Chapter Forty-Two: Looking Down on the Church of the Fireball? (Seeking Recommendations)

Fina and Natasha wanted to retreat, but Freddy was no longer willing to let them leave so easily. The rapidly surging power made him feel somewhat inflated, and after observing Fina from several perspectives, Freddy sensed this mage was still green, clearly lacking any real experience, and her power didn't seem particularly formidable.

What does a mage’s fear taste like?

Freddy perceived the waves of emotion radiating from Fina and revealed a cruel smile. Although he had decided to keep Fina trapped in his lair, Freddy remained cautious and did not attack her directly. He wasn’t fully confident he could pull Fina into his dream world, but the situation was different for Natasha. In Freddy’s eyes, Natasha was nothing more than an unusually strong and mentally resilient ordinary person.

The difference in resistance to nightmare realms between professionals with their own innate energy and ordinary people who lack any controllable inner energy was vast—no amount of training could bridge that gap.

So, as Natasha prepared to climb down the wall, the energy fluctuations around her suddenly intensified. Under this onslaught, she felt a wave of dizziness. In that brief moment, Natasha was dragged straight into the dream. When she regained her senses, she found herself in a pitch-black, shadowy cell.

Did I get caught?

Natasha glanced around, her ears picking up faint raspy sounds.

Yes, I got caught.

Yet Natasha showed not a trace of fear. This kind of scene was hardly enough to scare her.

Then, out of the darkness, emerged a group of people Natasha had killed in the past—among them, trainees who once competed with her for the Black Widow title. All of them wielded different weapons, faces twisted with resentment as they advanced on Natasha.

Natasha loosened her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. Just a bunch of defeated foes—if she had killed them once, she could do it again. She really didn’t see what was so frightening about any of this.

So, with that tired old nursery rhyme serving as background music, Natasha dispatched all her adversaries in short order.

This left Freddy a bit frustrated—his time in existence hadn’t been long, and these were the only tricks he had.

First move: environmental cues—using darkness, cold, and other negative emotions to evoke deep-seated terror. Humanity’s fear of the dark had been etched into its genes through millennia of evolution. But perhaps Natasha had simply lived too long and experienced too much, or maybe that cheap serum had altered her genes—whatever the reason, she displayed no fear at all.

Second move: so far, most of Freddy’s targets pulled into his dream world had blood on their hands, and when confronted with resurrected enemies, their emotions would fluctuate wildly. Then, by artificially creating a disparity in strength, he could trigger his target’s dread. Unfortunately for Freddy, all those who’d died at Natasha’s hand were weaklings—even armed, they couldn’t touch her. Now, freed up and invigorated, Natasha actually felt more confident than ever.

Third move: the simplest—becoming the hunter in a deadly game. Freddy would attack directly, turning himself into an unstoppable foe. When the target’s status plummeted to mere prey, fear would follow naturally. But now, Freddy doubted showing himself to Natasha would have much effect. At this rate, he’d be losing out for nothing. Though others would cover his losses, Freddy himself was deeply vexed.

Outside the dream, Fina anxiously watched as Natasha slipped into deep sleep. Gritting her teeth, she opened her right hand—blue energy rippled from her palm, enveloping Natasha. Using this, she locked onto the dream world Freddy had constructed, and after layering herself with several protective spells, Fina plunged in.

Within the dream, Fina appeared suddenly at Natasha’s side, seized her hand, and began pulling her out of the dream. Brilliant magical light flared, and the two of them reappeared in the small town.

No! Still within the dream!

As Fina sensed the magical mark she’d left behind on Elm Street, her heart skipped a beat. They had only escaped the deeper layer of the dream—Freddy, like a set of nesting dolls, had stacked individual and collective dreams upon one another.

“Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. You came to visit, and now you want to go without even seeing your host? That would be most inhospitable of me.”

Freddy’s voice echoed from all directions, and his figure appeared everywhere, completely surrounding Natasha and Fina, while the churning power of the dream interrupted Fina’s escape spell.

Fina stepped in front of Natasha, extending her right hand—an enhanced mana shield enveloped them both.

Burning Hand!

After setting up her defenses, Fina swept her right hand and a torrent of fire erupted from her palm, igniting the nearby buildings. Yet the flames lasted only a moment, snuffed out so quickly that only a wisp of blue smoke remained.

“Oh, oh, oh—is this the latest style of sauna? It certainly feels much better than the ordinary kind,” Freddy jeered, dancing around Fina, his voice mocking, his iron claw flickering, ready to strike at any moment.

Chain Fireball!

The magic circle before Fina’s right hand shifted rapidly, launching volley after volley of fireballs at the darting Freddy. Each one exploded on the ground, sending up shards of debris, but the spell’s intended target—Freddy—remained unscathed.

He had, after all, unlimited, low-cost blink spells in the dream world.

“Wow, so this is the famous fireball spell? Are you a member of the Cult of Fireball?”

In a flash, Freddy appeared at Fina’s side, his iron claw scraping the magical shield and sending ripples through it.

Natasha grabbed Fina and rolled them both aside—an instant later, a shipping container crashed down where they’d just stood. Freddy twirled his claw in mild disappointment. These two were not easy opponents: Natasha vigilantly watched for attacks born from the dream’s evolution, while Fina focused on defense and applying pressure to Freddy.

As long as their teamwork held, someone like Freddy, whose direct attack power was relatively weak, would find it truly difficult to kill them before Fina’s mana ran dry.

As Freddy dodged another fireball with a blink and appeared on Fina’s other side, he taunted, “Maybe I should let you go—go home and study up on some new spells. What’s the point of fireballs, anyway?”

He hadn’t finished speaking when a massive fireball shot down from above, its diameter dozens of times larger than any Fina had conjured. Its surface burned an intense blue, reaching five thousand degrees.

Boom! The fireball exploded, shaking the entire dreamscape.

Fina curled up, reinforcing the magical shield yet again against the coming shockwave—only to discover that the blast and surging flames from the giant fireball avoided their little area completely, as if it had all been calculated in advance.