The kick jolted Rafeal awake, throwing him into the snow, his hair and face dyed white. Frightened and angry, he stared at Astr and yelled loudly.
"You, what do you want to do? Are you trying to cause trouble?
Before Rafeal fell, a snow-covered boot sole ran over his face. Amidst the screams, Astr ground back and forth while leaning down, looking into Rafeal's frightened amber eyes, and said softly and politely:
"Please calm down, okay?"
Rafeal:... ....
'You should take your feet away first before I try to calm'
Rafeal took a few deep breaths and actually calmed down—to be more precise, his anger overcame his fear and allowed him reason to come online again.
Rafeal slapped Astr's feet away and got up in embarrassment with dirty paint all over his body. Although he was very angry, he did not dare to say another word.
Astr nodded with satisfaction, rubbed the soles of his shoes on the snow, and said lightly:
"Welcome to one of the seven nightmare lords, the dream space of the Lust Painter."
'Because of this portrait, I was indeed pulled into the dream space. But one of the seven nightmare lords?'
Rafeal was stunned, and his face, which was originally red with anger, instantly turned pale.
The seven nightmare lords are the supreme rulers who dominate the entire nightmare realm world under their so-called god. Their existence is comparable to that of a god.
Not to mention the freshmen who have not yet enrolled in Astral; even formal wizards who are qualified to solve nightmares have only one word when meeting the nightmare lord, and that is death.
There isn't even an option to escape. The nightmare invasion that almost destroyed the Leonis Empire two hundred years ago was just because the Nightmare Lord showed his face.
"Why, why did I come here...?"
Fear completely shattered Rafeal, stripping away his arrogance wrapped up in family and flattery, leaving only the most instinctive timidity and cowardice inside.
"Don't you know the reason?" Astr opened his mouth, pretending to be surprised. This cute look completely looked like a devil in Rafeal's' eyes.
Rafeal instinctively rejected what Astr was going to say next.
As expected Just as Rafeal expected to Astr say. That only Astr said clearly
"Because you followed me here~ Look back; before you came in, did you specifically think about me?"
"Hahaha, you were afraid that I would be alone. You're lonely, so why don't you come in with me? It's so considerate of you."
As if being hit by a heavy hammer, Rafeal's body shook suddenly, and then he murmured in disbelief:
"Is it because I came with you here? Impossible—absolutely impossible—you must be lying to me! And why would I come for you? I just wanted to see you suffer with my own eyes."
Rafeal roared, looking into Astr's pitiful eyes; his heart was already falling into a whirlpool of regret.
'Why was I so mean-mouthed that I wanted to provoke this lunatic? If I had continued walking, I would have been the first to reach the oak tree by now, bathing in the rising sun. Instead of being trapped in this weird nightmare, Rafeal's heart ached while thinking about this.
Astr smiled happily and looked at Rafeal's frantic appearance.
Waves of fear energy flowed into Astr's body, repairing his exhausted body from hiking. Astr can absorb emotion energy, especially fear, from people after one month of meditation.
'So comfortable' Astr felt after recovering some of his health.
Looking at Astr's smile, the Canvasbane couldn't help but curse.
'Who is the real villain?'
After a while, seeing that Rafeal was about to collapse, Astr spoke at the right time.
"You haven't finished listening to what I'm talking about yet. Although this is the dream space of the Nightmare Lord, we are not facing him directly."
"Otherwise, do you think you can still stand here properly?"
"..."
Rafeal opened his eyes and blushed. He looked with fearful eyes at Astr.
"Listen to me and follow my instructions; maybe you will be able to survive and escape from here. After all, I am a very nice person."
"And, maybe, you will become the first person in history to pass the entrance exam while conquering a nightmare; you will be considered a super genius." The soft and soothing words passed into Rafeal's ears like magic sounds, reverberating in his mind, full of confusion.
Gradually, Rafeal's eyes turned from chaotic to clear, and he could only reflect the figure of Astr.
He put down the hand holding his hair and staggered down in front of Astr.
As if a desperate man had grasped the last straw of his hanging life that was near death, Rafeal grabbed Astr's sleeves, grinning ingratiatingly on his dirty face.
"I will be obedient... I will be obedient, so can you please take me out of here?"
"Of course," Astr's smile widened looking at the grinning face of Rafeal, and he pointed at the canvasbane, "Look, I can subdue nightmare creatures; of course I'm not an ordinary person."
"Yes, yes, how can you be an ordinary person?" Rafeal glanced timidly at a canvasbane. The Canvasbane grinned, and Rafeal quickly looked away.
His heart was pounding. This is the first time in his life that he has encountered something that is truly a nightmare creature.
He had imagined how he would cut off the heads of these monsters in a cool and unrestrained manner, such as with a sliding shovel.
However, now that the opportunity is right in front of him, Rafeal can only tremble.
Astr felt a little tired, so he sat elegantly on the canvas and spoke softly.
"You should have learned that there are two ways to escape the dream space."
"Well," Rafeal was stunned for a moment, and he quickly replied, not wanting to offend Astr, "the first is to find the 'door' to leave, and the second is to kill the maintainer of the dream space."
"That's right," Astr nodded. "Kill, but when the Nightmare Lord comes, you can only find the 'door' to escape if possible." "So theoretically, we should find the 'door' now."
"But the problem is that this is the dream space of the Nightmare Lord, and the 'door' must be in the core area. Before we even get close to it, we will be killed."
"Then, what should we do?" Rafeal swallowed and asked eagerly.
"Don't worry, the Lord's Dream space is quite special. It is divided into areas, one by one, and assigned to his subordinates. Each area can be regarded as a separate dream space."
"That is to say..." Astr smiled mysteriously and said, "As long as we kill the owner of that area, we will be able to escape from the dream space and will be able to return to reality."
To put it bluntly, it means entering the dungeon and fighting the mini-boss directly.
Rafeal's face immediately turned pale again. "But it's impossible for the two of us alone to do it."
Before he could finish speaking, Astr grabbed Rafeal's hair and pulled his head in front of him.
Icy blue eyes stared at the frightened Rafeal; his red lips parted slightly, and he spoke slowly with a cold voice.
"I said I can, so I can. Don't question me; I don't want it to happen again, and you don't have many days to live." In the end, the voice sounded so low that it couldn't be heard by Rafeal.
"Okay, yes, it will not happen again." Rafeal chocked, nodded hurriedly, and was finally let go.
"Very good, we will become good partners to fight this dream space."
In a blink of an eye, Astr put on a gentle smile again and patted Rafeal's face.
Looking at Rafeal, who became as obedient as a puppet in just a few minutes, the Canvasbane was in awe of Astr.
Astr looked towards the canvasbane and said, "Take me deep into the forest."
Canvasbane: { Yes, my honoured master}
With that, she said, and she crawled into the forest, carrying Astr on her back. The invisible tail wagged very quickly.
Rafeal followed closely behind, and the two of them moved forward in the silent snow, one after the other, leaving a series of dragging traces.
The further inside, the weirder the atmosphere became, as if there were finger bones creeping up to their ankles.
Gradually, many oil paintings appeared on the trees, one after another, swaying in the wind.
In the portraits, there are women of different ages. There are young girls in their prime, mature and plump women, and grey-haired old women. There are hundreds and thousands of portraits, but none of the faces are similar. It's like coming to an art exhibition in a deserted snow forest.