Transcending Dreams
B2 - Chapter 86

William winced as he shielded his eyes from the bright light. He couldn’t see the light's source, but it felt as if stage lights were shining directly at him.

This was the opposite extreme of darkness, which might be even worse. It felt like something was scanning the surface of his body repeatedly. Thankfully, it didn’t last too long.

The extreme light and the invasive scan disappeared the moment he passed the massive entrance. He turned to see the wall close with a rumble and shook his head.

There were too many things here that didn’t follow common sense.

A fake Lord Paddlington who acted like a steward and the projection of the corrupted avatar greeting him before trying to lure him somewhere. However, with that disembodied voice in control of the passage, William didn't know how they expected to succeed.

Kae had arrived early enough to demolish hundreds of Stone Puppets before advancing. It hinted at the gate delaying his arrival, even though William entered at the same time as Kae.

He looked down at the spirit beast egg and frowned. “Did you cause a problem with the gate?”

If the egg could blink innocently, it definitely would have.

“YOU! YOU’RE BACK! DID YOU BRING MORE WITH YOU?”

William jumped and snapped his head up to see Berserker Kae charging straight at him. He instinctively sent the egg to the spatial stone, which he regretted immediately, but had no time to focus on.

“I RAN OUT OF THE ROCK MEN!”

“Wait! Kae, you already killed all of them!” William sidestepped, or rather, ran to the left to avoid his grasp.

“AGAIN? DAMN IT!”

“Yes,” William nodded rapidly, eying him warily. “How long have you been here.”

He realized he hadn’t had the chance to take in ‘here’ before he was accosted by Berserker Kae.

“TOO LONG!” Berserker Kae roared. “NOTHING TO KILL! ONLY STUPID MAN ASKING STUPID QUESTIONS!”

That really told William nothing. ‘Too long’ for Berserker Kae might be a few minutes of boredom. It was his fault for asking such a vague question.

“GRAAH! I DON’T WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE!”

William’s hair fluttered at the force of Berserker Kae’s self-punch. He had seen this before, but still, he winced in second-hand pain at the sickening crunch of bone as Kae’s fist met his own jaw.

Kae was unconscious immediately, collapsing to the ground with a hard impact. Like he saw before, Kae transformed back to completely human with the grotesque sight and sound of shifting bones and shedding fur, leaving behind a bloodied and battered human Kae.

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His condition was worse than before. Far worse.

William knew there had to be consequences for using the transformation elixir twice in a short period, but not to this extent. It looked like Kae would die if he was poked too hard.

William rushed to his side and pulled a Vitality Restoration Pill out of his ring, ready to shove it down Kae’s throat if he had to. He was losing a massive amount of blood every second.

Kae groaned weakly as his eyes opened with a struggle. “W-Wei. You’re here.”

“Take this,” William pushed the pill to Kae’s mouth. “You’re bleeding out quickly.”

Kae took the pill without protest, knowing how dire his situation was.

William backed away to let him absorb it without being a distraction. He had seen Princess Jin take the pill in the Shard, and he knew it was a process for other cultivators, unlike him, where all he needed to do was pill pop.

He nodded in satisfaction when Kae’s wounds started to slow their bleeding and heal gradually. With him no longer in danger of dying, William took the opportunity to study the new area.

… It was a disaster.

There was a telltale sign of structures belonging to the Jade Healing Sect on the medium-sized ground, but all that was left of them were pieces of rubble that were scattered about. It wasn’t from decay like in the previous area, but due to a very recent event.

William glanced at Kae to see him pulling out vials from his bracelet. It seemed like Berserker Kae had gotten bored of being unable to kill anything and decided to demolish everything.

He turned back to the destroyed grounds and noticed things that might have been automatons, but it was impossible to be sure. It looked like a savage beast repeatedly pounded them into something barely indistinguishable from the rubble around them… which wasn’t far from the truth.

The few trees that had likely been planted for aesthetics had been uprooted, their roots the only thing intact after the fury they had to withstand. Even the soil bore deep, erratic gashes as if Berserker Kae couldn’t handle knowing nothing was left to destroy.

William shuddered in fear, imagining what that scene must have been like. At the same time, a significant part of him hoped that the massive difference in personality and temperament between Berserker Kae and human Kae meant that memories didn’t merge smoothly.

He had stored his spirit beast egg in a panic, which had to stay secret.

“Done,” Kae announced with a hoarse voice as he moved to stand next to William. “I have no idea how you got here, but thank you. I would have died without the pill.”

“I would ask why you used the elixir so early, but I saw one of the automatons.”

“There wasn’t any time to think. I was dropped in the middle of a group of those stone monsters,” Kae said grimly.

“… Yes, I saw them all destroyed.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NovᴇlFɪre .ɴᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“I remember some of that,” Kae’s grimace grew more severe as he flexed his fingers from phantom pain.

William fist-pumped mentally at being given direct confirmation that Kae had spotty memory while transformed. Then, he immediately felt guilty about being happy about it.

“Right,” William cleared his throat. “What was all of this before it was destroyed?”

Kae looked around blankly before shrugging. “Couldn’t tell you even if I tried. I was trying to conserve as much energy as possible, so I relinquished all control over my body to the beast.”

“That’s an actual beast?!” William asked with alarm.

“Well, yes,” Kae looked at him strangely. “How else do you think I can change into it.”

He thought back to the voice’s disgust at Kae’s transformation. It should have been obvious.

“Let’s get to figuring out how to get out of here,” William said, pushing Kae’s nonhumanness aside. It wasn’t a priority. “Hopefully, you didn’t destroy the automatons that would have made it possible.”

“Oh, there were some here, too?” Kae looked around in surprise. “I didn’t even realize till now.”

William chuckled as they walked to what had previously been the largest structure. Now, it was just the largest pile of rubble.

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