Chapter 887 Arrival at the Semi-Passage <TOC> Chapter 889 Undertaking the Nightmare Domain
Translator: SumTLMan
A dense, tangible aura of the Nightmare Plane suddenly stirred and poured into Angel’s right hand in unison.
Startled, Angel hadn’t intended to absorb the aura into his hand. This action was entirely autonomous on the part of his hand.
As for where this aura went once it entered his right hand, Angel couldn’t tell. Even in reality, his understanding of his own right hand was limited, let alone now when he inhabited a mortal body.
However, with the increasing influx of the Nightmare Plane aura, Angel found his mental clarity wavering, his vision blurred, then clear, then blurred again.
It was as if he had fallen from a lucid dream into an ordinary one, with his thoughts gradually growing murky.
At this point, the surge of the Nightmare Plane aura caused the floating green runes on his right hand to multiply ceaselessly, as if self-replicating. New runes of various kinds began to appear.
Moreover, these runes became increasingly lively, sometimes large, sometimes small, sometimes sparse, sometimes dense, now gathering, now dispersing. They were like musical notes, writing an unknown score in mid-air.
In the end, these runes, like fireflies, detached from Angel’s right hand, and while spinning, formed a clearly patterned ring, adhering to the membrane of the semi-passage.
It was like a legendary interdimensional portal, a large hole appearing in the membrane as if out of nowhere.
By now, Angel could hardly distinguish between reality and dream, truth and illusion. His thoughts began to cloud, and even though he tried his hardest to stay clear, he couldn’t maintain his state of lucid dreaming.
Suddenly, he vaguely saw a tall figure appearing in the “interdimensional portal” composed of green runes before the membrane of the semi-passage.
Golden hair fluttered in the wind, revealing only a single crimson eye full of indifference.
Even as his mind was muddled, Angel couldn’t help but raise his hand and point to the figure, “You are…?”
Images flashed across his mind—
Within a dark, chaotic space, Angel stood in mid-air. The chaotic space was like the universe, with dimly flickering stars emanating from billions of light-years away.
In this dark starlit cosmos, Angel stood at the center.
Before him was a water mirror that could reflect the multitude of stars. This rectangular mirror, seemingly bereft of any border, stood serene and silent as if it were a doorway in itself.
In front of this mirror, Angel absentmindedly stretched his hand out, desiring to caress the reflective surface.
Within the mirror, there was another figure. Angel couldn’t discern its features, even its gender was unclear. All he could make out was a cascade of golden hair, radiant as the stars themselves, and a pair of icy, blood-colored eyes.
Mirroring him, the figure in the mirror also reached out its hand.
As their right hands touched on the mirror’s surface, ripples spread out, much like those created by a pebble tossed onto a still lake.
Angel thrust his right hand into the mirror!
At this moment, his hand and that of the mirrored figure intertwined.
Accompanied by a sprinkling of starlight, the scene abruptly ceased.
Suddenly, Angel jerked his head up, “I remember… are you… Shava?”
In the past, in Witch Town, Angel had a similar encounter – his hand melding with another, causing an unexpected turn of events. Later, Sanders had informed him of a person with golden hair, the one whose hand had merged with his then.
Just like the scene where he and the figure in the mirror held hands, merging together.
The golden-haired silhouette had already stepped half way through the semi-passage, now standing in front of Angel.
By rights, Angel should have felt fear. But just as he did during his test at Maya’s, he felt no dread towards the figure before him, but rather a sense of tranquility.
“Answer me, are you Shava?” Angel questioned once again, “Or are you… me?”
In the Nightmare Plane, is this my projection? Another me in this world?
Surrounded by an abundance of nightmare energy like a mist, the figure’s silhouette before Angel had become obscure. His thoughts were becoming increasingly fuzzy as if his lucid dream was collapsing at this moment, transforming it into an ordinary dream, where the lines of reality and illusion were blurred.
Just before he was completely ensnared in the muddled dream, he seemed to see the figure’s lips move.
But whatever it responded, Angel could no longer perceive. If one were to describe his originally clear thoughts as a pale, unclouded tea, then at this moment, they were being stirred incessantly by a spoon, gradually becoming muddied water, void of any logic.
In a state of haziness, Angel felt as though he had once again entered a dream.
In this dream within a dream, Angel found himself once more within the chaotic cosmos, filled with ancient starlight.
Before him still laid the rippling water mirror.
On the other side of the mirror, the androgynous golden-haired figure with indistinguishable features still stood.
At this time, his right hand was still submerged within the water mirror, rippling with each movement.
If the figure in the mirror was Shava as Sanders had mentioned, or a projection of Angel within the Nightmare Plane, then during their last encounter in Witch Town, his right hand had already merged with that of the figure in the mirror, hence the transformation of his right hand.
But why was his hand still in the mirror now?
