Chapter 883 883 Nightmares
While Wolfe could feel that something was wrong, his mana didn't connect to the things around him in the nightmare, he couldn't immediately pull himself out.
Instead, he was forced to relive what should have been the most terrifying moments of his life one after another. If he were fully immersed, it would have felt like he was living them again, and powerless to change anything, but in this case, he knew that it wasn't real, and that he needed to get the others out before it caused a mental trauma.
He felt something bump into him, and realized that they were moving in their unconscious state. That was enough to pull Wolfe back to semi consciousness, and when he saw through the illusion, he realized that they were being led to some sort of auditorium full of monstrosities by shadowy magic guiding their steps.
He cast a new protective barrier over the group to see if it got any reaction, but either the creatures ahead of them didn't notice or they didn't care, as they just kept watching with rapt attention as the group approached.
Then he tried shaking them to see if it helped, but there was no response. Not even feeding them mana gave any sort of response from their minds, though their bodies responded to the sensation and shivered.
His best hope was that Mana Purification or Kind Intentions would take effect and break the spell.
The next out of the nightmare was Ella, who looked at Wolfe, and then noticed what was going on and froze for a moment.
"Just go with it. We will stop at the entrance and block the others if they're not awake. I don't know how to pull them out." Wolfe whispered.
Ella nodded silently. She had pulled herself out when she gathered her wits enough to recall that she had seen all this before, and it wasn't reality. But the others had lived a harder childhood, and it would be harder for them to gather their senses while reliving the worst moments of their lives over and over.
As they reached the entrance to the auditorium, the creatures began to move, coming down from the stands in preparation to surround them.
"Now." Wolfe ordered as he unleashed a barrage of Cluster Grenades on them.
As he couldn't cast a spell over Rank Five, he managed to cast fifty at once, blanketing the area in fire, and the monsters panicked.
They hadn't realized that he had broken free of the spell, and they didn't know what to do.
In their minds, this was to be a feast, but somehow the food was fighting back, and worse, it was winning.
Their bodies weren't made to withstand Unholy Fire, and the explosions were causing massive damage as Ella brought up a barrier over the others, stopping them from moving forward, until the spell suddenly broke.
It had been upheld by the group, and now that they were in chaos, there wasn't enough focus to keep it active.
"What's going on?" Cassie asked, disoriented, and confused from having relived the day that she had been attacked on the way to Sylvan City.
Only in the nightmare, Wolfe and the Noxus men never showed up to rescue them. They were captured, gassed, and lost all their magic. It was horrifying, and there was no way out. The fury of having been forced to relive that day fuelled her attacks, and vines rose from the bleachers, spreading out in a circle from the group.
They grabbed the creatures by misshapen limbs, wings, even by their tentacles when possible, and smashed them down into the bleachers, spreading the Unholy Fire to more victims, and breaking bones.
In the distance, Wolfe could feel the excitement of the announcers when they saw that his group wasn't going to fall so easily into their trap.
They were enjoying this twist in the story, despite the fact that Wolfe and the others were rapidly depleting the room full of attackers.
The one who was still the most shaken was Stephanie, and while Wolfe could see that the spell was broken, she was still frozen in place, shaking and crying.
The overlord of this place had crossed the line. He might let the invaders fight to the death, but he had never done anything as frozen in place, shaking and crying.
The overlord of this place had crossed the line. He might let the cruel as that to them. He didn't mess with their minds, just put them in a time loop and let them fight to their heart's content before they went on their merry way.
Not only that, but he even let the spell give them rewards for trying.
The witches, and their catgirl companion, unleashed their rage on the lower ranked group of the auditorium for a few minutes after it was obvious that they were all dead, and then followed Wolfe into the centre of the room.
There were exits on all four sides, plus eight more on the second level.
Once they reached the centre of the room, that strange magic surged again, and Wolfe felt an influx into his body, both directly from outside, and funnelled into him from the witches. Oddly, it didn't flow from the beastkin, though it might have to do with the nature of their limited bond. But Wolfe could sense that it was lingering in her, and didn't seem to be harming her, at least for the moment.
The sensation of the foreign mana trying to merge with and enlarge his mana cores was incredibly disturbing, but when Wolfe cast a wind spell to clear the ash from the area, he could feel an improvement in his power.
The being that summoned them here really was rewarding them. Or at least it was rewarding him with pure power. Not trinkets or magical items, but raw power. Wolfe wasn't sure how to feel about that. On one hand, he had been abducted with a whole group of people, who might not be benefitting at all, and who might die here, but on the other, the power of the lower planes was immensely more potent than the mana of his homeworld.
This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by (f)reew𝒆b(n)ov𝒆l.com