That deformed, terrifying monster hung high above the forest, dominating the sky. Countless twisted tentacles supported its luminous "shell," and the "sunlight" that penetrated the entire forest came from this nightmare-like invader.

How long had it hung in this dream? Had it been there from the beginning? Why hadn't anyone noticed the disharmony in the sunlight? With what terrifying purpose was it overlooking this forest, a mixture and blend of several layers of dreams?

Heidi looked up, as if drawn by some powerful force, irresistibly gazing at that small sun supported by dreadful limbs. She stared at those pale, giant eyes guarded by the tentacles.

In an instant, she felt her mind connect with a larger, more distant existence. Through those pale, sky-gazing giant eyes, something entered her mind directly. She heard rumbling and explosions deep within her spirit, sensing an ancient will watching this dream, and the uninvited guests within it, through the sun in the sky.

Hundreds of voices murmured or roared in her head. She heard one of them, a voice that drilled into her consciousness like a dream, hidden in the deepest recesses of their memories… "…before our sunlight fades…" In the whisper that penetrated her mind, Heidi involuntarily felt a sense of conversion.

But in the next second, a burning sensation suddenly came from her chest. Heidi awoke abruptly in this heat, as if ten thousand thunderclaps had exploded in her ears. She felt the connection between herself and those voices instantly torn apart, her heart pounding like a drum, her ears ringing with noise.

Heidi's mind fluctuated violently. A feeling of relief after surviving a disaster rose from the bottom of her heart several seconds later. As soon as she woke up, she immediately and laboriously shifted her gaze away from the sky, while subconsciously grabbing the amethyst pendant on her chest.

The pendant was still radiating heat, but it wouldn't burn her. Overcome with fear, she turned her head and looked at the "witch," Lucrezia, standing beside her. The "witch" was expressionlessly reaching out to her. Three colored gems were floating in mid-air, slowly rotating at the tips of her fingers. The light from the gems danced, weaving a dreamy and deadly beautiful light.

Heidi instantly felt a palpitation. "I'm awake, I'm awake…" she shouted quickly, afraid that the witch would really attack. "I haven't been corrupted."

Lucrezia nodded, her eyes sweeping over the crystal pendant on Heidi's chest. The three colored gems flew up and returned to the small decoration in her hair. Then she thought for a moment, and seemed to feel it necessary to explain, "I didn't want to kill you!"

Uh…" Heidi didn't expect her to say that, and her face twitched. "I thought you were going to attack me just now."

"That would only be a violent shock. If you only suffered superficial mental corruption, this shock would evoke the fear of death in your subconscious, and then forcibly make the uncorrupted part of your mind leave this dream. At most, you would lose a little memory afterward," Lucrezia explained.

This was the dream detachment technique invented by Master Talan.Aier, "Sudden Death Method!"

Heidi stared. "Didn't you say this Sudden Death Method was unreliable?"

"It's unreliable when used on Talan.Aier himself," Lucrezia glanced at the great scholar who was still maintaining his mental sculpture state not far away.

"He's almost dying of a sudden death already from not dreaming!"

"Then I…"

"You have a good constitution!"

Heidi was speechless for a moment. After an awkward silence of several seconds, she pointed to the sky with lingering fear. In the process, she didn't dare to look up at that strange and terrifying thing again. "Ms. Lucrezia, that thing…"

"It seems that's the real invader," Lucrezia said casually. She swept her hand through the air in front of her, and a virtual round mirror surrounded by beautiful patterns and with a court style appeared out of thin air in front of her. Through the reflection of this magic mirror, she cautiously observed the scene in the sky. "The veil in this dream is to block this thing's prying," she paused, a thoughtful look on her face.

"It looks a lot like the work of those Black Sun worshipping cultists. The thing in the sky looks exactly like the Sun Spawn they follow…"

"Sun Spawn…" Heidi was shocked. As a Plandian, as a witness to the Black Sun Incident, she knew the horror behind this term better than anyone else. But then, she felt even more confused.

"But the 'invader' I saw in the dream at the beginning was clearly an Annihilation Cultist…"

"Annihilation Cultists?" Lucrezia frowned. "Then… this situation is even worse!"

Heidi opened her mouth, just about to ask the "Sea Witch" what she meant, but the next second, a slight rustling sound suddenly came from nearby, making her suddenly quiet down!

