Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A dark red ominous breath was lingering throughout the sky and every corner that could be seen.
With the ground as his support, Grimm climbed up as he looked around nervously. Yet the only thing he could see was a twisted scenery approximately a hundred meters away. Beyond the scenery lied the lingering remains of an ominous dark red mist of nightmares.
The flat ground seemed to be a small path. Not far from it were dense woods as silence filled the air, showing no signs of creatures or life.
The ground was slightly moist, muddy and crawling with disgusting black bugs the size of finger knuckles, with weeping patterns printed on their backs. The bugs throughout the muddy ground were constantly crawling and wriggling.
Grimm transfigured from an Acraepoid man into the form of a sorcerer.
After taking the initial steps of determining that he had indeed fallen into the Nightmare World, Grimm cleaned the Sorcerer Book that was filled with dirt and disgusting bugs. He tucked the book under his arms, then cautiously bent over and observed his surroundings tentatively.
“The World of Nightmares…”
Grimm gazed afar as he opened his palm.
At the moment, Grimm’s palms were slightly twisted as it emitted the dark red mist of the Nightmare World. It was as if the palm had already become a part of the Nightmare World.
Yet the Sorcerer Book was obviously not affected in the slightest, the goat skull of the staff was unaffected as well.
“Little Myna… Little Myna?”
Grimm cried out, yet no response from Little Myna could be heard.
Filled with doubts, Grimm sliced open the Dimensional Gap. He saw Little Myna who was sound asleep, but no matter how Grimm called out for him, there were no signs of Little Myna waking up.
His eyes under the Mask of Truth flickered as Grimm put Little Myna back into the Dimensional Gap.
“The Nightmare World… is it asleep, or am I?”
Grimm who had fallen into the Nightmare World still chose to analyze and deduce the situation using the wisdom of a sorcerer.
All of it had happened too suddenly, at first he was waiting in the Acraepoid Kingdom of the Infernal Spirit World, waiting for Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer to rescue him. A few months had passed while not knowing what had happened to Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer, the nightmare shadow of the Sabbatic Goat Staff had lost the seal for its Mana Pool. While he himself had fallen into the Nightmare World.
‘Don’t tell me… Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer had fallen?’
Being shocked by his own speculation, Grimm immediately dismissed the thought. A Stigmata Sorcerer of such great strength could not possibly have fallen that easily, unless if it were by the hand of the Eternal Dominator.
Compared to this speculation, Grimm was more willing to believe that the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy was under attack, or that for some reason, Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer had to go against the contract, in turn using this Sorcerer Book as a means of some kind of compensation.
What had happened to Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer while he was descending upon the Acraepoid Kingdom?
As he continued to speculate, Grimm followed the small path as he walked one step at a time on the muddy ground and the disgustingly twisted invertebrate bugs, reaching a Black Stone Mountain.
The Black Stone Mountain was rugged with odd rocks, tall yet twisted trees were rooted and growing while black chains were hanging from the top of the stone mountain.
“This place is…”
Grimm looked at this huge black mountain and was startled, this was the back of the mountain of the way to the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy from the Jewel Sea. It was also the back of the mountain Grimm had seen on the night he first entered the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy.
Crunch… crunch…
After the first civilization war, the sorcerer civilization had defeated the nightmare civilization. And what followed was the Nightmare World parasitizing on the Sorcerers World, attempting to transform into the sorcerer nightmare civilization, so this was what was going on!
Although the scenery there was emitting an ominous, mysterious and terrifying aura of the Nightmare World, this was an actual illusion of the Sorcerers World, the only thing missing was life from the actual Sorcerers World.
‘Hmm? Wait… this isn’t right, the guardian trees at the academy also had living will in the Sorcerers World!.
Grimm suddenly thought of something as he ran to the Black Stone Mountain, toward the enormous twisted black tree and shouted, “Open the gates of the academy!”
Whoosh…
The twisted tree did not answer Grimm as if it did not have any will at all, like a normal giant tree in the Nightmare World. However, as Grimm approached the Black Stone Mountain, the black chains hanging on the mountain started to be shaken by these odd trees.
