Leyton temporarily turned Barros Hopkins into a Marionette using the residual spirituality from the Worm of Spirit of the Kotar. However, because he was not a "Marionettist" himself, he could only perform simple manipulations on this Marionette.
He tried to have Barros Hopkins cast a "Placate" on himself to calm his spirit, which was being eroded by the residual effects of the "Mind Plague."
As "Soothing" was used, Leyton clearly felt his control over this Marionette decrease further. It seemed that after two more uses, the residual spirituality in the Worm of Spirit of Kotar would be completely exhausted.
The greenish vines interwoven into a forest quickly retracted, and the previously isolated space around them re-merged with the captain's cabin.
Footsteps could be heard running on the deck outside. After the effects of the previous "Mind Plague" and Leyton's Beyonder characteristic form subsided on the "King of the Black Throne," some higher Sequence crew members had already reacted and were trying to approach the captain's cabin.
Leyton directly ignored the people outside the captain's cabin. With one hand on the shoulder of Barros Hopkins, who had become a Marionette, their bodies instantly blurred and became transparent, disappearing from the captain's cabin.
Barros Hopkins led Leyton swiftly through the dream world, and soon they arrived at the depths of the dream world, in a city made up of various emotions, desires, and subconsciousness piled and mixed together.
The people here wore neat suits and formal wear, but their necks had various animal heads, each seemingly representing a human emotion and desire.
Restraining the urge to observe, analyze, and record various information in this city, Leyton somewhat reluctantly manipulated the Marionette Barros Hopkins to approach the depths of the city.
In the center of the city, in a wide and grand hall dominated by bright yellow, with tall gray-white pillars inlaid with gold on both sides, an old man with light yellow eyebrows, dark golden eyes, and neatly combed hair paced uneasily in the center of the hall.
He was the true body of "King of the Black Throne" Barros Hopkins, left in Eden, and also the former principal of the deceased Backlund Medical College and royal medical consultant, Pauli Derlau.
His already wrinkled forehead, due to frowning, appeared even more deeply creased, and his face was an abnormal pale white.
"What's going on? Why do I have such a strong sense of unease?"
As soon as he whispered, the brightly lit hall suddenly dimmed, and twinkling, brilliant stars descended, casting a sense of tranquility and peace.
Bang!
The sound of flesh hitting stone slabs echoed behind him. He instinctively turned around and saw a completely naked version of himself slamming onto the gray stone floor, cracking the floor. That body was also smashed with blood splattering everywhere, and Beyonder characteristic began to precipitate out little by little.
In mid-air, pieces of pure white, ethereal feathers fell, tainted with auras of madness, destruction, ominousness, and disaster.
"Good evening, Mr. Pauli Derlau, I've come to request a 'Dream Weaver' Beyonder characteristic from you. I hope you don't mind."
Leyton's whisper echoed in his ears, full of madness and chaos, making him feel as if every organ in his body was about to come alive, producing a tearing pain, and his brain temporarily lost the ability to think.
Buzz~ Buzz~
The surrounding falling stars burst into ripples, colliding and surging together, emitting sharp, piercing sounds.
This sound was like countless Wraiths screaming in his ears, piercing directly into his Spirit Body, making his Spirit Body vibrate with the frequency of the sound, as if it would collapse at any moment.
Mad and evil eyes sprouted from the surrounding air, each eye reflecting a brilliant galaxy, as if containing countless knowledge, swarming into Pauli Derlau's mind.
The continuous attacks targeting his spirit and brain threw all of Pauli Derlau's Virtual Personas into chaos, which manifested as his entire being falling into a state of daze and disorientation.
In this state, he found it difficult to observe more details or perform precise operations.
Pauli Derlau slumped to the ground, fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead, and gray-white scales continuously emerged from beneath his skin. His entire body also began to twist abnormally.
The next moment, his entire body suddenly swelled, gray-white scales covered his body, his pupils became vertical, huge curved goat horns grew from the top of his head, and his spine arched high, constantly emitting sounds of flesh being torn.
He completed his transformation in a very short time, turning into an incompletely developed gray-white giant dragon.
The huge webbed wings were connected to his forelimbs, making flight difficult, but also giving his forelimbs a larger impact area.
Roar~
A roar like a giant dragon's bellow sounded, and an invisible, transparent breath spewed from its mouth, as if it could tear apart the spirit and pierce through the Spirit Body.
The invisible, transparent breath passed directly through Leyton's body. His body quickly shattered and disappeared, leaving only a playing card-sized card.
