Chapter 162: Communicating with Kohler
Abyss was right. Kohler hadn’t gone into hiding. Flora easily located him through her Soul Chains and established contact.
“Kohler, can you hear me? It’s Abyss,” he sent a mental message through Flora.
“Yes, I hear you,” Kohler’s voice replied shortly after.
Abyss was surprised. He hadn’t expected his attempt to sow discord between Kohler and the Lord of Nightmares to be so effective. After all, the Outer God was Kohler’s object of worship. Convincing him to abandon his faith was as difficult as convincing a devout follower of the Nine Gods to become an atheist.
But the current situation gave him a glimmer of hope. He suspected Kohler was somehow involved in his escape from the dream.
“Kohler, I didn’t expect you to betray your god so readily,” Abyss said, getting straight to the point. “I thought I was going to die. If not for your help, I wouldn’t be talking to you now.”
“How do you know I helped you?” Kohler asked, his voice tinged with annoyance. He clearly still disliked Abyss.
Abyss understood why. His life was too perfect, surrounded by loving companions, his dreams within reach, his destiny under his own control.
“Who else could it be? The Lord of Nightmares trapped me in an inescapable dream, pulling my consciousness into his realm. I shouldn’t have been able to access any outside power, but I did, twice. This made me wonder who had helped me—it couldn’t have been the Lord of Nightmares himself. That would be counterproductive,” Abyss explained, outlining his reasoning. “I never gave up hope during my struggle against him, my desperate fight for survival. I knew you might become my ally. I was waiting for that possibility to become reality.”
“You were right,” Kohler finally admitted. “I helped you. Remember the Dream Shear’s abilities?”
“Creating a rift in space and disappearing through it?”
“Yes. I entered the Lord of Nightmares’ realm. As his first champion, I have free access to his domain,” Kohler explained. “But I can’t stay there for long. It’s not a place for living beings. It would damage my body. I’ve always considered it a last resort, an escape route. But by entering his realm, while remaining unharmed…”
“You created a temporary pathway between Hai-Teweru and the Lord of Nightmares’ domain, right?”
“Exactly,” Kohler replied. He seemed to have adjusted to their telepathic communication, no longer surprised by Abyss’s mental voice. “I didn’t do anything else. I couldn’t. You escaped because you didn’t give up hope.”
Abyss finally understood how he had been able to access Divine Arts, to awaken himself from the dream.
Kohler, using the Dream Shear, had created a pathway, allowing the divine power of Hai-Teweru, including the Lord of Submergence’s power residing within Leona and the power of the Goddess of Life, to reach him.
The arrogant Outer God had been betrayed by his own champion.
“Why did you do it? I thought you wouldn’t betray your god,” Abyss asked.
“I’ve never truly worshipped anyone,” Kohler corrected him. “You know why I followed the Lord of Nightmares. He promised to fulfill my wish, to help me take revenge on human nature. But he broke his promise. He’s no longer of any use to me. I wouldn’t abandon him so readily, but betraying him… that I can do.”
“You wanted to witness him destroy this world, but he saw you as expendable, right?”
“You monitored all his followers with your spies, yet you still fell into his trap. Do you know why?” Kohler asked.
Abyss paused, thinking. “I have a theory, but I might be wrong. It would be best if you explained it yourself.”
“Very well,” Kohler said, a cold smile in his voice. “You thought you were clever, but I’m even more cunning. The Lord of Nightmares instructed me to tell his followers to chant a prayer, using their collective faith to trap you in a dream. I could have simply obeyed, but I wanted to ensure your capture. I had them chant different parts of the prayer. That way, when they uttered the first word, the entire prayer had already been chanted multiple times, amplifying its power. Even you, with your precautions, couldn’t resist it.”
“Is that so?” Abyss asked, surprised. “I thought only Corpse Puppet Necromancers used such tactics.”
“But after doing this, I realized I had fallen into the Lord of Nightmares’ trap as well,” Kohler said, his voice tinged with self-deprecating amusement. “He never intended for me to survive. As the conduit for his power, I bore the brunt of the spell’s backlash. If I had made them chant the entire prayer in unison, there would have been only two outcomes: either I failed, and he would have killed me, finding a replacement, or you would have been trapped in an eternal dream, and I would have died from the backlash.”
“A lose-lose situation,” Abyss said, sighing. “That’s the Lord of Nightmares for you. He never cared about his followers.”
“My cunning saved my life,” Kohler said, sighing. “But only temporarily. I’m dying. My internal organs are failing. I can feel my life force ebbing away.”
Flora, her eyes wide with surprise, tapped Abyss’s shoulder. “Abyss, I just sensed Kohler’s presence at the Church’s headquarters… He seems to be hiding there, perhaps seeking refuge from the Lord of Nightmares.”
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