Chapter 580 - 387: Nightmare World, Evolved Insect Race

The Summoner had no time to react. Space twisted, and the scene before his eyes changed completely.

Rock, companions, and enemy vanished in an instant. In their place was an endless expanse of mist.

The Earth beneath him was soft and sticky to the touch. High in the sky hung a writhing, pale crescent moon.

The entire space was deathly silent; even the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat had disappeared.

No, it wasn’t completely silent.

From the far distance came unintelligible whispers and sobs, the sounds twisted and sharp, boring straight into the depths of his Soul.

"An illusion?! A Spiritual Attack?!"

The Deep Gray Tentacle User, overcome with shock and rage, frantically unleashed the Spiritual Energy within him, attempting to tear this bizarre space apart.

Beams of Spiritual Energy shot out, but like stones cast into the ocean, they only created brief ripples in the gray mist before being utterly devoured.

The pale crescent moon seemed to "look" at him. Where its light fell, the ground began to writhe, and arms made of shadow and viscous fluid slowly reached out, grasping for him.

The cold, slick touch, suffused with twisted and frenzied emotions, bypassed his Spiritual Energy barrier to brand itself directly onto his consciousness.

"AHHH!!!"

He let out a silent scream, a trace of terror showing in his single, scarlet eye.

’This isn’t any kind of Spiritual Attack I understand. It feels like I’ve plunged into the world’s most foul and demented nightmare.’

Within the spherical space, the scene looked completely different from the perspective of the other two Summoners.

They only saw their companion charge to within ten meters of the man before his body abruptly froze. Then, as if simply erased from existence, he bizarrely vanished.

"Kuta!" The Light Brown Tentacle User stopped in his tracks, horrified.

Alarm bells screamed in the Dark Gold Tentacle User’s mind, and an ominous premonition seized his Spiritual Energy core.

"Careful! There’s something strange about him! Together!"

The two reacted with extreme speed, immediately getting back-to-back. Dark Gold Spiritual Energy and light brown Spiritual Energy intertwined, forming a sturdy, two-layered protective barrier of light.

At the same time, their Tentacles danced wildly, emitting dense ripples of Spiritual Energy in all directions as they tried to find any trace of their companion or the enemy.

Ian remained standing in the mist, ignoring the two who were poised for battle.

He raised his hand again. His fingers slowly fanned out, then gently curled inward.

’You two can come in as well.’

The two Summoners simultaneously felt the ground begin to sink beneath their feet. The space around them started to twist and spin, colors bled away, and all sound faded into the distance.

Their seemingly impenetrable Spiritual Energy shield melted away silently without the slightest struggle, becoming part of the swirling, distorted scenery.

"NO!!"

The Dark Gold Tentacle User only had time to let out one final, furious roar before he was swallowed by the endless gray darkness.

Ian’s Consciousness Body hung high in the sky, like an indifferent god, looking down upon the three visitors who had fallen into his trap.

He called this place the Nightmare Space, which was built upon the foundation of the Dream Space from the Moon God’s Treasure Manual.

However, its core had been completely polluted and reconstructed by the Abyssal Demonic Qi he had introduced.

Order and logic were suppressed to a minimum. Chaos, fear, and all the dark aspects from the depths of the subconscious were amplified to become the "fundamental Rules" of this world.

The Deep Gray Tentacle User was already on the verge of a mental collapse amidst the endless, twisted whispers. His Spiritual Energy was dissipating as he attacked the empty air in vain.

The Light Brown Tentacle User was faring slightly better. He found himself trapped in an ever-shifting labyrinth.

Every door he pushed open revealed only deeper despair. The twisted smiles of childhood friends and the cold, disappointed gazes of his elders materialized into tangible blades that sliced at his consciousness.

As for the strongest, the Dark Gold Tentacle User, he found himself in a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Beneath his feet were the shattered corpses of countless members of the Insect Race and his fellow Summoners. A black rain of blood fell from the sky.

And in the center of the sea of blood, a figure identical to him, but with madness in its eyes, was continuously slaughtering his kin in the Void.

He wanted to stop it but found he couldn’t move. He could only watch helplessly as every slash of the blade struck his very Soul.

"Urgh... What is this place?! Let me out!"

He let out a pained roar and tried to steady his mind, but the surrounding scene only grew more terrifying and realistic with his emotional fluctuations.

Ian did not respond. In this Nightmare Space that he ruled, he was the Rule.

With a mere thought, three silver wisps of mist, finer than strands of hair, descended from the pale crescent moon. They ignored the trio’s Spiritual Defense and gently touched their foreheads.

A fusion of [Entering the Dream] and [Dream Projection]... a Dream Invasion.

Instantly, a flood of chaotic, fragmented memories surged along the silver-gray threads and into Ian’s consciousness.

Like the most efficient processor, he swiftly filtered, sorted, and pieced together the key information.

The Esok World. And a Summoner Council.

It was the supreme authority and resistance organization of the surviving Essoke People, presided over by seven Level Four Peak Core Elders.

They were scattered across the Esok World in relatively safe, hidden locations, leading the survivors in the fight against the Insect Race’s Erosion.

The source of the Cosmic Subconscious Fragments, which Ian was most interested in, was confirmed once again.

The Esok World Will had suffered a devastating blow and shattered while resisting the Abyss’s Erosion, scattering fragments of the world’s Rules and collective consciousness.

These fragments contained a portion of the World Origin and authority over its Rules. They were obtained by the first lucky few, who became the first Summoners.

Summoners rely on resonating with these fragments to gain Power and guidance, and they also attempt to collect them to either repair their world or find a way out.

From the memories in the Dream Realm, he obtained a crucial piece of information: a passage to the Heart of the World.

After the World Will fell into a slumber, an ancient and strange natural passage was formed, one that could lead to the Heart of the Esok World.