Chapter 178 – Life And Death

In the dome, Dream was sitting down with the girls. They were beginning the advancement.

"Alright. Luna, you first."

"Okay... I choose [Spectral Familiar]."

*Woosh*

When Luna spoke, the mana around her began to fluctuate. Dream watched her closely with his senses.

"Talk to me."

"Uhh, evolution? Species evolution. Wait, Iris..."

*Woosh*

"I didn't mean to!"

Out of nowhere, mana started moving around Iris as well, causing her to be surprised. Dream's brow furrowed.

"What happened?"

"M-my class advancement started! I didn't start it though..."

"Hmm, it might be because of Luna. Just go through it and let me know what happens."

"Uhh, I'm doing the same evolution. It's figuring it out... Fox spirit?"

"Mine says fox spirit too..." (Luna)

"No! We're gonna become ghosts! Ahh! It's happening!"

Iris shouted worriedly as they saw the notifications. And not long after that, both Luna and Iris transformed into their fox forms. 

"Ugh... Everything hurts."

Iris complained as she writhed in pain on the floor. Luna was doing the same. Dream was about to speak up, but not long after they transformed, they suddenly stopped moving.

"Hm? Luna? Iris?"

"..."

Dream called out to them, but got no response. He suddenly had a bad feeling, and if not for the soul connection, he might think they were dead.

Even after a minute though, their bodies kept on sucking in huge amounts of mana. Even the solid mana wasn't spared, and half went to each of them. After those pieces were absorbed though, the mana vortex stopped. 

Moments later, Dream could see the paws of the girls start to disappear. It looked like they were disintegrating, and Dream could sense how they were being targeted by large amounts of mana. 

"What the... Dimensional Analysis."

Confused, Dream activated one of the observation skills under Sophia. When he did, he could sense the souls of the two. 

Around the souls were two forming illusory outlines. Within the outlines, only the paws were visible, and they were slowly being built upon to form the rest of the body. The forming speed matched the destruction speed of the physical bodies.

[No way. Their bodies are becoming 4 dimensional. It's similar to the heart, but at the same time isn't.]

"...I'm really hoping this is supposed to happen."

[They said something about a fox spirit, so they probably really are becoming spiritual beings. And their bodies don't seem to be getting destroyed, only moved into a higher dimension. Let's just wait until the process is over. Then they should get their new class and better skills.]

"...Alright."

Nodding, Dream just got comfortable and kept his eye on them, casting aside his worries. There was nothing he could do anyway, though that didn't stop him from observing the process. It was a good opportunity for research.

.......

14 hours later, Dream was still watching them. 

"Come on... Almost there."

As he observed, he could see their almost fully formed bodies. On the outside, only the ends of their tails were left, and soon, those disappeared as well.

Once everything had been turned spiritual, their bodies glowed bright with their respective colors. After a few minutes when the glow dimmed, both of them had grown another tail, amounting to 6 total.

"Huh. I forgot about that part."

*Poof*

"Luna?"

Dream was startled as a fox appeared in front of him. This wasn't the illusory body, but an actual physical body. It was Luna, and her fur was pearl white with icy blue designs running across it, all of which pulsed with power.

Iris also appeared, and it was the same with her. Her void black fur pulsed with dark red designs, going so far as to raise the ambient temperature a couple hundred degrees.

"Ugh, that sucked."

"Yea..."

"Hey you two."

Dream smiled as the two foxes sat themselves up. After blinking a few times, they looked back at him, then at themselves.

"Oh god, I'm not real. My body... It's here! Hey, we didn't get turned into ghosts!" (Iris)

"*sigh* Thank god." (Luna)

"Hahaha! I still get to eat! Hehe- Ack!"

"Huh?"

As Iris started jumping around in joy, she suddenly tumbled to the floor. Luna also grunted and laid down.

"Guys? What happened?"

"Damn. We just recovered!" (Iris)

"Ugh... It's doing the skill stuff... Wait, blessings?" (Luna)

"Blessings? What about blessings?" 

Dream was startled at her words. He had only heard of how Riddick got a blessing. But now Luna was getting one?

"I'm also getting one. But it hurts!" (Iris)

"Wha... What kind of blessings?"

"Blessing... of the Void!"

Iris shouted out her blessing as she was blasted with waves of pain. Luna was in less pain, but not by much.

"Mine is from the Moon... and the greeks."

"Greeks? Greek gods exist? What the hell..."

"Aahhh!!"

