Amid the raging flames in the living room, there were quite a few charred corpses with their limbs bent backward like spiders.
The Doctor's Mindlight Shield, a thaumaturgy developed from the Core Ling Rune of Mind's Light, worked in tandem with Shade's Moonbeam Greatsword. The two walked side by side, ever vigilant against monsters suddenly pouncing from the sea of fire. Their strength truly was not great. Almost as soon as they were touched by the Moonbeam Greatsword, they immediately turned into flying ashes.
"Detective, did you notice? The barely recognizable appearances of those corpses, as well as their burning clothes, are all different, and they were not randomly pieced together either. This suggests that these corpses were very likely all seen by the dream's owner during a real fire."
The Doctor reminded him, then asked Shade:
"Do you remember how many monsters we have encountered so far?"
By then, the two had reached the staircase on the 1st Floor. Shade held his sword in his right hand and recalled amid the flames:
"Seventeen."
"It seems that the fire three years ago really was suspicious."
These corpses with their limbs bent backward existed only on the 1st Floor. Once they climbed the staircase, which was entirely ablaze, new dream monsters appeared.
Every step they took could cause transparent, bandage-wrapped hands to suddenly reach out from the wall beside the stairs, trying to push them downstairs. But those hands were not particularly strong either and could easily be severed by Moonlight Slash.
"The appearance of such monsters means that the dream's owner saw someone pushed down the stairs during that fire. And judging from the fact that there is only a pair of hands rather than a complete figure, those hands were most likely Luther Kinwise's own."
The Doctor continued his