Chapter 201: No Longer Dreamer’s Peak...
"Now... for the final piece before I kill these bastards."
Akasha muttered the words under his breath as he stood alone on the high balcony of the treehouse, taking in the sight that stretched before him.
The Golden Apple Tree’s upper canopy framed the view, its leaves stirring in the thin wind that brushed the edge of the void.
Below and around him, the mountain of Dreamer’s Peak had become a world-sized landmass, vast plateaus and rolling slopes of green spreading outward until they vanished into the shimmer of the barrier that enclosed it all.
In the far distance, the six worlds of the Orin Star System turned in slow, majestic orbits around the central mountain with their suns casting long light across the cold emptiness of the void.
He remained still for a long moment, nine swirling purple stars reflecting the distant worlds, before he finally turned back toward Kalpa.
The petite consciousness watched him with pure white eyes, seven-colored hair drifting in the high wind.
Her voice carried a quiet note of curiosity when she spoke.
"And... what is the final piece?"
Akasha only winked at her, the corner of his mouth lifting in a small, closed smile. He offered no further answer.
The next step wasn’t something he intended to reveal to anyone, since it wouldn’t affect anyone but himself.
’I only hope this doesn’t turn out to be a bad idea.’
For the longest while, he’d been thinking of the best way to optimize his speed of gaining power.
Which, by now, was well known to be tied to Dream Land... or Dreams in general.
On top of that, it seemed the stronger he became, the more Dream Land and the Divine Domain had grown too intertwined.
Both served as places of protection, both answered to his will, and now... keeping them separate had begun to feel inefficient.
Now that clearing the battlefields for rank progression had slowed to a crawl, he felt that the two spaces needed to become one optimized whole, not overlapping tools.
He took a short breath and paused for a moment.
’If I speak this Decree aloud... wouldn’t Kalpa know anyway?’ he wondered, realizing that doing so would defeat the whole point of his secrecy.
So instead of voicing it, he decided to try using his decree purely through will. He reached deep into the essence of his Decrees, aligning his thoughts and intent with the vision in his mind.
He willed Dream Land and the Divine Domain to merge into one, becoming inseparable from this moment forward. The combined domain’s effects would be optimized, streamlined, and free from unnecessary overlap.
Next, he turned his attention to the Battlefield that had been so crucial in his growth, transforming it into a dungeon rather than leaving it overrun with Dreams and Nightmares.
Finally, he ensured the liberated lands remained untouched, ready for him to customize later as he saw fit.
And in the instant, his will aligned...
HUMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
A massive surge of divinity erupted across the void, drowning everything in cascading waves of deep purple and pure white light.
The air seemed to buzz with the sheer energy of the shift, carrying a subtle vibration that felt almost alive.
In one smooth, uninterrupted moment, the transformation was complete, as if it had always been meant to happen that way.
Inside the Divine Domain, everything seemed to have gained a true dream-like quality.
Soft edges of mist, colors that shifted when looked at too long, a quiet sense that reality itself had become more fluid and more alive.
Around the outer slopes of the mountain, dreamy clouds of soft purple formed and began to drift in slow, endless circles.
At the rear of the peak, near the multicolored ponds, a single dungeon door of dark wood and glowing purple runes rose from the earth as if it had always belonged there.
Akasha’s True Self appeared before that door without fanfare.
"Who would’ve thought that shit would work?" He muttered as he shook his head once, a small smile touching his lips, and stepped through the threshold without looking back.
The entire sequence unfolded in full view of Yume, Luna, and Calista, who still stood lower on the mountain in the midst of Calista’s ongoing upgrades.
The sudden burst of displacement of the mountain, the unexpected appearance of the door, and the departure of the True Self were impossible to overlook.
Calista turned to face the two women, her eyes narrow with curiosity.
"What is Lord Dream doing?" she asked, voice tight with the effort of keeping composure.
In the few minutes since leaving the Treehouse, she’d tried to brush off the recent events, but they were becoming too much—and too frequent—for her to just let slide without asking questions.
Luna’s heart-shaped eyes glimmered with playful amusement as she reached out and gave Calista’s arm a gentle, teasing pat.
"Relax, little Calista," she said, her voice laced with easy banter. "Your master... he’s no ordinary man. You’d do well to take everything in stride and act like you’re perfectly in the know."
Yume gave a soft nod of agreement, her blue-streaked hair swaying gently as she watched the dungeon door solidify into place, its presence now unmistakably permanent.
----
With the transformation complete, Akasha moved back across the polished wood of the balcony toward the wide projection that now hovered freely in the open void above the mountain.
’Let’s complete Noxara first...’ He thought as there were a few things he needed to learn before getting rid of Lane and the Child of Consumption.
He glanced over his shoulder toward Kalpa, who still stood near the railing with seven-colored hair drifting in the thin wind.
"Come along with me," he said, voice calm and unhurried.
Before she could answer, he lifted one hand and activated the innate power that waited beneath his skin.
[Absolute Dream Anchor]
A clean, circular portal of layered purple and white light opened in the air before him, its edges stable and absolute, the far side already showing the distant shimmer of golden water.
He offered Kalpa no further instruction and stepped through without waiting.
-----
He reappeared high in the skies above Noxara, the newly completed oceanic world stretching endlessly beneath him.
The water shimmered with a gentle golden hue, catching the glow of distant suns, while countless flecks of deep purple drifted and swirled within its radiance.
Akasha descended in a slow, controlled drift until his feet settled onto the warm sand of the main island’s shore.
For a moment he stood there, nine swirling purple stars taking in the rewritten horizon, before he lifted one hand and opened his status once more.
’Well, I hope I get something useful,’ he thought, the quiet observation settling through his mind as the familiar interface bloomed before his eyes.