Chapter 33: The Silent Dream That Drifted
While the Dragon King was being recounted on what went wrong in their plan, the man behind it all had already appeared on the fringes of their homelands.
Akasha and Luna stood high in the skies at the border of the Nova Caldera, the scorching heat rising from below like the breath of an angry deity.
The landscape before them was a vision of primal fury — thousands of active volcanoes belching thick black smoke and glowing ash into a blood-red sky.
Rivers of molten lava snaked across the blackened earth like veins of fire, their intense heat warping the air itself into shimmering mirages.
The constant low rumble of the earth vibrated through their bodies, and the acrid stench of sulfur and burning rock hung heavy in the air.
Akasha’s bloody eyes swept across the volcanic expanse, taking in the towering dragon-shaped structures carved into the mountainsides and the distant silhouettes of colossal dragons lounging in lava pools.
A faint, predatory smile played on his lips.
Luna floated gracefully beside him, her long pink-and-purple hair drifting softly in the hot wind.
She unhooked her arm from his with a composed smile, teasing lightly, "You know I’m not helping you with this, right?"
Akasha turned to her, his crimson-white hair shifting as he smiled back, fangs glinting.
"I wasn’t betting on it."
He then lowered himself, sitting cross-legged in the air as if the sky itself were a throne.
His void black horns caught the fiery light of the caldera as he began calmly planning how to wipe out the entire Nova Dragon Clan.
Akasha, despite his recent display... was cautious to the letter. Even in the last battle despite being driven by his Divine Starvation and euphoria from Dragon’s blood, he knew from quick scans that no one on the battlefield could contest with him.
However, he also learned his eyes couldn’t see everything.
As, he didn’t know Kaleb had a primordial weapon until he used, which while in the moment meant nothing.
Though if Kaleb were any stronger, things could have turned dire.
And now in this moment, Akasha had no idea what kind of Dragons were hiding in this Caldera... nor did he know how strong was the strongest of them.
’I really put myself in a tight position this time...’ he thought with a wry smile. He didn’t need to solve this issue right now, but who knew what could happen in the world of power?
"Alright," he muttered. "Since my divinity can’t cover nearly half of this... I’ll have to do things myself."
In that moment, he slipped into the Dream Land.
-----
The moment he arrived; his gaze lifted toward Yume.
Her cocoon now had faint cracks running across its surface.
Akasha smiled, knowing she would be out soon. Then, he sat down cross-legged and, with a focused thought, created a new artifact.
[You have created a new artifact.]
[Dreamer’s Mask (Above Origin) (Tier 21/21) - At its peak, this mask allows the wearer to exist simultaneously in the waking world and the Dream Land, completely masking their presence from anyone.]
---
Akasha smiled as he read the status, realizing he had uncovered yet another loophole in creation.
First, it had been his ability to dream up any knowledge he desired—at least, that was what he assumed, since he had never truly tested its limits.
Now, with this mask, crafted using Dream Land as one of the primary components, he understood that even if the rank shifted, the abilities would remain unchanged.
Because Dream Land existed solely for him, no one, regardless of their tier, would be able to perceive him once he stepped inside.
And unlike before, when only his consciousness was present, the mask now allowed him to enter fully.
After this he exited the Dream Land and equipped the mask.
----
The moment the Dreamer’s Mask settled over his face; Akasha’s presence completely vanished from the senses of the world.
Luna floated gracefully beside him with a knowing smile on her face as they began their slow descent toward the Nova Caldera.
"You really do have a flair for the dramatic, don’t you?" she remarked, her tone calm and playfully teasing.
"First the mask... and now you’re set on making a scythe while descending into a volcano like some harbinger of doom. How... theatrical.~"
Akasha chuckled softly, the sound low and easy as his crimson-white hair shifted in the rising heat.
"Well, I can’t help it. If I’m going to wipe out an entire clan... while keeping it lowkey, I might as well look the part."
He cast a sideways glance at her, bloody eyes glinting with amusement.
"Besides... I’m starting to think you like my dramatics."
Luna’s smile widened slightly, though her tone remained composed.
"Hmmm, maybe, just a little?"
