Dreamscape, the Forest.
Within the boundless forest, beneath the canopy that blocked all sunlight, an ancient, long-lasting roar echoed endlessly. Countless Dreamscape creatures panicked, fleeing from the sudden and immense presence.
At the source of this roar, the giant dragon that had emerged from the portal unfurled its wings, soaring over the unfamiliar forestland. Immediately upon entering, the dragon fixed its piercing golden eyes upon its prey—the monstrous False Moth desperately fleeing in panic.
Against the dragon’s powerful wings, the False Moth appeared weak and vulnerable. It stood no chance of escaping its deadly predator. In just an instant, the dragon overtook it, gripping the False Moth tightly in its powerful claws. Helplessly crushed by the dragon’s overwhelming force, the False Moth plummeted from the sky, crashing violently into the ground. The Dream Cocoons loosely attached to its abdomen scattered under the impact. The False Moth twisted and writhed in desperate struggle—had it possessed a mouth, it would have unleashed a horrific scream.
"Danger! Pain…The Moth is gravely wounded…It is suffering…I suffer too…"
"We must flee quickly…"
"Our bodies are breaking…pain spreading…why is the Dragon Lord of Hamelin here?! Who exactly was inside that carriage?!"
Beneath Navaha, in the underground ritual chamber, the Blackdream cultists linked to the False Moth shrieked in agony the moment the False Moth was slammed into the ground. Their previously meditative poses shattered instantly.
Unable to vocalize its own pain, the False Moth’s anguish erupted through the cultists. They collapsed, screaming and thrashing in unbearable agony. Those most deeply connected, like Garcia, even began weeping blood. The weight of the dragon pressing upon the False Moth felt as if it was upon their own bodies.
"No…we must resist…must escape…cannot simply wait for death…"Garcia shouted desperately through her bloody tears, rallying the Blackdream members’ spirits to launch a counterattack.
In the dreamscape, silver light enveloped the False Moth, its form shifting into misty indistinctness, allowing it to slip free from the dragon’s grasp.
This was the False Moth’s method of temporarily leaning toward reality to weaken its presence in the Dreamscape—a tactic similar to its earlier disappearance from reality into dreams. Yet, unlike before, the False Moth couldn’t fully materialize into reality.
Though existing simultaneously in both realms, it was fundamentally a creature of dreams—solid in dreams but mere projection in reality. Thus, it could fully vanish from reality but could never entirely vanish from the dreamscape. Its current attempt only rendered its dream-form temporarily indistinct, sufficient merely to escape the dragon’s grip.
Freed from immediate danger, the misty False Moth swiftly circled behind the dragon and regained clarity. From behind, countless tentacles erupted, coiling around the dragon’s massive body in an attempt to constrict and immobilize it. Several tentacles wrapped around the dragon’s long neck, attempting to choke and break it. It appeared as though giant serpents were trying to strangle the dragon.
Yet, how could these soft, writhing tendrils ever overcome the dragon’s armored scales and razor-sharp spines? As the tentacles tightened, they were torn and shredded against the dragon’s formidable spikes, causing renewed cries of pain from the Blackdream cultists below.
Ignoring the ineffective strangulation, the dragon calmly turned around, locked its golden gaze on the False Moth, and lunged forward, jaws wide open. With a ferocious bite, it seized the tentacles entangling its body and violently pulled, hurling the False Moth onto the ground once again. The dragon then stomped fiercely onto the Moth’s abdomen, pinning it firmly.
The False Moth struggled uselessly beneath the dragon’s weight. Without hesitation, the dragon began dismantling its prey, tearing off tentacles and wings with claws and teeth, gouging huge wounds in its body.
This was an utterly one-sided slaughter. The False Moth’s fragile exoskeleton and soft limbs provided no resistance against the dragon’s overwhelming power. Helpless under relentless assault, the Blackdream cultists writhed and screamed in anguish. Some succumbed, collapsing unconscious from the intense psychic backlash. Their collective will utterly shattered, the False Moth became completely defenseless.
Never had they anticipated that the distant Dragon Lord of Hamelin from the Dreamscape would suddenly appear here. Although prematurely hatched, the False Moth possessed immense power in both reality and dreams. Its powerful hypnotic waves, abundant spirituality reserves, tricky incorporeality, and cunning realm-crossing abilities allowed it to easily handle several White Ash-rank Beyonders. Even facing a Crimson-rank Beyonder, it wouldn’t be defenseless. Within the dreamscape, deprived of typical mystical abilities, the False Moth’s massive form would dominate most dream creatures and dream mimicry of Beyonders.
Yet tragically for the False Moth, the Dragon Lord of Hamelin was one of the rare beings whose dream-form surpassed even its own.
Pinned to the ground, the False Moth thrashed helplessly under the dragon’s brutal attack. Blackdream cultists could not understand how their beloved Moth, an entity inherently superior in the Dreamscape, had lost its home advantage.
In desperation, the False Moth launched a final, frantic assault. The countless irregular eyes on its head burst forth with beams of silver light at close range, striking the dragon directly. Yet these tiny beams failed to penetrate the dragon’s scales, harmlessly ricocheting off.
Seemingly angered by the False Moth’s resistance, the dragon roared, forcefully pressing down on the False Moth’s head with its wing-claws. Then, aiming its massive jaws directly at the False Moth beneath, it uttered ancient and powerful words in a booming voice.
"!!"
A sound akin to thunder erupted through the forest. Ancient words from another era exploded forth as an invisible force from the dragon’s maw, enveloping the False Moth. Under the overwhelming impact, the already damaged body of the False Moth completely shattered.
Boom!!
