[Beep. Host is continuously being affected by the Halo of Nightmare. Host has entered the surface level of the Nightmare Domain; the Banquet of Slaughter has begun. Suggesting that Host finds Kerslin’s soul core as soon as possible. Otherwise, Kerslin will continue growing stronger as it absorbs the power from the blood ritual.
[The Banquet of Slaughter is the first phase. Kerslin’s base power is estimated to be at intermediate Fourth Grade. The nightmare will enter the second phase in 7 minutes, 13 seconds. Kerslin’s power is estimated to reach advanced Fourth Grade. The nightmare will enter the third phase in 16 minutes, 28 seconds. Kerslin’s power is estimated to reach peak Fourth Grade. The nightmare will enter the fourth phase in 28 minutes, 46 seconds. Kerslin will transform into a forbidden lifeform.
[The odds of victory against Kerslin in the fourth phase within the Nightmare Domain infinitely approaches zero.]
A series of notifications rang out in Greem’s mind. Meanwhile, the two monstrous manservants leaped from the ground and lunged at him.
The Chip quickly scanned the creatures, and their data appeared in Greem’s mind.
[Nightmare Ghouls. Spirit creatures. Intermediate First Grade. Created from the living beings killed by the Nightmare Castle. Soul cores of said creatures are formed of resentment and are hostile toward all living creatures. Invulnerable to physical damage, but vulnerable to elementium damage.]
Vulnerable to elementium damage?
A cold smile appeared on Greem’s face. He flicked his fingers, and two purple fireballs the size of eggs flew at the ghouls.
The fireballs were tiny, but they were incredibly powerful!
Boom! Boom!
The purple fireballs erupted into a cloud of surging purple fire the moment they touched the ghouls, engulfing them in flames.
They were no more than First Grade spirits. They were reduced to ashes by Greem’s powerful magic before they could resist.
Without the two ghouls pressing her against the ground, the half-devoured noble lady managed to flip herself over. She crawled across the floor with her chewed-up limbs, growling as she moved toward Greem. Her mouth snapped uncontrollably as if she couldn’t wait to bite someone.
A halo of fire erupted from Greem before the noble lady could reach him, turning her into dust.
The moment the flames appeared, all the ghouls scrambling in the hall paused abruptly. They stopped their movements and turned to look at Greem, standing tall at the doors to the hall. A crimson fire glowed in the depths of their eyes.
Aooooo!
All the ghouls howled and screamed before crouching down against the ground and sprinting toward Greem.
Greem gripped the fire coral staff in his hand and tapped it gently against the ground. An even larger halo of fire blasted outward. Every single ghoul that touched the halo was reduced to ashes before they could even yelp.
However, to Greem’s surprise, no matter how powerful his fire magic, he only seemed to be able to exterminate the ghouls. His attacks did not seem to have any effect on the castle itself.
The clean, smooth floor was still as smooth and bright as before. Despite all the violent flames that had burned in the room, no marks had been left on the floor at all. Meanwhile, the ghouls that he had been able to wipe out with ease were still swarming from various corners of the castle. They forcefully kept Greem in the room, unable to proceed any further.
“Chip, are these spirits undying?” After vanquishing thousands of ghouls in a matter of a few spells, Greem finally noticed something was wrong. The number of ghouls did not reduce at all.
[Beep. These spirit creatures are all souls that are bound to the Nightmare Castle. Their resentment cores remain in Kerslin’s possession. Thus, as long as Kerslin’s soul exists, these spirit creatures can be projected infinitely.]
So these aren’t the actual bodies of the spirits, but only a projection of their resentment!
Greem grunted and snapped his fingers.
A crimson barrier emerged from his body, forming a dome ten-meters in radius, keeping all the enemies at bay. The ghouls would be turned to ashes by the flames in the barrier the moment they entered. Greem didn’t even have to lift a single finger.
Burning Domain. It was Greem’s Burning Domain!
If this were the outside world, Greem’s Burning Domain would be a massive barrier that could engulf an entire kilometer. However, here in Kerslin’s Nightmare Domain, the Burning Domain was suppressed and only had a radius of ten meters. That undoubtedly made it significantly weaker.
However, that was more than enough to cremate these First Grade ghouls!
Greem looked around at everything in the hall, even as he continued to exterminate these damned ghouls with his Burning Domain. This place wasn’t the real world, after all. It was only a projection of Kerslin’s Nightmare Domain.
Consequently, Kerslin’s soul core could exist in any form here. The only way to find it was to actively force it to come out of hiding.
Boom! An explosion rang out close to Greem.
One of Greem’s Inferno Shields had been crushed to pieces by a twisting silhouette. After being hit by another fireball, the assailant struggled for several seconds in the Burning Domain before burning to ashes.
Hm? Did the ghouls’ grades just go up?
Greem paused for a moment and instantly regarded the notifications in his mind.
[Now entering the intermediate layer of the Nightmare Domain. Nightmare creatures grade increased.
[Ghosts of Despair. Second Grade. Amalgamations of a shocking number of resentful wraiths.
[Abominable Hounds. Spirit Creatures. Second Grade. Skilled at biting and lunging.]
