Chapter 266 – Harvest

When Dream fired into the sky, the barbarian was shocked. His spatial blade was going to sever Dream in two, so what was he doing, not even defending?

However, that random bullet Dream fired carried with it a strong spatial power of its own. Suddenly, after reaching a certain point in space, that bullet hit something and exploded into a messy ball of chaotic void.

*Crack!*

Suddenly, the barbarian saw spatial fissures erupt all around him. Then, these spatial cracks shattered apart. He suddenly felt the space in the area lighten up. And when Dream teleported out from under his nose, he felt his heart drop.

"NO!!"

*Woosh!*

The spatial sword hit nothing but air. The two swordsmen felt their eyes widen in shock. 

"How?! How did you break the Spatial Cage?!"

One of them shouted in unfair disbelief. That Spatial Cage was actually able to lock Dream down, and the sword the barbarian pulled out should've been enough to at least wound him. But with a random bullet, Dream was able to shatter the spatial cage. They couldn't understand. 

Dream appeared a few meters away stroking his gun. 

"Know enough about space and you too can escape from a spatial cage. There's always a power source, even for the invisible spatial cage. I just had to find it. I will admit, it took me longer than normal, but I was also analyzing the dimensional aspect of the cage. It gave me a few inspirations."

"No..."

As Dream spoke, the two swordsmen felt their fists clench. That was one of their greatest weapons. They had actually brought out several other trump cards to use on Dream, but when they understood his power, they realized that most of their trump cards were useless. After all, the barbarian didn't fully explain Dream's power to them. Not even he knew the full extent of Dream's power, only that he could wield the power of space. 

Now, they were realizing how much of a freak Dream was. In only half a year, he was able to create weapons that could kill them all. It was absurd. 

"Damn you, Mountain Blade! What have you gotten us into?!"

"Shut up! You can't escape from him, so either kill him with me, or we die together!"

After the two swordsmen bellowed at the barbarian, he yelled back. They only gritted their teeth at this. Dream could teleport anywhere, so they truly couldn't escape from him. Now, it was do or die. 

"Shit! Kill him!"

Suddenly, one of the swordsmen brought something else out of his inventory. It was a stack of leather hides, and he threw them out at Dream. 

Dream watched as these pieces of leather exploded with waves of mana. However, he didn't even move, the mana just gliding along his body. It did absolutely nothing to him. 

That wasn't all. The other swordsman was the same, taking out beads and bombs and consumable weapons, throwing them all out at Dream in desperation. The barbarian also wielded his spatial sword, chopping out at Dream in an attempt to wound him. 

Utilizing so many weapons obviously had its effects on the surroundings. Wave after wave of mana flew out in all directions. It killed soldiers of both sides who fought below, and the city on the ground was devastated as huge fissures opened up. Many thousands of people who hadn't evacuated the city were obliterated in these remnant attacks. 

As for Dream, anything that utilized mana as an attacking mechanism was useless against him. He didn't even need to bend space. His Will dominated all mana and pushed it away, not consuming much energy at all. 

And while he dodged the barbarian's spatial sword, he sent out plenty of attacks of his own. Dozens more beams shot out from his pistol, bombarding a person at a time. Dream sent nearly 60 rounds toward the nearly dead swordsman. Surprisingly, using his stacks of consumable weapons, he was able to resist many of these attacks. However, he couldn't avoid everything, and those 60 rounds put him on the edge of death. 

Like that, Dream teleported in front of him, shooting his hand into his chest. After a mere few seconds, there was a flash of white light as Dream ripped his soul out, wiping the consciousness from it and stashing it into his inventory. 

"Two down."

"AHHH!!!"

The third swordsman roared in unwillingness as he saw his friend die. Then, without warning, he shot off into the distance, running away. 

"Hey, the barbarian was right you know. You can't escape."

With those words, Dream teleported in front of the running swordsman. After appearing, he waved his hand before disappearing once more. The swordsman was horrified as 60 beads instantly surrounded him. 

*BOOM*

A small sun was created with the swordsman at the center. A few seconds later, a bloodied man shot out. His speed was greatly reduced, but he still desperately shot away. 

"Hand me your soul."

Unfortunately, Dream was right behind him. The swordsman turned around only to see Dream holding up his hand cannon. He had now used all of his fusion marbles, so he moved on to his second weapon. 

"No! You want my soul, so I'll burn it to kill you!"

Saying that, the swordsman lit a fire within him. Dream watched as the man's soul actually consumed itself, drawing out its latent power and spending it for an attack. 

"Ah! You're wasting it!"

