Under the pitch-black night sky, near the main island of Moncarlo, the translucent giant semi-dream world creature, the Pseudo-Moth, was struggling fiercely in the sky above the sea surface. More than a dozen thick water snakes shot out from the sea, dancing wildly in the night sky, biting the illusory moth creature, trying to drag it down from the air. Although one of these water snakes was destroyed by a roaring explosion just now, this did not weaken the water snakes' grip on the Pseudo-Moth much.
Standing on the land of the distant island, Edward stared intently at the Pseudo-Moth being restrained by him in the sky, using more power to pull it down from the sky. After losing one water snake, he immediately used his power to create a new giant water snake to fill the gap and increased the pulling force even more. The altitude of the Pseudo-Moth in mid-air began to decrease visibly.
"It's useless... Just relying on dreamwalking to control one or two cannons can't do anything to me..."
Looking at the Pseudo-Moth being dragged down from the sky, Edward muttered in a low voice. As he spoke, the Pseudo-Moth had been dragged closer to the sea surface by its struggles. Ku Chi, who was panicking, controlled the Pseudo-Moth to wildly wave its tentacles, causing damage to the surrounding water snakes. However, as long as these large water snakes of Edward's suffered even a little damage, they would immediately draw in a continuous stream of seawater to replenish themselves, always maintaining a complete form. On the other hand, the Pseudo-Moth itself was full of wounds from being bitten by these water snakes. There were too many torn-off tentacles and ripped openings, and the Pseudo-Moth's own self-healing ability couldn't keep up for a while. Ethereal silver mist-like blood sprayed out from the Pseudo-Moth's wounds, evaporating and dispersing in the air.
Under numerous injuries on its body, the Pseudo-Moth's power began to weaken, and it could no longer resist the water snakes' dragging, being pulled closer to the sea surface faster. At this moment, in the port very close to the sea surface where the Pseudo-Moth was located, a group of Moncarlo city guards in uniform suddenly appeared from nowhere. They came to the coast, lined up, and raised their guns to shoot at the Pseudo-Moth. Along with a burst of gunfire, the flying bullets hit the Pseudo-Moth, which was not too far from the coast, causing extremely slight damage. It could be seen that this seemed to be a type of bullet with Spirituality enchantment.
Noticing this extremely slight damage, Ku Chi also focused his attention on the group of city guards lined up on the shore. Then, a suppressed anger rose in his originally panicked heart. It was bad enough that Edward, an old Scarlet, was suppressing him, but now even his subordinate guards dared to lay hands on him. Being bullied to this extent was unbearable.
Thinking this, although Ku Chi wasn't sure how those guards resisted his hypnotic waves and remained conscious to attack him, this didn't stop him from immediately launching a counterattack against these weaklings who dared to attack him. He controlled the Pseudo-Moth to extend two tentacles and sweep towards the shore hundreds of meters away. In an instant, these guard members were hit by the translucent Pseudo-Moth tentacles and fell to the ground, shaking. Their dream cocoons were directly stripped and taken away by the Pseudo-Moth's tentacles, absorbed back into the Pseudo-Moth's main body. If he could escape successfully, Ku Chi could absorb the nourishment from the stored dream cocoons in his body to heal the Pseudo-Moth's injuries.
Once a normal person comes into contact with the Pseudo-Moth's tentacles, their dream cocoon will be immediately taken away. Even if they are strong enough to resist the stripping of the dream cocoon like Edward, they will suffer severe mental damage. And these ordinary city guard members, naturally, could not withstand a single contact with the Pseudo-Moth's tentacles.
Although the weaklings were cleared, the problem faced by Ku Chi and the Pseudo-Moth still hadn't escaped the current predicament. The water snakes continued to drag the Pseudo-Moth, and the Pseudo-Moth was getting closer and closer to the sea surface. Facing this situation, Ku Chi could only struggle more and more desperately, even preferring to be bitten and torn off several pieces of his dream body by the water snakes to escape their control, because Ku Chi understood that everything would be over once he was dragged into the sea.