Angel attempted to pull his hand away from the mirror but found himself immobilized, instead causing a ripple to spread across the mirror’s surface.
Unable to withdraw, he found that he could only extend further into the mirror, seemingly with ample space. However, he quickly discovered that he could only reach forward, unable to retreat.
Furthermore, as his hand ventured deeper, his face was drawn closer to the mirror. His face and the golden-haired figure in the mirror were almost touching, with only the thin mirror surface in between.
A sense of warning suddenly surged within Angel’s heart.
He must not go further!
Upon this realization, Angel’s thoughts began to clear somewhat. He attempted to adjust his perspective, hoping to bring his blurred vision into focus and observe the figure in the mirror clearly.
However, as his thoughts began to stabilize, the ancient starry sky collapsed, as though everything around him had turned to dust, blown into an unknown hourglass by the eternal winds.
When all the dust had disappeared, Angel’s thoughts gradually regained clarity.
He opened his eyes, looking up at the foggy sky, momentarily uncertain of his location. Was he experiencing another dream within a dream? Or had he returned to the Wilderness of Dreams? Or had he returned to reality?
After a while, Angel determined that he was still in the Wilderness of Dreams.
The rich atmosphere of the Nightmare Plane still flowed slowly around him, spreading to every corner of the Wilderness of Dreams through some sort of passage.
Angel sat up from the ground, turning his head to survey his surroundings.
There was no golden-haired figure in sight, the semi-passage was still intact, and there was no wind or waves, as if nothing had ever happened.
Nevertheless, when Angel turned his gaze towards his right hand, he found something amiss.
Has his right hand grown longer?
Angel stretched out both hands, and juxtaposing them, he discovered that his left hand was nearly a palm length shorter than his right hand.
The palm of the left hand itself was already a size smaller than the right hand. Could it be that even its overall length had reduced?
Angel seemed to recall something. During his previous inception-like dream, he had extended his right hand into a mirror a certain distance. Could it be that he had fused with more parts of the entity from the Nightmare Plane as a result?
With a sensation of trepidation, Angel removed his jacket.
Previously, the green runes merely hovered on his right palm. Now, they had spread to his forearm, extending to his elbow joint.
Sure enough, his right forearm had transformed, matching exactly the distance he had extended into the mirror in his dream.
“It seems like I’ve fused with my right forearm as well?” Angel muttered under his breath, “This should just be a dream… I’m still in the Wilderness of Dreams, this shouldn’t affect reality, right?”
Even as Angel comforted himself in this way, he remembered that the last time he fused with his right palm, he was in the Nightmare Plane and thus, in an unreal state.
The final outcome still affected reality.
For a moment, Angel wanted to immediately exit the Wilderness of Dreams and check reality. But as he rose to his feet, a rustling sound came from the bag beside him.
Angel picked up the bag. Inside it were shards of Domain Lapis Lazuli, each one akin to glass.
He picked up the bag and looked at the semi-passage not far away. After hesitating for a moment, he chose not to immediately return to reality.
Switching to a “godly perspective,” Angel scanned all areas covered by the aura of the Nightmare Plane but didn’t sense anything amiss. There were no monsters from the Nightmare Plane, nor was there that golden-haired figure.
No matter what had happened while he was drowsy earlier, at least that person should be gone now, right?
Since that person had left, he had to find a way to deal with the matter of the Wilderness of Dreams – he couldn’t just do nothing.
Angel decided to stick to his original plan, attempting to sever the Wilderness of Dreams.
However, before that, there was one more thing that Angel needed to examine.
Presently, his right forearm appeared to be fused as well, could he still isolate a spatial zone by absorbing vast amounts of Nightmare Plane aura through his right hand?
Angel gave it a shot, and the results demonstrated that he had regained control over his right hand.
He could use his right hand to absorb a considerable amount of Nightmare Plane aura, and this effect seemed to have even improved. His precision in manipulating the Nightmare Plane’s aura surpassed his previous abilities. He could even condense the Nightmare Plane’s aura to a single point, as if performing the Dirge of the Undertaker, and then constrain, seal, and disperse it.
Though circumstances were back to normal, and even better than anticipated, Angel didn’t feel much joy. The abrupt loss of control over parts of his body filled him with a profound sense of powerlessness.
If one day, more parts of his body integrated into the other’s, would he still be himself?
Even though Sanders advised Angel to treat it as his Projection Bloodline and stated that it was the most suitable bloodline for him, Angel couldn’t help but feel insecure in the face of his inability to resist.
However, here and now, was not the time for him to lament and wallow in self-pity. Angel had to swallow his resentment, allowing his thoughts to temporarily return to the main track.
Setting everything else aside for the moment, his priority was to sever the connection to the Wilderness of Dreams.
Chapter 887 Arrival at the Semi-Passage <TOC> Chapter 889 Undertaking the Nightmare Domain