Now, Dream was panicked as he saw perfectly good material be burned away. He quickly fired a dozen spatial bullets. 

When these bullets hit the defenseless swordsman, they instantly tore open void fissures that consumed his entire body. Unfortunately, even as his entire body was consumed by the void, his soul still remained, burning itself. 

"I'm taking you to hell with me!!"

With those final words, Dream watched as the man's soul core cracked open. From this small crack, power beyond words was let out. Making a quick but hard decision, Dream teleported with Aegis to where Melody was, snatching her off the battlefield before teleporting once more. 

Then, Dream appeared in outer space. He and Melody looked down at the planet where the battle was ongoing. Then, the two saw a massive explosion even from so far away. It created a wave of mana that spread for nearly a thousand miles, leaving a massive brown crater. 

"Well, that's a class 6 for you."

Dream shook his head in regret. That was all material, totally wasted. Melody was shocked for a different reason though. That single class 6 soul had created a crater in the planet 1 thousand miles wide. If it had exploded on Earth, it would have likely cracked the planet open, killing all its inhabitants. It was an atrocious amount of power.

The next second, Dream teleported again, reappearing above the battlefield. Now, it was nothing more than a wasteland, looking as if a meteor had slammed into the planet. 

The flagship was gone. The city below had been obliterated, not just killing all who had been evacuating, but anyone within a thousand miles of the city. Dream knew that a huge chunk of the Blue Blood clan had been destroyed just like that, wiping out potentially tens of millions.

Nothing remained even of the armies that had been fighting. There were only some powerful class 5's that were buried in the ground, barely alive after having used everything they had to defend. 

Other than that, the only things left were the class 6's, none of which had died. They were all obviously watching Dream's battle, and as soon as they saw the swordsman detonate his own soul, they realized what would happen. Thus, they defended themselves with their own power along with several tools. Of course, they didn't come out totally unscathed, but it wasn't anything major. It just consumed energy. 

Now, the three swordsmen were gone, leaving the barbarian along with the class 6's of the Blue Blood clan. Dream had focused on the swordsmen first because if he killed the barbarian first, they would try to run away. He couldn't have that, so he killed them one by one, forcing them to stay and fight him until there were none left. 

"Well, there's one less obstacle. Now, I can focus on you."

Dream spoke as he turned back to the barbarian. However, instead of getting wrathful or roaring in unwillingness, the barbarian's face became downcast. He stared blankly into the distance. 

"I... I surrender."

The barbarian mumbled. He just couldn't resist Dream's power, and now, he was regretting fighting this monster. 

Dream titled his head. 

"Sorry? Is that it?"

"I... You wanted that old man, right? Here!"

Suddenly, the barbarian shot toward the old man who had been fighting one of the ancients of the Red Eye clan. The old man was shocked as the barbarian grabbed him. He was already wounded by Dream and then the ancient he fought, so he couldn't resist. 

"No! Mountain Blade, what are you doing?!"

He struggled, but before he could get out of the barbarian's grasp, he was placed in front of Dream. 

Mountain Blade presented the old man. 

"Here! This is the man you wanted. Take his soul!"

"...Alright."

"No!"

The old man screamed as Dream nodded and shot his hand into his chest. Then, the old man's soul was ripped out with a flash of light. The body fell lifeless before disintegrating in the wind. 

"Very nice... I think I'll make him suffer the pain of his soul being disassembled when I go to use it."

"..."

The barbarian was silent as he heard Dream's words, only feeling a chill crawl down his spine. Pain of the soul was the worst thing one could feel in this universe. The barbarian didn't even want to imagine what Dream was going to do with those souls. 

"We... we surrender. You got what you wanted."

Suddenly, the barbarian reiterated himself. However, Dream just turned to him with a frown. 

"You surrender? No, I don't accept your surrender."

"What?! No, you got the old man's soul!"

"And it was indeed something I wanted. But I want you to clearly remember what I said to you only 6 months ago. Do you remember my ultimatum?"

"..."

"I said that by siding with that old man, you would be forfeiting your future selves. The decision has been made. And now, I'm here to collect what I promised to. I'm going to harvest your souls!"

"AHH!!"

As Dream got in the barbarian's face, the barbarian let out a guttural roar. 

"You'll never have my soul!!"

"As if I would fail to stop the same thing twice."

Suddenly, as the barbarian tried to detonate his soul, Dream took something out of his inventory. It was a massive, literal cannon with a barrel around 10 feet wide and 20 feet long. This cannon appeared several feet away from the two. 

"Fire!"

