Soulless Players

Chapter 68: His struggles

"Why am I here?"

Philip suddenly found himself standing in his space of consciousness, his face etched with confusion.

However, when he recalled being forcibly put to sleep earlier, Philip's face contorted in a frown. Immediately, he attempted to wake up but his efforts were in vain.

"Why is this happening?" he asked himself.

At the same time, Philip sensed that his body had been relocated. He felt his clothes being gradually removed as he drifted towards the inner part of the summoning circle.

With the Dreamwalker's ability to perceive any movement within a 25-meter radius, he also observed other men undergoing a similar process, being placed a meter apart from each other, naked.

Philip furrowed his brow, taken aback by this unexpected turn of events. He hadn't anticipated that the men were also part of the sacrificial offerings and were not Gregorio's subordinates.

While surveying the real world, he noticed that Gerald remained awake, which piqued his curiosity.

"Why can Gerald stay awake?" Philip wondered.

He carefully observed Gerald and caught sight of his bleeding fingers. Seeing this, Philip speculated that to remain awake, the body must be in constant pain.

Philip thought he could achieve the same if he transformed back into his original child body. After all, he had been experiencing restlessness through pushing his Physique stats to the limit.

However, he hesitated, realizing that doing so would risk exposing himself to Gregorio.

With this option deemed unacceptable, Philip promptly entered the dream world.

Returning to the same place he'd left last night, he rushed to Doug's bookstore to seek assistance.

"Do you know someone who can relay a message to the human mentalists?" Philip inquired, his breathing agitated.

Doug initially appeared surprised but, upon closer inspection of Philip's face, he frowned slightly and asked,

"Raul? Is that you? Why aren't you wearing your mask this time? Wait, why has your face and body changed so suddenly?"

Philip didn't mind being discovered or answering Doug's questions. He also didn't inquire about how Doug knew his real face despite wearing a mask in the past. After all, he was in immediate danger and required immediate help.

"Do you know someone or not? I'm in a hurry," he pressed, his tone laced with impatience.

"Yes, yes," Doug responded hurriedly, temporarily putting aside his questions, sensing Philip's urgency.

Philip relayed his location and current situation to Doug and offered him 500 tallums as payment. Afterward, he left and returned to his realm of consciousness to observe the real world.

Philip noticed that Gregorio was taking his time to prepare for the ritual. Out of nowhere, Gregorio produced an intricate black wooden table and placed it across from the devil's statue.

It was also within this observation that Philip realized Gregorio seemed to be unaware that Gerald was awake.

Mentalists were expected to detect falsehoods, a gift stemming from their high mental strength that granted them heightened mental awareness.

With Gregorio remaining clueless, it suggested he wasn't a mentalist, making Philip feel safe to enter his astral state.

Without hesitation, Philip returned to the real world in his astral form. He moved cautiously in front of Gregorio to test if he remained unseen. Once he confirmed Gregorio's inability to perceive him, Philip surveyed the surroundings, searching for an escape route.

However, even after he tried passing through the wall, he could not. It became evident that the room was securely sealed, just as he had assumed it to be.

While scanning the room, he noticed some deceased children in a corner. Philip carefully observed them and memorized their body structures, thinking they might be useful later.

Afterward, he approached Gerald and noticed that his eyebrows twitched, as though they had been quickly closed when Philip passed by. With this, Philip made a conjecture.

"It can't be," Philip muttered, moving closer to Gerald and attempting to communicate.

"Gerald, can you hear me? I'm not an enemy; I'm here to help you," Philip said in a soft voice.

Gerald appeared surprised but didn't move or respond. Philip realized that Gerald was likely feigning asleep to protect himself. In addition, Philip felt that Gerald didn't fully trust him yet.

To establish a secure means of communication, Philip devised a system.

"Just keep your eyes closed. Squint your eyes once for 'yes' and twice for 'no.' Understand?"

After five seconds, Gerald twitched his eyebrows once with hesitation.

"Good. Is the reason why you are not asleep like others because of your wound?"

Gerald's eyes squinted once, but before Philip could throw another question, they squinted two more times.

Philip contemplated this development.

