Chapter 284: The Nightmare From Elsewhere (2)

"Every time I see this fellow," General Salvator muttered as he finally found himself able to move.

"He seems to make a lasting impression..."

From the moment Liliana had brought her father and his companions into Dream Land, they had been frozen in place, caught in the middle of everything unfolding around them.

It was something even Liliana hadn’t anticipated, but it was simply a function of the Dream Land tokens—an ironic twist that only fueled Akasha’s frustration.

Frustration aimed squarely at himself.

He had created the Dream Land token with the basic functions of summoning him and allowing a return to Dream Land. However, if anyone accidentally slipped through the portal, they would find themselves frozen, able to do nothing but watch.

Yet, after everything that had happened—though he didn’t know all the details—what was the point of such protective measures if an invasion could still occur?

"Maybe that’s an understatement," Jovian said with a shake of his head, as they all stood suspended in the void just above the canopy of the Golden Apple Tree.

The last time General Salvatore had even caught sight of Akasha was back in the Land of Yomi, when he announced the end of the Great Severance War.

Yet to Jovian, who knew nothing of those events firsthand, Akasha’s feats seemed far more outrageous than just a "lasting impression."

Luna and Yume stood at the center, arms linked, and shoulders pressed together, the pair responsible for shifting everyone from their original positions.

Jovian lingered off to one side, maintaining a quiet presence, while Harlan followed a step behind Liliana.

Melissa, Jack, Selia, and the other companions of Jovian remained close at his side. Across the way, General Salvatore stood with his own group of companions, their stance unified and deliberate.

And they all had their attention on the aftermath of Akasha’s arrival.

Below them lay Dream Land in its usual beauty, but beyond that familiar sight...

The oasis looked as though it had been swallowed by the dead.

Bodies were stacked so high that the ground itself was barely visible.

Masked humans piled along the slopes and ridges that rose above the lower gardens, their brown hair matted and darkened, eyes staring wide into the distance, mouths frozen in the remnants of broken smiles.

In this moment, aside from Luna and Yume, no other person could find the words to express their shock.

They could only stand there in silence, and the longer their eyes remained fixed on the scene, the stranger it became.

The blood that had been pouring from the sky moments before began to rise, as if drawn upward by some unseen force, drifting slowly back into the clouds above.

It left the waterfalls first, the red thinning out of clear water until the falls ran like new again.

It passed over the grass first, leaving it untouched, and moved on to the bodies, saving them for last.

"Well... I suppose," Harlan said, sensing that with this change, things were finally drawing to a close.

His voice was steady, yet still held the rough edge of someone who had seen his ancestors die and hadn’t found a way to place that loss anywhere useful.

"We’ll all be brought up to speed on what’s really going on."

At his words, Luna chuckled as she nodded.

"Indeed."

----

Beyond the looming portal still drifting in the void of Dream Land toward the Smiling Court Pantheon’s stronghold, the other side had already fallen silent.

The entire place was covered in ice.

Corridors, courtyards, and even the very air of the void were sealed beneath a layer of frost so absolute that every Masked Human in the stronghold stood as a statue, brown hair frozen mid-flow, brown eyes wide and lifeless behind the ice.

Deeper in those halls, Melvin walked with a posture that did not match the work behind him.

An entire pantheon’s worth of beings lay in eternal ice, and he moved as if he were only following a path he had already accepted, shoulders even, pace unhurried.

For now, he wasn’t on the hunt... though that could still change.

Back when he’d been cutting down the Masked Humans, a strange black essence had appeared, growing thicker with each kill.

Now, a lone pitch-black petal floated ahead of him, as it came from a flower that didn’t belong in light, guiding him forward at an unhurried pace, turning down paths before he even reached them.

"Hmm, is this leading to a treasure or something?" He muttered as there was nothing else he could think of in this moment.

----

Not long after, the halls opened into a garden held in low light.

Pale flowers rested against the dark stone, while still water filled the shallow channels.

As he stepped into the garden, a path took shape down the center, the stones aligning in a straight line that led directly to an altar.

And there she was... the Death Siren, stolen by the Smiling God from Loreua ages ago, now suspended in chains.

She was beautiful beyond anything ordinary, every curve and contour bound by darkness that tore into her without quite breaking skin.

Seated beside her, looking directly at Melvin, was a woman the Smiling God loved all too well.

With her pale skin, deep abyssal black eyes, and long black hair that tumbled past her shoulders, refusing to the garden’s gentle breeze, she smiled as though his arrival had been anticipated all along.

"You’ve finally arrived.... Melvin Blackwood." She said, and the words made him stop instantly.

HUMMMMM!!!!!

In that moment, frost began to pour out of him, and the garden started to freeze over.

At the same time, his hand was already adjusting the Dreamer’s Mask onto his face.

SNAP!

HUMMMMM!!!!

THUD!!!!

Before Melvin could even finish adjusting the Dreamer’s Mask onto his face, the Empress snapped her fingers, and in the next moment a deep surge of a pitch-black essence erupted solely around Melvin.

In the next moment, his knee slammed into the garden path, hard enough to crack the frost he’d just laid down.

It wasn’t from any overwhelming pressure either... no, it was something far deadlier.

The instant his knee hit the ground, Melvin’s vitality drained away in one long pull, like a hand had reached into his blood and drawn it out.

And before the eyes of the Empress, he began to wither rapidly.

His shoulders folded and his breath shortened into something thin that would not fill his chest. The mask stayed half-turned against his fingers, the edge of it biting his skin, and no amount of force would finish the motion that had always answered him before.

The Empress rose from the altar’s side, moving toward him with that same calm smile. Her steps were unhurried and silent, her dark, fathomless eyes never leaving his face, as if gauging just how much of him was still there.

"Oh," she said, lifting one of her pale hands and playfully biting her finger. "You’re... quite handsome, Melvin~"

"Who... are you?" Melvin asked, struggling to raise his head as he continued to wither.

She replied without revealing more than she intended, her smile unbroken, the bitten finger still poised between them.

"Well, I am the one you’ve been seeking, little Melvin."

"I am Death."