Stopping in his tracks, Grimm did not dare to approach rashly.
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At this moment, large grey flames suddenly gathered in the air, a giant stone face of more than ten meters tall appeared, looking in all directions, following the sound of the odd trees, quickly determining the position of Grimm who had ceased to exist from his point of view.
“Filthy being, if you do not wish to be purified, leave immediately!”
This enormous stone face, which looked as if it could not leave the premises of the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy, began yelling at Grimm loudly. Grimm’s body was twisting as he was eroded by the odd power of the stone face. The nightmare aura continued to dissipate in all directions.
“Dean ‘Rock Sword’?”
Grimm could recognize its voice and the voice indeed belonged to the Dean of the academy who was a floor above Master Peranos and always carried a gray stone sword on his back.
“Dean ‘Rock Sword’, I’m…”
It was as if it could not actually feel the presence of Grimm. Only the odd trees that had always been asleep that occasionally woke up noticed Grimm.
Whoosh…
Suddenly dozens of owls flew out, and their green eyes looked like the eyes of a devil, emitting an eerie dark red presence while searching for its prey.
Soon after, being guided by the odd trees, the owls immediately found Grimm and swarmed down toward him.
Guardians of the academy?
In the midst of his shock, a sudden thought came to Grimm. Grimm attempted to stimulate the Principal Will of the Sorcerers World. Right at this moment, the nightmare breath on Grimm started to lighten, and his twisted figure began to regain stability.
Hoot hoot!
However, these guardian owls of the academy still swarmed down with green light still in their eyes, as if not sensing the Principal Will of the Sorcerers World being released from Grimm.
Not having any choice, Grimm took out and waved his Sabbatic Goat Staff to resist.
“Puff!” After the owls passed through the Sabbatic Goat Staff, they went through Grimm’s body which had already solidified. Both parties did not engage in contact in the same world.
It was as if, as Grimm’s body slowly began to solidify, it represented that he was no longer a nightmare phantom. Instead, he had become a foreign creature which had fallen into the Nightmare World.
Hoot… hoot…
After the owls hovered in circles above Grimm’s head for a short while, the odd trees guided the grey stone face and the owls despite being able to ‘see’ Grimm. The guidance in the eyes of the grey stone face seemed to be born out of nothing.
The owls of the Black Isotta Tower were doubtful as they flew back into the academy.
The stone giant in the sky looked around for a brief moment before dispersing into grey flames and soon dissipated into nothingness.
Under the Mask of Truth, Grimm held his breath with his eyes darting around.
Grimm had stimulated the Principal Will of the Sorcerers World at this point. Although most of the nightmare breath on his body had been solidified, there were still a few small parts where a subtle amount of nightmare breath was released. This meant that Grimm was not completely out of the class of a nightmare phantom
‘Even the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy has this level of protection. If I were to head to the Holy Tower area, I might be noticed and hunted down by the strong guardians of the Holy Tower. No, I can’t take that risk.’
After taking a deep breath, Grimm tried to fly across the Black Stone Mountain to take a look at the inner part of the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy.
Grimm instinctively had an ominous feeling that an unknown danger would befall him the moment he took flight. Despite that, he wanted to give it a go as he was now near the academy.
As he was pondering on this, Grimm tried to adjust his nature force. His body began to float.
That ominous feeling grew heavier and heavier. Finally, as Grimm’s flying height reached a certain point of threshold, a crack suddenly opened twenty meters above Grimm’s head as a scarlet red tongue appeared from it.
“Gasp!”
Shocked, Grimm hurriedly descended back on the ground as the tongue from the sky followed Grimm. “Pow!” The tongue crashed into the ground, leaving a crater that was narrowly avoided by Grimm.
Grimm escaped quickly without a word.
The huge crack seemed to have lost its sense of where Grimm was on the ground.
“Little sorcerer, you can’t run far! I know you’re already in this world. I will find you.. I will find you… I will find you… you will become my new vessel, and I will be reborn again!”
This voice was the horrific creature Grimm had pulled into the Nightmare World.
Grimm ran like his life depended on it, not daring to stay there any longer.