Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

Alina's phantom, looking bewildered, was still gently combing Talulah's hair. This was something Alina had done in the past, when she had forced Talulah to lie down on her lap despite Talulah's objections.

"I don't think so. Talulah has always considered Miss Alina as her own... Hmm... Let me think..."

Amiya was momentarily at a loss for words to describe the relationship between Alina and Talulah.

Although she could see that the feelings between the two were very deep and sincere, Amiya certainly wouldn't be at a loss for words if it were just a simple friendship.

Amiya didn't know how to explain, after all, she was just a teenage Castor bunny.

"In short! If what Miss Alina did was meaningless, Talulah wouldn't have kept your image in her heart and had you protect her all this time."

"And no matter how many times those horrible scenes, in which people have stolen your face and hurled insults at Talulah, have repeated themselves, you still remain in her heart as you are now."

The Alina before my eyes is not the real Alina.

She was created by Talulah and exists only in this spiritual world.

However, the intense longing caused her to become relatively independent of Talulah's consciousness.

Talulah created her, and she, in turn, can influence Talulah.

Now, based on Amiya's experience, the only way to awaken this Draco is through her.

But just as Amiya was about to continue negotiating with Alina, Tomat stepped forward.

Tomath, who had been standing behind Amiya, waiting for her to wake Talulah, was not one to participate in such verbal exchanges.

After all, his assessment of Talulah was that "there is no need to communicate with her," because no matter what the reason, Talulah was a threat to others.

This was different from when I met Frostnova in the ruins of Chernobog's branch city—back then, I didn't have that many Rhodes Island people around me, and I was confident that I wouldn't be threatened, so I had the leisure to communicate with her or dissuade her from continuing her attack.

But he didn't come forward just to say something.

However, this move did startle both Amiya and Alina for a moment.

Thomas laughed.

He stared intently at the Elafia girl in front of him with a very contemptuous attitude.

"Speaking of which, Amiya, you should be very good at treating people who shut themselves off inside. If I remember correctly, this is also a kind of mental illness."

He stared at Alina, but his words were in favor of Amiya.

“That’s right… Why did Mr. Thomas suddenly ask this? If we’re talking about treatment methods, what I’m doing now is gradually guiding and soothing his mind…”

"You've probably never fought using your mental world like I have, like the kind of fighting each other."

"No... what's wrong?"

Tomat's questions gradually left Amiya somewhat bewildered.

Amiya, on the other hand, only regarded Alina as a phantom and told her directly that she was undergoing treatment.

"Let me ask another question. Even in real-life training, shouldn't you be able to distinguish whether your training subject is a real person, a punching bag, or a target?"

Tomat never answered Amiya's question; instead, he continued to ask her more.

His gaze remained fixed on Alina.

"Of course...wait...you mean!?"

After Amiya answered the question, she instantly understood the meaning behind Tomat's words.

Her wide-open eyes were looking in the same direction as Tomat's.

—At the same time, the other party also realized the same thing.

"Bang!!!!!!"

Alina's phantom crashed through the hut and into the snow outside.

This is exactly what Tomat did.

What is the battle in the spiritual world like?

Perhaps some people with abilities similar to Amiya have witnessed others using such magic to attack: entering the other person's inner world, using magical fluctuations to affect internal stability, interfere with the other person's mental state, or directly launching a formed magical attack from within.

But no one has ever seen someone knock someone away with a "fist" in the mental world.

Was this a physical attack?

of course not.

Even though it was a hard, solid fist.

It's only natural to feel pain when you get hit.

But it is indeed a genuine "psychological attack".

After all, what else could it be but a psychological attack if not a physical assault?

It's just that most other people either don't do it or can't do it.

Amiya was stunned.

She wasn't surprised to see Tomat beating others in the mental world, because she had already seen it once before on Rhodes Island.

Rather, it was because although he indicated that Alina was problematic, he attacked before she could even ask any questions, which startled her slightly.

Talulah lay on the ground, still seemingly fast asleep.

