“Take off your sandals, Somani,” Hambara ordered at the corridor’s end.
“I’m trying, I’m trying,” Somani said as he fumbled with the string.
“I said, take off your shoes! This is no human interaction!”
We then went and sat at the dinner table.
“Laressa, join us while the food is still hot. You can continue the chores later.”
I didn’t know why, but as Somani ate the thing called an egg, I felt intense pain.
‘…Cello?’
‘Yes?’
‘Can you please heal my mother’s wound. She’s having a hard time eating.’
‘Yes.’
The Legionnaire had scored a good hit at Laressa; still, with a quick use of biomancy, I fixed her jaw.
“H-Hambara… I asked some friends to come over for dinner. Is that okay?” Laressa asked meekly.
The big-bellied guy, the tall, and the glasses-wearing humans joined us at the table.
“Fate Detective, eh?”
“Ya, ya. It’s a secret class with lineage conditions. Anyways, pass me…”
The pain grew. It now felt like a knife was being thrust into my mind.
Pain… what is my pain?
Unlike humans, I didn’t have those long things that transmitted pain, nor did I have a physical brain or body.
Hm… maybe pain is just a warning my soul sends, and my mind interrupts it extremely.
“Hahah!” Shraider struck the table as he laughed.
Shraider… that’s his name?
“Exactly! A man with no belly is no man. How old are you, Hambara?”
Hambara smiled. “Almost four decades.”
“Decades, huh? Then, I’m close to five decades. Fit, right Laressa?” The human winked at the only female.
Copulate?
Somani grew angry, but then his anger suddenly disappeared, replaced with happiness.
“Six,” added Shamoni.
“Liar!”
My pain grew, and I noticed it!
Shamoni! He’s not creating weaves!
‘Somani… keep your eye on Shamoni. He’s dangerous.’
“Anyways, Bell here is training his intermediary control, and I heard from the barber that Somani here is a prodigy.”
All eyes turned to Somani, who, under the greatest pressure ever, confessed.
“I like Mana!”
Seeing that everyone was confusedly looking at him, Somani explained
“Since I first sensed Mana with the help of the cube… it just clicked. Like I had met a friend—a close one—that I hadn’t seen in years. He obeyed me, and in return, I did his bidding.”
“C-could you elaborate? It’s important for me. I really want to grow my skill, and I seem to have hit a bottleneck,” Bell chimmed in.
The pain increased again. The knife being thrust into my brain started to turn orange from the heat, burning my insides.
Insides? I don’t have those.
As the pain almost drowned me, I noticed another inconstancy… Hamabra’s room was open as his book lay on his bed.
Hambara always hides his dating book…
“The Mana… it urges me. It wants me to change, no, not change. It wants me to exert change.”
‘Somani, why didn’t you tell me about this before?’
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
‘…the Mana. It urged me against sharing it with anyone.’
‘I’m not anyone. I’m your partner.’
Suddenly, fear started to creep into Somani’s heart. Something tried to squash it, but it only grew.
Somani stood up and went to hug his mother, crying on her shoulder.
’T-the Mana… it specifically told me not to tell you. It even gave me a way to hide my precious, deep thoughts.’
‘What?’
But then the pain grew again, and I didn’t manage to inquire further, but I noticed something…
Why can’t I see anything?
It hit me… I wasn’t using my spherical vision; instead, I was only observing the world through Somani’s vision. With his eyes buried in his dead mother’s shoulder, there was no way I could see anything.
How stupid of me.
I expanded my vision, and… what?
Hambara’s house was floating inside a white void, and just above us… a human was standing on the ceiling.
I used [Identify] habitually.
Dream Weaver, Lv. ???
Who am I?
The thought was so sudden that it didn’t feel like mine; it felt intrusive, but I still answered.
I’m One for All, and All is for Me!
I couldn’t see the human’s expression as everyone in the room pounced on me, pinning Somani to the ground.