'Since Gerald can perceive me, does that mean he has fulfilled the requirements to become a mentalist and is a sort of half-dreamwalker? And the only thing he lacks is summoning his astral body and opening his door?'

Philip inquired, "Do you feel that something is different about you? Is that what you're trying to convey?"

Gerald's eyes squinted once.

"Good. Follow my instructions," Philip said, guiding Gerald on how to induce sleep paralysis and summon his astral body.

When Philip was done, he waited for Gerald to complete the process. But when he noticed Gerald's difficulty, this forced him to give it some thought.

'Hmm, Gerald is lying on his stomach, not suitable for inducing sleep paralysis. Moreover, the tense atmosphere just made it more difficult for Gerald to concentrate and calm his mind.'

As Philip pondered a solution, he could not help but notice the chilling culmination of the ritual. Gregorio had completed his preparations and placed the staff upon the ancient, weathered table. With an air of profound solemnity, he knelt upon the ground and clamored.

"You are the embodiment of calamity and tribulation," he intoned, invoking forces that had long haunted the annals of history.

"The formidable guardian of realms mirroring our own," he continued, his words laced with reverence for a power that transcended mortal understanding.

"I beseech you to accept these offerings," he implored, his eyes locked on the sinister statue above. "And bestow upon me your benediction of ruin and catastrophe."

As the words left Gregorio's lips, a profound chill filled the room, causing the very air to thicken with foreboding. The dim candlelight cast eerie shadows that danced in macabre celebration of the ancient rite.

With deliberate intent, Gregorio retrieved a wickedly sharp knife from his traveler's ring. As the blade gleamed malevolently in the dim light, he made a deliberate, agonizing cut on his right hand. The crimson blood that flowed from his palm dripped onto the table, mingling with the darkness of the room.

"I beseech you to accept these sacrifices," he cried.

"I implore you to heed the prayer of your devoted servant."

In that ominous moment, the statue itself seemed to respond to his cry. The very earth quaked beneath their feet, and the slumbering children and men were trembling abnormally like a grotesque dance of suffering.

Philip also felt an insurmountable pain rushing through him. It didn't come from his body or mind but something deep within him. And the more time he let the ritual continue, the more he felt his energy draining out from him.

Philip then swiftly acted and transformed his body into one of the dead children he saw earlier.

With an intense pain brought by the transformation, Philip instantly woke up from his slumber.

While in the middle of his transformation, with seemingly maggots squirming deep within him and his muscles and bones reconstructed to become smaller, he plunged his arms deep into his stomach and retried the traveler's ring he had swallowed earlier.

He summoned the gun he had hidden in the ring and fired it at the statue in the center.

He refrained from shooting Gregorio, as the light emanating from him was evidently abnormal. Unlike the statue, which emitted light similar to normal statues, indicating it might be destructible.

BANG!

As the bullet coursed through the air and was about to hit one of the horse heads, it stopped, as if an invisible barrier encased the statue and Gregorio.

Gregorio turned to look at the child behind him, his eyes red and chilling but indifferent, as if he were observing a lifeless figure.

Suddenly, when Philip had fully transformed into a child, he suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to resign and sleep - just escape from reality and return to the dream.

Feeling that this emotion was not his and probably the effect of Gregorio's staff, he broke his arm to counter the drowsiness with pain.

Gregorio raised an eyebrow but remained motionless, fixed in his place. However, when he gazed at the empty space within the summoning circle, his forehead creased.

As a mentalist, Philip noticed Gregorio couldn't move and was fixated on his position. He also recognized his reaction and perceived the link between the ritual and the sacrifices.

Understanding the situation, Philip kicked the children out of the formation. He also injured the adult men around to forcibly wake them up from their slumber. Additionally, he conveniently kicked Gerald to make him lie on his back.

"What's happening?" one man asked, clutching his aching stomach.

When the man realized they were inside the summoning circle, he inquired, "Wait, are we just being used as sacrifices?"

Panic ensued, and some men rushed to the entryway wall to escape.

However, as one managed to open the door slightly, everyone stopped and froze, their expressions vacant as they mechanically returned to the formation.

Philip also halted and raised his foot, as if he, too, were under control.