Hidden in the raging fire in the living room were a number of charred bodies with their limbs bent, resembling spiders.
The doctor developed the magic Heart Light Shield from the Heart Light Core Spirit Rune, which worked with Shade's Moonlight Greatsword. The two walked side by side, always on guard against the monsters that suddenly jumped out of the sea of fire. Their power was indeed not strong, and almost as soon as they were touched by the Moonlight Greatsword, they would immediately turn into ashes.
"Detective, did you notice? The barely recognizable appearances of the corpses and the burning clothes on their bodies are all different, and they are not randomly put together. This shows that these corpses are most likely the ones the dream owner has seen in a real fire."
The doctor reminded and asked Xia De:
"Do you remember how many monsters we have encountered so far?"
At this time, the two of them had already reached the stairs on the first floor. Xia De held the sword in his right hand and recalled in the sea of fire:
"17."
"It seems that there was something wrong with the fire three years ago."
This kind of corpse with bent arms and legs only exists on the first floor. After climbing the stairs that are all on fire, a new dream monster appears.
Every time they stepped on the stairs, there was a chance that a transparent hand wrapped in bandages would suddenly extend from the wall on one side of the stairs and try to push them downstairs. However, the power of these hands was not strong and could be easily cut off by the moonlight slash.
"The appearance of this monster means that the dreamer saw someone being pushed down the stairs during the fire. And judging from the fact that there was only a pair of hands instead of a specific image of the monster, it is very likely that those hands belonged to Luther Kingweiss himself."
The doctor went on to analyze that he had entered into the dreams of many people and was very skilled in using the anomalies in the dreams to infer the thoughts of the dreamer.
“So, is Luther King Weiss really the fire perpetrator and murderer?”
Shade asked curiously.
"Detective, if you're really curious, we can ask him later."
The passage from the stairs to the second-floor corridor was blocked by collapsed stone slabs, but there was no need for Shad and the doctor to go in there, so they continued to climb the stairs to the third floor.
But on the second floor landing stood a new obstacle.
This time the monster is a humanoid creature, without a head, wrapped in a black coat, with eight pairs of hands on both sides of its body, holding a table knife, a pistol, a glass bottle of powder, a handkerchief, a rope, a metal knitting needle, and the last two hands are empty but with red liquid dripping from them, which looks like blood.
“A typical image of a murderer, but without a head, it means that the dreamer does not want the murderer’s face to appear here.”
The doctor continued his analysis while standing on the burning staircase:
"If the murderer is not the owner of the dream, fear will not lead to forgetfulness, but to a more bizarre appearance. Of course, it is not enough to just infer what happened before the fire. I think I really need to ask about it later."
Shade nodded. He noticed that although the flames were more fierce at higher levels, the light around them became weaker as he went up. The blazing flames were surging around him, but the light of the flames was getting dimmer.
"I'll take care of it."
Shade said, walking forward past the doctor standing sideways on the stairs.
With a swing of its right hand, an arc-shaped blade of light flew upwards. The headless monster in black swung the dinner knife in its hand. While Shade's moonlight was shattered, one of its hands was also completely broken.
“Still not strong.”
Xia De thought to himself, drew out the Moonlight Great Sword with his right hand, and then suddenly jumped up. The whole person disappeared into thin air, and then appeared above the black-clothed monster.
He jumped down with the sword in one hand, thinking that he could smash the monster into pieces with one blow, but he didn't expect the headless, eight-armed monster to raise a handkerchief in one hand:
Bang!
"Um?"
The black liquid quickly covered the handkerchief, and the handkerchief suddenly grew larger and harder, blocking Shade's sword like a shield. The silver moon's light splattered, and cracks appeared on the surface of the black handkerchief, but it quickly returned to normal.
"After all, it is a monster related to the dream owner, so it is normal for it to have some special abilities."
The doctor's voice came from behind. Shade nodded, holding the opponent's handkerchief with his right hand. After landing on the ground, he stood on his right foot, twisted his waist, and kicked forward with his left leg, kicking the handkerchief shield away. He swung the sword again with his right hand, and as the arc of the moonlight fell, slanted silver lines appeared on the monster's body, and then scattered into black ashes, merging with the black silk in the air.
"Um?"
Shade frowned again in the sea of fire.
"What's wrong?"
The doctor also rushed over, and both of them saw that the handkerchief shield that was stained dark by the black fluid did not disappear immediately.
The thick liquid gradually left the handkerchief, and the handkerchief turned into black ash in the sea of fire. However, the liquid itself did not disappear, but slowly seeped into the floor.
"What?"
