On the side, a large figure tackled Allen. The projection of a bright red beast shined throughout his body.

Chaos.

Two familiar faces. Chaos was the first victim of the nightmares. Trinity barely survived the nightmares, but she fell during the bliss dream. Now, moments later, they were brought back to life again.

This time, they were facing their own kind.

Jean raised her halberd. A more poetic person would exclaim about the irony of fate, but she didn't give a damn about irony or fate. Trinity might have her own backstory and her own suffering, but those were irrelevant to her.

She has become a foe, and she needs to die.

Sensing Jean’s will, the Power of Death condensed on her halberd. As soon as the coverage was over, Jean charged forward like a she-wolf. She could tell Trinity was a mage-like combatant. Let alone, she could do quite the damage. Thankfully, she suffered the same issue Jean did: she didn't have the protection of more tanky units.

On the side, Allen was exchanging blows with Chaos. Chaos was holding onto a giant ax, not surprising given his personality and battle style. A custom armor formed on his body. The helmet looked like the skull of a beast. Red energy formed around his weapon and his armor. His strikes were as unwavering as those of Allen. The ax and the blade clashed countless times in mere seconds, forming mini-explosions every time they clashed. Black and red rogue energy landed all around them, making the battlefield strangely colorful.

Trinity waved her hand and generated twenty golden fireballs in front of her. Unlike those trapped here for centuries, she hasn’t fallen for long enough to lose all her consciousness. She still had the knowledge to know that if Jean was average at melee, then she was just straight-up terrible. The deadly feeling coming from Jean suggested a single strike from her blade could mean the end.

The twenty fireballs flew toward Jean as more were generated and then flung out.

Jean swiped her halberd and sliced one of the fireballs into two. Black Power of Death sliced through the golden energy on the fireballs and completely shut them down before they could explode. Two more were made into barbeque before Trinity realized what Jean was trying to do.

When Jean tried to deflect the fourth fireball, it exploded just before Jean’s blade made contact. The explosion stopped Jean in her tracks. That moment of pause was all it took for the rest of the fireballs to slam into Jean.

As the golden cloud cleared, Jean was still standing, but a few drops of black blood could be seen on the edge of her mouth. She had to use the Power of Death over its full magnitude to cancel out all the blasts, and it took a toll on her body.

Trinity continued the bombardment. Jean tried to strip her soul out, but a wave of explosions appeared in midair, and Jean lost contact with all the energy she sent over. Trinity must have some sort of defensive measure like psychic landmines. As soon as they sensed hostiles, they explode and cancel out the infiltrators.

Trinity wasn’t as talented as Allen or as brutal as Jean, but she has gone through more missions than both of them. This by itself was an advantage.

Another blast almost knocked Jean off her feet.

Things were getting a little desperate...

Suddenly, Jean made a move. A wave of Power of Death covered every single lost being around her and Trinity. Normally, they wouldn’t be that much of a threat. Their nature meant they wouldn’t attack Trinity, and they were easy for Jean to handle. But right now, Jean needed to do more than just kill them.

Immediately, all of these beings were consumed by the ultimate fear. Instead of going rogue at everyone else, this fear was directed.

An eight-legged, three story building tall reptile screeched into the sky, covering up its fear by furious aggression. The next moment, it charged toward Trinity.

Hundreds of other beings followed.

They could feel like they were about to die, and they could pinpoint the source of that feeling from Trinity. Their instincts told them if they wanted to live, Trinity had to go down.

Trinity didn't back down, but she did turn all the bombarding fireballs toward the lost beings. Golden fireballs landed on the leading reptile first, burning both its body and its soul. The beast screamed and rolled on the ground, shaking the ground as it tried to kill the fire. But the golden flames stuck to the reptile-like glue until the reptile was no more than a small pile of black ashes.

The other lost beings suffered a similar fate.

As the lost beings were slaughtered without landing a single strike on Trinity, the corrupted female Voyager turned back to Jean. A small mocking smirk was on her face.

Did you really think they could take me?

But Jean wasn’t trying to kill Trinity with that. She was only buying some time. As Trinity’s bombardment stopped, Jean used the chance to form her available power into a single strike directed right at Trinity’s soul.