It was then that Greem realized the monster he had just disposed of was an abominable hound. The beast did not have a single hair on its body. Instead, its naked body was covered in large patches of rot and blisters. It also had two vicious and ugly heads.
It was said that the three-headed Cerberus of the Abyssal Plane was the final form of these abominable hounds.
Moreover, these hounds all possessed an unusual ability– Flash!
This thought had just appeared in Greem’s mind when seven vicious forms abruptly appeared all around him. These hounds opened their maws wide and bit at him the moment they appeared around his Inferno Shields.
The flames of the Burning Domain burned on their bodies, causing them to howl in agony, but it was unable to reduce their ferocity in the slightest. These creatures did not seem to fear death at all. They desperately attacked Greem’s Inferno Shields even as their bodies crumbled to ashes behind them.
Three of Greem’s Inferno Shields had been torn apart when all seven of the hounds were reduced to dust.
The moment the abominable hounds died, a bone-chilling scream could be heard outside the Burning Domain. Several spectral faces surged out of the body of a ghostly woman. These faces charged into the Burning Domain and surrounded Greem.
Even though the flames of the Burning Domain burned most of the faces out of existence, some of the spectral faces managed to penetrate through Greem’s defenses and appeared before him.
The Tome of Corruption in Greem’s hands let out waves of sickly green light. An intangible force web was cast, dragging all of the spectral faces into a vortex that had appeared on the book’s cover.
The ghostly woman seemed to realize the situation and lifted her head to scream.
Similar screams rang out all over the castle immediately. More and more ghostly women cloaked in light gowns emerged from the walls, floor, and ceiling.
In the blink of an eye, they had all surrounded Greem!
Ghosts of Despair. These were terrifying monsters formed out of multiple spirits. They contained unending emotions of despair within their bodies. Any adepts that could not endure the dreadful weight of their sorrow would often commit suicide.
It was almost seven minutes now. The second phase of the Nightmare Domain would soon begin.
Greem also n
oticed that the more he slaughtered, the more terrifying the Nightmare Castle’s energy aura grew!
The endless horde of nightmare creatures was also rapidly evolving and growing stronger after absorbing this energy. It had only been five minutes, yet Second Grade nightmare creatures had already appeared. What kind of monsters would appear once the nightmare went into the second phase?
Greem wondered to himself when the Chip’s notification appeared again.
[Time is up! Second phase of the Nightmare Domain beginning now.]
Chapter 1326 - Going All-Out
Chapter 1326 Going All-Out
The entirety of Nightmare Castle started trembling lightly.
It was as if a terrifying monster had woken from its ten-thousand-year slumber. The entire castle was filled with a bloody, cruel, and vicious aura.
The nightmare creatures that had been swarming from every corner of the castle stopped assaulting Greem. Instead, they gathered in the corner of the hall and merged to form an amorphous gray monstrosity. As more and more nightmare creatures merged with it, the monstrosity continued to grow in size. It slowly filled up every inch of space in the hall as its bulky body began to swell toward Greem.
[Beep. Detecting Fourth Grade energy aura. Initial estimates suggest this creature to be a beginner Fourth Grade!]
The Chip’s notification caused Greem’s heart to tremble slightly. It was only the start of the second phase, yet a Fourth Grade nightmare creature had already appeared. How much more powerful would the nightmare creatures become in the phases to come?!
Greem didn’t dare let this monster continue growing freely. He tapped his staff against the ground, and a surge of golden fire wrapped toward the amorphous being with blistering heat.
The golden flames crashed against the gray monster.
The sound of sizzling flesh instantly rang out in the hall, and a pungent odor filled the room.
Eeeeeeeek!
The gray monster seemed to have a sense of pain. It started twisting and struggling violently.
As its body was so large that it filled up the entirety of the hall, its movements immediately caused the castle itself to quake.
The monster shook its body wildly, flinging out balls of slime-like substance. These balls of liquid quickly swelled upon hitting the ground, turning into poison slimes.
These slimes dragged their slimy bodies across the floor, spitting out gray mucus at Greem as they approached.
Fortunately, Greem was protected by the Burning Domain and his Inferno Shields. He didn’t have to bother with these numerous weaker beings. However, their presence was definitely a hindrance in Greem’s fight against the gray monster.
The Tome of Corruption in Greem’s hand started flipping according to his will. With every turn of the page, an ugly and vicious plague creature leaped out from the Tome. These fearless wights rushed at the slimes the moment they appeared.
Once they reached within a certain distance, the wights’ swollen abdomens would erupt. A terrifying wave of poison would blast out in every direction, accompanied by bone shrapnel from the wights’ own bodies.
The gray slimes instantly turned dark purple, and their movements became unusually slow.
In truth, the terrifying part about nightmare creatures were the emotions of despair that their attacks contained. These emotions would often evoke severely negative reactions from their victims. Unfortunately, plague creatures were not living beings and, naturally, had no such negative emotions to draw up.
However, the enemies that the plague creatures were facing also relied primarily on poison and virus. Consequently, their attacks were very ineffective against these nightmare creatures.
