“Doctor, are you using hypnotic smoke?”
As he pushed the door open and entered the bedroom, Shade asked curiously, though he was actually more curious about how the doctor who exhaled the smoke remained unaffected.
“No, this is my occult art, [Mist of the Sleeping Dragon]. I occasionally use it to assist patients with ‘hypnotic’ treatments. Rest assured, he is just an ordinary person; unless we make a loud racket in his ear, he won't be waking up tonight.”
The doctor spoke with confidence.
Although Doctor Schneider’s luck was poor, his professional level was trustworthy.
After entering the somewhat narrow bedroom, the two checked the room separately to ensure there were no other dangers before entering the dream. During this time, Luther Kinwis, lying on the bed, showed no signs of waking. Even when the two finished checking the room and placed their hands on his head in the darkness, the sleeping man remained unconscious.
His eyes were closed, and under the light of the silver moon, his face actually wore a somewhat distorted expression. Combined with the terrifying red and swollen burn marks on his face and the large shadow cast by his head on the pillow, the scene was indeed quite horrific.
Doctor Schneider believed the man was having a nightmare, making this the perfect opportunity to enter the dream.
“These burn marks are truly severe,” the doctor whispered. Both he and Shade brought over chairs and sat on opposite sides of the single bed.
Shade extinguished the light at his fingertips and drank the dream-entry auxiliary potion handed to him by the doctor. The doctor then used a silver runic chain, resembling a lady's bracelet, to bind Shade's right hand to his own left hand. On the runic chain, three runes—[Slumber], [Peaceful Sleep], and [Dreamscape]—repeated in a cycle; it was an alchemical item.
The doctor did not need such trouble to enter a dream alone, but bringing Shade along required these extra preparations.
Once this was done, the two men sitting on either side of the bed in the dark room placed their free hands on Luther Kinwis's forehead.
“Doctor, why do I feel like we're performing some kind of evil ritual?” Shade whispered, worried that Luther Kinwis might suddenly open his eyes and be scared to death by the sight.
“Detective, stop talking nonsense. Now, relax your mind; I am about to begin the entry. Barring any accidents, we should wake up in about ten to fifteen minutes of real-time.”
“And if there are accidents?” Shade asked again.
The doctor looked up at him. In the near-total darkness of the curtained room, he seemed to see a silver light flickering in Shade's eyes.
“Hmm, just how worried are you about accidents? However, if something unfortunate truly happens, it's hard to say exactly how long it would take. But trust me, Detective, I am a professional. Now, lean over the bed, close your eyes, and keep your body comfortable. Very good. One, two, three!”
His consciousness gradually became diffused, and a faint sense of pulling seemed to want to lead Shade toward a certain place. Shade did not resist this pull, and his awareness grew increasingly blurred.
In a daze, he seemed to be standing once again on a ridge under the silver moon, gazing up at the vast night sky and the sea of stars. But as the surrounding temperature rose, the massive silver lunar disk overhead gradually vanished, and a fiery red light began to erode and replace the serene moonlit landscape.
The crackling sound of burning and the flickering of flames gradually became clear.
As his consciousness regained clarity, Shade shuddered, feeling as if he had suddenly breached the surface of the water from the depths.
Breathing heavily, he looked around and found himself standing on a desolate night street. Ahead was a house engulfed in raging flames, as if swallowed by a fire demon. The three-story building was entirely ablaze; the oncoming heatwave and the terrifying crackling sounds seemed to signal that the structure was on the verge of collapse.
In the dead of night, the glare of the fire was so piercing that it was almost impossible to keep one's eyes open.
Doctor Schneider stood in front of Shade, raising his palm to shield his eyes and squinting forward. The firelight reddened half of the doctor's face.
“As expected, it's a nightmare. A fire scene? Fits the expectations.”
Shade looked down at his hands but saw none of those golden cracks.
*I remember you saying that as long as I am in a dream, I will...*
【Only in deep dreams will the traces of "Divine Afterglow" be exposed. This dream does not belong to you; you can only interfere to a limited extent, and therefore cannot expose the essence of your soul.】
It seemed that even in someone else's dream, she was still with him.
*Understood.*
Thinking this, he continued to survey the scene of the fire that seemed intent on burning everything. It was easy to judge that this was a dream; such a massive fire had failed to alert the neighbors, and upon closer observation of the burning building, the flames weren't actually causing continuous structural damage—they were simply burning in place.
“Doctor, what do we do now?” Shade asked softly. As he looked toward the upper floors of the building, he caught a glimpse of a black figure flashing past a burning window.
*What was that?* he wondered, but the special environment of the dream greatly weakened the perception of outsiders, so the voice in his mind provided no answer.
“I'll go find the master of the dream. Detective, wait a moment.”
The doctor stood still with his eyes closed, while Shade continued to observe the burning flames. Although this was his first time entering a dream, this particular dream gave him a strange feeling.
“Found him, he's upstairs. However, this dream seems a bit odd. Why do I feel like there's something else here besides us?” the blue-eyed doctor said with some surprise. He did not lead Shade directly into the fire but instead summoned his Life Ring. The core spirit rune [Dreamscape] and the spirit rune [False Reality] both emitted a faint glow.
