Chapter 276 – Total War

After Dream made the deal with Cavra, he decided that there wasn't much of a reason to stick around and waste time. He had the word of the most powerful man on this planet. That was enough. 

So he needed to make preparations. Dream reappeared in the flagship while Cavra disappeared. 

Melody looked at Dream weirdly.

"What was that?"

"I made a deal with Cavra."

"That old man?"

"Yea. Once I show him some soldiers, he'll bring us to the primary world. Then I'll become the Blood Drop Clan's defense contractor."

"...I'm starting to think you're just an arms dealer now."

"It's a great way to get and do what I want. Anyway, because I have all I need from that city, there's no reason for us to stay. How about we go and visit Earth?"

Dream spoke as he waved his hand, a portal appearing next to him. Melody's eyes went wide.

"Earth? Really?! Can we actually go back?"

"Sure. The portal is still there, and I made sure it would act as an anchor that I could return to. It'll be no problem."

"Then let's go! I want to see mom."

"Alright."

Dream smiled as Melody jumped into the portal. Then, he looked around, seeing Vela and Patriarch Star.

He thought for a second, scratching his chin. 

"...I have a world that's under my control, a planet right near this one with nobody on it. I'm going to be inviting the people of my homeworld there, but I want a powerful force to reside there as well. How about moving in? You'll get all the resources of the planet as well as my support. And I plan on getting a lot from the Blood Drop Clan, so they could help you as well. Of course, you'll be my vassals and things aren't free, but you'll gain astronomical power and a practically guaranteed place in the universe. How about it?"

"..."

Everyone was stunned hearing Dream's words. At first Patriarch Star didn't think much of the absurd offer, but when he thought a bit more deeply, he realized it wasn't something not to seriously consider. 

After seeing Dream these past few hours, especially his display when fighting Cavra, a known demigod, he was convinced that Dream was absolutely an unfathomable powerhouse. Now, he had seen Tersa, a Terra Core, and knew Dream had a planet all to himself. It was completely empty, all that space and all those resources just waiting to be claimed. And it had Dream as its master. 

Dream was going to work with the Blood Drop Clan? And they would be the beneficiaries? There was so much to gain, and the price for it was a bit of isolation. Even then, Patriarch Star knew that Dream wasn't going to just be idle. There would be many people and powerhouses to make deals with and fight. They would have their work cut out for them. 

"...We will seriously consider it."

He eventually spoke those words. It wasn't a decision he could make on the spot, but it wasn't something he would disregard in the slightest. He would need to discuss this with everyone, including the people of his clan. 

"Alright. I'm going to be leaving today, but Tersa and Aegis will remain here. In the time I'm gone, you will be allowed to visit the planet and receive information about it. Just know that the migration will be handled by my bots, so there won't be much hassle on your part. Hell, I could just lift the landmass that your territory covers and transplant it onto my planet. Either way, you just need to say yes or no. And while there's not a major rush, I won't be here forever. Wherever I go, my planet will likely go with me. If I leave, that's it."

"I understand."

"Mm. Then I'm off. Aegis, help them out."

"Of course, my lord."

Aegis suddenly appeared beside Dream, bowing at the waist. Dream nodded before entering the portal, and Patriarch Star went on to discuss things with Aegis. 

...........

After returning to Tersa Prime, Tersa was quick to join up with Dream. After he left her with a small list of things to do, he made his way to a certain mountain top. 

Melody was waiting there. After nodding at her excited self, Dream waved his hand. Some nanites streamed from the ground and formed a metal portal. Then, Dream exposed his cosmic form and enchanted the portal. Melody didn't see much when he enchanted it, and his power didn't seem all that powerful. 

When she saw the image that the portal produced though, she got giddy. She could see Earth. 

"Go ahead."

"Just like that?"

"Yup."

"Sweet!"

With a clap, Melody jumped through. She didn't even experience a shuttle through the void. She just appeared outside Earth. 

Dream also walked through, instantly appearing in Earth's orbit. He was on top of his borg cube that the original portal was on.

[Teleporting with an anchor is so much easier.]

Sophia sighed a bit. Dream didn't have an anchor when leaving the outer cosmos, needing to blindly shoot through the chaotic void. Now, because he had the portal to use as an exit, he could instantly create a channel between the two. 

But that wasn't all though. The phenomena Dream caused when he connected the two portals wasn't ordinary teleportation. 

Returning to his physical form, Dream sighed at Earth.

"I'm now able to do what Corvatsch once did. He built a portal that went from Earth to the Andromeda galaxy, one that had no separation between the two spaces. Now that I look back, the distance between here and there is so short..."

