Chapter 91: Chapter 66: Entering the Dream (Part 2)
Sopea’s voice was immense.
One could say it thundered through the heavens.
A single shout of "Break!" rattled Sean’s ears, leaving them ringing.
Sean didn’t know if a louder voice meant higher damage, but Sopea had actually managed to rip the cloud mass apart... No, it would be more accurate to say he tore open the canopy of the heavens.
Sopea plunged his hands into the clouds, tearing them apart to the left and right. The giant silhouette behind him mimicked the motion, its colossal palms looking as if they’d punched a hole through the sky as they suddenly ripped apart the face formed from the clouds.
The sight alone made Sean wince, and he involuntarily touched his own face.
As the face split apart, the entire world grew brighter. It was like throwing open the curtains in a pitch-black room and letting the Sunshine in. The shadows on Koni’s small face, on the ground, and on the buildings visibly receded and dissipated. It truly felt as if the clouds were parting to reveal the sun.
But it wasn’t over.
Sean’s "face" had been torn apart, and Koni thought the illusion was broken. But a closer look revealed that the street was still the same street, and the buildings were still the same buildings.
They were still in Holkaydo.
Not until Sopea grunted again.
"Now, burn!"
He chanted a Spell.
In an instant, the Sunshine intensified. The light became so blinding that Sean and Koni couldn’t help but squint and raise their hands to shield their eyes.
At the same time, a wave of scorching heat washed over them. Their skin began to prickle and burn, as if they had been thrown into a furnace.
The intensified Sunshine brought not only a blinding brightness but also a rapidly soaring temperature.
It felt as though the world was about to catch fire.
And then, it did.
Peeking through the gaps between their fingers, Sean and Koni’s eyes widened. They watched as countless embers drifted down from the sky, carried on the wind. The canopy overhead was burning in the most bizarre way; though there was no flame, the azure firmament was charring like a sheet of paper, its edges curling and blackening before melting into flakes of ash. It was as if a black snow had begun to fall.
And behind this incinerated canopy, there was not the void they expected, but another, brand-new sky.
The invisible flames spread rapidly downward. The scenery around Sean and Koni also began to burn and transform, making the pair feel as if they were caught in a conflagration.
When the towering buildings had been burned to nothing, a new world appeared.
The city before their eyes was no longer Holkaydo.
Castle-like architecture replaced the skyscrapers, and horse-drawn carriages replaced cars. The bluestone-paved streets, freshly washed by rain, still held traces of water in their cracks, looking both clean and ancient. Watching the bustling, robed crowds walk the streets, Sean felt a sense of both novelty and familiarity. Even the air seemed filled with a scent that was timelessly fresh.
Koni was even more excited, shouting, "We did it! Mr. Sean, we did it!"
Everything here was very familiar to her, as well.
Especially the magnificent palace that stood taller than any other building. It was situated in the heart of the city, visible even from a great distance.
The golden patterns engraved upon its outer walls, which resembled a series of Arrays, marked its unique identity—
The Hall of Truth.
This was the Era of Polymath.
The so-called "illusion" was, to be more precise, an "illusory world."
There was nothing wrong with the dreamscape itself; deep within him, Sean truly did possess memories of the Era of Polymath. It was just that a soul defense from his past life had added a layer of misdirection to the dream. Seeing that he had now broken through it, Sopea silently breathed a sigh of relief. He then descended calmly from the sky, flicking non-existent dust from his sleeves, his posture suggesting that a mere Tier Ten soul defense was nothing to write home about.
Koni said excitedly, "Teacher, you’re amazing!"
Just as every daughter has, at some point, worshipped her father, Koni now looked at Sopea with that same adoration.
It was as if, so long as her teacher was present, no problem was unsolvable.
Sopea’s expression was faintly smug. "I hope this session of Entering the Dream will lead to some enlightenment for you," he said lightly.
In other words: watch and learn.
Sean, meanwhile, looked left and right, full of curiosity about the city before him, which felt both alien and familiar.
In the past, he had never been aware that he was dreaming, so he was never able to wander about as he pleased. The events of his dreams were always confined to a small area—his home during the Era of Polymath, for example, or a certain small, romantic room. Of the world outside, Sean knew next to nothing.
He might have dreamed of it before, only to forget. He could never recall it in his waking life. Only now, by truly being here, did faint glimmers of a déjà-vu-like familiarity surface.
Seeing him looking around, Sopea asked, "Have you found your past self yet?"
"Not yet," Sean said.
Though the street was crowded, he didn’t recognize a single face.
Sopea offered him a suggestion. "This dreamscape is a fusion of all your inner memories. The fact that we’re here only means you’ve been here before; it doesn’t guarantee that the ’you’ from this point in time is also here. Try to recall your previous dreams, the ones you can remember. Think. Where in this city would you most likely be?"
’Usually, the answer is "home."’
’Going there directly might be a dead end, but if we wait, the dream-Sean will show up eventually.’
’Unless his past self was a wanderer who never went home.’
People don’t usually think of themselves in a negative light, so Sopea assumed Sean would also say "home." All he’d have to do then was figure out a way to get Sean to that home.
But Sean gave an answer Sopea hadn’t considered at all: "The Hall of Truth."
