Deep Sea Embers

Heidi looked bewildered, and then frightened.

Because she knew who the father of the "Sea Witch" was—this creepy joke was not funny at all!

"I'm a follower of the God of Wisdom Lahmu, ma'am," she said hastily, as if she was afraid that the misunderstanding would deepen if she said it too late, and then she really established some kind of secret connection with that terrifying subspace shadow, "I Just an ordinary psychiatrist, you must be mistaken!"

Lucrezia just frowned slightly, and her eyes calmly fell on the chest of this "psychiatrist". The ordinary-looking amethyst pendant was still faintly exuding a familiar aura—don't worry. She might admit that she was mistaken, but the breath of her father...

She even felt that her father's eyes were watching her quietly through the pendant.

"Where did you get this pendant?" Lucrezia asked suddenly.

"This...is a gift from my father. He bought it from an antique shop," Heidi quickly explained without thinking about it for a while. "It's not a special item, but it happens to have a little spiritual aspect. The shelter effect..."

"Antique shop?" Lucrezia was a little puzzled, "Your father is..."

"Oh, this girl is Maurice Underwood's daughter," Taran Ayre, who had been silent beside him, finally spoke up. He felt that the atmosphere was a bit wrong, "Relax, Ms. Lucrecia, This lady is indeed a psychiatrist, and she is helping me get out of here."

Lucrezia was stunned for a moment after hearing what Taran Eyre said, and then looked at Heidi with a subtle expression on her face: "Maurice Underwood?"

"Yes... yes," Heidi nodded, "that's my father's name..."

Lucrezia's face was expressionless, but she recalled in her mind the last time she met the new crew members of the Lost Home through the crystal ball, and recalled the respectable university student—her father's current "Knowledge Advisor".

what a small world.

The coldness in her eyes melted away, and there was sincerity in her smiling expression again, and her gaze at Heidi also softened: "Hello, Miss Heidi."

"You... hello," Heidi was confused, always feeling that her life seemed to have experienced several ups and downs in just this short period of time, but she didn't know what happened at all, so she could only nervously respond to the "witch" in front of her. Greetings, "You...know my father? And you and Master Taran El?"

"This world is smaller than you imagined," Lucrezia did not answer the other party directly, but looked at the elf scholar opposite after a perfunctory sentence, "From the perspective of self-perception, you feel that you have been trapped in this dream How long has it been?"

"Not sure, I have a problem with time perception now, it may be a few days? It may be longer."

Lucrezia frowned: "From the perspective of cognitive offset, it's already a little dangerous... I guess you have tried various awakening methods including the falling method?"

Taran Ayer spread his hands: "Yeah, the 'sudden death method' isn't working yet."

"If the conventional subconscious awakening method doesn't work, then neither will the other methods. This is not a normal dream—nor is it a foreign curse or spiritual attack," Lucrezia waved her hand, "I'm already in reality The world has checked your condition, and set up a place in the laboratory to control mental pollution, so that these situations can be ruled out...Miss Heidi, can you tell me about the information you have so far?"

Heidi was stunned for a moment when she heard it, and it took two seconds before she realized it. She quickly told the "witch" everything she knew, even from the moment she accepted the invitation from the city hall in Prand Start - not a single detail is left out.

Lucrezia patiently listened to the other party's stream of information, her expression changing several times.

"From a dream far away in Purland, I entered the dream of Taran Ayer... The distance between these two city-states is not simple, and the entrance to the dream has disappeared..." The "witch" looked pale Dignified, he said slowly, "It seems that if the guidance is not smooth, even you, a psychiatrist, will be trapped in this place."

"So have you two experts come to a conclusion now?" As the only "patient" at the scene, Taran Ayer seemed quite calm, and at this time he just asked curiously, "What is going on in this dream?" ?”

"...Before I make a conclusion, I need to confirm one thing." Lucrezia did not answer directly, but asked with a serious face, "How did you fall into a deep sleep? I found it on the tower. I read the draft you left, and you seemed to be planning to send it to the academy via 'Express Mail', did you encounter an attack on the tower? Or did you 'saw' something while observing the sun?"

Taran El was lost in memory.

After a long time, he said uncertainly: "I was not attacked... I just remember that I saw many fuzzy shadows and lines in the sun through the equipment on the tower, and wanted to record them all Come down, but those things are too chaotic and blurry, no matter what, I can’t see clearly, so I can only draw a rough outline, and then..."

His voice suddenly became extremely hesitant, and deep confusion and confusion appeared in his eyes. It seemed that the more he recalled what he saw when he fell into a deep sleep, the more he couldn't confirm his memory.