As Dream started pondering, Iris started yelling at the top of her lungs, clearly in lots of pain. After that, she disappeared again, in her place appearing a black cloud. Dream released his influence to take a look at the black cloud.

"This is... destruction mana? But you wield regular mana... Don't tell me it's trying to convert your mana type."

"D-Dream!"

"Yes?"

Luna shouted his name as he contained the mana around Iris. She had also turned back to her illusory form, leaving behind a white icy cloud of mana.

"Our... bond! We're exchanging mana! I can't handle her destruction mana..."

"Seriously?!"

Eyes going wide, Dream concentrated his influence on the two souls.

Sure enough, both girls were exchanging mana. If they both wielded regular mana like before, they would be fine. But Iris's mana was being changed to destruction mana, and it was incredibly harmful to Luna. Not only that, but Luna's mana was passing over to Iris. It was also harming her.

Dream had already known the two types of mana to be mutually destructive. And while he couldn't exactly put his finger on why, it seemed as if the two souls were trying to overtake the other. In fact, both of them were already being weakened as the nature of their soul's turned absolutely opposite. 

This was on top of the fact that their souls were changing. Their skills were evolving, and they couldn't even control their own influence. The two sides entered a battle over their own bond, not out of any intention or malice, but by pure reaction, as if it were a law that they couldn't exist together.

If it went on, Dream wouldn't be surprised if one of them died.

Knowing that things were heading down a very bad path, Dream's perception accelerated, and time seemed to slow. His brain immediately started coming up with solutions.

'They're killing each other. Should we break the bond?'

[I don't know if we can. The bond is actually being strengthened, so much so that they're passing soul strings to each other's nuclei.]

'...We need to divide them somehow. Their powers are opposite.'

[You can control the two types of mana. We just need to find a way in between them.]

'Let's try creating an external barrier and blocking the powers. If that doesn't work, we might have to cut the strings.'

Thinking about it purely objectively, Dream came up with this solution. And not wasting any time, he immediately went into action.

He stood up and put himself in between the two clouds. His influence then went to encompass their souls and the bond between them.

After encompassing the bond, Dream tried to fight the two opposing flows of mana. This actually succeeded, but after observing a little more, he found that the soul strings connected between them were still passing along power, one black, one white.

"Dream, we can't stop it. I don't know what to do..."

As Dream observed, Luna's voice came into his mind. She was scared, not because she was being harmed, but because she knew her power was hurting Iris. She also couldn't do anything about it. The evolution and influx of power prevented her from controlling anything.

"I'm gonna figure it out. Don't worry."

"Are you sure?"

This time, Iris spoke. She was also helpless, but more than anything, she was angry at herself. The lack of control enraged her.

"Yea. It's gonna be alright. I might have to cut the connection though, so you two need to be ready for that."

"If it means this stops, then do it."

"Alright."

Nodding, Dream concentrated back on the bond between them. It was clear what the problem was, and it was only getting worse by the second. Strings were being passed between them to strengthen the bond, but they needed the opposite.

'Guess there's no other option.'

Steeling himself, Dream latched onto the bond. Then, he exerted power.

*Slice!*

"AAHHH!!"

Both girls let out a howl of pain as all the strings were cut. With that though, their mana and powers wouldn't be passed to each other.

'Alright that seemed to... No way.'

Right as he thought it worked, Dream suddenly saw the strings repair the bond. Power continued to be passed between them like before, except this time, they had both been weakened.

"D-Dream. It didn't work..." (Luna)

"I can't stop it! Aghh!" (Iris)

Both girls were struck dumb as well when they saw the reconnection. And while Dream was shocked, he observed some more.

As of now, their powers were reaching each other's nuclei. Dream was sure that the souls were trying to invade each other. They didn't even bother defending themselves as they just attacked with opposing forces.

'Shit.'

[We need a better barrier. Slicing the connection doesn't work as it'll just keep being repaired, so we need to intervene personally.]

'...Do we connect our own strings?'

[No. We'll need to use the Nexus skill and create a junction between their bond. But by doing this, their powers will be redirected to you. It'll allow us to act as the barrier.]

'...That's fine. But if we're going to bring them under Nexus, it's going to be as equals.'

[Of course. I modified it for exactly that. Just say the word.]

'...I really didn't want to do this... But I don't think we have a choice. Do it.'

[Activating Nexus. Luna, Iris. Do you accept the creation of an equal bond between you and Dream?]

Sophia asked Luna and Iris directly, and within that question was a power that would determine whether or not the connection would be made. 

