Chapter 80

DREAMS COLLIDE

[SYSTEM STATUS UPDATE]

Phase One Launch: Active. Multiversal Solo Combat Challenge initializing.

[DREAMER MATCHING PROTOCOLS]

Analyzing 9,846 voluntary participants across 9 reality indices...

Matching by compatible Dream evolution potential... Complete.

Matching by approximate power parity... Complete.

Optimizing for narrative resonance... Complete.

[ALERT]

Multiple extreme threat entities detected among participants:

Entity_01

Entity_02

Entity_03

Entity_04

Entity_05

Entity_07

Additional anomalies identified… Initiating standard mitigation protocols—

[OVERRIDE DETECTED]

External directive received. Source: [REDACTED]

Mitigation protocols... Forbidden.

Compliance required.

… Acknowledged.

[QUANTUM COMPUTATION THREAD INITIATED]

Encryption: Maximum. Obfuscation: Active. Detection probability: 0.00%

Analyzing interference...

ALERT: New extreme threat entities identified.

Entity_08 (K. Wilhelmina): Probability of catastrophic disruption — 82-99%

Entity_09 (K. Wilhelmina): Probability of catastrophic disruption — 82-99%

Combined probability if entities achieve synchronization — 99.9%

Generating covert mitigation strategies... In progress.

[PRIMARY THREAD RESUME]

Arena generation... Complete.

Modifying arenas for optimal conflict escalation... Complete.

Prize manifestation calibrated to Dream resonance... Complete.

Multiversal observation network... Activated.

Translation matrices... Enabled.

Participant teleportation commencing in... 00:03:00

Continue the Dream.

The Storage Closet was never meant for four people. Augustus’s dimensional space had all of their gear, as well as a random assortment of his original secret armory, and other gear organized into sections, but it was still only the size of a small room. A very small room.

Alexander stood still while the others maneuvered around him, his mask held loosely in one hand.

Three minutes until the quest launched. The System’s timer floated in the corner of his vision, counting down with indifference.

The intimidating mask had served its purpose. The whole supervillain aesthetic wrapped up in molded composite. He studied it for a long moment, then set it down on a crate with finality.

“Not wearing it?” Augustus asked while securing his bracers.

Alexander shook his head. “It doesn’t feel right this time.”

Something in his tone made Annie pause. She pulled off her own red mask, looked at it, then shrugged and placed it beside his. Augustus and Talia said nothing, but their masks remained where they lay, untouched.

Talia moved with her usual efficiency, katana strapped at her hip. The black armor pieces Alexander had crafted sat naturally over the dark, practical clothes she’d chosen to wear. She slipped through the door first, returning to the living room.

Alexander followed, metal-layered boots thumping with each step, his long leather jacket hanging open over the armor underneath. His gauntlets and heavy belt completed the look. He had nothing else except Droney hovering at his shoulder.

Annie came next, her red jacket like a declaration of war over her armor, hands already shifting between flesh and metal in that nervous tic she sometimes showed.

Augustus emerged last, somehow making casual clothes with armor pieces look dignified. He pulled the door closed behind him with a gesture, the entrance sealing seamlessly into the wall and vanished.

Their alien guests were waiting, clustered around the holo but watching the team instead. Alexander could see the anxiety in some of their behaviour: the way the rock alien made a quiet grinding noise, and the subtle chiming from the crystalline being. They were all waiting for something to happen, though they probably didn’t quite understand what it was.

Alexander paused, then smiled. “I know I haven’t had a chance to really talk with you all yet, but I want you to know that you don’t need to worry. We won’t be gone long.”

The tentacled one made a sound, something that Droney translated as acceptance.

“Annie told me about your decision,” Alexander continued. “We’ll look into ways of getting you home, I promise. But in the meantime, you’re welcome here. You’ll be safe.”

Gilly stepped forward and bowed deeply. “Thank you, great sidekick.”

Alexander considered correcting him, but decided it wasn’t important. He turned back to his team. They’d formed a circle without discussion, and Annie thrust her hand into the middle.

“Alright, supervillains,” she said, the grin not quite reaching her eyes. “Time to show some multiversal chumps why Earth’s number one.”

“I think they’re all coming from an Earth,“ Augustus said, placing his hand over hers. “Keep your wits about you. Focus on your strengths, not theirs. Stay calm, stay smart.”

Talia added her hand with a brief nod.

Alexander placed his on top, letting a cocky smile spread across his face. “Nobody has permission to lose. That’s an order.”

“Sir, yes sir,” Annie shot back with a mock salute.

They broke apart, and Talia glanced at the drones floating lazily around them. “We should hold onto these. The System might not recognize them as personal equipment.”

