Chapter 209: The Lord Of Nightmares (3)
The moment Akasha successfully ended the Child of Consumption, he did not leave.
The High Apostle had been leading more than one hundred starships in a direct line toward Kalpa, each vessel packed with cultivators whose weakest members stood at the God Emperor realm. At the same time, the strongest among them had reached Star Union.
The fleet stretched across the void like a slow-moving constellation of metal, engines humming with restrained power as they advanced towards the world.
He turned from the headless corpse and began walking back toward Luna and Yume, the long black coat whispering against his bare feet with every unhurried step.
HUMMMMMM!!!!!
As he moved, his Divine Sense rolled out without the slightest restraint, an unseen tide surging forth in a single, overwhelming wave.
It swept across the void, stretching to cover an entire light-year of space, engulfing every ship, every corridor, and every living consciousness within the fleet.
And then, without hesitation, he unleashed Waking Fears.
The racial trait poured through the entire span of his Divine Sense like a tide of death.
----
Across the first ship, a Star Union commander staggered mid-order, both hands flying up to clutch at his skull as a raw, animal sound tore from his throat.
"No! Get them off me!"
In that moment, his eyes rolled back.
The nightmares that had haunted him for eras... faces of the subordinates he had sacrificed, the endless screaming of worlds he had devoured...
All of it rose and became real inside his mind.
THUD!!!!
He collapsed to his knees, forehead cracking against the metal floor as his body convulsed, and blood began to trickle from his nose and the corners of his eyes.
Within moments, the violent convulsions eased and finally came to a halt. He lay motionless, his mouth frozen open in a silent scream that would never find its voice.
On another vessel, a cluster of God Emperors who had been preparing formations suddenly dropped their weapons.
One woman clawed at her own face hard enough to leave deep, bleeding furrows, sobbing broken words between ragged breaths.
"I didn’t mean to leave them.... please, I can still save them! Please!"
Her voice cracked into a high, keening wail before her body seized and toppled sideways.
And... the others around her fared no better.
Some curled into tight fetal positions, rocking and muttering apologies to people long dead.
Others stood frozen, eyes wide and empty, as the weight of their accumulated fears crushed every higher thought until their hearts gave out under the pressure.
Throughout the fleet, the same quiet catastrophe unfolded.
Cultivators of every rank clutched at their heads, at their chests, at the empty air, voices overlapping in a rising chorus of terror and regret that never quite reached the void outside the hulls.
Within moments, the once-disciplined armada had become a drifting collection of silent tombs, engines still burning on automatic as their crews died inside the prisons of their own minds.
----
Akasha reached Luna and Yume just as the last distant echoes of panic faded from his Divine Sense.
The two women watched him in silence for a breath, the soft glow of residual dream essence still clinging faintly to their forms.
"Well, that’s one down... with one to go."
Yume said with a teasing tone as Akasha opened another portal directly to Lane.
"Let’s make this one just as quick."
This time, however, he didn’t step through.
Instead, he casually extended the Dreamer’s Scythe, letting the long, curved blade glide effortlessly through the open portal.
On the far side, Lane sat at the head of a long conference table, mid-sentence, surrounded by ranking officers and attendants who had gathered for a meeting to go over their preparations.
SHKKKKKK!!!!!
In that moment, the scythe slipped through the portal, hovering just behind her neck. Lane’s head was gone before she could finish her next word.
Dark blood erupted in a sudden arc across the polished table and the shocked faces of those nearest her.
Before any of the surrounding troops could fully process what had happened... before a single weapon could be drawn or a single alarm raised...
The power of Waking Fears crashed over them.
And much like what befell the Child of Consumption’s entire fleet of soldiers, the nightmares buried for centuries came roaring back without mercy.
Officers clutched their heads, their voices cracking into raw, incoherent screams as the terrors they had once inflicted and suffered themselves erupted to life within their minds, each memory cutting as sharply as the day it was born.
Akasha withdrew the scythe and let the portal close as they stepped through the second portal, leading back to Dream Land.
-----
In the next breath, he found himself back in Dream Land, this time on the treehouse’s lowest level.
The familiar zafu sat patiently beneath a large flat-screen television.
He rolled his shoulders, then lifted his arms high above his head, a quiet, satisfied pop accompanying the settling of his joints as the long black coat shifted around his bare feet.
Luna stepped in closer, her heart-shaped eyes studying him with measured calculation.
"With the death of two High Apostles," she murmured, her voice low, "it’s only a matter of time before the Pantheons arrive... isn’t it?"
Akasha’s lips curved into a small, self-assured smile.
"True... but I don’t intend to give them much of an opportunity. I’ll take care of them before they even get close to the Orin Star System."
As the last word left his mouth, the air nearby rippled and shimmered.
Without a sound, Kalpa materialized, her seven-colored hair cascading around her shoulders as her pure white eyes locked onto his.
She gave a brief nod as her lips parted.
"Son of the Stars, the formation has been set," she said. "And that Headmaster, Harlan, is waiting for you."
Akasha returned the nod, the motion small and measured.
With a quiet thought, the long black coat, T-shirt, and fitted pants dissolved into a scattering of soft motes of light.
In their place, a well-worn pair of baggy black pants settled comfortably around his hips, and a loose shirt draped casually over his shoulders and chest.
He cast a calm, red-dotted gaze toward Luna and Yume.
"I’ll be back soon," he said, his tone even.
"There are a few things I need to go over with Harlan."