100X Returns System: I Dominate the Age of Gods

Chapter 427: 427. Lucid Dreaming - 4

[Quickly bring him under direct sunlight.]

Virgo’s urgent voice echoed inside Tamasya’s mind. There was no hesitation in her movements after hearing the warning. She immediately picked William up in both arms and disappeared from the room in a single burst of speed. Within the blink of an eye, she had already reached the top of the palace where the warm rays of the sun fell unobstructed from the sky above.

The effect was almost immediate.

Only a few moments after William’s body was exposed to the sunlight, his unstable breathing gradually settled into a normal rhythm. The tension that had twisted his face slowly disappeared, and his closed eyelids suddenly opened. His eyes regained their focus almost instantly, and before Tamasya could even say anything, William abruptly pushed himself out of her arms.

He landed on his feet and immediately sprinted back inside the palace.

There was no time to waste.

Every second that passed inside the dream meant Seraphine was sinking deeper into the spirit’s influence, and William had no intention of allowing that to continue any longer.

"Wait."

Tamasya’s voice stopped him just before he entered the doorway.

William immediately halted and turned around. His expression was filled with urgency, but he still waited for her to finish speaking.

"Calm yourself," Tamasya said in a composed voice. "It is only a dream." She intended to explain further, but William did not give her the opportunity.

The moment those words reached his ears, something suddenly clicked inside his mind. His anxious expression disappeared, and a smile slowly spread across his face.

"You are right," he said while nodding to himself. "I almost forgot."

Several minutes later...

William willingly allowed his consciousness to sink back into the dream once again.

William once again found himself falling through the familiar green vortex.

Unlike before, the swirling passage did not gently release him onto solid ground. Instead, it violently spat him out high above the dream world, leaving him suspended thousands of feet in the air.

For the briefest moment his body tilted from the sudden momentum, but he immediately steadied himself without the slightest difficulty.

"Oh, thank heavens." A deep sigh of relief escaped his lips.

He could immediately feel the difference. His powers had returned.

More importantly, the form his consciousness had assumed inside the dream had also changed.

Instead of appearing as the ordinary William whom Seraphine knew, he had taken on the appearance of his previous life. It was exactly what he had hoped for.

This time, he had no intention of holding himself back, but before that, he activated shapeshifter and changed his form. His athletic build shortened and thinned into a black-haired boy; his clothes changed too and turned into those from modern Earth.

William had taken the shape from his last life. He slowly lowered his gaze toward the land beneath him.

Far away in the distance, the center of the dream had transformed into something horrifying.

An enormous jungle of twisted vines, thick roots, giant leaves, and unnatural vegetation had completely swallowed the landscape. It spread endlessly in every direction like an unstoppable infection consuming the world itself. The overgrowth covered everything in sight, leaving almost no trace of the original dream behind.

At the very center of that living forest stood an enormous throne.

The throne had not been carved out manually. It had grown naturally from countless intertwining vines and ancient roots that continuously moved as though they were alive.

Sitting upon that throne was the evil spirit who intended to take over Seraphine’s vessel for reasons unknown; its identity was still a mystery to everyone, and its intentions were definitely not kind in the least.

Its towering body remained completely still while countless vines spread outward from beneath it, feeding the endless jungle surrounding the area.

Several meters in front of the throne stood a plant, but the most peculiar thing was that its shoots and leaves were grown around Seraphine, blanketing her in their grip tightly, absorbing all the soul energy she had been releasing.

Seraphine was imprisoned in it.

Thick vines tightly restrained her wrists, ankles, and waist while glowing streams of energy continuously flowed out of her body into the plant and towards the vines connecting it to the evil spirit. Ever since despair had overwhelmed her heart, fragments of her soul had begun leaking outward, and the plant was relentlessly drawing that power away.

The spirit simply watched in silence and absorbed her soul.

But out of the blue, the sky suddenly started to change. A powerful voice echoed across the entire dream world.

"Sol Invictus."

"Blessing of the Sun."

The atmosphere became deathly silent.

For a brief instant, nothing happened. Then a brilliant flash erupted high above the heavens. A miniature sun burst into existence.