"Did you hear something?" Heidi asked quickly, with a hint of tension.

"It seems the protector of that monster in the sky has come," Lucrezia said calmly. "If we notice it, it will feel fear, and then try to eliminate any intelligent being that sees it."

"The Sun Spawn are like this."

The strange rustling sound suddenly disappeared, but a huge sense of alertness and crisis flooded in the moment the sound disappeared. The next second, Heidi saw a shadow in the corner of her eye. In the nearby trees, in a corner that had looked unremarkable the second before, formless darkness was wriggling, surging, and differentiating into sinister bodies like spears and blades, rushing towards her and Lucrezia. Without thinking, Heidi's body had already fallen to the side, and at the same time, she raised her Zhongjin and swept across the air in front of her. An afterimage was left behind in the place where she fell.

The next second, this afterimage was ruthlessly pierced by the attacker. The black shadow suddenly retreated, and the pierced "figure" was still standing on the ground. The figure shook twice, and the blurred outline quickly became clear, turning into another "Heidi"!

At the same time, a sharp popping sound suddenly came from Lucrezia's direction. A shadow meandering on the ground, like a sinister viper, spread to the feet of the "Sea Witch" and suddenly turned into thorns, spikes, blades, and tentacles. These ever-changing things of terror attacked Lucrezia from all directions.

In the blink of an eye, it swallowed her figure. But in that shadow, Lucrezia's body suddenly transformed. She suddenly turned into an extremely thin "image" like a piece of paper, and then her body turned in the air, "floating" out of those intertwined deadly moves.

Then, her figure reshaped on the open space next to her, and in her hand, she held a baton, seemingly the kind a musician uses to conduct an orchestra on stage. She raised the short stick and gently tapped it in mid-air, on a condensed black tentacle, and gave a gentle order.

"Rondo." The tentacle made a slight popping sound, and then the popping sounds rang out one after another, as if it were a piece of music. In the continuous bursts, the tentacle disintegrated into countless virtual and colorful notes, scattered and danced in space, dissipating into the void.

All the "shadows" connected to that black tentacle made continuous bursts. The terrifying curse turned them into countless notes, flying and scattering colorfully in the air. This scene was as beautiful as a dream and as eerie as it was frightening.

Lucrezia elegantly flicked her baton and turned to look at Heidi, who had differentiated into a third personality clone, with a hint of surprise in her eyes.

"Your amulet is good. Judging from your skills, have you trained in the real world?"

"You have to have some means of protecting yourself. After all, in our line of work, we not only have to deal with mentally ill patients, but also with their mentally ill spirits…"

"My father often taught me that girls must learn to protect themselves," Heidi said, panting, with a hint of pride.

Then, a hint of amazement and awe appeared in her eyes as she looked at Lucrezia. "Your power… is indeed as powerful as the rumors say."

"Because my father taught me similar words!"

Lucrezia smiled slightly, then turned around, her eyes calmly watching the figures that were constantly emerging from the air. The damage of a few tentacles and a few shadows did not mean the end of the matter. For the followers of the Black Sun, their hated limbs could always withstand greater consumption. The real bodies of the attackers appeared.

They were several tall figures. Underneath their black trench coats of unknown material, it seemed as if countless terrifying, deformed flesh was hidden, constantly wriggling and undulating, making a sticky and disgusting sound. Their faces were hidden in the shadows of wide-brimmed hats, and no tangible features could be seen. One could only feel the infinite emptiness and cold malice towards all living things.

"They are the inferior forms of the Sun Spawn." Heidi instantly recognized the identities of these beings who were like humans but not humans. She and her personality clones all looked vigilant, and at the same time couldn't help but frown. "But I've never heard of these guys having the ability to enter dreams…"

Lucrezia noticed another situation. "They're not holding umbrellas!" The Sea Witch said with a slight frown.

As an explorer who often travels in border areas and often deals with various dangerous and strange forces, she was no stranger to the various followers of the Black Sun, and had had several head-on confrontations with them.

These remnants of the Sun Spawn that appeared in the dream were not holding those iconic, bizarre black umbrellas. They stood in the light, frankly bathing in the "sunlight" that penetrated the forest, as if the exiled were outside their homeland.