The strong sense of familiarity made Xia De take two quick steps:
"Silver Moon!"
He stretched out his fingers, and shone the light from his fingertips on the black things, causing them to evaporate in the light.
"Doctor, is this also something that appears in dreams?"
After doing all this, Xia De turned to look at his companion and asked very uncertainly. He suspected that he had just encountered the same kind of thing and it was not actually what he thought.
The blue-eyed doctor pursed his lips, looked up and said:
"It's just the physical manifestation of negative emotions. I see it all the time. Don't worry about it."
But then he added:
"But it looks like there might be some danger up there. Let me walk ahead for the rest of the way."
As he said that, he took the lead and walked towards the stairs to the third floor.
Xia De looked at the burning floor, then looked at Dr. Schneider's back suspiciously, frowning deeply:
“The materialization of negative emotions?”
Look up above your head:
"Is this an illusion? No, it's better to be cautious and be prepared."
Thinking this in his mind, Shade quickly followed Dr. Schneider. However, before confirming his guess, Shade was not going to tell the doctor about Ivan Darkness.
He wanted to avoid Dr. Schneider's meeting with the devil as much as possible.
The light in the stairwell on the third floor is dimmer, but the flames are more fierce. These two opposite scenes make the eerie feeling of the third floor even worse.
On the staircase connecting the second floor to the third floor, a new monster appeared. This time it was no longer a hand that pushed people down, but a pile of flying gold pounds with wings.
These monsters are darker in color than real banknotes, and their method of attack is to launch flaming banknotes. Those sharp banknotes can even embed deeply into the burning walls.
The doctor led the charge, using a transparent shield summoned by magic to block the attacks. Behind him, Shade used Moonlight Slash to counterattack the attacks of those sensitive creatures.
"Detective, it is common sense that the closer the monster is to the dream owner, the more it fits the dream owner's idea. So, the truth behind this fire is probably because of the money."
While moving forward, the doctor still had time to explain the current phenomenon to Shad. Perhaps in his opinion, this nightmare exploration was not the most dangerous.
But the blazing dim flames had already caused some burning and painful sensations on the skin. Although the flying banknotes were easy to deal with, after these monsters died, just like the headless eight-armed monster just now, they would leave traces of suspected demon pus.
Although Shade maintained the moonlight, he was unable to stop the traces from falling to the lower floors through the cracks in the stairs and the gaps in the wall caused by the fire. Fortunately, the amount of black pus was extremely low, and it seemed to be deliberately avoiding the two people and did not try to contaminate them, so it did not cause any trouble for the time being:
"They look so similar, yet they are not offensive. Is it really a coincidence?"
When they defeated the last wave of gold monsters that flew out of the flames and reached the third floor, the untouchable black silk in the air was as dense as snowflakes. At the same time, the light of the flames was completely weaker than the silver moonlight on Shade's fingertips, which meant that if the moonlight on the fingertips was not maintained, the visibility on the third floor would be far below normal.
Shade and Dr. Schneider had originally prepared themselves to encounter more powerful enemies on the third floor, but when they arrived there, they discovered that, apart from the fire just like the one downstairs, there were no monsters guarding the dream.
But the third floor was in the worst condition of all the floors. Fallen furniture, cracked floors and collapsed ceilings blocked the corridor, making it almost impossible for them to move forward.
Xia De could only use the Moonlight Greatsword to slash his way forward. Under the doctor's command, the two came to the door of the second room on the left hand side of the third floor. On the entire third floor that was on fire, only this room's door was not completely blocked by the collapsed ceiling.
"Accounting office?"
The house number plate was half burned, but the complete word could still be guessed. The burning door was tightly closed, and the black component of the flames almost completely overwhelmed the bright yellow.
"Detective, the target is inside. We need to find the image of Luther Kingweiss in the dream. After catching him and performing the ritual, we can extract the spiritual crystal."
The doctor said, his voice was a little muffled amid the crackling sound of burning. He reached out and grasped the door handle. As expected, the door was locked, but the doctor did not let Shade go forward to open the door this time. Instead, he whispered to the inside of the door:
"We brought more gold pounds."
A click, almost obliterated by the fire, indicated that the door was opened from the inside.
"You see, this is the correct way to get through the locked door in the dream."
The doctor turned to look at Xia De, motioned for him to get ready, then opened the door and walked in, with Xia De following behind.
When both of them had completely entered the room, a loud bang suddenly came from behind them.
Xia De and the doctor turned around immediately and saw that the ceiling of the corridor outside the door had collapsed in the flames. With the dust and heat waves raised, the road outside the door was completely blocked. (To be continued)