After climbing up the stairs of the cellar and leaving the north tower from the ground, Gawain and Amber see how the castle has changed.

As Gawain speculated, the castle as a whole is shrouded in a long-term illusion, and everything it presents is shaped by the dreamer Lilith Kant in a dream, but at the same time it is not a simple dream - the boundary between reality and illusion is particularly blurred here, they overlap and influence each other, what happens in the real world can interfere with the dream, and the things in the dream will also be reflected into reality.

When the dream is completely gone, you can see the eroded and scarred appearance of the castle.

In the most eroded area of the dreamscape, half of the towering north tower had disappeared, and it broke from it, and the entire upper half had collapsed and collapsed many years ago, and the remaining megalithic structures pointed jaggedly to the sky like broken bones, showing a hideous appearance in the early morning light, and the clearing around the tower was littered with brick fragments that had been buried in the loess and vines; The main body of the castle, which is far away from the north tower, is still well preserved, and it is a place where "reality is superior", so the servants who live in the main body of the castle have indeed maintained the castle, and it shows little signs of collapse, but there are disturbing cracks and unbridled vines and moss growing on the outer walls, and as the power of the dream fades, some of them have even climbed to the high spire of the main building.

On their way to the castle's main building, Gawain and Amber meet Knight Philip, who is hurrying in.

The young knight had not experienced a battle, but the destruction of a huge magical center by himself was enough to exhaust him, Philip looked very tired, and there was still a deeper, psychological exertion in his eyes, but after seeing Gawain, he immediately cheered up and stood up straight: "My lord! It's great to see that you're safe and sound! ”

Gawain looked at Philip's expression and nodded slightly: "It seems that you have seen something that is very psychologically stressful." ”

"Yes, my lord," as you might expect," sighed Philip, "the place where Carter the butler disappeared was the 'inner border' of the dream, and there was a ...... It's hard for me to describe the sacrificial ground, full of blasphemy and sin. ”

Gawain nodded, "Take me over - you shouldn't have demolished the whole place, right?" ”

"Of course not, my lord, those are all evidence of the cultists," Philip nodded, "but those people ...... I'm afraid it's all hopeless. ”

“…… I guessed," Gawain sighed, "take me over and see what is going on." By the way, Amber, you go to the castle first, I guess the people there are already awake and in a panic, you go to the advisor, the treasurer, the chief knight and the priest in the castle, and tell them to calm the people and gather the directors and knights of the territory, and I will soon go to the main hall to preside over the situation. ”

Amber blinked, "Are you sure those people will listen to me?" ”

"You are more or less the duke's guard now, do you think you will have no say in front of the servants of ordinary minor nobles?" Gawain glanced at the guy, "And now that the dream is over, the correct perception of the castle for the past thirty years is coming back into everyone's brains, and this unbelievable shock will send everyone into a huge panic - in this case, it is easy for people to take guidance." ”

The second half of Gawain's sentence didn't seem to enter the half-elf's head at all, Amber had just finished listening to the first half of the sentence, and the whole person had already begun to float, and after a quick spin in his brain, at least sixty ways to make money and eighty ways to cheat came out - basically all revolving around the central idea of Amber Fake Tiger Might, but unfortunately she was seen through by Gawain just a few seconds after she floated, and the latter glared directly: "If you dare to use my name to cheat and deceive, I will slap you on the wall!" ”

Amber rolled her eyes, "You can't threaten in a different way?" ”

"Then slap the ground," Gawain waved his hand, turned his head and left, "In short, if you dare to deceive people, you can slap the wall, and if you dare to steal, slap the ...... on the ground."

However, after following Gawain's footsteps, the upright Knight Philip asked worriedly, "What if she lied to you after stealing something and said she didn't?" ”

Gawain stopped and glanced at Philip silently: "...... Have you ever considered getting a perm? ”

"Huh?"

Gao Wen sighed in his heart: Sure enough, the most difficult thing about being in the other world is not being able to communicate with the locals, even if the other party is a compliment.

The two of them arrived at the underground hall that Knight Philip had discovered.

The magical power that had been entrenched in the hall had dissipated, and with it the oppressive and crazy aura, but it was still an eerie place, and in Gawain's sight, the platforms neatly arranged around the stone pillars were like bloody planing tables, and on these planing tables, the "lambs" to be slaughtered were still alive.

Gawain noticed the tubes that connected the victim's skull to the pillar, as if it were some kind of biological tissue, they were entangled blood vessels and nerves, but they were clearly not proliferated or mutated from the human brain, one end of which was attached to the base of the pillar, where there was a layer of expanded, twisted flesh and blood, as if it were some kind of separate organism, clinging to the runes of the pillar, and the connection of the other end to the human body should be the result of some kind of parasitic (and possibly surgical) operation.

As a result of Knight Philip's destruction of the runes on the pillars, the "biological tissues" attached to the pillars were now showing obvious signs of weakness and dying, they began to shrink and crack, and a reddish liquid flowed out of the cracks, and more than half of the victims connected to them were dead.