Considering Dream could teleport to the Andromeda galaxy with but a thought now, and considering how getting to the inner universe took many days of shuttling through the void, the distance to Andromeda was really nothing more than a short hop away. He remembered being completely unable to comprehend Corvatsch's ability to connect the two with a portal back then. 

And now, he could make the same portal from the inner cosmos to Earth. 

"That isn't to say that I'm more powerful than Corvatsch though. Still. I've come a long way."

[Melody is already on the surface and hugging your parents.]

"That was fast. I guess she does know how to manipulate Aether now."

Dream chucked. But he didn't immediately teleport over. The reason was due to the massive structures around Earth. 

There were 6 huge gates of pure light that floated in Earth's orbit. From these gates descended golden roads, and each road was anchored to a different continent. 

Dream could detect 37 billion souls on Earth at this moment, meaning there had been a truly astronomical change since he left. There were also several megastructures on and around Earth, representing the huge jump in technological development. 

At the very least, it seemed like Earth developed in a good way since he left. 

"Archangel Giros."

At that moment, Dream spoke a name. It took several seconds, but a bright figure came flying over afterward. It was Giros, the one who Dream allowed to open the gates to the inner universe when he left. 

"So you've returned!"

Giros stopped in front of Dream, dressed in the same white robes and carrying the same golden book in his hands. 

Seeing Giros, Dream tilted his head. Giros, despite being unable to sense the slightest aura from Dream, felt like his entire being was seen through. 

"A class 5 with 8 soul seas. You're powerful for a class 5, but it's unfortunate that Earth initially only had such a character watching it."

"There are many worlds in the outer cosmos that we don't even know about. We can't send powerful people to every single one. While we might have the numbers to do so, not many are willing."

"True."

"On another note, you've become... unfathomable."

Giros spoke with a wry chuckle. When he and Dream first met, Giros was more powerful and Dream had been wary and defensive. Then, when Dream left, he had reached a level that Giros could still see, albeit not much of. 

Now, Giros could sense nothing. Dream was nothing more than blood and flesh. There was no doubt that he had reached a realm Giros couldn't comprehend. 

Dream revealed a small smile. He looked back at Earth. 

"So what happened?"

"Each of those gates leads to a secondary world within Heaven's territory. Since they were opened, there had been great change. I must say, despite Earth not having the sheer population of Supers, its technology has allowed it to become a leading economic power. The convenience of science is truly attractive to even the most powerful leaders of each world."

"I'm glad the students I taught were able to prosper. But there's been a change of plans, Giros. I'm going to be taking Earth into the inner universe."

"...Taking it?"

"Yes."

Dream nodded simply. Giros was a bit baffled. 

"...So what do you..."

"I plan on opening a portal and sending Earth through it. You see, I came to meet a Terra Core, and now I'm the master of a secondary world. I want to connect Earth to this world. That requires me to move the planet. To do this, I actually need you to do one thing."

"What's that?"

"Keep anybody from interfering. Along with Earth, I think I'm going to move those gates of light. It'll require a little magical reconfiguration, but it's not something I can't solve. I just need to you keep anybody from disturbing me. If anybody does want to cause problems, then we might just become hostile. And I'd hate to isolate Earth when it just started making new friends."

"..."

"Anyway, I better get started. This might take a while."

Saying that, Dream's body suddenly changed. Giros felt his body and soul momentarily freeze as Dream's cosmic form revealed itself. 

The space within 40 miles of Dream seemed to be isolated from the universe, and Giros felt a distinct inability to resist the power that surrounded him. His soul couldn't even call upon his own mana pool. More than that, it almost seemed like his soul seas were going to be taken by Dream's power. He felt like he could die at any instant. 

While Giros felt suffocated, Dream looked back at the portal he came through. Reaching out his hand, the energy around the portal began to spike. The chaotic void was fully exposed before the two locations were connected, and it began to expand, the pieces of the portal basically disintegrating. 

The portal quickly exploded in size, reached 2000 miles in diameter in but a minute, but it slowed there. Through the portal one could see the massive planet known as Tersa Prime. Compared to it, Earth looked like a tiny marble. 

Of course, the portal wasn't yet big enough to move Earth through it. Dream wasn't planning on breaking Earth apart or migrating all its people. To keep things simple, he just wanted to move the planet. To do that, he needed to make the portal big enough for it to slip through. 

But as Dream expanded the portal to around 4000 miles wide, he encountered great resistance. 

"Hm... Sophia."

[On it.]

Sophia acted at that moment. Then, the portal expanded another thousand miles, reaching 5000 miles wide. After that though, the space within the portal began to crack, exposing the chaotic void. The spatial turbulence would be enough to rend Earth into pieces. 

