The spiritual fire gathered and immersed itself into the fragments of flesh and blood.
The fire-contaminated wreckage trembled and climbed up, then climbed faster and faster, and quickly disappeared at the end of the street.
This mass of flesh and blood that no longer thinks has embarked on its journey home - but whether it can really return to a certain "original body", or whether it will run out of vitality and dissipate on its own halfway, or be intercepted and purified by something, even Duncan is not sure.
He just tried to avoid all hidden dangers within his ability.
After Shirley started fighting with the strange black shadow, he quickly analyzed the origin of the "attacker" that appeared in the nightmare, and guessed the opponent's abilities. After seeing the reaction of that thing to the spiritual fire, he further determined that this attacker who came out of nowhere was most likely just a split "Pathfinder".
After encountering the spiritual fire, the attackers had no will to fight, and their first reaction was to break into pieces and break out in all directions. This could perhaps be explained as a hasty escape, but it could also be explained as a "pathfinder" trying to send intelligence away - if this huge dream was really woven by a mastermind, then the appearance of this "intruder" would undoubtedly be important intelligence.
Duncan looked thoughtfully at the direction where the debris disappeared. After crawling a certain distance, the other party disappeared in a cloud of rising dust. This further confirmed his guess:
The attacker who suddenly appeared was more familiar with this dream than himself and Shirley. He had a more convenient way of moving here and knew some invisible "passages". That was why the figure holding an umbrella suddenly appeared nearby without him noticing.
In comparison, he, Shirley, Agou and other "explorers" who visited for the first time were like headless flies in their dreams, and it was not easy to find those hidden guys.
But it didn't matter. The fire had been spread, and a vague connection was still looming in his perception. Duncan believed that the fire he spread would have some gains. As long as that little spiritual fire began to spread, a clearer perception would be established, and sooner or later he would find some hidden guys in the spreading fire - and then Nina and Shirley would not have nightmares.
"Mr. Duncan?" Shirley looked at Duncan, who had suddenly fallen silent, with a little fear. After hesitating for a long time, she mustered up the courage to ask, "Do you know what that thing was just now?"
She was referring to the attacker with the black umbrella.
"I can't say for sure," Duncan thought for a moment and shook his head. Then he looked at the burned streets around him and said thoughtfully, "But do you remember the figure standing at the edge of the square that I mentioned on the way back from the museum?"
"The one that only you can see?" Shirley immediately recalled, "Ah, the one that attacked us just now was the one you saw?"
"I'm not sure it's the same one," Duncan shook his head, "but it's definitely the same type, and I suspect it's related to the cultists who believe in the sun god. It appeared twice in scenes related to fire, which is very suspicious."
"Is it related to those cultists?" Shirley blinked and quickly realized, "Could it be the 'son of the sun' mentioned by those cultists?!"
"Let's just suspect this for now, even though there's no evidence," Duncan exhaled softly, "but compared to the identity of the attacker, I'm more concerned about why this thing appeared in your and Nina's "dream"? What's the connection between the museum scene and your dream?"
As he spoke, he raised his head and glanced at the tall tower.
At the top of the tower, Nina was still nowhere to be seen—but Duncan was almost certain that this was the place Nina had seen in her dream.
"Is this really Nina's dream?" Shirley was also looking around curiously, with a look of disbelief on her face. "How did you know?"
"She told me about this dream. In the dream, she was standing on the tallest distillation tower, overlooking the burning city-state," Duncan said as he raised his hand and pointed to a nearby tower. "This location is about two blocks away from the cabin in your nightmare. Although I don't know the reason, your dreams are obviously connected to each other at a deeper level."
Shirley was surprised. She seemed to want to ask something, but suddenly, Agou next to her seemed to have discovered something: "Hey Shirley, look, the umbrella that guy was holding just now seems to be still there!"
Shirley and Duncan looked at the direction Agou pointed at the same time, and sure enough, they saw a big black umbrella lying quietly on the side of the street!
