Zero Order sat quietly in a silent room without people.

In front of Zero Order, who was seated on the sofa, was a small wooden table and a chessboard.

The chessboard was different from the common ones you could find in stores.

The pieces on the board were black and white, but their positions were scattered, and the chessboard itself wasn't a black and white grid pattern.

However, anyone who knows about the current situation would be able to guess what that board was representing.

The collective world of unconsciousness and dreams - Dreamland.

The board was largely divided into upper layer, middle layer, and deep layer.

It was simplified because it would become much more complex if divided in detail.

"The upper layer has almost completely collapsed."

Zero Order used the stick in his hand to push the black pawns crowded in the upper layer down toward the middle layer.

"Since Nirva has made his move, the middle layer must be getting eaten away from the top as well."

Setting fire from the front gate to the garden to draw guests into the house.

Since they couldn't go outside, they would inevitably have to head inside the mansion to escape the flames.

It was a crazy act to invite guests but at the same time it was also the most certain method.

"The broken yard and front gate can be repaired quickly anyway."

Zero Order placed five white pieces at various positions in the middle layer.

The dream subordinates possessed by Nirva.

Though they could only manifest in Dreamland, the servants who revealed themselves there were very powerful beings.

While their power might be inferior compared to apostles, they had comparable characteristics and could even handle dreamforce, the energy of Dreamland.

Even an apostle couldn't be confident of victory against dream servants in Dreamland.

This wasn't because the apostle's power was lacking, but rather due to the unique environmental characteristics that Dreamland possessed.

"Nirva must have summoned his servants. He wouldn't leave things alone after I declared war."

Although Nirva tried to act nonchalant, he was the most cunning and crafty apostle of all.

From the moment he said these words, Nirva would have taken them seriously inside rather than treating them lightly.

He would have pondered again from there, whether to send apostles believing Zero Order's words, or to sneer and ignore them.

Nirva would have sent his servants with the mindset of testing even a stone bridge before crossing it.

"Of course. This isn't just any matter, but awakening a goddess. He wouldn't let even the smallest mistake slide."

The five servants thus sent would move to find the most powerful beings existing in Dreamland and eliminate those threats in advance, as they would interfere with their master, Nirva.

These servants possessed the ability to detect beings with powerful mental strength.

Battles of unprecedented scale must be occurring in five different locations right now.

It's hard to know who will win or lose here.

However, Zero Order could make at least two predictions.

"Rudger Chelici. Victory."

Zero Order pushed the pure white lady piece.

Next to it stood a black raven piece.

"Franz. Victory."

Next was a piece wearing a black hood.

Beside it lay a fallen piece wearing pure white armor.

There were other pawns around the hooded piece.

'They won't be mere soldiers. Being personally chosen by Franz, they must be skilled experts.'

Three locations remained.

Zero Order briefly fixed his gaze on one of them.

"This one must have won too."

-Thunk.

The piece that fell with those words was at least three times larger than the other pieces.

Next to it lay the black piece of an old woman.

"With this, two pieces remain."

Zero Order lightly stroked his chin.

The most likely candidate here would be Elisa Willow, the chancellor of Theon.

Outstanding magical ability, elegant appearance, and overwhelming political sense.

Even considering that Dreamland was a place where mental strength was important, Elisa Willow's presence would be overwhelming.

However, it was difficult to rashly predict Elisa Willow's victory.

The servant she had to face was no pushover either.

With help from an assistant, there might be a chance of winning, but.

At least from Zero Order's judgment, there wasn't anyone impressive enough to give sufficient help to Elisa Willow.

"The only one left is Esmeralda...no, Selina."

Zero Order was well aware of what had happened to Esmeralda.

In fact, the one Zero Order directly called First Order wasn't Esmeralda, but Quasimodo who controlled her in reverse.

But with Quasimodo dead now, Esmeralda's original existence had also vanished.

What remained was Selina, an artificial spirit that Esmeralda had created by scraping together her past memories and remnants.

