Chapter 159 – Not Possible

After Dream's avatar flew into the air, Dream himself cut the connection to it. 

His attention was brought back to the scene in front of him. Well, he never actually had his attention off what he was doing, but since he was controlling the avatar, he had diverted some.

Currently, Dream and the girls were back on the planet, the human continent to be specific. Before the meeting with the dwarves even started, they had come down and chosen a wide-open plain where they could train. Dream was very interested in testing out his muscles in a more combative sense, and Iris always enjoyed fighting, so she was more than happy to train with him.

So from the time they were finished romping around in the factory to now, Dream had been sparring with Luna and Iris. Although controlling his avatar in the meeting required him to divert his focus, he was still able to fight. Usually, something like that would be impossible for him, but as he gained power, his mind evolved and strengthened beyond what his human self could ever hope to be.

In total they had been sparring for at least 15 hours, and it was only now that both Luna and Iris were getting tired. However, they weren't the only ones who weren't in perfect shape. As of now, Dream could be seen with a few wounds, all of which were healing rapidly. His aura also wasn't as strong as it used to be.

"Huuuhhh... You guys are getting stronger by the day."

Dream smiled as he focused in on Iris who was only 50 meters away. Luna was also 50 meters behind him. 

For this battle, Dream had restricted his use of weapons, only relying on his pure bodily power. He had also restricted his mana intake, strictly using only was his pool allowed. He wasn't allowed to pull ambient mana.

Although it seemed unfair, his power in this state was his pure internal power. This was power that he would never go without. Everything else from his weapons to Aegis or even the things in his inventory was external power. 

This was why it was difficult to measure Dream's true power. Much of his power lay in his creations, and it was the only reason he was able to do much of what he did. He could dominate class 3's when he was only a class 2 due to his weapons and Aegis. But if he only had his body and mana to use, that may not have been the case.

Either way, he was fighting Luna and Iris. His goal obviously wasn't to kill them, so he had no need to use any weapons. Besides, the girls were doing the same. They weren't even using the suits he made them. 

This was why Dream was rather happy, as were the girls. They were putting up a great fight, not just being beaten. Dream wasn't passive either, instead actively moving to attack them.

Unfortunately, despite putting up a good fight, there was still an obvious gap between them. Dream had refrained from attacking vitals and if he had truly been going all out, he could have killed them both without using weapons. Although he would have to pay a price to do that in this state, it could be done.

The girls also knew this, but instead of getting discouraged, their determination burned brighter. That was especially true for Iris. She was a predator by nature and never liked being inferior. Luna also disliked the feeling, albeit not as much. Instead, she simply wanted to catch up. She didn't want to be left behind, so she fought harder.

As Dream took controlled breaths, both girls watched him vigilantly. Suddenly, the mana around him began to harden, and barely a moment later, his body moved towards Iris.

After seeing the mana fluctuations, Iris had already prepared. And after Dream suddenly appeared in front of her as if teleporting, she snarled and shot out a rod of bloody flame. Both she and Luna could barely keep up with his speed visually, so they had to watch out for the preemptive warnings in order to be able to react physically as well. Although it was stressful on the mind to be so on guard, this was exactly what training was for. 

After she launched the rod of fire, Dream diverted it with his palm to the side. However, he had done this several times before, and seeing it again, Iris snickered.

"Detonate."

*BOOM*

The rod exploded right next to Dream, causing the concentrated power within to engulf him. Despite this though, Iris wasn't happy and instead dove into the fire. She then bit down on the figure in front of her, digging in her razor sharp teeth as much as possible.

Right as she did that, Dream sent out a fist, mercilessly driving it into Iris' side. With a low thud, Iris was sent flying off of him, taking with her patches of skin and a few strands of muscle. 

Right after that, the fire dissipated. There wasn't any time for Dream to rest though. Only a moment after, an ice lance was hurled straight towards his spine. This lance was filled to the brim with mana, and its tip was extremely sharp, even on a molecular level. It was also ridiculously cold, approaching levels that could freeze hydrogen.

"Return to sender."

Smiling, Dream just spun around while sending his hand out. When his hand reached it, it took the lance off its path and spun it around, accelerating it and sending the lance right back where it came from.

Luna was also prepared for this though, though unlike Iris, she couldn't easily detonate her ice lances. They were much sturdier than fire, so if she wanted to detonate it, it would cost her a good amount of energy which she wasn't willing to expend.

Instead, she used her influence to send the lance into the floor in front of her. When it landed, she melted the lance and took back the energy used to form it. This was an ability that could only be used through her connection with Iris, and as Dream had come to understand, it was overpowered. To be able to extract energy like she did afforded them unparalleled longevity and efficiency in fights.

