Chapter 131: The Lord of Nightmares
Moonlight was like frost, spreading flat across the vast, boundless snowfield.
The demi-humans crossed the snowy plain and migrated overnight to another cave.
A herd of reindeer curled up inside a dark mountain cave, enclosed by walls piled with stones, quietly lying on dry hay and sleeping.
Dozens of reindeer huddled close together, their antlers intertwined and stacked like a low forest—only in this forest, every branch was connected to warm breath.
With each inhale and exhale, wisps of white mist rose from the reindeer’s noses.
These strong reindeer originally belonged to the Deer Blood Faction; they were laborers used by smugglers to transport contraband. But after the dragonkin commanded the Black Cat Society to capture that smuggling warehouse, the reindeer were transported, along with the warehouse’s supplies, to this newly expanded cave built by the ratfolk.
Those three Icelander slaves, under the dragonkin’s orders, along with about ten catfolk and ratfolk, were responsible for guarding this crude cave.
They still did not know what had happened; everything here was peaceful, with no shadow demon attacks.
The demi-humans lit torches and started a bonfire, illuminating the cave brightly, leaving no corner in darkness.
Dawn was approaching, and faint morning light rose.
After leaving the snowy mountains, they no longer suffered demon attacks; it seemed the demon cultists had truly fled far away.
That guy really seemed to think it was the great lich Anselmo Greywu opposing his master. Facing a fearsome lich with a notorious reputation, even demon cultists could not overcome their inner fear and chose a strategic retreat.
Wade regretted not being able to completely eliminate that demon cultist. According to Igna, he was actually only one step away from killing that demon cultist named Oleg.
He had already destroyed Oleg’s physical body, eradicating him in the physical sense, but that man was a follower of the Lord of Nightmares, Gimonli.
As Gimonli’s follower, Oleg could use the power of dreams to transfer his consciousness. The black shadow that escaped at the end was the nightmare residing inside his body; the nightmare attached his consciousness to a shadow demon, allowing him to cheat death.
If there was no demon nearby for him to possess, he wouldn’t survive more than a minute before vanishing.
To kill him under those circumstances, all shadow demons had to be cleared out first, or there had to be a direct way to attack the nightmare, such as with holy light or holy water.
It could only be said that intelligence on the enemy was still too scant.
However, it was at least a heavy blow to that guy.
The dragonkin said that if the demon cultist wanted to keep his life, he had to find a body that could contain his consciousness before dawn.
Possessing a shadow demon was only a temporary measure; if he stayed possessed for more than a day, his own mind would start to become like the shadow demon’s.
Although he escaped, it didn’t necessarily mean he would survive; even if he did, his vitality would be severely wounded.
Demons are not able to easily manifest power in the material plane. If they could, the demon lords wouldn’t make their followers hide in the Dragon’s Spine for many years doing their work.
Gimonli, Em.
Within just two months, Wade had come into contact with two demon lords.
Unlike the straightforward Flame Demon who controlled fire, Gimonli, as the Lord of Nightmares, wielded a more obscure and unfathomable power.
After suffering losses, Wade paid more attention to knowledge and intelligence. Once the demi-humans settled down, Wade found a moment to have a private conversation with the dragonkin.
Wade and the dragonkin sat facing the bonfire inside a small stone-partitioned room, in an independent space.
Wade held a wooden drawing board and used charcoal to sketch the scenes he had seen when he went to the port.
The people who had fallen asleep with smiles on their faces, and the shadow demons devouring humans—just a few strokes outlined a terrifying scene.
After finishing, Wade handed the board to the dragonkin.
Amid the crackling charcoal fire, the dragonkin studied the four-panel scenes thoughtfully.
This style of drawing was something the dragonkin had never seen before, but it was vivid, and when viewed together, it was as if the events were happening right before her eyes.
After organizing her thoughts, the dragonkin spoke:
“The smiles on those people’s faces before they died were because their fears had been devoured by the infant shadow demons. It wasn’t that the demons granted them sweet dreams, but that only a tiny bit of happy memory remained.”
“Judging from these pictures, those shadow demons were not summoned from the shadow realm; they were merely temporarily birthed through some ritual.”
“One person’s fear is simply not enough energy to sustain a shadow demon’s activity; their energy must come from Gimonli. Once that energy is exhausted, they will die.”
“I’m afraid those shadow demons only survive for days or even shorter. Otherwise, Oleg wouldn’t have been going on a killing spree overnight with shadow demons, nor would he have sought to use the Icelanders and pirates to carry out an initial sweep.”
As she spoke, the dragonkin suddenly thought of something. She stood up and went outside to give the catfolk a few orders.
Moments later, the catfolk brought some fragments.
They were fragments of the shadow demons’ carapaces. When leaving, they collected these shadow demon fragments.
Those fragments should have been high-grade materials; whether used in spellcasting or forging, they were quite valuable.
But now, the collected fragments had lost their color, turning pale like limestone from black.
The dragonkin placed the fragments in front of Wade and lightly tapped them; the fragments cracked open.
“If these were true shadow demons, their carapaces would remain hard after death. But the power inside these carapaces has been exhausted. Those shadow demons that escaped should now have turned into fragile dead matter like these fragments.”
Wade picked up a cracked fragment and gently crumbled it; it turned to powder.
“As for the Lord of Nightmares, in fact, I don’t know much either,” the dragonkin said. “That demon is extremely mysterious. Many of the secret stories sound like absurd tales. It is said to control dreams, granting supreme pleasure and even reversing causality, knowing past and future.”
“If Gimonli killed the demi-humans for prophecy, then the prophecy must have failed. According to what I know, Gimonli doesn’t come back after a failure and rarely takes revenge. Some speculate that in the Lord of Nightmares’ view, events don’t happen in sequence; it sees what happens after doing something before actually doing it. There’s no necessary connection.”
“By the way, regarding the Lord of Nightmares, I know one story. Would you like to hear it?”
Wade nodded, signaling the dragonkin to continue.
The dragonkin said, “Whether it’s true or not is unknown, but it is said that long ago, a certain kingdom’s king angered Gimonli, and Gimonli descended a prophecy in his dreams to kill him.”
“After having this dream, the king was anxious all day and ordered all the knights in the city to guard his castle. He himself stayed behind closed doors all day.”
“He needlessly feared assassins from demons and even invited priests and paladins from the church to protect him. But he didn’t face any assassination attempts; instead, he heard some strange things—people throwing rotten pork into the moat around the castle walls and others tossing rotten eggs at the city gates.”
“The king ordered the knights to drive those people away, and soon everything returned to normal. The strange incidents stopped.”
“The king lived peacefully for a few months, but then suddenly fell ill. The priests were helpless against his illness, and a few days later, the king died.”
“On the king’s feet, his children found what looked like rat bite marks.”
“Finally, it was guessed that a rat carrying a deadly plague bit him lightly at some unknown time, causing his death by infection.”
“Throughout the entire time, no one saw any follower of Gimonli appear, nor any trace of demons. Only the king had the dream with Gimonli’s prophecy, which seemed somewhat connected to the Lord of Nightmares.”
“The only association is with those people who threw pork and rotten eggs into the moat and castle. That demon seemed to accomplish its purpose through these means.”