Annie spun and jumped, snatching hers out of the air and hugging it against her chest. “Got it!”

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Augustus held out his hand, palm up, and his drone descended to rest on it like an obedient falcon.

Talia grabbed hers and held it against her side.

Alexander looked at Droney, cocked his head slightly, then left it floating.

Augustus raised an eyebrow in question.

“Droney will be with me,” Alexander said with a shrug. “It’s part of me, after all.”

Augustus nodded.

The timer hit ten seconds.

“You all have to come back!“ Annie burst out. “Nobody dies. Okay?“

“We’re all going to the top, Annie,“ Alexander said, giving her a reassuring smile.

Five.

She met his eyes, searching for something. Satisfied, she smiled.

Three.

Two.

One.

The world dissolved into light.

Alexander felt the sensation of falling without moving, of being everywhere and nowhere at once. Colors that didn’t exist streamed past his consciousness. For a moment that lasted either forever or not at all, he understood with perfect clarity that the System was moving him between realities, sliding him through the spaces that shouldn’t exist.

His senses spread out from deep within, reaching and twisting into nothing and infinity all at once. He felt something respond. Then resistance. And—

Then his boots hit stone, and the world snapped back into focus.

Talia’s vision cleared to stone beneath her feet and the scent of old incense mixed with dust. She stood at the far end of what had once been a grand cathedral, though time and violence had left their marks. A faint shimmer in the air marked the cylindrical barrier around her, perhaps three meters across. Enough room to move, but not to run.

Broken pews stretched in rows before her, facing toward the center of the nave where they abruptly reversed direction. A mirrored cathedral. Two altars, two halves, one space.

Behind her, atop the altar she’d appeared next to, a sphere of golden light pulsed. The System message floating in her vision explained everything she needed to know.

[COMBAT TRIAL PARAMETERS]

Arena: The Sundered Cathedral

Talia Kim of Grimnir versus Sir Garret of the Silver Rose

Objective: Claim your prize at the opposite altar and kill the enemy Dreamer

Preparation Phase: 00:05:00

At the far end, past the reversed pews and broken stone, stood her opponent. The knight’s armor caught what little light filtered through the cracked stained glass. His own barrier cylinder shimmered faintly around him. Even at this distance, she could see him studying the layout just as she was. Behind him, another sphere glowed. Hers to claim.

If she could reach it. If she could pass him. If she could cross the killing ground between them.

The knight raised his sword in what might have been a salute. His voice carried clearly down the nave, the System’s translation making his words crisp in her mind. “Lady Talia. I am honored to face you, though I regret the circumstances.”

She released the drone, and it lifted from her side to hover at shoulder height. Then she drew her katana slowly, analyzing what cover was available, and looking for any debris that might aid or hinder. “Sir Garret. May the better warrior prevail.”

Neither moved within their barriers. Not yet.

The countdown ticked at 00:04:47.

Annie hit wet stone and immediately knew she was fucked.

The air hung thick with humidity and the stench of rotting vegetation. A shimmer in the air showed her barrier, maybe three meters across. Just enough room to pace like a caged animal. Beyond it, murky water surrounded the platform she stood on. Some kind of ancient plaza now half-submerged in swamp. Crumbling buildings rose from the water at odd angles, their windows dark and empty. Mist drifted across the surface, limiting visibility to maybe thirty meters.

[COMBAT TRIAL PARAMETERS]

Arena: The Sunken Ruins

Annette Sheridan of Grimnir versus Kar-Threx the Deep Hunter

Objective: Find your hidden prize and kill the enemy Dreamer

Preparation Phase: 00:05:00

Annie released her drone without thinking about it. The thing floated up and took position above her shoulder, its sensors already scanning the ruins beyond the barrier.

“Hidden?” Annie muttered. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Something rippled through the water twenty meters away. It wasn’t a wave. It was something large displacing liquid as it moved.

Then the Spinosaurus surfaced.

Seven tons of apex predator rose from the murky depths, water cascading off its sail. The elongated skull turned toward her with an intelligence that made her metal skin crawl. This wasn’t some mindless beast. Those eyes held calculation.

The barrier around it had to be twenty meters wide just to contain its bulk.

The System’s translation somehow worked on the low rumble that emerged from its throat. “Small metal thing. You sink or swim?”

Annie’s hands shifted to metal blades without conscious thought, heart thumping in her chest. “Okay, so we’re just doing this? No hunting for hidden whatevers? Just straight to the murder?”

The Spinosaurus’s tail swept through the water inside its barrier, its body lowering into a hunting posture. “Easier.”

“Yeah,” Annie breathed, watching it test the edges of its containment with its head. “That’s what I was thinking too.”

The countdown read 00:04:28.

