In the fiercely burning flames of the living room, there were still many charred corpses with their limbs twisted backward, like spiders.
The Miracle, "Shield of Mind Light," developed by the Doctor from the core Ling Rune of "Mind Light," cooperated with Xia De's Moonlight Greatsword. The two walked side by side, constantly wary of monsters suddenly leaping out of the sea of fire.
Their strength was indeed not great; they would turn into Ashes almost as soon as they were touched by the Moonlight Greatsword.
"Detective, did you notice? The barely discernible appearances of those corpses, and the burning clothes on them, were all different and not randomly pieced together. This suggests that these corpses were very likely seen by the dream owner in real fires at some point."
The Doctor reminded him and asked Xia De:
"Do you remember how many monsters we've encountered so far?"
At this point, the two had already reached the staircase on the first floor. Xia De held his sword in his right hand and recalled amidst the sea of fire:
"17."
"It seems there was indeed a problem with that fire three years ago."
These corpses with twisted limbs only existed on the first floor. After ascending the staircase, which was entirely ablaze, new dream monsters appeared.
Each step on the stairs could cause transparent, bandage-wrapped hands to suddenly extend from the wall on one side of the staircase, attempting to push them downstairs. But the strength of these hands was also not great, and they could be easily severed by a Moonlight Slash.
"The appearance of such monsters indicates that the dream owner saw someone being pushed down the stairs in that fire. And judging from the appearance of only a pair of hands, rather than a concrete monster image, it's very possible that those hands belonged to Luther Kinweiss himself."
The Doctor continued to analyze. He had intruded into many people's dreams and was skilled at inferring the dream owner's thoughts from the anomalies appearing in the dream.
"So, is Luther Kinweiss really the arsonist and murderer?"
Xia De asked curiously.
"Detective, if you're truly curious, we can ask him later."
The passage from the staircase to the second-floor corridor was blocked by collapsed flagstones, but Xia De and the Doctor had no need to enter there, so they continued up the stairs to the third floor.
However, on the second-floor landing, a new obstruction stood.
This time, the monster was a humanoid creature, headless, wrapped in a black overcoat, with eight pairs of arms on its sides. In its hands, it held a dinner knife, a pistol, a glass bottle filled with powder, a handkerchief, a rope, a metal knitting needle, and the last two hands were empty, but red liquid, very much like blood, dripped from them.
"A typical murderer's image, and being headless means the dream owner doesn't want the murderer's face to appear here."
The Doctor stood on the burning staircase and continued his analysis:
"If the murderer wasn't the dream owner, fear wouldn't lead to forgetting, but to an even more bizarre shape. Of course, what exactly happened before that fire, mere deduction isn't enough. I think it's really necessary to ask later."
Xia De nodded. He noticed that although the flames were more ferocious on the higher floors, the higher they went, the more the surrounding light diminished. The fiercely burning flames flickered around them, but the light of the flames grew increasingly dim.
"I'll deal with it."
Xia De said, stepping past the Doctor, who was standing sideways on the stairs, and moving forward.
He flicked his right hand forward, and an arc of light flew upwards. The headless, black-clad monster brandished the dinner knife in its hand. As Xia De's Moonlight was shattered, one of its hands also completely broke off.
"Still not strong."
Xia De thought to himself. He drew the Moonlight Greatsword with his right hand, then leaped upwards. His entire body disappeared into thin air, then reappeared above the black-clad monster.
He held the sword with one hand and chopped down, expecting to shatter this monster with one strike. Unexpectedly, the headless, eight-armed monster raised a handkerchief with one hand:
Bang!
"Hmm?"
A black fluid quickly covered the handkerchief. The handkerchief actually rapidly grew larger and harder, blocking Xia De's sword like a shield. Silver Moonlight shards splattered, and cracks appeared on the surface of the black handkerchief, but it quickly returned to normal.
"After all, it's a monster related to the dream owner himself, so some special abilities are normal."
The Doctor's voice came from behind him. Xia De nodded, pressing down on the opponent's handkerchief with his sword in his right hand. After his feet landed, he pushed off with his right foot, pivoted his waist, and kicked forward with his left leg, kicking away the handkerchief shield. He swung his sword again with his right hand, and as the arc of Moonlight descended, a slanted silver line appeared on the monster's body, and then it also dispersed into black Ashes, merging with the black wisps in the air.
"Hmm?"
Xia De frowned again amidst the sea of fire.
"What's wrong?"
The Doctor also caught up. Both of them saw that the handkerchief shield, stained dark by the black fluid, did not immediately disappear.
The viscous fluid gradually receded from the handkerchief, and only then did the handkerchief turn into black Ashes in the sea of fire. The fluid itself did not disappear, but slowly permeated into the floor.
