Eldritch Horror Theatre

"Not too taxing?"

Faced with the Witch's suggestion, Fu Qian took another look at the scenery of the Other Shore of the Stars. His tone was neither hesitant nor rushed, sounding as though she had merely asked if he wanted to go for a stroll.

"Not at all."

The Witch's invitation seemed perfectly sincere, and in the face of such concern, his response was completely unforced.

Even as she prepared to head out, she made no effort to tidy her appearance.

A moment later, using her only remaining human hand in tandem with the tentacles on her back, she adjusted her grip on him.

As Fu Qian's line of sight was pushed slightly higher, the darkness faded in a blur, and that desolate sublimity vanished with it.

In its place were the shadows of buildings, stretched long by the setting sun.

It really wasn't taxing at all.

Theoretically, walking through a place like this in their completely unadorned states—one person, one bug—should have felt a bit incongruous.

It didn't matter right now, though, because the street itself was just as desolate.

While the assorted buildings flanking them suggested this had once been a bustling district, the warm, golden sunlight now bathed a space entirely devoid of sound.

There were no living creatures either.

Indeed, not only was there no trace of humanity, but not even a bird flew past.

As for the flora, the sparse branches standing along the street looked like dried peat at a glance.

It was a scene utterly drained of life, resembling a pure, silent domain of death.

...

"Which way?"

As Fu Qian silently assessed the environment, the Witch's voice drifted over, casually asking for directions.

"Turn left up ahead."

Fu Qian's response was easygoing yet decisive, showing no unusual reaction to the scene before him.

"Herbert."

The Pope instantly heeded his advice. Stepping in the direction he pointed, she casually called out a name.

"The Dark Moon Apostle inside the Shadow of Laerdin was indeed you."

"Preaching the Dark Moon Gospel is my bounden duty."

Fu Qian's response brimmed with a sense of responsibility.

"After all, I am a Templar Knight."

The reason the Witch instantly recognized his exploits was simple: the place before them was not the Laerdin where he practiced medicine, but the location where he had searched for the Nightmare Proxy.

Although the main structure was identical, the difference between the two was easily recognizable from certain representative buildings and layouts.

The route he pointed out was equally simple—it was his way to work.

In fact, a corner of the Grand Art Gallery was already visible through the gaps between the buildings.

Of course, just like the surrounding scenery, it was far more dilapidated than he remembered.

Furthermore, he could tell from the Witch's remarks that she had clearly tried to gather quite a bit of information since waking.

...

The place the two of them were strolling through was undoubtedly the post-apocalyptic Laerdin.

With the Law shattered once again, this once-replaced reality seemed to have returned.

As for why there were no monsters running rampant or the earth tearing asunder in the traditional sense?

Obviously, the apocalypse following the collapse of the Stars was not that straightforward.

The seemingly peaceful city before them appeared to be ravaged by some widespread, irresistible distorting power that rejected life of any kind within its bounds.

In fact, Fu Qian was well aware that the Witch was currently helping him resist this very erosion.

No wonder the Pope had defined it as a ruined apocalypse.

If similar distortions and curses permeated everywhere, it wasn't hard to imagine how devastatingly the world had been ravaged during the fall of the Stars.

In truth, the same was happening right now.

Although the setting sun was dazzling, the occasional Meteor could still be seen streaking across the sky. The second collapse of the Law was far from over.

...

"Did you clean up that rather disgusting guy inside?"

The Witch's question as they walked proved Fu Qian's judgment regarding her investigative efforts.

"To be precise, you cleaned him up."

Knowing she was referring to Brother Proxy, Fu Qian didn't claim the credit, attributing it all to the Pope's mighty power.

"Under my careful persuasion, he finally joined the operation to find the Other Shore of the Stars, exhausting every ounce of his strength and sacrificing himself right before victory arrived."

...

Faced with her knight's devout posture, the Dark Moon Pope looked somewhat moved for a moment.

After a few seconds of silence, she finally let out a long sigh, unsparing in her praise for Fu Qian's eye for selecting tools.

"He was indeed a good choice. Even though his power was mixed, his position could be considered a higher dimension relative to reality."

"There was almost no one with a clearer or more comprehensive grasp of the world's changes than him."

Naturally, she didn't interpret the word 'persuasion' in the conventional sense. She knew full well that it must have involved the Templar Knight's special techniques... and immense danger.

Forcing an entity like that to sacrifice itself was far harder than killing it in a head-on fight.

A higher dimension...

The Witch's words sparked a sudden realization in Fu Qian's mind.

He suddenly understood why, even though the Real World had been destroyed, the latter could stably persist as an invasion channel and even give rise to a trend of Awakening.

"So the Shadow of Laerdin can no longer be considered a Nightmare in the usual sense? Instead, it's a higher-level form of existence, similar to the Painting World?"

Since the Pope was right beside him anyway, he casually asked to confirm his theory.

"To be precise, after the collapse of the Law, it is a higher-dimensional form of existence."

The Witch validated his statement while adding a more detailed condition.

"A form of existence that transcends dimensions and looks down upon reality is undoubtedly highly dangerous to a place attempting to isolate all cosmic influences. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden by the Law."

"Theoretically, this masterpiece has done an excellent job in this regard, to the point where higher entities could only merge their wills into the form of a Nightmare to infiltrate indirectly."

"But once the Law is broken and the restraints are lifted, they far exceed the concept of a dream, not even requiring a corresponding physical reality to exist."

"Of course, when the Law returned years later, they were restricted once again, becoming the majority of the Nightmares we see."

"And as the most powerful among them, one that even possessed a high-Rank controller, the Shadow of Laerdin demonstrated far more tenacious resistance."

So that was it.

Under the Pope's tutelage, Fu Qian instantly felt he had learned a great deal.

Considering the various Nightmares scattered throughout the city of Laerdin, it wasn't hard to imagine how popular this world beneath the barrier of the Law had been back then.

Aside from that, it also seemed to explain why the Blood Crusade had mutated into a line-of-sight jump.

If passing through under those circumstances essentially meant entering a higher-dimensional state, it would certainly be instantly and expressly forbidden by the Law.

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