Chapter 124: A Dream [2]: The Mecha Hero

BOOM!

Another explosion went off as Eli’s mecha formed a plasma Cannon and blasted a group of monsters trying to overrun him.

"You seem to be having fun," a voice came from the mecha’s shoulder, pulling his attention towards it.

"Big brother?" Eli asked, looking at the man in a suit with white hair on his head. "What are you doing in my dream?"

"It seems we’ve been trapped in the same dream," Zero said, sitting on the Mecha’s shoulder with crossed legs, "by a Villain."

"Does that mean we’re in danger?" Eli asked, his mecha looking towards the city where more monsters were.

"Not really," Zero said, shaking his head. "You’ll just wake up if defeated by the monsters, but the villain will have access to your subconscious mind."

"Subconscious?" Eli frowned and placed a hand on his chin. "What’s that?"

Zero chuckled at his little brother’s question. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

"Your subconscious mind is the part of your mind that stores things you aren’t actively thinking about," he explained. "Your memories, feelings, instincts, fears... things like that."

"Oh," Eli nodded slowly. "Then why does the villain want our memories?"

"He’s looking for me." Zero stood up and stretched. "I kinda caused a bit of trouble for them."

"I see," Eli muttered. "Then that means he’ll be able to find big brother if the monsters defeat me or big sis?"

"Yup," Zero nodded, "but I’ll find a way to break us out of here before that happens."

"Until then," the hitman looked at the Mecha’s head, inside of which his little brother was, "be a hero and save as many people as you can, will you?"

"Yes, big brother!" Eli said, and the next second, mechanical wings appeared on the Mecha’s back as it lifted itself into the air.

"Alright then," Zero said, looking at the city below. "I’ll leave the safety of the people to you, mecha hero."

With that, the hitman jumped off the mecha, Eli watching him with sparkly eyes as gravity took him.

"Don’t worry, big brother." The mecha’s eyes seemed to glow brighter. "I’ll protect everyone!"

BOOM!

The Mecha then blasted off in a random direction, towards a part of the city that was overrun by monsters.

Monsters filled the streets, chasing people who were desperately trying to escape.

Eli immediately flew toward the nearest group. "Hang on!"

"Found you, Zeeerrrooo!!" A monster suddenly jumped towards the group, but before it could reach them, the Mecha swung its plasma sword, turning the monster into ash.

"Do not worry, citizens," Eli said in the most heroic voice he could conjure, "Mecha man is here..."

The Mecha made a pose with both its hands at its sides, and its chest puffed out. The clouds gave way to the sunlight, which pointed directly at him, adding to the heroic atmosphere.

One of the civilians interrupted his moment and pointed behind him, "M-more of them!"

Eli turned around and noticed a wave of monsters quickly approaching, causing him to grin. "I’ll protect you."

The mecha extended its arm, transforming it into a cannon, which quickly charged up a blue beam, and the next second,

BOOM!

****

Zero smiled as he heard the explosion go off, realizing that Eli was indeed having fun.

"Still," with both hands in his pockets as he continued through the city, "I do need to find the anchor."

Usually, for the sleepy man’s Factor to take hold of everyone at the same time, he needed an anchor to hold the dream realm together.

He usually wouldn’t use himself as an anchor since that’d be too obvious, but the hitman didn’t completely discard that idea.

"Found you Zeeerrrooo," the voices of the monsters pulled him from his thoughts, causing him to look ahead.

But instead of him, the monsters seemed to be focused on someone else....

Radiance.

***

Radiance had a frown on her face as she looked at the monsters before her.

She didn’t know where or how they came to be, but she was certain that this was a villain attack.

Perhaps from the Ouroborus?

After all, they were the only ones that could create attacks on this scale, but if that were the case, what was their goal?

Well, that wasn’t hard to figure out. After all, all the monsters seemed to be looking for Zero, but what did the villain group want with the mercenary?

"Need help?" A voice came from behind her, but she paid no mind to it; instead, she extended her hand and encased the monsters in golden spheres before clenching her hand.

The next second, they exploded into a puddle and slowly disappeared.

"Guess not," the person spoke up again, and Radiance finally turned to him.

"What did you do, Zero?" She asked, looking at the hitman with a dark expression on her face.

She seemed truly angry, but that was because she hadn’t realized that this was a dream just yet, and she was so focused on saving everyone.

Radiance had watched these beasts kill people that she was too late to rescue, and now that the cause of all deaths was before her,

She so very much wanted to tear him apart.

Before she realized it, multiple spears made of hard light appeared around her and before Zero had the chance to explain anything,

BOOM!

The spears landed where he was, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Did that calm you down?" Zero asked, and Radiance turned around, noticing that he was on the opposite side of the attack.

The hitman knew that she didn’t exactly intend to kill him; she would simply stop light from reaching his eyes and trap him in the golden bubbles earlier.

She simply wanted to let off some steam...and from the looks of it, Radiance was far from satisfied.

There were still multiple spears around her, ones which she launched at him, and once again, he managed to dodge.

This time, though, he quickly put up his sheathed katana just in time to block a sword, but the force launched him into a building,

BOOM!

"...."

The hitman lay on the rubble with a blank expression on his face as he muttered, "This’ll take a while."