No vital signs could be detected from Gregorium but Rudger approached slowly without lowering his guard.

Even when he got close, Gregorium just sat still in his place.

Only then could Rudger confirm Gregorium's front.

"...What?"

Gregorium's face was deeply decayed like someone who had been dead for a very long time.

There wasn't a drop of moisture in his body, literally the appearance of a completely dried mummy.

It hadn't even been a week since Gregorium entered Theon.

But looking at the state of his corpse now, doesn't it look like almost 30 years have passed?

If not for being more than just bones, it seemed like even a slight touch would make his skin and leather crumble to dust.

'Did he enter in a dead state?'

That doesn't make sense either.

If it was this severe, they would have noticed at the entrance.

If it was a black magician, especially one who used necromancy and death magic, the alarm magic installed at the entrance would have reacted.

'Then that means Gregorium entered alive, and what's more, in his right mind.'

Not only was the cause of death unknown, but even the state of his corpse was a complete mystery.

"How is it?"

To Elisa's question, Rudger shook his head.

"Something's strange. Just looking at the state of the corpse, you could say he died a very long time ago."

"Moreover, the situation happening now is not something that could be carried out by a dead person, no matter how you look at it."

"To say he used up all his life force to do this..."

"The duration is too long, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's right. The initial impact would certainly be powerful, but its effectiveness would inevitably weaken over time. However, the current situation is getting stronger as time passes."

Elisa's expression grew serious as well.

That meant Gregorium might not be the real culprit.

From the start, it didn't make sense that someone of his magical ability could pull off something of this scale.

They thought there might be someone behind it, but who would have thought that the tail they had finally found would be cut off without a trace.

"Do you have anyone you suspect? I mean from that place where you worked, Professor Rudger."

Rudger shook his head.

"While I did have my suspicions, it probably isn't them."

"Why?"

"If they were going to do something, they would have done it long ago. Besides, this isn't their style."

Zero Order has someone they're looking for in Theon.

According to Rudger's speculation, the person Zero Order was looking for was clearly Rene.

Given that she possessed the Judgment Eye said to be given only to Saints, it made perfect sense that Zero Order, being a demon, would be looking for her.

But to carry out such indiscriminate terrorism now?

No matter how you looked at it, this wasn't something Zero Order would do.

"Above all, what's strange is that there's no trace of magical power at all in this area."

"So you're saying what's happening now isn't simply due to magic?"

"It's hard to see this as a magical disaster either. It's strange enough that a magical disaster would suddenly occur in Theon, but that too would involve magical power."

Then what could it be?

Gregorium, who could have been the only clue, was dead and the dead don't speak.

"Well, of course not. This isn't magic, after all."

There shouldn't have been any.

Rudger and Elisa, without anyone taking the lead, both reached out toward Gregorium's corpse.

In an instant, magical formulas were manifested, then released.

A torrent of energy containing massive magical power struck Gregorium's corpse.

The corpse turned to powder and scattered in all directions.

However, the two couldn't let their guard down.

The scattered powder gathered in the air, and soon began to take a form.

It was a thin old man dressed in a neat suit.

His arms and legs were so long he looked lanky, and his mustache and beard were white and long.

His cheeks were sunken, and at the same time, his hooked nose was sharp and long.

The old man had no pupils. Instead, golden currents flowed faintly from where his eyes should have been.

"What I use is on a completely different level from such low-level methods used by humans. It's far more mysterious and grand, and very beautiful. So please don't try to judge with such narrow and shallow insight."

The old man said with a chuckle as Rudger and Elisa took combat stances.

Though they didn't know who this suddenly appearing old man was, he certainly seemed to be the mastermind behind this incident.

"Usually in situations like this, capturing the criminal would be the priority, but."

Elisa raised magical power throughout her body.

As massive magical power arose, pink petals began to scatter around.

"It seems we shouldn't apply the same standards to you."

Usually, Rudger should have stopped her, but he completely agreed with Elisa's actions.

Things like capture and arrest, those should be done depending on the opponent.

From what Rudger could see, this old man was absolutely not someone who could be handled with such half-hearted methods.

