Dream World, Woodland.
Amidst the endless giant trees, beneath the sunless canopy, ancient long roars echoed and spread. Countless Dream World creatures fled in panic from the Dragon's roar, avoiding the immense deterrence that had suddenly arrived for unknown reasons.
At the source of the long roar, the Dragon that flew out of the portal spread its giant wings and soared above the new Woodland. As soon as it flew out of the portal, the Dragon's sharp golden gaze fixed on its prey, the grotesque moth that was desperately fleeing.
Before the Dragon's strong and powerful giant wings, the Pseudo-Moth's wings seemed so weak. They couldn't help the Pseudo-Moth escape the fatal threat. In just an instant, the Pseudo-Moth was caught by the Dragon. When the Dragon's sharp claws fiercely grabbed and restrained the Pseudo-Moth, the Pseudo-Moth, completely unable to bear the weight, fell from the air and was slammed hard onto the ground under the Dragon's pressure. The dream cocoons on its abdomen, which hadn't fully attached, fell off in the vibration. The Pseudo-Moth's body twisted and deformed under the immense pressure. The Pseudo-Moth writhed violently, struggling desperately. If it had a mouthpart, it would surely be letting out the most heart-wrenching screams right now.
"Danger! Pain... The Scale Moth is heavily injured... It's in pain... I am also in pain..."
"Ah... we must escape as quickly as possible..."
"Body broken... Pain is spreading... The Dragon from Hamm River Woodland... why is it here! Who was riding in that carriage just now?"
At the ritual site beneath Navaja, the Black Dream members connected to the Pseudo-Moth all let out painful screams after the Pseudo-Moth was pressed and slammed onto the ground. Their originally upright sitting posture was broken.
The Pseudo-Moth couldn't vocalize, so its painful cries were all emitted by these Black Dream members. They all fell to the ground, beginning to struggle and scream in pain. Those most deeply connected, like Garcia and others, even shed bloody tears from their eyes. The Dragon's pressure on the Pseudo-Moth seemed equivalent to pressure on themselves.
"No... we must resist... must escape... cannot just wait for death..."
Garcia shouted with bloody tears, then unified the spirits of the Black Dream members, guiding the Pseudo-Moth to launch a counterattack.
In the Dream World, the Pseudo-Moth, oppressed by the Dragon, emitted a crystalline silver light. Its entire form became blurred like a ball of mist, and within this blur, it escaped the Dragon's restraint.
This was the Pseudo-Moth's method of escape by actively moving closer to the real world, making its presence in the Dream World sparse. It was somewhat similar to how it completely retreated into the Dream World to avoid attacks from the real world, but the difference was that the Pseudo-Moth could not fully enter the real world.
Although the Pseudo-Moth exists in both reality and the Dream World simultaneously, it is essentially a phantom creature of the Dream World. It has a 'physical body' in the Dream World but no physical body in reality. The part of it in the Dream World is close to its true form, while the part in reality is closer to a projection.
Therefore, although the Pseudo-Moth could fully become a Dream World creature and disappear in reality, it could not fully become a real-world creature and disappear in the Dream World. At this moment, the Pseudo-Moth moving as close to reality as possible merely temporarily blurred its presence in the Dream World, but this temporary blurring was enough for the Pseudo-Moth to escape restraint.
After escaping the suppression in its blurred state, the Pseudo-Moth ghost-like circled behind the Dragon, then dispelled the blurring and materialized, launching an attack from the rear towards the Dragon. Countless tentacles extended out, wrapping and binding the Dragon in circles from behind, and immediately tightened, attempting to completely restrain the Dragon. Several of them wrapped around the Dragon's slender neck, seemingly trying to forcefully strangle the Dragon's neck. Immediately, the Dragon's body looked as if it was wrapped by several thick pythons, and they seemed to be trying to strangle the Dragon simultaneously.
However, how could these soft, wriggling tentacles be a match for sturdy scales and sharp spines? The Pseudo-Moth's tentacles tightening with force not only failed to strangle any part of the Dragon but were instead pierced and broken by the shell-like spines on the Dragon's back. The thick Dragon bones made not a sound under this weak strangulation. Instead, the wrapped tentacles were injured by the spines, causing the Black Dream members at the underground ritual site to once again let out painful screams.
Almost ignoring the strangulation from the tentacles on its body, the Dragon slowly turned around. After glaring at the Pseudo-Moth with its golden eyes for an instant, it opened its large mouth and bit down on the tentacles wrapped around it. Then, it swung its head and forcefully yanked, pulling the hovering Pseudo-Moth down fiercely. After the Pseudo-Moth was pulled to the ground, the Dragon used its foot claws to heavily step on its abdomen, once again pinning the Pseudo-Moth's entire body to the ground. The Pseudo-Moth struggled desperately, unwilling to give up, but had no power to resist.
