The moment the door opened, Lance’s figure was siphoned in by a terrifying force, as if he were being swallowed by a vacuum.
His vision blurred instantly, and he felt the world spin wildly once again.
‘Help!’ Lance shouted repeatedly in his mind.
To his surprise, the Witch, who had been silent for a long time, finally responded.
However, her voice was lazy, as if she had just woken up—a complete contrast to her previous arrogant tone.
“Don’t be nervous… Dizziness is normal…”
Before she could finish, the Witch actually let out a yawn within Lance’s mental world, confirming the fact that she had just woken up.
Lance couldn’t afford to worry about that, though. In his field of vision, he could clearly see himself rapidly approaching another door!
Thud!
The sound of clashing steel echoed through the hall.
Lance’s hardened helmet was dented deeply, and he literally began to see stars from the impact.
Seeing Lance in such a state, the Witch in his head only let out a silvery, bell-like chuckle.
Lance stood up slowly and shook his head.
He cursed the Nature Church in his heart for being so rude! To launch a sneak attack without a single hint of warning!
With that hit, Lance’s full-face helmet was severely damaged. His already restricted vision had now vanished entirely.
Left with no choice, Lance had to use both hands to pry his head out of the metal casing.
Pop~
After much struggling, Lance pulled his head out, enduring the pain. But as soon as he opened his eyes, he recoiled in shock.
“Master!”
Falia, draped in her Gilded Three-Ring Pattern Witch’s Robe, was hovering in the air.
She lay in a relaxed posture, propping her cheek with one hand, her face inches away from his. She wore a beaming smile.
Seeing Lance’s terrified expression, Falia’s smile widened. She reached out to stroke his messy black hair and said, “There, there, don’t be afraid. Master is here~”
‘It’s because you suddenly appeared here that I’m scared!’
The words stayed bottled up in Lance’s heart, nearly escaping his lips. Fortunately, his rationality hadn’t abandoned him.
Suppressing the urge to complain, he composed himself and asked respectfully, “Master, are we in the Underground Sealing Chamber now?”
“Hmm… It seems so. I can feel a part of my body deep behind that door.”
“But it seems your card doesn’t give you the authority to go that far… You’re powerless for the rest of this journey…”
Lance was overjoyed at those words. He had no desire to actually help the Witch recover her body—not even a foot!
While he felt Falia was quite friendly at times, she was still a powerhouse who had been divided and sealed by the Sage Council and the Three Great Orthodoxies!
One didn’t need a brain to know how dangerous this was. Even in a Dream, Lance did not want Falia to truly recover a part of herself. He had only come this far because she had threatened him with their contract!
Hearing that he didn’t need to do anything else, Lance breathed a sigh of relief.
He just wanted to quickly pick a Rank 3 Sealed Artifact and return to the surface.
Once the contracting process was finished, he would come clean with the Elf girl and wake her up to return to the real world.
However, Falia merely glanced toward the depths of the Sealing Chamber before turning back to Lance with a faint smile.
“But it’s fine! I’ll just go get it myself!”
Without giving Lance time to react, she drifted away toward the depths of the Sealing Chamber. Lance was startled and quickly jogged to keep up with her.
“Master! Do you have a way to break through the lockdowns here?”
“Of course. Why, do you want to go inside and see as well?”
Lance was about to refuse, but Falia waved her hand, manifesting a complex magic array of light.
In a single breath, Lance’s soul flew out of his body. He immediately became illusory, being pulled along by Falia like a kite.
His physical body remained behind, standing stiffly in place.
“Wait! Master! I’m fine staying here! I don’t want to trouble you! Please put me back!”
“Oh, it’s no trouble at all. If you want to see, then see! It’s fine! Heehee~”
The corners of the Witch’s eyes tilted up slightly. Her amber eyes glanced back, and seeing Lance’s deathly pale expression, she couldn’t help but giggle behind her hand.
‘Consider this a small lesson for your slacking!’
With a cold snort in her heart, Falia accelerated. For Lance, whose soul power wasn’t particularly thick to begin with, this made things even worse.
Amidst Lance’s screams, the two soul forms tore through the air toward the deepest part of the sealing hall.
Just as Lance’s soul felt like it was about to dissipate from the high-speed movement, Falia finally slowed down.
Like someone stepping off the back of a reckless driver’s motorcycle, Lance felt his soul churn as soon as they stopped.
He bent over and began to dry heave. This pathetic display, unsurprisingly, earned another giggle from the Witch.
But Falia’s gaze only lingered on Lance for a moment. Looking at the pitch-black Secret Steel Door before her, her expression turned serious.
Even her amber eyes, which had been dancing with mirth, grew deep and profound.
Without hesitation, Falia walked straight through the Secret Steel Door, which was reinforced with countless seals, and entered the room behind it.
After a short recovery, Lance suppressed the nausea deep in his soul and hurried after her.
This was the depths of the Sealing Chamber beneath the Nature Church’s Sanctuary—he couldn’t just wander around alone.
Relatively speaking, being near Falia was safer!
Hardening his heart, Lance plunged into the door. Just like Falia, he passed through without any obstruction.
The scene inside the room took Lance by surprise.
The sealing chambers he had seen before were usually cramped spaces filled with various charms and magic arrays!
They were designed that way to prevent Sealed Objects that could affect the environment from having enough room to operate.
Yet, the space inside this Sealing Chamber was quite vast. The decor could even be described as luxurious.
A classic deep-red spruce desk, exquisite candlesticks made of gold and silver, bookshelves filled with books…
How was this a sealing chamber? This was clearly a princess’s bedchamber!
