Chapter 372: Chapter 370: How to Play When They’re All Gimmick Monsters
The Ice Sculpture Castle, together with the starry sky and auroras, painted a breathtaking picture. Everyone gazed at the scene in stunned silence.
What shocked them even more was the road stretching from beneath their feet to the castle.
It was a rainbow road laid atop an icy path.
Bands of color paved the glacier road, forming an S-shaped curve leading to the castle. Standing on it felt like walking across a rainbow.
The ground on both sides of the road was covered in an eerie blue, dotted with countless stars.
Hilia tried stepping on it and found that the starry blue ground and starlight were not illusions, but solid earth.
However, to avoid unexpected dangers, she ultimately chose to step onto the rainbow road and walked toward the Ice Sculpture Castle.
Unless you had Jonathan’s twisted sense of humor, most other ruins rarely presented unexpected situations.
As expected, following the road brought no obstacles.
It wasn’t until they reached the castle gates that they saw two guards, seemingly sculpted from ice.
Each guard held a small round shield in one hand and a longsword in the other. When Hilia and the group approached, they began trembling, snow cascading from their bodies.
The longswords left their scabbards with a metallic ring.
A voice rang out—
"The Queen’s Land of Sleep. No admittance without permission."
Hilia ignored this and advanced with her magic puppet.
The puppet wielded the Ten Thousand Lights Sword; she held her Magic Staff.
Pamisha, upon seeing this, looked puzzled.
Is Miss Xiluo a Magic Master or a Sword Master?
Pamisha didn’t have time to dwell on this. Seeing Hilia advance, she hurriedly directed her own puppet to charge forward.
Goriff did the same, except he charged in alongside his puppet.
Boom!
A burst of magic light exploded.
Hilia frowned.
She noticed the guards’ bodies didn’t so much as flinch under the barrage of magic.
The girl immediately understood what was happening.
"Is this... the Dream World?"
Rose nodded. "Yes, this ruin isn’t a subspace Mirror World but a mirrored dream world. Each team that enters sees something completely different."
Hilia stared at the two guards, pondering how to defeat them.
Just then, reinforcements from Goriff and Pamisha arrived.
Goriff’s puppet slammed its greatsword down onto one guard, barely managing to knock it back, but his puppet was launched by an immense force, crashing near Manica at the rear.
Pamisha was in much the same situation; her longsword only scraped a shallow mark on the guard, unable to break through its defenses.
The two of them immediately realized the situation.
"The two castle guards here are just like the seal outside—we have to find a weakness to kill them."
Hilia was starting to get it—
"I think I understand how this ruin operates now."
"It periodically erupts with Dream Magic Power. Only after we’re tainted by dream magic, dream, and defeat the monsters inside the dream—guided by them—can we open the entrance."
"That seal outside is meant to tell everyone: the monsters in this ruin all require special tactics to defeat. Otherwise, you can’t harm them."
Rose chuckled. "Exactly. That’s how this ruin works. Its functions borrow much of Alina’s power. Actually, it’s not a low-tier ruin, but one that adapts to any Tier. If a high-tier team enters, it’s a high-tier ruin; if a low-tier team comes, it’s a low-tier ruin."
Hilia was stunned. "Miss Alina’s power is that formidable?"
Rose replied coolly, "The only difference between Tier Ten and a God is the Divine Format."
Hilia instantly understood.
The Ascension God Stairs’ tenth tier was the final tier—even without becoming a God, one could wield godlike power.
"So, the question is, how do we deal with these two guards?"
Hilia became lost in thought.
She had her magic puppet join the battle and fight freely, while she watched attentively, observing in silence, trying to spot a weakness.
Pamisha walked over and watched as well, asking quietly, "These two guards—do they have any natural enemies?"
Hilia countered, "Do people have natural enemies?"
Pamisha shook her head.
As humans, they had no idea who humanity’s natural enemy might be.
Could it be a God? Or a Demon?
Clearly not.
At that moment, Anthony—hanging back from the fight—suddenly spoke up. "Pamisha, maybe we could pretend to be guests of the so-called ’Queen.’"
Pamisha froze, then immediately shouted to the guards, "We’re guests of the Queen! Let us in!"
The guards didn’t answer, only used the dream’s protection to pummel their puppets harder.
Pamisha shook her head. "Looks like that’s not working."
"No, maybe it would," Hilia said, "but first we’d need to get out of combat."
Saying this, she had her magic puppet retreat quickly to the edge of the Rainbow Road.
Pamisha followed suit, calling her puppet back. Goriff had lost all interest in fighting—seeing the two of them withdraw, he quickly used the chance to pull out as well.
Once the group disengaged, the two ice sculpture guards didn’t pursue, but returned to their positions at either side of the gate, standing motionless, like sculptures.
Hilia stepped forward again.
"The Queen’s Land of Sleep. No admittance without permission."
The voice rang out again.
Hilia spoke: "Greetings, we are the Queen’s guests. We wish to seek an audience."
One guard replied, "To see the Queen, please show the Queen’s Emblem."
"The Queen’s Emblem?" Pamisha frowned, confused. "Where are we supposed to get that?"
Hilia had a faint guess as to what this emblem was.
It was probably a pass for heretics returning to their stronghold.
No emblem, no entry?
Hilia wasn’t so sure.
She said, "We don’t have an emblem, but we request an audience with the Queen on urgent matters."
The other guard spoke: "Without the emblem, you must pass our trial."
With those words, the two guards began trembling once more, stepped forward, and adopted fighting stances.
Hilia strode forth, and the guards immediately charged at her.
Hilia raised her Magic Staff; a hail of icy rain transformed into needles, blasting toward the guards, erupting on contact.
Countless explosions quickly pitted the guards’ bodies with crater after crater.
When they were within three meters of Hilia, all that was left were bones.
In the next moment, even the bones were blown apart. Both guards collapsed at Hilia’s feet—well... they didn’t die with their eyes closed?
Once immune to damage, the two guards could now be dispatched with ease after proposing a "trial."
It was, actually, pretty amusing.
If someone else had to handle it, Hilia would find it quite interesting—like Rose did just now.
Hilia noticed Rose smiling on the sidelines as they fought the guards.
There were times she wanted to ask Rose directly what the guards’ weakness was—but held back every time.
Hilia was tough like that.
She also understood Rose’s mindset.
Watching others battle really was a pleasure.
If it were herself out there...
She’d just feel disgusted by the whole thing.
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