Chapter 148
Chapter 148. The Prince’s Return (2)
To the High Elf standing upon the spiderweb, outward appearance was merely a shell—yet it was not just a simple illusion.
“You are not the High Elf called Samnaren.”
“No. I am Samnaren. More precisely, I was Samnaren.”
Suddenly, the scenery shifted, and beyond the web, a vast galaxy came into view.
Samnaren’s back split open, and something grotesque emerged from within.
The creature resembled a metamorphosed butterfly. It bore part of Samnaren’s face, had an oval body, and wings that looked as if they were made by attaching numerous beautiful, mirror-like tiles together.
“Beyond this world, there exist countless forms of magic unknown to us. And to pursue them, one must cast aside the flesh.”
“……A monster.”
Ellarion drew in a breath, seemingly overwhelmed by the sight.
“A monster? That would be that one, not me.”
At some point, Yul realized that his form had changed into that of the Deep King Tribe.
Even without using Polymorph, his true form had been revealed.
It seemed this world was not merely a dream. Rather, it was a realm where one’s true form could not be concealed.
-At least I don’t look as repulsive as you.
“Beauty and ugliness belong to mortals, preference belongs to immortals, and eternity belongs to transcendents.”
-What nonsense are you spouting?
As a simple test, Yul activated his telekinesis.
Chwaaaaaak.
Samnaren, who had been floating in midair, was instantly compressed and crushed.
‘What is this power?’
Yul realized his telekinesis had grown incredibly strong. It felt as if the output itself had increased dozens of times over.
‘I see. In this world, I can reclaim my true self.’
This power did not belong to the split body. It was the power surging from the magic circuits of his main body.
Samnaren was not dead. As if time had reversed, her form restored itself and returned to its original state.
It seemed the opponent also possessed some kind of power.
“To crush a single facet so completely. What a terrifying monster.”
Yul felt like he understood where the opponent’s form came from.
He raised his gaze to the sky. Above, the scene resembled looking upward from inside a cylindrical tower.
At each level, spiderwebs woven of starlight were loosely connected like bridges, and every tier contained multiple doors.
‘What kind of ability is this?’
The Samnaren moth floated upward and spoke.
“The doors of starlight lead to every facet. No matter which world you are in, they connect to worlds where dreamers exist.”
At the moment it transformed into another creature, its vision had turned pale and clouded, resembling that of a corpse.
Its confident tone as it spoke of the doors of facets.
Which meant—even if he killed it repeatedly, it would continue to revive?
“I will not let you take him.”
Light flashed from the wings, from the mirror-like tiles.
Through divine power, Yul peered into them, and inside, they resembled an infinite expanse of cosmic space.
Samnaren retrieved a meteor from the other side and scattered it downward.
Yul immediately protected Ellarion while using telekinesis, swiping the falling meteor fragments aside.
-Ellarion, go. I’ll handle things here, so find Arurion.
“Understood!”
After confirming that Ellarion had disappeared while evading the meteor storm falling from the sky, Yul shifted instantly from defense to offense.
He seized the incoming meteors in midair and hurled them straight back at his enemy.
The colliding meteors roared explosively. Yul slipped through the rupturing air and charged forward.
With a single sweep of his tail, he struck the massive Samnaren moth and slammed it into the ground.
The ground cracked, and Samnaren coughed up blood. Yul rushed in and smashed the ground again, but finding no resistance, he checked below.
The form remained like a mirror image, but it was not the real one—it was an illusion.
Samnaren, restored to her original form, appeared from somewhere else.
“No matter how many times you repeat it, it is useless. I exist as many times as there are facets.”
Though she spoke arrogantly, Yul felt that this world was not so kind to Samnaren.
If she truly had complete control over this dream world, she would have already erased Yul with overwhelming power.
‘It would be nice to have a weapon.’
For example, the Divine Light Spire.
If it was connected to his soul, then even in this dream world, he should be able to summon it.
As expected, the moment he thought of it, it was already floating in the sky.
“A weapon……!?”
-Let’s test whether what you said is true.
“A test!?”
Yul swung the Divine Light Spire. The source of its power lay in rotation. He spun it, imparting endless rotational force.
Grabbing the enemy with telekinesis was difficult. But forcing movement—that he could do.
If he cornered the enemy and swung the Divine Light Spire—
Crack.
A small moth-like form floating in the air was shattered.
As expected, it revived again and regained its original form.
“To dare use the word ‘test’ against me. How laughable.”
And once again, it cast large-scale magic. This time, what the mirrors summoned was a massive blaze.
A coronal ejection, as hot as the surface of the sun, surged forth from beyond the mirrors.
It was not something that could be blocked with mere telekinesis. This time, he fled at full power.
-Are you going to burn yourself as well?
It seemed that even the sensation of pain from bodily destruction had completely disappeared. Samnaren clung to Yul as if willing to burn together with him, but Yul was faster.
What fell was the stellar heat pouring out from beyond cosmic space.
The surrounding space burned away in an instant, cobwebs and everything else vanishing.
