Within the crowd, the murmurs swelled, thick with terror. Nathan Ouyang’s words failed to stir courage—instead, panic began to ripple outward, a suffocating chaos seeping into every face.
Heh. Brother, look closely—this is what people truly are.
John Chou and I sat atop the rooftop, watching the chaos below. The crowd was frantic, many faces twisted in panic, desperate to flee. Nathan Ouyang’s voice cut through the turmoil, his shouts echoing with a grim urgency.
“Listen up, everyone! There’s nowhere left to run—this world holds no safety now. Only by fighting back do we cling to the faintest hope.” Nathan Ouyang’s voice rang out, desperate to pierce the dread.
But the city’s residents paid Nathan Ouyang no heed. Most surged like a tide toward the back streets, driven by terror. I watched as some nearby ducked into houses, grabbing whatever bags and belongings they could, heading west. I called out to one of them.
“What’s over there?” I asked, voice low amid the chaos.
“Nothing—just more woods, same as the east. But there are Dream Wraiths lurking there too.”
I exhaled, watching the flood of people surge westward. Snatches of anxious gossip reached me—many believed that even if Dream Wraiths prowled the woods, so long as they escaped, one or two could be dealt with. They clung to the hope of surviving, undisturbed, somewhere in the western forest.
"Why don’t they try escaping into the Dream Realm?" I wondered aloud.
John Chou let out a dry, uneasy chuckle, the sound lost in the restless air.
"Brother, you might escape for a while, but you can't run forever."
The thought struck me immediately—no matter what, every dream must end. And once it does, they'll all be back here. Besides, there are plenty of Dream Wraiths lurking in the Dream Realm, and most of them are high-level.
There were fewer and fewer people left in the square. Even some soldiers, abandoning their armor, began to flee, paying no heed to Nathan Ouyang's commands.
Yet I noticed that not a single Dreamborn ran. The more than three hundred Dreamborn remaining all stood firm in the square. Nathan Ouyang hurriedly ordered that no one be allowed to leave the city. John Chou smiled and drifted over, and I followed.
"What should we do now, Your Highness John Chou? Most of the people in the city have fled. They..."
"Let them open the gates. If they want to leave, let them go. Haven't you always kept them penned in, Nathan Ouyang? This was inevitable. Only when those people realize there's no escape will they truly awaken—though maybe they never will. Ha!"
Nathan Ouyang's face darkened, shifting rapidly between emotions, clearly struggling to bear the weight of the situation. I glanced at John Chou—by now, most of the city's people had already surged outside.
"Why not? Aren't Mona Ouyang's Hundred Ghosts supposed to be terrifying? Why don't they just come and seize that shard themselves?"
This was something I couldn't quite understand. John Chou just smiled.
"That shard isn't so easily taken from Nathan Ouyang's hands," John Chou said. I stared in surprise at Nathan Ouyang, who had already stepped down from the platform, intent on chasing after the crowd.