"What?"
A strong sense of familiarity made Xia De quickly take two steps forward:
"Silver Moonlight!"
He extended his finger, and the light from his fingertip shone on the black things, causing them to evaporate in the light.
"Doctor, is this also something that appears in dreams?"
After doing this, Xia De turned to look at his companion, asking with great uncertainty. He suspected he had only encountered something similar, and it wasn't actually what he thought.
The blue-eyed Doctor pursed his lips, then looked up and said:
"It's just solidified matter formed from negative emotions. I see it often, no need to worry."
But then he added:
"However, it looks like there might be some danger upstairs. For the rest of the way, I'll go first."
With that, he took the lead and walked towards the stairs to the third floor.
Xia De looked at the burning floor, then suspiciously at Doctor Schneider's back, his brows deeply furrowed:
"Solidified negative emotions?"
He looked up:
"Is it an illusion? No, it's better to be cautious. I must be prepared."
Thinking this, he quickly followed Doctor Schneider. However, until he confirmed his suspicions, Xia De did not intend to tell the Doctor about Ivan Darkness.
He wanted to avoid Doctor Schneider and the demon meeting as much as possible.
The light in the third-floor stairwell was even dimmer, but the flames were even more ferocious. These two contrasting scene manifestations made the eeriness of the third floor even more severe.
And on the stairs connecting the second floor to the third floor, new monsters appeared. This time, it was no longer hands pushing people down, but stacks of flying pounds with wings.
These monsters were darker in color than real banknotes, and their attack method was to launch burning paper money. These sharp banknotes could even deeply embed themselves into the burning walls.
The Doctor led the way, using a transparent shield summoned by a Miracle to block attacks. Xia De was behind him, using Moonlight Slash to counter the attacks of those agile creatures.
"Detective, common sense dictates that the closer you get to the dream owner, the more the image of the monsters guarding the dream conforms to the dream owner's thoughts. So, the truth of this fire is probably due to this money."
The Doctor still had time to explain the current phenomenon to Xia De while advancing, probably because he didn't consider this nightmare exploration to be the most dangerous.
But the fiercely burning, dim flames were already causing a burning, painful sensation on their skin. Although the flying banknotes were easy to deal with, after these monsters died, they, like the headless, eight-armed monster just now, also left behind traces resembling the Human Pus of the demon.
Although Xia De maintained his Moonlight, when those traces fell to lower floors through the cracks in the burning staircase and wall gaps, he couldn't stop them at all. Fortunately, the amount of black pus was extremely small, and it seemed to deliberately avoid the two of them, not attempting to contaminate them, so it didn't cause trouble for now:
"The appearance is so similar, yet there's no aggressiveness. Is it really a coincidence?"
When they defeated the last wave of pounds monsters flying out of the flames and reached the third floor, the untouchable black wisps in the air were already as dense as falling snowflakes. At the same time, the light of the flames was completely weaker than the silver Moonlight from Xia De's fingertip, which meant that if he didn't maintain the Moonlight at his fingertip, the visibility on the third floor would be far below normal levels.
Xia De and Doctor Schneider had already prepared to encounter stronger enemies on the third floor, but upon arriving, they found that, apart from being on fire like the floors below, there were no monsters guarding the dream.
However, the integrity of the third floor was the worst of all floors. Fallen furniture, cracked floorboards, and collapsed ceilings blocked the corridor, making it almost impossible for them to advance.
Xia De could only use the Moonlight Greatsword to hack a path forward. Under the Doctor's guidance, the two arrived at the door of the second room on the left side of the third floor. Of the entire burning third floor, only the door of this room was not completely blocked by the collapsed ceiling.
"Accountant's Office?"
Half of the doorplate was burned away, but the complete word could still be guessed. The burning door was tightly shut, and the black components in the flames almost completely overwhelmed the bright yellow.
"Detective, the target is inside. We need to find Luther Kinweiss's image in the dream, capture him, perform the ritual, and then we can extract the Mind Crystal."
The Doctor said, his voice somewhat low amidst the crackling burning sounds. He reached out and grasped the doorknob; the door was, as expected, locked. But this time, the Doctor didn't let Xia De go forward to open the door. Instead, he softly said to the inside of the door:
"We brought more pounds."
A click, almost drowned out in the fire, indicated that the door had been opened from the inside.
"You see, this is the correct way to pass through locked doors in a dream."
The Doctor turned to look at Xia De, gestured for him to be ready, then pushed open the door and walked in, with Xia De following behind.
As soon as both of them had fully entered the room, a loud bang suddenly came from behind them.
Xia De and the Doctor immediately turned around and saw that the ceiling of the corridor outside the door had collapsed in the flames. With the rising dust and surging heat waves, the path outside the door was completely blocked.