Naturally, to maintain the portal required massive power, more power than Dream had ever output in his entire life. Dream felt his energy reserves be sucked away like water down a drain. But that was when he discovered something. 

At some point, his energy ceased to decrease. It stopped when his energy was about halfway drained. From then on, despite outputting so much power continuously, it never diminished. He never got tired, like an eternal river just pouring out energy. 

"...Conceptual power."

Dream quickly figured out what this was. 

"My soul is directly connected to the concepts now. The concepts are endless, as per their nature."

[So your soul receives endless energy.]

"...My energy is literally limitless. This is what it means to be blessed by a concept!"

Dream got excited as he felt the unending river of power flow through him. Because he was now blessed by the concepts, he recieved conceptual power. At first, Dream didn't know how exactly this conceptual power benefitted him. Now he knew. 

"Depending on my comprehension of the concept, I receive a larger share of its power. And this power is endless. Half of my energy pool is now unlimited, meaning I can't run out of power no matter how long I use it. While it has a certain limit on the rate of energy output, I can maintain that rate until the end of time. My soul isn't hurt either. Ah, I see now!"

He suddenly shook, and his focus was directed to his two concepts. 

Within the concept of Physical Reality, Dream's rock shook a bit. It had initially only been a few feet tall, a mere boulder in the grass. 

Normally, the boulder would grow, becoming a mountain of knowledge. But instead, Dream, who had been laying down lazily on the boulder, was suddenly blown into the air.

His body flew upward, and from within the boulder, a tree grew, splitting the rock in two. The tree was metallic, like iron, and it grew until it was 500 meters tall. 

After slamming into the ground, Dream looked upward at the tree that now blotted out the light from the center of the world. He stood, walking over to the tree's trunk and touching the smooth metal surface. 

After that though, he suddenly felt the entirety of the tree. Its body had grown 500 meters upward, but its roots had grown even more. Dream could feel how they grew a mile deep, piercing to the edge of the inverted world and then spreading outward. 

And he could feel the result of this growth. Dream now felt control over this area of the world. 

"...I'm taking control of the concept."

He felt a small revelation

At the same time, in the concept of Ethereal Force.

Dream had been floated around 100 miles deep, fluctuating up and down 50 miles in order to comprehend the forces around him. He kept half his body in the ocean of chaotic Runa, and the other half in the ocean of orderly Mana. 

But then, his cosmic form shook. The ocean of mana all around him that was always turbulent and chaotic, suddenly slowed to a crawl. A domain was formed around Dream, one of serenity and control. It was as if the ocean was freezing around him. 

Like the metal tree, Dream knew that with his comprehension, he was taking control of the concept. This wasn't simply understanding it. It was becoming one with it. Dream was making it his, and the concept allowed this. 

After this, Dream returned to reality. Suddenly, the previously turbulent portal was stabilized. Dream looked around, pulling out his pocket watch. 

[20 days passed.]

Sophia spoke. It felt like an instant, but this epiphany of Dream's took 20 days. 

It was at this time that Dream remembered something. 

Dream's class 5 advancement was anything other than ordinary. But this wasn't the only unordinary thing he did. Even before then, Dream had been carried into the conceptual realm. At that time, he left two marks on two concepts. 

It didn't seem like much, but it represented one crucial detail. The concepts had reached out to Dream, not the other way around. 

As Dream understood it, once one reached class 6, they would become aware of concepts. At that time, they could work to become blessed by the concepts. Once they reached a certain level of comprehension, they would be blessed, becoming a demigod. After that, they continued to work on comprehending the concepts and borrowing their power. 

But Dream had been approached by the concepts. They came to him desiring his existence and basically forced him to leave marks on them. When he reached the right level of power, he was accepted by them as a blank slate. Now, he was realizing that he worked on different rules. He wasn't just growing his comprehension. He wasn't growing his mountain of knowledge or swimming deeper into the ocean of profundity. 

He was taking the power of the concepts as his own. Dream could feel his bond with the concept grow.

It was a fundamentally different kind of power. 

At this point though, Dream frowned. Suddenly, both his forms within his concepts became transparent, like glass sculptures. He did this on purpose.

The next moment, 6 people appeared around Dream's metal tree within the concept of Physical Reality. They were the 6 residents of this concept. 

Ziji looked at Dream, then the tree. At the same time, the giant in the center of the world, Omega, actually stood on top of his mountain. His overbearing figure peered down at Dream from up high, his eyes narrowed. 

"...Do you realize what you've done?"

Ziji spoke slowly. When Dream first came here, Ziji was a little 14 year old boy. Now, he was at least 20, his body much more mature, as was his voice and demeanor. 

