Chapter 180 – Promise

{Hmm... That's the crudest solution I've ever seen.}

Somewhere in the space outside the factory, a presence was observing. He hadn't left for the time that Dream was solving his problem.

{Neutral territory huh? I guess... He's one of the few who could find a solution like that. Not many people have neutral mana like him anyway. But he didn't even tap into the concept... Or did he? He is from the cosmos. His lack of contact may provide a subtlety that even I can't see through. Not that anybody has ever tapped into that concept yet. Not even I was able to do so... But maybe... Yes... This is a good one. He showed it was possible. That's what matters.}

With that, the presence disappeared. Though not before leaving behind one more order.

{Declare him worthy.}

..........

......

As Dream observed his mangled body, the girls noticed his emergence.

"Dream!"

The girls' souls attempted to materialize, but their lack of control wouldn't allow them. Dream looked over at the two clouds of black and white.

"I... It'll be okay."

"Dream you-"

"Shh... Just focus on yourselves. Finish your advancement. Do that... and the problem might be solved."

"...Okay. We'll do it. We'll do it as fast as possible."

"Don't hurt yourselves..."

Smiling, Dream closed his eyes again. Seeing how his soul wasn't destroyed, the girls felt a flicker of hope and focused on themselves.

Gradually, the two clouds began to disappear as they were brought into their souls, similar to their bodies disappearing. After several hours, 80% of the clouds had disappeared, their power now residing within their souls. 

With the power moving into their souls, the girls regained proportional control over themselves. They didn't dare to activate any skills though for fear it might affect Dream. 

However, what they didn't know was that with every percent of the cloud they absorbed, Dream received more pressure in the capillaries from the increase in power. However, he had found another remedy for that.

'Use the power against themselves. The solution works. It just needs more power. My...my needles. Use the needle enchantment.'

[Got it.]

Knowing Dream was barely holding on, Sophia mustered her power and did as told. She proceeded to enchant the clear mana with the same enchantment that went with Dream's needles.

Sure enough, after a bit of modifying she was able to get it to work. As the clear mana was bombarded from the two opposing sides, it extracted some of the influence and used it to counteract the energy. This way, each energy would fight itself and it would allow more time to fuse the two energies within the neutral mana. 

Some needles would also come to collide in the middle to controllably spread the constantly accumulating power within the capillaries. This actually produced something like a gray mist that Dream barely detected.

Like that, 10 hours passed after Dream solved the problem with capillaries. At this time, the girls had finally absorbed the last of the clouds. 

"Materialize!"

With an urgent shout, Luna and Iris suddenly popped into existence. They were in their fox forms.

Iris had retained her black fur and red accent. Except now, the red color seemed to corrode the air around it. The black also became overwhelmingly darker than before, and no light reflected off her fur except that of the red. What drew attention the most was the mark on her forehead. It was a black hole, and swirling into that black hole were strips of white light. If it weren't for that white light, one might not even know there was a black hole mark there. 

Luna's fur has also became more splendorous. She shone with a bright but soft light, like that of the moon. Her fur had become more silvery than white, and the blue accents became more pronounced. She radiated a much heavier aura of vitality as well that pulsed from the blue accents. On her forehead was also a mark. It was a crescent moon whose points faced down like a dome. And under that crescent was a spartan. The spartan was a woman. She held a blue shield, wore a golden helmet, and carried a silver spear. It was a magnificent sight that made one want to bow in respect.

The two foxes with their new looks weren't worried about their looks though. Upon appearing, they immediately dashed over to the mangled body that was Dream.

"His soul. We need to stabilize our powers. We can't cut it off, but we can make it less turbulent. That'll allow him to handle it better." (Luna)

"Okay."

Nodding, both of them observed Dream soul while activating their powers. They sent their influences across the contract they had with Dream and didn't stop the raging battles, but took control of them. Like this, they were able to calm the flow and push their power through his soul capillaries, working with the clear mana, not against it. 

After a while, they saw results. The white and black powers stopped spreading through his soul, instead diverting themselves towards the capillaries. This continued until the only things that were black or white were their contracts with Dream and the capillaries. 

Dream obviously sensed what they were doing and worked alongside them. After finding a rhythm, he felt much more comfortable. 

[They did it... It's working. Alright, let's get your soul in order. Then...then you can rest.]

Calming herself, Sophia got to work, repairing broken strings and even creating new ones to replace the ones that were destroyed. 