Since their respective abilities were useless against each other, the only option left was a bloody melee!
The wights lunged forward ferociously. They were either riddled with holes by the acid spray, devoured by the slimes and digested into black liquid in their bodies, or self-destructed to cover the enemies in a layer of green plague spores.
The plague creatures and the nightmare creatures were caught in a difficult fight in the center of the hall. Their battle indirectly hindered Greem’s movements.
Compared to all the action and chaos on Greem’s side, Mary was having a much more peaceful time.
Perhaps it was due to Mary’s unique identity as a vampire, but the Nightmare Castle showed no signs of hostility toward her. In fact, it even showed hints of a soul resonance with her.
Mary had relayed a message back to Greem, explaining that she had found clues to Kerslin’s soul core and that she was going deeper into the Nightmare Domain to explore.
Since that was the case, Greem gave up on his plan to regroup with her. Instead, he started to focus entirely on his fight against the nightmare creatures here. As for Kerslin? It was obvious that it was still in deep slumber to digest the tremendous power it had obtained from the blood ritual.
The only thing Greem could do in his current position was to draw all the enemy’s attention toward himself and give Mary a chance to sneak into the deeper levels of the Nightmare Domain.
At the thought of this, Greem transformed without any hesitation.
Furious, violent flames burst out of every pore in his body, turning his surroundings into a blazing sea of fire. His body was surrounded by scalding flames and started to rapidly grow in size.
A molten giant.
Ever since he advanced to Fourth Grade, the molten giant form was the only form that could host the entirety of the overwhelming fire energy and mysterious fire laws within him!
His human form was enough for most ordinary occasions. However, if Greem wanted to fight at full-strength, his flesh body would not be able to endure the might of the fire laws. The fire laws would probably have melted Greem’s own body down before he could even injure the enemy.
Of course, this also had to do with the fact that Greem had not gained complete control over his fire laws. If he had managed to turn the fire laws into a part of him, such an incident would never occur. After all, how could fire possibly ever hurt fire itself!?
The molten giant that Greem transformed into was twelve meters tall, far larger than the size of this tiny hall.
By the time his transformation was complete, his head had bumped against the ceiling. The terrifying flames that raged around him licked furiously at the ceiling and the floor, crackling loudly as they burned. However, the stone did not melt into lava as it typically did.
After transforming into a molten giant, Greem no longer needed chants for most of his fire spells. Instead, he could easily cast them with a wave of his hand as if they were his innate abilities.
Greem strode forward, and the flames around him spread outward. The entire hall was instantly engulfed within the Burning Domain. At the same time, a mysterious and heavy pressure pushed in from all around. It clashed with Greem’s mental consciousness and attempted to force Greem’s power back into his body.
“Hmph.”
Greem grunted. He protected his body and mind with the Tome of Corruption before injecting most of his Spirit into the Orb of the Fire God. Wave upon wave of violent and ferocious magical flames began to lash at every corner of the hall like a living tornado.
The gray monster across from Greem suddenly had to endure the devastation of the flames!
So what if it was a Fourth Grade nightmare creature!?
Battered by two artifacts, the gray monster’s body was soon scorched black. It even started to shrink in size. No matter how many nightmare creatures swarmed and assimilated with it, its body continued to shrink and wither rapidly.
Just as Greem was about to exterminate the monstrosity, a new notification from the Chip rang in his mind.
[Time is up! Third phase of the Nightmare Domain beginning now.]
The notification had just ended when the scene before Greem’s eyes started to shift strangely.
The beginner Fourth Grade monstrosity erupted suddenly!
Its massive body blew up into tiny blobs of liquid spread across every corner of the hall. The castle itself absorbed the liquid.
The next second, the Nightmare Castle came alive.
Gray, fleshy substance started to seep out of the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, quickly merging together. The entire hall, apart from where Greem’s Burning Domain stood, soon became covered in this strange flesh-like substance.
The flesh bulged and throbbed, its surface covered in slimy liquid and many, many wrinkles. Looking from a distance, it was almost as if you were in the stomach of a living creature.
Naturally, that would make Greem food in the intestinal tract!
In corners and secret rooms all over the castle where Greem’s gaze could not reach, fleshy cocoons were throbbing at a uniform rate. The embryos of some strange creatures were in these cocoons, bobbing up and down in a sickly green liquid.
However, when Greem’s violent flames ravaged the castle, the creatures in these cocoons became restless.
Those who had matured or were nearing maturity tore open their cocoons impatiently. They emerged from the vile liquid, shaking their ugly bodies as they reared their heads and smelled the air. They screeched and ran to where they had smelled fire.
Greem, who was standing in the hall and clearing out the disgusting fleshy substance, felt something. He could sense the aura of the room grow even more disturbing.
It wasn’t just a violent and cruel aura now. No, a sort of strange emotion that made his mind falter was rising in his heart. Just as fire laws could burn without the need for fuel, this strange emotion was able to penetrate the hearts of humans and plant the seeds of despair right within.
The nutrients that allowed these seeds to grow were all the various negative emotions that one carried within!
Age of Adepts c1-1513 Page 806