Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1213: Chapter 1212: Visions from the Other Side

The entire world seemed extremely quiet, and the sound of his breathing was all he could hear. In this small room that had faded into a black, white, and gray world, Modir tightened his grip on his Magic Wand and Protective Short Sword, alert like a wolf in the night, wary of everything within his perception range.

Then, he gradually began to sense more "information" appearing in his awareness. Outside the room, there came the faint sound of dust being blown by the wind, the elusive scent emitted by stones or soil, and the change in light through the window cracks. All of these slowly evolved from nothing to something, from rigid monotony to vibrant liveliness.

It was as if outside this small house there was initially only pure nothingness, but due to Modir’s awakening, a "temporarily created world" began to be outlined.

The old Mage held no carelessness, instead gripping his weapon tighter. He crouched closer to the window, his gaze sweeping again over every fixture in the room, leaving nothing unnoticed, not even the small pile of dust in the corner or the direction of the two nails on the opposite wall.

This was a habit developed over many years: before falling asleep, he would imprint every detail of his environment in his mind. Under the influence of Magic, these details could be precise to every scratch mark on doors and windows. Every time he opened his eyes, he would quickly compare his surroundings with the "quick reminder projection" engraved in his mind. Any discordance would be used to assess whether his hiding place had been invaded.

Beneath the carefree and casual exterior was the survival skill accumulated by the adventurers over centuries. Although the old Mage could not remember exactly what had happened during those long years, these instinctual survival techniques were always imprinted in his mind, never ignored for a single day.

Modir’s fingers gently brushed over the dust on the windowsill; this was the last detail, everything in the room was exactly as he remembered, except... it had transformed into a faded state resembling the shadow realm.

Similar occurrences had happened once before on the ship, the old Mage slightly frowned, cautiously pushing open a crack beneath the window. His gaze passed through the gap between the window board and the window frame, looking outside, where the scene was as expected... no longer the familiar Adventurer Camp.

An endlessly barren land stretched out in view, with sand-blasted undulating terrain scattered with jagged rocks or prone black fragmented matter, far away faint silhouettes resembling city ruins could be seen, the monotone pale sky floating with turbid shadows, shrouding this lifeless land.

However, this time, Modir did not see that massive figure seated on the collapsed throne, whose presence was as oppressive as a mountain—logically, a figure so vast should not be able to hide, as long as she appeared in this land, it should undoubtedly draw extraordinary attention.

The old Mage instinctively furrowed his brows, pondering, and in the next instant suddenly realized something. He rushed quickly to the other side of the small house, carefully opened the door a crack, and through the gap peered outside.

A colossal figure appeared before his eyes with overwhelming presence. That figure sat on a towering throne, whose base and surrounding pillars had mostly collapsed. A pitch-black long dress encased her body, extending from beneath the throne, countless gray-white fissures covering her figure, Modir unable to discern whether these fissures were on her clothes or traversed this "existence" itself. He only felt those fissures seemed alive, gently moving, in the backdrop of the black dress appearing mysteriously as intertwined lights and shadows.

Parchment and pen quietly manifested behind the old Mage. Modir, while watching the movements outside the door crack, controlled the paper and pen to quickly write down records:

"Year X Month X Day X, awakened from sleep, the peculiar phenomena similar to the one on the ship not long ago have occurred again... I seem to have arrived in the shadow realm in a dream, or some abnormal space akin to the shadow realm, the scene before my eyes roughly corresponds with last time...

"Once again saw that figure who is almost suffocating in presence, the difference being this time she... or He appeared behind me. Seems like every time I enter this space, I appear randomly? Unfortunately, sample size is too small to determine...

"That figure hasn’t noticed me, at least not yet. I still dare not affirm what she actually is, across all known human records about extraordinary occurrences, none provide descriptions aligning with her... I’m hiding behind a flimsy door, yet this door offers me no sense of safety, should this ’lady’—if she wishes, perhaps a breath could sweep me along with the entire house away.

"I better not make too much noise, whatever background this figure has, it’s clear I stand no chance in a fight..."

The pen’s tip swiftly traveling across the paper, even in such eerie circumstances, Modir recorded everything he was experiencing as per the long-standing habit he had developed—he had encountered situations stranger than this before, even though his memories were incomplete, he knew exactly what his current actions should be.

And just then, a voice suddenly arose in the world outside, interrupting Modir’s rapid recordings: "Ah... searching for an exit in the Gloomy Dungeon surrounded by Crystal Cluster, it sounds like quite an impressive adventure story, to witness firsthand that Crystal River you described would be wonderful... Does it truly flow to a portal that leads to Earth’s Core?"

This voice Modir was familiar with, it was emitted by that gigantic figure, and the old Mage instantly held his breath. Moments later, he indeed heard a response—a voice identical to his own: "How would I know, this story was one I just made up not long ago—the latter half hasn’t been thought out yet!"

A momentary silence fell over the vast plains outside, and moments later, the voice echoed across the land suddenly laughed, a laugh sounding rather joyful: "Ahaha... Mr. Great Adventurer, now you’re so quick to admit your new story is fabricated? In the past, you’d weave tales with me for a long time before admitting you’ve ’exaggerated’ parts of the story..."

Modir heard that identical voice respond in turn: "That’s because I’ve realized your requirements for stories aren’t exactly high—also, lady, the story I promised you is finished, isn’t it your turn now?"

The somewhat lazy yet infinitely majestic female voice fell silent for a little while, then resounded from all directions: "Want to continue listening to the dreams I’ve had recently? I remember them fairly clearly..."

"Alright, lady, what have you dreamt of lately?"