And yet, she revived again.
‘A troublesome opponent.’
She seemed to feel no pain in death and revived endlessly. It was as if she were pulling out portions of mirror images to act in her place.
What was the solution?
‘Those mirrors on its wings…… I think I can replicate them.’
Yul activated his third Demon Eye. The usual limitation on changing Demon Eyes had vanished the moment he returned to his original body.
Using the Demon Eye of Replication, he reconstructed a portion of the mirror image into reality.
Fragments of a magic structure surfaced in his mind, and he forcibly implemented them through the Demon Eye.
He had only grasped the opponent’s magic superficially, but that alone was enough to understand how to use it.
These mirrors anchored the reverse side of the mirror to a portion of cosmic space and pulled things from it.
That perception encompassed everything that existed within space. If he could perceive it, he could capture it and draw it out.
But he did not think that was all.
There was something more—something greater—that it could do.
“What, what did you just manifest!?”
-Wait.
Yul spread the mirrors across the ground and drew out a portion of a planet. A planet that simply possessed several times stronger gravity than this one.
The Samnaren moth, which had been floating in midair, was caught by the gravity and came crashing down.
However, this time, instead of attacking, Yul looked up into the air.
The interior of the massive tower came into view. The moment he replicated the mirrors with the Eye of Replication, Yul was able to understand the structure of this tower.
A colossal tower formed from the dreams of countless beings. On each level, the world each one dreamed of existed on the other side.
-So it was true. Your body is connected to the dreams of the facets.
“You’re only realizing that now? If you understand, then release me. You cannot kill me.”
-Why do you need a successor? With your ability, you could survive for tens of thousands of years.
This High Elf had cast off the shell of the flesh and entered the world of dreams, conquering it.
It would not be an exaggeration to call her a conqueror of dreams who wore an invisible crown—one who possessed the ability to traverse all these worlds.
And yet, Yul could not understand why she was so obsessed with Arurion.
“Do you know? The boundaries of this world are gradually blurring. The beings on the other side are finding it easier and easier to enter this place.”
-……I know.
He recalled the Outer God that had tried to escape by borrowing the body of a strange sea creature.
And the Sower. Normally, that kind of being should not have been able to descend into reality. And yet, for a brief instant, it had managed to manifest.
“The same is true in the dream world. If the beings beyond those facet doors burst out and begin invading the dreams here, it will not be a simple problem.”
-I understand.
For a brief moment, using the power of the mirrors he had manifested with the Eye of Replication, Yul came to understand Samnaren’s true intent.
Beyond those facets lay the dreams of unknown beings.
Some of them—merely by dreaming—occupied an entire facet door.
-Do monsters exist whose single dream encompasses an entire world?
“That world is the dream of some kind of being. A facet door connected to such an existence is like a ticking time bomb that could shatter at any moment. The best course is to remove even the window and the doorknob, so that they cannot perceive this side at all.”
-Arurion was a spare you created in case you exhausted your power.
“……That’s right.”
Yul withdrew the power of the mirrors. Freed from the grip of gravity, Samnaren rose to her feet.
-But Arurion is also needed in the outside world.
“It is meaningless.”
-The dream world is meaningless, too.
Yul transformed his body into a human form. In this world, Polymorph magic seemed to hold little meaning. In a dream, it seemed one could become anything.
“You call dreams meaningless? Then shall we wager what each of us deems meaningless and wage war again?”
“I’m telling you to be flexible. Either you waste time fighting me in dreams forever and get devoured by something from beyond those facet doors, or you release Arurion and only bring him here when he dreams.”
“You negotiate quite well.”
“I once learned this kind of negotiation from some alien.”
After all, he had once been asked: " Do you want to trade for a UV Thermal Gun, or fight hundreds of millions of aliens?
“Even if we do that, you can still fill six to eight hours a day.”
“That prince only sleeps five hours a day.”
“Then make him sleep more.”
“Hmm. Eight hours, then. On the condition that during that time, he trains under me with full focus.”
“Dream training?”
“Yes. Training in manipulating dreams and moving between them—not some sloppy imitation like that Demon Eye of yours.”
The Eye of Replication mimicked an opponent’s abilities, but in a degraded form.
However, even without fully understanding the essence, it forcibly manifested them into reality—so it was not entirely crude.
-Fine. We’ll settle on that. Return Arurion to normal.
“Damn it. I was planning to bring him in as a child and teach him in that pure state, but now I’ll have to teach a grown, world-worn prince.”
The surrounding scenery reverted once more, and they found themselves back in the hut.
Beside Ellarion, Arurion had awakened.
Unlike before, when he had appeared as a boy, Arurion now looked fully grown. It seemed his memories had returned as well.
“Grandmother Samnaren, did you return me to my original form?”
“Hmph. I negotiated with that brat. I said I’d only bring you here while you’re asleep.”
Samnaren had returned to her High Elf form and clicked her tongue.
Arurion looked straight at Samnaren and spoke.
“There is something I wish to ask. Where is that branch?”
What kind of sudden question was that?