this dreamland yet it continues!”
Duncan nodded softly as he listened – he didn’t have such a clear and well-developed theoretical knowledge as Dog, but his guess was pretty much the same.
Shirley finally snapped out of it, and she inhaled softly, “So …… I should have gotten out of my own dream realm a long time ago, and theoretically this place should either be twisted beyond recognition, or it should be a void …… So where are we Where the hell are we now? Is this still my dream~?!”
No one could answer Sherry’s question, and Duncan could only look around with a thoughtful expression.
As far as the eye could see, there were burnt and charred streets, and the urban area after the fire was like an ugly scar that cut deeply into the city-state, and this scar of burning fire stretched all the way to the end of his line of sight, with no telling how many more neighborhoods running through in front of him. He looked in another direction and saw some towering structures near the neighborhood, one of them a factory distillation tower jabbing straight up into the sky through the smoky haze, the surface of that tower coiled with pipes and jagged bones, as if it were a strange mountain peak.
Duncan couldn’t help staring at the tall distillation tower, thinking that if he stood on that distillation tower, he might be able to look down on the entire fire.
Suddenly, his eyes froze.
The sight Nina had described to herself came to mind:
Very high up, overlooking the city after it had been burned by fire, with the streets running like a scar through the entire city-state ……
It was the same sight Nina had seen in her dream – only it happened to be a different perspective!
Duncan’s mind instantly sprang to life with a startling guess, and he twisted his head to look at Shirley, “We …… may have gone inside another dream.”
“Another dream world?” Shirley froze, “Whose dreamworld?”
“Nina’s – follow me.” Duncan said briefly, followed by a stride in the direction of where the distillation tower was.
He didn’t summon Aey to “walk” in his dream, because firstly, he didn’t know if the pigeon could enter the dream through the same way as he did in the spirit world, and secondly, he needed Aey to “stand guard” for him outside, to monitor if there were any other transcendental powers interfering with his movements. Secondly, he also needed Aey to stand guard for him outside, monitoring whether there were any other supernatural forces interfering with his actions.
Fortunately, the distillation tower wasn’t far from this neighborhood, it was a factory next door, and there was a straight alley connecting the two neighborhoods.
Shirley followed sparingly, still not understanding why Mr. Duncan said he had walked inside Nina’s dream, while Duncan looked up at the tower every now and then as he walked briskly.
He was trying to find Nina.
If this really was Nina’s dream, then the other’s figure should be standing on that distillation tower – it was already the tallest building as far as the eye could see in this place, and from the position it was also perfectly suited to be able to look down on the whole fire scene.
But Duncan didn’t see any figure on the distillation tower until the two men and the dog had almost reached the factory.
He was a little puzzled, but before he could think more about it, a strange feeling of being watched suddenly came from not far away, which made him stop in his tracks violently.
Duncan looked up to the direction of the feeling in his heart, and in the field of vision, a tall, thin figure wearing an odd long black coat and holding a large black umbrella appeared at the corner of the street at some point!
In this dream world strewn with traces of fire and embers still on the streets, the sudden appearance of such a strange man with an umbrella was an odd sight, and this time not only did Duncan see the figure, but even Shirley, who was next to him, jerked to a halt.
“There’s a man over there!” Shirley exclaimed out of breath.
“You saw it too?” Duncan subconsciously asked, and the instant his words fell, a vague and eerie grunting sound suddenly came from the direction of the figure not far away.
It wasn’t any language that Duncan knew, and even the overly complex and distorted trills and reverberations in the voice made him suspect that it wasn’t a “language” at all, but he still heard a hint of consternation in the voice – the “strange man” with the umbrella.
The umbrella-wielding “weirdo” seemed very surprised, as if he hadn’t expected to see a few “uninvited guests” wandering around here.
The moment the grunt fell, the strange figure with the umbrella made a sudden movement!
Duncan could not see what the other man did, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed that several black shadows suddenly leaped out from the hem of his long coat, pure “shadows,” and rushed swiftly along the walls and streets of the neighborhood, and then the figure with the umbrella disappeared into thin air, and the next instant his body was visible again with the aid of the “shadow. In the next second, his body reappeared with the help of one of the rapidly leaping shadows, as if teleporting, and pounced directly in front of Shirley!
But Shirley had already reacted at this time, with the Profound Hound’s mind connected to her, she also had the same fast reaction speed as the Profound Hound, at the moment when the figure had just coalesced before she had the chance to make a move, she had already raised her right hand fiercely—
“Anyway, it’s definitely right to have a fucking fight first!”
The girl yelled, actually with a strange kind of excitement, the pitch-black chains in her hands creaked and rattled, and she swung Dog round and smashed him across the room!
(End of chapter)