The fact that Elisa was taking an aggressive approach was because she instinctively felt the same thing as Rudger: the opponent was a very dangerous being.

The old man showed no sign of fear at the massive magical power surging before his eyes.

"Since you've come all this way to find me, I should at least introduce myself. Pleased to meet you. My name is Nirva, a servant of the goddess and administrator of dreams."

The old man who introduced himself as Nirva greeted politely.

"Good morning. And it will be a good afternoon."

He raised his head after bowing.

"So good night, sweet dreams."

-Flash!

At the same time, the magical power Elisa had raised disappeared as if washed away by water.

From the center of the storm created by those petal-like magical power, Elisa's unconscious body collapsed to the ground like a puppet with cut strings.

Rudger's eyes widened at the sight.

'Chancellor Elisa.'

A 6th Circle Lexer grade magician was taken down without even being able to react.

At the same time, through Nirva's self-introduction, he could immediately guess his identity.

"You. You're a demon."

"You humans call us that. What an unpleasant term it is. When you analyze the meaning behind the name, isn't it an evil devil? It's nothing short of an insult to us who have received divine missions from god."

Nirva's golden gaze turned to Rudger.

"But nevertheless, dreams are equal to all. Just like our great goddess. So I shall bestow sufficient mercy even to dull humans like you."

Nirva grinned as wrinkles gathered thickly on his cheeks.

"So good night, sweet dreams."

It's coming.

Whatever had instantly subdued Elisa Willow was probably the power of this demon called Nirva.

Rudger activated magic.

It's not a physical attack. At minimum, it's something else that affects the mind.

So while protecting brain functions as much as possible, he needed to retreat far away...

Rudger, who was trying to escape through the shadows, felt strength suddenly leave his legs.

"What...is..."

A feeling of weakness swept through his entire body.

At the same time, the edges of his vision began to blur and everything started becoming hazy.

Drowsiness came over him.

'When did he...?'

There should be signs before any attack, but Nirva's power didn't have any.

He can't fall asleep.

Rudger desperately tried to resist by gritting his teeth, but once the wave of sleep hit, it didn't retreat.

With strength leaving his legs, he fell to one knee.

It was only thanks to quickly pulling out his staff to support himself that he hadn't completely collapsed but even this was ultimately just a stopgap measure.

Through eyelids that felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, Rudger heard Nirva speak.

"This is quite surprising. To think a mere human would resist my power to this extent."

Even the voice of admiration reaching his ears sounded like a lullaby.

Go to sleep now. Close your eyes and have sweet dreams.

It felt like his entire body was crying out like that.

-Flash!

Rudger pushed off the ground with strength in his legs and stood up.

At the same time, the blade drawn from his staff swung at Nirva's neck.

-Slash!

A precise strike that cut through.

Nirva's wide eyes looked at Rudger as if in surprise.

"Impressive! To move in such a condition. Mental strength that far transcends humans already."

But the moment he saw Nirva's severed head grinning, Rudger sensed something was wrong.

"I applaud your desperate effort. Unfortunately, since I don't exist in the physical realm, I don't die even if my head is cut off like this. Even if you slash at the moon's reflection in water with a sword, it doesn't actually cut the moon, does it?"

In the cross-section of his severed neck golden sand was writhing and flowing.

"So good night, sweet dreams."

Rudger's body collapsed to the ground.

Thus his eyes closed, and all vision turned black.

He fell into sleep, a very deep sleep from which he would never wake.

After confirming Rudger had completely fallen asleep, Nirva reattached his severed head.

His eyes full of gold looked up at the sky.

"Still such a nauseating place."

His muttering voice was full of disgust.

It was a completely different attitude from when dealing with Rudger and Elisa.

"Originally they should wake up a bit later, but since time is short, I'll have to be satisfied with this much for now."

Nirva's body floated into the air and soon his body scattered like powder from the edges.

Golden glittering sand began spreading in all directions on the wind.

"Huh? What's that?"

Some students passing by stopped in their tracks upon seeing the faintly glittering golden powder in the air.

Students who came in contact with the powder immediately collapsed with glazed eyes.

Even students who tried to run away in surprise couldn't escape the same fate.

In an instant, people falling asleep appeared in succession.