[Dream Affinity]
Akasha’s smile sharpened as he manifested the purple-and-white scythe with a single thought.
The weapon hummed with potent power from the affinity, its blade shimmering like a fracture in space itself.
"You don’t have to hide it, you know?" he teased, voice dripping with dark amusement as they continued their descent into the fiery maw of the Nova Caldera.
----
The first volcano he entered was like stepping into another world.
From the outside, it looked like a normal volcanic mountain.
But inside, it was impossibly vast — a colossal, hollowed-out realm of black stone and flowing rivers of lava that stretched for miles.
The space was large enough to comfortably hold thousands of dragons in their full, true forms with room to spare.
Massive obsidian pillars rose like ancient trees, and glowing lava lakes lit the interior in a hellish orange glow.
The air was thick with heat, sulfur, and the low, rumbling breaths of sleeping dragons.
Thousands upon thousands of dragons lay sleeping in massive clusters, while others flew lazily through the enormous cavern or lounged in lava pools.
Some were even in humanoid form, tending to structures carved into the inner walls.
Akasha smiled as he scanned each figure passing through his sight.
"Hm?" He quickly noticed something strange. "Are bloodline ranks really this rare... or am I missing something?"
Before him was a gathering of Lesser and Greater ranked Bloodlines, and even the Stars among them were no higher than Greater.
"Maybe it’s connected to the world itself?" Luna remarked.
Though far from all-knowing, she knew enough about the greater world of Pantheos to realize that even the smallest factions usually had Origin or Above Origin star bearers.
Sure, they were rare, but that was when you considered the entire population of the Pantheos verse.
For worlds with countless factions and countless people, it wouldn’t be unreasonable not to expect multiple Origin Star bearers within a single place at the very least.
Hearing this he made a mental note adding to the things he should find out.
Then he activated his innate power.
[Absolute Dreams (Origin)]
HUMMMMM!!!!
In an instant, the entire volcano fell silent.
THUDDDD!!!!!!
BOOOOOOM!!!!!
Every single dragon — whether asleep or awake — froze as their minds were dragged into fractured dream states.
Their bodies dropped where they stood, completely incapacitated.
And from that very moment, Akasha fell silent, and the slaughter began.
He moved through the massive hollowed-out volcano like death itself given form — calm, precise, and utterly efficient.
There were no screams, no cries of pain or confusion.
SHK! SHK! SHK!
Only the soft, rhythmic sound of his scythe slicing through flesh and the quiet, deliberate shifting of his feet as he moved from one dragon to the next.
He didn’t waste a single second longer than needed on any one target.
His purple-and-white scythe flashed in clean, merciless arcs.
A sleeping dragon’s head was separated from its body in one smooth motion.
Before the corpse could even slump, he was already moving to the next — severing wings, splitting torsos, and carving through necks with mechanical grace.
SHK! SHK! SHK!
Blood sprayed in hot, steaming arcs, painting the black stone walls and sizzling against the rivers of lava, but Akasha’s expression never changed.
His bloody eyes remained half-lidded and calm, almost serene, as if he were simply tending to some mundane task.
He flowed between clusters of dragons with terrifying speed.
One moment he was cutting through a group of sleeping dragons in their full forms, the next he was already several meters away, dismantling another.
His movements were so smooth and efficient that it looked less like a massacre and more like a dark, methodical harvest dance.
Within minutes, the once-vast chamber had become a grotesque graveyard.
Thousands of dragon corpses lay in scattered, broken heaps, their blood forming steaming rivers that mixed with the flowing lava.
The air was thick with the metallic scent of gore and burning flesh.
When the last dragon in the volcano fell, Akasha finally stopped.
He stood in the center of the carnage, his baggy black clothes drenched in blood, crimson-white hair plastered to his face, and void black horns glistening under the volcanic light.
Calmly, he raised a blood-covered hand and used his Blood Affinity.
Thick, dark-red liquid rose from the corpses around him, twisting in the air before forming large, dripping letters across the blackened wall:
"Lord Dream did it."
Without another word, he turned and walked out of the volcano, leaving behind nothing but silence, blood, and the chilling message carved in gore.
He then calmly proceeded toward the next volcano.
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