Parasite
Leylin looked at Cabadole, whose whole body was stretched taut like a little leopard, and petted his head. “What? Does the current situation leave you dissatisfied?”
“No. I just hope to obtain more strength in order to protect my clan,” Cabadole answered.
“What a clever answer!” Leylin praised him.
In his previous world, such extreme exploitation would long since have given rise to violent revolts. With so few ruling over so many, and so blatantly abusing their power at that, they would just be courting death.
Unfortunately, this was a world where extraordinary strength crushed everything else! Even though the minority was in power, exploiting their position atrociously, all the majority could do was crush their desires for revolution. After all, this minority possessed great military strength. The ones with the greatest power held the greatest authority. Strength was the truth.
“Get out of the way! Get out of the way!” At this moment, two rows of warriors dressed in black armour and held iron spears and shields darted onto the streets, moving the people to the sides of the road.
‘Hm? Even citizens won’t have this much authority. Could this be the government or some security officials?’ Leylin glanced at Cabadole next to him, but the boy was now trembling all over, and his lips seemed to turn darker in in his fear.
“No…” Cabadole bit at his lower lip, gritting out a few words, “The power of the government comes from the citizens, which is why this is impossible for them… The only possibility is the legendary Lord’s Envoy! There are many city-states like Maxi in this area, but they all have to bow down to the Lord’s Envoy lest they be destroyed.”
“Lord’s Envoy?” Leylin thought this phrase over, sensing the terror within the surrounding natives of Dreamscape. This terror had nothing to do with the higher or lower class, the rich or the poor. Even the citizens of Maxi who had been relaxed just moments before were the same as them.
‘The Lord of Calamity himself, that dream demon, should be the one with feudal power here. Are these soldiers of his armies?’ Leylin made a guess.
The Lords of Calamity weren’t alone. They had great numbers of subordinates that formed huge armies. When Dreamscape intersected with the real worlds, the other worlds in the astral plane would face nightmares in the form of the Lords of Calamity and their armies. Besides the Magus World and other large worlds, there were few who could resist their invasion.
However, Dreamscape weakened regularly. Even if a Lord of Calamity could take over an entire world, they would soon have to give up on it. If not for that, other worlds like the Purgatory World, Icy World, and Shadow World may not have been able to resist Dreamscape.
“They’re here! They’re here!” People at the front began to get restless, while Leylin and Bodach saw the ‘Lord of Calamity’ that had large numbers of people crowded around.
“Oh? So that’s how things are. No wonder these natives are so afraid…” What appeared in front of Leylin was a legion of high-energy beings similar to moths. The moths were extremely large, with some near three metres tall, and others at around a metre tall. They had even evolved to have forelimbs similar to human hands.
“This is the dream demon’s illusory moth army. Although they aren’t all that powerful, they’re pretty proficient in illusions and poisons…” As someone who knew this well, Bodach was now introducing them to Leylin. Still, unlike them this one-eyed dragon was obviously strong enough to wipe Maxi City out easily.
However, these Illusory Moths weren’t the main characters here. At their centre was a human.
Indeed, a human. This was a native of Dreamscape, with yellow skin and wavy hair. The red tattoos on her body indicated that she wasn’t from the Redbud Flower Tribe, but with a single look at her Cabadole quickly covered his mouth.
Most of the other citizens of Maxi did the same, stopping their impending shrieks of terror.
Escorted by the numerous Illusory Moths was a young native girl, with a beautiful, slender waist and a face full of vitality. However, her eyes were muddied and filled with a deathly aura, a white being laid down on her lush hair.
This being had a furry body, its two wings mottled in different colours. A large proboscis had pierced into the girl’s soul from in front of its large compound eyes, as if sucking something out.
Leylin could feel the majesty of laws from the body of this white mouth. Although it was only a trace aura, it represented the essence of what it had once been.
‘Is this some sort of backlash?’ Leylin sighed.
The Lord of Calamity in this region was an exceptionally large dream demon. Its body had rotted to form a huge piece of land, sustaining the lives of many natives.
