After Annan helped Benjamin up, he keenly noticed that Benjamin was a lot quieter.
Or probably he had become calmer?
After picking up the lamp, Benjamin held Annan’s hand and moved forward. He didn’t move on to another topic and just concentrated on finding a way.
Did Benjamin realize something?
In the beginning, he never stopped talking to Evelyn.
In Annan’s view, Benjamin was awkward in picking up a topic to chat. He was too excited to talk about the Necropolis fortress with Evelyn. It felt like he was talking about new military equipment for an afternoon with his girlfriend, who was an artist.
I wonder how the real Evelyn will respond to him.
Would she just keep smiling and listen quietly?
“…Eh?” Benjamin said, puzzled, “Why is this door open?”
The last time he came here it should have been closed…
“What’s wrong?” Annan’s heart tightened slightly and asked softly, “Where is this place?”
He had noticed that his original “spawn point” was in front of them, which was the “cell”.
“I remember this… My teacher has mentioned it.”
Benjamin frowned slightly, trying to recall, “This seems to be the place where the corpses are stored.”
“…Corpses?” Annan was startled.
Isn’t this the dungeon cells?
Benjamin asked worriedly, “Are you afraid? We don’t have to look at this if you’re scared.”
“Will there still be bodies in there?” Annan replied.
“Definitely not.” Benjamin replied, “The Silver Sire Church had come to clean this place already.”
“Then… I want to take a look,” said Annan softly.
“好。”
Benjamin was silent for a while, then held Annan’s hand a little tighter, “Alright.”
He took Annan to the “dungeon cells” and raised the Green Fire Lamp in his hand.
Only then did Annan finally clearly see the internal environment of the “cells.”
This place seemed like a public bathhouse. It was much larger than Annan initially imagined.
Inside the “回-shaped” room, a low, square wall that was filled with Inscriptions stood right in the middle. Apparently, the Inscriptions on it were violently crossed out with sword slashes. The low wall was just over a meter high, reaching exactly half the room’s height.
There were handcuffs installed along the low wall as well; all of them were attached with chains with two meters distance between each other. There were about twenty such “chains and handcuffs” devices.
In the beginning, Annan was at the “position” closest to the door.
“What’s this?” Annan asked subconsciously.
Benjamin somehow knew what it was, “Do you know about the Half-dead Enchantresses?”
Benjamin replied in a low volume, “The Pale Princess’s priestesses aren’t living humans. Therefore, although they are priestesses, they have no place in the Pale Tide.
“They are both living and dead; neither living nor dead – the Pale Tide only allows the dead to join. So, if they want to participate in the Pale Tide, they have to fix their bodies here first.”
As Benjamin explained, he subconsciously walked to the shackle closest to the door, which was the shackle that bound Evelyn’s wrist in the dream world.
While pointing at the shackles, Benjamin explained to Annan — or “Evelynn” carefully but absentmindedly, “They’ll put their necks or wrists in here and then release their souls. My teacher had once said that the Half-dead Enchantresses could detach their souls out from their bodies. But, if they leave their bodies for too long, they can never return. They will no longer be Half-dead Enchantress but stray ghosts.
“As you see… There’s a tiny blade here. If the cuff is under heavy pressure, the blade will come out gradually and make them feel more and more pain over time.
“As the Half-dead Enchantresses feel the pain from their body getting stronger, they will stop lingering in the Pale Tide and immediately return to their body, their souls’ homes.”
“Is it like a clock?” Annan asked.
He knew that there were already clocks that could work as timers in this era.
Benjamin nodded, “Yes. In fact, it’s like a stopwatch… The one I showed to you previously! It won’t run like an ordinary pocket watch, but it can be accurately timed. After activating it, the time displayed will flow in reverse and make a ding sound at 0:00. It is said that the Alteration Wizards have this thing for experiments… Um, sorry.”
Realizing that he was going off-topic again, Benjamin stopped abruptly.
But Annan had already obtained the crucial information he needed.
For Half-dead Enchantresses, the body is the home of the soul.
He immediately remembered his main mission in the dream world.
Go home…
At that moment, Annan’s pupils shrank slightly.
—In the dream world, Annan would hear the reversed singing from the reflection in the lake.
—After each death, he would return to reality from the dream.
—The mission required “Evelyn” to keep her limbs intact in the dream.
—The sacrificial ritual must be completed in reality.
Also, the Pale Princess was known as the Bondless Princess. Her priestesses couldn’t fall in love with anyone, including themselves.
…Of course, Benjamin was no exception.
Annan glanced at Benjamin subconsciously.
He probably understood the situation.
“Evelyn” might have already been dead for a while, and that so-called dream… should be at the church that her soul saw after leaving her body.
Ordinary people would get seriously ill simply from a glimpse at the Pale Tide, even if they immediately ran back and hid in the house. Let’s not forget that Evelyn was obsessed with watching the Pale Princess’s entire dance up close.
She was probably dead by then.
But obviously, the Pale Princess was interested in her pure soul.
Just as the Venerated Skeleton kept the dead “Elle” alive for a while… “Evelyn” could be the Pale Princess’s “Elle”. Currently, Evelyn was already a Half-dead Enchantress. That was why she could hear the ghost’s voice faintly from time to time and enter the dream world.
For Evelyn, this was a “prophesying dream”.
Instead of seeing the future, she entered the “real Pale Church” in a soul state!
Therefore, when she smashed open the “cell door” in the soul world, the door in reality was also opened.
The fallen soldier statue at the door might also be because the “David” in the dream violently moved it away.
Evelyn suddenly asked Benjamin to accompany her to the Pale Church, probably because the ritual of transforming her into a Half-dead Enchantress required Benjamin to complete the final step.
“Evelyn” fell into the water and fell down the stairs again, perhaps because she instinctively refused this matter – she hoped that Benjamin could get out of here.
However, if Benjamin left this place, she couldn’t be reborn as Half-dead Enchantress – as the “Dancer under the Moon” would abandon her. Instead, she would die completely when she returned home.
That was why the mission Annan received in reality was “Don’t go home”!
If she gave up the sacrificial ritual, she would lose the Pale Princess’s favor and turn into a corpse.
This might have been Evelyn’s original ending.
If she loved Benjamin, she wouldn’t be willing to let Benjamin cut off her head, given that she had such a pure heart that even the Pale Princess was impressed.
Therefore, the main mission that Annan actually got would guide him to the “next main mission”.
He would have to go through the “dream world” a few more times before he could acquire the “real” main mission that finally made him leave the nightmare!
That being the case, there was only one question left — Whose nightmare was this?
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Credits to MindMatrix for editing this chapter and improving the readability.