Esmeralda had possessed talent that might have made her the strongest spirit master of her time if she had just lived normally.

Selina, being the last artifact left by such a person...might at least show a fragment of that possibility but Zero Order decided not to rely on such lucky chances.

From the start, the war game (Kriegsspiel) he was looking at now always had to assume the worst situation.

"If there's anything else bothering me, it would be those four kids who've been poking around behind us lately."

Aidan, was it?

He remembered him as a boy who used peculiar magic: anti-magic.

Magic that manifests absolute compatibility against magic.

The so-called magic killer.

Crazy magic that doesn't decompose magic at the formula stage before creation, but completely breaks down fully formed magic as is.

It was amazing enough that he used such an impossible ability, but the fact that this youngster had caught quite a few tails of the organization he had built up made Zero Order quite pleased.

'Recently, he completely foiled Victor Dreadful's experiments and plans in the southern beast-folk region.'

Given enough time, he has sufficient potential to grow into a truly dangerous opponent.

However, personal feelings shouldn't enter into a war game.

"Whatever happens, the loss of at least three servants will be unavoidable. When that happens, Nirva's forces will also be significantly weakened."

Nirva will also change his plans due to the unexpectedly strong resistance from the guests.

As someone who wasn't the house owner but more like a butler, he would have been content to watch them come to the mansion as leisurely as possible.

"But it's different when those coming to the mansion aren't children following bread crumbs, but robbers armed with knives and guns."

At this point, Nirva will have no choice but to step in.

From his absolute position where he had been watching everything as if overlooking it all.

It meant that he too would have to enter the mud pit.

Of course, considering Nirva's level, he would probably stand proudly above while others rolled in the mud.

But can he be confident that no mud will splash on him?

His shoes would definitely get dirty, and at least the hem of his pants would get wet too.

Could he, who always maintained composure, endure such a situation?

Even if he tried not to show it, the anger slowly boiling inside would be hard to handle.

'What I want is that crucial moment.'

The best scenario would be Nirva's death.

There was still a long way to go to achieve that and Zero Order had to calculate what he could accomplish right now.

"Are you thinking to yourself again?"

At that moment, someone quietly entered the room.

Zero Order didn't bother to turn around. From the hostile tone and casual behavior directed at him, it was impossible not to know who it was.

"My right arm Setadel is still busy. Were you still pondering how to kill me?"

"Wasn't Franz your right arm?"

"Oh? Then let's make you the left arm."

"Cut out the frivolous jokes. What are you scheming this time?"

"Scheming? Did I seem like someone who would do such things?"

The man only gave Zero Order, who was laughing softly, a cold stare, a look that said he was desperate to kill him right now.

Zero Order lightly shrugged his shoulders.

"You must have had something to find at Theon. That's why you sent John Doe, and have been keeping an eye on that place, right? It's quite strange to see such composure in the current situation."

"What if this composure is fake? What if I'm actually more anxious than anyone else, but just pretending not to be?"

"......"

"Oh my. Such jokes don't work on you after all. You're really no fun. Is it because you've lived your whole life on faith alone?"

"Shut up."

A growling sound came back in response to Zero Order's words.

"So prickly. Well, don't worry. Rather, what I want is partly coming to fruition right now."

"...It will fail."

"Maybe so. But shouldn't you hope for success? Don't you need to recover the lost power of the Saint?"

"......"

"Oh my."

Seeing him respond with silence, Zero Order only smiled slyly.

Zero Order's gaze turned to the game board.

‘Theon.’

The reason Nirva targeted this place was probably to check him, knowing that he was looking for something.

If Nirva were to take action, Zero Order would be the one who could most certainly interfere with it.

Therefore, he chose Theon to both interfere with his side and simultaneously shake up the board itself.

'Perhaps Nirva has noticed something as well.'

But would he know even this?

That in the bundle he thought he had confidently snatched away, a deadly viper lay hidden.

Nirva wouldn't be easy to fool either but even a mere graze would surely spread that poison throughout his body.

