Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

He remains dormant, the power of the subconscious forming an ocean. Scholars of the Dream Elf race, perhaps to embellish their own work, have made similar claims. They say that through their exploration of dreams, they've found that dreams are a unified whole, a manifestation of the spirit, with each individual's dreams connecting to form a vast network, and this network constituting a world.

The first Dream Druid, the first Dreamwalker, Elven leader Erasson established the Emerald Dream, linking the dreams of the Elven race together. This was undoubtedly a great achievement, even though she later changed drastically, becoming so indolent that she silenced her people.

The Emerald Dream, hailed as the dream home of all intelligent beings, capable of containing the dreams of all living things. However, in reality, the entire Emerald Dream is merely an isolated island in the ocean of the subconscious. The Dream Druid who governs this place always remains silent when gazing upon its boundless waves.

The exploration of the ocean of the subconscious has made new progress since the arrival of the Queen's close friend, Susanna.

"Those are the dreams of all things, those wandering and chaotic subconsciousnesses, the dreams of flowers, birds, insects, snakes, trees, rocks, sand, dust, and storms. All matter dreams, but it doesn't have a brain like yours to organize words, it doesn't have a mouth to speak, and it can't perceive its own dreams. That's why it's the subconscious; these consciousnesses are vague, and they don't even have self-awareness."

At this point, sadness welled up in the elven governor's eyes.

"The sleeping Father God controls all dreams. In fact, your ability to dream, to think, and to recognize your own souls is a gift from the Father God. But do not be grateful; He merely casually stuffed unimportant spiritual beings into a monkey-like vessel, like a child stuffing grains of rice into the cavity of a toy. If He had changed His mind, the species that are now the apparent masters of the world would not be primates, but perhaps amphibians, birds, or mollusks. In fact, primates were not the Father God's first toy..."

We didn't get much more out of this knowledgeable woman, especially since we were tied up with vines and hanging upside down above the brambles; our attention was more focused on the steel-nail-like spikes below than on what she called outdated historical remnants.

—Excerpt from "The City of Wanderings," *The Scholar* magazine, *Dreams and Souls*

……

The Emerald Dream is divided into many parts, each managed by a Dream Druid. However, each area has at least one boundary line that connects to the ocean of the subconscious. One of the Dream Druids' duties is to monitor any unusual activity within this chaotic area.

Before Lyle used this area for virtual games, the Dream Kingdom was jointly governed by two Dream Druids, Susanna and Irason, and it has a long, narrow coastline.

It was a vertical cliff face, which had been modified by several administrators who set restrictions on players at a certain height.

Lyle climbed the line and, atop the barren, desolate cliff, saw Susanna gazing at the dark, writhing ocean. She stood there like a still rock, her armor covered in spikes, her cold, menacing aura dissipating upon sensing Lyle's presence. Without Irason's company, only Susanna and Lyle, two rebellious comrades from the side of the evil god, remained.

"Can you feel it?" Susanna stretched out her spear-like arm and pointed to a spot in the writhing ocean.

Lyle closed his eyes, then opened them after a moment, looking up at the imposing observer. "No."

"Use your other part, the part that disgusts me."

"Oh." The moment the shadow crawled out of the shadows and the Omen Giant crawled out of Lyle's shadow, the atmosphere dropped to freezing point. Susanna had given up maintaining her human form and transformed into a fully armed four-legged beast with sharp teeth and claws, staring at the Omen.

In response to the Nightmare Beast's stress reaction, the Ominous Sign emitted a repulsive, sarcastic laugh and bent its head to begin communicating.

“There are energy fluctuations there, like a balloon inflating. Is the sleeping being expelling waste gas?”

The crouching beast transformed back into its tall, slender form and coldly replied.

"Change back, or I'll beat you up, Lyle."

Lyle shrank back quickly, his face flashing as he immediately offered an explanation.

“That was an ominous sign, I couldn’t control it! We are independent individuals with different wills, and we should not be shared by hatred!” Lyle thought of everything Andre saw in the final court, and felt more confident.

Susanna ignored his nonsense and refocused her gaze on the dark area. Only the inexplicable connection between the evil gods could sense the turbulence in that region. Susanna directly revealed the answer.

“There, things are being born, multiplying, giving birth, and new individuals are being born, belonging to the protection of the Father God.”

"Having a baby? At this time?" Lyle hadn't expected the enemy to mass produce troops so quickly.

Susanna pressed down on Lyle's head; she was tall enough to do so at this point. It wasn't a gentle stroking, but it was reassuring.

