Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Huff… huff… huff…
After running for some time in this mystical, ominous and horrifying atmosphere, Grimm stopped in front of a port located at the back of the mountain of Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy as he breathed heavily.
“That bastard, how dare he! Wanting to use me as a vessel to gain his so-called rebirth!”
Grimm angrily muttered under his breath.
The Nightmare World was just an illusory world, it was not an existing world composed of actual matters.
However, in this illusory world, a group of horrifying nightmare creatures came to be. These creatures used nightmares to parasitize, influence or even control countless creatures in the real world, forming a symbiotic relationship between them, in turn affecting reality through illusions.
They were unable to be killed, unless someone was able to destroy the entire Nightmare World!
These horrifying creatures of the Nightmare World possessed an even longer history compared to the sorcerers.
It was after the birth of the Ancient Mechanical Sorcerer way before the battle with the Ancient Sea Tribe in the Sorcerers World. Back then the nightmare creatures had already experienced a long biological evolution. Parasitizing from one creature of a world to much stronger creatures, there was no creature class that could resist the parasitizing of this horrifying world.
Gradually, the stronger the creatures being parasitized became, the more the nightmare creatures parasitized a world that would be able to control curses, sense nature and forcibly evolve by devouring a stronger body. Through all this, it had become a truly powerful nightmare civilization.
Finally, after this strong civilization had conquered one world after another, it had discovered the Ancient Sorcerers World that had begun to take control of its surrounding worlds.
An ancient war of an immense scale naturally erupted between the two worlds.
Ancient Mechanical Sorcerers, Ancient Black Sorcerers and the Ancient Sea Tribe joined hands, and successfully found the weakness of forced evolution through their wits, in turn defeating the nightmare civilization.
This seemed like the historical turning point of the Sorcerers World.
In the history of the Sorcerers World, the Ancient Mechanical Sorcerers developed into Elemental Sorcerers through the distinct characteristics of the bizarre creatures. Through this development, they paved a way to a new mode of biological evolution, in turn gradually developing the Sorcerers World into an enormous and powerful civilization, establishing the glorified legend of the Ancient Sorcerers.
However, the actual hidden history of the Sorcerers World was that the sorcerer civilization had only defeated the outer shell of the Nightmare World. From that point onwards, the Sorcerers World had been parasitized by the Nightmare World. Becoming a new target and host, the two worlds became inseparable.
Just as the horrifying creatures had thought that a new era… the sorcerer nightmare civilization was coming to be, it was in fact the start of a dark history.
Normal humans were too weak, thus they were unable to allow these horrifying creatures to pass through the aperture of the world. Yet the growing mental strength and knowledge of the sorcerers was the nemesis of these horrifying creatures of the Nightmare World.
From then onwards, the Nightmare World of the Endless World seemed to have vanished, only leaving myths of the Nightmare World.
Seemingly the Ancient Sorcerers had not only defeated the bizarre world, it would have seemed as if they had indirectly sealed the creatures of the Endless World as well as the illusory world.
Defeating the Sorcerers World would break the seal of the Nightmare World. It would equal revenge on the Sorcerers World.
In other words, during the second civilization war in the Sorcerers World, the Sorcerers World was so close to being annihilated that the Abyss World would have been turned into the Abyss Nightmare World!
The whole of history, was rewritten by the Supreme Celestial Sorcerer who held the lever of destiny in his hands.
The present Nightmare World was in the same state as the Sorcerers World, already on its way to demise. Every horrifying creature in this illusory world began to weaken, facing true death…
“Judgment Staff Stigmata Sorcerer? With the vastness of the Nightmare World, where on earth can I find Judgment Staff Stigmata Sorcerer? ”
Grimm mumbled to himself.
Before Grimm had fallen into the Nightmare World, Grimm knew that his only hope of leaving the Nightmare World was finding Judgment Staff Stigmata Sorcerer. It was mentioned in the Sorcerer Book given to him by Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer when he pulled Grimm into the Tower of Destruction’s mental void.
The Nightmare World was an invincible world to the Stigmata Sorcerer, yet to the lower level sorcerers, this was a terrifying illusory world that was equivalent to a seal of spacetime!
Grimm took out the Sorcerer Book.
The moment he flipped open the Sorcerer Book, Grimm realized that the letters above had started to disintegrate, becoming fumes of black smoke. It was like the mental void of the breaking Tower of Destruction Grimm had seen in the past.
Those strands of words were all the experiences of Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer. The letters revealed the desire to restore the past glory of the Ancient Sorcerers and to save the Sorcerers World from its fate of demise.
Yet right at this moment, the letters continued to dissipate.
Not being able to read the content in time, Grimm could only sense the will within as he hastily looked at the cover page of the Sorcerer Book.
Book of Black Isotta. Only the word, ‘Black’ in the Ancient Sorcerer text was left as it continued to dissipate.
“Black Isotta said that this would be my ‘Book of Grimm’. But this Sorcerer Book’s name is ‘Book of Black Isotta’, this would mean that after being promoted to Stigmata Sorcerer, only then one can name the Sorcerer Book after one’s own name. The content within, is his will during his Stigmata Sorcerer days… and not the will of his entire sorcerer days.”
