The deformed and terrifying monster hung high above the forest, hovering in the sky, with countless twisted and twisted tentacles supporting its glowing "shell". The "sunlight" that could penetrate the entire forest came from this nightmare-like terrifying invader.

How long has it been hanging in this dream? Has it been there from the beginning? Why didn't anyone notice the incongruity in the sunlight? What horrible purpose did it have to overlook this forest that was made up of a mixture of several layers of dreams?

Heidi raised her head, as if attracted by some powerful force, and couldn't help but stare at the small "sun" supported by the terrifying limbs.

She stared into the huge pale eyes guarded by tentacles.

In an instant, she felt as if her mind had established a connection with a larger and more distant existence. Through those pale giant eyes overlooking the sky, something entered her mind directly. She heard the roar and explosion deep in her spirit, and sensed that there was an eternal thought watching this dream and the uninvited guests in the dream through the sun in the sky.

Thousands of voices were whispering or roaring in her mind. She heard one of them, and it penetrated her consciousness like a dream.

[“…hidden in the deepest part of their memories…before our sunshine went out…”]

Heidi couldn't help but feel a sense of conversion in the whispers that penetrated her mind.

However, in the next second, a burning sensation suddenly came from her chest. Heidi suddenly woke up from this burning sensation, as if ten thousand thunders exploded in her ears. She felt that the connection between herself and those voices was instantly torn apart.

Her heart was pounding like a drum, and her ears were ringing with sharp noises. Heidi's mind was in turmoil, and the feeling of relief for surviving the disaster took several seconds to rise from the bottom of her heart. As soon as she woke up, she immediately looked away from the sky with difficulty, and subconsciously grabbed the amethyst pendant on her chest.

The pendant was still emitting scorching heat, but it would not burn her. She turned her head in fear and looked at the "Witch Lady" standing next to her.

Lucrecia stretched out her hand towards him expressionlessly. At the fingertips of this "witch", three colorful gems were floating in the air and slowly rotating. The light from the gem fingertips jumped, interweaving into a dreamy and deadly magnificent light.

Heidi instantly felt a palpitation.

"I'm awake! I'm awake!" She shouted loudly, fearing that the witch would really take action. "I'm not contaminated--"

Lucrecia nodded, her eyes swept over the crystal pendant on Heidi's chest, and three colored gems flew up and returned to the small decoration on the ends of her hair.

Then she thought about it and seemed to feel the need to explain: "I didn't mean to kill you."

"Uh..." Heidi didn't expect the other party to say this, and her expression twitched. "I thought you were going to do it."

"It would only be a violent shock. If you have only suffered a shallow mental contamination, this shock would arouse your subconscious fear of death, and then force the uncontaminated part of your mind to leave this dream. Afterwards, you would at most lose some recent memory," Lucrecia explained. "This is the dream escape technique invented by Master Taran El, the 'Sudden Death Method'."

Heidi glared: "Didn't you say before that this 'sudden death method' is unreliable?!"

"It's not reliable to put it on Taran El himself," Lucrecia glanced at the great scholar who was still in the "mind sculpture" state not far away, "If he wasn't having nightmares, he would have almost died suddenly."

"Then I..."

"You have a good physique."

Heidi was speechless for a moment. She was silent for several seconds in embarrassment before she raised her hand and pointed at the sky with lingering fear. During this process, she dared not look up at the strange and terrifying thing again: "Ms. Lucrecia, that thing..."

"It seems that is the real intruder," Lucrecia said casually. She waved her hand in the air in front of her, and an illusory round mirror with beautiful patterns and court style appeared in front of her. With the reflection of this magic mirror, she carefully observed the scene in the sky. "This 'curtain' in the dream is to prevent this thing from 'spying'."

She paused, a thoughtful look on her face.

"It looks like the work of the Black Sun worshippers. The thing in the sky looks exactly like the 'Sun Descendants' they follow..."

"Descendants of the Sun..." Heidi was shocked. As a Plander and a witness of the "Black Sun Incident", she knew the horror behind this term better than anyone else. However, she was even more confused. "But the 'invader' I saw in my dream at the beginning was clearly a cultist of Annihilation..."

“Annihilation Cultists?” Lucrecia frowned. “Then… this situation is even worse.”

Heidi opened her mouth and was about to ask what the "sea witch" meant, but the next second, a slight rustling sound suddenly came from nearby, making her suddenly quiet down.