The process only took half an hour, and once she was done, Dream's soul fluctuated stably with power flowing through it properly. His pathways were also repaired, putting his body back in order.

The girls noticed his healing body and were relieved. They could also see his improving state, and once he was fixed, they transformed into their human forms. 

In these forms, both girls looked mostly the same. Their bodies seemed to have been refined, turned more perfect. Iris's hair was still void black, but now it also had a strip of red. Luna's was the opposite, having silvery-white hair with a strip of blue. Luna's eyes were blue and crystal-like, and Iris's were red like flowing lava. 

They kneeled down next to Dream, but neither touched him out of pure fear. 

[He'll be fine.]

Sophia's voice suddenly came to their minds.

"...Really?"

[Yes. His soul is just recovering. It shouldn't be more than a few days before he's back.]

"...We're sorry. We didn't-"

[Don't apologize. He needs you more than you think. Nothing was gonna stop him from doing what he did. Just... take care of him. He's weak, in more ways than one.]

"We will. We're not going anywhere."

[Thank you...]

With that, Sophia went quiet. 

"...*sniff*"

As she kneeled there, tears started streaming down Luna's face. Iris was also sad, but if anything, was more depressed. She didn't know whether to back away or get closer, so she just curled up on herself, a painful feeling crushing her chest. 

Both of them felt ashamed and scared. Everything had been going fine, but then a crisis occurred out of nowhere. All they could do was watch as they destroyed the soul of the one they loved. And even though the crisis had been averted, it had come at a cost. Even now they could sense how weak Dream's soul was. It wasn't just a weakness from injury, but as if his power had been reduced. 

His soul only matched that of an C level being. It was far from the impossibly powerful soul that he had before. And whether or not he recovered would only be seen with time. So they waited, staying by his side the whole time. 

..........

.......

....

4 days later...

Riddick and Selene had been made aware of the situation. Not to its fullest extent, but they at least knew that things had taken a very bad turn. That much they could pick up from Dream's extremely weak soul.

On the other hand, they were shocked at how strong Luna and Iris had become. Iris's aura could already put significant pressure on Riddick, as did Luna's, albeit not as much. Maybe it was the difference in their types of powers. Iris's matched up with Riddick's, but since she seemed to occupy a higher version of his power, he felt an instinctual inferiority. 

Unfortunately he couldn't pry out of them any details. Neither of the girls wanted to even speak, and the depression was evident in their dim eyes. Literally. Usually the colors of their eyes were vibrant, but the blow to their mental states had actually dimmed them.

Either way, with neither of them speaking, eating, or drinking, and the parents could only console them as best they could. 

This went on until the 4th day. 

At this time, Dream was finally waking up. His eyes opened, instantly focusing and seeing the dark ceiling of the dome. 

'...Sophia.'

[They're alive.]

'...Good.'

Sighing in relief, Dream started doing a one over of his body. Seeing what he was doing, Sophia gave a rundown.

[Your bodily systems are normal. However, your soul isn't in the best state ever. I recommended checking your status.]

'...Status.'

|Profile|

Name: Dream

Species: Maghdisynthetic Human Male

Class: [Exalted Arcanist]

Titles: [Origin Seeker]

Level: 299

Stats: Strength- B      Agility- B

Stamina- B       Magic- B

Passive Skills: [Sophia] Lvl. 11, [Arcana] Lvl. 31, [Translate] Lvl. 27

Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Particle Manipulation] Lvl. 24

'...That's a significant decrease.'

[I was able to repair the strings, but not the power that occupied them. The girls' power spread to nearly all of your Nexus skill, some of your Arcana and Particle skills, and even seeped partially into mine. Your nucleus was also damaged some, but luckily nothing irreparable. The damage they spread wasn't light, and considering you're almost entirely recovered, I think this might be permanent.]

'...It's fine. They're alive. That's all that matters. Power is only a tool, and I used it. It's not like I can't come back from this. Besides, I didn't only come out of this with losses. My mind seems... clear. It's stronger, definitely stronger. And I got some skill level-ups.'

[Yes, that's true.]

'Mm. Now, what about the girls?'

[They're not doing the best. They've been at your side for the 4 days you were unconscious.]

'...'

Turning his head, Dream saw Luna on his right and Iris on his left. Both were a bit paler and thinner than usual, Iris was curled up like a child, and Luna had tear stains on her face. They were both sleeping. 

