Super Righteous Player
Chapter 400 - 397 Dream as a Cage_1

Chapter 400: Chapter 397 Dream as a Cage_1

——They were souls that blanketed the sky and earth.

If one were to speak in terms of quantity, the number of spiritual bodies that Soul Summoners could simultaneously control was not considered large.

After all, he was a "Soul Summoner," not a "Lord of the Dead," nor a "Spirit Exorcist."

The occupational characteristic of a Soul Summoner was the transcendent connection they had with their enslaved spiritual bodies——

——Boom!

Spells fired in unison.

The Wizards, whose minds had been replaced, simultaneously attacked a giant spiritual body at different timings, with different spells. These spells required varying incantation times, preparation times, and projectile speeds; naturally, the positions of the Wizards and their targets were also different...

However, under Denton’s manipulation, one could see the spiritual body’s movements confined by words. Almost instantly afterward, a strange magnetic force that captured it like a fishing net pinned it to the ground, followed by a rising, frostbitten chill that enveloped its body, making it extremely fragile.

Such spiritual bodies, ensnared by multiple spells, Divine Arts, and supernatural abilities, numbered six, and were gathered within a tiny area, no more than five steps apart from each other.

What followed was the finishing move of a silver-tier Destruction Wizard — it was an ordinary-looking orange-red fireball, arching through the air like a basketball before slowly descending.

The attacks that intercepted the fireball were directly shifted and teleported away by Decree Wizards.

As the fireball leisurely settled in the center of the spiritual bodies, it suddenly began to convulse and shrink, visibly turning white at a rapid pace——

And then, it exploded with a bang!

Hurricane Blast——

An instantaneous shockwave spread out, pulverizing the people around it in a flash, but the blast echoed only within a tiny five-meter radius, as if blocked by an invisible cover, repeatedly shaking and causing the ground to creak and undulate. The powerful spiritual bodies within disappeared in the blink of an eye.

An unimaginable heat seeped from within the sphere, scorching the ground into molten lava. The fiery waves in the air expanded and roared, howling out and quietly charring the surrounding people into crisp, blackened cinders.

Even those further away showed visible burns and blisters on their skin.

But they charged forward, fearlessly.

Brandishing weapons blessed by Idol Wizards or Ritualists, they rushed headlong to meet the spiritual bodies without hesitation.

Nearly twenty people died at the hands of the spiritual body legions every second.

And the number who died at the hands of their own was far greater — even the most useless and sickly commoners could be used as shields, to hold off the Spells of Bernardino.

However, under Denton’s manipulation, like that of a top real-time strategy gamer, merciless and precise, he ensured that those sacrificed first were always those with the least combat ability.

Wizards, Ritualists, Hunters, secret forces. Those units capable of dealing effective damage to the spiritual bodies were constantly conserved by him, which made the resources at his disposal grow increasingly powerful.

Numbering over a hundred.

Approaching a thousand.

Even a thousand people standing together would form a sea of dark, overwhelming figures that a single person could not resist, let alone face... Not to mention, they were dispersed around Bernardino, hidden behind the spirit-driving barriers created by the Ritualists, launching methodical, wave-like, stable, and surging offenses.

Under this onslaught, the spiritual bodies close to Bernardino even had difficulty launching attacks.

They even had trouble moving away from Bernardino’s side — because the lurkers and Hunters hiding in the shadows were watching Bernardino’s head at all times.

This was an unstoppable force.

This was the "collective" power.

——This was the power of the new-wave Soul Reapers!

Old immortals!

Feeling the unceasing flow of his fearless puppet legion coming from all corners of the Royal Capital, Dream Stealer Denton experienced an immense sense of exhilaration.

It didn’t matter if his identity was exposed... Margaret had long since died, and there was no value to his staying here.

Rather, he had suppressed his power, hidden his abilities for far too long——

For far too long!

But at that moment, Bernardino simply chuckled lowly.

"Do you know why I chose this time... to launch my attack?"

He let out a harsh, monster-like raspy voice.

Sunken in his wheelchair, his bandaged-wrapped face lifted slightly.

