Thinking of this, Angel prepared to start attacking the Knight’s main body.
However, before Angel could make a move, a force suddenly came from behind. As Angel instinctively tried to resist, he realized that the force was gentle and familiar—it was the force of the Tree Spirit.
Following this force, Angel was dragged back several dozen meters, away from the door, returning to the middle of the corridor.
Fortunately, the Knight did not pursue.
Angel turned around, looking puzzled at the Tree Spirit standing behind him, not understanding why he was suddenly pulled away.
The Tree Spirit’s expression was slightly strange: "I just saw several places on the ground suddenly collapse, revealing bottomless dark abysses. At the same time, some pitch-black tendrils extended out as thorny whips from the abyss, whipping at me."
"Their power was immense, almost reaching True Knowledge level attacks, able to shatter my body with one whip."
"Luckily, the leaf I left at the door earlier could transform into a substitute and block that whip." As the Tree Spirit spoke, his expression grew even stranger: "However, as soon as my leaf substitute was killed, I noticed that the surrounding abysses disappeared. Then, I saw you wildly waving your phantom limb at the air."
When Angel first heard the Tree Spirit describe his personal experience, it felt very strange—a bottomless abyss? Pitch-black tendrils and thorny whips? He hadn’t seen any of that. If it were really there, such a commotion couldn’t have gone unnoticed.
Angel even suspected that the Tree Spirit might be lying.
But then the Tree Spirit said he saw Angel waving his phantom limb at the air? Wasn’t he blocking the sword light? How could he be waving at the air?
The Tree Spirit also noticed the doubt in Angel’s eyes. He slowly said, "You were indeed waving your phantom limb at the air, but there seemed to be something strange hidden in the air in front of you, and your phantom limb was continuously being chopped off. However, I couldn’t see or even sense any danger."
"Although I couldn’t see what danger you were facing, I found something strange. Your phantom limb, as long as it was within the red light, would be cut off; those extending beyond the red light were normal."
"You happened to be within the red light. I guessed that these red lights might have problems, so I pulled you out."
After hearing this, Angel found it even stranger: "Red light? Where’s the red light?"
"The red light reflected from inside the door." Seeing Angel’s face still full of doubt, the Tree Spirit led him to approach the door again.
This time, they did not get close to the door but stopped more than twenty meters away, looking at the door at the end of the corridor from a distance.
As Angel looked over now, his pupils suddenly constricted.
The door was indeed pushed open, but the darkness that he previously saw surging behind the door had disappeared. What presented itself now was a door glowing with red light.
The red light reflected from inside the door even spread to the surrounding walls, making it look like a blood-dyed corridor.
No Knight, no abyss, no pitch-black tendrils... Even the ground and walls previously damaged by the sword swing of the Knight were intact.
Yet, Angel sensed the consumption of his phantom limb and Nightmare Realm aura, confirming that his phantom limb was definitely chopped off earlier. The Tree Spirit’s words also confirmed this.
Could it be a True Illusion Technique?
Did a true illusionary realm appear, allowing one to experience falsehood and bear real damage?
But soon, Angel denied the possibility of a True Illusion. Although he didn’t know many True Illusion Techniques, he wasn’t unfamiliar with them. Simply put, True Illusions are still illusions, and all illusions have the unique rhythm of illusions, which Angel hadn’t sensed before. There were no fluctuations from any illusions; it was absolutely not caused by an illusion.
If it’s not an illusion, then what could it be?
Angel looked at the faint red light behind the distant door and recalled the fleeting red light under the Knight’s mask earlier; it seemed to be the same red light, equally... familiar.
Suddenly, a scene flashed in Angel’s mind: in the distant sky, there was a huge royal city like a mirage, shrouded in faint red light.
This scene was something Angel saw at the top of Rainbow Mountain while surveying the ruins beneath the Star Pond.
At that time, the Devious Gentleman beside him told Angel that the royal city was where Minister Nuka temporarily resided, and the pervasive red light was a peculiar light known as "Nightmare Light."
At this moment, the red light shrouding the royal city in Angel’s mind overlapped with the red light reflected from the distant door.
Their colors were exactly the same.
"Could this be... Nightmare Light?" Angel looked at the distant door, murmuring in a somewhat dazed manner.
"Nightmare Light?" The Tree Spirit heard this, stroked his chin, and thought: "If that’s the case, it really might be possible. I remember you mentioned that the Nightmare Light is red, like the red light Reeves encountered when he first entered the ruins."
"Back then, when Reeves entered the ruins, he encountered the red light, and the Nightmare Realm creatures hadn’t even entered the ruins at that time."
"Since the ruins beneath the Star Pond originally had red light, and this ruin shares the same origin with the Star Pond ruins, it seems reasonable for there to be red light here too."
The more the Tree Spirit spoke, the more he felt this speculation was correct. Reeves is currently still at the Star Pond ruins, guarded by Nis. During these days, Reeves had detailed every event that occurred to him in the ruins.
Reeves clearly stated that those who entered the ruins with him all encountered the red light. Under its illumination, walls were no longer walls but transformed into surging lava; doors were no longer doors but became gateways to the Abyss of the Undead; even ordinary paintings and statues underwent changes, with creatures emerging from the paintings and statues opening scarlet eyes...
Even the ground they walked on inexplicably emitted smoke, which would drag people into unknown worlds.
This matched the situation earlier perfectly.
When the Tree Spirit was bathed in the red light, the ground appeared with the abyss, and pitch-black tendrils emerged to attack the Tree Spirit.
When Angel was bathed in the red light, darkness surged inside the door, and the Knight wielded his sword.
Although they were together at that moment, they each encountered entirely different incidents. This was exactly the same as Reeves described.
"It must be Nightmare Light," said the Tree Spirit confidently.
Angel also thought of Reeves’ situation, roughly deducing that the distant red light might just be the Nightmare Light that the creatures of the Nightmare Realm desired.
However, the problem now lay before them.
Now that they knew about the Nightmare Light, how were they supposed to deal with it?