SSS-Knight in a Hero World

Multiple shards of light formed a shield that deflected the wyvern's breath. Even after a while of continuous hellfire, the light didn't fade away, it stayed pristine and shined like as if nothing was happening to it.

The fire stopped coming, and the wyvern villain had a look of surprise, but it wasn't because of the sudden appearance of Queen, but the fact that she was standing within Ferris's presumed 5 meter death zone.

She looked with curiosity, then spotted the man's head sticking out of Queen's shield of light.

Something snapped inside the wyvern. "Motherfucker, did you actually trick us with that bullshit!"

Ferris gulped. "It takes 40 seconds for the effect to take place," he replied with a straight face.

Unfortunately, that pissed her off. Her claws grew and sharpened, and she became more and more like a wyvern. Her tail grew, her scales thickened, and her teeth became razor.

But before she could pounce on the two heroes, the bulky man noticed something important. "Wait, don't!" he warned.

"Why the hell not?!" she roared, spitting bits of fire up.

"We can't beat her like this, this is too risky," the man said, then opened his palms before widening his arms.

Clap.

It was that same noise again, the same noise that he heard when Evening disappeared from his sword's trajectory.

Teleportation, so it wasn't superspeed... Ferris thought.

But he remained alert, so did Elizabeth. They stayed still and remained silent for a few seconds before relaxing.

Ferris groaned and kneeled, having lost his adrenaline. There was also his depleting essence. Even if Fixer fixed his injured arm from before, she couldn't replace his essence.

Well, not that it mattered anymore.

Ferris gripped his right arm tightly. The burnt flesh was a pretty bad bandage because it wasn't enough to stop his bleeding from seeping outside.

Dispersing her shield, Queen kneeled in front of Ferris to see his condition.

Just seeing the state he was in made Elizabeth's stomach churn, but not simply because of his injuries, but the fact that he was still fighting in such conditions.

Elizabeth felt lacking in the moment, then she stood back up and extended her hand to offer to help Ferris stand up.

Ferris focused his mind to regain control again, then noticed Elizabeth's helping hand, but because he felt that the situation was still hot, he stood up by himself, using his sword as a cane.

Elizabeth blinked at the sight, retreating her hand quickly.

Since this wasn't the appropriate time to talk, Elizabeth decided to bring up the most odd thing.

"What happened here?" She directed her gaze at the many villains, each frozen in place, their faces twisted with different expressions yet their bodies refusing to move more than an inch.

The sight only deepened Ferris's unease. His worries were no longer about himself. He placed Judas's safety above all else, at least for the time being.

After all, a missing limb could be fixed by a repairing blessing user such as Fixer, but the mind might prove to be more difficult to fix.

"It's Judas, we need to help him." He went off the motionless crowd, spotting a tight cluster of them that he didn't notice before.

Judas must've huddled his real body inside the cluster, controlling his vessels in a safe zone. That line of thought came to Ferris like a breeze.

He settled his sword down on the floor, then pushed away the motionless villain.

What the? Ferris retreated, but he didn't stand guard.

The cluster toppled like dominoes, bodies hitting the ground one after another. But it wasn't just them—villains standing farther away also began collapsing one by one.

Judas isn't controlling them anymore? Ferris thought.

He crouched down, studying one of the fallen. Their skin was pale, a sign of death!

Ferris shoved bodies aside, pushing deeper toward the center. His heart pounded as he searched.

At last, after a few seconds of digging, he found Judas.

Using his essence even more, he quickly pulled Judas's body out of the pile and retreated back to the clear ground.

The first thing Ferris noticed was that, just like the villains, Judas was also pale as snow.

The worst thing came to his mind in that instant, but Elizabeth's voice cleared the chaos in his mind.

"He's alive, but his heart stopped beating." Queen stepped in closer and kneeled in front of Judas. "He needs CPR."

His heart stopped functioning? Ferris began to think. It didn't take long for his mind to snap into forming an idea.

His essence layer!

I fixed it before, did it rupture again? Ferris blamed himself for this cause, but then again, if Ferris didn't fix Judas's 8th layer...

Judas might've died instantly, the moment he tried to use his blessing to such a high degree.

I need to resonate with him and repair his heart again. Ferris concluded his next course of action.

But when he saw Elizabeth in the way, he politely pushed her aside. "Excuse me, I'll do it," Ferris said, with a stern expression.

For a split second, Elizabeth blushed from the sudden actions of the knight, but it quickly disappeared from her face when the thought she had was actually a figment of her imagination.

Ferris pushed up his friend's back and placed him in a sitting position, then instructed Elizabeth to keep him upright.

When all was done, Ferris sat in front of Judas and placed each other's palms on their chest.

Since Judas was unconscious, Ferris had to put in a bit more effort into starting the resonance.

Waking someone up from deep sleep was hard after all.

Closing his eyes, he began to bridge both of their 9th layer together.

Mental images came into his mind, he began to see Judas's layer in his imagination.

Ferris furrowed his closed eyes when he noticed something, both of his layers were completely intact, so why had his heart stopped beating?

He bridged closer to Judas's heart, however.

Snap!

An essence kickback occurred, causing Ferris to jolt slightly and bleed from his nose, but he remained composed, which Elizabeth found to be surprising.

Something just blocked me from entering.

This case could only occur for one reason. It was that the person he was trying to resonate with was actively rejecting his interference.

But Ferris didn't give up from that. If he can't enter Judas's layers.

Then I'll resonate directly with the mind.

Ferris pulled his hand back from Judas's chest, then slipped it behind his back and drew their foreheads together.

Elizabeth shifted uneasily at the sight.

From her perspective, Ferris had pressed on Judas's heart until it made him bleed from his nose, and now… whatever this was. She didn't understand it, but chose to keep quiet.

Meanwhile, inside Ferris's mind, he was bracing himself.

Paralyzing someone with paralyzing essence gaze uses only the target's body, and perhaps some of their surface-level consciousness. That needed resonance, of course.

However, instead of the body, Ferris was about to resonate with the target's mind instead.

Thankfully, the brain accepted Ferris's intrusion and there was no kickback, but if there was, Ferris's nose wouldn't be the only thing having a hemorrhage.

Here we go, Ferris thought to Judas inside his mind.

Ferris steadied himself—breathing in, then out—until his breaths nearly came to a standstill. Only then did he begin to connect with Judas.

When successfully resonating your essence with someone else's mind...

It was almost akin to dreaming.

Slowly, Ferris's senses became extremely muddled. He couldn't tell what was physically happening around him. It was an out-of-body experience which left his real body vulnerable.

But with Queen Elizabeth as a guardian, it was extremely unlikely for any villains to hurt him in this vulnerable state.

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

Ferris opened his eyes. It felt as if he had just woken from a long dream.

But instead of the waterpark, he found himself somewhere entirely different.

This is his mind? Ferris looked around carefully.

The place was dark and damp, carrying a peculiar scent—something that seemed breathable, yet suffocating all the same.

The so-called laboratory.