CHAPTER 326: YOU’RE ME?

Dust drifted in lazy spirals as the dreamscape mended itself.

Pillars phased right out of the ground around the altar, slowly turning red.

At the center of it all was Victor breathing shallowly as the enormous statue being loomed over him.

The being’s gnarled as a steady flow of pinkish mist seeped from Victor’s forehead into its open palm. The mist coiled and pulsed like threads of life essence saturated with sweet memory. Every inhalation from the statue being made the air colder, heavier, as though it were swallowing the very essence of his dreams.

Victor’s lips twitched in his unconscious state. Somewhere within the web of illusion spun around his mind, he was still living the perfect life.

He was home again and Danny was laughing on the couch, munching popcorn. Jake was bragging about his latest sparring match with and Max was busy hacking something on his tablet as usual.

Victor grinned as he recalled bagging another endorsement deal that paid him 10,000,000 credits.

Not only was he an awakened, he was famous and powerful.

The walls were warm, the floorboards creaked just like he remembered, and the smell of freshly made noodles filled the air.

Everything was perfect.

And yet... something inside him itched.

Danny turned to him, noticing the faraway look on Victor’s face.

"Yo, what’s with that expression? You look like someone just stole your burger."

Victor laughed lightly. "It’s just... doesn’t all this feel a bit too perfect to you?"

Jake tossed a pillow at him. "Man, stop overthinking! You finally got what you wanted—peace and fame. Don’t jinx it."

"Yeah," Max added with his eyes still on his tablet. "You’ve been stressing since the day you gained abilities. Just enjoy this for once."

Victor tried to. He really did. He leaned back, feeling the couch cushions sink just the right amount beneath his weight. But the feeling wouldn’t leave him. A dull thrum, like an alarm deep inside his mind, wouldn’t stop ringing.

"Still..." Victor murmured, tapping his chin. "It’s just—everything feels like it’s looping. We’ve had this same conversation twice today."

Danny frowned. "You sure you’re okay, man?"

"Yeah," Jake said, crossing his arms. "Sounds like you’ve been reading too many of those paranoid cultivator novels again."

Victor chuckled. "Yeah... maybe I am."

...

Back in the dreamscape, the statue being tilted its head causing the wooden mask to split slightly down the center as cracks webbed outward. A deep, rasping laughter echoed softly.

"Just a little more..."

The altar Victor was stationed above, happened to have three layers from bottom to top.

The first layer suddenly emitted a deep violet glow and began to spread slowly.

The being’s voice whispered in a forgotten tongue as more pink mist phased out of Victor’s face. The second layer began to vibrate and slowly brighten as light crawled along the carvings like veins awakening after centuries of slumber.

The statue being’s wooden mask continued to fracture, revealing glimpses of something underneath.

Within Victor’s illusion, his "friends" were growing restless. Danny’s smile looked too wide. Jake’s laughter had an unnatural echo.

Victor’s voice dropped to a whisper. "Something’s wrong here."

"Nothing’s wrong," Danny said too quickly, with a frozen grin.

"Yeah," Jake agreed. "Don’t ruin this, Vic. You’re finally happy."

His surroundings flickered again. This time, he saw a glimpse of the statue before him with pinking mist pouring from his head but his body pale and still.

But only for a very short instant.

He stumbled back. "Did you guys see that?

"See what?" Max asked with a confused expression.

Victor clenched his fists. "Something feels wrong... I don’t know how but... I can tell,"

"You just woke up on the wrong side of the bed today," Danny tapped his back with a chuckle. "I just called Leah. She should be here any minute."

The moment Danny completed his sentence, a knock was heard at the door.

Truly, Leah arrived just as Danny said and the moment she got in, she threw herself into Victor’s arms.

"I heard you weren’t feeling good honey..."

Victor was about to respond but before he could, she pressed her lips against his, causing him swallow back down every doubt.

Back in the altar, the statue’s laughter grew louder.

"Yes... yes! No matter how much you resist, it won’t be strong enough to dispel the happy world your mind has created... keep feeding me..."

The second layer of the altar glowed fully, sending ripples through the Dreamspcape.