The front of the card depicted an old man in a robe, holding a lamp and leaning on a staff. In the upper left corner, several words were written in Ancient Feysac: Sequence 0: Hermit.
This was an illusion created by Leyton using the hermit card, and it successfully deceived the "King of the Black Throne," who was not in a good state.
The next moment, a black mass covered with countless eyes appeared directly in front of the giant dragon that Pauli Derlau had transformed into. Every eye on the dark thread mass clearly reflected into the giant dragon's dark golden vertical pupils.
A complex and chaotic stream of information instantly poured into the giant dragon's head. The dark golden vertical pupils suddenly bulged, and crimson blood vessels also protruded, as if the giant dragon's head was about to explode.
Many of the information infused into the dragon-transformed Pauli Derlau's mind were "Living knowledge." They were difficult to resist or defend against, and would spontaneously drill into a creature's mind, revealing the information they contained, and most of this information was highly polluting.
Hoo~ Hoo~
Blood rushed rapidly to his head, and heavy gasps came from his gray-white scaled neck, as if it was overwhelmed.
Leyton retracted his Beyonder characteristic form and placed his right hand, wearing a mechanical glove, on Pauli Derlau's gray-white scales.
His dragon-transformed body began to turn red and hot, the scales on his body fell off abnormally, and the water in his body began to rapidly drain, gradually developing in the direction of a mummified corpse.
Roar!
The intense pupils briefly restored his clarity, and he let out a roar filled with complex emotions.
Leyton's body blurred in an instant, followed by a violent whooshing sound, seemingly from reality, yet also from illusion, easily penetrating his body.
The whooshing sound carried intense emotions of anger, fear, and unease, as if it could awe a person's body, mind, and spirit, blowing in all directions, and then quickly dissipating among the twinkling stars around.
After Pauli Derlau's final struggling "Mind Deprivation" disappeared, Leyton raised his hand and dragged out from the void an ancient-style long spear, from tip to hilt, burning with clusters and specks of bloody dark red.
This long spear easily pierced through the giant dragon's surface skin, tore its flesh, and pierced its heart.
The eyes of the gray-white giant dragon, which had fallen into confusion and madness, cleared for a moment. Its body became stiff, and its aura plummeted like a cliff.
The gray-white giant dragon's lizard-like head let out a hoarse, weak murmur:
"How is this possible..."
"You were too confident in yourself and in Eden. I merely magnified some of your emotions, easily influencing your thoughts and judgment, making you completely forget to escape, forget to use Mystical Item, and forget to stall for time."
Leyton's almost delirious whisper fell into Pauli Derlau's ears. His dark golden vertical pupils seemed to finally be unable to bear it, directly exploding, mixing crimson and milky white substances.
Leyton did not waste time. He half-squatted and placed his right hand, wearing a mechanical glove, on the giant dragon's gray-white skin.
Silently, the giant dragon's body began to crack little by little, turning into fragments that fell to the ground, and even its color quickly dissipated as if evaporated.
During this process, gray-white light spots continuously precipitated from the giant dragon's corpse, rapidly floating in mid-air, forming a pale vortex that swarmed inward.
As the giant dragon's corpse completely disappeared, the Beyonder characteristic precipitated from him also fully formed. It was a gray-white brain tissue, with wrinkles outlining complex and three-dimensional mysterious symbols. They extended inward into the flesh and outward into the surrounding void, as if interwoven into something that did not belong to the real world.
On the ground not far away, there was also a dark, lightless leather glove, engraved with dark red, evil patterns. Just looking at it gave one a feeling of emotions and desires rising.
The moment he saw this glove, Leyton seemed to understand something, muttering in a slightly mocking tone:
"Was he affected by the negative effects of his own Mystical Item? No wonder his thoughts and judgment were so easily influenced by my use of the 'Earl of the Fallen' Beyonder characteristic."
As he spoke, he summoned two invisible hands and picked up the Beyonder characteristic precipitated from the "King of the Black Throne" identity on the ground, along with the dark glove.
The Beyonder characteristic from "King of the Black Throne" belonged to the "Manipulator" Pathway. Its appearance was a fist-sized object, similar in shape to a heart, but its surface was covered with gray-white wrinkles, like an unusual brain.
On each wrinkle, countless symbolic patterns and strange designs extended in layers, penetrating the surrounding environment and connecting to a world that Beyonders of other Pathways could not see.
Lowering his head to examine the two Beyonder characteristics in his hand, Leyton summoned two invisible servants holding metal iron boxes, placed the Beyonder characteristics into the pre-prepared metal boxes, and then had the invisible servants take them away for storage.