Upon seeing this scene, Hvin Rambis immediately extricated himself from that state of calm, clearly aware that he had fallen into a trap. He also further realized that he was already under some sort of influence.
Without any hesitation, he arched his back and his body swelled.
His pupils turned vertical, turning from pale blue to golden. His face, the back of his hand, and every inch of his exposed skin grew grayish-white scales.
Amidst the screeching sound, the white shirt, black vest, formal coat, and straight trousers that he wore tore apart, revealing the dragon scales beneath.
In the blink of an eye, Hvin Rambis had transformed into an abnormally massive monster. Aside from his head that remained in the form of a human, the rest of his body had changed completely. It was like a dragon that had yet to fully evolve.
The dragon's back was covered in gray-skinned wings, and its limbs were thick. The grayish-white scales were engraved with complicated, three-dimensional mysterious symbols. They extended into the flesh, extending into the surrounding void. It seemed to be a mesh of objects that didn't belong to the real world. It threw anyone who laid their eyes upon it into suffering a form of mental confusion as their thoughts warped. Even one's Spirit Body would be tainted with all kinds of thoughts that came from deep within one's heart, eager to rip apart and mutilate themselves.
This was the Spectator pathway's incomplete Mythical Creature form!
For demigods of other pathways—those who weren't at the angel level—they required immense willpower and firm beliefs to fight in their Mythical Creature forms. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to control the madness and the inclination of losing control. There was a high chance of them immediately losing all rationality and transforming into a monster. However, the Spectator pathway was different. They had Placate which could treat their minds and souls, so they weren't helpless towards the madness and inclination of losing control. Therefore, as long as the fight wasn't prolonged, they could use their Mythical Creature form and return to normal at will.
Whoosh!
All the thoughts in Hvin Rambis's subconscious domain boiled over as they churned, identifying the parts of his consciousness that had been altered, purging them out and melting them down into nothingness.
Whoosh!
The violent winds surged around Hvin Rambis's grayish-white dragon avatar. It seemed to come from reality, but also seemed to come from an illusory world.
They carried a certain will as they whirled in every direction. Any creature that was embroiled would inevitably be placed into various abnormal states, stand rooted to the ground in a daze, or blindly escape towards the corners of the garden. There would be varying degrees of losing of control as their knees would buckle before they slumped to the ground. Some would even faint immediately and fall into a coma. Others would reveal their most fervent expressions, crowding around the dragon-like attendants.
This was a qualitative change in "Dragon Might" which stemmed from a Mythical Creature form. It went from its original state of placing others in a state of "Awe" to "Mind Deprivation" with even more effects!
Seizing the moment when Dragon Might swept the surroundings, Hvin Rambis focused and transformed into illusory, sinister versions of himself. Through the sea of collective subconscious which eluded most Beyonders, he approached Gehrman Sparrow on the rooftop and Audrey Hall by the garden's periphery at high speeds.
As a Spectator, he could tell that the attacker was Gehrman Sparrow just by seeing his face and temperament!
At this moment, Audrey was mumbling to herself and compelling herself based on the discussions and warnings from the two demigods, The World and The Hermit, above the gray fog.
"I can't see anything. I can't hear anything…
"I can't see anything. I can't hear anything…"
She was trying to avoid losing control from looking directly at Hvin Rambis's Mythical Creature form.
However, this also made her unable to "see" or sense that a particular illusory, sinister version of Hvin Rambis was approaching her Body of Heart and Mind from the sea of collective subconscious.
But suddenly, before Hvin Rambis's "eyes," the blonde, green-eyed girl's island of consciousness disappeared.
Audrey felt a warmth from her body, as if she had returned from a cold, dark cave to the surface where the sun shined.
She hurriedly dispelled the hypnosis and opened her eyes. The sun in the sky pierced through the clouds that couldn't be considered thin, scattering its resplendence. Bathed in the bright golden glow, autumn flowers bloomed in silence. Everything was beautiful and peaceful.
Audrey looked around blankly, but she didn't see Hvin Rambis, Gehrman Sparrow, or the huge crimson moon.
This made her feel like everything that she had just experienced was just a dream.
What mighty powers… A battle between the two demigods might not even harm a single flower. Audrey silently muttered to herself before calmly leaving the garden, retreating to the corridor that connected the garden to the house.
She was afraid that her presence would affect Gehrman Sparrow's fight.
In the concealed world, one of Hvin Rambis's manifestations had also landed on Gehrman Sparrow's island of consciousness under the crimson moon.
Just as he was about to set foot on it and open the door to the Body of Heart and Mind and control Gehrman Sparrow's subconscious to make him do things against his own will, he realized that the illusory island that stood in the sea of collective subconscious was filled with a deathly silence—there were no stirring thoughts or the appearance of new thoughts. There was no way of influencing it.
Puppet! Marionette! Hvin Rambis instantly made a judgment. Combined with the information he had obtained in the past, he had a better grasp of Gehrman Sparrow's abilities.