The use of the occult art caused a strange halo to spread from the brass ring to the surroundings. In the air, which had looked distorted due to the heat, black filaments suddenly appeared.
Those black things looked extremely filthy and bizarre; they moved through matter and air like phantoms. Attempting to touch them only resulted in the filaments passing through one's fingers.
*What are these?* Shade asked in his mind again, but she still gave no answer, as Shade had not actually touched the things.
“Doctor, this place seems a bit strange. Are we going to find the master of the dream, or should we withdraw and give up now?”
Shade asked for Doctor Schneider's opinion. The doctor frowned in thought and even twitched his nose toward the burning building, as if catching a scent.
“No need to withdraw. Different people's dreams indeed exhibit different strange phenomena, especially since the subject is an Awakened Talent. Moreover, if we encountered an enemy in reality, I might worry about accidents, but this is the world of dreams. I am a professional.”
The strong confidence he displayed infected Shade, who actually didn't want to give up either.
“Then how do we break into the fire?”
Dangers in a dream could similarly affect them.
“Leave it to me.”
The [Dreamscape] spirit rune flashed again. As the doctor recited a clunky incantation, a film of water enveloped Shade. The heat was blocked out, and simultaneously, he felt as if he had become stronger.
“Occult art [Blessing of the Dream Sprite]. Within one hour of dream-time, scene damage is greatly reduced, and the subject's strength is enhanced. Also, a word of advice: as outsiders to this dream, to avoid waking the master, it is best not to manipulate the dream even if we have the means. We can utilize our powers as Ring-Wielders, but do not attempt to use Relics. Even if your mind is capable of simulating a Relic, do not use it in a dream, otherwise, it will shift the dream in an even more eerie direction.”
The doctor explained the basic rules of dream exploration as he stepped up the stairs of the house. He grabbed the scorching hot doorknob, turned it a few times with a clatter, and then turned to Shade.
“Detective, you open the door. Locks in dreams are harder to open than locks in reality. If you weren't here, I'm afraid I'd have to search the surroundings for clues to understand the theme and background of the dream before I could unlock the first lock.”
“Doctor, it sounds like every time we break into a dream, it's like playing a role-playing game with pre-set rules,” Shade said, stepping up and tapping the lock. He felt only a lukewarm heat, and after a slight resistance, the lock turned and the door opened. According to the dream theory Shade knew, locks in dreams were actually "locks of the heart," which also fell within the scope of the [Key of Doors].
The doctor smiled.
“Role-playing? That's an interesting phrase. But it is indeed like a very realistic game. A psychiatrist is essentially a detective of dreams. However, compared to detectives like you who investigate the past, detectives who investigate dreams are slightly safer.”
Seeing that Shade had successfully opened the lock, the doctor took a deep breath and resumed a serious expression.
“Now, prepare for combat. Even if there are no other intruders besides us, this nightmare will certainly spontaneously generate some strange things to resist us.”
“What happens if we get injured in a dream?” Shade looked at the fire inside the door and walked in, with the doctor following behind as flames licked at them.
“Loss of mental strength.”
The foyer was blocked by a collapsed, burning shoe rack and coat rack. The doctor asked Shade, who was leading the way, to cut through the obstructions.
“What if we die in a dream? Do we die in reality?”
Past the foyer was the living room, with the stairs to the upper floors on the other side. The crackling flames looked exceptionally terrifying; everything around them was light, fire, and heatwaves. The heat distorted the air, making everything look incredibly strange.
This was Shade's first time venturing deep into a fire; even though it was a dream, it was truly an eye-opening experience.
“No, no, Detective, don't underestimate me. Death in a dream forces an exit from the dream, followed by a headache for several days. During that time, mental resistance is greatly reduced and the risk of losing control increases, but you absolutely will not die directly.”
The doctor spoke, then pressed Shade's shoulder to stop him from walking so fast.
“Look ahead.”
Amidst the burning flames, something resembling a charred corpse was crawling on the ground. But upon closer inspection, it wasn't exactly crawling; its body was facing upward, with its hands and feet bent backward to touch the ground. As Shade looked at it, the monster slapped the ground with its limbs and charged toward Shade and the doctor, trailing fire.
“Monsters in dreams reflect the master's fears and thoughts. It seems Luther Kinwis saw these people burned to death during the fire back then.”
The doctor told Shade to step back and walked toward the burning desiccated corpse. When they were three steps away from colliding, the gaunt, charred corpse with inverted limbs suddenly leaped up in the fire, lunging for the doctor's face.
But the doctor calmly raised his left hand. As a transparent circular shield appeared in his grip, he swung his left hand upward—
*Bang!*
The lunging corpse was violently knocked away by the shield. After slamming into a protruding stone brick in a collapsed corner of the living room, it scattered into a cloud of black ash and vanished.
“That weak?”
“This is only the dream of a Talent, not the dream of a Ring-Wielder.”
The shield in the doctor's hand dissipated, and he shrugged.
“However, the closer we get to the master of the dream, the more intense the counterattacks will be. So, don't actually think this place is absolutely safe.”
(End of Chapter)