Chapter 786 — Return to Reality
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
Above the church plaza, the magnificent, holy "Voice of Heaven" once again grew loud and clear. Within the halos behind the old cleric, layered phantoms seemed about to break through some barrier and "squeeze" into this world. This scene, resembling a divine descent, clearly caught Daniel and the others off guard—
A projection like this—a projection who worshipped the "Upper Narrator"—could not only cast ordinary divine arts, but even perform a divine descent?!
For an instant, Yuri, hierarch of the Radiant Order, even hesitated. He was tempted to let the old cleric before him complete the divine art, to see just what he could summon—but he immediately snuffed out this dangerous thought, because the thought itself might well have been induced by the enemy.
But before he could ready himself to strike alongside the other Sleepers and interrupt the enemy's divine descent, that magnificent, mighty divine art suddenly ceased.
The sacred music in midair broke off. The phantoms surfacing within the layered halos vanished in an instant. The divine descent the old cleric had strained every fiber to perform received no answer.
Even the old cleric himself was dumbstruck for a moment, then his face twisted into an expression of horror: "Lord… wh-why?!"
Selena stepped onto the last stair before the church. She raised her head, looking up at the old cleric sunk in blank despair—and though she looked up at him, her aura seemed to look down from above: "You look surprised… which means this divine art of yours really could have summoned a projection of part of the Upper Narrator's power?"
"You heretic, what have you done?!" The old cleric snapped back to himself and could not help retreating half a step, staring at Selena with her lantern in a mix of shock and fury. "Why… why can I no longer feel the Lord's power, why can I no longer hear—"
"I have done nothing," Selena said, watching him quietly. "Do I need to remind you again? You are only a projection. This town is also a projection. Everything here is a projection.
"If you could still hear the voice of your 'Lord' in your prayers before, then that was surely an illusion.
"If you can still cast the divine arts your 'Lord' bestowed upon you, then you are merely overdrafting the power of this Phantom Town.
"Because you are only a projection."
The lantern in Selena's hand gave off a milky white radiance, like sunlight shining deep into a dream and waking one from it, piercing through the old cleric's mental defenses.
And the word "projection," which Selena kept repeating, followed the power of that light and thrust deep into the other's sealed and locked consciousness.
The whole of Phantom Town began to shake violently.
The uneven spires crumbled soundlessly apart; street after street was riddled with cracks in the blink of an eye; everything began to disintegrate irreversibly, as though some pillar sustaining this world had vanished. The town, which had endured until now on the strength of fragmentary projection information, teetered on the brink of its end in an instant.
Clearly, after confirming the limits of the projection cleric's power within the town, and realizing that the "Upper Narrator" in Sandbox No. 1 might be able to establish a connection with this Phantom Town through "divine arts," Selena Guelfern no longer intended to preserve this dangerous "specimen."
"No… it shouldn't be like this…" The old cleric before the small church retreated in terror, step after step, until his back was against the great door emblazoned with the Upper Narrator's sigil. Black fissures spread across his body; he was like a piece of porcelain cracking apart at terrifying speed—a horrifying sight. "The Lord will protect me. The Lord should be omniscient and omnipotent. Lord… why can I no longer hear—"