The tunnel walls were scarred with numerous axe and hammer marks, and the narrow passage left them little room to avoid the sharp protrusions. After they had painstakingly traversed several dozen meters, Alice hurled a condensed orb of holy light ahead. The incandescent holy light rapidly expanded after leaving her hand, hurtling forward and instantly melting away the rock along the tunnel walls, widening the passage by almost 10 meters. The dark tunnel was instantly illuminated; a brilliant light streamed in from the entrance ahead, causing Selene to involuntarily squint.

Once her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, she clearly saw the opening—a wooden corridor, intricately carved with grotesque reliefs on its upper and lower walls. Through the windows on either side of the corridor, she glimpsed distant, frost-covered trees.

Selene froze for a moment, then quickly rushed forward.

As she approached the opening, the light from outside grew brighter, revealing more of the surroundings through the windows, which were almost as tall as she was. Hundreds of meters tall trees towered, countless wooden corridors interconnecting among their branches, temples suspended in mid-air, their complex geometric patterns casting pyramid-like shadows… In the far distance, more corridors and temples, bathed in sunlight, emerged from the darkness.

She felt an immediate shortness of breath.

Alice followed at a slower pace, vigilantly observing the surroundings, then moved to Selene's side, whispering:

"This is only a dreamscape, a projection of your subconscious; you aren't actually here."

Selene scanned the corridor below, confirming that no piles of ashes would transform into heretical cultists, and no elemental fire would suddenly leap out to turn everything in sight to ash. She let out a sigh of relief and replied:

"I'm just a little surprised… I should have told you, this is where I encountered Delight and Richter."

"It's also where you were severely injured by those heretics, unconsciously using elemental destruction," Alice added. "This is where your dreamscape begins. Do you have a plan?"

"My knowledge of this place is probably no better than yours." Selene shook her head, then looked towards the end of the corridor below them. "This corridor seems to connect to a temple. Let's try there… There's no other path, and besides, I've never been inside that temple; could the dreamscape fill in the gaps?"

"As long as it's a place within your subconscious, the dreamscape can fill it in."

They walked along the corridor, Alice keeping her holy light at the ready, while Selene, having survived her single self-destruct device, was free to examine the beautiful reliefs along the corridor. Previously, she'd had no knowledge of The Divine Construct; now, she was gaining some familiarity, able to discern which deities these temples might worship.

She saw intricately carved curves forming a dark sphere, orbiting a luminous sphere—resembling a star and its orbiting planet, but this miniature system bore no resemblance to celestial bodies… Selene shifted her gaze to the next relief.

The next relief had a dark background; countless white dots were haphazardly scattered across it, resembling a night sky filled with stars. However, a large area was devoid of dots, and four vague shadows circled the dark region… The images that followed showed three shadows creating numerous lifeforms on the land and sea; then two shadows, one on each side, alternately brightening and dimming, merged into the background. Finally, a single shadow, leaning against a massive rock, also disappeared from the image.

In the final carving, she saw a series of simple curves moving across the surface. Selene managed to recognize them as representing humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, and dragons; they moved across vast lands and oceans, while ten vague crowns floated vaguely in the sky, serving as the background.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

These reliefs depicted the creation story of the four primordial gods, and the vague crowns represented the ten major deities?

Selene stroked her chin, speculating as such.

Honestly, this result was unexpected. This was the place the True Light cultists brought her to; it should have some connection to "True Light." At the minimum, she should have seen an image of their Lord of Radiance juxtaposed against the True Light! Why did it look like a regular church?

She saw intricately carved curves forming a dark sphere, orbiting a luminous sphere—resembling a star and its orbiting planet, but this miniature system bore no resemblance to celestial bodies… Selene shifted her gaze to the next relief.

The next relief had a dark background; countless white dots were haphazardly scattered across it, resembling a night sky filled with stars. However, a large area was devoid of dots, and four vague shadows circled the dark region… The images that followed showed three shadows creating numerous lifeforms on the land and sea; then two shadows, one on each side, alternately brightening and dimming, merged into the background. Finally, a single shadow, leaning against a massive rock, also disappeared from the image.

In the final carving, she saw a series of simple curves moving across the surface. Selene managed to recognize them as representing humans, elves, dwarves, beastmen, and dragons; they moved across vast lands and oceans, while ten vague crowns floated vaguely in the sky, serving as the background.

These reliefs depicted the creation story of the four primordial gods, and the vague crowns represented the ten major deities?

Selene stroked her chin, speculating as such.

Honestly, this result was unexpected. This was the place the True Light cultists brought her to; it should have some connection to "True Light." At the minimum, she should have seen an image of their Lord of Radiance juxtaposed against the True Light! Why did it look like a regular church?

While pondering, they reached the end of the corridor. The vast and imposing temple loomed before them, and Selene realized it was far larger than she'd anticipated; if it were on level ground, it would probably cover nearly a thousand square meters.

They carefully passed through the connecting doorway between the temple and the corridor, entering the temple. Hundreds of large wooden pillars dominated the view; seamlessly integrated with the floor, they appeared to grow directly from it. These pillars were also covered in reliefs, similar to those on the corridor, but with different depictions.

Just as Selene was about to examine them, a conversation from the center of the temple cut her off—two voices, overlaid with the sounds of crunching limbs and spurting blood.

The unusual sounds immediately drew their attention.

"You… traitor!"

"Alright, alright, let's get this over with. Your master is waiting."

The brief exchange ended with a heavy thud; Selene took a few more steps forward, seeing through the forest of pillars a masked male figure in a mage's robe standing in the center of the temple. Another figure, barely humanoid, was crushed to the ground by an invisible weight. Its body cracked and popped; flesh, blood, and bone splattered, but an invisible barrier caught the debris in mid-air.

Selene watched the figure being compressed into a mass of flesh, belatedly realizing she should have looked away—the scene was quite gory… But she felt nothing?

The masked figure produced a handkerchief to wipe his hands, which were remarkably clean, then turned to their position:

"Forgive my lack of hospitality; this high-ranking heretic proved rather… capable. How did two guests manage to arrive?"

He looked at Selene and Alice, who were no longer concealing themselves, appearing more bewildered than they were. However, upon recognizing Alice and the steadily radiating holy light in her hand, his bewilderment quickly turned to terror:

"Your Highness Alice, I'm not a True Light cultist… and I didn't bring you into this dreamscape! Please show mercy!"

Alice remained unmoved, her holy light unwavering:

"Then who are you?"

"I'm a member of the Omniscient Assembly…"

"Isn't that the same thing?" Selene couldn't help but interject. "While I’m curious about your internal conflict, aren't you all heretics to us?"

The masked figure turned to look at her, then seemed to stare again, tears streaming down his face—yes, tears streaming down his masked face—before collapsing onto the ground:

"Saintess, save me! I entered this dreamscape to help you!"

Huh?

Selene's eyes widened, then she suddenly remembered that she might have been with those cultists before her memory loss?