Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 168: The One Who Was Devoured

In just a few short seconds from reading the massive observation data, it caused a destructive impact to the heretic who still had a fundamentally human soul.

When the Eternal Sleepers follower’s wisdom and soul were gradually collapsing into insignificant shards, Gawain made a vague and indirect contact with those consciousness shards. Chaotic and shattered data flowed into his mind, causing a nearly indiscernible ripple in his massive memory pool. If Gawain didn’t concentrate his mind, he probably wouldn’t have noticed that he had seized something from the shattered soul of the heretic. After a detailed scan, he was able to confirm that it was some remnant memories from the heretic.

It was a pity that the amount was minuscule, and it was so scattered that it was illogical. The memories of the heretic were in disorder, and the memories contained a massive amount of irregular and subjective ideas that were distorted, dark, and insane. What’s worse, the Eternal Sleepers were always immersed in the dream realm, and it was hard to discern if these memories were true or false. Gawain wasn’t sure if these scenes were factual or created from the dreams of the heretic.

With just a small amount of information, Gawain understood the method of ‘existence’ of this Eternal Sleeper.

The heretic seemed to have abandoned his physical body or had turned his physical body into some horrific and non-human form. Gawain saw some of the insane rituals in the heretic’s memories as those rituals would dissolve the body and cause the souls to escape from the body. Afterward, the heretics would be roaming between new bodies or in the dream realms and memories of other people.

This Eternal Sleeper seemed to have ‘ascended’ with his soul and had the dreadful ability to shift between the psyches of humans.

Fortunately, such ascension rituals had requirements that were extremely high. Furthermore, during the earlier conversation, the heretic had already revealed that he held the position that was beyond bishop in the entire Eternal Sleepers. Therefore, there should only be a rare few heretics with such a horrific ability. Moreover, most of them probably weren’t even active in the real world.

The surrounding primal chaos space was constantly crumbling since the force that was supporting this place was gone. Before the ‘dream realm’ completely vanished, Gawain quickly concentrated his consciousness and quickly searched through the memories left behind by the Eternal Sleepers follower to find if there was any valuable information.

……

In the Kant territory’s ancient castle, Victor Kant was rushing through the alley that led to the lower levels of the castle. The magic crystal’s light had vaguely illuminated the alley, but the old viscount’s shadow was like a decoration that constantly lingered by his side. His body cast a fuzzy shadow on the ground, and the shadow would constantly extend and transform as Victor Kat walked hurriedly. It felt as though the shadow had its own will.

The old viscount’s eyes were flickering with more illusory star lights, and his walking pace was getting faster and seemingly starting to stagger. He arrived at the lower level of the castle, and there was an oaken door that looked rather heavy that was in front of him.

Viscount Victor stood in front of the door while his face suddenly emerged with a hesitant and vacant expression. It seemed like there was something attracting him from behind the door, yet he didn’t dare to open the door and verify it.

Just like that, he paused for a moment before he finally placed his hands on the door. But before he used his strength to push the doors, the doors suddenly opened up a rather wide gap.

A fuzzy light leaked out from behind the door. There was a white-dressed, long-haired lady who held onto a portable lamp and looked out from the gap. It was a lady that wasn’t even thirty years old; she had white and fair skin, a beautiful face that had a hint of sickness, and her body revealed a tender and pitiful aura. She had a surprised and curious expression when she saw the viscount standing at the door before she revealed a smile and said, “What’s wrong my love? Are you going to let me go out?”

“I… No, nothing.” The old viscount’s face flashed with hesitation, but at the next second, all his distractions and concerns had vanished. He revealed a smile as though nothing had happened and looked at his young wife and said, “Everything is fine. I am just here to see you. There is still a moment before sundown. Go back and sleep to replenish your energy. Afterward, wake up to have dinner with me.”

The particularly young viscountess bit her lips and spoke softly, “But my love, I am no longer sleepy.”

“Be good and return to sleep.” The old viscount shook his head while smiling gently and said, “I will come over and look for you later.”

The young viscountess blinked her eyes and was seemingly at ease as she nodded her head. She then held onto the portable lamp and returned inside the door before the heavy oaken doors closed back together. The empty castle hallway echoed with a creaking sound as the axis of the door turned.

Victor Kant stood at the door for a moment before his expression briefly turned vacant. He then reverted back to his steady and calm expression before turning and walking back in the direction he came from…

In the eastern region of Anzu Kingdom, within the ancient and concealed cave, the Oblivion Association’s female dean Beltira suddenly opened her eyes.