Lance was no uncultured commoner. He had been an Earl’s son for several years and had studied under the Princess for a while. How could he not recognize such luxury?
However, the moment Lance entered, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity…
‘These pieces of furniture… aren’t they exactly like the ones in Falia’s bedroom in the mental world?’
The only difference was the dim lighting, which created a significantly different atmosphere compared to Falia’s sunlit bedroom in his mind.
Lance composed himself and looked at Falia, who was standing before the desk in the center of the room.
He quickly stepped up to stand behind her. Seeing her lost in deep thought, Lance didn’t dare to speak.
He looked toward the desk and saw a pair of jade-white lower legs crossed over each other, placed inside a deep-red wooden box like a dish being served.
The rounded, delicate toes had a slight rosy tint, as if blood were still flowing through them—as if they were still alive.
Lance was terrified. He had no idea what Falia was feeling right now, but he knew it couldn’t be good.
‘How can a victim’s soul feel good seeing a severed part of her own body?’
‘I hope she doesn’t take it out on me…’
After a long time, the dazed Witch finally snapped out of it, and her deep eyes returned to normal.
Seeing Lance’s cowardly appearance, Falia lightly tapped his head and said irritably, “What are you afraid of? I’m not going to hurt you~”
Recalling how he had been dragged behind her like a kite, Lance thought to himself that her words were hard to believe.
Still, he put on a respectful face and asked, “Master… what do we do next?”
Lance was only asking tentatively, but surprisingly, Falia actually frowned in thought.
“What do we do? I haven’t decided yet…”
Falia’s gaze fell upon her jade-white legs and slender feet.
She mused, “I just recovered some memories from them. Now, I don’t really want to take them back.”
“Huh?”
Lance was stunned, not quite understanding what the Witch meant.
But Falia continued to herself, “I probably don’t need to come back to steal this later. I don’t like the memories inside them very much.”
“But it seems like a waste to just leave them here…”
Suddenly, Falia’s long eyelashes fluttered. Her amber eyes regained their luster as she looked at Lance with a mischievous grin.
“Want to have a taste?”
Lance: ?
This time, Lance was truly speechless. He couldn’t understand what the Witch was implying.
He could only stare with wide eyes at the white-haired Witch in her oversized robes.
“Eh? Aren’t you a noble? I remember many nobles enjoy fondling the legs and feet of young girls… Is that not in fashion anymore?”
In an instant, Lance’s cool face flushed with blood, turning as red as a ripe apple.
For a moment, Lance didn’t know how to respond, especially since Falia had ended her statement with a question!
It was certainly still in fashion! But what was popular was definitely not a pair of severed legs and feet!
His gaze drifted to the legs in the wooden box. The curves were indeed perfect, without a single blemish.
Falia’s legs were usually hidden beneath her voluminous robes, so he had never actually seen them.
Lance’s brain stalled. In a moment of madness, he actually gulped.
Seeing this, Falia’s expression changed instantly. “I’m joking! I still need to use them!”
Without giving Lance any time to react, she stepped forward and placed her hands on the legs.
The moment she touched them, the slender legs and feet vanished, as if they had merged back into her original body.
Lance blinked and subconsciously glanced toward the lower half of Falia’s robes.
This time, Falia’s face finally began to blush. She said crossly, “Stop looking! I’m not letting you taste them!”
Lance snapped out of it, realizing his behavior was inappropriate. He stammered, “You’ve misunderstood, you’ve misunderstood…”
Falia only let out a cold snort and turned her back on him, ignoring him.
After a while, she seemed to have composed herself. She spoke slowly, “Do you want to break out of this Dream now?”
“Wait, you have a way?”
Falia gave a mysterious, confident smile. “I can tear this Dream apart right now, though the experience won’t be very pleasant…”
“What do you mean by not pleasant…”
Before Lance could finish his question, Falia rose into the air. Grabbing Lance, she shot toward the sky even faster than before!
This time, however, Falia placed a layer of mental protection around him. Lance’s discomfort lasted only for a fleeting moment before vanishing.
In just a few breaths, Falia brought Lance through the surface and into the sky. They hovered at the highest point of the Spired Cathedral.
Lance looked down and saw various clergy members busy setting things up.
Large quantities of fresh flowers were being transported from outside the cathedral.
In a place Lance couldn’t see, Astrid was having her long, dark-gold hair brushed by a maid, a gentle smile on her lips.
“It’s quite lively…”
After whispering those words, Falia let go of Lance. She raised both palms and began to manifest a magic array.
Unlike the small arrays she had cast casually before, she was now shaping a massive array whose complexity and scale far surpassed anything prior.
Under Lance’s watchful gaze, the array gradually took shape… one ring… two rings… five rings… nine rings!
This was a Nine-Ring magic array!
Lance seemed to realize what Falia was planning to do.
“Master…”
Again, before Lance could finish, Falia simply turned to him with a sweet smile. “Don’t be in such a hurry. It’s done!”
With that, Falia pulled her hands back sharply. The pale-white Nine-Ring Magic Array instantly detonated.
Above the spire, nine layers of interlaced and folded arrays appeared out of thin air.
Boom!
A beam of white light condensed from the topmost array and crashed down like a pillar of pure energy.
With every layer it passed through, its power amplified.
The moment the beam struck the ground and exploded, only one thought occupied Lance’s mind:
‘Holy crap! An atomic bomb!’
The mountains crumbled and the earth split as the Dream was pierced and shattered.
Lance and Astrid’s consciousnesses slowly began to return.