He wasn't shocked or depressed. Instead, he felt a sense of glee and confidence. This was because, for a demigod of the Spectator pathway, he could easily tell the difference between a marionette and the true body, greatly mitigating Gehrman Sparrow's strongest ability.
Besides, do you think a marionette can foil my mind invasion and control of one's consciousness? That sinister and illusory Hvin Rambis swept his golden vertical eyes and found a transparent passage on the marionette's island of consciousness. On the island of consciousness, it was the symbolic form of Spirit Body Threads in the mind world!
Right on the heels of that, Hvin Rambis's figure flashed, and he traced the transparent passageway and found another island of consciousness hidden in the distance. This was where the source of where the marionettes were controlled, which meant that it belonged to the actual body!
"Found you!"
Hvin Rambis snorted coldly as he conjured a terrifying mind storm in the sea of collective subconscious, allowing them to thrash about in Gehrman Sparrow's island of consciousness over and over again.
This caused the nearby "weather" to rapidly change, and the ability to perceive the surroundings via spirituality suffered intense interference. Hvin Rambis took the opportunity to get close to Gehrman Sparrow's island of consciousness, and he conjured a grayish-white staircase in an attempt to furtively invade his opponent's subconscious.
This was his usual style of fighting. One stayed in the light while the other stayed in the dark. While one attacked head-on, the other sneaked in. With these two angles of attack, it easily broke the target's mental walls and allowed him to control his opponent's Body of Heart and Mind.
At the same time, as a dragon avatar, he flew up and spiraled in midair. It affected Gehrman Sparrow with its Dragon Might and Breath, complementing the battle at the consciousness level.
At this moment, from deep within the sea of collective subconscious, Hvin Rambis had silently invaded the Gehrman Sparrow's Body of Heart and Mind when all of a sudden, he saw a boundless grayish-white fog. All the sea of collective subconscious around and the islands had vanished.
Hvin Rambis's heart tightened as he hurriedly analyzed his psyche, suspecting that he was under an illusion.
However, no matter how he handled it, the grayish-white fog didn't change. Of course, there were no accidents or danger. It was as if it was just a simple background.
That was pretty suspicious.
Just as Hvin Rambis was preparing to stir a mind storm here, the grayish-white fog finally dissipated, revealing the island of consciousness from before that belonged to Gehrman Sparrow.
Hvin Rambis didn't have time to hesitate. He quickly entered the corresponding subconscious and attempted to change his target's thoughts.
However, those thoughts were dyed with a bright light, a holy and majestic aura. It was unshakable and uninfluenced.
This… Hvin Rambis instinctively looked up and looked towards the sea of consciousness from the stone stairs that he conjured.
Other than the "island" itself, there was also a figure with twelve pairs of fiery wings, emitting golden light.
It looked like the projection of an angel's powers!
Since he was planning on dealing with a demigod from the Spectator pathway today, Klein had no doubt used Angel's Embrace on himself. With the Red Priest's level of importance, he directed the powers of the mysterious space above the gray fog, allowing him to temporarily be unaffected when facing an incomplete Mythical Creature form.
And the reason why he didn't show it directly was that he was experimenting with Hvin Rambis.
As Hvin Rambis attempted to invade his island of consciousness, his marionette, Qonas Kilgor, distorted the target his enemy locked onto, changing it from Klein's Body of Heart and Mind to Klein's projection of the gray fog.
As a result, if Hvin Rambis found the island of consciousness in the grayish-white fog, it meant that there was a being of unknown origins sleeping in the mysterious space. This meant that Klein had to be wary ahead of time. On the contrary, he could feel a little relaxed.
This was something he had long wanted to test but didn't dare attempt because it might be dangerous. Today, he finally had a chance to do so. After all, even if there were any consequences, Hvin Rambis would be the one dying and not him. It might even allow him to easily finish off a demigod.
Seeing that he was blessed by an angel and wasn't capable of breaking or infiltrating his opponent's Body of Heart and Mind in a short period of time and exerting his consciousness on him, Hvin Rambis retreated without any hesitation. He left the area and returned to his mind world through the sea of collective subconscious.
Then, the massive dragon disappeared, disappearing into thin air, preventing Klein from even finding it via Spirit Body Threads.
Psychological Invisibility!
Hvin Rambis planned on using a psychological blind spot to hide in the dark. Then, using area-of-effect Beyonder powers like Mind Deprivation and Mind Storm to slowly weaken Gehrman Sparrow's angel-enhanced mental walls, he would attempt using his own Sealed Artifact to attack.
As a demigod of the Spectator pathway, although his dragon form was powerful at melee combat, it still lacked the necessary, powerful offensive Beyonder powers. It had to be made up for through certain Sealed Artifacts.
At this moment, an illusory book appeared in front of the Gehrman Sparrow who could be either the marionette or his actual self. Following that, there was an ethereal voice: "I came, I saw, I recorded."
Klein was using Lightning Storm which had been "Recorded" by the Creeping Hunger!
For something like Psychological Invisibility, it could be easily resolved with a full area-of-effect bombardment!
It has to be said that, when dealing with a Beyonder with such a fighting style, the Storm pathway was a pretty good choice.