Dream didn't respond, although he knew the answer. 

What did it mean to not just comprehend a concept, but become the master of its power. Although it was a tiny amount, Dream now had absolute dominion over a portion of this concept's power. This was a portion nobody else would be able to take from him or comprehend unless he allowed it. 

In short, Dream was taking something that should be shared by all of them. He was placing limits on their future growth within this concept. This was no different from making him their enemy. 

But there was more to this than Dream knew. 

"It looks like another Seeker has been born. And... there's been some success."

Suddenly, it was Kevin who spoke. He was a miner and belonged to the Wanderer faction. 

Hearing his words, Dream was a bit shocked. Nobody knew who he was. How could he guess he was a Seeker?

"...Why do you say that?"

"Because it's impossible to dominate a portion of a concept!"

Next, it was Asmodeus who yelled. His tone was angry, but his face was smiling. It was unknown if he was mad or excited, maybe both. 

He continued. 

"It is an immutable law of the universe! Concepts do not give their power to anyone who hasn't fully comprehended them! Do you know how to become a god?"

"No."

"It is by making a concept your own! When you comprehend the entirety of a concept, it can no longer resist you. Therefore, you are capable of dominating it, making it yours! You would have full control over the concept and all its domains, attaining its fullest power and becoming a god!"

"But you didn't do that. You took control over only a tiny portion. This is impossible. At least, it's impossible under the System. But if you're outside of it..."

This time, the steampunk lady Quanta chimed in. She looked at Dream with a complicated gaze. 

And Dream suddenly understood the situation. 

"Only Seekers who are created under the Wanderer System are capable of doing what is impossible under the true System. So you're a Wanderer, a Seeker. And not just any Seeker, but a successful one. There are only three others who have done what you did... and two of them are dead. The gods personally cut them down for infringing on the laws of the universe."

Ziji smiled as he spoke these words, as if recollecting a good story. 

Then, the world suddenly shook. Omega, a being who had never moved from his mountain, suddenly jumped down. He landed with an earth shattering pound, taking only a few steps to reach Dream. 

By the time he was in front of Dream, Omega had shrunk down to the size of an ordinary man. 

Now, everyone within this concept had gathered. They all looked between each other. Asmodeus began to cackle, Ziji and Disalya began to frown, and Kevin was solemn. Omega stared at Dream before raising his arm, a spear appearing in it. 

"...You have declared war against the System and all its subjects. Heaven will face a great schism, a minority standing against the coming war. Hell shall rampage for and against the new Order. The Wanderers will protect you. The Immortals will choose a side when they are forced to. With a single action, you have thrown the universe into total war. The gods shall emerge, and they will hunt you down. For you now represent the impossible, a new law that will spread like an infection until it is killed at the root. Even the concepts will react to this..."

Omega's words drifted. Then, the spear he was holding suddenly flipped. He pointed the shaft toward Dream.

"This is a chance for some. I am the Spear of Calamity, otherwise known as Vursoid, a god of the concept of the Spear and a demigod of Physical Reality. I am an Asura who has caused stars to go supernova with a single thrust of my spear. Now, should you find me, I will protect you from the upcoming calamity that will befall you. I wish to follow the impossible, as I always have. Take my spear, and you will know how to find me."

He beckoned with a smile. At the same time, his body began to change. He went from a normal man dressed in old clothes to a primeval warrior dressed in dark, glorious armor. He had a sharp face and gave off an absolute aura, that which Dream had never felt before. It was the aura of a god. 

"Vursoid! So it's you!"

Suddenly, Ziji's eyes went wide. 

"Vursoid, you know what siding with this person will do. Regardless of my feelings on the matter, Heaven will do as you said. Many will seek to kill him, a natural consequence of the Law being broken. And to side with him will put all the Asura clans at war with Heaven, even Hell. You will survive, but not for long."

"Maybe. But... I have a feeling."

"A god having premonitions about a Seeker... The last three Universal Wars ended in their failure. Even gods fell. You think this one will be different?"

"No. This one may very well fail too. But I follow the impossible. The Asuras will gather and wage war on his behalf, all in order to bring about the impossible. If we fail, then we will return to dust as we all inevitably do. If we succeed... then we shall grow higher than any other has before. Such is Conflict, a rule that drives all living beings to growth and ruin. Asuras embody this concept to their core."

Vursoid spoke with fervor, as if his word were law. And Dream agreed. The words he spoke at the end sounded familiar. 

And because of that, Dream didn't hesitate. He grabbed the spear, and information was transmitted to both of them. 

The onlookers all glanced at each other. They knew that from this moment forward, the universe was about to be flipped on its head.