In his sapphire right eye, full of facets, the rune suddenly started to change drastically.

Then, each facet lit up in turn — and with the superimposition of light upon light, his right eye emitted an intensely bright light.

In each facet, a spiritual body emerged.

"Dusk... is almost upon us."

Amidst Bernadino’s crow-like hoarse chuckling, hundreds of powerful spiritual bodies streamed out of his right eye.

And his left eye—the exceedingly dense cat’s eye chrysoberyl of the size of an eyeball—also burst forth a brilliant emerald glow.

The straight and consistent bright gold vertical line in the center of the cat’s eye stone emerged from his eye, manifesting as a beam of lustrous gold before him.

Then, the beam dispersed to both sides, as if a great gate flung open with a thunderous crash.

At that moment, everyone in front of him, the instant they were touched by the light, fell to the ground without exception—their spiritual bodies were stripped away in the blink of an eye, with more than seventy new spiritual bodies entwined with white chains, apprehended and instantly dragged into his right eye.

And then, dusk finally arrived—

From within Bernadino’s right eye, the over seventy powerful spiritual bodies that had just been taken in howled as they burst forth once more.

Each spiritual body was equivalent to a Transcendent without the weakness of flesh, able to use Transcendent powers almost limitlessly without fearing corruption.

This addition of nearly two hundred spiritual bodies to the battlefield, along with the extraction of souls from more than four hundred people, flipped the situation of the battlefield in an instant.

Denton’s complexion turned extremely unsightly.

—He had been played.

He dared not read Bernadino’s mind or interfere with Bernadino’s memories precisely because he feared that Bernadino’s Elemental Power was related to this.

The element with his highest awakening was "dream," not an element that could easily gain the upper hand in mental warfare.

If he couldn’t gain the advantage in the battle of elements, he simply didn’t dare read Bernadino’s mind... The other party might very well set up an ambush in his mind with Elemental Power, and from there, surge forward, ignoring physical distance to directly annihilate his own soul.

But he never imagined that Bernadino had aged to the point of being unable to fight normally.

His elemental awakening had reached the limit. His soul was so weakened that he didn’t dare to use Elemental Power at will.

So he attacked at this time—

Because at sunset, a Wizard could instantly recover all their Power of Distortion.

—This was a foolish technique only used by low-level Wizards who were at their wits’ end!

He was waiting for Denton to gather the Transcendents together...

Planning to use double the Power of Distortion to turn his own advantage into Bernadino’s in one fell swoop!

He only used spiritual bodies to launch attacks, not because he was testing his combat against Denton, but because he had lost the ability to counter with Elemental Power!

And Denton had been deterred by this all along, foregoing his greatest advantage.

"I truly am... an utter fool."

Denton bit his teeth and forcefully said in a low voice.

His pupils instantly transformed into two hollow, pitch-black abysses, lifting his right hand forward.

In a world turned pitch-black, the fire of his will flickered like lightning amidst countless orbs of light, blinking into Bernadino’s mind ablaze with black flames.

Countless fragments of memory surfaced before Denton’s eyes.

As though swept by a barrage of gunfire.

But as a skilled Soul Reaper Wizard, he completely ignored such a level of resistance.

He, now a fire-turned-notional form, dodged the onslaught of memory streams; then, with practiced nimbleness, he flew up and down, avoiding many crystal-like illusory walls.

Afterward, his ice blue, line-drawn form finally became visible deep within Bernadino’s memories.

"Element of Dreams—"

He murmured softly, and with an ethereal press of his right hand forward, as if mirroring his movements outside the dream, "With dream as the cage, with myself as the mirror...

"Thou art the prisoner—"

The ice blue ethereal flames shook twice and spread from his skull, setting his whole right arm ablaze with roaring ice blue flames in the blink of an eye.

And in this blaze of light, as if he had pushed open a heavy door—amidst the creaking of the illusory, the burning Element of Dreams directly led Denton into the deepest recesses of Bernadino’s memories.

He squinted slightly and looked around.

This seemed to be... somewhere in a fishing village of the United Kingdom.