"Where am I?" Visdre asked dumbly.
"You are exactly where you should be..."
Somnus laughed. He had done it! He had tricked himself...
"Now time for the hard part. It is time I've taken my esteemed name and the soul connections!"
"Killing you won't work. It won't transfer ownership to me."
"Fusion is key!"
"My personality is distorted. But I have built a firewall of sorts for my soul."
"But that soul has become a discarded dream domain."
"But the experience is what matters."
Thanks to the concept of the layers of his dream domain and thanks to the connection to the elemental seeds. Endless energy particles blasted the surrounding area.
Somnus held out both hands. A spiritual fire and water appeared in each hand. A fog was created as everything was shrouded in it.
"You..?" Visdre was confused. He didn't know what was happening.
Somnus found this situation funny. He had destroyed his original revival artifact to escape from being trapped by its limits. Yet what he planned to do now was essentially trapping himself.
"I don't want a dream domain..."
"Neither do I want to exist within the abyss or a universe."
Somnus's life flashed before his eyes. But parts were missing. These were the memories he had sacrificed to have dream force.
"Perhaps the price is too much to pay."
"I only have 5% dream force right now... But Visdre is at full capacity. Granted, he needed to sacrifice most of his memories..."
"If he knew he had the distort ability. He could basically end my resistance with the snap of his fingers..."
"Fusion? Don't be ridiculous... I'm certainly dreaming."
"Whether it is this version of myself or another. What is to stop me from getting tricked by a higher existence in a similar way?"
"I started off as basically a normal person who remained lucid in dreams... I did something..."
"What was it that I did?"
"That's right... F555."
"The dream realm. My tampering with my existence gave birth to my uniqueness."
"Instead of a dream domain..."
"How about I make a dream realm? My own realm."
"But I've learned my lesson from wiping out F555 and now I'm about to destroy F554."
"Some foreign influence has made my personality twisted. I've enjoyed the benefits of the suffering of others. But I didn't start that way."
As Somnus thought to himself. He thought about the other universe and the super intelligence. He thought that he may not be able to continue his adventure anytime soon. Because he was planning on doing something crazy.
"If I use my remaining dream force as the catalyst for a reaction. I should be able to ignite the dream force of Visdre. In combination with the paradoxes and inconsistencies from having my dream domain overlapping with reality."
"I should be able to destroy reality entirely."
"I'm just a greedy, cruel, and pathetic existence..."
"I want it all. But I can't support my sins."
"My existence itself isn't a net positive to reality."
"So why not start over? But this will be like a new game plus. A prestige mode."
"I have survived being wiped out before. But this time, I will give my everything to creating the dream realm."
"I know that there are other versions of myself in this multiverse. But what if I removed every Visdre from all of reality?"
"I know there is other universes outside this multiverse system. There are universes that lack an identifier."
"When the chips are down. When I have lost everything. Perhaps my karma will balance out."
"Whether I can forgive myself for infinite torment. If I can do that. I truly will have become incomprehensible."
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Somnus used his imprint on Zhar, Jay, Lo, and Ta. Floating above their heads was their revival artifact.
"You guys might wanna rotate your keys."
Everyone except Zhar rotated their key and vanished from this reality. They had regained consciousness in the capsules in the other universe.
Somnus looked at Zhar.
"You'll need an operator to help you, right?"
Somnus laughed.
"I'm afraid that even hell will be more comfortable then the place I am going. Are you sure?"
"The others-"
Visdre wasn't just standing idle during their talk. He was searching through hundreds of thousands of souls to try to fill in the blanks of his missing memories. He figured he might be in trouble. But he couldn't remember how to use mental energy. He couldn't even maintain reversing his magnetic field to fly.
Somnus touched Zhar's revival artifact and it broke down into fog and flowed into his lungs.
"Zhar. I hope you don't regret your decision!"
"Is it too late to leave?" Zhar felt his instincts screaming to leave.
"..."
Somnus flew down to Visdre and hugged him.
"Let me go!" Visdre screamed.
[ECHO]: Dream Force: 1%
Somnus injected dream force into Visdre and caused a chain reaction. The dream force that Visdre controlled blew up completely creating a field of lawlessness.
They were now in a space where the rules of reality didn't matter.
Outside of this field, holes in reality started to open up and the world started to shake. Zhar flew towards the rippling field of energy.
The universe collapsed. But the dream force was like a protective barrier saving Somnus and Visdre. But the explosion of it itself had caused a fusion.
Somnus felt for a brief instant over 600,000 souls.
But he felt their bodies disappear. Without the support of a body. Mental energy couldn't be supplied infinitely.
