Chapter 650 Cathedral of the Dead <TOC> Chapter 652 The Eye of Alchemy
Translator: SumTLMan
When Gloria had explored Witch Town enough, she roughly understood what the sign “Nightmare Amusement Park” meant.
In the dense fog, Gloria couldn’t find her way at all. But the fog was strange, as if it had a life of its own, actively guiding her to each building.
Each building was empty, but every object inside told a nightmare story.
For example, Gloria had recently visited a slaughterhouse, where the large cleaver stuck in the chopping board had led her to experience a nightmare of being chased by a butcher.
Also, in the church, the half-opened scripture made Gloria feel as if she had transformed into a heretic witch being judged, burned by flames while listening to bloody and evil teachings.
In addition, the coat missing a single arm in a small house, the papers scattered all over the town hall, the incredibly brilliant haze flower tree in the garden…and so on, each could become a “nightmare” on its own, and together they formed a nightmare amusement park.
Just like the meaningful objects in the feather earrings Gloria had seen before, they unconsciously made people imagine a series of dramas. But this time, Angel went a step further, also using imagination, but Gloria experienced the stories she imagined herself in the form of “nightmares.”
“That’s quite a novelty,” Gloria muttered to herself. She had two requirements for Angel: one, to incorporate a sense of the Nightmare Plane; and two, to be innovative.
From the experience in Witch Town alone, both of these points were actually met. The first point was very much in line, with the thick sense of the Nightmare Plane being even more moving than the mountain belly in the feather earrings.
As for the second point—novelty, the form of “nightmares” was somewhat lacking, but if one were to really analyze it, it still counted as an innovation.
Moreover, the experience in Witch Town made Gloria feel exhilarated.
When she was still a mortal, she had nightmares. Now, after so many years, she rarely had nightmares.
Although she didn’t find these nightmares particularly terrifying, Angel’s control of “emotions” was simply astonishing. Even if she didn’t feel scared, in those nightmares, Gloria still felt her heart racing and cold sweat pouring.
Though there were still some places she hadn’t visited, Gloria decided to leave Witch Town and check out other places.
But after searching for a long time, she couldn’t find the stone pillar and bronze bell to call the Cat Bus.
Gloria recalled the umbrella-holding raccoon she had encountered on the path before. It should have been standing on a platform… But there was no “stone pillar and bronze bell” next to it, only an iron signpost.
Could it be that the platforms in each place were actually different?
Gloria stayed in Witch Town for quite a while longer, still unable to find the platform. She thought about it and simply exited the illusion.
After Gloria exited the illusion, she took a moment to calm her emotions. Those “nightmares” were just dreams, but they still affected her feelings. In reality, Angel couldn’t have done this, but she had to experience the illusion and inevitably release her mental power, which gave Angel the ability to control her emotions.
After a while, Gloria reactivated the Dream Twins.
She thought she would return to the path in front of the cave where she had started, but she didn’t… She was still in the misty Witch Town.
“It’s different from the illusion settings in the Feather Earrings,” Gloria whispered. Had her previous experiences been recorded? How did he do that?
Gloria had some understanding of illusions, but she had never seen one that could “resume” like this.
“It’s quite interesting, though,” Gloria didn’t think too much about it. Since she couldn’t leave by cheating, she continued searching. After all, it was a platform, so it shouldn’t be hidden in an inconspicuous place.
However, Gloria was wrong.
Two hours later, she entered a lonely little cabin. She had passed by this cabin many times but never went in, thinking that the platform wouldn’t be in a small cabin, right?
Reality hit her hard.
Not only was the platform inside the cabin, but it was also extremely inconspicuous!
In this lonely cabin, there was nothing but a lonely painting hanging on the wall. And this lonely painting depicted a… lonely platform.
Gloria twitched the corner of her mouth: “Please don’t tell me that the platform in this painting is the Cat Bus’s platform.”
Gloria reached into the painting, and the next second, she found herself being pulled into the painting by a strange force, standing in front of the platform.
At the same time, a familiar sound of a galloping beast came from the distance.
Gloria looked into the distance, and through the thick fog on the road, she saw two bright lights approaching.
When an orange-striped cat jumped out of the fog, Gloria rubbed her slightly swollen temples: Angel, you really know how to have fun!
This orange cat was undoubtedly the Cat Bus.
Seeing someone at the platform, the Cat Bus immediately stopped, turned its huge and bright-eyed head, and said: “Beautiful lady, the Cat Bus is at your service.”
Gloria was puzzled as to why the Cat Bus didn’t ask her where she was going.
She looked up and saw a little girl with two goat-horn braids in the cabin of the Cat Bus, curiously looking outside.
Had they picked up a passenger?
Gloria changed the question she was about to ask, and inquired to the Cat Bus: “Where is the destination of this bus?”
