With Ouroboros arriving, Hastur could only descend here in the form of the Vessel of Stars.
If Ouroboros suddenly went crazy and attacked the Hope, Audrey and the others really might never wake from their sleep.
"You deceived me."
"..." The very first thing Ouroboros said nearly made Hastur lose his composure.
Why did this make him sound like some heartless bastard who had betrayed someone's feelings?!
"I only helped Him a little." Hastur continued, "Even if I hadn't helped Him, you still wouldn't have been able to find Him."
"This is between Him and me. I don't want there to be a second time, even if you are a believer of the Stars."
Ouroboros's expression didn't change, but his words were extremely serious.
"You came here tonight just for this?" Hastur calmly changed the subject.
Ouroboros merely gave him a deep look before shifting his gaze toward the cabins. After carefully sensing for a while, he found no unusual aura.
"Have the one in the Forsaken Land of the Gods leave. I don't want Him disturbing the Lord's peace."
"He only wants to play a game of hide-and-seek with Amon. Once He's had enough fun, He'll naturally leave."
Hastur naturally understood that the "He" Ouroboros was referring to was the High-Dimensional Overseer. But he had no interest in getting involved in the game between the High-Dimensional Overseer and Amon.
Getting the High-Dimensional Overseer to leave the Forsaken Land of the Gods was very simple. Amon only needed to leave first.
Ouroboros would surely understand what needed to be done.
What Hastur was truly more concerned about was whether having the High-Dimensional Overseer leave the Forsaken Land of the Gods was Ouroboros's own idea, or whether it came from the True Creator's instructions.
Ouroboros didn't continue with this topic and instead suddenly brought up the war between the Feysac Empire and the Loen Kingdom.
Judging from what Ouroboros implied, new changes might occur there.
Ouroboros didn't say exactly what they would be. He only said, "Don't let the corruption of the cosmos further erode the real world."
Those words were meant for the Stars. Their meaning was that a Great Old One from beyond the cosmos had become involved in the war between the Feysac Empire and the Loen Kingdom.
After seeing Ouroboros off, Hastur had the Vessel of Stars remain aboard the Hope for the night, just in case Ouroboros decided to return.
Inside the Hall of Stars, Hastur swept his gaze across the starry sky overhead.
The Son of Chaos, Mother Tree of Desire, Supernova Dominator, High-Dimensional Overseer, and Primordial Hunger showed no suspicious movements, and their spheres of activity weren't in the Feysac Empire either.
In that case, the changes Ouroboros mentioned were probably the work of the Mother Goddess of Depravity and Her allies.
At present, it was known that the Mother Goddess of Depravity's faction included the Circle of Inevitability.
During the incident at Roselle's mausoleum, the Mother Goddess of Depravity's power had suddenly increased because the Circle of Inevitability had used His authority to help the Mother Goddess of Depravity borrow the power She possessed in Her complete state.
That dense aura of fate had been clearly captured by the Hall of Stars.
However, he had deliberately ignored the Circle of Inevitability from the beginning, so it was perfectly normal for Him to have joined forces with the Mother Goddess of Depravity now.
Hastur's gaze passed over the Mother Tree of Desire and the other existences before settling on the other stars that had yet to fully light up.
Among those stars, there might be Great Old Ones he didn't recognize.
For example, Great Old Ones like the King in Yellow who came from the distant cosmos.
Unfortunately, his current strength was insufficient. He could only light them up bit by bit along the outer edge of the original barrier and couldn't illuminate the entire starry sky.
After observing for a while, Hastur left the Hall of Stars and entered the realm of dreams, arriving in that shared dream world.
Before long, he found Audrey.
It was a fairy-tale forest she had imagined herself.
There were bushes without thorns, clusters of tall mushrooms in various colors, enormous trees towering into the clouds with habitable treehouses carved into their trunks, and clusters of flowers whispering among themselves.
As the master of this fairy-tale kingdom, the beautiful Miss Audrey wore a simple wreath woven from red, white, purple, and blue flowers. Dressed in a pale white dress, she sat barefoot with her feet dipped into a crystal-clear lake.
From time to time, she gently slapped her feet against the surface of the water, sending sprays of water into the air. The droplets glittered beneath the sunlight, accompanied by Audrey's melodious and cheerful laughter.
Hastur didn't disturb her. He simply stood where he was and watched Audrey's fairy-tale kingdom.
For now, he would let her live in this rare fairy-tale kingdom.
But why wasn't Susie with Audrey? Weren't the two of them supposed to be inseparable?
After staying for a while, Hastur stepped onto the sea ahead.
