Heidi followed the staff in dark blue uniforms and walked towards another ward inside the medical facility, listening to the staff explaining the situation to her along the way.

"The 'patient' woke up first and found you collapsed beside the bed. She ran to the corridor to ask for help, and then we knew something had happened in the ward...

"Because you instructed us before, we first asked the church's guards and the resident priest to check the situation near the ward, but we found no signs of supernatural power contamination. Only you have been sleeping... We moved you to a ward closer to the chapel...

“The elf girl is still in the facility. She is in good spirits, but she can’t seem to remember what happened in her dream, nor can she explain why she suddenly fell into a coma. We will let her stay for a while. Perhaps you have something to ask her.

"Her family is here too, you can ask her anything..."

The staff member suddenly stopped, with a little hesitation on his face, and turned to look at Heidi: "Sorry, I forgot that you just woke up from a deep sleep, you need to rest now..."

"I don't need to rest. I've slept long enough." Heidi waved her hand, but her eyes couldn't help but scan the other person's face. Fortunately, she quickly controlled her expression and gaze, and then asked casually, "Before you came in, was there any strange movement in my room?"

"Strange noise?" The staff frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Did something happen?"

An uninvited guest invaded the ward through a rift in the timeline - and then left after saying a lot of weird things.

Heidi recalled what had just happened in her mind, but quickly shook her head and said calmly, "No, I was just asking to confirm if anything unusual had happened in the room while I was asleep."

The "staff member" in front of her was just an ordinary person in charge of the connection, and the mysterious preacher of the end of the world gave Heidi a feeling that it was too weird. Out of caution, it was best not to let ordinary people hear anything about the "preacher".

After returning, you should report directly to the church, or the central cathedral of the city-state.

Maybe I should also tell my father, and that...Captain Duncan?

All kinds of thoughts were running through Heidi's mind, some of which even made her feel a little horrified. With these complicated and fluctuating thoughts, she was brought to the end of the corridor.

The staff member in charge of leading the way made some simple handovers and left quietly. Heidi took a deep breath in front of the ward, quickly adjusted her state and expression, and then reached out and pushed open the door.

In the clean and bright ward, the elf girl who had fallen into a deep sleep was sitting quietly on the bed, with a quilt and pillow propped up behind her, reading a book in her hands seriously. An old elf woman who looked plump and kind was sitting on the edge of the bed, peeling an apple seriously.

When Heidi walked into the room, the elf girl immediately raised her head and a bright smile appeared on her face: "Ah! Doctor! Are you awake?"

"I came to see how you are doing," Heidi smiled back, and nodded to the kind-looking old lady as she walked towards the bed. "Hello, may I ask who you are..."

"She is my grandmother!" the sickly elf girl rushed to say.

The old woman looked at her granddaughter helplessly, then turned to Heidi and said with a smile: "This child is a bit self-acquainted... Thank you very much for your help to Flotti, Miss Heidi."

A trace of embarrassment appeared on Heidi's face: "I don't think I was of much help. Even the 'doctor' like me fell into a deep sleep."

"But I heard from the staff here that you fell into a deep sleep in order to wake Flotti from her nightmare," the old woman handed the freshly peeled apple to Heidi with a warm and sincere attitude that didn't seem like she was being polite at all. "And Flotti also said that she felt someone was protecting her in her sleep. When danger approached, the continuous gunshots dispelled her fear."

Continuous gunshots? Approaching danger? Is it referring to the Annihilation Cultist who tried to get closer to the bed by relying on the "suggestion portal" he opened when the dream backfired?

Heidi had an idea in her mind. She thanked the old woman for the apple she handed over, then sat on the chair beside the bed and looked at the elf girl named Flotti very seriously: "Your name is Flotti, right? Do you remember how you fell into a deep sleep?"

"I remember... I was reading a book at home," Frodi frowned and thought for a while, "Before that, the sun went out, and my grandmother said that the streets were dangerous, so she asked me to stay in the room. Later, the sun came out again, and I was really bored, so I found a book to read - after all, the sun was already bright. But I don't know what happened, I just read for a while and suddenly felt very sleepy, and fell asleep..."

"Reading a book?"

Heidi muttered, her eyes swept across the book that Flotti had just held in her hands. On the lavender cover, a string of gorgeous letters caught her eye - "The Crystal Garden of the Dreamless Prince"

"If you ask me, she reads all these messed-up books," the fat old elf lady muttered beside her, "her head is full of unreliable fantasies. Sooner or later, she will be polluted by reading these things. The gods will not protect the love between two men..."