The perception of will was different according to the phase of life one was in.
If this Sorcerer Book were to become the Book of Grimm, then this would mean that this was the book of Grimm as an official sorcerer and not the Stigmata Sorcerer Book that would be named after Grimm after being promoted to a Stigmata Sorcerer.
The difference in between the two was indeed not a small one.
After a moment of wild thoughts, Grimm looked at the Sorcerer Book as the will of Black Isotta had completely dissipated. After every page had returned to its clean state, a sigh was held back.
‘Black Isotta Stigmata Sorcerer, what has happened to him?’
All these sudden changes were a catastrophe to Grimm.
“Puff!” A fireball appeared on top of Grimm’s magic staff. The fire burned brightly, revealing the laws of light and heat.
After some magical fluctuations, the fireball turned into fire birds, fire bats and fire bees.
Grimm silently felt his magic power and the laws of the world. How clear and real everything was that it was as if this was the reality of the Endless World. Yet it was indeed just a Nightmare World of illusions.
“I can’t give up!”
Grimm clenched his teeth tightly, his eyes under the Mask of Truth revealed his determination toward his eternal pursuit of a higher path of sorcery.
Ever since he had chosen to become a sorcerer, all the emotional intertwinement, fate variables and all his experiences were just the scenery along the way on his path of being a sorcerer.
It was indeed due to the fact that in this journey of life, too many beautiful things were only present for a short amount of time. It was because of that, because they had to face the unknown yet cruel fate, that human ancestors chose to evolve by becoming sorcerers.
Sorcerers, they were the ideals of human ancestors, the ideal toward ‘God’.
Only when all the laws could pass through the Endless World, change everything, and when the laws of goodness were left, that would then be the definition of the omnipotent ‘God’ that had been described in all the mythical novels and Holy songs or texts in the Endless World.
“Even if I could never find Judgment Staff Stigmata Sorcerer… even if I could be trapped in this illusory world forever… even if I were to be hunted down for life by those terrifying creatures… I will continue on this path! If becoming a Stigmata Sorcerer means being able to cross through the Nightmare World, then I will become a Stigmata Sorcerer right here and now!”
Grimm blabbered passionate words that made no sense as he motivated himself to not give up.
Compared to the Foreign Worlds, where the strong stepped on bones under their feet as the way to evolve, to evolve under the Stigmata Sorcerers of the Sorcerer Towers, all they had been doing was accumulating and researching knowledge, bearing infinite boredom and loneliness as low level sorcerers.
The more boredom and loneliness one bore, the higher chance for the sorcerer to live amongst higher levels of the Sorcerer Towers, directly reaching the final level beyond the Stigmata Sorcerer.
Crunch!
Grimm abruptly opened the wooden door of a room near the port, the ‘crunch’ sound released by the friction of the wooden door could be heard clearly in the silence.
There were no signs of humans in the room. Every object in the room emitted an ominous and corrupted breath, releasing fumes of dark red smoke.
Grimm changed his way of thinking. Imagining ways to make up for this scenario in the Sorcerer World, this could very well be just a normal Knight Family.
Being able to live on the port behind the Black Isotta Tower, these people were people with significant relation to the Black Isotta Sorcerer Academy.
Grimm’s gaze was set upon the bed in the room. His breath under the Mask of Truth hastened and an incredibly surprised look took form in his eyes.
A spiral aperture of the twisted world was on the wooden bed of the room!
“Is this really… a world aperture?”
In the Sorcerers World, every bed was an entrance to the Nightmare World. This was something every sorcerer knew!
Grimm just wanted to give it a try, to see whether it worked the other way around…
A wave of infinite joy washed over Grimm as he flung himself into the world aperture without a second thought. Although the aperture was a small one, Grimm could care less as he unleashed his wild instinct while squeezing himself in wildly.
“It really is the Sorcerers World! It really is the Sorcerers World!”
Grimm could feel the moistness in his eyes.
Through the small aperture, he could see a familiar sight. It was the Sorcerers World. The Sorcerers World that was cruel yet peaceful at the same time under the laws of the Holy Tower.
However, the aperture was too small, Grimm could not even squeeze in.
“Puff!” Grimm was pushed out of the world aperture as it slowly closed in. Right at that moment, Grimm could hear the sound of a little girl weeping.
A consoling voice of a mature woman came from behind the closing aperture.
“Come on now, don’t be scared.. it’s just a bad dream, don’t cry dear…”
As the world aperture closed, Grimm trembled where he stood as silence filled the room in the Nightmare World.
Did he turn into a horrifying creature of the Nightmare World?
If he were to find a bigger world aperture to go to the Sorcerers World, then he would have to find it from a Sorcerer’s place, but the mental strength of a Sorcerer…
In the midst of this breathless despair, Grimm tightened his grip on the boney knuckle of his Sabbatic Goat Staff as he silently closed his eyes.
