Eldritch Horror Theatre

Was he recruited? It wasn’t too surprising.

After all, Dean Glenn had been quite shaken when Mariana’s group took those people out of the institution.

Given that he already recognized the deeper secrets of this world, there was a high probability the Fallen Star Clan had sought him out for a chat and enlisted his services.

As he explained the stalker’s identity, Fu Qian reasoned out why the man was here.

It might sound a bit imaginative at first, but in his eyes, it was a lot more likely than Glenn finding Esther, readmitting her to the institution, and attempting to treat her with situational roleplay.

”He’s just an ordinary person. Whoever sent him is being truly cautious. What do you think their reasoning is for such an arrangement?”

Fu Qian hadn’t even needed to share his train of thought. The Witch clearly shared his view, moving straight to questioning the mastermind’s goal.

”We can easily put ourselves in their shoes. Even if there hasn’t been much upheaval here since the Proxy’s sacrifice, the Fallen Stars must still be in a panic. After all, they have at most one of the Three Sacred Treasures left.”

Fu Qian recounted his own crimes without a shred of shame.

”From their perspective, this whole incident started with a Laerdin Nightmare under the Stars, luring in awakened ones like Esther. Then came the appearance of a bizarre Dark Moon Apostle, worsening their doubts about the world’s authenticity.”The night remained quiet. No further sounds emerged from the tavern, and Dean Glenn didn’t seem to be in any rush to go inside.

Meanwhile, playing the oriole behind, Fu Qian skillfully empathized with his targets.

”In the end, after all their struggling, just when the situation was about to spiral out of control, the Dark Moon Apostle suddenly vanished. Then, even that Nightmare abruptly disappeared.”

”Such a pleasant surprise would obviously make them even more resolute in their initially flawed belief—that this place is reality.”

It wasn’t nonsense. As Fu Qian saw it, the appearance and subsequent disappearance of the Law was practically a divine assist for the Fallen Star Clan’s misconception.

They had steadfastly believed that this place was the truth, and that Laerdin under the Law’s blessing was a recurring Nightmare.

As a result, the latter, which had been growing increasingly real, was turned into a picture-in-picture by the Witch, abruptly severing its connection to this place.

Faced with such a change, they naturally assumed that their persistence in the Truth had finally brought victory, making them even more stubborn in certain respects.

”Ultimately, when faced with another grand fusion of Nightmares under these circumstances, there’s a high probability they won’t be scared. Instead, it’ll further solidify their previous assumption—that Nightmares are indeed invading.”

”Only this time, the Nightmares aren’t just numerous. They’re blurring the lines between reality and dreamscape, no longer relying on the traditional method of pulling people into dreams, but acting through special connection channels instead.”

Fu Qian pointed to the path he and the Witch had taken to get here; the carriage they’d used had long since vanished without a trace.

”Faced with this situation, the most obvious first step would be to sever these ’possible channels.’”

...

”But they have to find them first.”

Although the plight of the Fallen Stars carried a bit of dark humor in Fu Qian’s description, the Witch wholly agreed with him.

After all they had been through, the belief that the Laerdin before them was reality was probably akin to a mental imprint now. Reversing it would be exponentially more difficult.

In the midst of a crisis, driving a special case like Esther to try and locate the Nightmare channels in order to patch things up was indeed a highly probable development.

”Using an ordinary person to tail Esther instead of coming personally makes perfect sense. On one hand, he’s fully capable of the task; on the other, it minimizes any disturbance and increases the chances of discovery.”

Viewed in that light, it was easy to understand why Glenn was the one doing the tailing.

What the Fallen Stars didn’t know, however, was that the two interlopers ”from the Nightmare” were equally in no rush to alarm them.

”Exactly. Plus, based on my past experiences with the Fallen Stars, their greatest ability here is that they can enact a Descent upon an ordinary person at any time. They don’t have to worry about reacting too slowly,” Fu Qian casually added.

”The problem now is that they’ll likely end up gaining nothing.”

It was a pessimistic view, but true. Finding what they wanted was never that easy.

Experts never relied on coincidence. Taking a carriage over here, walking a few steps, and just happening to bump into a key figure who could help quickly uncover something interesting—such a development was far too idealistic.

Although Glenn was being incredibly cautious, only daring to carefully peer inside, it was foreseeable that he’d find practically nothing.

”Indeed. Shall we speed things up a bit?”

Nodding slightly, the Witch agreed and casually made the suggestion.

”I think that works.”

Without even asking how they were going to speed things up, Fu Qian agreed. The next moment, he and the Witch headed straight toward the tavern.

...

How else could they speed things up? Naturally, it was by letting the Fallen Stars actually find something and seeing how they reacted.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived beneath the broken window. Peering inside, they could clearly see that Esther had already stepped behind the counter, standing perfectly stiff in front of the liquor at the back.

She stared at it as if it weren’t a wall of mind-numbing liquids, but a door leading to a new world.

Dean Glenn stood a few meters away, completely oblivious to the two spectators who had just joined him.

This was perfectly normal. The Witch hadn’t shown off her stealth skills earlier for nothing, and it was obvious she could extend them to a teammate, just like the Dark Moon.

”It looks like she really is searching for that painting.”

The Witch casually commented, acting as if they were entirely alone, before waving her hand—

The space in front of Esther didn’t turn into a painting. Instead, a section of the wall behind her suddenly grew soft and viscous.

Shaped like a door yet seemingly alive, it wriggled rapidly in a certain direction, as if trying to pull away.

Ugh—

Esther naturally couldn’t see this, but Glenn could.

In almost an instant, a bizarre sound tore from his throat, and his body went rigid.

What a quick reaction.

Taking action the moment an anomaly was discovered—for a brief second, even Fu Qian couldn’t help but praise the dedication of the Fallen Stars.

Based on his previous experience, their next move would be to swiftly enact a Descent, replacing the body’s original owner to investigate the anomaly Esther had found—hmm?

Sizing up the stupefied Glenn, Fu Qian realized the man showed zero signs of transforming. He turned and shot the Witch a glance.

”The Descent failed. That ability of theirs seems to have been affected by something, causing them to take a wrong turn.”

The Witch nodded, indicating that the Fallen Stars had indeed failed to arrive.

”They set off, but didn’t arrive?”

Fu Qian suddenly found this deeply amusing.

”Mhm.”

”So where did they end up?”

”A new Nightmare.”

As the Witch spoke, she reached out, nearly touching Fu Qian’s face.

Even though it looked like a gentle caress, the scene before his eyes instantly dissolved into Turbulence.