A chilling sensation crawled up Astrid’s spine, reaching into her very soul, and her body froze in place.
“Evil Spirit Possession…”
Astrid’s expression shifted drastically. She hadn’t expected the Dream Eater to have recovered to the point where it could release other skills.
‘It’s really… ruining me…’
Astrid’s thoughts began to stagnate. Her eyelids grew heavy, and a wave of fatigue washed over her, threatening to pull her back into a dream.
Right then, a beam of pure light shot out from Astrid’s side, the radiance instantly illuminating the entire plaza.
“AAAAHHHH —”
The grayish-white mist clinging to Astrid’s back let out a shrill wail.
In an instant, it turned into a thin thread of vapor and was sucked into the Holy Lantern by the shining rays.
Astrid felt a sudden lightness, and her spirit rallied once more.
Looking back, she saw a silver-armored knight standing by the main entrance of the Clan House, holding a lantern.
Astrid let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Lance had successfully found the Holy Lantern.
Otherwise, she might have truly fallen into a crisis again today.
The Silver-armored Knight didn’t say much.
The light from the lantern shifted, dimming slightly, but as it fell upon Astrid, she felt a comforting warmth spread through her body.
Under the illumination of this holy light, the Takins—with their hideous faces and rolled-back pupils—gradually calmed down.
The tight muscles in their faces slowly returned to their normal state, and eventually, they collapsed one by one around the plaza.
“Miss Astrid, are you alright?”
After dealing with the Takins who had been manipulated by deep dream entry, Lance immediately ran to Astrid’s side, the concern in his voice evident.
The Elf girl felt a warmth in her heart. She nodded in response and asked, “Is the Dream Eater destroyed?”
“I’ve captured it within the Holy Lantern.”
Lance shook the lantern in his hand. He could feel that the sealing space inside was fully activated, and the Dream Eater was frantically slamming against the seals around it.
Seeing the lantern in Lance’s hand, Astrid remembered something important.
“What about the Elders? With the Holy Lantern being so effective, how did the Dream Eater manage to take advantage of the situation?”
Lance sucked in a breath. His eyes moved behind his helmet, unsure of how to describe the scene.
When he had just sneaked into the meeting room of the Clan House, he had seen four Elders peacefully sprawled across the conference table, fast asleep.
Only the Fourth Elder was lying unconscious on the floor in front of the altar, with a visible bump on his head.
Clearly, he had taken quite a hit.
“At the very least, there is no danger. They’re just sleeping or unconscious.”
“You’ll see when you go inside…”
As the two were talking, an imperceptible faint white light emerged from between Lance’s brows.
It passed through his heavy knight armor and slipped into the lantern he held.
……
Inside the Consciousness Space, four pretty figures with nearly identical faces but vastly different temperaments sat in pairs around a desk.
Above the desk, a projection showed the situation inside the lantern.
Within the projection, a blurred black mist was letting out shrill screams, launching impact after impact against the seals restricting it.
The sound was so piercing that it made the cold Great Archmage frown.
With a wave of her sleeve, she cut off the sound transmission from the projection.
Seeing that the others weren’t speaking—especially the Witch with the faint smile at the corners of her eyes—Professor Faliya was forced to speak first.
“What do we do now? Does it have its own consciousness?”
Professor Faliya’s gaze shifted to the girl with pure eyes, seemingly hoping she would offer some input.
However, the innocent-looking girl noticed the icy woman looking at her and simply stared back with wide eyes, as if engaging in a silent contest.
Sighing, Professor Faliya turned her gaze toward the short-haired apprentice.
But the apprentice’s body simply trembled, and she quickly lowered her head, not daring to meet the professor’s gaze.
Left with no choice, the professor looked at the Witch beside her and asked again, “What should we do next?”
The Witch furrowed her brows in deep thought, making humming sounds.
Finally, she clapped her hands and said, “There aren’t any good solutions!”
Letting out a long sigh, Professor Faliya rubbed her temples, looking pained… not because of the troublesome specter, but because of these difficult colleagues…
“Alright, alright, stop sighing.”
“I didn’t expect this specter, which can use laws, to not have even a trace of consciousness left. There’s no way to force a contract. It can’t be helped.”
“I know all that, but how are we supposed to tell Lance? We promised him we could subdue this Dream Eater…”
Professor Faliya’s voice remained flat, but there was a hint of complaint in it.
After all, the Witch had made that promise on her own earlier.
Now that the goal couldn’t be achieved, she would have to share the blame for breaking that promise.
Her status was that of a newly appointed magic professor; she was unwilling to show weakness in front of her pupil even if it killed her!
Furthermore, Lance was still unwilling to recognize her as his teacher!
He still called her Master every single time, and the distance in his speech hadn’t changed at all!
Taking in Professor Faliya’s expression, Witch Falia shook her head.
Although she didn’t think the situation was that serious, considering her stubborn mindset during that period, it wasn’t easy to say anything playful.