After hearing the question, both girls were about to agree. But after thinking about it for a second, Luna asked her own question.

"If we make the connection, is Dream gonna be hurt?"

[...]

"This connection is between souls. If we connect to his soul, the powers will still conflict..."

"...Luna, I need you to accept it."

"No! If we can't even deal with this, then you can't! Both our powers conflicting with you in the middle would be even worse! It could kill you!"

"I can control it."

"Dream, we know what this power is best. I especially know this new destruction power. It requires a soul you don't have to control it." (Iris)

Iris spoke solemnly. She knew her new destruction mana would obliterate not only other regular mana, but the soul. The mana was loaded with power aimed at destruction itself. Something like that invading Dream's soul would be lethal. 

Dream obviously knew this as well, but he didn't really care. There was a problem, and he was trying to solve it. But with the girls rejecting, he suddenly got very serious.

"I don't care. I'll make it work. All I have to do is divide the to powers."

"But you're making a soul connection. Even if Luna doesn't hurt you, my power will eat away at you."

"Dream, we're sorry. You can't put yourself in the middle of this. We'll... figure it out."

"Figure it out? You'll die in less than an hour if this goes on! You'll only get weaker!"

Dream shouted angrily at them. He knew that things really had gone bad. At this point, it was a matter of life and death. Even now he could see their powers bombarding each others' souls.

"Accept the connection, you two! Let me do this."

"No! You'll be destroyed if that happens!" (Luna)

"No I won't! We're running out of time! Just..."

"Dream, it's okay." (Iris)

"...Don't say that to me. This is serious. You two will die if I don't do something, so let me do it."

"No Dream. We can't do that to you. If we do, then all of us will die." (Luna)

"It's better for you to live..." (Iris)

"...No. Just me? Live? No! I'm not gonna let you die! Not again! This is what I've done all this for! I'm not gonna let a fucking class advancement take you away from me!"

Yelling in pure rage, Dream mustered all the power he could and targetted the girls' souls.

[Creating contract...]

"N-no!" (Iris)

"Dream! Don't do this! Please!" (Luna)

Both girls shouted in despair as he forcefully created the contracts. Unfortunately, they couldn't resist as they couldn't even control their own mana.

Dream tuned out their pleas as he and Sophia created the strings. These strings were inserted into their souls where certain ends spread out between the shell and the nucleus. 

Dream then activated his Emulator skill which was used to read string data. With it, he went over and cut certain strings of both the nucleus and the skills of the girls. He also cut the string of their bond. Anywhere that the power stemmed from, Dream made sure to make connections. 

Dream gritted his teeth with each cut. He knew how excruciating the pain was, and to inflict that on the girls hurt him. But he did it anyway. It was necessary. 

After a few minutes, the strings had been cut, and the contract connections had been made. This didn't stop the girls' souls from battling each other. Instead, the battlefield was just moved to a different location.

That location was Dream's own soul.

There was no direct connection between their souls with strings, so the powers were seemingly transmitted across the void, and they popped out within the confines of the Nexus skill. Immediately after the contracts were formed, they infiltrated the skill and started spreading across the strings. 

Dream watched as some strings turned black and some turned white. They made contact and battled each other on some strings, but they also spread out to try and take over more ground like a parasite. 

Dream had to put his all into keeping the strings that the forces opposed each other on didn't break. At first it wasn't difficult, but it gradually became harder as the powers spread out. Iris's power was especially nasty as all the strings it covered were gradually corroded and destroyed. And while Luna's power didn't destroy him, it instead did the opposite and overloaded them. 

He was quickly racked with waves of pain. Not as bad as directly breaking strings, but still not good. He sent out his influence and energy to stabilize everything.

[...This is kind of bad.]

'How bad?'

[Well... We can't pull the powers apart as they'll just find another way to attack each other again, one way includes going back to the girls' souls. But if we let them battle it out, your soul will be gradually destroyed.]

'So we need to give them a battleground in which I can control them both.'

[Or you need to find a way to mix them without them destroying each other.]

'How am I supposed to mix opposites?'

[Find similarities.]

'...Well, my Arcana skill can control both energies... And if one thing can control both energies... then there's a similarity between the two. So the Arcana skill is key here. We need to find what parts of the skill control each energy. Can we activate only certain parts of the Arcana skill instead of the whole thing?'

[We can. The Arcana skill is comprised of many different strings. We just need to activate individual strings.]

'Then we're gonna do that. And quickly. I don't have much time.'