“The destination this time is the Tree Nest.”
Gloria thought for a moment: “Alright, I’ll go to the Tree Nest too.”
The Cat Bus nodded, opened its fluffy door, and let down a ladder. Gloria stepped on the stairs and sat in the seat directly opposite the little girl.
It wasn’t until then that Gloria could see the little girl’s appearance clearly. To be honest, Gloria thought the girl looked very much like Coral, but compared to Coral, the girl was shorter, probably less than a meter tall.
Moreover, although Coral appeared to be a young girl, her actual age was quite advanced, which could be seen from her mature eyes. The girl in front of her, however, had a naive, childish, and innocent look in her eyes, which was quite different from Coral.
“What is Angel creating this girl for in the illusion? Does he have any special hobbies?” Gloria curiously examined the girl opposite her.
However, the girl showed no reaction.
As the Cat Bus started speeding along, the little girl seemed to completely ignore Gloria, still happily standing on her seat. But as it was like this, she was still too short to reach the window, so she had to prop herself up with her chubby little hands, tippy-toeing to see the scenery outside.
A cool breeze blew in, causing the girl’s pigtails to bounce wildly.
She didn’t seem to feel cold at all, instead laughing happily and shouting loudly at the view outside.
Gloria brushed aside her wind-tousled hair and looked out the window. The outside was still shrouded in mist, so she had no idea what the girl was so excited about.
Gloria tried to talk to her, but as expected, she got no response. The girl seemed completely unaware of anyone else in the carriage.
“It’s like an illusory afterimage,” Gloria murmured softly.
On the other hand, perhaps to the girl, Gloria was also like an illusion, existing in an invisible world.
“Maybe this is a story thread set up by Angel? But what’s the point of a mortal’s story thread?” Gloria could see that the girl was nothing more than a mortal; was she really going to spend her time watching a mortal’s story?
When she arrived at the Tree Nest, she would just ask the Cat Bus to go to the next place directly, but where should she go? Never mind, she would choose randomly.
At this point, the Cat Bus finally ran out of the misty area.
The little girl in the opposite seat became even more cheerful, her excited cries reminiscent of primates seeing hanging vines in trees.
Gloria shook her head. Although she found the noise somewhat annoying, everything before her was just an illusion, so she couldn’t be bothered to argue. She turned to look out the window and saw the soft moonlight once again.
Outside was a moonlit field.
Moreover, without mountains blocking the view, she could roughly see the scenery outside under the moonlight alone.
“As expected, it’s the realm of mortals. So, is that Tree Nest a mortal village?” Gloria frowned.
As she was puzzled, an enchanting melody came from somewhere.
This was a song Gloria had never heard before, but it inexplicably sounded pleasant, making one involuntarily associate it with gentle moonlight.
The music was soft and perfectly matched the current atmosphere. The Cat Bus leaped over mountains and oceans, moonlit forests, and the innocent childhood days.
At that moment, Gloria seemed to understand Angel’s intentions.
The Cat Bus stopped, and the little girl hopped off, greeted by a young girl who looked somewhat similar to her.
Gloria didn’t get off, allowing the Cat Bus to continue moving forward.
Behind the Cat Bus, the two sisters embraced each other and happily ran towards a giant tree. Above the tree, there was a strange gray beast floating in the air.
Seeing this scene, Gloria roughly guessed that the storyline of this Tree Nest revolved around these two sisters, and that the gray beast likely played some role in it.
However, knowing this, Gloria still had no plans to explore it now.
She had a general understanding of Angel’s design for each area, with the Witch Town representing “reverence for fear” and the Tree Nest perhaps symbolizing “not forgetting one’s original intention.”
After years of wandering, she seemed to have forgotten what her original intention looked like. But just now, she felt a slight stir in her heart, as if she had seen her younger self.
She didn’t let herself explore; she wanted to take a tour of the entire illusionary area first before deciding her next move.
The Cat Bus continued on its journey. In the “Mermaid Sea,” Gloria saw the waves of the ocean, and she sensed a strong nightmare aura coming from the depths. In the “Sky Island,” she saw a wasteland of steel ruins but didn’t explore the secrets it held.
One area after another, Gloria took them all in.
However, she never stopped, letting the Cat Bus continue forward.
On the way, Gloria encountered several passengers with different clothes, identities, and expressions. Some were silent, some were afraid, some were full of worries… perhaps each passenger had their own storylines.
At the last stop, Gloria arrived at a place called “Mysterious Mountain.”
It was a desolate peak.
As Gloria was wondering what the mountain meant, a gust of wind blew into the carriage.
When the wind brushed against Gloria’s skin, she suddenly stood up from her seat… How could it be this feeling?!
Chapter 650 Cathedral of the Dead <TOC> Chapter 652 The Eye of Alchemy