Its radiance instantly flooded the dream with blinding golden light that forced shadows to retreat in every direction. The brilliance was so overwhelming that even the spirit instinctively staggered backward before raising one massive arm to shield its hollow face.

For the first time since entering the dream, genuine caution appeared within the spirit.

It had sensed nothing.

Yet someone had appeared directly above its territory without being detected.

As the blinding light gradually subsided, the spirit slowly lowered its arm and looked upward.

A lone figure floated calmly beneath the miniature sun.

Surrounded by brilliant golden radiance, the man slowly descended through the sky without the slightest hint of urgency. The aura surrounding him resembled the light of dawn itself, and every passing second made the oppressive heat even more unbearable.

As the distance between them shortened, the figure became clearer.

He was a young man with black hair.

His body was lean rather than muscular, and there was nothing especially imposing about his physique. His clothing looked completely unfamiliar and unremarkable, unlike anything that belonged to this world or to this era.

Yet none of those details mattered.

What truly commanded attention was the overwhelming presence surrounding him.

The miniature sun hanging high above had completely driven away the dark clouds covering the dream. The sickly green atmosphere began dissolving beneath the golden light, forcing the spirit to let out a low, irritated growl as it stared directly at the descending human.

Without warning, the vines slithering on the ground attacked the man in the distance. Hundreds of enormous vines burst from the ground like living spears before shooting toward William at terrifying speed.

William remained perfectly still. He neither moved nor attempted to evade the attack.

Instead, he calmly raised one hand.

"Fifth Form."

"Stellar Gravity Manipulation."

"Anti-Gravity."

The instant those words left his mouth, the entire battlefield transformed.

An overwhelming force descended upon the dream world.

Gravity itself bent according to William’s will.

The atmosphere compressed so violently that the surrounding air became dense enough to resemble a hot white mist. The ground below instantly caved inward, and enormous cracks spread across the landscape like broken glass.

The parasitic vines covering the land violently shriveled under the immense pressure before exploding one after another, unable to withstand the crushing force.

The attacks that had been launched toward William never reached him. The altered gravity seized every vine in midair before violently dragging them back toward the ground.

The spirit suffered the greatest impact. Its enormous body suddenly felt unimaginably heavy as invisible pressure descended upon every part of it. Even standing upright became difficult.

High above, William continued floating beneath the miniature sun.

Then he slowly clenched his hand.

The direction of gravity flipped instantly. Everything shifted in a single instant. Instead of being pulled toward the earth. The entire world was pulled toward the single miniature sun.

The force reversed so violently that massive chunks of land were ripped from the ground. Entire sections of the earth broke apart before rising into the sky as though the heavens themselves had become the new center of gravity.

Countless vines, roots, shattered stone, and enormous pieces of terrain were violently dragged upward toward the blazing sphere hanging above.

The spirit immediately anchored itself to the ground by driving countless roots deep beneath the earth. Even then, it struggled. Its massive body trembled beneath the overwhelming force while every vine strained against the impossible pull.

Yet the spirit’s greatest emotion was no longer frustration. It was confusion.

No matter how powerful a human became, they should never have been capable of suppressing its existence to such an extent. Even divine spells should not have affected it this severely.

Something was fundamentally wrong. How could this human dominate the dream itself?

The answer revealed itself moments later. As the ground beneath the spirit continued breaking apart, it suddenly sensed something behind it.

The spirit immediately turned around.

Its hollow eyes widened. Seraphine was gone.

The tree that had imprisoned her had already shattered into countless pieces.

She now stood several meters away, completely free from the vines that had restrained her.

Her beautiful emerald eyes stared directly at the spirit. There was no fear left inside them.

Only Fury.

Pure, burning fury.

She was no longer the frightened twelve-year-old girl reliving her childhood memories. She had become the real Seraphine once again; the illusion had shattered.

And the true owner of this dream world had woken up. The spirit stared at her in complete disbelief.

For the very first time since this confrontation had begun, uncertainty entered its expression.

It could not understand where everything had gone wrong.