Chapter 785 — Mind Storm

An elderly cleric in plain gray robes stood before the church's open doors, gazing with a smile at the bustling plaza. Residents paused beside him to listen as the old cleric expounded the truth about the Upper Narrator; everything looked so harmonious and beautiful.

It was almost enough to make one forget that this was an eerie projection located in the "Imaginary Number Zone," forget that this was a phantom town steeped in twisted and dangerous power, forget that one was part of an exploration squad bearing a mission…

Yuri was jolted from his trance in an instant. He saw a lantern sway past before his eyes, and Selina Gale's voice sounded at his ear: "Don't let your mind relax. Remember, this place is only a projection—everything here is false."

Gao Yang glanced in confusion at the few Sleepers before him, somewhat puzzled inwardly—what had just happened? Had some power been trying to erode them again? Why hadn't he felt anything?

Not far away, the elderly cleric at the church doors lifted his head and smiled at the Sleepers, who stood fully on guard as if facing a great enemy, and then spoke in a gentle tone: "Why resist? Is this not a beautiful world?"

As the cleric's voice fell, in the nearby streets and alleys, on the plaza before the church, those busy town residents going about their lives—those projections who had previously ignored Daniel and the others—suddenly all stopped in their tracks, frozen like puppets in an instant.

The next second, they all slowly turned their heads in unison, their gazes settling on the few uninvited guests standing in the square.

Every resident of the town fixed them with a silent stare, and in that moment even Gao Yang felt his hair stand on end.

The Sleepers were, of course, all the more on their guard; only Selina Pingxi met the old priest's gaze, and after several seconds slowly spoke: "As I thought... you have a soul close to the real thing. Are you a projection formed by the master mind of this town?"

The old priest's expression was placid, and he slowly shook his head. "I do not know what you are talking about. I only feel that you ought to try staying here a while longer—blessed is the land sheltered by the Upper Narrator, so why return to that perilous void?"

Gao Yang's brow furrowed slightly—perilous void? What did that mean?

Did he mean the "imaginary-number zone" outside this town? Or... some current state within Sandbox One?

Yuri's gaze, meanwhile, fell on the church behind the old priest, its doors thrown wide open; after carefully sensing the information structure of the area, he lowered his voice and said, "That church is the exit—inside, it should connect to the phantom town on the surface layer, to the trunk layer of the mind network."

Magnum snorted. "I'm guessing that fellow has no intention of letting us stroll in unopposed."

Selina slowly raised the soul lantern in her hand and stepped toward the church, one pace at a time. "I'm curious—can your Upper Narrator truly bless your soul here?"

"The Upper Narrator is everywhere..." The old priest slowly spread his hands. "Where the Lord's people stand, there stands the Lord..."

Halo upon halo surfaced behind the old man, and a vast, oppressive force descended all at once; over the whole church square rang an ethereal, holy, overwhelmingly majestic sound of sacred music—

Apart from Gao Yang, who could not be observed, everyone present felt their own mind being drawn away to some greater or lesser degree, their will to resist crumbling.

Here in this projected town, deep in the imaginary-number zone beyond Sandbox One, an Upper Narrator priest—a mere phantom at best—had, with nothing but the backing of some kind of "faith," worked a divine art with genuine power!

Selina and Gao Yang, the latter still in his state of psychological invisibility, both changed expression slightly; the former stepped forward, and the lantern in her hand blazed with a radiance brighter than ever before, battering the halos surfacing behind the old man, contending against the force suffusing the square that kept drawing everyone's minds away.

Golden runes floated up around Yuri and expanded into tier upon tier of bulwarks capable of shielding them all; at the same time, the Radiant Order hierarch shouted without turning his head: "Magnum! Time to do something you're good at!"

Red-haired and short of stature, Magnum flung up both hands: "Mindstorm!"

In an instant, layer upon layer of light—seemingly real, seemingly illusory—rose like a tide across the whole square, and the tide abruptly became a resplendent storm; mighty psychic force scoured everything in Gao Yang's sight, scoured those "phantom residents" with fanatical expressions who had already begun surging forward in wave after wave.

In this projected town sustained by psychic power, the mindstorm—a spell that ought to have ranked among the more covert arts—whipped up a veritable "storm"!

Great numbers of hideous-faced phantom residents melted away in the storm like wax figures in a fire, torn to fragments; Gao Yang heard the old priest's roar of fury from before the church—having finally bared its fangs, the other party no longer maintained its earlier gentle, courteous pretense; a mad, twisted mind was its true form!

More phantom residents rushed out from the streets and alleys, surging in waves toward the exploration squad at the center of the square; the owl priests guarding the squad's flanks all unleashed attacks on the mental plane, steadily whittling down the enemy's numbers, while at Gao Yang's ear once again burst the thunderous roar of the Hierarch of the Nightmare Order: "Mindstorm!!"

A new storm swept in; the flagstones of the square were blown apart by this "true storm," the ceaselessly surging "phantom residents" were annihilated row upon row, the howling of the storm even drowned out the magnificent sacred music above the church, and the uncomfortable sensation of minds being peeled away and the will to resist fading rapidly abated.

At once the Hierarch of the Nightmare Order raised his hands again, his voice louder than the thunder within the storm:

"Mind-storm!"

"Mind-storm!!"