"Starlight, starlight covering rolling hills and plains, and cities sprawling across the earth, I leap the gap between reality and illusion, conveying vitally important messages. Upon crossing a huge tower, I saw a monster crouching in the dark, that monster without blood or flesh, only empty bones, ravenously devoured the sacrifices offered by mortals, on the bones gradually growing flesh...

"I also saw something breeding deep below the crouching city, penetrating through the entire city, through distant plains and hills, deep underground, enormous limbs continually growing, extending to the blurred chaotic black depths, along the way branching out smaller limbs, surfacing from the earth, in daylight drawing in sunlight..."

"Oh, lady, your dreams still sound as frightening as ever—completely chaotic. Can’t you change the way you describe them?"

"I can’t, I’m used to it."

Old Mage Modir hid behind the door, cautiously suppressing his presence while listening to the conversation outside. The "lady’s" descriptions of dream scenes formed fragmented and chaotic impressions in his mind, yet a mortal’s limited imagination couldn’t piece together any clear image from those abstract, trivial descriptions, so he meticulously recorded those bizarre and unusual descriptions on his parchment, while carefully shifting his gaze, attempting to find other possible figures that existed in this world.

He was searching for the source of the voice that responded, the voice exactly like his own.

But before he could find it, the situation outside suddenly changed.

The wind wandering on the plains began to stir restlessly, gray-white sand grains started spiraling around the dilapidated and decayed throne, while a deep, indistinct whisper carried from the direction of the black silhouette resembling a city ruin. The whisper sounded like a dreamy murmur of many overlapping voices, growing louder, yet no matter how one listened, it was impossible to discern exactly what it was saying.

As soon as the sound began, Modir immediately cast dozens of additional Mind Protection Spells on himself—his wealth of adventure experience told him that such hazy whispers often pertained to spiritual pollution, and although Mind Protection Spells weren’t always effective against such pollution, a dozen barriers would have some effect.

Even with fragmented past memories, in those remaining snippets he recalled having unearthed things from certain underground palace tombs that should not have been unearthed more than once—timely mental protection and solid resilience were key to turning peril into safety.

As Modir took action, the two voices outside also fell silent simultaneously, they too appeared to be earnestly listening to the deep murmur from the direction of the city ruins. After a long while, a slightly lazy female voice grumbled in a low tone, "Here we go again... still can’t hear what they want to do."

"Maybe they just want to chat with you? Or perhaps say good morning?"

"Are you serious, Mr. Great Adventurer?"

"What if, I’m just suggesting a possibility..."

"Well, put your possibilities away then, Mr. Great Adventurer," the lazy, majestic female voice said slowly, "I should get up and move around—looks like the uninvited guest wants to cross the border again, I will remind him who is the master here. You stay here, if your mind feels polluted, look at the star atlas."

As the conversation outside concluded, Modir, hiding behind the door, suddenly widened his eyes.

He saw the enormous figure seated on the throne or altar finally moving, the lady suspected to be a goddess rose from the throne! She stood up like a rising mountain, her magnificent long dress billowing like endless darkness behind her, she stepped down from the collapsed and dilapidated platform, the whole world seemed to tremble at her footsteps, the "activated fissures" wandering on her body’s surface truly "came alive," swiftly moved, reorganized, constantly converging in the lady’s hand, eventually forming a half-black, half-white scepter. In this world forged entirely of black and white, this half-black, half-white scepter stood out as if measuring the entire realm, intensely attracting Modir’s gaze.

Almost simultaneously, another enormous and terrifying entity emerged from the direction of the distant dark city ruins—yet compared to the "female God" who, though massive and majestic, at least maintained a female form, the thing rising from the city ruins was clearly more grotesque and indescribable.

It was a mass of gray-white matter, endlessly expanding and contracting, its surface full of undefined limbs and frenzied, chaotic geometric patterns, the whole mass seemed to be in a state of flow, like an unformed embryo, or a melting flesh lump, it rolled forward relentlessly, at times sweeping obstacles with enormous tentacles or countless limbs protruding around it, while during its rolling motion, it emitted maddening chaotic roars, certain parts of its surface turning semi-transparent, revealing layers of giant eyes inside, or magic symbols and patterns seemingly containing forbidden knowledge.

With merely a glance at that thing, Modir felt dizzy, a strong sense of being corroded, infiltrated by foreign thoughts surged, the protective spells layered on him seemingly providing no help as if they didn’t exist. The old mage immediately bit hard on his tongue, blood flavor spreading in his mouth, he briefly regained control of his body and forcefully withdrew his gaze from the monster’s direction.

And as he retracted his gaze, he happened to sweep across the "throne" where the lady previously sat.

His gaze was instantly drawn to what was revealed on the throne’s backrest—it had previously been obscured by the lady’s body but was now exposed, Modir saw a vast starry sky pattern appearing at the center of the ancient gray-white backrest, and contrasting with the surrounding world’s black and white, the starry sky pattern contained vivid and clear colors!

Modir instinctively looked closely, immediately discovering other details in the starry sky pattern, seeing beside those shining stars appeared subtle texts, faintly discernible lines and directional light spots connecting one star to another. The entire starry sky pattern seemed not to be static and unchanging, near some peripheral light spots, Modir even saw some seemingly moving geometric patterns—they moved very slowly but for the keenly observant archmage, their movement was definitely confirmed!

This must be recorded immediately!

The thought instantly surfaced in Modir’s mind, and the quill and paper floating behind him began to move as well, but just then, a terrifying roar suddenly transmitted from afar.

It seemed the enormous female deity had already clashed with the "Terrifying Alien God" flowing from the city ruins.

Modir only felt a booming in his mind, followed by his world spinning, and utterly lost consciousness.