Chapter 314: Nightmares 3

It slowly gouged out both of Asher’s eyes, then moved them close to its mouth and ate them.

Asher still smiled and then muttered, "9 out of 10."

And then he started laughing loudly. The demon looked at Asher while blinking its six eyes, as if it couldn’t understand the behaviour of the being in front of him. And then the demon tightened its grip around Asher, as if it had grown annoyed with Asher’s laughing. As it tightened its grip around Asher—

"HAHAH... cough... cough."

Asher coughed up some blood as he felt his bones cracking under the force used in the demon’s grip, and then he started laughing again.

The demon got even more annoyed, and it held Asher’s neck with its hand and then twisted it a full 360 degrees.

Asher died instantly as the demon twisted Asher’s head; since it was only a normal human corpse, it died easily.

Asher again found himself somewhere different. He opened his eyes once again, and as soon as he did, something started pressing him from all sides, slowly. "4 out of 10."

Four walls slowly kept pressing his body, slowly, till all of his entire body was being pressed from every direction. His bones started breaking first, and then his organs pressed against each other inside his body, and then he slowly died a painful death again, as he was pressed from all around till he died.

After that, Asher kept finding himself in strange situations with a mundane human body.

Sometimes he would find himself between demons and beasts, and those demons would torture him and then eventually kill him after getting no reaction from him apart from him laughing like a maniac.

Sometimes Asher would find himself in a pool of lava, fire, and strange liquids that could provide him with as much pain as they could, and sometimes he would find himself in some trap.

One time, he found himself in front of a monster that skinned him alive before storing him for a long time as he felt his body slowly decompose, and then it ate Asher. And many more types of nightmares that could easily break anyone.

And Asher kept living these nightmares one after another without any rest. Asher eventually stopped counting the nightmares after the number reached 43,189 because he got bored of counting up to such a high number.

And the nightmares kept happening, waiting for Asher to break. But Asher never broke. He just laughed like a crazy person in every nightmare, even when he felt pain.

Asher refused to break, and the nightmares refused to end. Both were waiting for each other to break. Now it was just a matter of which would run out first—the nightmares, or Asher’s will to survive.

While Asher was living through these thousands of nightmares for what felt like years—at least, that was how it felt to Asher’s vessel—in the outside world, hardly a few hours had passed.

Asher’s vessel at the Academy had already cut its mental link from the vessel present in the Nightmare, and now it was sleeping peacefully without any worry.

Meanwhile, the Shadow vessel was still doing its task.

And the Domain of the Nightmare—if anyone saw it now, they would hardly feel any difference in it. It was still the same as it had always been. But if someone of a higher rank saw it, they would easily feel the difference. There was a slight weakening effect in the Domain. It was negligible, but it was still there, and the Domain was weakening with every second that passed.

And the Saint of the Nightmare could also feel that, and the reason for it was Asher’s vessel, who had just entered the Domain. But it was still trying to see Asher’s limit without caring about how much of the Nightmare it lost.

It tried to access Asher’s consciousness, but no matter how much it tried, it couldn’t enter it. And now it was really curious about what Asher’s consciousness held. Whatever it was, it could instinctively feel that it was something that could really help it become even stronger. So it didn’t care how much it lost, as long as it could enter Asher’s consciousness.

So the battle between Asher and the Nightmare continued.

While in the central region, the Blood Saint was sitting in her Domain comfortably, and then suddenly a smile formed on her face, and then she muttered in a mischievous tone, "Something interesting is happening in the East. I wonder what it is?"

And then the Blood Saint averted her thoughts from the matter of the other Demon Saint and then looked ahead of her, where there was a video playing, showing the live image of Ravena. Ravena was right now just doing some paperwork, and a lot of letters and files were all over her desk.

The Blood Saint looked at Ravena for a moment and then muttered, "She has become even more appealing. I wish I could devour her right now."

"But it is still not the right time. I would still have to wait for some time. I wonder just what changed about her."

...

Two weeks went by without anything major happening. Asher’s days passed peacefully at the Academy, without anything major happening to him.

Meanwhile, the Shadow vessel at the Grimwood kept walking in circles around the outer region of the continent. It was almost about to complete a full revolution around the continent while completing the enchantment all around it.

And the other vessels in the Domain of the Nightmare Saint kept experiencing the nightmares without any rest for the last two weeks, which were numerous years for them inside the nightmare.

But Asher didn’t show any signs of breaking. At the start of his second week, he was thrown into the Nightmare of numerous demons and humans, inhabiting their bodies in those nightmares, as well as their memories and experiences.

Asher was supposed to forget his identity in those nightmares and should have experienced them as if they were his own experiences—at least, this was how it was supposed to go.