“Maybe I can figure out how to command the domain sphere in this way.”
With this idea in mind, he quickly looked at the lengthened sigils around the sphere.
With the previous experience, decrypting the sigil was a lot faster this time. Within an hour, he successfully made out the implication of the first incomplete model, which was “bind”.
As the name implied, it was used for binding energy forms. This was what he used earlier to restrict nightmare energy and send them to activate the zoning crystals.
He wondered if he could use this model to bind other forms of energy. He decided to do some tests about this when he returned to reality.
The next model he reached, however, puzzled him for good.
“Bind” made a lot of sense because the sigils around the domain sphere obviously meant to trap the sphere in place.
But the second model was “dissolve”, which didn’t sit well in this context.
He attempted to activate the “dissolve” effect to see what would happen, and he immediately regretted it.
The locked domain sphere visibly shrank in size as shiny shards fell off from it and dissipated into the environment.
Meanwhile, he received “feedback” from the effect. It seemed the “dissolve” function removed some power from the domain sphere and returned it to the dream wasteland.
He stopped the effect as soon as he saw the sphere losing its mass. Yet it still lost a portion of the domain power it contained. Thankfully, the power did not scatter randomly into the Dream Realm. It joined the dream wasteland, which meant he could find it again later.
After making sure the “dissolve” effect was switched off, he proceeded to check the next model. Something told him that this would be the final answer he was searching for.
Similar to before, the third model was also an imperfect one that could attach to the previous two.
It was “fusion”.
By “dissolving” power and then “fusing” it elsewhere, the sigil would help him transfer the ownership of the domain sphere onto himself, by which time he would gain full control over the dream wasteland.
More importantly, the “fusion” model answered his call just fine instead of remaining still.
Excited, he kept looking further to find whether there was a fourth model connected to them.
However, he was a little disappointed when he was brought to the fourth and even the fifth model, which were “tunnel” and “door” again.
He couldn’t activate the door or look beyond to check the next model, which was no longer a surprise.
“So... this sigil fixes the domain sphere here and consumes its power while also connecting it to a nightmare tunnel?”
Every sigil he checked until now ended up at an unmoving door that was likely to be connected to the Nightmare Realm. Perhaps all the sigils followed certain rules defined by the Nightmare Realm.
He got a feeling that he had to fully accept everything Shava wanted to give him, in order to fully comprehend the sigils.
Though this definitely sounded like a bad idea.
...
After resting his mind for a while, he reactivated the “dissolve” effect and tried to accept the domain sphere.
Since the sphere was the embodiment of this piece of nightmare domain as well as the dream wasteland itself, he had to succeed to become the true owner of this place.
As soon as he saw the sphere dropping fragments, he immediately canceled “dissolve” and went for “fusion” to embrace whatever was scraped off.
It was a bad move.
Telling from the overwhelming power, which should be a portion of the domain sphere, he realized that the dream wasteland was HUGE. It was several times bigger than the nightmare interlayer that contained Sleepless City, and it was larger than any of the existing nightmare domains Sunders described in The Mystery of Nightmare Domain. His “castle hall” domain was tiny compared to this one.
He felt his head bulging with pain when only several particles of the sphere entered his body. But giving up now meant he had to discard what came off the domain sphere to the dream wasteland, again. He had to hold on.
At the end of the searing outpour, he felt that he managed to grasp a complete “privilege” under his command.
“Ack. Thank goodness I didn’t swallow the domain sphere by normal means...”
He didn’t have any time to examine what he just received before his consciousness slipped away.
Absorbing part of the domain drained him greatly. If someone were here to look at his body in reality, they would see Angor bleeding from his nostrils, while his skin gained an unhealthy sheen.
As Angor’s bodyguard, Toby had spent a month in boredom, during which he tried to kill time by any means he could think of, including dropping everything in his Snowy Feather storage onto the ground and picking them back up.
Dried fish, animal suits, several tiny beds and blankets, and a strange skull he took from the dark island, which had stopped glowing for some reason.
Toby was quite shocked when he suddenly smelled blood coming from Angor’s position. Without minding the items, he quickly dived back into the illusion.
...
Angor was having a dream. But he wasn’t sure whether it was a dream at all.
He found his vision shifting to a different place after he gained the new power. He felt his sight expanding far and wide until he could observe the entire dream wasteland as well as the unknown darkness beyond its boundary.
There, he saw something hideous.
The wasteland didn’t appear as big when he could watch it in a bird’s-eye view. However, beyond the wasteland and inside the dark distance, a gigantic creature more immense than the land itself was silently gazing at the wasteland using its golden, slit-pupil eyes. In fact, that eyeball alone already looked more sizable than the dream wasteland.
Angor didn’t know what that was, but he could somewhat tell that the unknown creature was trying to reach the dream wasteland. It didn’t do so yet because there was another figure with blond hair standing in its way.
The blond individual looked not much different from a common human. No bigger than a scrap of dust, if compared to the towering monster ahead. Yet there he stood, quietly but surely blocking the monster’s advance.
Angor finally understood why the dream wasteland was so empty and without any other intruders when a nightmare interlayer was supposed to attract all sorts of monsters from the Nightmare Realm. This was all because someone was protecting it.
Right now, he could see the blond figure speaking to the monster as if they were negotiating. Although he couldn’t make out any sound.
Slowly, the monster closed its golden eyes and backed away, until it fully disappeared into the unending darkness beyond.
Next, the floating stranger turned around and looked at the dream wasteland, silent as he always was.