985  Witch Hunt: Dreamscape

Alice looked down from the building and frowned.

"Someone is chasing them..." she muttered.

Eilish glanced over and saw people running away from a man.

The man moved at high speed, punching a person in the chest, causing them to explode. Blood and organs scattered on the ground, creating a grotesque sight.

"They are hunting ordinary people," Eilish said.

The man turned his head toward a nearby building. Suddenly, he flashed and crashed into it, sending smoke and dust shooting up.

Bang!

A woman jumped out of the shadows and launched a beam of flames. The fire immediately melted the lower floors of the building, causing the top to collapse.

Alice and Eilish watched the two fight fiercely. They sensed something was off about the man.

"That man... His energy and aura are quite different from humans and demis," Eilish remarked, narrowing her eyes.

"It's similar to a golem," Alice added in a low voice.

She observed the battle intently and noticed that the movements of the human-like golem were unlike those of the golems she had encountered before.

Alice glanced at Eilish and said, "Let's go. We don't know if there's only one golem or not. We have to find Souta and Amanda."

Eilish nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, a feminine voice sounded behind them.

"Too bad, I found you... You can't leave this place."

Eilish and Alice widened their eyes as they turned around simultaneously. They saw a woman with long black hair and purple eyes. They couldn't sense anything from her, which must have been why they hadn't detected her until she spoke.

"Can you handle her, Alice?" Eilish asked.

"Probably..." Alice replied, her uncertainty evident.

"What about the people behind her?" Eilish added, a wry smile on her face.

The woman wasn't alone; several others stood behind her, fixated on Alice and Eilish like predators eyeing their prey.

"Run!" Alice shouted, releasing her energy.

Eilish reacted swiftly, jumping and conjuring a magic circle.

In a certain region of the Walpurgis Night, Souta was locked in combat with the golem named Lagius.

Souta seized Lagius' face and hurled him to the ground, creating a massive crater. Without pause, Souta unleashed several sharp red webs at his opponent.

Lagius swiftly rose and deftly dodged all the webs, then crouched and propelled himself towards Souta.

Swoosh!

"You can't fight me head-on!" Souta chuckled, tightening his fist.

Unafraid, Lagius met Souta directly, their collision creating a ripple in the air as Lagius was flung and crashed into a nearby building.

Bang!

Souta propelled himself through the air, closing in on his target. His physical prowess far surpassed Lagius', leaving the golem at a disadvantage.

His body crashed into the building, observing Lagius as he struggled to rise. Souta swiftly followed up by kicking Lagius in the chest, sending the golem hurtling through the walls and into a nearby building.

Bang!

Souta halted, his gaze fixed on the resulting explosion. He raised his hand and touched his cheek, noting the brief injury inflicted by Lagius.

"He managed to cut me in that moment...?" Souta muttered, observing the wound swiftly heal. His expression grew solemn as he concluded his assessment of the golem's capabilities. Having identified its strengths and weaknesses, Souta saw no reason to prolong the battle unnecessarily.

Resolved to push himself further, Souta acknowledged the risk of employing his Best Feram without fully restoring his inner consciousness.

A loud reverberation echoed through the air, causing Souta to look up and spot a building hurtling toward him.

"Ehe~ Haven't you learned that this kind of attack is nothing to me!" Souta laughed as he leaped into the air and drew the vajra sword from its sheath.

Swoosh!!

A crimson energy blade emerged, slicing the incoming building cleanly in two. With the building split, the energy blade continued its trajectory toward Lagius.

Lagius, realizing he couldn't evade the approaching energy blade, raised both hands to deflect it. However, Souta was already beside him.

Souta retrieved an orb from his pocket, which emitted a dim light—the [Orb of Arcane Seal].

He made a grabbing motion in the air, summoning a powerful gravitational field that locked Lagius in place. Then, with a swift motion of his sword, a burst of energy shot toward Lagius.

Boom!!

A massive explosion resounded, shaking the entire area.

Lagius emerged from the smoke, with only half of his body remaining after the devastating attack. Despite the damage, he began to regenerate as he landed on the ground.

Staring at Souta, Lagius remarked, "Threat level... Top class SSS-rank. Elimination is impossible."

Souta stepped forward out of the dissipating smoke, observing Lagius's wounds slowly healing.

"You managed to survive my attack. Quite surprising, considering I intended it to be fatal," Souta mused, wondering if he had unconsciously held back due to his damaged inner consciousness.

Then, with a grin, Souta added, "Perhaps my initial assessment of you was off. You are stronger than I thought."

Swoosh!!

With a powerful force, Souta traversed through the shadows and materialized in front of Lagius. A gravitational field locked down the area as Souta's aura intensified.

"This time... You will not survive!" Souta declared in a cold tone, swinging the sword in his hand. An immense darkness tore through the land, creating a massive gully.

In an instant, everything seemed to merge into darkness.

The ordinary people who had been fleeing were unaware of what had transpired.

Standing alone in the midst of the destroyed landscape, Souta held a bluish orb crackling with energy in his hand—the core of Lagius.

"I'm going to take this back with me. I'll let Torkez study this thing," Souta muttered as he stowed away the core. He then turned his attention to the area around him.

During the battle, he had noticed some peculiar spots in this place.

Swoosh!!

He materialized in front of a small wooden house that had somehow remained intact despite the destruction wrought by the battle.

"If I'm not mistaken... this is the higher part..."

Souta opened the door and gazed upon a vast expanse beyond. An endless forest stretched out before him, inhabited by strange creatures that seemed to exist only in dreams. Above the forest, an inverted city floated in the sky, with flying cars buzzing around it.

"This is the surface part..."

Souta surveyed his surroundings. The creatures here were ethereal, dreamlike entities that couldn't exist in reality, distinct from the other dream creatures he had encountered.

He halted and turned towards several individuals who were observing him.

One stepped forward, saying, "You're correct. This is the surface part of dreams. When people in reality sleep and dream, places like this form."

He was a man with short brown hair and a long, sharp spear slung across his back. He continued, "The living creatures here are manifestations of dreams. To clarify, when someone dreams of you in reality, a place like this appears and a creature resembling you is created within that person's dream."

These dream creatures could only exist within dreams, and Dreamscapes like this were abundant throughout the Dream Realm. Although invading someone's dreams was challenging, once accomplished, dream creatures could pose a threat to the dreamer unless the dreamer had full control over the Dreamscape.

There were instances where dreamers managed to delve deeper into their dreams, arriving in the Dream Realm where they could harness Dream Power. If the Dreamscape represented the surface of dreams, then the Dream Realm and Nightmare Realm were deeper layers of dreaming.

"So what do you want from me?" Souta asked, noting that these people were not constructs of the Dreamscape. They seemed different, real.

"We can't allow you to gain points, so we'll take you down here," the man replied, his expression growing serious.

"Haha, that's a straightforward answer. I thought you might try to find an excuse," Souta chuckled. Then, his demeanor turned cold as he asked, "Do you understand the consequences of your actions?"

"I don't need to know. You'll stay here in this Dreamscape. The higher-ups ordered us to prevent all the guests from gaining points. I, Lorna, have taken on this task," the man replied.

"Very well, then let's begin!" Souta laughed, flicking his finger and sending dozens of sharp red webs toward them.

Swoosh!!

The man named Lorna leaped into the air, swiftly dodging the sharp webs. His companions also scattered to avoid the onslaught.

"Witches! Come!" Souta called out with a wide grin. He extended both arms, and thousands of red webs shot out in all directions, slicing through everything in their path.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The impact of the webs hitting nearby objects reverberated through the Dreamscape.

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