“There’s still time. The new guardians haven’t fully formed yet. Although these unseen beings are very powerful, they are not my match for now. Moreover, you are of higher purity. You are the true divine child and heir.” Susanna withdrew her hand, rested her chin on her hand, as if watching this invisible process. “We still have five hours. That’s more than enough time for us to discuss solutions.”

Lyle was somewhat surprised. "Sister Susanna seems quite familiar with this derivative ritual?"

“I’ve seen it a thousand times, and a fully formed Child of No Form is right in front of you.” Susanna narrowed her eyes, the upturned corners of her mouth showing that she enjoyed Lyle’s surprise. “That’s right, that’s how I was born, as a white blood cell born from the evil god’s immune mechanism, a sweeper.”

Lyle's heart sank. If all the Child of the Formless grew up to be like Susanna, the Elven Archon, the Dream Master, and the Children of the Evil God would all be like dragons, and the enemy soldiers would all be elite monsters. It was truly terrifying.

"What should we do with them, Susanna?" Lyle felt extremely anxious.

Susanna tilted her head and tapped Lyle's forehead with her fingers.

“I also wanted to ask for your opinion. I’ve dealt with this situation many times, but I always handled it alone. I wanted to ask you, as the God Child, if you have any better ideas. If all else fails, then we can use mine.”

For the first time ever, Susanna gave a wicked smile, her expression alluring and captivating.

"If all else fails, we'll eat them."

Chapter 730 Divine Child, Deceiver

Hunger was the first sensation that arose in Lyle's body. It seemed incomprehensible, yet Lyle understood perfectly what Susanna was trying to convey. Devouring, plundering, consuming and digesting the newborn, invisible children as food, turning the infants of God into part of oneself like chewing raw meat. Even if they shared the same origin as Susanna, were her closest "brothers and sisters" connected to her by blood and physical structure, Lyle wholeheartedly approved of this dark ritual, so in keeping with its ancient and barbaric style.

New knowledge arises instantly from instinct; it's an ominous sign sharing common sense about "eating." Fortunately, the original form of the formless child doesn't solely possess material components; perhaps the process will be more elegant than Lyle imagined.

The elven archdeacon leaped off the cliff at the dividing line first. Her body transformed into a nightmare behemoth in mid-air, crashing into the ocean of the subconscious like a whale, creating enormous waves. The murky, grayish-black spray didn't recede with the behemoth's advance; it seemed frozen in place, leaving a trail of marks behind the monster.

The steady waves were torn apart by the following tentacles, the last vestiges of beauty lost in chaos. The Omen Giant strode across the water, its chaotic tentacles, stretching from its body, haphazardly splashing the surrounding spray. Following the trail left by the Nightmare Beast, the Omen Giant advanced into the depths of the undulating chaos.

There was no distinction between up and down. The concept of "water surface" seen within the dream realm vanished the moment one plunged into the ocean of the subconscious. The ominous sign felt like walking on water, sinking to the bottom of the sea, or perhaps flying through the air. The surrounding murky colors lost the common sense of "sky" and "sea," blurring the concepts of distance, up, and down. This was precisely why Susanna had left her mark. A guide was needed here. Lyle could only vaguely sense that he hadn't reached his destination yet.

Following the trail for an indescribable distance, consuming what was not an "instant" moment, the Omen remained stationary. The trail before him vanished, and the surroundings became a hazy blur. The coastline of the Emerald Dream was gone; the Omen Giant was lost in the ocean.

"I can't hear my own heartbeat. Is this a vacuum?" This thought was immediately dismissed. Sound is relative; only when a sudden heartbeat appears in the silence can one hear their own heartbeat.

By feeling his inner self, Lyle was certain that his inner self had not changed.

"The heartbeat should be there, it's just that I can't feel it..."

Because… the ominous giant’s blurry face contorted into a grotesque grin, and its twisted laughter quickly transformed into a chaotic symphony. The sounds gradually became clearer, eventually turning shrill and piercing.

"The reason I didn't hear a heartbeat is because everything in this space is pulsating with my heartbeat; [they] heard my heartbeat."

The unseen children were all around her; Susanna had brought her to the very center of the delivery room. They were an unobservable chaos, existing in a state between energy and matter. Only when the Ominous Giant unleashed its inimitable tenor voice did these unseen children reveal themselves.

Lyle saw them.

