Chapter 23: The Hand of God

The process of entering a dream should have been a magical experience, but unfortunately, Luo Wei was unable to experience this wonder firsthand.

While chanting the Resonance Lullaby, she could only watch as Claudia’s Information Stream shifted and evolved, unable to share the physical sensation.

As the melody continued, Claudia’s breathing slowed to a crawl, and her heartbeat nearly stopped. Every vital sign plummeted toward total cessation, making her appear as though she were on the brink of death.

Yet, simultaneously, her Inspiration became more active than ever. It pulsed like a living breath, resonating with a mysterious presence existing in the unseen depths.

Finally, Claudia’s soul was peeled away from her body. It breached a certain threshold, stepping into a specialized space similar to the Spirit World, before falling completely into the dream of shifted reality known as The Shelter.

Fortunately, Luo Wei’s Dominion was all-encompassing. She followed Claudia’s soul into this dreamscape, and her control over the vessel remained as seamless as it was in the physical world.

During this journey into the dream, though Luo Wei saw nothing herself, Claudia experienced quite a lot. She dove deep through the layers of her own past, immersed in bizarre and magnificent phantasmagoria, until finally arriving at The Shelter.

To be honest, I really wanted to feel what that journey was like… Luo Wei thought.

Sadly, it seemed she was incapable of dreaming.

Looking back, her previous trip into a dream appeared to be nothing more than a strange accident.

The Shelter was not entirely a vacuous dream; it existed within the physical world as well. It was a manifestation of the Lord of Ravings’ whispers bleeding into reality, with the only caveat being that the “vessel” required to enter it was the soul.

Claudia slowly opened her eyes within The Shelter. Through those eyes, Luo Wei was likewise able to perceive everything within the realm.

Luo Wei looked around and discovered that the place Claudia had stepped into was a cathedral.

A cathedral dedicated to the Lord of Ravings.

Luo Wei tilted her head slightly. She saw a mass of indecipherable mist hanging high within the cathedral’s dome. Amidst the swirling clouds, she could faintly see countless illusory tentacles swaying slowly. There was a sense of inexplicable, seductive beauty hidden within that deformity.

This was the sacred icon of the Lord of Ravings as depicted by the Dream Sanctum. Claudia and several other Priests had caught fleeting glimpses of it during their Divine Revelations.

However, before Luo Wei could regain her bearings, a panicked roar erupted nearby. The voice was quite familiar.

“Damn those Enforcement Guards! It’s just a temporary assembly—is it really worth this? They actually deployed Steam Armor! Curse them…”

Immediately afterward, countless whispers flooded her hearing. A thick atmosphere of tension permeated the entirety of The Shelter.

Dream Priests dressed in various outfits hurried back and forth through the central hall, almost all of them wearing deep frowns. The roar Luo Wei had just heard seemed to come from one of the three statues placed at the pulpit.

…Poor old Mr. Hume.

These three statues corresponded to the three High Priests of the Dream Sanctum, whose status was second only to the Divine Envoy. Old Mr. Hume was one of them.

At that moment, Hume’s statue was constantly emitting various chaotic noises, much like a speaker playing a live broadcast. It sounded as though the other side was in the middle of a battle.

“Please be at ease, Lord Hume. We have already notified the other High Priests; they will provide support to you immediately.”

A Priest bowed respectfully to Hume’s statue, then turned around to see Claudia. A flash of surprise crossed his face.

“You are… Claudia? Aren’t you a Priest under Lord Hume? Why aren’t you at the assembly site? Wait, why have you already promoted to Sequence 8…”

A series of doubts and confusion made the Priest grow wary, until Hume’s voice came through the statue.

“Claudia has reached The Shelter? I personally bestowed her Magic Potion upon her; there is no need for suspicion.”

“Greetings, Lord Hume.”

Luo Wei manipulated Claudia to step forward, performing the prayer rite of the Dream Sanctum toward Hume’s statue with meticulous precision.

“No need for formalities… (BOOM!) Curse those Enforcement Guards, they’ve even destroyed our Lord’s icon… Apologies, Claudia, I have matters to attend to here. Let Fellow Mura guide you through The Shelter.”

It looks like the fighting is quite intense…

Luo Wei blinked.

How did the Enforcement Guards find the hidden assembly location?

Hiss… surely it couldn’t actually be because of my report letter…

This was the first time Luo Wei had seen the feedback from a report arrive so quickly. Of course, this likely had much to do with the atrocities the Dream Sanctum had committed all over Kolun County; the Enforcement Guards had long been suffering from a lack of leads.

Luo Wei was completely unaware of just how terrifying the clue she had provided was—terrifying enough that the response to the report came like a tidal wave.

“Yes, Lord Hume.”

The Priest beside her was the “Mura” Hume had mentioned. He looked at Luo Wei, unable to hide a hint of oddity in his gaze.

Since when did Lord Hume’s temper become so friendly?

Could it be that this Claudia and he… have some sort of special relationship?

Of course, Mura could only keep these doubts buried in his heart. Old man Hume’s eccentricity was known to everyone; it was best not to pry into his affairs without cause.

“Follow me, my lady. I will show you around The Shelter.”

Mura gave Luo Wei a polite, appropriate smile, then walked ahead to lead the way.

Countless Priests hurried past them, their faces masked with exhaustion and fear.

“What are they doing?” Luo Wei asked, looking at the Priests curiously.

“The assembly convened by Lord Hume was attacked, and we are summoning other compatriots to go to his aid. However, The Shelter is a closed dream-reality. Only the three High Priests and the Divine Envoy can communicate directly with the outside world.”

Mura did not hide anything and spoke to Luo Wei frankly.

“So, if we want to pass information to one another, we can only do so by constantly entering and exiting The Shelter.”

In other words, these Priests were using the cycle of dreaming and waking to achieve the most secretive form of instant communication.

The information they exchanged echoed within The Shelter, sounding like a constant stream of whispers.

After Luo Wei spent a moment distinguishing the voices, her expression immediately darkened slightly.

Among these relief plans, one part involved sending reinforcements directly to Hume’s assembly. Another part, however, intended to “besiege Wei to rescue Zhao”—they planned to attack other locations in Kolun County, forcing the Enforcement Guards to abandon their siege of the assembly.

The assembly itself was secondary; the most important thing was the safety of old man Hume.

The heavy encirclement by the Enforcement Guards had all but blocked any chance of Hume’s escape.

It had to be said that the information echoing in The Shelter consisted of top-secret intelligence. Because The Shelter was the core, vital stronghold of the Dream Sanctum, ordinary Priests never even had the chance to know of its existence.

Thus, the Priests here communicated without any precautions whatsoever.

“If things go according to their plan, who knows how many innocent civilians will suffer… No!”

No matter how many mischievous streaks Luo Wei had, she still possessed a basic, fundamental sense of kindness.

She quickly made up her mind.

“It’s time to reveal my Hand of God once again. Time for another report!”