Just like this, in a struggle that was almost a fight for his life, a large part of the Pseudo-Moth's body began to be torn off, but this could not stop the Pseudo-Moth's fate of being dragged down further. And just as the Pseudo-Moth was about to be dragged into the sea, a series of sharp whistling sounds suddenly echoed in the sky, followed by a series of roars around the Pseudo-Moth.
"Boom boom boom boom!!!!"
Consecutive explosions erupted in mid-air, and flames and firelight completely engulfed the Pseudo-Moth and the water snakes biting it. Powerful shockwaves spread violently in all directions, rolling up huge waves on the sea surface that slapped in all directions, rushing onto the nearby port and dock. The city guard troops who had fallen here just now had disappeared.
'Artillery fire again... and a volley from multiple directions! How is that possible! How could that guy control so many of my fortresses at the same time! Even a Scarlet Chasing Moth couldn't control so many dream puppets through dreamwalking at the same time! Did he use some secret item again?!' Noticing the strange phenomenon happening on the distant sea surface, Edward thought in surprise, but the current situation didn't allow him to think any further.
After the intense explosion, the firelight and flames quickly dispersed. On the sea surface, the heads of the water snakes biting the Pseudo-Moth disappeared for a while, scattered by the impact of the explosion.
The water snakes biting the Pseudo-Moth were constructed from seawater controlled by Edward's Spirituality, possessing both spiritual and material structures. The Pseudo-Moth's tentacles could affect the spiritual structure of the water snakes, while the explosion of cannonballs could destroy the material structure of the water snakes. And it just so happened that the damage caused by these cannonballs, due to their extremely low Spirituality, could not harm illusory dream bodies like the Pseudo-Moth. Therefore, after this round of artillery fire, the Pseudo-Moth was barely affected by the explosion, but all those water snakes were blown away.
After the explosion, Ku Chi was surprised to find that the mysterious explosion that had occurred before had reappeared, and the water snakes that had been restraining him were now completely gone. So, he seized the opportunity without hesitation and immediately controlled the Pseudo-Moth to fly up with all its might, towards the sky above, towards the direction away from Moncarlo, and at the same time began to try to escape into the Dream World again.
"Don't even think about escaping!"
Seeing the Pseudo-Moth's movements, Edward, holding a bronze short staff, immediately spoke sternly. Then, he summoned several huge water snakes from the sea beneath the Pseudo-Moth again, biting at the Pseudo-Moth again. At the same time, in the various coastal defense fortresses on the main island of Moncarlo, consecutive artillery fire also sounded again.
Accompanied by sharp whistling sounds, countless cannonballs cut through the sky above Moncarlo, landing on the battlefield where the water snakes and the Pseudo-Moth were entangled. Those cannonballs exploded in mid-air, and the resulting shockwaves quickly spread to the surrounding water snakes, crippling and scattering the water snakes chasing the Pseudo-Moth, greatly hindering the progress of Edward's water snakes chasing the Pseudo-Moth. And the Pseudo-Moth, due to its own characteristics, was almost unaffected by these cannonballs. Even if it was affected by the explosion, it could continue to fly. Seeing this scene, Edward couldn't help but clench his teeth, feeling a surge of anxiety in his heart.
'Why... why can that guy control so many coastal defense cannons at the same time? Why do these cannonballs he fires explode directly in mid-air? This shouldn't be happening!?'
Edward thought anxiously and confusedly in his heart. In fact, it was very difficult for the cannonballs fired from various places on the island to directly hit the long water snakes. Although the water snakes were seven or eight meters thick, they were too thin at a firing distance of over a thousand meters. Moreover, these water snakes were constantly swaying under Edward's control, making a direct hit even more difficult. The reason why the first shot hit, besides good luck, was largely because the water snakes were biting the Pseudo-Moth at that time, in a state of stalemate and stillness.
However, the artillery fire that blocked the water snakes was not aimed at hitting the water snakes directly. The target of these cannon attacks from various places on the island was not the water snakes, but the airspace where the water snakes were chasing the Pseudo-Moth. These cannonballs exploded directly after reaching this predetermined airspace, and the resulting large-scale shockwaves continuously affected the water snakes passing through here. These consecutive air bursts created a forbidden zone of explosions in front of the water snakes' pursuit. But this situation also made Edward very puzzled. He clearly remembered that his cannonballs had impact fuses, and would only explode when hitting an object of a certain strength, so they should not have the ability to explode in mid-air.