The powerful shockwave tore through the ground beneath them, erupting outward like an enormous explosion. Soil and stones were blasted into the air, spreading rapidly and leaving a crater spanning twenty to thirty meters. Nearby towering trees creaked and swayed dangerously, and the incredible noise echoed far into the distance.
As the dust gradually settled, what remained was the dragon circling in the sky above and a massive crater below. At the bottom of this vast crater, the False Moth was completely gone, replaced by countless purple and silver specks of light, almost filling the entire base.
Observing the scene, the dragon descended cautiously, touching these glowing particles with its tail. Determining there was no immediate danger, it landed fully amidst the fading lights.
The glowing particles began to undergo peculiar transformations. Some merged together into strange, white, cocoon-like orbs before disappearing entirely. Other particles drifted upwards slowly and vanished without forming cocoons. Ultimately, these glowing specks gradually faded away.
Unconcerned with these lights, the dragon’s curiosity was drawn to several small, floating, luminous blue bubbles hovering in midair, popping continuously as if about to vanish completely. The dragon seemed more familiar with these tiny bubbles, gently touching them with its tail and absorbing the remaining few into itself.
Eventually, all the bubbles and particles vanished entirely, leaving the Dreamscape empty and silent except for the huge crater marking the site of their fierce battle. The dragon then soared high into the sky, its powerful roar fading gradually until silence returned.
...
North Shore of Conquest Sea, Navaha.
Beneath Navaha, the underground ritual site was now a scene of ruin. Amidst the scattered magical arrays lay the motionless bodies of Blackdream Hunting Pack members dressed in dark robes, their faces frozen in terror. The only one barely alive, Garcia, was also close to death.
"Dragon..." murmured Garcia weakly, blood streaming from her eyes as she stared blankly into the darkness above. Her trembling ceased as her voice faded into silence.
Unbeknownst to anyone, this significant Blackdream stronghold, which had operated secretly in Navaha for over a decade, had been utterly destroyed.
...
At the harbor district, atop a rooftop, Giorde slowly opened his eyes, still twitching from his recent sleep. Leaning on his sword, he struggled to stand upright.
Giorde felt lingering pain and confusion, clutching his forehead as he looked around in bewilderment. The eerie False Moth had completely vanished, and peace seemed restored over Navaha. If not for the countless Sleep Decay victims scattered around, he would have believed everything had merely been a chaotic dream.
"No… it wasn’t a dream. That creature was real… but besides that creature, there was something else…" Giorde muttered, brows furrowed in deep thought. He tried recalling the hazy scenes that blurred the lines between dream and reality, remembering a being even more majestic and powerful, with an aura infinitely more terrifying and brutal than the creature.
Reflecting on that imposing figure, Giorde could only find descriptions matching legendary beings.
"Was it a dragon that defeated the Moth?”
"Did a dragon save us—no, the entire Navaha?”
"Does this world truly still harbor dragons?"
...
On a distant street, a rented Navaha carriage rolled gently along the cobblestone road. Inside the carriage, a silver-haired girl dressed in a black skirt yawned widely, covering her mouth.
“Uwaaah~ Finally done… It’s been so long since I moved around in a dream like that. Feels kind of exhausting. I guess I should exercise more regularly,” Dorothy murmured, stretching her arms out lazily. Afterward, she wiped away the tears at the corner of her eyes and started reflecting on the events that had just transpired in the dream.
"I didn’t expect my dragon mimicry to be that powerful in the dream realm. Judging by that moth’s size, I thought I’d have to fight at least three hundred rounds. Who knew it was so fragile? Barely took a few hits before collapsing. Good thing I held back; otherwise, I wouldn’t even have had the chance to experiment with the Dragon Shout."
Dorothy leaned back against the carriage seat, lost in thought. Moments earlier, to deal with the False Moth, she deliberately drew the creature into contact with her in reality, tricking it into opening a Dream Portal that led directly to her own dream coordinates. Dorothy then infiltrated its portal with her dragon mimicry, swiftly defeating it.
She had thoroughly utilized the intelligence about the False Moth provided by the little fox, carefully observing the creature’s behavior and hunting patterns. Dorothy was fully aware that neither the Radiance Church nor her own strength could defeat the monstrous moth in reality. Her only chance was to use her dragon mimicry within the Dreamscape.
But to use the dragon mimicry effectively, she needed a direct portal to the moth’s dream coordinates—something Dorothy herself couldn’t create or pinpoint. Hence, she cleverly relied on the False Moth itself to open the necessary portal.
"Fortunately... that creature can completely escape into the dream realm, but it can’t fully manifest into reality. Seems like it’s essentially a dream-world being. If it had fully materialized into reality, my dragon mimicry would’ve been useless."
Dorothy sighed inwardly with relief, turning her attention to the gains from this encounter.
"Given that nearly the entire city is asleep now, there’s no chance to trace back to the enemy’s hideout. After this, the Church will definitely intensify its investigation of the Blackdream Hunting Pack, leaving fewer opportunities for me. But at least this dream battle wasn’t completely fruitless. Who would’ve thought that after defeating the moth, memory bubbles would appear... even memory bubbles containing cognitive poison."
"These must be the memories of those Blackdream members... Did their spirits shatter along with the moth due to their strong mental connection? Anyway, at least there’s more forbidden knowledge to dive into."
"Uwaaah... But it’s so late and I’m really sleepy. I’ll check those out tomorrow. Now, I just want to get back and have a good night’s sleep. Preferably without any dreams."
Dorothy yawned once more, murmuring drowsily. All she wanted now was to lie down comfortably on a soft bed and sleep soundly until morning.