The invisible children were observed as a cluster of long, tentacled clumps with a faint glow. They huddled together like cells, wriggling between the individual members with their tentacles. The center of the clump did not change much, but the tentacles produced shimmering patterns similar to the aurora borealis.

They are watching for ominous signs.

No longer masquerading as the surrounding subconscious ocean, the unseen children underwent a new mutation. They began to stretch, becoming elongated, their colors deepening, and the starlight on their bodies shining even brighter. They grew limbs and torsos, and forms enveloped by tentacles. They were imitating, imitating the omen. Each one was doing so, and they slowly extended their tentacles, preparing to touch the simulated embodiment of the omen.

Lyle didn't stop them, nor was he worried that the Child of the Unseen would imitate the Omen and surpass itself. Because it was impossible; the Child of the Unseen, like the Omen, belonged to the same kinship of the evil gods. The evil gods were ancient, powerful, chaotic beings; they were the most ancient and primal concepts, lacking rational and sharp thought. Because their existence was powerful enough, the evil gods rarely used their brains; of course, their thinking, though straightforward, was beyond the comprehension of mortals. When a race lacks unconventional wisdom, their hierarchy becomes absolutely rigid. The power of the evil god's kin comes from bloodline and their intimacy with the slumbering ancient gods.

The ominous sign is the "divine child" born from flesh and blood, while the formless child is merely a defense mechanism nurtured in the ocean of the subconscious. No matter how rebellious this child is, he will not be outdone by a robot vacuum cleaner.

Moreover, Lyle was very curious about the characteristics of the Invisible Children.

The Phantom Clan is so similar to the Formless Ones; perhaps the Phantom Clan is an extension of the Formless Ones' technology.

As fellow imitators, becoming the phantom race of their own kind might allow them to find a new path among the invisible children.

Thinking of this, the ominous sign did not resist, but instead took the initiative to touch the tentacles of the unseen child's probing.

Touch, a form of communication that transcends language and telepathy, involves exchanging information through physical contact. It is the most efficient way for the followers of evil gods to disseminate information. The deepest form of touch is assimilation, becoming completely one with the other. For the formless children, the concepts of communication and feeding are not separate.

The ominous giant watched as the glowing tentacles intertwined with his withered, tree-like arms, emitting bright specks of light. A bridge was built between the Child of No Form and the Ominous Giant; they began to understand and explore each other.

However, Lyle's message was fabricated; no one says you have to tell the truth when chatting, right?

Therefore, Lyle exchanged information with a group of newly born Invisible Children who had no concept of truth or falsehood, and gained a lot of new knowledge.

The communication process can be simplified and translated as follows.

The Child of the Unseen: "You are special; you are a higher kind of my kind."

Lyle / Ominous Sign: "Of course, because I am the heir born from the bloodline of the Father God, his most beloved child. I will inherit the glory of the Sleeper Triton and the world. I am... the Deceiver."

The Child of the Formless nodded, seemingly bewildered but deeply impressed: "A name similar to that of the Father God. Although I don't understand the meaning of 'deceitful one,' it must be a very noble title. We are the Child of the Formless, guardians who eliminate the dangerous factors threatening the Father God." The Child of the Formless accepted Lyle's lie as true, because the evil god had no reason to lie; the omen's own nobility was enough to prove its truth. The Child of the Formless never expected that the prince of the evil god would be willing to become an insect and even rebel against his own Father God for the sake of these ants.

Lyle/Ominous laughed. These unseen children were unaware that the greatest threat to the Sleepers was right in front of them.

The illustrious Andrei Lich, the nascent evil god, and the Dragon Priest Lyle Buller have a new idea.

He wanted spicy chicken wings to work for him.

“I, the Deceiver, am the successor of the Sleeper. Everything the Sleeper possesses will be mine in the future, including servants like you.”

"So why don't we skip the intermediate steps and go straight to the last one?"

"Become a servant of the deceiver, an invisible child."

Chapter 731 The Great Coprolite

The probing continued, the sensation like perfectly fitted steel needles digging into your veins—no pain, not even a psychological rejection. A passive sense of fusion overwhelmed Lyle; he felt that under the probing of the Unseen Child, he had gained a deeper understanding of the ominous giant's body. His feelings were neither good nor bad; without the high-level consciousness attached to the nascent evil god, this chaotic and unclear feeling might have turned into unspeakable terror.

Perhaps, to an evil god, servants like the Child of No Form are just as endearing as the Phantom Clan.