This naturally wasn’t done out of pure goodwill. Even the most powerful Lords of Calamity in Dreamscape had to seal themselves up, fighting against the weakening dreamforce. Even if they did so they would be tormented by the destructive snow, sapped of their strength. Dream demons did something different. They used the their bodies to nourish a group of natives, splitting their truesouls and entering the dreams of all beings living in their territories. This would help them evade the destructive snow, allowing them to wait out the weakness of the World Origin Force.
Relying on the people’s dreams to preserve their life allowed dream demons to wield most of their strength even after being sealed. The inhabitants who were being protected would give up a portion of their soul force, in exchange obtaining a chance at survival. This was a trade that benefited both parties.
However, there were unexpected situations that could crop up. Although the dream demons carefully controlled their intake of power, they were still Lords of Calamity. If they were agitated by the natives’ dreams, and their absorption unknowingly increased, things would be disastrous.
Just 0.00000001% of the soul power of a dream demon could easily absorb all life from a native. Once the native died, these dream demons would also lose a body to attach themselves to, weakening rapidly as they awaited death.
Although this process was irreversible, there were still exceptions. If the dream demon realised in time that it had absorbed too much, the perfect control would repair the balance of the symbiotic relationship.
However, the native they were attached to would have been absorbed greatly, inclusive of their souls. They would become an empty husk.
Such a shell was actually a huge treasure for a dream demon. At the very least, it would leave no issues with its survival. WIth another layer of protection from a native, there was no need to be afraid of the effects of being in an environment that was weakening. It could also retain some strength and influence over the outer world.
These humans who were controlled had another name in the world: the Lord’s Envoys. Being raised by the dream demon, natives like Cabadole, and even citizens of city states or their leaders, all had parasites within them. Seeing the Lord’s Envoy, it was understandable for them to feel distress.
“Hmm?” Just as Leylin and Bodach were sizing up the Lord’s Envoy, the girl with the moth on her head also turned to look at them. “I never thought I’d be able to see guests from another world here!” she exclaimed, her eyes gaining some vigour.
An astonishing conscient began to awaken in the girl. In that moment, Leylin even saw the body of a dream demon moving through the universe, spreading wings that could cover a small world as it greeted him.
“We’re only travellers touring the area, and unwittingly entered your territory…”
Leylin was not all that surprised by this. While those like Cabadole had a portion of the dream demon’s truesoul in their bodies, these fragments were mostly in slumber. They could only subconsciously absorb the dream energy as food. However, the truesoul inside an envoy was awake, possessing a portion of the main body’s conscient. This made it easy to spot Leylin and Bodach, who had done nothing special to conceal themselves.
The Lord’s Envoy’s beautiful eyes swirled towards the one-eyed dragon, her next words causing Leylin to turn grim, “I remember the smell of your spirit. You’re the person who once coveted my treasure trove…”
That wretched greedy dragon had really once wanted her treasure trove before!
“Ah… hehe… Haha, the weather’s quite good today… Haha…” Bodach rubbed his head and began to laugh dryly.
“However, your humble servant’s treasure trove must have disappointed my Lord…” The Lord’s Envoy was now occupied by a powerful conscient. Leylin estimated that the awakened conscient had now completely gathered here. However, she seemed to be exceptionally easy-going, and was even apologising to Bodach like a wise lady.
“Oh, it’s nothing! I don’t have much interest in dreams that are like bubbles…” Bodach waved his arms and spoke bluntly.
“Apologise!” Leylin pressed Bodach’s head down, and then smiled apologetically at the Lord’s Envoy, “My apologies… This guy has a screw loose…”
“If you don’t mind, we could discuss this further elsewhere…” The Lord’s Envoy pointed away. The natives and citizens of Maxi were currently frozen stiff, especially a few beings with golden olive wreaths on their heads that seemed to be members of the government.
“Sure!” Leylin nodded, and then pointed at Cabadole, “I have some connections to his ancestor…”
There was nothing else that needed to be said. He was sure that she would handle this matter well. After all, the goodwill of another existence of laws for something so trivial would definitely be worth it.
As he watched Leylin and three others depart, Cabadole’s mouth was wide open. He was at a loss of what to say, but the hint of flattery and reverence in the eyes of the citizens surrounding him told him that things would definitely be settled now.