In the depths of the secret underground headquarters of the Eternal Sleepers within Typhon borders.
Archbishop Yuri, robed in white and with a scholarly deanor, swiftly led a team of priests through the deep and long corridor.
The bright light of the magic crystal lamps in the corridor could not dispel the darkness gathering on the face of the archbishop. His expression was gloomy, and his eyes were notably stern. The sound of his boots striking the floor was akin to a series of tight drumbeats echoing through the ancient hallway, resonating deep within the hearts of each accompanying priest.
Amidst the subtle frictional sound of chanical devices, the magic door leading to the Deep Prayer Hall opened on both sides, and Yuri Charlvin entered a crescent-shaped hall with walls adorned with various mysterious ancient magic symbols, and quickly scanned the entire room.
Dozens of priests in white robes or gowns were scattered on the cushions throughout the hall. Despite being young, they were surrounded by extraordinarily powerful magic power that was sowhat out of control. Each looked a bit languid, seemingly having sustained varying degrees of ntal damage, and each had soone attending to them.
An Eternal Sleepers Priest, watching over the hall, noticed Yuri’s appearance and imdiately ca forward: "Archbishop..."
Yuri cut off the other’s greeting with a wave of his hand and spoke rapidly, "How is the Psychic Choir?"
The Eternal Sleepers Priest who had approached took a look back at the scene in the hall and spoke with a tone of concern, "The entire Psychic Choir has disconnected from the network and returned to the real world, they are all here. The good news is that no one was hard, but the bad news is... they experienced ntal contamination while covering the retreat of the vanguard troops."
Archbishop Yuri’s brow furrowed instantly, "ntal contamination? The entire group?"
The mbers of the Psychic Choir were all highly skilled ntal masters, especially adept at counteracting ntal contamination, protecting their partners in various dream realms. However, now, an entire Psychic Choir gathered together had all been ntally contaminated?
Neither Yuri nor the accompanying priests wanted to believe this, yet reality forced them to accept the situation—
"The entire team contaminated, without exception," the priest managing the Deep Prayer Hall said in a low tone, "including Lady Wendy, Spirit Singer of powerful Peak."
Yuri Charlvin couldn’t help but take a deep breath, and after a full two seconds, he slowly exhaled and asked in a deep voice, "How deep is the contamination... No, just tell the truth, how many followers of the Supre Narrator are here?"
The priest managing the hall shook his head gravely, while Yuri’s gaze had already moved past him, looking towards the Psychic Choir mbers being cared for in the hall behind him.
Among the many "Singers," a young lady in a beautiful and exquisite gold-trimd white gauze gown, with fine features, noticed his gaze. She lifted her head, revealing a gentle and serene smile, then raised her right hand, horizontally positioned before her, palm down, as if covering an invisible earth. Her slightly magnetic voice echoed, as if piercing the soul, "Sir, may I take a mont to introduce you to our all-knowing and all-powerful Lord, the salvation of all living beings, the Supre Narrator..."
Before the beautiful lady could finish her words, the nearby Eternal Sleepers priests responsible for monitoring quickly surrounded her, soone holding down her shoulders, others prying open her mouth, and soone swiftly pouring so kind of potion into her mouth. A strong priest raised a gold-tipped spike high and, decisively stabbing it into the woman’s neck, shouted, "Sorry, Lady Wendy!"
Yuri couldn’t help but close his eyes—this scene was just as terrifying as when "Spirit Singer" Wendy suddenly started spreading the faith of the Supre Narrator outward.
During this brief disruption, several mbers of the Psychic Choir, seemingly influenced by Wendy, suddenly enthusiastically broadcasted the doctrine of the Supre Narrator to their surrounding companions, imdiately attracting ergency interventions from those nearby, either having their speech forcibly interrupted by magic spikes, pressed to the ground and fed potions, or directly hypnotized to sleep through powerful spells.
Due to tily intervention, chaos did not spread.
Just then, a female voice suddenly reached Yuri’s ears: "It seems that the restrictive magic symbols of the Deep Prayer Hall cannot suppress the ntal contamination they suffered. Continuing to let these contaminated companions stay together will only worsen the situation."
Yuri opened his eyes to see Selena Gerfen had sohow "arrived" in the hall, now standing beside him. The portable lamp in her hand emitted an elusive glow, quickly calming Yuri’s slightly restless mood.
The surrounding priests, either already aware of Selena’s true status or finding her "sudden appearance" perfectly natural, showed no abnormal reaction, but orderly saluted: "Archbishop Selena."
Selena nodded briefly, her gaze turning to the Psychic Choir mbers in the hall, gently sighing.
"Execute top-level ’containnt,’ transferring all ntally contaminated personnel to individual isolation rooms in the deeper palace area, ensuring their environnt remains comfortable, maintaining a good ntal state, while prohibiting any contact or conversation with unrelated personnel.
"Attending personnel rotate every six hours to prevent long-term contact leading to contamination. Under no circumstances should caregivers contact alone—if accidental single contact occurs, regardless of duration, or whether any conversation took place, the contactor must undergo the sa level of containnt.
"From now on, the underground ruins will enforce dream realm regulation, banning unauthorized dream roaming, except for containnt targets. No one may sleep in the deep zone—if accidentally asleep, whether dreaming or not, the sa level of containnt must be executed.
"These are the commands of His Holiness the Pope."
Selena issued the orders from gal III one by one, the severity of the asures causing Yuri’s expression to change slightly, but he ultimately did not question these commands.