However, Alina's phantom, which had been knocked away, stood up.

How did you...?

This is not Alina's voice.

The voice was deep and hoarse.

Erafia's pupils turned into vertical pupils.

The surrounding scenery began to distort again—centered on Alina.

But now even that phantom's image is no longer Alina.

It transformed into an old man, into a disciplinary team, into Alina, into an unfamiliar, elegantly dressed, white-haired middle-aged man—and then into Talulah.

"You probably think the most dangerous place is the safest place? But between you and me, it seems there's no safe place for you."

Thomas raised his fist, seemingly unfazed by the rapid change in the other person's appearance.

"You shouldn't have been so close to me."

He simply stared at the unidentified being, whose form kept changing, word by word, continuing to display his utter contempt.

Talulah, lying on the ground, frowned slightly, moved her fingers, and then opened her eyes, seeing the familiar yet unfamiliar roof of the small house.

[Main Text] Chernobog, Above the Ruins: Chapter Thirty: The Undying Black Serpent

Let's assume that this thing that exists in Talulah's mental world for some unknown reason continues to disguise itself as the environment or something else.

Thomas probably couldn't realize that the other party was an independent spiritual entity.

But choosing to appear before him in a "human form," impersonating the illusion Talulah had imagined, was her biggest mistake.

He could still easily distinguish whether the other person was a fabricated doll or a real "spiritual clone".

After being hit by a "mental attack" that was not a magical fluctuation but a punch, the guy hiding in Talulah's mental world gradually lost the many disguises he used.

This is evidence of mental instability.

Previously, both Amiya and Tomat believed that the image of "Talulah sleeping on Alina's lap" represented her inner escape from the shadows of the past in order to seek solace.

But now they both understand.

That wasn't "Alina accompanying Talulah," but rather another person organizing Talulah's restoration of consciousness.

Because of Tomat's solid punch, the opponent was forced to leave Talulah's location and suffered mental trauma—in contrast, Talulah lay on the ground, making muffled sounds and opening her eyes.

"You actually woke up?! That's amazing..."

Upon seeing Talulah awaken, the guy seemed to show a hint of dissatisfaction. The constantly flashing phantoms around him gradually faded away, eventually turning into a strange shape resembling a humanoid black mist.

"Shut up."

But before he could fully express his dissatisfaction with the current situation, Tomat glared at him.

"boom!!!"

Those two short words seemed to be brimming with deadly power.

As the words were spoken, the black mist was blasted away by an invisible force, crashing through several houses in the village before landing on the snowfield outside the village.

But just as the black mist began to condense, it was obscured by a shadow—it was Tomat's figure following closely behind.

He blocked the sun in the spiritual world, shrouding the other person in his own shadow.

"In the spiritual world, all my moves can harm the spiritual body. Don't think that just because it's not the real world, you can beat me."

As Thomas looked at the other party's body, which was nothing but an amorphous black mist, he gradually formed a general idea in his mind.

After demonstrating his overwhelming advantage, Tomat took a deep breath and, with a tentative attitude, revealed his assessment of the other party's identity.

"—So, this unknown god, are you going to continue fighting?"

While Tomat confronted the black mist, in the small house with its walls broken, Talulah had already stood up. She looked at the trail of destruction that led straight out of the village, then at Amiya beside her who was silent because she didn't know how to speak, and she herself also fell into a long silence.

When she woke up, she seemed to have no questions, no surprise, and no other emotions.

Amiya could sense that she was calm.

He no longer possessed the ferocity he had when they first met in Chernobog, nor the arrogance he displayed when he transformed into a dragon and attacked them.

After a long silence, she finally spoke:

"When I was a child, I was very afraid of having nightmares."

“That girl Huijie often makes fun of me about this.”

"But now, I really hope this is just a nightmare."

"Because they will disappear as soon as I wake up."

"But now that I'm awake, I understand..."

"It is the tragic reality caused by my own perception of it as a nightmare, my failure to resist, and my blind waiting for the awakening."