[ECHO]: Dream Force: 0%
Visdre had used a ritual of 50,000 souls igniting their potential to reach the entangled state and open up a hole to another reality.
Somnus completely fused with Visdre from the pressure of the collapse of a universe and the explosion of dream force.
Somnus looked at his hands as he realized he was still conscious. But he hadn't achieved his purpose.
"In the past. I had wanted to become the incarnation of sleep. I had schemed to think of ways to affect the subconscious thoughts of reality. I had wanted to make a plan to become a hidden existence."
The waves of dream force were getting weaker and weaker. Right now, Somnus wasn't in ANY universe or realm.
"I AM NOT DONE YET!!"
Zhar vanished as he was finally outside the bounds of the dream force waves.
EVERY player's soul blew up in a an instant. Making Somnus reach the entangled state of energy as he performed a ritual once again.
"I this."
"I that."
"I am blinded by the distortion..."
"All my actions... I feel as if they have been guided by some entity."
Somnus looked at [YOU].
"Well... whoever you are."
"Anticipate this!"
"I sacrificed memories to get dream force. Echo is a mental construct that helps me."
"I'll sacrifice ECHO!"
[ECHO]: Shutting down...
"Farewell..."
Somnus felt a surge of dream force fill his very being. He couldn't quantify it as he no longer had Echo.
"Now that I have dream force."
Somnus held out both hands as a matrix appeared of every timeline.
"I can feel it..."
Somnus was on a clock. The dream force waves were dissipating.
Distort
A timeline appeared covering the sky and wrapped around Somnus.
----------------------------------------
Visdre Mallaichte's POV(F553):
Visdre was sitting at his desk in his house, he was reading a webnovel. Out of the corner of his eye. He saw an advertisement.
He quite liked the advertisments on this site as they were rather unique.
This advertisment just said three words:
"Path of Somnus"
He spoke out these words in a whisper.
His body froze as he remained looking at the screen. For a few minutes he sat frozen.
"What is happening?" Visdre happened to have his eyes focused on the time. But it had stopped moving.
Fog filled his room and he felt something grab something he didn't even know he had.
"Those old fools won't like this one bit!"
----------------------------------------
Visdre Mallaichte's POV(F543):
Visdre was sitting at his desk in his house, he was reading a webnovel. Out of the corner of his eye. He saw an advertisement.
He quite liked the advertisments on this site as they were rather unique.
This advertisment just said three words:
"Path of Somnus"
Time seemed to freeze as his room filled with fog.
----------------------------------------
Visdre Mallaichte's POV(F500):
Visdre was sitting at his desk in his house, he was reading a webnovel. Out of the corner of his eye. He saw an advertisement.
He quite liked the advertisments on this site as they were rather unique.
This advertisment just said three words:
"Path of Somnus"
Time seemed to stop
----------------------------------------
Somnus was on a clock. The dream force waves were dissipating.
Distort
A timeline appeared covering the sky and wrapped around Somnus.
Somnus saw their deaths... Much like how he had died in the warehouse fire. He saw the end of some of them. Only some of them found the book:
Path of Somnus: God's Death
"So that's what it was called..."
Somnus traced back present day Visdre in EVERY universe. He then went back to before they were born.
Somnus made a declaration.
"Visdre Mallaichte was never born in ANY universe!"
Somnus felt resistance from reality itself as his reserve of dream force depleted.
"From this moment on. I am a being without origin!"
"The irony... I named my organization God's Death."
"But in reality. I AM GOD!"
"Visdre Mallaichte is no more... only Somnus shall live on..."
"I get it now. This is my path. This is my death."
"Path of Somnus: God's Death."
"That dream realm isn't going to build itself."
Distort
Somnus walked through reality.
"This dream force is some good stuff."
"I removed my origin so that I could leave the confines of this multiverse."
Somnus didn't have enough energy to make a dream realm. But something about him had changed.
Somnus felt incredibly weak. The changes he had made to reality weren't small. Even though removing his existence didn't change the outcome for most of these universes. Somnus felt he had did his first good deed.
"Reality hates hidden existences..."
"You're welcome! I destroyed two universes already. Who knows how many I would have destroyed in the future."
"There can be only one!"
"I..."
Somnus was too weak. He had stressed his existence to the limit to pull off the impossible. His body finally fell apart into nothingness.
But a revival artifact was hidden in his body. It was Zhar's revival artifact.
He manifested from this.
"Atesh?"
All that was left of Somnus was a seed.
Much like the elemental seeds that were heavenly treasures.
But this seed...
It was a dream seed!