A Sorcerer's Journey 506 You Monster

Ten days later.
Puff!
The Nightmare Phantom in the captivity seal turned into black smoke as it dissipated. The test subject Grimm had captured for his experiment ended in failure once again.
Grimm was feeling slightly disappointed. All the test subjects he had captured for the past few days for his experiment had failed.
Grimm did not show the dejection he should have had, instead he maintained his calmness as a sorcerer. After pondering upon the outcome on where he stood for a few moments, Grimm blinked suddenly as he realized something.
A layer of fine black powder had appeared by the seal on the ground. There was such a small amount of powder that it was not easily noticeable, it seemed like merely dust on the ground.
After dipping at the powder with his hand and wiping it with great force, Grimm could be certain that the dust before him was the black powder which had appeared after a Nightmare Phantom had dissipated and not just any ordinary dust.
"Hmm? Well it seems like I have finally discovered something!"
In delight, Grimm squatted down.
He tore off a blank piece of paper and started collecting all the black powder which was filled with a corrupted breath. Grimm kept it in a transparent test tube as a specimen as he waited to observe what his next steps were.
The test tube only had a thin layer of black ash. It was a very small amount and not much to work with.
Tick tock… tick tock… tick tock
After a couple of hourglasses, the sound of the wall clock had started to weaken. Once more, a new day in the Nightmare World had passed.
Grimm let out a sigh. There was still no progress in his study on the black powder in the test tube.
The only thing he was certain of was that this was related to some of the horrifying creatures in the Nightmare World. In his speculation without evidence, Grimm felt as if the black soot was the metabolic dander of the horrifying creatures.
As he collected all the black ashes, Grimm turned to watch the closing world aperture on the wooden bed.
"Yawn..."
A yawn escaped from the world aperture, it seemed to have come from one stretching upon waking up. It sounded like the blissful sound of a woman who had slept well for the whole night and was just waking up.
"Hehe, you seem to be in good spirits for these past few days, sis. Did you stop having that bad dream?"
The girl next to her smiled and the sound of two girls laughing could be heard.
"Hmm… maybe it's because I've finally let go. After all, things had already happened. I guess in our sorcerer paths ahead, we don't need to have too many emotions attached. It's enough having loneliness as our company. But I'd advise you to stay away from that guy, all men are up to no good..."
The voice came to a stop as the world aperture closed. The Nightmare World had returned to its silent state once again. The corruption, constraint and ominous state of the night had once again turned into the illusive—twisted daytime of the Nightmare World.

