Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 812 - 811: Predation

The night sky deepens.

According to Selena’s account, the first group of explorers who entered Sandbox One to inspect the situation were attacked after nightfall.

Gawain stood at the front of the house, gazing up at the clear and bright desert night sky, appearing calm and composed, while secretly alerting his senses to his surroundings and activating various arrangements.

So far, no abnormal phenomenon had occurred, and no one had been contaminated by a mental pollution. Duvalt and Nariteer were resting in a house not far behind, while Selena and her companions remained vigilant, taking turns watching from inside the house.

It seemed like it would be a night they could pass peacefully.

The desert became quite cold after nightfall, but the temperature didn’t affect Gawain. He took a deep breath, letting the cold air cool his mind, while admiring the Eternal Sleepers’ technology for creating this world—

Such realistic wind, such realistic cold, vast land, the flickering stars, everything was just like reality. How long did they take to create a world so real, and how long did the beings living in this world take to realize the existence of the sandbox’s boundaries?

Gawain refocused his scattered thoughts, turning to look at the direction of the door—Nariteer, with her white hair almost reaching her ankles, quietly opened the door and came outside. She walked barefoot, almost noiselessly, but didn’t know how to hide her presence.

"You woke up?" Gawain asked casually, looking at this peculiar girl.

Nariteer quickly glanced at Gawain, nodded slightly, then walked to a spot not far from the door and sat down on the ground, hugging her knees and gazing up at the sky.

Although he always felt something strange about her, suspecting she might be a minion of the Supreme Narrator or a dangerous mind wandering within Sandbox One, Gawain couldn’t resist the curiosity to ask, "What are you doing?"

"Looking at the stars," the white-haired girl sitting on the ground said softly.

"...That is evident," Gawain said, a bit speechless and slightly embarrassed, "You stayed up all night just to come out and look at stars?"

Nariteer remained silent for a while before hesitantly speaking again, "Looking at...stars."

Gawain: "..."

He suspected some communication barrier existed between them, but after a moment’s hesitation, he stood beside Nariteer and asked seemingly casually, "How did you meet Duvalt? Are you just traveling companions?"

"...Travel companions," Nariteer answered slowly and briefly, making it difficult to understand, but at least she was responding, "Don’t remember."

"Don’t remember how exactly you met?" Gawain interpreted her fragmented response while guiding her to share more, "How long have you been wandering here?"

"Many...many years," Nariteer said.

"Do you also believe in the Supreme Narrator?"

"...Don’t know," Nariteer shook her head, "Don’t remember."

"Have you been wandering here all these years? Did Duvalt tell you the purpose of wandering? Is there anything you need to do?"

Nariteer remained silent again and shook her head, "Looking at stars."

As Gawain wondered the meaning of her nonsensical answers, Nariteer added, "You’re interrupting me from looking at stars."

Gawain: "..."

Communication seemed impossible to continue. Gawain sighed regrettably, judging that Nariteer’s mental reasoning was problematic, her memory and cognitive abilities were clearly below the level of an ordinary person.

At that moment, a blaze of fire suddenly appeared in his view.

In front of the temple, with many pillars and statues guarding it, which had been abandoned for countless years, a large bonfire suddenly appeared, flames rising from the temple square, illuminating the structures that had been engulfed in darkness moments earlier. Gradually, more lights appeared on the tops of stone pillars around the temple, along distant and nearby streets, and within individual residences!

The entire city seemed to be waking up swiftly in the light!

Gawain stared in disbelief at the rapidly spreading lights in the city, then abruptly turned toward Nariteer—

Nariteer, who had been sitting there gazing at stars a moment ago, had disappeared without a trace.

Gawain hadn’t managed to capture any changes in her presence, nor had he detected when or how she left (or disappeared)!

But he was already mentally prepared for facing unusual situations, feeling no surprise. He saw the door behind him suddenly being pushed open, and Archbishop Magnan with red hair rushed out: "That old man named Duvalt is missing!"

"I know," Gawain responded calmly, "Not just him—Nariteer is gone too."

Magnan stared wide-eyed, noticing the lights brightening up in various spots around the city, shouting in a loud voice, "All my ancestors’ family! What is happening?"

Yuri and Selena also stepped out from the house, having heard Magnan and Gawain speaking outside. The lights rapidly spreading in the city illuminated their faces, and Selena glanced at it before turning to Gawain, "Is this what you’ve been waiting for?"

"Looks like its patience is poorer than I imagined," Gawain nodded, "Get ready, the Supreme Narrator has arrived—"

Almost as Gawain’s words fell, on the distant streets, in the shadows between houses, and within the flickering light borders created by intertwining lights, innumerable eerie shadows suddenly appeared from thin air!

The shadowy figures crawled on the ground, rapidly moving along the surface, initially resembling only the haze at the boundaries of the lights. But as some shadows drew closer, Gawain understood what they were—that they were spiders, countless spiders crawling on the ground in shadow form!

Countless shadows moved under the lights, stretching or shortening intermittently with changes in light angle, as if invisible "real" spiders were crawling on the ground, themselves completely transparent, yet leaving bizarre shadows. Upon seeing those shadow spiders, a sentence Duvalt had said to him suddenly came to Gawain’s mind:

"There are many spiders here at night, but don’t worry, they’re very peaceful and harmless, and tend to avoid people..."

Now, these things didn’t look harmless at all.

Yuri instantly spread his hands wide, countless golden magic symbols swirling and dancing in the air, forming a protective barrier around everyone. A soft, warm light engulfed the place, and Selena Gerfen stepped forward, holding a portable lamp. Under the lamp’s radiance, all the shadows creeping on the ground quickly faded. Then, Magnan spread his hands wide, and his thunderous voice suddenly boomed:

"Mental Storm!!"

