At the edge of the Outer Planes, within the shrouded region of the Starsea Expanse, endless clouds of dreamlike mist surged and churned.
Lynn, clad in his Greyhawk Armor, streaked swiftly across the sky from the heights of the heavens.
His figure traced a graceful arc above the sea of clouds, his armor glinting with a cold metallic sheen beneath the dusky light.
Below him stretched an endless cloud ocean.
But these clouds were no ordinary mist they were aggregations of energy infused with the unique traits of the Dreamscape Plane, glowing with a faint yellow hue.
As Lynn flew faster and faster above this sea of dream clouds...
BOOM!!!
An explosion shattered the dreamlike stillness of the cloud layers.
In the next instant, a massive, ferocious presence surged up from below like a tidal wave!
That presence carried a wild, ripping intent, roaring toward Lynn's position.
Almost simultaneously, an attack burst through the clouds like lightning, aimed precisely at Lynn's blind spot!
It was lightning-fast, accurate like an arrow shot from a divine bow.
The assailant had concealed itself perfectly within the dreamy cloud cover, its presence masked so well it was completely undetectable until Lynn passed overhead, triggering a sudden and ruthless ambush from the most cunning and unexpected angle.
The strike came with terrifying speed within the blink of an eye, it was already inches from Lynn's back.
Were it not for the protective enchantments carved into his Greyhawk Armor, this one strike might have pierced him straight through.
Yet even so, Lynn knew that pure defense might not be enough to resist the destructive force behind that blow.
His mind had remained on high alert, his spiritual sense stretched out like fine threads all around him. Just as the attack neared, one thread vibrated danger!
"Stellar Shoes, activate!"
At his command, the Starfall Shoes on his feet erupted in a burst of brilliant silver starlight.
In an instant, he became a meteor his speed skyrocketed severalfold!
BOOM!!
The deadly strike narrowly grazed his shoulder, tearing the air behind him apart with brutal force and blasting a hole through the dense dream clouds.
Lynn twisted in midair, his figure still aglow with starlight as he quickly widened the gap between him and the attacker. Then he turned his gaze downward.
From the clouds, a massive serpent rose.
Its body was the same dusky yellow as the dream sea below, almost indistinguishable from its surroundings.
Only the single horn on its head gleamed like cold iron under the dim light, revealing its presence.
The serpent radiated the powerful aura of a peak-level First Circle Mage, but its eyes were hollow and emotionless completely devoid of sentience, like a puppet under the control of some foreign will.
Even though its ambush had failed, it hesitated not at all. The next strike was already being prepared.
"Another one of these strange creatures..."
Lynn murmured, his expression growing even calmer.
He had seen creatures like this before.
They weren't truly alive they were projections born from the rules of the dream-cloud sea, physical manifestations of lingering will from the Outer Planes.
He didn't hesitate. His spiritual force surged like a tidal wave.
"Verdant Spinal Lance!"
Buzz!
With a single thought, the space behind him shimmered with a wave of emerald light.
Yfgríd's figure flashed into being like a ghostly illusion.
In the next moment, a blazing streak of green composed of thorned vines sharpened branches, and a spear of leaf blades fused tore across the sky!
BOOM!!!
The green light struck with unstoppable force, smashing straight into the massive serpent.
The creature had no time to dodge. With only a brief struggle, its body was pierced through and exploded into a cloud of yellow mist.
The mist drifted in the air before slowly sinking back into the dream clouds as if it had never existed.
Having reached mid-stage Second Circle, Lynn's spiritual power had risen to a formidable 249 points.
The powerful First Circle spell Verdant Spinal Lance, which consumed 50 points of spiritual power, was no longer a trump card reserved for desperate moments.
Now, it had become a routine combat option in his arsenal.
"This outer realm is full of mysteries… Truly a place forged from the remnants of a god's domain…"
As time passed, Lynn's understanding of this realm deepened.
Yet just as he prepared to set off again, venturing deeper into the dream-clouds
His spiritual sense suddenly flared like a startled animal, tense and quivering. A warning surged through him like a bolt of lightning.
"Enemy attack incoming!"
