Chapter 1457
Leon was puzzled. He made an offhand remark, and the Nightmare Leotail trembled uncontrollably, as if facing imminent death.
Hey, Nightmare Leotail, I'm talking to you. What are you so afraid of?
The Nightmare Leotail was so scared it could barely speak, stammering over its words.
"Let me think, I’m sure I can remember. The chieftain mentioned it before, I think he said something about it. There was once a creature that entered the Deep World and escaped... I just can’t recall it..."
Leon rubbed his forehead. If it weren’t for the fact that this Nightmare Leotail was too dumb to even lie, he’d have just finished it off on the spot.
But right now, the Nightmare Leotail was the best source of information—simple to the point of stupidity. Any other might not be so easy to deal with.
"Take your time. Since someone managed to escape from the Deep World before, it means it’s possible now too. The power here must’ve been stronger back then..."
He tried to sense the Natural Semi-Plane, but now it couldn’t be opened. He could feel the connection was perfectly intact, not affected at all, yet it just wouldn’t open. Not even a scrap from the demi-plane could be accessed.
It was as if he really was trapped inside a dream—trying to open the Natural Semi-Plane in a dream was pure wishful thinking.
He considered asking Marianne or Anderson—Anderson was always mysterious, and Leon still had no idea what he truly was. But after so long, Leon knew Anderson meant no harm and was on his side; otherwise, he wouldn't have become the Arcane Wheel's magical avatar, a role he couldn't change.
Anderson’s understanding of previous eras far surpassed Leon’s, as if he’d personally lived through them.
But now, even after summoning the Arcane Wheel, Anderson didn’t appear, as if he simply didn’t exist inside the Arcane Wheel anymore.
The Nightmare Leotail’s chubby face was all scrunched up, recalling memories like he was constipated. Leon shook his head, pulled out some crude alchemical equipment, and started experimenting with the materials he’d collected earlier.
He tested each material one by one and confirmed they were all real, not illusions. Even the fragments crushed by the bull hooves were genuine. Leon started to get a headache.
Trees, magical beasts, plants, ores—everything was real. So, was that bull leg real too?
A whole leg of the Warbringer was sealed in the Realm of Nightmares. Just thinking about it made Leon’s expression sour. The Warbringer was a terrifying god-demon who could keep fighting even after being dismembered. His god-demon soul was completely fused into his body; even a severed finger could keep fighting.
It was best not to attract that bull leg’s attention. If things went wrong, the outcome would be ugly—even if the bull leg was fake, the destruction it caused was all too real...
After waiting an hour for the Nightmare Leotail to finish recalling like he was constipated, Leon thought for a moment and took out some noble desserts from his spatial ring. He’d originally prepared them for Hughes and Marianne, but Hughes switched to meat and Marianne didn’t like sweets, so they’d been forgotten there.
He took out a piece of noble dessert and handed it to the Nightmare Leotail. The sweet, flowery aroma stunned the constipated creature.
He didn’t even consider whether the thing was poisonous or anything else—he just stretched out a webbed paw, grabbed the dessert, and started gnawing away.
After finishing the dessert, the Nightmare Leotail’s constipated, chubby face finally relaxed, and it burst out laughing.
"I remember now, I remember! The chieftain said someone did enter the Deep World, and managed to escape. But after escaping, they vanished—the chieftain said that person was an undead, and after escaping, only half their body remained.
The chieftain chased after them but couldn’t catch up. He said that while chasing, the undead disappeared, and then the Warbringer’s leg fell down. After that, the half-bodied undead vanished—the chieftain said he was stomped to death by the bull hooves..."
Hearing this, Leon’s heart skipped a beat. An undead?
An undead who entered the Deep World and managed to escape? Since when did the undead get so smart?
Having only half a body isn’t much of a problem for the undead. As long as their soul fire isn’t damaged, even if only a head remains, they won’t die. Just switch bodies and keep going—their strength just takes a temporary nosedive.
Still, knowing that something once escaped from the Deep World made Leon feel a bit better. But hearing the word 'undead' kept nagging at him, like he was on the verge of remembering something important, but he just couldn’t figure it out.