Runes burst into brilliant color as arcs of light reached toward the third layer which was still dim.

The Statue being could feel it, decades waiting, scheming, trapped in here and now, at last, freedom was within reach.

Once the final layer lit up, it would finally have enough power to break out of the cocoon and walk the real world in its true physical form.

Its thoughts wandered briefly to the past...

Once, long ago, its people had been feared on their original world. The Dreamweavers were masters of illusion and mind... they were devoures of dreams and they had thrived deeply in the old world, weaving dreams that could reshape reality itself.

Back in their world, they were feared more than the Drakenar and Umbryx.

Empires fell in their sleep under their unseen influence.

But when their world began to crumble, on the verge of getting destroyed, one of their leaders had performed the Severance Spell... a forbidden art that tore them from their dying realm and sent their souls hurtling across the void to another world.

This world Earth.

Here, their consciousnesses were sealed within lifeless vessels... statues scattered across a particular terrain, powerless to awaken until they siphoned enough human dream energy to rebuild their forms.

Forty years of waiting. Forty years of silent torment, slowly feeding on the dreams of every wretched human that somehow stumbled upon this place.

And now... because of this one foolish human, the seal would finally break.

The Dreamweaver’s laugh became manic. "When the third light shines, I shall walk again! And when I do, this world will kneel beneath the Dreamweavers once more!"

The Dreamweaver’s aim was to free the others once he escaped this cocoon so they could once more dominate another realm.

Victor’s body twitched violently as more mist poured from his head. His face had grown gaunt as dark circles formed beneath his eyes.

The domain trembled with anticipation. The statue being’s colossal form stood before the altar with its eyes emitting a swirling mix of colors.

The final layer of the altar had almost completely lightened up as the last ring of ancient runes glowed a faint crimson around Victor’s kneeling figure.

His head hung low, lost within a fabricated peace, the illusion of family and home still flickering faintly within his sealed mind.

The statue’s carved lips curled into a smirk. "Almost there..."

It watched with look of excitement. All it needed now was less than a few seconds more.

But then, something unexpected occured.

From the fractured edges of the dreamscape, a transparent figure began to materialize.

It was translucent and looked exactly like an outline of Victor himself. His expression was fierce, with eyes sharp like blades forged from moonlight.

The statue being froze.

"What—a clone?"

The transparent Victor turned slowly as his gaze settled on his bound, kneeling counterpart, the main Victor who was still lost in the dream.

He clenched his jaw. "I told you to wake up already, idiot," he muttered under his breath, then suddenly dashed forward, turning into a blur before the statue being could react.

SLAP!

The sound echoed through the dreamscape like thunder. The kneeling Victor’s head snapped to the side, and his surroundings; the warm home, his father’s voice, the comforting scent of home-cooked food, rippled like a disturbed reflection in water.

"Wake. Up!" the transparent Victor roared causing cracks began to appear all around Victor’s fabricated reality.

Inside the illusion, Victor blinked rapidly. His father, who had been smiling at him across the dinner table, froze mid-motion. His words glitched, repeating the same syllable again and again before his body flickered and began to distort.

"F–father?" Victor voiced with confusion lacing his voice.

The world around him shattered. The blue sky broke into shards of glass; the ground beneath his feet fragmented into cascading pieces of light. His father’s form twisted and warped until it became nothing but static.

Then—nothing.

Only darkness.

And the faint sound of his own heartbeat.

Victor gasped and shot his eyes open. The illusion was gone. He was back in the dark, eerie dreamscape. He looked around, dazed and confused. His wrists were still bound and he was still in a kneeling position but the illusions no longer held him.

"What... where...?"

The transparent Victor stood before him, arms crossed, wearing that same infuriating smirk Victor often made when taunting his opponents.

"Took you long enough," he said.

Victor’s eyes widened. "You’re... me?"

The transparent Victor sighed and rubbed his temples. "Yes, genius. I’m you. Or at least the part of you that didn’t get mind-wiped when that overgrown statue tried to turn your brain into scrambled eggs."

Before Victor could respond, the transparent version’s form shimmered. His edges began to blur like smoke caught in a breeze.

"Wait—what’s happening?" Victor asked.