Chapter 128: The Connection Between Dream and Reality

"How can there be so many of them! Hui, hurry up and speed up! They're catching up!" Zhuang Xiaoyuan said, running while swinging the backpack from her right hand onto her back. She then reached out her now-empty right hand toward Wen Hui.

Seeing Zhuang Xiaoyuan's gesture, Wen Hui intuitively swung the backpack from her left hand onto her back and reached out to grab Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s hand. "O wind, dance!" A whirlwind enveloped them, propelling the two forward and quickly widening the gap between them and the skeletal rats.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak." The sound was constant. It was unclear how these rats, which were nothing more than skeletons without vocal cords, could produce such noise. As they squeaked, the pack of skeletal rats suddenly accelerated again, once more closing in on the pair despite the wind's boost.

"Hui, go up!" The skeletal rats' sudden speed made it impossible to shake them off. Having seen their true forms, Zhuang Xiaoyuan realized exactly what these creatures were.

These were Bone Demons, born from the remnants of skeletons and condensed resentment left behind after living creatures were corrupted by evil spirits. Bone Demons did not observe their surroundings with eyes; they perceived the ripples of life through a signal-based energy similar to life-detection. Therefore, as long as one moved outside their detection range, they would lose their target. Conversely, many stealth or illusion abilities would be ineffective against them.

"Got it!" Hearing the suggestion, Wen Hui immediately grasped the nature of the Bone Demons. She controlled the whirlwind to lift them off the ground, and with a powerful leap, they vaulted onto the roof of a dilapidated building nearby. Once on the roof, they did not stop, continuing to dash forward until they were two or three hundred meters away from their original location before pausing to look back.

Sure enough, when Zhuang Xiaoyuan and Wen Hui jumped, the Bone Demons had followed, climbing up the walls onto the roof. However, once they reached the roof and could no longer sense the aura of life, the demons stopped in their tracks. After a chaotic chorus of squeaks, they lingered for a moment before turning around and flowing back along the path they had come.

"Phew, that scared the life out of me. A whole swarm just popped out of nowhere." Seeing the Bone Demon rats returning to the alley, Wen Hui patted her chest and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Actually, I think you could have wiped them all out in one go, couldn't you?" Zhuang Xiaoyuan said, raising an eyebrow at Wen Hui as the rats retreated.

"How could I? With that many, if each one spit at me, I'd drown!" Wen Hui rolled her eyes, refusing to admit she was afraid of rats.

"They're just piles of bones now. How do you expect them to spit at you?"

"I just don't want to deal with them. Let's go, let's head back. At least we don't have to worry about food for now." With the rats gone, Wen Hui lifted the backpacks and smiled. Had Wen Hui been a foodie all along without her noticing?

"Yeah, that was quite a shock. It seems this city isn't very safe; we need to be prepared at all times." As she followed Wen Hui down the stairs toward the small medical clinic where they had been resting, Zhuang Xiaoyuan diverted a sliver of her mental energy into the nebula vortex within her body.

Come to think of it, so much had happened since she woke up that she had been too busy hunting for food to check her status. Chloe and Huang Xiaoyan's cards had been unusable; Miku's transformation had been dispelled and should be cooling down, and Yoshino’s should be ready by now. She couldn't help but feel that her current collection of cards lacked raw power, as most were focused on defense, control, and support. She really needed a card with a powerful finishing move.

As she pondered, Zhuang Xiaoyuan focused on her internal state. The moment her mental energy entered the nebula vortex, the first thing she saw was a pitch-black card. What is this? Why is there a black card? I've never seen this before. Bewildered, she began to examine this peculiar, dark card.

Against the black background, the faint silhouette of a warrior clad in heavy armor was visible. As her mental energy drew closer, a strange, restless sensation washed over her. She felt an instinctive, faint aversion to this black card and hesitated to get too close. As these strange feelings surfaced, the text on the card came into view.

Artoria Pendragon [Corrupted]
Special Abilities: Instinct, Dragon Blood, ???
Skills: Mana Burst, Clarent Blood Arthur, Excalibur, ???
Equipment: Excalibur [Cursed Sword], ???
Cooldown: Unusable

"This is... the Knight King? How do I have this card? Could it be..." A wave of shock washed over her as she read the description. She remembered the long, vivid dream she had; could the events of that dream have been real? Had she really become an Evil God? As she followed Wen Hui to the clinic, Zhuang Xiaoyuan reached up to touch her forehead, but of course, she felt nothing but smooth skin.

Filled with doubt, Zhuang Xiaoyuan shifted her focus away from Artoria’s black card to the others. The previous cards remained largely unchanged: the World Card still hovered at the top, emitting a faint white glow; Huang Xiaoyan's card had finally finished its cooldown and was usable; Yoshino’s was also restored; and Chloe remained in an unknown cooldown period. It seemed that while being defeated in a transformed state didn't result in death, the strain on the transformation cards was immense.

However, one card had undergone a major change: Yatogami Tohka's card. Where there should have been a single image on both sides, one side now displayed a dark, corrupted, inverted version of Tohka. Her hair color and outfit had changed, and the "Requiem of the Broken" had transformed into a conductor's baton held by a bewitching witch.

The change in Tohka's card confirmed that her dream was reality. This truth brought a subtle, creeping sense of anxiety and panic to Zhuang Xiaoyuan. Why had she become like that? Was she truly not human? Why had she turned into an Evil God, and was that corrupted version of herself truly her? Or was there a monster hiding deep within her soul?