Flotti immediately corrected him with dissatisfaction: "It's not two, it's several!"

Heidi shook her head at the old woman: "Don't worry, it's not the content of the book that caused it."

As soon as she finished speaking, Flordie showed a surprised look: "Doctor sister, you also read this?!"

Heidi: “…”

Relying on the superb skills acquired over the years, the psychiatrist ignored the different looks on Flotti and her grandmother's faces and looked at the elf girl seriously: "In short, you didn't try to observe the surface of the sun or look up at the sky while it was out?"

"Of course, who would dare to do that?" Frodi stuck out her tongue. "Who in their right mind would dare to look at it when the sun goes out?"

Heidi had a blank expression on her face. She then asked, "Do you remember what happened while you were asleep? Even a little bit of memory will do - except for the part about the 'gunshot'. I know that part."

"...Apart from those few gunshots, I only have a few memories of the rest," Fruti recalled carefully, speaking uncertainly, "I just remember that I was lying in the dark, groggy and couldn't see clearly around me, nor could I hear clearly, and in the darkness there were many, many shadows, like other people, standing around me..."

Heidi's expression immediately became serious: "Many, many shadows?"

※※※

Deep in the Endless Sea, in a city-state far away from Plande and Breeze Harbor, a figure in a thick black coat hurriedly flashed into an alley.

The figure was in a hurry, staggering a little, and seemed to be in a panic. He avoided possible prying eyes at the alley entrance and went into one side road after another. After walking for a long time in the maze-like alley that was enough to get lost, he finally slipped into a house.

It was approaching dusk, the last rays of the sun were quietly fading from the city, and the gas lamps on the streets had not yet been lit, but darkness had already arrived in advance and was gradually engulfing the houses in the city.

There was the hissing sound of a match being struck, and the oil lamp in the room was lit.

The man threw his thick black coat on the armrest of the sofa, walked to the wine cabinet, took out a bottle of liquor and filled a glass for himself, then sat down on the sofa with it and drank half of the glass in one gulp. Only then did he breathe a long sigh of relief at the slight sense of security brought by the oil lamp.

The strong alcohol stimulated the taste buds and nerves, relieving the terrifying pressure that seemed to be entangled in his bones and marrow. He once again felt his courage and vitality returning to this body, and his somewhat chilled hands and feet became warm again.

A slight sound of chains rubbing against each other reached his ears. Behind the man, a pitch-black chain slowly emerged from the air. One end of the chain was connected to him, and the other end was binding a jellyfish floating in the air that seemed to be made of smoke and dust.

This chaotic and unintelligent demon appeared, expanding and shrinking and squirming unconsciously in mid-air, sending the man a signal of restlessness.

"I know, I know, we almost got into big trouble," the man muttered irritably. He knew that the Deep Demon had no heart and could not understand human language, but after years of symbiosis with the demon, he had unconsciously developed the habit of talking to his Deep Demon, as if this dangerous cloud of dust was really his trusted family and friend. "Who knows how the cursed captain would suddenly appear... Damn it, what does this have to do with him..."

He put down the wine glass in his hand, leaned back on the sofa, raised his head, stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes, his tone full of indignation.

"Those mentally retarded sun dregs are useless. They can't even deal with that 'witch'... Tsk, the lower-level believers are all mentally retarded. The so-called 'messengers' are just a bunch of brainless dregs. The so-called descendants of the sun are just puppets who can't think... There are not many intelligent people among those sun believers from top to bottom. I was almost killed by them..."

He muttered, stood up, picked up the wine glass, and took two big gulps, feeling his heartbeat gradually calm down, then turned his head and glanced at his symbiotic demon.

"Be quiet, we are safe now. We will find other opportunities later. If what those weird preachers say is true, more elves will be affected by the 'original defect' soon. We will always have a chance to find another way to enter that dream..."

He suddenly stopped.

The smoke jellyfish continued to expand and contract and wriggle in the air, sending increasingly uneasy signals to its symbionts. The man seemed to gradually sense something - his dull spiritual intuition finally began to give him a warning. Amidst waves of fear that became stronger than the last, his perception finally broke through his subconscious self-protection and began to sense... those close-at-hand eyes.

The man swallowed his saliva with a "gulp" sound, and his eyes gradually moved downwards.

He looked at the glass in his hand.

The remaining wine in the glass swayed slightly, reflecting the flickering light of the oil lamp. Under the light with a strange green tint, a gloomy and majestic face was reflected in the glass, staring at him calmly.

"Go on," he heard the phantom voice echoing in his mind, as if it were his own thoughts, "I like people who are used to talking to themselves."