Achieving one's goals while ignoring the other party's intentions was something Zero Order was confident he could do better than anyone else, having done it for hundreds of years.

* * *

The Dreamwalkers, except for Zantman, joined up with the people who had fallen to the middle layer.

Their top priority was rescuing people but such rescue operations don't always go ideally.

"This side is finished."

"Here too."

What the owner of the bitter voice was looking at were people lying as if asleep on top of the sky island.

Though they appeared fine on the outside, no mental waves could be felt from them because their dreams had been completely sucked out.

"Were they attacked by nightmare subjects?"

"Their faces are contorted even with eyes closed, so probably."

Soon the people's bodies slowly began to sink into the sky island.

The sight of the ground, which looked sturdy enough to support an armored vehicle, absorbing only sleeping people like a sponge was somewhat bizarre.

"Dream submergence?"

A term meaning to sink into sleep.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when closing one's eyes in Dreamland.

Those who fell into eternal sleep - so-called eternal rest - became part of Dreamland.

Even if this situation ends, they will never open their eyes in the real world.

For Dreamwalkers, seeing such scenes is quite frequent.

However, it was unprecedented for it to occur on such a massive scale.

The Dreamwalkers continued their search.

Through this ongoing search, they were able to find survivors and join up with other people.

The group led by Elisa Willow was safely escorting many people at the time.

The Dreamwalkers who joined them moved to the designated meeting point.

"Teacher!"

"Children! You're safe!"

They were also able to meet up with Selina and Julia who were waiting there.

"Youngest!"

The Dreamwalkers' fuss over finding Julia was especially incredible.

Even reunited lovers separated by war couldn't be happier than this.

People around were looking on wondering what was going on.

"Who are you? I don't know you."

Julia desperately tried to pretend she didn't know them while shooting laser beams with her eyes saying 'Please, be quiet', the seniors' doting wouldn't stop.

Julia's act was meaningless.

From the start, everyone knew which organization she belonged to, and the people approaching Julia now had large emblems symbolizing the Dream School on their uniforms.

"Follow me."

Julia let out a small sigh and led the seniors to a quiet place.

"Ah, come on! I told you not to act like that where there are lots of people!"

"Oh my. We were just so happy that our youngest was safe. Right?"

"That's right, that's right. Our youngest did well after all. Safe even here in the middle layer."

"We raised our child so well!"

Julia squeezed her eyes shut.

Since arguing further would be pointless with these people anyway, she decided to change the subject.

"So how's the current situation? What's happening outside?"

"That..."

Julia's expression became serious as she heard the Dreamwalkers' explanation.

"Not only is all of Leathervelk in this state, but it's getting bigger?"

"Yes. Did nothing happen to you inside?"

"Nothing? There were too many things happening, that was the problem."

Julia also explained everything that had happened inside and all the facts she knew.

Though they bickered on the surface, their cooperation in important moments showed why they were called members of the same school.

"More importantly, what about Master?"

"Master stayed behind to fight the creature."

"How can you say that? How can Master handle that monster alone!"

Julia had witnessed the power of the servants with her own eyes.

Their characteristics and dream power made even Dreamwalkers who came and went through Dreamland as if it were their home seem like 'mere' beings.

'Though Teacher Selina handled that servant alone, that's because the teacher is an extremely unusual case.'

Though she believed in Master's skills, that didn't guarantee he wouldn't get hurt in battle.

Just considering her age, she was getting on in years, so what if something went wrong?

"What? Youngest, are you worried about Master right now?"

"Oh my. Our youngest has really grown up, really grown up."

"...Is that what's surprising right now? Aren't you seniors worried about Master?"

The Dreamwalkers asked back puzzledly at those words.

"Is there any need to worry?"

"Why?"

"Why would we worry about someone standing perfectly fine behind you right now?"

"What?"

Julia turned around and was startled to see Clara Cowen's wrinkled face.

"Kyaaak!!"