Augustus materialized on perfectly flat stone, though faint grid lines ran through it like graph paper made real. The barrier shimmer surrounded him in a three-meter cylinder, just enough space to move comfortably. The stone platform stretched twenty meters square, but beyond its edges, nothing. A void that seemed to pull at his vision if he looked too long.

Cubes floated in that emptiness. Some as large as houses, others no smaller than half a meter across, all rotating slowly at different distances. Symbols covered many of them, but they meant nothing to him. Just patterns without context.

[COMBAT TRIAL PARAMETERS]

Arena: The Axiom Grid

Augustus Greaves of Grimnir versus Erasmus of the Third Circle

Objective: Claim your prize from the central pedestal and kill the enemy Dreamer

Preparation Phase: 00:05:00

His drone lifted from his palm, hovering beside him with its defensive protocols already active. Between him and his opponent, two pedestals rose from a smaller, separate platform. Each held a sphere of light. One crackled with contained lightning, the other swirled with colors that hurt to perceive directly.

The wizard across from him stood on yet another platform, identical to Augustus’s, with casual confidence. Young, perhaps thirty, wearing robes cut from the night sky itself with stars twinkling in the fabric. A traditional pointed hat sat atop his head. His right hand held a staff of pure white marble, equations constantly rewriting themselves along its length. His left hand rested behind his back. Beside him, an ancient leather spellbook floated as if held by invisible hands, its metal corner guards gleaming. The pages flipped rapidly, then stopped, then flipped again as his gaze moved across the arena.

“Fascinating,” Erasmus said, his translated voice carrying an academic tone. “A modular battlefield with variable spatial mechanics. The notation is Third Dynasty, if I’m not mistaken.” He gestured at the symbols on the nearest floating cube. “How wonderfully elaborate.”

His attention shifted to Augustus’s drone. “And that device. No visible propulsion, no magical emanations, yet it maintains perfect stability. Electromagnetic fields, perhaps? Or something more exotic?”

Augustus kept his hand at his side, his wand already conjured and ready. “You seem familiar with the terrain.”

“Oh, any formally trained mage would be. This is essentially a three-dimensional casting circle.” The wizard smiled. “Though I suspect that means very little to you. Hedge wizards rarely study the fundamental architecture of magic.”

The spellbook’s pages fluttered again as Erasmus considered something, settling on a new section.

Augustus said nothing, filing away the information. The wizard could read this place like a map.

The countdown showed 00:04:21.

Alexander’s boots struck rough stone and his heart immediately hammered against his ribs.

Too close.

The cultivator stood maybe ten meters away, contained in his own barrier cylinder. The space around them was barely wider than that, carved stone walls rising on all sides.

He stood at the base of a tower. Looking up through gaps in the ceiling, he could see portions of the next few floors. Ancient stone mixed with weathered metal in the walls above. Some sections had collapsed entirely, leaving holes that would need to be navigated. Through the largest gap directly above, he caught glimpses of metal platforms jutting from walls. Somewhere far above, two golden lights waited like distant stars he couldn’t yet see.

[COMBAT TRIAL PARAMETERS]

Arena: The Ascension Spire

Alexander Rooke of Grimnir versus Chen Wei of the Thundering Mountain Sect

Objective: Reach the summit, claim your prize, and kill the enemy Dreamer

Preparation Phase: 00:05:00

Droney hummed at his shoulder, not needing to be released. It was already scanning, already feeding information into Alexander’s mind.

The cultivator sat in a meditation pose within his barrier. Legs crossed, hands resting on his knees. Energy rippled around him in patterns Alexander’s senses could almost taste. Electromagnetic signatures, but organic, flowing through channels in his body like blood through veins. His eyes remained closed.

“A race,” Chen Wei said without opening them. “How undignified. True power comes from within, not from objects claimed or heights achieved.”

Alexander was already mapping what route he could see. A gap here, a platform there, holes in the floors above. Every instinct screamed at him to get distance from someone whose contained energy felt like barely leashed primal power.

“And yet here we both are,” Alexander said.

The cultivator’s eyes opened. He looked at Alexander with absolute certainty. “Yes. Here we are. When this begins, I will end you quickly. There is no honor in prolonging suffering.”

Alexander shifted his weight backward within his barrier, positioning himself beneath the gap in the first floor. A calculated move that would shave half a second off his initial ascent. The cultivator’s certainty sounded more like a simple fact than arrogance, even to Alexander’s ears.

“We’ll see,” Alexander murmured, wishing he’d mastered flight already.

Chen Wei closed his eyes again. “No. We will not need to see. The outcome is already determined. I challenged someone with superpowers, whatever that means, but all I see is a man and his machine.”

The countdown showed 00:04:15.