What Edward didn't know was that at this very moment, the coastal defense batteries were not being controlled by the dream puppets controlled by Ku Chi, but by Dorothy's Corpse Puppets.
In Moncarlo's bloody underground gang society and black gold trade, countless corpses with various causes of death were produced every day.
These unclaimed bodies were sent to professional body collectors.
Some were sold to the """Cup""" society as raw materials, while others were processed into fish feed.
Dorothy found a large number of usable corpses at the body collectors in Moncarlo.
After the Pseudo-Moth hypnotized the entire city, she quickly took control of the coastal defense fortresses at various strategic points.
Dorothy, by previously flushing the Fountain of Youth water and deliberately leaving hypnotic marks on the auction house staff, caused Edward to use his extraordinary means in a panic to search for Black Dream Extraordinaries in the city.
He eventually found Ku Chi, which led to a conflict between them and a major fight, completing her plan for Edward to help her find Ku Chi.
Although this plan was successful, Dorothy also knew that if Edward and Ku Chi truly clashed, Ku Chi would absolutely not be able to defeat Edward on Edward's territory.
Not only would he not win, but whether he could escape was also uncertain.
Dorothy's target was the divine artifact on Ku Chi.
She could not let Ku Chi fall into Edward's hands in the end, so she had to ensure that Ku Chi could at least successfully escape the conflict with Edward.
Controlling so many coastal defense fortresses was a crucial measure she took to help Ku Chi.
The coastal defense cannons in these fortresses were controlled by Dorothy's Corpse Puppets, and the shells fired were slightly modified by Dorothy.
Considering that Edward might use water currents to wrap around the shells and make them misfire, Dorothy added a small corpse puppet insect to the warhead of the shells.
These small insects could conduct Dorothy's electricity, creating sparks in the warhead and thus detonating it.
In this way, with the help of the corpse puppet fuses, Dorothy could manually detonate the shells fired by the coastal defense cannons.
Even if they only grazed the target in mid-air without a direct hit, she could detonate them remotely and manually.
Dorothy relied on countless perfectly timed airburst shells to obstruct the water snakes chasing the Pseudo-Moth one by one.
Above the dark sea, with the assistance of countless bombardments, the Pseudo-Moth controlled by Ku Chi was about to completely fly away from Moncarlo.
At this moment, its body had become increasingly transparent, seemingly about to fly out of the restricted area and enter the Dream World.
Not far from the Pseudo-Moth, Dorothy, dressed in a long robe, watched the scene before her and couldn't help but say.
"The time has come, please be ready.
I'll hand it over to you in a moment, Senior Nefelnis."
"I understand..."
As soon as Dorothy finished speaking, a Lakhman appeared beside her in the previously empty air.
Looking closely, it was none other than the floating, translucent Naifnis.
At this moment, she was in a state of soul detachment, following beside Dorothy.
"Alright, it's now.
Let's go."
"Okay!"
Finally, at the opportune moment, Dorothy said her last words.
Then, she first controlled the Corpse Puppets in all fortresses to stop the bombardment and jump into the sea on the spot.
Immediately, the Neff Ghost beside her floated towards the magic carpet beneath Dorothy, attaching itself to a bone shard bound to it.
Next, Dorothy untied her hooded robe, revealing a Moncarlo City Guard uniform that appeared quite oversized on her.
Her silver-white hair was tied under the hat she was wearing, and she also wore a mask.
After taking off her robe, Dorothy immediately used two more sigils on herself.
Then, controlling the magnetic levitation magic carpet beneath her, she rushed towards the Pseudo-Moth that had been approaching since earlier.
During this time, she also took out an exquisite rifle with countless lenses from the magic carpet.
Facing the increasingly large and lighter-colored Pseudo-Moth ahead, Dorothy raised the rifle in her hand and pulled the trigger.
From it, a dazzling orange beam of light shot out, hitting the flying Pseudo-Moth and leaving a small opening.
Sensing the attack, Ku Chi turned his head.