“How about… we just crush that spirit? We should be able to comprehend some of the Dream Law from it, right?”
While Witch Falia was agonizing over a solution, the short-haired apprentice sitting across from her weakly offered a suggestion, though she seemed to lack confidence.
Hearing this, Professor Faliya’s brow furrowed even tighter.
Before she could speak, Apprentice Faliya was already frightened into lowering her head again.
“But that would only destroy the Dream Eater. It wouldn’t fulfill our promise, would it?”
“Yes, yes, you are right, Professor!”
After being rejected, Apprentice Faliya instinctively began to apologize.
If Lance were to see this scene, he would definitely think of the hard days during his graduate studies in his previous life.
“No, no, no… I see what you mean. You’re absolutely right!”
At that moment, a warm smile bloomed on Witch Falia’s face.
She gave her apprentice-self an encouraging look, signaling for her to continue.
“Uh… well, it’s just that… after we seize the laws from the spirit, whenever Lance needs to use dream-related abilities, we can just play the role of the specter ourselves. I think the effect would be about the same…”
Hmm?
At those words, Professor Faliya’s eyebrows twitched.
She instinctively felt that this method was just a form of deception.
If the Academic Council found out about such behavior, they would definitely sabotage her during her thesis reviews.
Consequently, Professor Faliya’s first instinct was to object.
But just as she opened her mouth, she suddenly realized something was wrong.
She didn’t have any academic pressure right now, so there was no need to care about whether it was deceptive or not, right?
As long as Lance didn’t know they had failed to subdue the Dream Eater, wouldn’t that be fine?
Thinking of this, Professor Faliya’s brow smoothed out. Clearly, she had come around.
Seeing this, Witch Falia understood and immediately made the decision.
“Very well, we will go with that method. Does Little Falia have any objections?”
“Ah? Me… I think it’s great!”
The daydreaming Little Falia’s mind was empty; she hadn’t heard a single thing they had been discussing.
After a brief daze, she immediately expressed her agreement.
“The vote passes! Then, let’s get to work!”
With a wave of her hand, Witch Falia was the first to exert her influence on the frenzied specter in the projection.
The other three Falias quickly followed suit, joining their wills with the Witch.
As four streams of mental power poured in, the specter’s frantic attempts to break the seal suddenly became difficult.
Invisible chains surged from all directions, binding it in place directly at the soul level.
No matter how it struggled, the chains around it only grew tighter, showing no signs of loosening.
At the same time, countless blades began to slice its illusory body, carving it into pieces.
The pain of its soul being torn apart made its shrieks even more shrill, waves of sound echoing through the empty space!
In terms of those echoing shrieks alone, if an ordinary High Rank powerhouse entered this place, their mind would likely collapse from the impact!
They would turn into a lunatic!
Fortunately, Professor Faliya had earlier found the specter’s voice too noisy and had cut off the sound transmission in advance.
Under the cutting of the blades, the specter’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
The original mass of grayish-white mist had now turned into countless independent small cubes.
Then, a pair of invisible hands seemed to appear in the space, picking up the scattered mist and kneading it back together into a single whole.
The specter’s shrieks gradually gathered… dissipated… gathered… dissipated…
After an unknown number of cycles, the original large cloud of mist was kneaded into a sphere no larger than a fingertip.
Faint purple glimmers of Law vibrated within it.
“Looks like it’s done! Good job, everyone!”
Witch Falia pretended to wipe away non-existent sweat and was the first to start clapping.
The innocent Little Falia immediately joined in, which startled the Apprentice Falia sitting beside her into clapping as well.
Only Professor Faliya, whose gaze was as calm as an abyss, remained unchanged, not intending to join the others in their playfulness.
Witch Falia smiled slightly, not minding at all.
With a wave of her hand, she collected the Law Crystal that pulsed with faint purple light.
After observing it for a moment, she couldn’t see anything particularly special about it.
She gave a faint smile and handed it to Little Falia, who sat opposite her.
“Professional matters should be left to professional people. I’ll have to trouble you, Little Falia~”
Being praised, Little Falia beamed. She reached out to take the faint purple sphere and swallowed it without a second thought.
“Don’t worry, Witch sister! Leave it to me, there… won’t… be a… problem…”
Thud!
Little Falia’s head suddenly slammed onto the desk with a loud crack.
From the sound of it, that was a sturdy head!
“Oh dear~ sleeping like that will lead to a cold~”
Witch Falia raised her slender hand, and a gentle breeze lifted the sleeping Little Falia, moving her to the bed and pulling the covers over her.
A long time later, Little Falia had a peaceful smile on her face, as if she were having a wonderful dream.
Apprentice Falia gazed at her, affected by the smile.
She let out a shallow grin as her thoughts began to wander.
‘She must be having a good dream, right? Would she have her father and mother with her in her dreams?’
‘If that’s the case, it really would be easy to get lost in it…’
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