It didn't discriminate between students, teachers, or servants.

Regardless of strength, anyone who touched the sand powder fell asleep where they stood.

All of Theon was enveloped in silence but the golden powder didn't stop at Theon.

Like dandelion seeds riding the wind, the golden powder moved toward the nearby city outside Theon to bestow more dreams.

* * *

Leathervelk was full of energy during the daytime.

Being a city developed in magical engineering and industry, steam and mechanical devices operated non-stop even in broad daylight.

The workers working in such places discovered golden clouds gathering from over there.

"Hey. Look at that. Do you know what that is? Is there a new factory that opened nearby?"

"The color is too pretty to be smoke from some factory, isn't it?"

"More than that, isn't that direction where Theon Academy is?"

To the citizens of Leathervelk, the golden clouds didn't look very threatening, both because they were slowly approaching on the wind, and above all because the color was beautiful.

That's why no one thought to escape from it.

The wave of sleep swept through Leathervelk's outer industrial district.

People who had been shouting to be heard over the machine noise all went quiet.

Busy trucks stopped, and steam golems that had been following their users' commands ceased operation.

The golden clouds that swept through the factories gradually swallowed up all of Leathervelk.

"What is this!"

Alex quickly backed away after seeing people collapsing from afar.

With good instincts, Alex immediately realized that touching that golden powder would make you collapse.

Alex, who was trying to request support, realized that other people weren't responding at all.

'Don't tell me all the others have been affected?'

At that moment, a shadow dropped vertically from the air and landed beside Alex.

It was Pantos.

Pantos had Arpa and Bellaruna tucked under each arm.

"You're safe?"

"Th-thanks to Mr. Pantos, I was barely able to escape."

Bellaruna spoke with dizzy eyes, seemingly nauseous from Pantos' quick running.

A golden wave rushed toward the Owens group.

They needed to avoid it.

The moment Alex tried to warn them, wind rushed in and pushed the golden powder far away.

"What in the world is going on?"

Violetta slowly descended from the air holding a black parasol.

She was wearing her usual comfortable clothes suitable for work, probably having come straight from what she was doing.

Except for Hans and Seridan who had fallen asleep, all the Owens members had gathered in one place.

"Does anyone know what's going on here?"

No one could answer Alex's question.

They were just as perplexed by this situation.

"Seeing how people are dropping and falling asleep, it seems that cloud is the cause of the incident the leader mentioned."

Alex clicked his tongue.

Meanwhile, the golden clouds took shape and tried to swallow up the Owens group.

Violetta swung her parasol to create fierce winds.

The golden clouds caught in the wind were torn to shreds and pushed back.

However, Violetta's expression wasn't good as she watched this scene.

"This cloud. Its resistance is getting stronger than before."

"I saw it too."

Pantos glared at the golden clouds with sharp eyes.

Thickly rising up, it now reminded one more of smog than clouds.

The golden powder filling the surroundings was trying to completely surround the Owens group to prevent them from escaping.

In other words, it wasn't simply flowing around mindlessly, but something moving with will.

"I'll open a path for now."

Escaping right now was the priority.

Violetta raised magical power and manifested a formula.

She hadn't wasted a single day of training while learning magic from Rudger in her spare time.

Violetta showed extraordinary talent in attribute magic related to wind, and even Rudger was genuinely surprised while teaching her.

Thanks to that, even though it was a short time, Violetta was able to learn powerful magic.

Although she lacked the variety and versatility that were the greatest advantages of wind attribute magic.

At least in terms of pure output, she wouldn't lose anywhere.

Violetta extended her parasol long.

A small whirlwind burst from the elegantly thrust parasol tip and collided with the golden smoke.

-Crash!

However, her magic not only failed to push back the smoke, but rather scattered in all directions as if hitting a wall.

Surprise and shock appeared in everyone's eyes.

The shock was especially greater for Violetta who had used the magic.

"Impossible. How could mere smoke block wind...?"

They thought it wasn't ordinary clouds, but to block wind magic equivalent to 4th Circle?

-Whoosh!

Before they could even feel the sense of crisis, the golden clouds rushed in to swallow everyone.