Who hid my body?

Chapter 354 Abyss Prison
Deep within the dream world, Bai Wei quietly watched the distraught Edwin.

Yes, he had been here all along, witnessing Edwin gradually uncover the truth, and then slowly shifting from extreme excitement to his current dejection and despair.

It's quite interesting, to be honest. After all, in the game's storyline, players learned about Vessus's birth through Edwin, just like now, with Edwin slumped helplessly in his chair. It's almost like a scene recreation, like the cutscene was played again.

In the game, Edwin essentially disappears after this blow, with no further storyline developments. He's essentially a mad scholar who sacrificed everything in pursuit of Vessus's power, only to find it was all for naught.

But right now, Bai Wei wasn't going to let Edwin leave, so he snapped his fingers silently.

A new memory suddenly appeared on the empty table next to Edwin.

After doing all this, Bai Wei slowly retreated.

After a while, Edwin, who was about to exit the dream, saw this memory and was taken aback.

Why is there another copy?
Edwin clearly remembered that there were only six portions, and each of his clones took one portion, so there shouldn't be any left over.

Could it be...

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Edwin abruptly stood up and nervously looked around.

His deepest dreams have been invaded!

Who could it be, the Lord of Eternal Nightmare?
No, it's impossible.

If it were the Lord of Eternal Nightmare, he definitely wouldn't be alive now. But even the Lord of Eternal Nightmare can't touch his deepest dreams, so who else in this world could?
He wouldn't believe that the extra memory was a mistake on his part.

"Who goes there?!" Edwin shouted. "Why hide in the corner? Since you're already here, why not come out and speak?"

Unfortunately, no one answered him; in the empty depths of his dream, only Edwin's own echo remained.

This naturally increased the pressure on Edwin. In this world, apart from the Lord of Nightmares, theoretically no one could surpass him in the mastery of dreams.

But now, he has been unknowingly invaded into the deepest part of his dream. If the other party hadn't revealed a flaw, he wouldn't have noticed it until now.

No, this can't even be called a flaw. The other party deliberately let him discover it, yet even so, Edwin still couldn't detect a single trace of them. How could this not fill him with fear and despair? He had just been... um?

Edwin suddenly thought of something.

Could it be...

He turned his gaze back to the memory that had appeared out of nowhere. In terms of composition, this memory was no different from the previous ones.

Is it possible that this memory wasn't given to him by the intruder, but rather was created after he learned the complete forbidden knowledge?

This is not impossible; on the contrary, such methods are quite common in the dream world. You need to know one, two, and three before four appears. Just like Edwin previously worried that learning all the taboos might cause some strange changes.

Now it seems that this is the mutation.

Otherwise, Edwin simply couldn't explain who could intrude into his deepest dreams.

If the memory in front of him is indeed extra information, as Edwin thinks, then what is it?

Edwin narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to calm himself down, but his heart pounding like a war drum betrayed his state of mind.

What if—he meant what if—that taboo hadn't ended yet, and what was before them was the real taboo?

Once the thought popped into Edwin's mind, he couldn't suppress it any longer.

And he had no choice, did he?

After taking a deep breath, Edwin walked to the table and reached out his hand toward the memory chip.

As the information contained in the memory spread through his brain, Edwin's pupils gradually dilated, like a dying ember suddenly bursting into flame again.

“So that’s how it is…” he murmured, “So that’s where it was.”

……

The next second, Edwin left the dream and woke up.

He immediately spotted Hevinia sitting leisurely inside the formation and, without even asking her if she knew anything, jumped up.

"I know, I know!" Edwin shouted excitedly, "I know where Vessas's power lies!"

Hevinia glanced sideways at Edwin, pretending not to know anything, and said, "Didn't you say it was hidden in that forbidden place?"

"Yes and no."

“If you don’t speak more clearly,” Hevinia said calmly, “I’ll rip your tongue out.”

“That forbidden thing itself doesn’t contain power!” Edwin said quickly, “but it points in a direction!”

"What direction?"

"Where Vessas's power lies!" Edwin cut to the chase, "In the abyssal prison of the Land of Contracts! That's where Vessas left everything!"

Hevinia looked at Edwin as if he were an idiot.

"You're not trying to tell me that your next target is the Land of Contracts, are you?"

“It’s the Abyssal Prison! The most heavily guarded place in the Land of Contracts, they’ve been there for a thousand years!” Edwin said. “Because it holds the most powerful force in Vessas! Once we get it, we can… I’m not lying to you, believe me!”

Hevinia's staff was already pressed against Edwin's throat, her tone exceptionally cold: "You clearly told me that as long as that taboo was broken, I would gain power, and once I gained power, I would share it with you. But now you're telling me to go to some Abyss Prison. Do you think I don't know what that place is? If you want to die, just say so, don't drag me down with you."

Edwin had anticipated Hevinia's reaction. After all, the Land of Contracts was an existence above the eight major churches, and it was indeed a pipe dream for just the two of them to try to steal the thing they had guarded for a thousand years from the Land of Contracts.

If Hevinia had agreed immediately, Edwin would have thought that she was either scheming against him or that she was brainless.

Edwin was not surprised by Hevinia's current reaction, and he had already figured out how to persuade her.

“In the past, we certainly wouldn’t have had a chance,” Edwin said in a low voice, “but things are different now.”

"What's the difference?"

"The Land of the Covenant and the Eight Great Churches are holding a meeting!" Edwin exclaimed. "Do you know what that means?!"

Hevinia remained silent, only focusing on channeling her magic, preparing to blast Edwin to smithereens. "Fine, fine, fine, I'll get straight to the point!" Edwin shouted, raising his hands high. "This means the Abyss Prison's security is at its lowest level in a thousand years!"