Next, the Dragon used both its wing claws and sharp teeth to begin the cruel dissection of the Pseudo-Moth. Its tentacles and even wings were torn off and pulled out one by one, and large gashes were clawed into its body.
This was a hunt where the strength was completely mismatched. The Pseudo-Moth's thin shell and soft tentacles were simply unable to withstand the Dragon's sharp claws and powerful muscles. The grotesque and bizarre creature had no room to resist under the cruel and majestic being. Its only fate was to be painfully killed. The Black Dream Hunter Group members deeply connected to the Pseudo-Moth began screaming and rolling on the ground at the ritual site. Some directly fainted and lost consciousness. The intense spiritual pain made them completely unable to unify their will to guide the Pseudo-Moth. The Pseudo-Moth had now become completely at the mercy of others.
They had never expected that the Dream Dragon Lord of Hamm River Woodland, who should have been in a distant part of the Dream World, would suddenly appear here. Although the Pseudo-Moth was not fully developed, it possessed very high strength in both reality and the Dream World.
In reality, the Pseudo-Moth could easily fight seven or eight Chalks with its limited abilities, relying on powerful hypnotic waves, large reserves of Spirituality, troublesome ethereal body, and troublesome boundary traversal. Even when encountering a complete Scarlet Tier Extraordinary, it wasn't without the power to fight. However, in the Dream World, although the Pseudo-Moth's hypnotic waves and boundary traversal abilities were ineffective, its giant body, over ten meters long, still crushed most Dream World creatures and the Dream World forms of Extraordinaries.
In the Dream World, a place where conventional Extraordinary abilities are unusable and only the strength of forms is compared, the Pseudo-Moth's advantage is even greater. Even if it cannot defeat a complete Scarlet Tier Extraordinary in reality, the Scarlet Tier's form strength in the Dream World is very difficult to contend with it. In the entire Dream World, forms capable of defeating the Pseudo-Moth should be very few, but unfortunately, the Dragon Lord of Hamm River Woodland is one of them.
On the grassland in the Woodland, the Pseudo-Moth struggled continuously under the Dragon's cruel assault. The Black Dream members didn't understand. Their Scale Moth should be a higher and more powerful existence in the Dream World. The Dream World should be more of their home ground. Why did things develop into such a state?
In its pain, the Pseudo-Moth instinctively unleashed a desperate counterattack. The countless irregularly growing eyes on its head stared at the nearby Dragon, then burst forth with countless silver lights. At extremely close range, the Dragon was hit by the silver lights, but these tiny silver lights did not penetrate her scales; instead, they were directly deflected.
Seemingly enraged by the Pseudo-Moth's counterattack, the Dragon roared. Then, she used her wing claws to firmly press the Pseudo-Moth's head onto the ground. Following this, she opened her Dragon mouth, aiming it at the Pseudo-Moth beneath her, and roared out ancient, long-standing words.
-Fus-Ro-Dah-!!
A sound like a clap of thunder exploded in the Woodland. Ancient words from another world were unleashed in the form of a roar. These words, filled with wrath, transformed into an invisible force from the Dragon's mouth and erupted towards the Pseudo-Moth. When that unparalleled powerful impact struck the Pseudo-Moth's body, its already broken form completely fell apart.
Boom!!!
The powerful impact, while bombarding the Pseudo-Moth, also bombarded the ground, as if a huge bomb had exploded. The soil and rocks of the Woodland were shattered, the ground was lifted, and dust spread outwards like an explosion, instantly covering large areas around. Cracks in the earth spread everywhere, and several towering giant trees nearby creaked and groaned as they swayed. This astonishing sound could be heard even from a distance.
As the dust gradually settled, all that remained was the Dragon still flapping its wings and flying in the sky, and beneath the Dragon, a large deep pit with a radius of twenty to thirty meters. At the bottom of this deep pit, there was no trace of the Pseudo-Moth. Instead, there were large amounts of purple and silver Light points, almost filling the entire bottom of the pit.
Witnessing this situation, the Dragon flapped its wings and slowly flew down. After touching these Light points with her tail and seemingly discovering that these things were harmless, she landed directly among these Light points.
At this time, these Light points were undergoing strange changes. Some of the Light points automatically flew up and gathered together, forming strange white dream cocoons, and then disappeared into space. Some Light points, without forming dream cocoons, slowly rose directly from the deep pit and disappeared. Overall, this series of Light points was in a state of continuous disappearance.
Facing this strange phenomenon, the Dragon didn't pay much attention. Instead, she curiously examined the gradually disappearing Light points around her and tilted her head slightly in curiosity. After the large pile of Light points had almost completely disappeared, she discovered a few strange things: a pile of small, blue glowing bubbles suspended in mid-air. These bubbles were constantly bursting automatically in the air, seemingly about to disappear completely.
The Dragon seemed to recognize these glowing small bubbles more than the Light points. She extended her tail, touched the remaining few bubbles, and absorbed them into her body.