The blast almost reached Trinity before a wave of explosions suddenly erupted in midair.

Trinity’s smirk didn't disappear. She was a skilled Voyager, skilled enough to realize the lost beings was just a diversion. She was ready for the killing blow.

The burst of Power of Death was intercepted by the explosions. Most of it perished. Only a fragment of them landed on Trinity, but it was too few to strip Trinity’s soul out by force.

Trinity redirected her fireballs at Jean.

In the shadows, Welch was considering how to save Jean without her getting suspicious.

A wall of fireballs floated in the air, ready, but they never had the chance to be flung out.

Behind the fireballs, Trinity collapsed to her knees. All of a sudden, she felt as if she was not standing on solid ground in the Dream Realm, but rather falling down through a bottomless pit. Dread stuck to her soul. She tried to resist, but it was futile.

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She couldn’t see. She couldn’t hear. She couldn’t touch. It was as if she was abandoned by everyone.

No longer being controlled or maintained, her golden flames faded away.

The next moment, Jean’s halberd was already in Trinity’s heart.

The fragments of the Power of Death didn't go for Trinity’s soul. It would be a useless endeavor. Trinity’s flames, with the sheer numbers and the defender’s advantage, would be able to handle that power. Instead, Jean directed her power to Trinity’s eyes and ears, which were less protected.

Basically, she made Trinity’s eyes and ears think she was no longer alive. This was different from her previous trick, which involved fooling the soul itself. In this case, Trinity’s soul was fine. It was her other sensations that were messed up.

Trinity still overestimated herself. She thought Jean’s strike was already completely deflected. If Trinity was more cautious, or if she had an extra second, she could extinguish the hallucination.

But this was a world with no “ifs”, and right now, Trinity was not the victor.

Jean waved her hand. Trinity’s watch flew into her grasp. The two might not be of the same major, but Jean could sense Trinity’s flames struck both the body and the soul. She might be able to use some of her possessions and sell the rest.

On the side, Allen pulled his blade out of Chaos’s body. The kill came at a price of multiple burn marks on his otherwise handsome face, but it was a small price to pay for victory.

The other Voyagers trapped by the nightmare didn't appear. They must’ve been taken out by the Protectors or be respawned elsewhere.

Like Jean, Allen took Chaos’s watch.

As Jean and Allen were finishing up their respective enemies, the larger battle was unfolding all around them.

Four of the six rebel Dream Lords have been exterminated. Some of them were silent as the ARCADIA Protectors arrived. Others screamed curses. But none of them surrendered. Since surrendering wouldn’t save their lives, there was no reason to humiliate themselves. They didn't have much pride left. No need to tarnish the rest.

Aggressors were down to their last hundred. When the ARCADIA Protectors realized they couldn’t take the Aggressors alive, they massacred them. No single Aggressor could last two rounds before the Protectors.

Ka stood in mourning. He could feel his own kind perishing one by one. His heart ached, but at the same time, he was satisfied. Two Dream Lords loyal to the Protectors have been overpowered by the endless sea of directed lost beings. The true might of billions of combatants all across the power scale was terrifying. Jean and Allen were only able to survive because they weren’t specifically targeted. A handful of units at a time, they could handle.

But the two Dream Lords that fell were swarmed by tens of thousands of beings at once.

Suddenly, Ka’s gaze landed on two black-armored figures in the battlefield. Jean and Allen. He instantly recognized them as Voyagers. Suddenly, as the two Voyagers slaughtered being after being, Ka felt a surge of hatred coming from the bottom of his heart.

The Protectors ravaged through the Dream Realm. Fine. They had the power to back it up. But since when could a bunch of their goons run free on their sacred land? At his stage, he could understand their power level in one glance. They were weak. In the days of the Merge, entities like Jean were cannon fodders.

Ka couldn’t do anything against the Protectors, but there was something he could do against the Voyagers. He would die anyway, so why not go down after taking out some of the Protectors’ soldiers?

This thought sent him into action.

“Dogs of the Protectors! Die!”