Almost the instant the warning surged to the surface, a terrifying wave of energy tore through the sky like a meteor, slashing down from the far end of the heavens!
Descending with it was a holy angel riding a celestial steed, clad in radiant golden armor, six wings spread wide behind its back, each feather seemingly forged from pure divine light.
In its hand, the angel held a longsword engulfed in silver-white flames, and it gazed down at Lynn from above, as if delivering judgment.
Not far behind the angel, a tall figure slowly emerged a mage draped in ceremonial robes, his garments fluttering gently in the wind. Yet the mage's appearance was unsettling.
His face was sallow, like dried wax, and his eyes were hollow and lifeless, devoid of any emotional fluctuation, as if he had been stripped of self-awareness nothing more than a puppet.
"Hm? He looks just like those strange creatures…"
Suspended high in the sky, Lynn narrowed his eyes. A single glance was enough for him to grasp the key elements of the situation.
He didn't waste a moment. Instinctively, he once again activated the shoes beneath his feet.
"Starfall Shoes!"
Buzz!
A burst of starlight erupted, and Lynn's figure shot across the sky like a meteor, instantly breaking free from the trajectory of the oncoming attack and widening the distance between himself and the enemy.
Bathed in dazzling starlight, he left behind a radiant trail as he sped through the air.
Even in flight, his mind remained calm and analytical, quickly assessing the situation:
"A fifth-circle spell… 'Celestial Summoning'?"
His eyes sharpened as he scrutinized the angel's structure, and a conclusion formed in his mind.
"Just as I thought… To summon an angel of this level, that aberrant mage must at least be a fifth-circle spellcaster equivalent to a junior second-level wizard."
Lynn recalled how, in the past, he had nearly been killed by a fifth-circle mage using the same summoning spell.
If it hadn't been for the abrupt descent of an otherworldly being that crushed the summoner, he would've had to risk everything to survive.
But times had changed.
Lynn was now a mid-stage second-level wizard himself.
Compared to the divine spellcasting system, that made him roughly equivalent to a sixth-circle mage.
So facing off one-on-one against a fifth-circle opponent now meant he had the upper hand in terms of power.
However, since he hadn't yet developed many second-level spells, he would have to rely on Yfgríd for this battle.
A glint of cold determination flashed in his eyes. In the next moment, he surged his mental power and activated the permanent second-level spell mark embedded in his body.
"Verdant Canopy Descent!"
Boom!
At his low shout, the world changed.
Brilliant green light descended from the void, unfurling like vines and weaving together like the shadows of ancient trees, forming a sorcery domain hundreds of meters across.
In that instant, the entire sky seemed replaced by a primeval forest. The air grew thick with life force and a crushing natural pressure.
Layer upon layer of emerald shadows spread like a dream, engulfing both the angel and the aberrant mage!
At the heart of the domain, a massive tree-like figure erupted from the sky none other than Yfgríd!
Now appearing like a divine tree given form, its trunk soared into the heavens. More than a summoned entity, Yfgríd was the embodiment of the domain's will itself.
Within this forested domain, Yfgríd could teleport anywhere at will!
And just like that, it appeared behind the aberrant mage, materializing in midair.
Its massive canopy spread like an umbrella across the heavens, and its roots surged from the earth like a thousand serpents, wrapping, binding, and crushing!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Thick roots encased the mage, forming a giant cocoon of writhing wood. Then, like a python crushing its prey, the roots began to constrict!
Guaaahh!!
The mage's sallow face twisted in agony as defensive light flared around his body, but under Yfgríd's crushing might, it shattered like paper.
The next instant
BOOM
his body was crushed into a pulp by the unrelenting force of the roots!
At the same time, the summoning spell collapsed, and the angel shattered into countless motes of silver-white light, scattering across the sky like feathers in the wind.
The aberrant mage dissolved into a cloud of yellow mist, dispersing back into the dreamlike clouds below.
"No individual consciousness, and not particularly strong… but this state… Could it be that dying to those strange creatures turns you into one of them? Like some kind of assimilation?"
Lynn narrowed his eyes in thought, speculating aloud.
He now felt even more cautious toward those inexplicable beings and at the same time, something else struck him.
