Chloe's reasoning was simple. They had all been thinking about it the wrong way. What had happened in Gem Bay was indeed [Dream Entry], but the protagonist of the dream was not these Fishmen. It was someone else.
In other words, the Fishmen on these islands were the dream itself.
They were dreams, so they appeared perfectly logical at first glance, yet could not withstand careful thought. They were dreams, so they could be molded at will.
Then who was the protagonist of this dream?
Looking toward the distant Pirate King's Court, Chloe's expression turned solemn. If the anomaly in Gem Bay had a center, she believed it was most likely there.
Transcendents did not venture into the ocean, so almost no one knew anything about the Sea God Church. Yet the Candlelight Society had preserved far too many secret histories, which had passed through many hands before finally reaching Chloe.
For example, Chloe knew that the Sea God Church had always been collecting tangible pollution for certain blasphemous rituals, using it to gain Transcendent power.
Transcendent power inevitably brought pollution. Conversely, pollution itself contained Transcendence.
Yet even fanatical cultists like Moth Chasing Flame treated pollution with extreme caution. They would rather pay a tremendous price to summon an evil god than allow pollution to remain in their bodies. That alone showed just how dangerous this stuff was.
Yet the Sea God Church could come into contact with pollution and gain Transcendence from it.
That was abnormal—extremely abnormal. To gain Transcendent power from pollution, one could not use any means to exempt oneself from its harm. Chloe simply could not imagine how they had done it. If a hundred people came into direct contact with pollution, perhaps not even one would succeed. And even if they did, the Transcendent ability