"Did you hear any sound?" Heidi asked quickly with a hint of nervousness.

"It looks like the 'protector' of that freak in the sky has arrived," Lucrecia said calmly, "We found 'it', and 'it' will be terrified, and then will try every means to destroy any intelligent creature that sees 'it'. The descendants of the Black Sun are like this—"

The strange rustling sound suddenly disappeared.

But a huge sense of vigilance and crisis surged like a tide the moment the sound disappeared!

The next second, Heidi saw a shadow out of the corner of her eye - under the nearby bushes, in a corner that seemed normal a second ago, there was an amorphous darkness squirming and swelling, and differentiating into sinister limbs like spears and sharp blades, rushing straight towards her and Lucrecia.

Before Heidi could think, her body suddenly fell to the side. At the same time, she raised the golden cone in her hand and slashed the air in front of her - an afterimage was left at the place where she fell, and the next second, this afterimage was ruthlessly pierced by the attacker.

The black shadow suddenly retreated, while the "figure" that was pierced remained in place. The figure shook twice, and the blurred outline quickly became clear, turning into another "Heidi".

At the same time, another sharp explosion suddenly came from the direction of Lucrecia.

A shadow crawling on the ground spread like a sinister poisonous snake to the feet of the "Sea Witch" and suddenly turned into countless thorns, spikes, blades and tentacles. These terrifying creatures that expanded and contracted unpredictably attacked Lucrecia from all directions and swallowed up the latter's figure in the blink of an eye.

However, as the shadows intersected, Lucrecia's body suddenly changed - she suddenly turned into an "image" as thin as a piece of paper, and then her body turned in the air, "floating" out of those intersecting deadly killing moves, and then her figure was reshaped in the open space next to her, and a baton that looked like the one used by a musician conducting a band on the stage appeared in her hand.

She raised the short stick and gently tapped a dark tentacle that was condensing in mid-air, and gave a gentle order -

"Minor."

The tentacle made a slight exploding sound, and then the explosions continued, like a piece of music. In the continuous explosions, the tentacles disintegrated into countless illusory and colorful notes, flying in all directions and dissipating in the air.

All the “shadows” connected to the black tentacle emitted continuous explosions. The horrible curse turned them into countless colorful notes that danced and dispersed in the air.

This scene is magnificent like a dream, yet strange and frightening.

Lucrecia swung her baton gracefully, turned her head and looked at Heidi, who had already developed a third personality, with a hint of surprise in her eyes.

"Your 'self-defense skills' are pretty good. Judging from your skills, you have also trained in the real world?"

"You have to have some means to protect yourself. After all, in our line of work, we not only have to deal with mental patients, but also their mental illnesses. My father always taught me that girls must learn to protect themselves," Heidi took a few breaths and said with a hint of pride. Then she looked at Lucrecia with a hint of wonder and awe in her eyes. "Your power... is really as strong as the rumors say."

"Because my father also taught me something similar." Lucrecia smiled slightly, then turned around and looked calmly at the figures that were emerging from the air one after another.

The destruction of a few tentacles and shadows does not mean that the matter is over. For the followers of the Black Sun, their abominable limbs can always withstand greater consumption.

The attacker's true identity was revealed.

There were several tall figures wearing long black coats of unknown material, like windbreakers. Under the coats, there seemed to be countless creepy and deformed flesh and blood hiding, constantly wriggling and undulating, making sticky and disgusting noises. Their faces were hidden in the shadows brought by wide-brimmed hats, and no tangible facial features could be seen. One could only feel endless emptiness and cold malice towards all living things.

"...They are the 'inferior bodies' of the descendants of the sun." Heidi identified these half-human beings in an instant. She and her personality clones were both on guard and couldn't help frowning. "...But I've never heard that these guys have the ability to invade dreams..."

Lucrecia noticed something else.

"They don't have umbrellas." said the sea witch with a slight frown.

As an "explorer" who travels around border areas all year round and often deals with various dangerous and strange forces, she is no stranger to the various followers of the Black Sun and has had several head-on confrontations with them.

These "remnants" of the sun's descendants that appeared in the dream did not hold the iconic, weird black umbrellas.

They all stand in the light, calmly bathing in the "sunshine" that penetrates the forest.

Just like... an exile in his hometown.