What he saw was a Moncarlo City Guard seemingly riding a flying extraordinary item, holding another extraordinary item gun, and attacking him at extremely close range.
'Persistent...'
Seeing this scene, Ku Chi immediately thought of the City Guards who had blocked him at the port earlier.
He instantly determined that the person in front of him must be an elite figure among the Moncarlo City Guards.
Therefore, just like before, he habitually swept his two tentacles of the Pseudo-Moth over.
Then, in Ku Chi's eyes, he saw the pursuing Moncarlo City Guard elite facing the sweeping tentacles.
He controlled the strange flying item beneath him to dodge in extreme panic.
After narrowly dodging the first tentacle, his upper body was dangerously swept by the second tentacle.
Then his dream cocoon was immediately stripped away by the tentacle, and he lost consciousness completely.
He swayed slightly in mid-air and began to fall straight down, plunging into the dark sea.
After dealing with the final obstruction, the Pseudo-Moth finally successfully completely left the restricted area of Moncarlo Island.
Its gigantic body became completely transparent in the night sky, disappearing directly.
In this way, Ku Chi, controlling the Pseudo-Moth, successfully escaped Edward's obstruction and retreated into the dream world.
At this point, it was impossible for Edward to keep him.
"No!!!"
Standing on Moncarlo Island, looking at the smoke and dust generated by countless explosions in the distance, Edward, who felt the Pseudo-Moth's successful departure, let out an unwilling roar.
Behind that dense smoke and dust, where Edward could not see, Dorothy's unconscious body was falling at high speed.
At this moment, about a hundred meters below her was the surging sea of black tides.
It was extremely dangerous for her to fall like this.
At this moment, beside Dorothy, on the "magic carpet" that was falling with her, from a bone shard bound to it, Naifnis's spirit body suddenly emerged.
She floated directly towards Dorothy not far away, instantly attaching herself to her body.
After successfully possessing Dorothy, Naifnis immediately took control of Dorothy's body.
She opened Dorothy's eyes, and in the process of rapid descent, began to adjust her posture, facing downwards towards the dark sea.
She stretched her hands forward, straightened her body into a straight line, and closed her eyes.
In this way, after a high-speed fall, Dorothy's body entered the water in the correct posture under Neff's control.
Although the posture was correct, the high dive from a height of over a hundred meters still caused significant damage to Dorothy's body the moment she entered the water.
However, fortunately, Dorothy had previously used a Raw Consumption Symbol on herself and also received Vanya's physical blessing, which greatly enhanced her physical strength.
Therefore, she barely managed to withstand this impact.
After entering the water, Dorothy's body plunged deep down for a considerable distance.
Then, under Neff's control, Dorothy took a deep breath of seawater, from which she actually began to obtain oxygen.
Earlier, the sigils Dorothy had used on herself were not only Raw Consumption but also a Water Absorption Sigil that granted the ability to breathe underwater.
This was also purchased from the Sea Abyss Church.
Under Neff's control, Dorothy breathed in the water while quickly swimming forward.
Neff first had Dorothy recover the extraordinary rifle, Focus Blazing, which was floating on the sea surface with a Beacon Sigil attached to it.
Then she controlled Dorothy to swim towards a small subsidiary island near the main island of Moncarlo.
After a short while, she had Dorothy swim ashore.
"Ugh... cough... cough cough cough..."
"Dorothy" staggered onto the beach.
After spitting out a lot of seawater, she began to cough violently.
Finally, after coughing, she took a few deep breaths and then turned her head to look at the distant night sky.
"Miss Dorothy... has she already gone into the dream?"
In Dorothy's voice, Naifnis gazed at the night sky and murmured.
...
Uh... Unconsciously, it's been updated from daytime to evening, and now it's slowly being updated until morning...
Unconsciously, the sleep schedule is collapsing again.
The chapter on Moncarlo is coming to an end soon.
The usual writer's block phase has also begun, so I'll also take a usual leave.
I'll take a day off tomorrow.
I'm not forcing myself to adjust my sleep schedule anymore, as it will collapse again anyway.
I'll just treat it as a day of rest and think about the plot.
If there is any inconvenience, please bear with me.