“Somani! I’m your uncle and saviour, so tell me what your class title and skills are?” Hambara asked frantically.
“Yes, sweety. Tell your uncle.”
Somani looked at Hambara, then his uncle.
‘What are you waiting for? Answer thei—‘
AHHHH!
The soul pain… it was like my mind was about to split.
Split… my soul division? My soul clone!
It then all hit me.
‘This is a dream!’
“Of course, Mom. I’ll tell you everything you want.“
‘Stop!’
I took control of Somani’s body.
‘What are you doing, Cello?’ Somani asked, confused.
‘Can’t you see?! This is all a dream!’
‘A dream?’
‘Yes! This is… a dream? What dream?’
Somani shrugged.
‘I think you're confused, Grandpa. Let me explain to Hambara my abilities.’
Grandpa? Why did he call me that?
‘…Sure.’
Somani took control.
Grandpa… Grandpa… Grandpa?
Then pain, and although it hurt a lot, I realised it cleared my mind’s… fog?
“My title is—“
I used biomancy and filled Somani’s mouth with blood, choking him.
The humans released Somani, allowing him to sit so the blood could exit his lungs.
Cough… cough…
I took control and shot up towards the corridor.
A hand reached for me, but a bone arrow stopped it.
I ducked inside the corridor as I exploded ten bombs inside the house.
BOOOV!
‘What are you doing?! My mom was inside!’ Somani shouted.
Somani took control of the body, and I tried to take it back, but he wrestled my control.
‘Somani, this is a trap! Your mother is dead!’
As we fought for dominance, I noticed that the left half of Somani’s body was under my control, so I used the left leg and hand to drag myself to the house’s door.
‘Stop lying!’
With his right hand, Somani punched me, basically punching himself. Using his right leg, he tried to move back into the room.
I held his right with my left hand, stopping the second attack, then I resisted his pull.
We were in a stalemate, but then…
Shamoni teleported next to us, then put his dagger against my neck.
“Speak or die.”
I formed a blood arrow, but Somani stopped it with a Mana bolt.
‘Why are you protecting the enemy?!’
‘I… Mother… promise… Empire…’
Somani muttered nonsense.
Empire?
“I said speak!”
‘Somani! Fight it! You can do it!’
Unfortunately, my luck seemed to have run out.
‘Shut up, demon! You killed my mother! I’ll tell them; I’ll tell the Empire!’
Half of Somani's mouth moved as he tried to reveal our secrets.
With my arm, I tried to close his mouth, but Shamoni kicked my arm and pinned it against the ground.
“Ma tatle us Im—“
Contract Breach!
The Primus has unintentionally supported the Empire, an offence that wouldn’t usually be deemed worthy of a penalty, but, since the Monoform noticed, the System has ruled it out as breaking a clause of the Mana Contract.
Penalty level, Minor offence: The offended side will momentarily gain a higher percentage of control over the Perfect Unity.
I exploded a Blood Bomb on Shamoni’s face, making the man get off me with a teleport.
“Get him!” Hambara shouted.
I created Somani’s white Mana bomb and detonated it with no regard for myself.
BOOOV!
The walls exploded and fell, revealing the white void.
I waited a moment for my body to regenerate before jumping towards the void…
The house disappeared behind me, leaving me standing in the middle of nowhere.
How do I wake up?!
Suddenly, I was strapped to a chair inside a dungeon cell. The walls were ancient, with moss growing on them. The room smelled of blood.
I tried to break myself free of the chair, but the straps didn’t budge.
I created a Blood Bomb, but it was snuffed out of the air, and I heard it explode outside.
“There is no point in your struggle… you’re in my world, and my word is absolute here.”
The voice sounded before the human appeared behind me—his face was blurry.
“Ah, we are my manners. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Royal Investigator Toread, but you can call me Toread.”
The man’s voice was as soft as a girl's. He turned to face me, then summoned a seat and sat.
“All for One, and One for All… is that your real name?”