Like this, Dream and the girls went back and forth for another 10 hours. At the end of those 10 hours, Luna and Iris had finally been exhausted. Dream was also tired, though not nearly as much as them. So when they began slipping up, Dream was able to quickly end the fight.

"Huhhh. Ahh! Everything hurts!"

Iris let out a miserable shout to the sky. Luna was also panting on the floor. She was covered in bruises and even some splits on her skin caused by hard impact. Although they were healing, it didn't stop blood from flowing.

Hearing Iris, Dream turned to her and smirked. He knew she had injuries, but they were hardly dangerous.

"Stop complaining you big baby. I've already got some food lined up."

"But my ribs! You fractured them!"

"Yea and you tore my calf from my bone. Very well done, by the way."

"Doing that hurt my teeth."

"I know. I had to remove one from my flesh. Anyway, let's go."

Right as he said that, a ship descended from the sky. The three quickly boarded and took off, heading to a nearby forest.

.........

An hour later, Dream was sitting on a couch inside the ship with Luna in his arms. Both of them were watching the blazing fire around them and Iris who was chasing down some prey. 

They had all already recovered physically and their energy was back up. Although the energy Dream required to recover was much more than usual, all it took was Iris eating some more class 3 animals for them to recover.

Soon, Iris was seen walking back towards them. As she did, the flames that filled the forest were actually sucked back into her, topping off her energy levels.

"Getting better at that huh?"

Dream smiled as Iris curled up in his lap. 

"Mm. Although I can't get all the spent energy back, I can get around 70%."

"That's still amazing how you were able to develop that. Recovering energy from fire... It's not possible."

"Yes it is!"

"No it isn't! How can you suck in the energy produced by a chemical reaction?! And how exactly does that turn into soul energy and mana?! It defies all logic! Plus, where does that stuff even go?!"

"I don't know! All I know is that it works! You're just jealous!"

"No, I'm confused! Tell me your secrets, you fox!"

"I don't have any!"

The two bickered for a bit before eventually huffing at each other.

Truth was, Dream really was confused. Iris had developed that ability while they were out hunting and he was upgrading. When she had showed it to him, he was flabbergasted. And since then, he had been trying to figure out how it worked. But no amount of pondering had brought him the answer.

That ability of hers literally defied everything he knew about physics. She sucked in flame, which was just heated gas and soot, and was able to recover 70% of the soul energy and mana that she spent to create the flame. After that, the gas and soot merely cooled down and dispersed. She just... sucked the energy out of it. And because of her connection, Luna was able to use the ability too. 

Dream didn't know how the energy got turned into soul energy and mana. Even after closely watching her do it, he hadn't come up with any answers. It just worked, and it irked him that he couldn't figure out why. And because of this, the two had often gotten into little fights like that.

Luna just sat there against Dream. 

"*sigh* You two... Oh, Dream. Aren't you going to the United Empire soon?"

"Hm? Yea. Well, I'm sending my avatar. It's already there, just waiting for the meeting."

"It's good that you don't have to go personally anymore. Much safer."

"Yea, though it sucks that I won't be able to observe that mana geyser."

"Mana geyser?"

"In the middle of the United Empire is an enormous mana signature, far surpassing class 4's. When observing the Empire with my drones, it looks like a tower of mana. None of the human Empires come close to matching it in power. So obviously there's another natural oddity that just spewing mana into that Empire."

"I remember dad saying something about that when we were back in the forest. I guess that's why the mana was so dense there."

"Unfortunately they don't know how to properly direct all that mana. Although they have enchantments, they suck. If I was able to harness that mana though... I could create unbreakable defenses and weapons of untold power."

"Mad scientist."

"Passionate intellectual! Anyway, maybe I really will go. I want to see what the source of this geyser is. If it's an object, maybe I could take it."

"Wouldn't that weaken the Empire?"

"Most definitely. But better to put it in the hands of someone who can utilize it fully. All they're using it for is better mana density. A major waste."

"Just keep yourself safe. If they were to find out, they definitely wouldn't be happy."

"Don't worry. I could hide from class 4's even before I reached S tier. Now? Nobody will even know I was there."

Dream smiled as he thought about the possible treasure to be found. Although he also had a hard time fathoming what could possibly release such energy and power. 

'Honestly, an object radiating that mana would be scarier than a natural oddity. I mean, how powerful would something have to be to do that? I doubt I could control it with everything I have. Though if it's something natural and unrestricted like a natural oddity, then I could rather easily guide its power. Though that would pose a problem as I would have to siphon the energy from wherever that oddity was. It's literally in the center of that Empire...'

For the rest of the day, Dream pondered the mana geyser and spent time with Luna and Iris. His avatar also just silently stayed put somewhere in the Empire. It's stealth obviously wasn't up to par, so he didn't want to risk it getting caught after sending it investigating the oddity.