He saw Fors inside a small room, lying on a soft and comfortable bed while hugging a pillow half as tall as a person. Beside her was a desk, with sheets of manuscript paper continuously spilling from it.
The manuscripts were being written by pens capable of automatically producing wonderful stories without requiring their owner to control them.
Tsk, what a wonderful dream.
After watching for a while, Hastur reached out and lightly tapped with his finger, releasing a ray of starlight.
The pens that had been automatically writing stories stopped. The soft bed Fors was lying on turned into a hard wooden plank bed, and the room transformed into a prison cell with only a single window.
Inside the prison cell was also a desk, furnished with all the paper, ink, pens, and other supplies needed to write novels.
On the wall directly opposite the wooden bed, a line of words was written:
"Only after writing one million words may you leave."
Fors, unaccustomed to the hardness of the wooden bed, finally woke from her pleasant dream. Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings before her, she remained stunned for a long time.
She tried to get up and push open the window to escape the prison, but it was completely useless. She could only return to the bed and sit there, staring blankly at the line of words on the wall.
One million words!
Wasn't this asking for her life?!
Fors irritably raked her hands through her hair several times. In the end, she resigned herself to her fate, sat down at the desk, and began handwriting a new novel.
Hastur watched Fors enter writing mode for a while before nodding in satisfaction and leaving.
A person couldn't spend all their time having pleasant dreams. Sometimes, nightmares were what allowed people to continuously improve.
After passing through Fors's dream, Hastur soon found Xio nearby.
At this moment, Xio stood high above the clouds, locked in battle with a golden Mind Dragon.
Holding the Hammer of Judgment and clad in silver-white armor, she actually looked rather heroic and valiant. But when Hastur's gaze landed on the Mind Dragon covered in golden scales, his expression nearly broke.
That sacred, mighty, and domineering Mind Dragon was none other than Susie.
In her dream, she was a Mind Dragon.
Hastur watched carefully for a while and discovered that Susie hadn't been affected by the shared dream at all. She had merely deliberately transformed herself into the appearance of a Mind Dragon to play with Xio...
As the battle continued, Susie basically overwhelmed Xio the entire time, but Xio continued displaying an unyielding spirit, refusing to admit defeat. Thus, the battle between one human and one dog remained fierce.
The only slight pity was that Susie didn't shout about taking a human pet while beating Xio down.
Hastur continued onward. Along the way, he passed through the dreams of the cook and the maid. Their dreams were extremely similar: both were following a constantly advancing yellow figure beneath a night sky filled with starlight.
Very good. Very devout.
Continuing forward, Hastur saw Klein.
Klein hadn't been affected by the power here. He had simply found a safe place to stay while waiting to wake up tomorrow.
When he saw Hastur approaching, Klein couldn't help asking, "Mr. Hastur, why can you see through my disguise every single time? Is my disguise technique really that bad?"
"Because of fate, Mr. Klein."
"What kind of fate?"
"The fate of meeting each other."
Bullshit.
Klein very much wanted to say the word, but ultimately held himself back. The other party was obviously brushing him off, so he didn't continue pursuing the subject.
Hastur had no intention of continuing to wander around either, so he stayed there and chatted with Klein about a great deal of mysticism knowledge.
This included how the Sea of Ruins had formed, as well as matters concerning the brothers Amon and Adam.
...
The night was soon replaced by daylight, and the dream world dissipated along with the darkness.
When the morning sunlight poured through the window and fell upon the bed, Audrey and the others gradually woke from their deep sleep.
"Mr. Hastur, did you... stay here all night?"
The first thing Audrey saw upon opening her eyes was Hastur sitting beside the window, smiling as he looked at her.
"Mm. I was afraid someone might get too lonely all by herself."
Faced with such teasing, Audrey merely smiled. She certainly wouldn't become shy and blush because of words like that.
But when Hastur mentioned the fairy-tale kingdom in her dream, Audrey's forced composure finally collapsed.
The faint blush coloring her cheeks was even more beautiful than the clouds on the horizon.
On the other side, Fors, who had just awakened, subconsciously shook her aching wrist. Then she began recalling the nightmare from the previous night, and her gaze gradually turned vacant.
Meanwhile, Xio, who had spent the entire night battling a Mind Dragon, was still bursting with energy and full of vigor. She even struck several combat poses and occasionally shouted a few battle cries to boost her momentum.
The Hope continued sailing onward. One night, the people aboard finally heard the faint, barely perceptible singing of mermaids.
The most excited person was naturally Klein. After informing Hastur, he left the Hope alone and headed toward the waters where the mermaids had appeared.
He had already completed all his preparations.
All that remained was to consume the potion tonight.