As one of the ‘foreign-affairs bishops’ who frequently had contact with other evil cults, she had a long-term spiritual connection with several higher-ups of the Eternal Sleepers. She was rather resentful towards one of the Eternal Sleepers’ bishops who had recklessly made contact with Gawain Cecil. However, this was still the affairs of another cult, and she didn’t have the authority to interfere or to dissuade. She could only wait until the bishop completed the contact before asking if there was any gain.

She believed that the bishop would certainly gain something… After all, the current Gawain Cecil was no longer at his prime, and sleeping for seven centuries had weakened his flesh and spirit. For a nightmare bishop that had close to legendary strength in the spiritual aspects to contest with a ‘pseudo-legend’, it was impossible for the bishop to be at a disadvantage.

However, what arrived wasn’t the information of great success from the Eternal Sleepers’ bishop but a shrieking howl that echoed from the bishop’s soul and also the extreme horror from the spiritual connection.

Immediately after, the spiritual response from the Eternal Sleeper had vanished. It felt as though something horrifying had devoured his soul and digested it completely.

Beltira had also felt the surprise and panic concealed in the horror. But she wasn’t able to imagine what was inside Gawain Cecil’s consciousness world that could devour a bishop-class Eternal Sleeper. It was even able to make the bishop experience such horror before his death. These heretics who were adept at playing with people were experts that created and enjoyed nightmares. How could their willpower be so fragile?”

With these doubts, Beltira chose to visit the other minds that were connected with her. Those were the Eternal Sleepers’ spies who were in the upper echelons of the Anzu Kingdom. They were also people that maintained contact with the fallen Eternal Sleeper bishop.

But after establishing a spiritual connection, before she could even inquire, one of the nightmare bishops gave the information first. “Bishop Roderick has fallen.”

“He was devoured after making contact with Gawain Cecil’s consciousness.” Another nightmare bishop supplemented.

“What exactly happened?” Beltira couldn’t withhold her curiosity and asked, “Did he release any information before he fell?!”

The spiritual connections between the Eternal Sleepers were far closer than with outsiders. Beltira didn’t hear any dying words from Bishop Roderick, but the other Eternal Sleepers that maintained connection might know something.

There were a few seconds of silence in the spiritual connection before one of the nightmare bishops finally replied, “He was only in time to release one sentence…”

Subsequently, Beltira’s mind exploded with the yelling from Roderick that contained intense feelings and emotional imprints.

“Do not pry into this inhuman soul!!”

……

Gawain opened his eyes and realized he was still standing in that small house that imprisoned captives.

That sacrificial mercenary leader who was treated as a springboard for the Eternal Sleeper was already dead on the ground. The sturdy mercenary leader was bleeding from all his seven orifices, and his entire head was flushed red as though it had been boiled, and was even fuming with heat. His distorted expression was enough to show what kind of horrific pain he experienced before death. The Mage mercenary was still in a daze as he sat by the side and was seemingly ignorant about the things happening around him.

Heidi, Pittman, Amber, and the others were standing around Gawain and looked at him with nervous and concerned eyes.

“What happened?” Gawain shook his head and eliminated the remaining uncomfortable sensation in his mind before letting out a long breath and asking, “Did I lose consciousness earlier?”

“Ancestor, it is great that you’re fine!” Heidi finally let out a breath while cold sweat rolled down her forehead the moment she relaxed. She disregarded everything and rushed over to inspect Gawain. “Are you okay? Are you okay? That mercenary abruptly burst out with powerful magic, and you were immobilized. All of us were frightened!”

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Gawain consoled his overreacting great-granddaughter and immediately frowned. “How long was I unconscious for?”

“Not long, just a few minutes.” Pittman had also wiped off the cold sweat on his body and said, “It is fortunate that you are fine. Otherwise, I might have to be carried out. Someone would certainly say that something went wrong with my ‘bogus’ medicine.”

Amber immediately glared at the little old man and said, “It is really unrelated to the suspicious ointment and incense that you made?!”

“It is indeed unrelated to him.” Gawain shook his hand and confirmed that the flow of time in the consciousness world was indeed different from the outside world. He felt he had stayed there for at least half a day, but it was only a few minutes on the outside. “Earlier on, a heretic from the Eternal Sleepers attempted to invade my consciousness.”

Everyone was shocked: “Eternal Sleepers?!”