Just now their attention was on the attacker. After the latter's body split, the umbrella fell on the side of the road and no one noticed its existence for a while.
Duncan walked over. He finally had the chance to observe the big black umbrella up close, but after seeing the inner layer of the umbrella, he couldn't help but exclaimed.
He imagined what the umbrella that was always held in the attacker's hand would look like - it could be an extraordinary item engraved with runes, or it could be an abnormal object that looked ordinary but actually had many special features. But no matter what, considering the attacker's strange and terrifying abilities and appearance, the style of this umbrella should definitely develop in a weird direction.
However, the scene below the umbrella was completely different from what he imagined.
He saw an extremely complex man-made structure, with hexagonal crystal lattices densely arranged on the skeleton, forming a shape like some kind of solar panel. In the deep purple gaps between the crystal lattices, he saw tiny pipes and wires. In the center of the umbrella, there was a clever device like some kind of control center connecting the umbrella handle and the surrounding lattice array. Its density and complexity far exceeded any steam engine in the city-state of Pland.
Duncan stared at the thing in amazement.
Sense of technology. His first reaction is the sense of technology!
This thing is by no means an extraordinary item, and its style is completely different from some "abnormalities". It is not an equipment made by the current city-state civilization. This umbrella is an extremely ingenious and complex technological creation.
It comes from a civilization that cannot be understood by modern city-states!
"What is this?" Shirley looked at the internal structure of the umbrella in amazement and confusion. She had no idea what it was, and she lacked Duncan's cognition from another world. She just felt that this thing was a hundred times more complicated than she had imagined, and even a little dazzling. She subconsciously reached out her hand, "It looks like..."
"Don't touch it!" Agou suddenly interrupted Shirley, "This looks like some kind of blasphemous prototype."
Shirley was stunned: "Desecrating the prototype? What the hell?"
"Things from some forbidden history that shouldn't appear in the real world, but are forcibly retained in the real world," Agou said in a serious low voice, "I don't know how to explain it to you... Because I don't know the principle behind it. Anyway, just remember that some of the history in this world is 'locked', and the things that were born in these forbidden histories are blasphemous prototypes. Usually, their existence itself is harmful to the creatures in the real world... Don't touch them if you see them!"
Shirley immediately put her hand away nervously, while Duncan looked at Agou thoughtfully: "Is this also the innate knowledge of the Deep Demon?"
“I guess so,” Agou shook his head, “Not all Deep Devil knows this, but I was born closer to the head of the Deep Lord, so I have more knowledge in my head.”
Duncan hummed noncommittally, his eyes fixed on the strange black umbrella. At this moment, as if it had lost some kind of "support", the umbrella suddenly began to disintegrate and collapse rapidly in front of his eyes.
The clever lattice structure gradually became transparent, the skeleton and wiring harness faded and turned into grayish-white debris that drifted away with the wind, and the complex device that was the core melted and flowed down like heated wax. Before it completely melted, Duncan suddenly noticed from the corner of his eye that there were tiny words printed on a part of the device.
It was not the common language used by the city-state today, nor was it any other language he was familiar with - but the meaning of the text still emerged in his mind:
"K-22 spectral filter crystal core."
The next second, the entire umbrella, including this last part, was blown away by the wind.
Duncan stood up slowly, and at this moment, Shirley, who was standing next to him, suddenly exclaimed in a low voice: "Ah! What happened to my hand?"
Duncan looked at Shirley's arm and found that not only her arm, but her entire body was gradually becoming transparent and blurry.
Shirley was immediately horrified: "Help, help, help, help?"
"Save me!" Agou interrupted Shirley, "You're almost awake! This is the first time you've woken up normally from this dream - why don't you thank Mr. Duncan?"
Shirley finally reacted and quickly looked at Duncan, only to see that his figure was gradually disappearing in the dream.
Duncan smiled and waved to the girl in front of him: "Good night, and good morning - don't forget to wake up Nina for breakfast later."