A surge of powerful magic power instantly formed, transforming into a dim-colored halo that spread in all directions. Wherever the halo passed, all the spider shadows paused briefly, and a tranquil, harmonious atmosphere filled the entire block—

The Supreme Calm Halo, a powerful mental spell, capable of soothing all mind units, whether enemy or ally.

But it couldn’t soothe Yuri, who was in a state of extreme shock. This elegant Archbishop, wearing a monocle, almost cried out in astonishment: "What about your Mental Storm?!"

"Damn! I forgot I had already replaced it with the Calm Halo!" Magnan shouted loudly.

The elegant Archbishop Yuri probably shouted so uncharacteristically for the first time in his life: "You barbarian! Do you usually cast spells subconsciously?!!"

"I was once a War God Priest, I’m used to casting spells subconsciously, what can I do?!"

"Don’t use that as an excuse—I know what a normal War God Priest is like!"

The argument between the two Archbishops behind him left Gawain momentarily stunned. He never expected such talents to exist within the dark sect, and he couldn’t help but be reminded of Sir Philip and Byron Kirk. He even thought that Yuri and Magnan could become national-level comedians within a year if they came to the Cecil Clan...

But a warm, bright light cut through all the chaos. The portable lamp in Selena Gerfen’s hand shone with intense brilliance, and her voice, as if carrying the power to penetrate endless veils, rang out: "Quiet! Yuri, Magnan, you’ve been influenced!

"The night sky here is amplifying your character flaws and negative thoughts, confusing your judgment!"

Yuri and Magnan, who were about to argue even more, were affected by Selena’s lamp and startled by her words, suddenly widening their eyes and realizing the subtle pollution and erosion.

In the next instant, a surge of immense mental energy erupted from Magnan’s center, unleashing a genuine "storm" within the building and a considerable area around it.

Meanwhile, more shadows continued to gather from all directions, and more lights were being lit in the alleys and streets of Nim Sandro, creating a grid-like pattern, intertwining light and darkness, with the Temple at its center, spreading throughout the city, and eerily extending beyond the city, into the entire desert...

From an aerial view, Nim Sandro and a vast surrounding area were enveloped in this web of light and shadow, resembling a spider web, with Magnan’s small mental storm at the center, like a struggling insect, like a prisoner in a web...

In the dark, at an unknown distance from Nim Sandro, on a strange mountain peak abruptly standing in the desert, resembling an inverted limb, a tattered paper lantern suddenly pierced the darkness, its dim yellow light illuminating the figures of Duvalt and Nariteer.

Duvalt, holding a lantern, quietly watched the direction of Nim Sandro, while the city was completely engulfed by a massive spider web, with enormous spider shadows slowly skirting the edges of the web. Nariteer sat on the ground, hugging her knees, continuing to gaze up at the sky, staring at the starry sky simulated by Sandbox One.

"The last consumption has begun, Nariteer," Duvalt said in a low, gentle voice, "Aren’t you coming to see?"

Nariteer, sitting stubbornly as if sulking, replied, "I want to watch the stars."

Duvalt frowned, "They’re all fake, what’s there to see?"

"But to me... they’re real..."

Duvalt frowned as he looked at Nariteer, shaking his head slowly: "Never mind—after the consumption, the real starry sky will await us."

Nariteer remained silent, quietly under the night sky for a long while before suddenly mumbling softly: "Cake, delicious. Wine, not good."

Duvalt didn’t hear her clearly for a moment: "What did you say?"

Nariteer didn’t speak again.

Duvalt looked down at Nariteer for a long time, finally shaking his head helplessly: "...Never mind."

He then looked back towards Nim Sandro, gazing at the final place of consumption after the world’s end.

The web woven by the Supreme Narrator will eventually capture that sliver of light from reality...

The shockwave of the Mental Storm rampaged through the streets, tearing apart this dream-sustained world with abandon. Countless spider shadows crumbled to dust in the energy surges, and even the nearby houses and cobbled streets crumbled and vanished after several storms.

However, shadows were endless. The lights across Nim Sandro illuminated large expanses of the night sky, where, in the star-dimmed night sky, larger and more abstract shadows began to gather, advancing ominously towards the Temple area, like some giant beast in the midst of feeding.

"There’s something strange about these things—they can’t be killed completely!" Magnan shouted loudly from the storm’s center, "They must have a source, hidden where we can’t see!"

Yuri, maintaining the protection of golden symbols, also spoke louder: "We should find a way to leave this city; the whole city is probably a trap!"

While dealing with those spider shadows and the omnipresent mental influence, Yuri and Magnan simultaneously turned their heads to look in the direction where Gawain stood—

The Supreme Narrator had already started taking action, Wanderers from Outer Realm...shouldn’t they do something?!

"Shouldn’t you take action?!" Magnan couldn’t help but shout, "We won’t be able to hold on for long—"

Gawain was standing not far from Magnan and Yuri, beside Selena Gerfen. From beginning to end, he hadn’t moved at all, just quietly standing there watching the shadows strike, watching Magnan and others launch their counterattack, as if it was none of his business, calmly observing the chaos.

His calmness caught Selena’s attention and made Yuri and Magnan even more tense.

What is the Wanderer from Outer Realm waiting for? Why hasn’t he taken action?

As these doubts grew, almost shaking Magnan’s confidence, Gawain finally let out a gentle breath.

"I see..."

(Mama mia!!!!)