Finally, Taran Al stopped, and could no longer recall what he experienced in the last second before falling asleep. He slowly raised his head with confusion, and glanced at Heidi and Lucrezia in front of him , and then looked around, looking at this lush, impossibly dense forest.

He gradually stagnated like this, and finally there were no more movements or sounds, even the subtle movements of breathing and eyeballs were completely still, and the breeze blowing through the forest could no longer shake his hair and the corners of his clothes.

Taran El turned into a "sculpture" frozen in a dream.

Along with his stagnation, everything in the dream finally began to change. A strange and deep roar reverberated throughout the world, as if infinitely huge things were slowly collapsing. It began to disintegrate downwards, and the lush plants all over the ground gradually weathered and dissipated, turning into flying smoke.

Heidi looked at all this in astonishment, and then suddenly turned her head to look at Lucrezia: "Is this a 'curtain'? Isn't it a real dream?!"

"It seems that you are doing well in school, Miss Heidi," Lucrezia raised her eyebrows, "Yes, just as I guessed, this is not a real dream, but just above the dream The woven protective 'veil', what we see is not Taran El, but just a mental entity he temporarily created to protect himself, so we can't wake him up from here anyway - a real dream Hidden deeper."

"Why did this happen?" Heidi was amazed. "I...have never seen such a real protective curtain, which completely blocks the dreams below..."

"I haven't seen it before, and Taran Ayer is not an expert in the spiritual field. Although he has done some targeted training, it is theoretically impossible for him to weave such a perfect 'protection'," Lu said. Clecia shook her head, "But one thing is for sure, the weaver of this 'veil' is trying to hide the things deep in the dream... If Taran Ayer really did it, then he must be doing it After falling into the dream, I felt a huge danger..."

She stopped suddenly.

Because the "collapse" of the forest gradually stopped.

Not only did it stop, but after a few seconds, the collapse process of the entire forest began to reverse—those towering giant trees were reorganizing one after another, and the dissipated colors quickly returned to the earth, and the "curtain" that was about to shatter actually began Regenerates at breakneck speed!

"The curtain has regenerated!" Heidi exclaimed suddenly.

Lucrezia looked at the mental entity of Taran Ayer immediately after being surprised—the latter still stood quietly like a sculpture, showing no signs of re-activation.

The protective veil of this dream was regenerated, but the "weaver" of the veil was not Taran-El - another force was protecting the deep truth of this dream!

The moment Lucrecia realized this, she suddenly realized two things:

First, besides the "elf girl" mentioned by Heidi and Master Taran El, there is at least a third "dreamer" in this dream, and this dreamer is the "camouflage dream" in front of you real controller.

Second, the intruder is still nearby, and the pollution source is here!

The protective "curtain" of the dream is spontaneously rearranged as a result of a perceived great danger.

Only when there is no danger, will it suddenly reverse when it has already begun to dissipate-and judging from the scale of the entire forest and its movement during reorganization, the source of this danger is definitely far beyond imagination.

Neither the Annihilation Cultists that Heidi expelled before, nor the intruders that Taran Al had already dealt with, were not the real reason for the closure of this dream!

When Lucrezia realized it, Heidi suddenly realized the reason for the regeneration of the curtain: "Youdong XZ is in this dream, and the intruder is still there!"

"Pay attention to the abnormalities around you!"

Lucrezia reminded immediately, and then quickly searched for all suspicious things in sight, sensing the breath flowing in the air, trying to find out what was hidden in the "pollution source" that this curtain was trying to resist. place.

The air, the fragrance of flowers, the sound of the wind blowing through the forest, the sound of water flowing in the distance, the sunlight shining through the canopy...

Everything is so real, everything is so natural, everything looks the same.

Which one is abnormal in this dream?

Wait... sunshine? !

Lucrezia's heart skipped a beat.

There are countless towering giant trees in this forest, and countless luxuriant canopies, and the purpose of these canopies is to block the sun.

But even with so many canopy shelters, the "sunshine" still spreads throughout the forest, making every inch of the forest extraordinarily bright.

"Sunshine is the invader!"

She reacted instantly and reminded Heidi loudly, and Heidi raised her head subconsciously, looking at the dream sky through the gap between the tree crowns.

Between the layers of tree crowns, large and small gaps have appeared at some point. Between the gaps are the sky and the sun, as well as the sun that illuminates the dream.

Huge and dark twisted tentacles twisted and intertwined, entangled into a ball, interspersed with countless pairs of huge pale eyes, like a terrifying monster floating in the sky, entrenched above the forest.

The bright sunlight is like a layer of light-cast shell, covering the surface of this deformed thing transparently, silently shining on the whole dreamland.