There had been an assimilated mage here.
And that was not good news.
Lynn's original plan had been to find fellow wizards and regroup with the main wizard force.
But the reality was proving to be the opposite.
He hadn't seen a single wizard instead, he'd nearly been ambushed out of nowhere by a fallen, aberrant mage.
There was a mage here so naturally, the odds of more mages nearby were high. At this moment, Lynne had likely already entered one of the dispersed points of the Goddess's army.
From now on, no matter which direction he went, the chances of encountering followers of the gods would rise drastically.
With that in mind, Lynne instinctively patted the Azure Spirit on his chest.
After all, putting aside the fact that he was clad in wizard armor a sworn enemy of the clergy just being seen would provoke a fight to the death.
More importantly, he carried the aura of a heretic. If not for the Azure Spirit suppressing it, merely appearing near the Goddess's army would trigger a siege by multiple mages.
"Damn... This is getting tricky…"
Lynne muttered under his breath, frowning, his voice so soft it was as if he feared the dream clouds around him would overhear.
He didn't dare wander.
If he stepped into an area dense with enemies and got surrounded by even three to five mages, death was almost certain.
But staying in place wasn't an option either who knows when another mage might stumble upon him?
Even though Lynne had now reached the mid-stage of a Second-Level wizard, in an area swarming with mages, that meant little.
Such areas surely contained numerous eighth-circle or ninth-circle mages the equivalent of Third-Level grand wizards…
Against foes of that caliber, even with Yfgríd and the Starfall Shoes, escape would be nearly impossible.
But Lynne wasn't entirely alone now. So, he slowly closed his eyes, focusing his mental energy into fine threads, and wove them deep into the Azure Spirit embedded in his chest trying to reach Maple Tree.
Although the Azure Spirit had recovered a good amount of power after two restorations, the Maple Tree dwelling within was in terrible condition.
He had forced himself awake before, and now that more time had passed, he was barely holding on.
At this point, the Maple Tree spent most of its time using the Azure Spirit's power to heal itself, barely clinging to consciousness.
Lynne had to take the initiative and channel his spiritual power inside just to wake him and initiate communication.
This was also why the Maple Tree had been forcing himself to stay awake.
Because Lynne had fallen into the gods' domain too dangerous a place to risk sleeping through.
If Lynne died, the Maple Tree wouldn't survive either.
The Maple Tree's voice was faint and weak, like someone gasping for air.
After hearing Lynne's question, he fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking:
"Do you… remember the knight I sealed when I first forced myself awake…?"
Lynne's eyes flickered he immediately recalled the knight's shadow trapped within a maple leaf seal.
There was a trace of helplessness and regret in the Maple Tree's voice:
"I'd hoped… to make that knight's body my new vessel. But… I overestimated myself…"
"My condition… won't hold much longer. I'll be falling into deep slumber again soon…"
"But… you're different."
Lynne blinked in surprise, then heard the Maple Tree's broken, intermittent suggestion:
"Since you've entered the territory of divine beings… you can use that knight… as a shell… a body to walk through the gods' domain…"
"You've cultivated 'Life-Bound Symbiosis'… You can let your extraordinary plant… take root in the knight's body… replace his soul…"
As Lynne listened, a sudden light sparked in his eyes.
Life-bound symbiosis allowed him to fuse with an extraordinary plant.
And those plants possessed a unique trait they could exist both in material and spiritual form.
This meant he could fuse with Yfgríd, shift into a spiritual state, and then enter the knight's mental realm, seizing control of the body.
Just like a pilot controlling a machine, the knight's body would become his puppet…
The next moment, a soft green glow shimmered, and a maple leaf containing the sealed knight slowly floated into view…
Then, under the Maple Tree's guidance, Lynne drew upon the power of the Azure Spirit, preparing to possess the knight…
Time passed.
Amid the dusky yellow clouds, streaks of dazzling green light surged and faded.
No one knew how long had passed.
Suddenly, a pegasus burst into the sky.
And on the pegasus's back, there was a lone knight.
Man and steed galloped swiftly into the distance, vanishing into the fog.
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