Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Fleeting illusions, good, evil, love, and deceit—what this seat gives you is yours.”

”If this seat doesn’t give it, claiming it for yourself is simply too impolite.”

After casually firing a Giant Elephant-Class Air Bullet, Fu Qian faced the Sanctuary before him—now sporting a splash of crimson across its white head—and stared it down with proud disdain.

”I admit Your Excellency possesses a certain sublimity, but trying to play these mutinous tricks in a domain where this seat is Sovereign? That is truly a bit whimsical.”

This sublimity, of course, referred to the White-Headed Sanctuary, which had used the Finger Orb as a beacon and the Ecstasy within Brother Honma as a catalyst to successfully project itself into the dream.

And its reaction to his subsequent blasphemy clearly proved a great deal.

This holy and sublime place, an abode that dispelled even the slightest impure thought, ironically seemed to represent the absolute pinnacle of desire.

This contrast, one had to admit, was as wondrous as it was logical.

His earlier hypothesis, which differed from Professor Chang Mo’s, had undoubtedly gained another piece of evidence.

Vaguely, Fu Qian even recalled the moment he had crushed his mission reward, the Carnival of Wicked Desires. He thought of the sky-blotting Stomach he had looked upon directly, woven entirely from the Tree of Ecstasy.According to the Carnival of Wicked Desires’ own description, it was a conscious carrier born after an audience with a Deity. As a shattered medium granting him a vision, what it showed was naturally a Deity’s true form.

Thanks to the Warehouse’s filtering effect at the time, he hadn’t sensed a very clear form of power.

But that highly suggestive moan from a moment ago undeniably bore the distinct style of the Seed of Ecstasy, or perhaps the Invitation Letter.

”Is this the Sanctum of that Stomach?”

He couldn’t rule out the possibility.

...

For a mere projected image to achieve this level of impact... well, it suited the sheer prestige of an entity that had drained dozens of his SAN Value points with just a single glance.

It was just a pity that this great being didn’t seem to have a very functional brain.

Fighting an away game and still not going all out, opting instead for these petty tricks.

A normal Air Bullet certainly didn’t pack that kind of punch, but supplemented by the Sovereign’s power within a Lucid Dream, many things were subject to his mere whim.

Fortunately, it was somewhat comforting to see that ”It” had at least learned a little from the experience.

The gory paste that had added quite a bit of festivity to the Sanctum only lasted a single breath before it began to change.

It didn’t vanish; rather, it began mutating in a peculiar fashion.

If forced to describe it, it looked like ketchup poured into a plate of spaghetti that was slowly stirring itself.

”Angel hair pasta, even?”

Amidst this miraculous scene, Fu Qian’s gaze fell on the dangling silver threads.

”Is the entire Sanctuary composed of these things?”

Entities Should Not Be Multiplied Without Necessity, after all.

Almost in tandem with that thought, the massive, blood-stained Emblem right in front of him actually started to move.

Not the whole thing, but the specific pattern on it that closely resembled the Finger Orb.

Silently, those interwoven lines began to bulge and lift off the Emblem, growing outward bit by bit.

In the blink of an eye, what had been a simple sketch transformed into a physical entity structurally identical to the Finger Orb, only a hundred times larger.

...

”Now this is what you call 2D entering reality!”

Faced with such a magical scene, Fu Qian naturally couldn’t miss it, immediately offering his commentary.

And this wasn’t his only takeaway; even his earlier hypothesis had been confirmed.

As the Emblem expanded in dimension, the writhing silver-white threads within finally revealed more of their nature.

Converging, pulling... countless strands of white hair had forged this scene together in a bizarre manner.

Behind the gigantic, completely suspended Finger Orb, he could even see radial threads jutting out in sheer defiance of the laws of physics.

By now, the giant orb had stopped, looming over the entire Sanctum in a stance of absolute superiority.

Looming even over this dream.

As the Sovereign, Fu Qian could clearly feel the immense pressure bearing down on the Lucid Dream; it was practically groaning under the strain.

This great existence was actually readily accepting good advice. It really stopped playing those petty tricks—and opted for a giant firework instead.

The threads were trembling, and not just the ones behind the Finger Orb.

A certain sensation that had been lingering since earlier was fully exposed at this moment.

Every single strand of hair making up the Sanctum seemed to pulse with a resonance ever since Yi’an was obliterated by his strike.

This resonance even pierced through the dream, connecting with countless human wills.

Just like the legendary Spirit Bomb, the deep-seated yearning for pleasure within the hearts of countless men and women trickled in drop by drop, condensing into a different kind of sea.

A sea comparable to nitroglycerin.

...

As the Dream Dominator, Fu Qian was absolutely certain that the resonance absorbed by the giant Finger Orb could be unleashed in a devastatingly explosive manner at any moment.

It was hard to say what kind of physical impact it would have on the flesh, but its nature should be akin to detonating a nuclear bomb inside one’s willpower.

If he wasn’t careful, his brain would end up even cleaner than Brother Ariel’s.

Then again, it might end up filled with yellow impurity, turning into an exhibition hall of Ecstasy containing every form of pleasure from the First Layer to Layer 100?

Right now, as the hair surged, bulging, tree-like veins could be seen in more than one place across the Sanctum, looking just like blood-engorged veins beneath the skin.

They also looked like the Tree of Ecstasy he had once seen upon that Stomach.

”It really is It!”

After gladly accepting those dozens of SAN Value points from him earlier, It was using this auspicious occasion to present a much grander gift to him, this impolite voyeur.

Even under his own ”encouragement,” he could clearly feel that while this Sanctum danced lightly in the air, its integration with the dream was growing ever tighter, faintly helping to reinforce its existence.

No matter how he looked at it, It was maximizing the suppression of his chances to end the dream and evade the damage.

”The big one is coming.”

With this realization, Fu Qian watched the giant Finger Orb, which was almost turning into pure light, and blinked in admiration.

Boom!

Endless golden flames surged into the sky, sweeping in all directions amidst the trembling of every single strand of hair.

”How did that saying go?”

”The ancient wielder of Calamity descended upon the world once more on this day.”

”Petty scoundrels, how dare you disturb the peaceful dreams of this King of the Abandoned Prison.”

...

White hair rolled like waves; pleasure faded into nothing.

The Ecstasy gathered within the Finger Orb indeed erupted in a peculiar manner.

It even dragged the entire Sanctum into the Flame of Frenzy in an instant.

Under this maddening annihilation, everything rapidly dissociated.

The Finger Orb, the Sanctum, all the holiness and Transcendence—they were violently dragged from their pedestals and ground into Residue.

The sea of desire dissipated even faster than it had condensed, denied even the chance to flaunt its violent nature.

”Who told you this seat wanted to dismiss the dream and run away?”

And finally, beside the now-revealed dining table of Brother Honma, Professor Fu was already sitting on the Chair, narrowing his eyes as he sensed the infinitely distant aftershocks and gave a cold harrumph.