A beam of Power of Hibernation went straight at Allen.

Allen’s eyes widened as he slashed his blade out three times, sending out three slices of energy at the energy beam, but all of them melted away. The beam continued unopposed.

Allen finally rose his weapon, ready to tank the blast. It was too late to try to move away. Plus, dodging an energy beam wasn’t like dodging an arrow. The energy beam was targeted on him.

At the last moment, Jean jumped in from the side and sent Allen flying to relative safety.

She took the blast for him instead. Since the beam was caught by Jean, it no longer had the ability to go after Allen.

Excluding the possibility that Jean was suddenly possessed by a self-sacrificing heroine, it was a calculated decision.

Ever since the nightmares, Jean realized the Power of Hibernation was incredibly bad against her. The Power of Hibernation wasn’t the most aggressive power. Its strength laid in its ability to create hallucinations and break its victims mentally by targeting their emotions. Some victims, like Trinity, knew it was just a hallucination, but they fell anyway. It was almost voluntary.

Against Jean...anyone that tries to break her with emotions was in for a rough ride.

Allen might have survived the nightmares and the bliss dreams, but Jean knew those were like training programs compared to what the real Power of Hibernation could do. The last thing Jean needed was the expert melee warrior to turn against her.

And so she committed herself to this selfless sacrifice.

A layer of Power of Death formed a barrier in front of the sea of Power of Hibernation. The black color seemed so insignificant in front of the massive wave of the indigo onslaught.

To Jean’s surprise, the indigo energy was actually stopped for a while. Power of Death were like fearless guardians as they held their ground against the encroaching storms. In reality, the Power of Death was the most volatile energy among the ultimate powers in the Infinite Realms. Against the Power of Hibernation which was absolutely terrible at a direct clash, it stood strong.

Ka let out a growl in slight disbelief and utter frustration. He was too focused on the overall battle to really see what majors Jean and Allen were in. This fight should’ve been an easy slaughter where he took care of Jean and Allen as easily as Welch took care of him. Instead, he was forced into a stalemate by someone only a fraction his strength.

This was pouring gasoline onto the flames that were Ka’s fury.

Instantly, he amplified his power to its full extent.

Jean groaned. She was doing the best she could, but indigo energy were still crawling past her shield and into her head. She started seeing things. Individuals and events from her past popped up all across her consciousness. One moment she was on the Hyperion. The next moment she was standing on the wreckage of Lance City.

Her head felt as heavy as if an entire battlecruiser was weighing down on her neck.

She held her teeth tight and stood her ground.

On the side, Allen stood back up. Realizing the situation Jean was in, he quickly sent four energy covered daggers flying at Ka. The Dream Lord dispatched a strand of his mind deflecting those strikes. Dream Lords weren’t known for their physical endurance. A dagger to the head could easily maim or even kill them.

Jean let out a sharp scream and broke through all the hallucinations at once with a burst of black energy. This time, she decided the best defense was a good attack. A drawn-out clash of energies would only end in her defeat.

Black energy formed in front of her into ten daggers.

Psychic blade. The ability she purchased in the City of the Voyagers that allowed her to form psychic energy into blades that had excellent penetration power. It was her most aggressive trick with the Power of Death.

Ten daggers cut their way through the sea of indigo, straight at Ka. The sea of energy allowed Ka to crash down on Jean when attacking, but when defending, it meant the ten daggers only needed to penetrate a tiny portion to get past.

The Dream Lord was a little caught by surprise. He still expected Jean to be struggling with the hallucinations, not seizing onto this tiny opportunity and already launching a counterattack. Nonetheless, this wasn’t exactly world-ending.

A wave from his hand sent all the Power of Hibernation in his radius rushing into his body. After all, this was his home field.

But this wasn’t only his home field.

Suddenly, Ka felt his energy extraction stopped. It was as if someone was actively cutting him off from the rest of the realm. But...how was this possible? Who could do such a thing?

Only a Dream Lord could cut off the supply of another Dream Lord.

Ka turned to Al with disbelief.

The next moment, ten daggers, worn down but still deadly. cut through Ka’s body.

The Power of Death finished the kill.