He understood well that in this extraordinary ti, any strict containnt and regulatory asures were necessary, because...
The influence of the Supre Narrator was gradually breaking through Sandbox One, starting attempts to breach the wall and enter the real world.
The Eternal Sleepers in the hall began executing the orders from Pope gal III. Those in a dazed ntal state, already contaminated by the Supre Narrator, stumbled through the arrangents, cooperating to the greatest extent possible with the "containnt" they were about to face under the remnants of their rationality.
Selena then turned her gaze to Yuri: "Have you determined what attacked the vanguard troops yet?"
Yuri sighed and shook his head, "I just returned from the Spirit Knights’ rest area—thanks to the protection of the Psychic Choir, they fortunately were not contaminated, but their cognition and mory were severely dislocated, and the few able to barely recall the situation described very strange scenes: they said they were attacked by their own shadows."
"Your own shadow... sounds like a mind backlash..." Selena pondered, "Besides this, are there any other details?"
Yuri thought for a mont, then nodded: "There’s a detail that might be worth noting—the Vanguard Troops were attacked after nightfall within Sandbox One."
Nightfall... the "night" within Sandbox One seems to hold particularly special significance in mysticism, much like Illusion Town, which was previously shrouded in an abnormal night. Now, Sandbox One also seems to share similar eerie characteristics.
The hall fell silent, and Selena stood quietly in place, looking down in speechless contemplation. It seed she was lost in thought or possibly facing a difficult decision.
After a minute, she raised her head and looked into Archbishop Yuri’s eyes: "Let’s convene an ergency eting, gathering all Archbishops who can still act. We... probably need to make so difficult choices."
Yuri gazed into Selena’s eyes.
As the oldest Archbishop in the Eternal Sleepers, a pilgrim surviving from seven hundred years ago, she, like gal III, possessed the authority to summon a Supre Council of Bishops, but has rarely exercised this power in the past centuries. Each rare occasion has marked a mont capable of influencing the fate of the evil-cult.
After a brief pause, Yuri nodded: "Understood, I’ll make the arrangents."
...
At Cecil Castle, Gawain stood on the terrace at dusk, overlooking the distant Dark Mountain Range scenery, when suddenly, a familiar wave of consciousness surged in the depths of his mind, interrupting his rare mont of leisure for the day.
A major accident in Sandbox One’s exploration action? The Eternal Sleepers’ Supre Council of Bishops convenes an ergency eting?
Gawain stood silently in place, while deep inside he attentively listened to Daniel’s report. Monts later, he exhaled slowly, turned, and left the terrace, returning to his room.
Betty the maid-trotted up to him.
"Betty, inform the other Attendants that no visitors will be received tonight," Gawain instructed the young maid, "Tell Aunt Heidi and Rebecca the sa when they return; I might not leave my room tonight."
Once Betty departed, Gawain turned to the air beside him: "Guard the door."
Amber’s voice echoed from the air: "Got it, understood!"
Once everything was arranged, Gawain wasted no ti as he strode over to the soft lounge chair in the room, adjusted to a comfortable posture, and promptly entered a deep "dream."
Amidst shifting lights and shadows, he had already passed through the invisible ntal barrier, arriving at the dream realm’s Dream City.
The splendid and magnificent Dream City appeared remarkably desolate.
Gawain imdiately noticed the unusual atmosphere around him. Standing at the edge of a plaza, he gazed at the distant streets, seeing only a few clergyn patrolling the streets that were once bustling with people. The plaza, forrly a gathering place, was now deserted, with only a few guardians near the queue-less ntal Crystal.
A familiar presence appeared nearby, as Daniel’s figure materialized beside Gawain.
The old Mage bowed in salute as soon as he appeared: "Greetings, my Lord."
Gawain looked at him: "Daniel, where are the people?"
"The ntal network implented ergency safety protocols, transitioning all lower-tier users to basic connection mode, only granting limited network access, providing necessary computational power without imrsing their consciousness in Dream City," Daniel replied with lowered eyes, "This is to prevent the Supre Narrator’s pollution from spreading, stopping it from entering the real world."
He paused, explaining, "The Vanguard Troops encountered a severe crisis during the exploration of Sandbox One. One Archbishop even suffered from spiritual contamination and beca a follower of the Supre Narrator in the real world. The evil-cult is now in its most urgent status."
"...Looks like the situation has worsened trendously," Gawain shook his head, "When will the eting convene?"
"In five minutes," Daniel nodded in response, "I’ve reset the virtual port of the Central Temple, arranging your ’seat.’"
Daniel hesitated for a mont, then couldn’t help but confirm: "My Lord, do you truly wish to ’attend’?"
Gawain looked at Daniel: "Firstly, it depends on whether your arranged ’seat’ is sufficiently secretive, whether it can block gal III’s gaze."
"Don’t worry about that—with the situation escalating and multiple self-verifications, I’ve gained control over all security permissions of the ntal network. I personally oversaw the foundational rewrite of the Central Temple, providing you with an absolutely secure ’audience seat.’"
"Then there’s no need to worry," Gawain nodded, "Given the current situation, of course, I must attend."
This ti, the Eternal Sleepers’ Supre Council of Bishops will have "Wanderers from Outer Realm" attending.
(Recomnding the new blue-white book "I Stepped Through 999 Tribulations," the author of Dungeon Players, with familiar imaginative expansion, though that’s not important, what’s important is giving thanks for sacrifices to the heavens.)
User Comments
0 comments from readers