.......

....

The next day, Dream went with Luna and Iris back to the dome where Riddick and Selene were.

There they had a delicious breakfast cooked by Iris, whose cooking skill was slowly getting better and better. And despite helping her and cooking food himself, Dream had still never gotten the cooking skill. He was even beginning to wonder if it even existed.

After breakfast, the family relaxed and enjoyed a movie for a couple hours. However, when the movie ended, Dream got a message.

'The meeting is starting.'

When he saw this, Dream smiled and activated the avatar that was lying in wait. At the same time, he got up from the couch, prying himself away from Luna and Iris who were comfortably laying on top of him.

"Mm, noo..."

"The United Empire awaits me."

"You're going there?"

Hearing him, Riddick and Selene turned to him. 

"Well, I'm going to the Empire, but not to the meeting that's going on right now. My avatar will be going to that."

"So..."

"I'm going there to do an investigation. Speaking of, Selene, do you know anything about the mana geyser that the Empire is built on?"

"Geyser? Oh, you mean the huge source of mana. Actually, I do know a bit about it."

"Oh? Do tell."

"Don't get too excited. What I know are the little bits that Raoul told me. Apparently, that source of mana has been there for thousands of years. When our ancestors discovered it, they built the Empire on top of it in an attempt to harness its power. And they succeeded, creating the Empire that was then virtually indestructible. Now it isn't so indestructible due to the degradation of the enchantments, but still powerful enough to be the center of a now massive Empire."

"So did he tell you anything about the source itself?"

"Not really. Nobody knows about the source other than a few of the class 4's in that Empire. They're the ones who have been alive for thousands of years and are known as the Ancients."

"Ancients... I met an elf who called herself an Ancient."

"Every Empire has their Ancients, even the Spire. Those two 'old monsters' who never show themselves are two Ancients and have lived for at least 3,000 years. They're actually a couple."

"Cute."

"Indeed. Anyway, as for the source, all I know is that it's buried deep underground. Really deep. It's also guarded by plenty of enchanted corridors. Those ancestors didn't want people easily accessing it after all."

"Hmm, doesn't sound too hard to get into. I have confidence in my enchanting skills."

"Don't be hasty, Dream. There's a reason that only the Ancients know what the source is. Although Raoul didn't tell me why, even he wasn't able to see it. That means the enchantments are so dangerous that he couldn't fight them, or that the Ancients didn't want him to see it, and are powerful enough to prevent him from doing so. If that's the case, you should give up on trying to find it."

"..."

Everyone looked at Dream as he went silent. Gradually, a grin started to bloom on his face. Selene had a bad feeling.

"Dream..."

"I wanna see it."

"It's dangerous."

"I'll blow a hole through the Empire if I need to."

"Dream, there's over 50 class 4's in that Empire. You won't be able to just sneak... in..."

Selene went quiet as she heard her own words. Dream chuckled

"Huhu, I broke you guys out right under the nose of a class 4. I even injured him. Don't worry, if there's two things I'm good at, it's enchanting and sneaking around. I'm just going to snoop around a bit and see what I can find. Besides, my avatar is there too. They won't suspect a thing."

"But if you get caught by a class 4, you're done for."

"Not necessarily. I think I can hold my own. Speaking of, I recently had a jump in power. Old Man. Guess what stat my Magic is at now."

Dream excitedly turned to Riddick with fire in his eyes. The man was surprised, but thought about it.

"Your magic? It was at A+ before... Don't tell me..."

"That's right, baby. I got S tier magic!"

Saying that, Dream released a stream of mana. It was liquid, clear for all to see.

"Liquid... How the hell did you get S tier mana?!"

"An experiment."

"It's always an experiment with you! Tell me how. I had to advance and make that core for me to wield liquid mana. How did you do it without a core?"

As he spoke, Riddick actually stood up and walked over until he was right in front of Dream. His voice was solemn and serious, but he sounded genuinely curious, despite the twinge of disbelief. 

Sp4de

So I'm doing a little thing. Basically, I know artwork that resembles certain things in the story. They act as inspiration for me, and I figured that some people might like to see it. Some things can be hard to visualize, let alone put it in words. 

So I'm posting the pictures on my Patreon. It's totally public and free, so anyone can go ahead and check it out. 

However! Those pictures you'll see may spoil some of the future story. I don't mind giving little sneak peaks into what's in store, but if you don't want things spoiled, don't go there!

Otherwise, feel free to browse. As of now I've posted two, but there'll be more to come. The images also may not be in chronological order or be related to the story. They're inspiration, and the details are in the descriptions.

Disclaimer, none of the artwork is mine and each artist is given credit. I don't have that kind of artistic ability, but I respect those that do. 

Anyway, thanks all!

-Your friendly neighborhood Creato