Hmm?
Today, it would seem that Grimm had caught something from the conversation of the two girls in the Sorcerers World.
It may also be Grimm's brain which had begun to form its own imagination. However, normally when women start talking about heartless men, they would start from talking about the tragedy that took place after the good moments they have had, as love turned to hate.
As someone who had experienced a genuine relationship, Grimm could understand the genuine love in one's heart. Though he was unfamiliar with the delicate feelings between a man and a woman due to his dull experiences when he was at a young age.
Perhaps, the birth of the Nightmare Phantom in this room was due to the human in the Sorcerers World herself?
The hideous monkey with red fur was the actual form it had in the Nightmare World, or in other words, the disguise of the black ashes as an infant under the Awakening Ray was a scene in the nightmare of the sorceress-apprentice?
Chirp… chirp… chirp… chirp...
As the black sun of the Nightmare World rose once again, the black ashes in which Grimm had failed to observe any changes in during the night started to tremble vigorously in the test tube.
It seemed as if it was being purified by some mysterious law in the Nightmare World as it started to vanish.
In the midst of Grimm's shock, he quickly stored the remaining black ashes in the test tube back into the Dimensional Gap.
"So this is the reason for the sense of security I feel during the day in the Nightmare World?"
Besides the time when Grimm was targeted once by a horrifying creature when he had just entered the Nightmare World, Grimm had been studying about Nightmare Phantoms and ice magic for ten days as he stayed in that small cabin. He now had a preliminary understanding of the Nightmare World's structure and was attempting to advance to become a Level-2 sorcerer in the Nightmare World.
However, these past few days had been calm and showed no signs of danger.
"Well, for now it seems like there's no way to study about Nightmare Phantoms during the day in the Nightmare World."
As he took out his ice magic book, something came to Grimm's mind. Could it be that there was some sort of relationship between Solumn's immortal body and the Nightmare World?
His eyes twinkled as Grimm set his random thoughts aside and started focusing on his ice magic studies.
***
After another ten days.
After dispersing the Nightmare Phantom once again, Grimm crouched down to the ground to start collecting the ashes with a piece of paper after glancing toward the wall clock which had returned to normal.
The Endless World in the eyes of a sorcerer—No matter if it were the material world, the illusory world or even the void world, they all shared the one and same fundamental principle, or it could be described as the basic principle of sorcerer knowledge. The principle being that nothing can be created out of nothing. Everything has to follow the conservation principle of energy and mass.
The Nightmare Phantom losing the black ashes must have meant that something was reduced in some aspect of the Nightmare Phantom.
What Grimm wanted to know was, if he were to prevent the day of the Nightmare World from purifying the Nightmare Phantom by killing this Nightmare Phantom again and again, and keeping the leftover ashes of the transfiguration seal in the Dimensional Gap, what would happen to the Nightmare Phantom?
Would it die?
Holding on to these thoughts, Grimm intended to conduct an experiment to better understand and observe the secret of Nightmare Phantoms.
He remembered how Master Peranos once said that if he were to advance to become a Stigmata Sorcerer and enter the Nightmare World, he should try and stay in this world for some time.
Although the Nightmare World could not be completely destroyed, as long as the sorcerers continued to weaken from generation to generation, they would be able to infinitely lower the limit of the nightmare creature's parasitic manipulation power, infinitely reaching zero.
In other words, after Nightmare Phantoms were killed, even though they could respawn infinitely, they would indeed be weakened in the process. Even in the past twenty days, Grimm could feel that the Nightmare Phantom in the wall clock of the room had been weakened drastically.
This so-called weakening did not refer to its life but rather the ability of it to forcibly parasitize or control.
It would seem that these black ashes represented its parasitizing ability.
As such, if the day came when the Nightmare Phantom could no longer leave black ashes behind after dissipating, it would lose its parasitic manipulation abilities, then what would happen after that?
***
Three months later.
As night fell, the Nightmare World began to turn from being twisted and elusive to being corrupted and realistic. The ticking of the wall clock in the room was becoming clearer and clearer.
After an hourglass.
Grimm who had begun to get used to the laws of the Nightmare World naturally closed his Sorcerer Book before glancing at the world aperture appearing on the wooden bed. The aperture seemed like a twisted spiral with a diameter of less than half a meter.
"There might be some results today."
Grimm silently waited in the form of a Nightmare Phantom as he walked toward the wall clock.
Tick tock… tick tock… tick tock
The pendulum was gradually stretched as the ticking sound went on. A black liquid flowed down from the wall clock. This lower level Nightmare Phantom seemed to be a life which acted completely based on its instincts with no wisdom whatsoever. Or it could be a natural phenomenon in the Nightmare World, neither fear of death nor fear toward Grimm was shown.
However at this moment, it was obvious that it was weak.
When facing Grimm who was still trying to stop it, although the Nightmare Phantom was still attacking Grimm, it was too weak to bring any harm to the Sorcerer's Barrier.
It was to the point where the body of the hideous monkey had started to emit a white yet gentle light. The light looked like Grimm's Lamp of Awakening.
It would seem that Grimm who kept on collecting the black ashes for the past three months had caused the Nightmare Phantom's body to lose its ability to block what was within.
And this thing within its body was very likely the source of the Nightmare Phantom!
As Grimm's Sabbatic Goat Staff striked the ground, this time, the Nightmare Phantom let out a cry as it left an astonishing amount of black ashes behind. It did not turn into black smoke and fly back into the wall clock like it did in the past, instead it left a small amount of black ashes behind on the ground.
Tick tock… tick tock… tick...
The pendulum of the clock had stopped!
"This is..."
In Grimm's eyes, an infant formed by a white and gentle light appeared before him. The true source of this Nightmare Phantom turned out to be this?
In other words, the source of the nightmares of the sorceress-apprentice was this infant?
"Wah… wah… wah..."
In the midst of Grimm's shock, this white and gentle light of the infant abruptly opened its eyes as it instinctively cried while looking behind Grimm.
"...Child… my child! You monster, leave my child alone!"
Grimm turned his head to see the sorceress-apprentice who had squeezed in through the world aperture as she held her magic staff up in panic and pointed it in his direction.

Chapter end