Energy wings formed of holy light tore through the void, Moya’s figure streaking like a meteor toward the source of the eerie chill.
Under the vast torrent of holy light, the chill had nowhere left to hide.
It finally halted in place, preparing to face Moya’s assault head-on.
She passed through layer after layer of phantom structures in the mental world.
Soon, a massive shadow appeared in the void ahead.
It was a circus.
A huge cluster of tents flickered in and out of existence within the mental world’s void, radiating a riot of colors.
Beneath that dreamlike glow, however, their true form—cold and sinister—was exposed by the sweeping holy light.
It wasn’t the cloaked figure whose aura had been revealed.
It was the dream circus itself.
The colorful banners stood out starkly against the golden tide of holy light, looking battered and disheveled under its relentless surge.
Moya slowly descended before the circus gate, sensing for any movement around her.
The entrance was desolate.
All was quiet.
A faded wooden sign hung above the gate, inscribed with a crooked, blood-red scrawl:
Welcome to Paradise.
Moya glanced at the sign casually, then ignored it, turning her gaze elsewhere.
Confirming that no one was around, she stepped slowly into the circus.
Inside, it was just as empty as the entrance—only the sound of her footsteps echoed through the grounds.
‘How come I haven’t seen a single person after walking this long?’
Moya frowned.
This was nothing like what the beggar girl and the fake lord had described.
According to them, the circus was quite lively.
Had she gone to the wrong place?
Unlikely.
The dilapidated scene before her could deceive the eye, but the chill pervading every corner could not.
Moya was certain—this was the same foul aura she had sensed on the beggar girl and the fake lord.
Yet the circus grounds lay in ruins, deserted.
Every tent inside was decrepit, and only the lingering cold remained.
After a few seconds of thought, seeing no change at all, Moya formed a suspicion.
Perhaps in the brief time it had taken her to use the holy light flood to search and rush over, the dream circus had activated a pre-prepared countermeasure.
It didn’t have to counterattack her assault.
Hiding the true location so she couldn’t find it was also a viable option.
Moreover, this circus existed in the mental world, free of many physical laws.
Concealing its existence through a hidden rule and barring entry was hardly surprising.
In other words, to enter the real circus, Moya would have to find the true entrance within this ruined circus, then satisfy its rules to obtain an invitation.
“…”
She wouldn’t.
Why did she have to play along with this crappy circus’s rule-breaking game?
Even though the sleepwalking Moya and the awakened Moya had vastly different personalities, their thoughts on such trivial matters were cut from the same cloth.
She had no need to, and no interest in, playing house with a rat in the gutter.
Taking a deep breath, Moya once again summoned the holy light energy of the royal capital.
The earlier search had been a wide-area sweep, so the holy light torrent had only flushed out this circus and made it reveal itself.
But concentrating scattered points into a single breakthrough was a completely different matter.
Sensing Moya’s command, the entire holy light torrent of the royal capital instantly converged toward her.
Since the circus was hiding its true gate and refusing her entry, she’d just have to flood the whole thing.
The vast holy light energy surged from all districts of the capital toward the circus’s location.
The torrent that had been executing the search command no longer radiated its previous gentle aura.
Holy light from other areas struck the circus, merging with the dispersed streams from the earlier search, gradually coalescing into a towering wave that grew higher and higher.
With Moya’s raised hand gently lowering to point at the circus, the enormous wave crashed down upon it, flooding every inch of space.
As a guardian angel, Moya was bound by the precept not to harm humans.
But that didn’t stop her from being a demolition crew.
Soon, under the scouring of the holy light, Moya sensed a peculiar reaction in one area of the circus.
Though it appeared empty, the feedback from the holy light torrent was not a void—it felt as if she had struck an invisible wall.
The real gate had been found.
Moya focused on that spot and once again channeled the holy light torrent.
This time, instead of flooding, the holy light waves spreading through the circus rushed into her palm and condensed into a massive spear of light, resting in her grasp.
Now that the gate was located, it was simple.
A single point breakthrough.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Moya hurled the spear with all her force toward the detected direction!
Boom!
The wooden gate hidden in the void shattered with a crash, revealing its true form and the circus grounds beyond.
The real circus grounds were not much different from the false facade—to Moya, it was merely a choice between garish and more garish.
What concerned her was the circus’s reaction.
This time, the grounds were no longer silent.
Lively noise filled the air:
The laughter of clowns, the cheerful music of circus musicians—an unmistakable festive atmosphere.
After breaking through the gate, Moya did not rush inside.
Instead, she waited quietly outside.
Normally, since she had smashed their gate, the circus staff should respond.
Either they would formally invite her in, or they would exchange trash talk and then start fighting.
But Moya waited for a long while, and no reaction came from within.
The lively clamor continued unchanged, as if her destruction had not affected them at all.
After confirming that the circus was utterly unresponsive to her vandalism, Moya pondered for a moment, then paced inside.
As the beggar girl and the fake lord had said, the various tents of different sizes were putting on all kinds of performances—tightrope walks, magical beast acts, and so on…
Yet Moya could see that there were no visitors in the circus grounds.
But the shows continued.
The clowns still laughed joyfully.
The music stayed just as cheerful.
Under the multicolored lights, all the performances proceeded mechanically, playing to empty seats.
No performer seemed bothered.
No one cared how many spectators were there.
Everyone was absorbed in their own act.
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