Finally, the bubbles on the scene completely disappeared, and not a single Light point remained. In the empty Dream World, only a huge pit was left. Facing this situation, the Dragon spread her wings and flew into the sky, letting out a long cry as she gradually disappeared into the air. In the end, besides the huge deep pit witnessing the battle just now, nothing was left on the scene.
...
North Shore of Conquest Sea, Navaja.
Underneath Navaja at night, the site of the ritual, the original molting place of the Pseudo-Moth, was now a mess. On the complex magic array lay Black Dream Hunter Group members dressed in gray-black clothes. At this moment, almost all of them were lifeless, each lying on the ground with terrified faces, having breathed their last. And Garcia, the only one still breathing, was not far from dying.
"Dragon..."
Lying on the ground, Garcia, with blood tears streaming from her eyes, stared blankly at the darkness at the top of the underground space, trembling as she murmured her last words, and then gradually became silent.
This important stronghold, which had been operating in Navaja for more than ten years, was silently wiped out without anyone knowing.
...
In the port area, on a certain rooftop, Jode, who had only been unconscious for a short time, slowly opened his eyes with a slight twitching of his eyelids. He leaned on his knife and slowly stood up.
Jode, who stood up, still felt some stinging and daze in his mind. He covered his forehead and looked around blankly. At this time, the originally eerie and grotesque Dream Moth had completely disappeared, and the sky above Navaja was peaceful. If it weren't for the Sleeper lying scattered on the ground, he would have doubted whether he had just had a dream, a chaotic dream.
"No... that wasn't a dream... that evil thing existed... but besides that evil thing, there seemed to be something else..." Covering his head, Jode murmured with a frown, carefully recalling the scene in his memory that he could no longer distinguish between dream and reality, recalling the figure that was even grander and more powerful than the evil thing, and the power that was even more terrifying and cruel.
For the figure in his memory, Jode could only use the term for powerful creatures in legends to describe the other party.
"Was it the Dragon that defeated the Moth?
"Was it the Dragon that saved us and even the whole of Navaja?
"Do Dragons really still exist in this world?"
...
On a distant street, a local Navaja horse-drawn carriage was moving along the cobblestone road. In the carriage, a silver-haired girl in a black dress was covering her mouth and yawning widely.
"Woo woo~~~ It's finally over. It's been a long time since I was so active in a dream. I feel a little tired. It seems I need to be more active in the future."
After yawning, Dorothy stretched and murmured. After stretching, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and then began to recall what had just happened in the dream.
'I didn't expect... my Dragon mimicry to be so strong in the Dream World. Looking at the size of that Moth, I thought I would have to fight it for three hundred rounds, but I didn't expect that guy to be so weak. It couldn't take many hits. Fortunately, I stopped quickly, otherwise I wouldn't even have had the chance to test the Dragon Roar in the dream.'
Leaning on the seat of the carriage, Dorothy thought this. Just now, in order to deal with that Pseudo-Moth, she deliberately attracted the other party to make contact with her in reality, and then relied on the Pseudo-Moth to open a Dream World portal towards her side. Dorothy successfully invaded the Pseudo-Moth's Dream World coordinates with her mimicked Dragon and easily defeated it.
Dorothy had obtained sufficient intelligence about the Pseudo-Moth from Little Fox, and had fully observed the Pseudo-Moth's combat and predation. She understood that it was impossible to defeat this strange Moth in reality with Light and her side's strength. The only chance was her Dragon mimicry in the Dream World.
And to use the Dragon mimicry to attack the Pseudo-Moth, Dorothy needed a Dream World portal leading to the Pseudo-Moth's Dream World coordinates. Dorothy did not have the ability to locate and open Dream World portals, so this portal could only be opened by the Pseudo-Moth itself.
'Fortunately... although this guy can completely escape into the Dream World, it can't completely escape into reality. It seems to be essentially a thing of the Dream World. If it could completely enter reality, my Dragon mimicry would be useless.'
Dorothy thought thankfully in her heart. After that, she shifted her attention to the harvest this time.
'With the current situation where almost the entire city is asleep, it's probably impossible to follow the clues and find the strongholds of those guys. Afterwards, the Church will definitely increase patrols against the Black Dream Hunter Group, and my opportunities will also decrease. But fortunately... this Dream World battle was not without harvest. I didn't expect that after that Moth was destroyed, it would drop memory bubbles... and memory bubbles with Spirit Sight...
'These are the memory bubbles of those Black Dream Hunter Group members, right? Because they were highly linked to the Pseudo-Moth, their spirits also fell apart after the Pseudo-Moth died? In any case, I finally have some Forbidden Knowledge to look at.'
"Ugh~ But I'm really sleepy right now since it's late at night. I'll talk about what to look at tomorrow. Now I'll go back and have a good sleep first."
After another yawn, Dorothy murmured sleepily. What she wanted now was a good sleep in a soft big bed, preferably one without dreams.