Hevinia stopped the magic, but did not put down her staff.

“Someone has drawn our attention!” Edwin lowered his voice. “So this is an opportunity, a truly once-in-a-millennium opportunity. Don’t you want to seize it? You should understand what I’m saying. I know you have pieces of corpse on you. No one knows better than you how powerful Vessas is, and the Abyss Prison contains the most powerful portion of it. Don’t you really want it?!”

Hevinia didn't speak, but simply stared at Edwin. Her pure black eyes put immense pressure on Edwin, as if Hevinia would unleash her magic to kill him at any moment.

But Edwin had no way out. He had already given so much, and there was no turning back. The Abyss Prison was his final promised land. And without Hevinia's help, he couldn't have accomplished anything alone.

"Believe me, this is the last time," Edwin said, emphasizing each word. "We are truly just one step away from achieving our goal."

Hevinia continued to watch Edwin, but after a while, she put down her staff.

“Then let’s go and see,” Hevinia said. “But if we succeed, that power will be mine.”

Edwin smiled: "No problem!"

Hevinia nodded, then turned and left.

Edwin laughed even harder as he watched Hevinia's retreating figure.

Idiot, you've taken the bait.

He thought so.

But what he didn't see was that Hevinia, who had turned around, also slightly raised the corners of her mouth.

Idiot, you've taken the bait.

……

The land of covenants, the abyss of prisons.

Diana was sitting in the warden's seat, listening to her subordinates' reports.

"So, the inspection of the seals throughout the prison won't be until fifty years from now?"

"To be precise, it's fifty-two years," the subordinate replied neither humbly nor arrogantly. "The routine inspection of the seal has always been once every hundred years, and the last routine inspection was only forty-eight years ago."

Diana nodded slightly.

The subordinates before her were not her servants, but the warden's men.

The guardians of the Land of Contracts are roughly divided into two groups. One group consists of the Warden's guardians, who are mostly drawn from various churches or are descendants of the guardians themselves. They are directly loyal to the Warden. The other group consists of the servants of the successive "Contractors," who are now Diana's servants. Of course, nominally, they and Diana are also subordinates of the Warden.

The two groups of people also had different responsibilities. The Guardians' job was very simple: to maintain and inspect the seals throughout the Abyss Prison. Just like the Warden himself, he didn't get involved in anything other than matters related to the seals.

Diana and her attendants were responsible for matters other than the seal, such as transactions with black market merchants and the daily needs of tens of thousands of people in the Contract Land. In short, they were more like stewards of the Contract Land.

Neither side interferes in the other's affairs. The warden doesn't care what the contractors of each generation are doing, and the contractors of each generation don't manage the prison's seal.

But this time is an exception. The warden has led a large group of guardians to the Heavenly Voice's submission, so the various affairs of the Abyss Prison naturally fall on Diana's shoulders.

That's why Diana, in her position as warden, asked that question earlier and successfully obtained the answer she already knew.

The seals of the Abyss Prison undergo routine inspections once every hundred years. Diana wasn't even born when the last inspection was conducted. This wasn't because the people of the Land of Contracts were lazy, but because the costs of the inspections were simply too high, involving thousands of seals. Therefore, even with the support of the eight major churches, the frequency of the inspections couldn't be too high.

Moreover, with two of the eight major churches now missing, future donations will further decrease, making it very likely that routine checkups will not even be able to be maintained at a frequency of once every hundred years.

This is why the warden wanted to bring the entire Land of Contracts into the world; he wanted the Land of Contracts to replace one of the churches and then personally maintain the Abyss Prison.

Yes, everything was for the Abyss Prison. If the eight churches had remained problem-free, the Warden wouldn't have had the idea of ​​getting involved in worldly affairs; everything he did was to maintain the normal operation of the Abyss Prison. The reason the Land of Contracts has been able to fulfill its duties for thousands of years is precisely because of the Warden, such an extremely pure and powerful leader.

But not everyone is like him.

Diana rested her chin on her hand and asked casually, "The warden has transferred so many guardians away. Is the current manpower for sealing them still sufficient?"

Human seal, as its name suggests, is a seal performed by humans.

This involves not only routine patrols and inspections, but also sealing formations sustained by the magic and spiritual power within the human body. Generally speaking, such sealing consumes a great deal of energy, so the guardians need to work in shifts continuously, which is why the Contract Land constantly draws manpower from various churches.

It's like firewood, except it's firewood that can be burned repeatedly. But if it's burned too frequently, it will eventually burn out completely.

Therefore, the warden took away a large number of guardians this time in order to shorten the rotation of human seals and increase the consumption of existing "fuel".

“Barely enough,” the subordinate replied. “As long as the warden returns on time, there won’t be any problems.”

“It won’t be that fast,” Diana said calmly. “This is no small matter. How about this, let my people go and help with the sealing.”

The subordinate hesitated, "Isn't this a bit...?"

Crossed the line.

The contractors have interfered with the guardians' role.

“Things are different now,” Diana replied. “The eight churches have suffered huge losses, and we won’t have as many Guardians in the future. If we over-exploit the Guardians now, we will have to bear the bitter consequences later. Just do as I say, and I will explain to the Warden when he returns… This is an order.”

The subordinate immediately clutched his chest and said, "I understand."

In this way, Diana successfully achieved her goal.

Although she did not intend to frame Isaiah by breaking the seal of the Abyss Prison, as Hand and Eye had suggested.

However, "not intending" does not mean "cannot." She must at least ensure that she has the resources to do so, so that she can respond quickly if the situation changes in the future.

And now, the goal has been achieved.

So Diana was about to turn her attention to the Heavenly Voice's Obedience to see what was going on there when she received Carter's report.

"Master, the right eye has found its way to the thumb."

(End of this chapter)