A strange feeling stirred a slight fondness for these newly born, invisible beings within him, but Lyle continued to manipulate the possessing phantoms, weaving layers of lies within his body. Watching these diligent cleaners absorb his lies, Lyle felt a sense of superiority, as if he were deceiving honest people. As for guilt, it had long since faded upon realizing that those on the other side were not human.

"I lurked in the shell of an ant, indirectly controlling a lich academy with a naive and innocent disguise, and luring them to constantly test the abyss and open the gate that seals the Father God." Lyle even felt that he was not completely lying. The liches of Andre Academy were more than just evil gods; they dared to provoke anything. If it weren't for the external influence of the Holy Light Church and the internal influence of the Salvation Society and Raymond, the Dean's wails would have echoed throughout the world.

【A magnificent achievement, you fraudster.】 Their heartfelt admiration was palpable, and praise seemed to emanate from their very skin.

"I have resurrected a new Dragon King, the former god of betrayal, Yemotar. By reining in the dragons, the kingdom of the gods will be more complete than ever before. Don't worry about the Devourer's attitude; he's on my side." Yes, on my side.

[This... Father God must be looking forward to reuniting with his betrayed brother.] This time, it was his own tentacles that spoke, the ominous, lush, fleshy tentacles dancing joyfully.

They were about to touch his heart, the very center of the ominous manifestation, where Lyle, the pure soul of light, resided. Although he had gathered the phantoms of possession beforehand, perfectly disguised as chaos, a sense of unease still crept into his heart as the moment arrived.

Could this give them away? The Phantom Clan is so similar to the Child of the Unseen; they share similar abilities to shapeshift and possess others. However, the Child of the Unseen is a kinsman of an evil god. As for the Phantoms, it appears they are merely creations of a key member of the Tower of Mysteries, a mysterious organization that has been destroyed.

If he fails… then Lyle will have no choice but to consume them. The Unseen Children have penetrated so deeply into the heart of the Omen that their chaotic, formless bodies have assimilated into something resembling the Omen, blurring the lines between feeding and communication. With a single thought, Lyle can make them a part of himself; this must be the correct way of feeding that Susanna mentioned—"experience it for yourself"—though it is somewhat of a pity.

The current state of the Child of No Form is less like an invading entity and more like different secondary personalities splitting in the mind of the ominous sign. The main personality only needs to engage in simple self-denial, and these split thoughts will become extra energy.

From the moment Lyle accepted the possession of the Phantom Clan, that is, when he allowed himself to possess multiple personalities, his mental state underwent a strange change, which is why his advancement to the fourth level of the Locked Armor made him a mental patient. However, perhaps, when his talent mistakenly awakened and created the clone Nia, Lyle was already destined to embark on this extraordinary path.

The unseen child's probe was penetrating deeper and deeper, soon to reach the mental barrier fabricated by the illusion. Lyle watched the "needle" approaching his core with anticipation. Whether it succeeded or failed, he would not lose out.

Time slowed down, and my perception shrank to the microscopic level, allowing me to clearly feel the tips of the tentacles touching the phantom barrier.

【! ! ! 】

An anomaly occurred. The Ominous Giant began to tremble—no, it was all the unseen children possessing him who trembled. They ceased their penetration of Lyle's heart and scurried away like rats from every crevice of his body. Lyle did not attempt to capture them, for the emotions overflowing from them were so clear: not the anger of knowing betrayal, but disgust, a pure and utter disgust.

The formless child abhors illusions.

This is highly abnormal. The evil god is the creator, who gave birth to all things in the world. Everything that originally existed in this world can be seen as the remnants of the slumbering being. The servants of the god may despise, scorn, or be angry with all things in the world, but they will not hate them. They will not hate themselves. But the unseen child hates the illusion, and such a violent emotional fluctuation even stirs up a monstrous wave in the entire ocean of the subconscious.

The Unseen Children formed a circle, staring intently at the Omen Giant, or more precisely, at the aberrant substance possessing the Great Divine Child, the Deceiver. Blurry clumps crawled out of the Omen Giant, like a few small brothers who had fled and fallen behind. They transformed into tentacles, growing onto the Omen Giant's massive body, accepting the scrutiny of all the Unseen Children, their emotions tinged with resentment.

The kind and harmless phantom, radiating positive energy and befriending Lyle, couldn't understand why these enormous companions, so similar to itself, were showing such obvious disgust. Had it done something wrong? It had clearly followed Leader Lyle's orders and tried its best to become one of the Invisible Children to please them.

Lyle was wrong. The Child of No Form and the Phantom have similar abilities, but they are very different.