Even those who didn't die obviously couldn't be saved - they had been connected to those "nerve cords" for too long, individual consciousness had long been completely wiped out, and brain tissue had been irreversibly damaged, and their remaining brain nerve cells were only providing computing power for this huge "human brain array computer", and as the magical power here dissipated, they would soon die.

The only thing to be thankful for is that they don't feel pain in the process.

"I don't make out what it is," Knight Philip squatted with Gawain near the base of one of the stone pillars, squatting with Gawain and pointing at the twitching and shrinking creatures in front of him, "I have not heard of such a ...... in the ancient books of the wildest dark arts, or in the crazy whispers of heretics Creature. The Eternal Sleepers are not druids, they don't have the ability to modify species or summon life, these biological tissues are supposed to be found and bred from somewhere, specifically for soul extraction, but ...... Where did they find these things? ”

"Maybe these are really cultivated by the Eternal Sleeper," Gawain frowned, "They have a connection after all. ”

Philip Knight was surprised: "Can those cultists cooperate so closely with each other?" ”

"If the reason for their fall is what I think, then they will work together more closely than most people in the world can imagine," Gawain sighed, "and I care more about the 'technology' of the Eternal Sleeper than I do." ”

After all, Philip is a martial artist, and he is a little sluggish in this regard: "Technology? ”

"Viscount Victor's letter mentions that this is a 'computing node' built by the Eternal Sleepers," Gawain said, pointing to the victims who are connected by neural cords, "They seem to be trying to create a 'real dream' that can replace the real world, and use the power of dreams to achieve something, which requires terrifying computing power—you can simply think of it as brainpower." No one of the great magicians' brains could accomplish this feat, so they came up with this crazy idea of connecting the brains to create a 'human brain array computer', and you know what that means? ”

"Does that mean they're going to kill more people?"

"This is just the appearance, and the deeper meaning is this: it means that these cultists are not only crazy, but also have crazy technology!" Gawain said solemnly, "They are still evolving despite being ostracized by mainstream society and living in seclusion, and have even developed new technologies that far surpass the level of contemporary magic. You must know that it is not terrible for cultists who are just crazy to think, but what is terrible is that these cultists still have the ability to conduct scientific research - and even the ability to conduct scientific research is not weak! ”

As he spoke, he stood up and looked around the underground hall.

"The worst thing is that if the crazy technology they have created is used in the right place, it will make their technological progress even more terrifying......"

After collecting some rune rubbings and samples of the wreckage, Gawain and Knight Philip left the place.

After the power of the dream subsided, the main hall of the castle was one of the areas that changed the least, except for the exterior walls, pillars, ceilings, etc., which suddenly showed signs of aging accumulated over the past thirty years, it was still brightly lit and neat and bright - the daily cleaning behavior of the living servants living in the castle was real, and the intersection of dreams and reality ensured that their cleaning effect was not limited to dreams.

In fact, due to the end of the dream effect, the eerie aura that had always been embedded in it also disappeared, and the main hall of the castle was now much warmer and calmer than before.

It's just that this warm and peaceful atmosphere can't reassure the people gathered in the hall.

Fear was hanging over everyone—even the Chief Knight who had been guarding this place for thirty years.

When the dream ended, the people in the castle woke up, their shielded consciousness and memories all functioning, and in the moment they gained the ability to think freely, everything they had experienced here for the past thirty years turned into a bizarre nightmare—sleepwalking in an aging castle, caring for a phantom that had been dead for decades, and a ghostly hostess wandering among the ruins of the North Tower.

And for those old enough servants, knights, advisors, and supervisors, things were even more terrifying: they clearly remembered when the bones of the old master and the little master were secretly sent back to the castle, and they also clearly remembered how the mistress of thirty years ago used magic to control everyone's mind, and what happened every day after that, and the changes that happened in the castle every day, were welling up in their hearts.

And the stewards of the realm who had been summoned and who lived near the castle were also in fear, for anyone who frequented the castle had been affected by dreams, but they were slightly less afraid than the servants and knights who had never left the castle for thirty years.

But in any case, as long as you are aware of what you have been through, no one can remain calm.

Amber was standing on a high platform at the end of the main hall, scratching her ears and cheeks in a hurry.

It was a place where the lord could only stand on weekdays, but now no one had any opinion on the "little girl" standing on it, because everyone knew that it was the duke's guard, and in such an emergency, she was standing there as the duke's spokesman, so instead of questioning her, everyone turned their expectant eyes to her.

But this makes Amber want to find a chance to roll back into the shadows - being a big man is not as good as she thought before!

"Don't panic, don't ...... Don't be nervous! The Duke went to clean up the last lair, and he will come in a moment—don't panic, he's coming! ”

Amber stood on the stage in vain trying to reassure the crowd, and just when she felt that she would lose control of the scene if she delayed for another second, Gawain finally appeared with Philip Knight.