Having left the guild’s dreamscape outpost, it didn’t take long for the group of five that had now doubled thanks to the adventurers willing to join them on their journey for the sake of exploring an unknown section of the floating continent that they found themselves on, to reach the edge of the battlefield between the two demigods of the dreamscape.
Unsurprisingly, the damage to the floating continent itself was substantial, as countless massive craters that straight up cut through the continent and revealed the sky of the dreamscape below could be seen dotted across the battlefield. In the process also revealing that the floating continent contained an intricate world beneath the surface that was filled with all kinds of unique dreamscape monsters. Several of which carried a presence that even left them with their strength shivering.
At the very least, the dreamscape monsters in question had already perished, as the attacks that had crashed straight through the floating continent and revealed the underground world of the floating continent, had come a little too close for comfort Leaving only their scared corpses behind.
Still, the sheer power behind those attacks was enough to make the entire group rethink their earlier plans of moving around the battlefield, as they understood just how dangerous this plan was, as the battlefield itself could shift at any second and place them in the middle of it. Even if those terrifying demigods of the dreamscape decided to ignore them, the mere aftershocks of their battle could likely still reduce them to dust.
But... After a few seconds of hesitation, the group continued onwards. The five from the church already set on their task and had prepared for a potential worst-case scenario after being thrown inside the dreamscape only a day earlier, while the group of adventurers felt that now was as good as any time to explore the dangerous unknown region that no one had succeeded in exploring yet.
Of course, compared to the members of the Holy Light Church, the adventurers didn’t exactly have the same sacrificial commitment and instead just thought that the danger of the current situation also made it far easier to travel through the dreamscape.
Something that the five adventurers were already experiencing, as they understood from past experience that it was far from normal for them to have moved so far from the outpost without encountering a single dreamscape monster.
And so, onwards they went. Moving through the destroyed region that had been the place where the two terrifying entities had first clashed with each other in the past before moving in different direction during their battle.
If there was anything positive about the current situation regarding that large scale battle, it was the fact that it was too far any of them to see outside of faint explosive sounds in the distance along with small earthquakes that did little to hinder their path forward and that the battle itself wasn’t moving any closer to the outpost. Instead, slowly moving towards the edge of the floating continent. Looking like the battle might end up leaving the floating continue to continue in the sky of the dreamscape.
Altogether the journey through the destroyed region that had previously served as the main battlefield of those two demigods of the dreamscape was far safer than any of them had originally anticipated, as the only dreamscape monsters they encountered along the way were either heavily injured or had already.
Not that this prevented the five adventurers from hunting down any easy prey they spotted or collecting the precious materials of the stronger already dead dreamscape monsters along the way.
Understandable as this was considering just how valuable dreamscape monsters were compared to monsters outside the dreamscape of an equal rank, the five from the Holy Light Church could not help finding these delays along the way somewhat annoying given how they needed to reach the divine beast before it finished its evolution.
As for how they knew that the divine beast had already started the evolution that the cardinal predicted it to go through? That was rather simple, as they just observed how the divine beast had seemingly been frozen in the exact same location for the past few days.
Although they had no idea how long this kind of evolution would last, they had no intention of finding out and wanted to complete the mission that had been assigned to them and get the divine beast safely to the cardinal before it finished its evolution.
Normally this might be a bit difficult to do considering the size of the divine beast, but the artifact that had been given to them by the cardinal also served as a special holder designed to carry the divine beast in a small subspace.
Originally when the five had learnt about this secondary ability, their reaction wasn’t awe or amazement at the unique ability, but instead horror.
Why horror? Because they understood full well what the creation of such an artificial subspace involved, let alone keeping it up for days if not week.
In a simple word, it would be burning through money, as what was needed to keep such a unique thing running required a special magical stone that could either be obtained in dungeons or locations that even S Rank Adventurers feared or artificially created by skilled alchemists at a price that was enough to bankrupt entire kingdoms.
That kind of cost was something only entities like the Holy Light Church or the Adventurer Guild could afford and even then, it would only ever be for special reasons.
A divine beast emerging was one such special reason in the eyes of the church and the reason why they had been given such a precious artifact by the cardinal in the first place.
As for them dying and losing the artifact in the dreamscape... There wasn’t much of a worry on the side of the church, as those kinds of special artifacts could be located by their original owners, which in this case was the cardinal.
In other words, if they died inside the dreamscape, the cardinal would come pick up his artifact after he had recovered from his injuries. After all, though the dreamscape was deadly even to someone at the level of an S Rank Adventurer, it wasn’t that deadly to someone at the level of a cardinal if they avoided certain deadly dreamscape monsters like the two demigods locked in battle with each other.
...
It was only after over five days had passed since leaving the dreamscape outpost, that the group of ten that had originally been extremely tense so far. Finally had time to relax, as any sign of the terrifying battle playing out finally vanished entirely. Even the earthquakes from the battle were reduced to mild vibrations that they barely registered. Meaning that there was little risk of them running into those terrifying dreamscape monsters during the rest of their journey.
For the ten, it was not just wonderful to know that they had made it through the most dangerous part of the journey unharmed, but also that they would finally have the chance to sleep.
After all, with how dangerous the dreamscape was and how they would have to react instantly to avoid potential disaster with those two demigods clashing so close to them, none of them had managed to get even the slightest bit of sleep during these five days, as they had pushed through with sheer will alone.
The only thing keeping them going was the fact that every single one of them had far stronger vitality compared to an ordinary person, with every single one of them having pushed their vitality past the thousand mark.
Well... Everyone except a holy light priest on the side of the Holy Light Church, who had a rather abysmal vitality that had barely crossed the five hundred mark and had to carry at one point, but outside that one person, everyone else had made through and wanted nothing more than to get some much-needed rest.
Luckily, the holy light priest who had the opportunity to rest over the past five days because of her rather poor stamina in comparison to the rest, was placed on watch duty while the rest slept, something the person in question was rather reluctant about, but ultimately accepted. Grumbling to herself as she began setting up different defensive measures while the rest rushed inside their barely established tents to get some much-needed sleep.
The defensive measures in question mostly came from the five adventurers who were familiar with the dreamscape and understood what one needed to survive outside the outpost.
One thing such thing being a special barrier designed to ward off special spiritual entities born within the dreamscape that attempted to sneak into one’s mind while asleep. Altering it and eventually trapping the victim inside an endless dream one would never wake up from ever again.
The kind of tale that caused all five Holy Light Church members to cover themselves in mind protection enhancements and equipment that they caried with them before going sleep. An extra insurance, as none of them wanted to suffer that kind of fate...