Watching him devour the Cleaner first, then eat half of the Nightmare, and now glaring at his own "body" with greed, Nightmare Leon’s scalp prickled uncontrollably.
Although he had long known that someone capable of destroying half the Dream Realm must be mentally unstable, the extent of Leon’s madness was far beyond Nightmare Leon’s imagination after actually encountering him.
"Aren’t you afraid of the Clean-up Bureau’s retaliation for doing such things?"
Growing increasingly anxious, Nightmare Leon sought other Nightmares while taking the opportunity to launch a psychological attack:
"If the people from the Clean-up Bureau find out that you killed so many Cleaners at once, they’ll definitely execute you on the spot! If you don’t want to end up like that..."
"I don’t understand what you’re saying."
After wiping the Divine Blood dripping down his face, Leon, seeing through the other’s intentions, naturally wouldn’t explain that the Cleaners were still alive. Instead, he calmly countered:
"The murderer who killed them is you. What does it have to do with me?"
Upon hearing Leon’s response, Nightmare Leon’s eyes widened in shock.
So... he’s planning to pin it all on me? Damn! How can this guy be even darker than me?
Seeing Leon’s expression, as if he had everything under control, a somewhat exasperated Nightmare Leon took a deep breath, then turned and walked away, tracing back from the deepest part of the Demonic Soul Abyss, starting to search for and consume Nightmares to fill the missing [Nightmare] Authority.
Determined to stick with him, Leon also followed without hesitation, both... both Leons racing upwards in a relentless chase, consuming everything in their path.
Even though Nightmare Leon could spread a sea of insects, consuming at a rate far beyond Leon’s, Leon kept slashing away the insect sea while rapidly preying on targets. Surprisingly, his "consumption" speed reversed, surpassing Nightmare Leon’s, and as he became more adept, Leon’s feeding efficiency continued to soar...
This won’t do! It absolutely won’t!
"With" Leon hot on his heels, Nightmare Leon reached the largest Nightmare settlements in the Demonic Soul Abyss, thoroughly consuming them. To his horror and anger, he realized he had eaten far less than Leon.
When the King of Nightmares descended into reality, he took away more than half of the elite Nightmares in the Demonic Soul Abyss. Those unfortunate Nightmares were first obliterated by the Virgin Branch’s director, then heavily devoured by [Dream Eating Anomalous Carapace] released by the Destroyer. Less than a tenth managed to return to the Demonic Soul Abyss.
Even though the Nightmares in the Demonic Soul Abyss could be resurrected from the Nightmare River, resurrection requires time, and the current Nightmare count in the Demonic Soul Abyss is extremely low. Notably, there are very few elites available to replenish the missing [Nightmare] Authority.
And the damn "body" is consuming faster than me, with about eighty percent of the Nightmares swallowed into his stomach. If it continues at this rate, even if I lead him to consume the entire Demonic Soul Abyss, it might still not fill the gap in the missing [Nightmare] Authority.
Facing the crisis, Nightmare Leon suddenly halted, then, in Leon’s surprised gaze, plunged into the Nightmare River at his feet.
What is he trying to do?
Stunned by Nightmare Leon’s unusual move, but detecting no danger, Leon hesitated only briefly before decisively following, diving into the Nightmare River. Passing through countless Nightmare fragments, he pursued Nightmare Leon.
Seeing Leon follow him down, Nightmare Leon’s heart steeled resolutely. He suddenly stretched out his hands, as if grasping an unimaginably heavy door, and with a gritty pull, yanked hard!
Accompanied by an eerie resonance that existed only in his awareness, Nightmare Leon tore open a wide crack at the bottom of the immensely deep, pitch-black Nightmare River, pulling massive volumes of pitch-black water along with countless shattered Nightmares into the rift with him.
Seeing the scene through the enormous rift spanning nearly a hundred meters across the riverbed, Leon’s heart tightened, and the timely reminder from his senior, Amien, perfectly confirmed his suspicion.
"Leon, you must chase after him."
Amien’s always calm and steady voice suddenly had a hint of urgency.
"He’s probably realized that, under your rivalry and harassment, the number of Nightmares in the Demonic Soul Abyss isn’t enough to make up for the missing [Nightmare] Authority.
If I’m not mistaken, he’s attempting to break the barriers between the dream realms, as the Goddess of Pleasure Dreams did, to flood the Nightmare River from the Demonic Soul Abyss into other Dream Realms using his semi-status as the Lord of Nightmares."
"What would happen if he does that? Would it help him replenish the [Nightmare] Authority?"
Amien sighed, "I told you before, it seems there are many layers to the Dream Realm, but in reality, there is only one. Each layer appears independent, but they are different manifestations of other Dream Realms; they are completely unified. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ NoveI(F)ire.net
So, once the creatures of other Dream Realm layers are immersed in the waters of the Nightmare River, it’s as if they’ve ’transferred’ directly to the Demonic Soul Abyss from the current layer of Dream Realm, forced into transformation into a Nightmare."
So... he can just eat these newly transformed Nightmares to completely replenish the missing [Nightmare] Authority, becoming a Lord of Nightmares no longer affected by me?!
After fully understanding Nightmare Leon’s plan through the exchange with Amien, Leon wasted no time and immediately spurred the [Minohill Cursed Mercury] into action, plunging into another Dream Realm layer with the flood of pitch-black river water.
"This layer is Reflecting Empty Valley, one of the nine Great Dream Realms, representing lucid dreams, characterized by the conscious control of one’s own dream..."
With Amien’s voice narrating, Leon dashed towards the feasting Nightmare Leon, taking a heavy step to shoulder him away with an Iron Mountain Lean, then snatched a deer he was already stuffing into his mouth.
Having narrowly avoided being devoured, the startled deer instinctively voiced gratitude.
Yet, after glancing at the deer, which had already been completely Nightmare-transformed, Leon sighed and, with the deer’s shocked expression, lifted it into his own mouth.
As the deer screamed, disappearing into Leon’s mouth, Nightmare Leon hastily picked himself up, ripped open Reflecting Empty Valley, and charged into yet another Dream Realm layer with the surging Nightmare River.
"This layer is Climb Moon Well Path, one of the twelve Minor Dream Realms, representing Traumatic Dreams..."
"Help... ah, thank you!"
"This layer is Lone Walker Mountain... Great Dream Realm... Physiological Dreams..."
"Everyone, run! Destr... ah, who are you?"
"You’re welcome too."