*BOOM*

The cannon lit up. Everyone saw a massive 10 foot wide beam come out of it. This beam directly hit the barbarian, washing over him in a split second before continuing into the planet, punching a massive hole in the ground. 

Looking at where the barbarian was, nobody could see anything. However, Dream instantly teleported over, shooting out his hands. His hands actually grabbed something, and a golden sphere appeared within his cosmic grip. 

It was the barbarian's soul. However, it was smaller and weaker than the others. This was due to the cannon, of course. Still, Dream would rather harvest a damaged soul than nothing at all. 

Not listening to the final screams of the barbarian's consciousness, Dream wiped him out. After another flash of light and wave of his hand,  the soul went into his inventory. 

He sighed. 

"Alright. Now, for you guys."

With ominous words, Dream turned to the rest of the class 6's. For a second, those of the Red Eye clan were worried that Dream would try and kill them too. But his gaze only landed on those of the Blue Blood clan.

"Disperse!"

Suddenly, someone shouted. Dream's face dropped as the remaining 7 class 6's flew off in all directions. 

Dream rapidly spoke. 

"Patriarchs! Pin them down!"

"O-on it!"

With a hasty nod, those of the Red Eye clan shot out, intercepting the escaping class 6's. At the same time, Dream spoke to Sophia. 

"Fire the Death Rays!"

[Firing!]

She announced. Two seconds later, the skies lit up. For a moment, everyone stopped and looked to the sky. 

From space descended three lines. They were golden, as if they were the droplets of a star. These droplets shot down right on top of three escaping class 6's, engulfing them in absolute power. 

At the same time, another 10 foot cannon appeared from Dream's inventory. After reloading the first one, the two cannons fired, blasting two more class 6's. This made 5, and Dream rapidly teleported in front of another. 

Raising his hand cannon, Dream fired 20 shots. These 20 shots obliterated the body of the already wounded class 6. While Dream was handling his own four enemies, everyone had been fighting below, and the class 6's of the Red Eye clan hadn't been slacking off. Now, the rest were sheep for the slaughter. Dream didn't need to expend too much energy or resources. 

After obliterating his body, Dream reached out and grabbed the class 6's soul, wiping the consciousness before throwing it into his inventory. Then, he teleported between the five class 6's that had been hit by his cannons and death rays. 

One by one he finished them off and harvested their souls, light flashing during each harvest. The death rays were obviously enchanted with his arcane transmutation, so like with what the cannons did with the barbarian, each person's body was annihilated. He just needed to grab their souls. Two of them actually tried to detonate their souls, but Dream was able to stop it before it became irreversible. 

Then, there was one final person left. Patriarch Star, upon sensing Dream's approach, stopped fighting his enemy. This enemy was a woman, the one who wielded a spear beside the barbarian when Dream had initially chased the old man back to his clan. Dream had promised to kill her along with the barbarian for stopping him. 

She was the last class 6. Seeing Dream, she didn't even fight back. There was nothing she could do, not even destroy her own soul. 

He shuttled in front of her, appearing with unbearable pressure. She faltered at the hopeless situation, closing her eyes.

"Stop!"

Before Dream could kill her too though, there was a loud shout. Dream was surprised as a young woman came flying over. She was a class 5, and it looked like she barely survived that class 6 soul detonation earlier. 

"Don't kill her!"

The young woman shouted again as she stood in front of the class 6. Dream was intrigued, not immediately doing anything. 

"Who are you?"

"I am Trace! And... this is my mother."

"Oh? Your mother is a class 6. No wonder you were able to survive that detonation. Your powerful mother probably left you with some life-saving tools."

Dream nodded a bit as he correctly guessed the situation. Trace gritted her teeth, standing her ground in front of Dream's unfathomable presence. 

"Let my mother live. Please..."

"Why should I do that?"

"Because... You've done enough! You've harvested 10 class 6 souls. Is that not enough?!"

"Hmm..."

Dream rubbed his chin as he pondered. Behind her daughter, the class 6 mother felt her heart beat out of her chest, tremendous anxiousness building within her. 

Dream tilted his head.

"I don't know how many souls I need. But a class 6 soul is incredibly valuable either way. So let's look at this situation as it is. Does a class 6 soul carry more weight than the remorse from killing a mother in front of her own daughter? If we want to answer that, we must ask: How much guilt will I feel over killing your mother?"

Dream bent forward a bit, his cosmic gaze boring into the daughter who stood between him and a class 6 soul. 