"*Sigh* You two... It's not your fault."

Reaching out, Dream rubbed his thumb across Luna's face, getting rid of the tear stains. This obviously woke her up, and after her eyes went wide, she quickly started crying again.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."

"You didn't do anything. Don't cry. Come on, I just wiped off those stains."

"Heh. *sniff*"

Luna chuckled a bit, causing Dream to smile.

"There's my girl. No more tears. It's over now. Isn't that right, Scarlet?"

Turning his head, Dream looked over to Iris. She hadn't done anything, but he knew she was awake. 

"..."

"Come on. Dream wants a hug."

"..."

"*sigh*"

Dream sighed as he looked at her. He realized she had really taken a blow. 

'She probably thinks that she's the main one at fault considering her power is destruction. And yes she did do most of the damage, but that wasn't her fault...'

He shook his head. She really was blaming herself for all this.

Without words, Dream pulled himself off the floor and moved over. Seeing that, Iris moved away.

"N-no..."

"Yes."

"No-"

"Come here."

Suddenly shooting out his hand, Dream reached out and grabbed Iris's arm. He then pulled back, falling to the floor with her on top of him. 

"No! I can't..."

"I don't care."

"But you..."

"I don't care."

"..."

After struggling a bit, Dream just tightened his hug. Iris eventually stopped resisting.

"...I need you here with me. I did this so I wouldn't lose you."

"..."

"It wasn't your fault. You did your best. It's over, and we're all here."

"..."

"Can you stay with me, Iris? Will you stay by my side? That's all I want. Do you want that?"

"B-but...*sniff* what if I hurt you again? I don't wanna hurt you. I don't want you to die..."

"Don't worry about that. I'm not going anywhere. I made a promise to take care of you two, and if I have to get a little hurt, then so be it. Besides, at this point, we're kind of linked in a non-reversible way. I couldn't get rid of you if I wanted to."

"What? How?"

"The contract, dummy. It's a contract of equals. I have a contract with both of you, and your powers conflict across those contracts. If we get rid of that, you two will end up killing each other."

"..."

"You two are stuck with me whether you like it or not. I just hope you're okay with that... Will you stay with me?"

Stroking her hair, Dream looked toward Iris who was hiding her face in his chest. Softly, she nodded.

"Mm. I will... I'll stay with you. I won't leave. B-but you can't leave either. I'll only stay with you if you stay with me. Please..."

"Yes, of course... Promise?"

"Promise."

"Aww, are you two making a promise without me?" (Luna)

"Huhu, come here you."

Smiling brightly, Dream went and grabbed Luna, bringing her in the hug too. Together they laid there for a while.

"...I love you." (Iris)

"...I love myself too."

"Y-you..."

"Hahaha! I'm kidding! Kidding! Please don't hate me. Come on, I love you too. Gimme some kisses."

"Shut up! You broke the- mmph!"

"Mmmwah!"

"....Meanie."

"Alright, lemme give your sister some sugar."

Saying that, Dream turned to Luna and did as the french do. For a while, the three made up and made out, greatly easing the tension.

...........

After a while, the three stepped out of the dome. Outside were Riddick and Selene, both of whom were surprised to see them.

"Dream?"

"Hey Old Man. Were you waiting for me? I'm flattered."

"...Hmph."

"Huhuhu..."

"Dream... Are you withholding your aura or... did things really get that bad?"

Selene walked over, clearly worried. She could sense his power, or lack of it

"Eh, It's not that bad. I'm still in the B tier."

"What?!"

"It's not as bad as it could be. Besides, I have these two with me. And my machines all work. It's only a little setback. Nothing I can't fix."

"...If you say so."

"Mm. Plus I got Aegis."

"My lord."

"There he is! Sorry about taking those capillaries from you."

"It was no problem at all, my lord. I'm only glad that you surpassed this tribulation."

"Huhu, you always know how to butter me up. Anyway, it's been a while. Two months?"

"Uhh, 5 days." (Iris)

"...Right. Anyway! We better get started with testing these new abilities you guys got. I imagine you guys got some good stuff."

"B-but..."

"It'll be fine. Just doing some experiments. How bad could it go?"

"Bad! Very bad! Do you not remember how you almost died?!"

"Eh. For what is to die than to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?"

"Wha... What does that even mean?!"

"It's poetic! Gosh. No sense of profoundness."