I staired into the human’s blurry face and, like I’ve seen it in the market once, spat.
The spit slowly lost speed and stopped before the man’s face. He swiped his hand, and the spit hit the right wall.
The man leaned forward.
“Look, All for One. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way, and believe me… You can’t imagine what pain I can induce on you in this world of mine.”
The man stood as a knife appeared in his hand.
“Imagine, every day, as you head to sleep, expecting beautiful dreams but then… I appear.”
Toread tested the knife’s edge with his finger as he circled me—it drew blue blood.
“Torment after torment, so you decide to stop sleeping. Maybe you’ll last a week, a month, but after that…”
The man stopped in front of me. He licked the blood off the knife with a long forked tongue that appeared out of the fog of his face.
I smiled.
“Do your best.”
The man revealed his lips, blue and smiling.
A table suddenly appeared next to the man. On it were dozens of tools, most of which I was seeing for the first time.
“…As you wish.”
***
Shraider’s POV:
As a detective, I had seen my fair share of shit, but entering a demon’s dream as we half-consciously tried to convince him to share his knowledge… that topped the list.
I awoke with a small migraine. Looking around, Bell was in a similar position, with a hand rubbing his temple, while Shamoni…
Can’t that perfect bastard act weak for a moment!
Shamoni was standing upright next to Rahoon, the Royal Researcher. They were facing a huge screen.
Only Toread was still asleep on the ground inside the central circle of the ward.
“Oh, Detective, Agent Bell, finally awake, I see?” Rahoon said without turning.
Sixth sense, huh?
“Yes, Sir.”
I went to stand next to the men and watched the screen…
Oh my God
The screen showed the demon as he was being tortured by a sadistic Toread, who seemed to be enjoying his time.
The torture… it was too extreme, but the demon didn’t even scream once, taking it like a champ.
“So, how was your time inside the Dream World, Detective?”
I glanced at Rahoon, noticing that he, too, seemed to be enjoying the scene. Shamoni, like always, had a calm expression, while Bell’s face was yellow.
“Isn’t there a trash bin here?” I asked.
“Why?”
Oough
Bell emptied his stomach’s contents on the ground.
As a guard escorted Bell to our new quarters, I decided to ask the Royal Researcher the question that had been on my mind ever since I got here.
“Why us, Sir? Why did you choose us for this mission?”
At first, when the order came for my team’s immediate presence at a random location outside Cervita, I had thought of it as a way to get rid of us without anyone noticing. We hadn’t done anything wrong, but in the Empire… nothing was certain.
But then I saw how enforcers came and apprehended Gamher from his office, and after rejoicing, I knew there was something bigger at play here.
Rahoon's face was scrunched as he scrubbed a stain on his white lab coat.
“Unprofessional, unprofessional at all. I didn’t want your presence, but Toread had said that for his spell to take effect, he needed three people who knew the Primus in person, and entering his cell wasn’t an option, so we were left with you and the Royal Guards.”
The Royal Guards have to protect this facility… what luck.
In the end, I was happy. Happy because Gamher was spending retirement in a prison cell, while the ministry had promised me promotion and a Class Evolution Stone if this mission succeeds.
But, for some reason, doubt gnawed at the heart. Doubt that this was a hoax, and that when the mission ends, they’ll kill us to keep this unimaginable place and Mana technology secret.
Demon or kid, whatever you are. Let’s hope you’re not too important to warrant my team’s erasure.
Soon, the kid woke and with him, Toread.
Toread had a wide smile as he dusted his clothes.
“So?” The Royal Researcher asked.
“The Primus… he’s really special. From the dream’s beginning, the Dream World was unstable, and I spent too much Mana to keep it logical. His consciousness is strong, and I had to add too many thoughts and emotions to convince him. His pain tolerance is off the charts, too. But what really drew my attention the most was his name, maybe title…”
Toread looked at us, indicating whether he should speak in our presence.
“Speak.”
“One for All, and All for One…”