Undead... Could it be the Undead King? Maybe only that legendary Undead King could pull off something like this.
What the Nightmare Leotail called 'back then' was probably a really ancient era—maybe right after the Lord of Nightmares fell into the Undead Plane and the Realm of Nightmares merged with it.
His head ached from thinking, but he couldn’t come up with anything else for now. Even with the key to the Realm of Nightmares, escape wasn’t guaranteed.
Time was running out—if there were enough time, Agalon could definitely escape. But there wasn’t. If it took decades or a century, the Leviathan Realm would have already fallen, and maybe the undead apocalypse would be breaking out in Northend World.
The Nightmare Leotail answered every question honestly, always repeating everything he’d heard in full. This gave Leon a lot of extra information.
Leon had asked almost everything he needed to. The Nightmare Leotail stared at him with hopeful eyes.
“I’ve told you everything. You’re not going to kill me, are you? The chieftain said outsiders can’t be trusted...
Halfway through his sentence, the Nightmare Leotail froze in terror, unable to continue.
Leon couldn’t help but laugh. He patted the Nightmare Leotail’s head, pulled out a contract, stamped his mark on it, and handed it over.
Relax. Sign this contract, and I won’t be hunted by your kin while I’m here. It’s valid until I leave the Realm of Nightmares—then you’ll be free.
The Nightmare Leotail didn’t dare object. He obediently opened his mouth, revealing three tongues. Together, they marked the contract.
In an instant, the contract dissolved into a burst of light. Leon felt the sense of alienation vanish—the world’s instinctive rejection of him disappeared.
It was just a simple time-limited contract, but its terms were anything but simple. During its validity, the Nightmare Leotail had to do his best to help, and Leon couldn’t kill him.
With this contract, Leon wouldn’t feel that sense of rejection while in the Realm of Nightmares.
Outsiders in the Realm of Nightmares are always rejected and bring imbalance, disrupting the original order. Nightmare Leotails exist to solve this problem—originally created by the Lord of Nightmares. After his fall, they continued this duty on their own.
The presence of outsiders always disrupts the balance, even if they do nothing but stand there.
The simplest way to eliminate this effect was to kill a Nightmare Leotail and use its unicorn horn to craft a protective artifact, which would remove the rejection.
But that wasn’t the best way. Nightmare Leotails were getting rarer—without the Lord of Nightmares, their reproduction was too slow to keep up with the rate they were killed.
Besides, if you held a Nightmare Leotail’s horn and they found out, you’d be hunted relentlessly. Kill one, and a stronger one would come next—eventually, the Leotail Overlord, who is always two ranks above any challenger in the Realm of Nightmares, would show up. Anyone would be doomed.
Signing a time-limited contract is the best solution—a compromise that keeps both sides safe, and guarantees Leon won’t be killed by a Nightmare Leotail while here.
After signing the contract, Leon cut off the Nightmare Leotail’s tail, which had turned gray and lifeless. Without the burden of its tail, the creature could finally move. Its ten-meter-long body shrank to palm-size, resembling a green caterpillar with three duck-like feet.
But that comical, chubby face remained—only now it looked miserable.
Leon took out a piece of noble dessert and stuffed it into the Nightmare Leotail’s hands.
Don’t worry. I’m just here to save someone—once I’m done, I’ll leave. If those people stay, they’ll destroy this place sooner or later. I’m helping you; if you help me find them, we can all leave and your home will be safe. It’s good for everyone.
Once I’m gone, you’ll be free.
The Nightmare Leotail sat miserably on Leon’s shoulder, clutching the dessert and smearing cream all over his face. After a few bites, he brightened up, forgetting all about the situation.
With the Nightmare Leotail as a guide, at least Leon had a direction—no need to search blindly. This alone saved a lot of time. Leon knew the general method, but finding the exact spot would have taken far too long.
The outer edges of the Realm of Nightmares might not be as vast as Northend World in the Age of God-Demons, but they’re still enormous—much bigger than most major planes. Finding an entrance here would take ages.
Concealing themselves, they headed in the direction the Nightmare Leotail indicated. After flying for hours, they finally left the forest. Ahead lay an inland sea—a lake, really, but so vast it stretched for tens of thousands of miles.