"I will never see you again. And you will never grow to be more powerful than I. Thus, you pose no threat, and you are only one of the many trillions of people I could find in this universe. Even killing both of you here will mean nothing in the future. It'll just be another death amongst the billions I've already ended. And more than that, your mother isn't innocent. She's my enemy. Her death wouldn't be out of the ordinary."

"But... Do you not care about what family means?!"

"Oh, I do. After all, I have my own mother who I care deeply about. Thing is, I don't care about you or yours. The bond I have with my mother has nothing to do with you. On the contrary, that class 6 soul will help me do much, including better protecting those close to me. So, given all this, what will my course of action be?"

"...Please. I don't want my mother to die..."

With a slight tremble, Trace fell to her knees. Seeing this, Dream sighed. There was a bit of silence before he spoke. 

"It's unfortunate that your mother, out of all the vast universe, had to be placed here where she would die by my hands. And it is unfortunate that you had to be the daughter that witnesses her death. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll lose everything I hold dear. But that day is not today, and as long as I can help it, that day shall never come. To ensure it so, I will take what I can, when I can. That includes this soul!"

"No!"

Suddenly, Dream stepped forward. In her desperation, Trace stood and prepared to block him. But without her understanding how, he spatially shifted around her, appearing behind her mother. 

Then, his hand drove into her body, grasping her soul and tearing it out. Trace was mortified as she watched her mother fall to the floor. 

Dream looked at the golden soul core in his hands. He swept his power through it, about to wipe the remnant Will. When he didn't sense a consciousness though, he was surprised. He then looked at the mother's body that hadn't turned to dust.

"Interesting. So she actually extracted her consciousness and some of her soul, huh?"

"What?"

Hearing his words, Trace, who was about to break down, regained hope. She looked at her mother whose eyes slightly opened. Inside her body was a small fire. It was actually a cluster of soul strings holding no more power than a class 3. 

"Mom?!"

"Impressive. Very impressive. I would ask how you did that, but I don't think you actually understand how you did that anymore considering you just abandoned your main soul."

"P-please! This is fine! Just let my mother live!"

Realizing her mother wasn't yet dead, Trace pleaded once more as she held her body. Dream waved his hand. 

"Relax. I have no need for some soul strings. Consider yourself lucky. Your mother was powerful and smart enough to evade death. I'm done here."

"Thank you!"

Trace gave thanks as Dream turned and walked away, putting the soul into his inventory. From the side, Patriarch Star was having complicated feelings. 

Melody was as well. Everyone had watched Dream's interaction, and they were shocked at his ruthlessness. 

When Dream walked by Melody though, he paused. 

"...It's not like I want to kill someone's mother in front of them. But I've got my own people to worry about. It was for them."

"Hey, I understand that. I'm not a child, Dream. I just don't like how that girl wanted to guilt-trip you into sparing her mother."

"Well, she's not in the wrong. Everyone has their life story, Melody. Whenever you kill someone, you're sowing tragedy in the universe. Just because you can't directly see it doesn't mean it's not there. And if you refuse to face it, then you're a hypocrite. That's why I made the same decision anyway despite the tragedy being right in front of me. The fact that the mother could evade death is only luck. Anyway, let's go home. I've got an advancement to make."

Patting Melody's head, Dream tore open the chaotic void. Melody thought deeply about his words before walking into the portal. Before Dream also left, he turned to the patriarch. 

"I've got things to do. I will be back eventually, and when I come, I want Vela to lead me to the Blood Drop branch clan at the top of the planet."

"O-Of course."

The patriarch nodded. With that, Dream entered the portal, disappearing from view. 

The patriarch sighed. After that, he looked to his people. 

"We're going back. Let's finish conquering this clan. There's nothing stopping us no-"

"Hang on!"

Just as the patriarch was about to leave and support his armies, Dream suddenly reappeared. 

"I forgot that I have something for you."

Saying that, Dream pointed to the sky. The next second, a huge ship that wasn't much smaller than the flagships of the Red Eye clan descended from above. When it landed and opened its hatch, everyone could see a massive pile of books, resources, and items. Together, this pile of treasures radiated profound power. 

"This is all the accumulated resources of the clan. It has all their techniques and blueprints and stuff that acted as their backbone. This is basically what makes the Blue Blood clan the Blue Blood clan. My bots stole it earlier for me before everything got blown to bits. Anyway, it's yours now. You can have the ship too. Think of it as a bit of compensation for your damages."

With that, Dream waved and disappeared once more. The class 6's looked at the mountain of items within the flagship. Entering and picking up one of the books, Patriarch Star saw the title "Blue Blood Cultivation Technique". 

"...We're rich!"