Chapter 280 66.1 - Grave

Chapter 280 Chapter 66.1 - Grave

"Haaaaah...Haaaaah....."

As I continued to release heavy breaths as if I was just about to drown underwater, I looked around.

"Astron!"

As the familiar voice of the certain girl echoed in my head, I turned to face her.

"Are you okay? Here, drink this."

For some reason, I wasn't able to remember anything. As if I had awakened from a dream, every memory of mine was blurry, it felt like.

'What was I doing?'

I knew inwardly that something inside me had changed. Something that was missing. Slightly narrowing my eyes, I resisted the pain that tried to overlap my head and took the water Sylvie gave me.

"Thanks," I mumbled as my brain started recalling the information of what I could remember to last.

'I was looking for some observations and then.....'

Then, everything suddenly became dark. After that, I don't remember much aside from some blurry moments.

"You won't ever leave me, right?"

Once again, a voice echoed in my head as I recalled one of the blurry moments. The voice that is familiar.

'It is her voice, isn't it?'

Most likely, I had awoken from a dream. If it was that, everything seemed to make sense. However, there were many other things in the environment that I couldn't quite put my feelings on.

'The atmosphere....'

–THUMP!

Just as I thought about it, suddenly, I felt a sensation in my chest. The same sensation I got countless different times.

'A demon...'

But this time, it was different. Much more different.

This sense of dread was so much that I was even about to have a hard time breathing. My heart started beating incredibly fast, as if I was running for a long amount of time.

'Everywhere around is filled with demonic energy.'

Whether it was because the demonic energy was incredibly potent or, for some reason, I could see everything better; I was able to notice the energy surrounding us. The dark energy was covering almost every other location around and those dark threads connecting in the air.

It was disgusting, as if something was feeding from it.

"ASTRON!"

Sylvie's urgent voice brought me back to the present. She asked if I was okay, and I nodded, reassuring her that I was fine.

"What happened?" I asked. I had an idea in my head, but right now, I needed to understand the situation first.

"Sigh...." Hearing this, Sylvie released a long sigh as she looked at my right side with a face filled with unease. "I want to explain everything to you, but we need to wake Irina up first."

Before Sylvie could answer, she suggested waking up Irina first. I turned my attention to the side, realizing for the first time that Irina was lying on the ground, unconscious.

'Irina is unconscious as well?'

But something seemed different about her, as her body was slightly convulsing.

'She is about to wake up.'

Realizing that it was the symptoms of waking up, I waited.

Irina's amber eyes held a focused intensity as she emphasized, "It's shaped by a powerful entity, with intentions unknown and potentially dangerous."

'It must be the source of this demonic energy.' I thought to myself. The entity Irina was talking about was the demon, but most likely, she was unable to identify it because she had never encountered a real demon before.

After all, demon followers or demonic humans are a lot different from demons.

Sylvie added with worry. "The entity's malevolence explains the dark spells and the complexity we encountered while probing Jasmine's heart. This isn't just a random occurrence; it's a calculated influence."

To sum up the findings, Irina had confirmed that this demon was the reason why Phantom's Land was formed in the first place, and the demon was looking for something.

'Such a large-scale thing, and the original never mentioned something like this.'

There were many questions that needed to be answered, but one thing came first.

"Then, what are those phantoms....."

If those phantoms appeared once someone entered into this sleep-come state, then it meant either those phantoms were their souls or something related to their consciousness.

'What happens to those phantoms once the body is dead?'

This was another question. After all, if the phantoms were somehow related to souls or consciousness, there was a chance that those phantoms who wandered around like that after the clock hit 06.06 would still have their bodies somewhere around.

At that moment, as I contemplated the information, I heard Irina mumbling something under her breath. "Parallel world..."

The words caught my attention, and I immediately asked, "What do you mean, Irina?"

However, she seemed unable to answer; her expression clouded with frustration, as if the answer slipped through her fingers. "I don't know, I can't point anything....."

But the mention of a parallel world triggered something within me.

I started looking around the room as if expecting to find a clue in the shadows or the mist that permeated Phantom's Land.

Then, my eyes fixated on the spell that was connected to the heart of Jasmine. It was a complex array of magical symbols and psions, and as I observed it, a realization struck me.

"Spatial psions..." I muttered to myself. The gears in my mind started turning, and a crazy idea began to form. It was both because of what we found and, at the same time, I knew an enemy from the game.

'What if these phantoms are not just illusions or manifestations? What if they are souls from another world?'

'We all felt like it was like a dream. But what if we actually replaced our parallel selves.'

The notion seemed far-fetched, even to me. However, the spatial positions in the spell hinted at a connection to the manipulation of space.

What if this demon was attempting to create a rift between worlds, a space crack that allowed the souls from another realm to seep into Phantom's Land?

'Then, everything would make sense. Even the identity of this demon.'

After all, there was no way that such a strong boss that could somehow get this amount of humans under its spell would left out in the game.

It was bound to be mentioned, and it was certainly done.

'So, it came from here, huh?'

I asked myself. To think that the boss of one of the future side-

quests was actually something related to Phantom's Land.

'I guess the game can never reveal all the details at once after all.'

If the idea in my head was correct, then from then on, things were about to get both troublesome and good.

Facing an enemy that would normally be far more powerful in the future made it easier for me to respond in any case.

'Then, there is only one thing left.'

To kill the enemy.