{Hmm... That's the crudest solution I've ever seen.}
Somewhere in the space outside the factory, a presence was observing. He hadn't left for the time that Dream was solving his problem.
{Neutral territory huh? I guess... He's one of the few who could find a solution like that. Not many people have neutral mana like him anyway. But he didn't even tap into the concept... Or did he? He is from the cosmos. His lack of contact may provide a subtlety that even I can't see through. Not that anybody has ever tapped into that concept yet. Not even I was able to do so... But maybe... Yes... This is a good one. He showed it was possible. That's what matters.}
With that, the presence disappeared. Though not before leaving behind one more order.
{Declare him worthy.}
..........
......
As Dream observed his mangled body, the girls noticed his emergence.
"Dream!"
The girls' souls attempted to materialize, but their lack of control wouldn't allow them. Dream looked over at the two clouds of black and white.
"I... It'll be okay."
"Dream you-"
"Shh... Just focus on yourselves. Finish your advancement. Do that... and the problem might be solved."
"...Okay. We'll do it. We'll do it as fast as possible."
"Don't hurt yourselves..."
Smiling, Dream closed his eyes again. Seeing how his soul wasn't destroyed, the girls felt a flicker of hope and focused on themselves.
Gradually, the two clouds began to disappear as they were brought into their souls, similar to their bodies disappearing. After several hours, 80% of the clouds had disappeared, their power now residing within their souls.
With the power moving into their souls, the girls regained proportional control over themselves. They didn't dare to activate any skills though for fear it might affect Dream.
However, what they didn't know was that with every percent of the cloud they absorbed, Dream received more pressure in the capillaries from the increase in power. However, he had found another remedy for that.
'Use the power against themselves. The solution works. It just needs more power. My...my needles. Use the needle enchantment.'
[Got it.]
Knowing Dream was barely holding on, Sophia mustered her power and did as told. She proceeded to enchant the clear mana with the same enchantment that went with Dream's needles.
Sure enough, after a bit of modifying she was able to get it to work. As the clear mana was bombarded from the two opposing sides, it extracted some of the influence and used it to counteract the energy. This way, each energy would fight itself and it would allow more time to fuse the two energies within the neutral mana.
Some needles would also come to collide in the middle to controllably spread the constantly accumulating power within the capillaries. This actually produced something like a gray mist that Dream barely detected.
Like that, 10 hours passed after Dream solved the problem with capillaries. At this time, the girls had finally absorbed the last of the clouds.
"Materialize!"
With an urgent shout, Luna and Iris suddenly popped into existence. They were in their fox forms.
Iris had retained her black fur and red accent. Except now, the red color seemed to corrode the air around it. The black also became overwhelmingly darker than before, and no light reflected off her fur except that of the red. What drew attention the most was the mark on her forehead. It was a black hole, and swirling into that black hole were strips of white light. If it weren't for that white light, one might not even know there was a black hole mark there.
Luna's fur has also became more splendorous. She shone with a bright but soft light, like that of the moon. Her fur had become more silvery than white, and the blue accents became more pronounced. She radiated a much heavier aura of vitality as well that pulsed from the blue accents. On her forehead was also a mark. It was a crescent moon whose points faced down like a dome. And under that crescent was a spartan. The spartan was a woman. She held a blue shield, wore a golden helmet, and carried a silver spear. It was a magnificent sight that made one want to bow in respect.
The two foxes with their new looks weren't worried about their looks though. Upon appearing, they immediately dashed over to the mangled body that was Dream.
"His soul. We need to stabilize our powers. We can't cut it off, but we can make it less turbulent. That'll allow him to handle it better." (Luna)
"Okay."
Nodding, both of them observed Dream soul while activating their powers. They sent their influences across the contract they had with Dream and didn't stop the raging battles, but took control of them. Like this, they were able to calm the flow and push their power through his soul capillaries, working with the clear mana, not against it.
After a while, they saw results. The white and black powers stopped spreading through his soul, instead diverting themselves towards the capillaries. This continued until the only things that were black or white were their contracts with Dream and the capillaries.
Dream obviously sensed what they were doing and worked alongside them. After finding a rhythm, he felt much more comfortable.
[They did it... It's working. Alright, let's get your soul in order. Then...then you can rest.]
Calming herself, Sophia got to work, repairing broken strings and even creating new ones to replace the ones that were destroyed.
The process only took half an hour, and once she was done, Dream's soul fluctuated stably with power flowing through it properly. His pathways were also repaired, putting his body back in order.
The girls noticed his healing body and were relieved. They could also see his improving state, and once he was fixed, they transformed into their human forms.
In these forms, both girls looked mostly the same. Their bodies seemed to have been refined, turned more perfect. Iris's hair was still void black, but now it also had a strip of red. Luna's was the opposite, having silvery-white hair with a strip of blue. Luna's eyes were blue and crystal-like, and Iris's were red like flowing lava.
They kneeled down next to Dream, but neither touched him out of pure fear.
[He'll be fine.]
Sophia's voice suddenly came to their minds.
"...Really?"
[Yes. His soul is just recovering. It shouldn't be more than a few days before he's back.]
"...We're sorry. We didn't-"
[Don't apologize. He needs you more than you think. Nothing was gonna stop him from doing what he did. Just... take care of him. He's weak, in more ways than one.]
"We will. We're not going anywhere."
[Thank you...]
With that, Sophia went quiet.
"...*sniff*"
As she kneeled there, tears started streaming down Luna's face. Iris was also sad, but if anything, was more depressed. She didn't know whether to back away or get closer, so she just curled up on herself, a painful feeling crushing her chest.
Both of them felt ashamed and scared. Everything had been going fine, but then a crisis occurred out of nowhere. All they could do was watch as they destroyed the soul of the one they loved. And even though the crisis had been averted, it had come at a cost. Even now they could sense how weak Dream's soul was. It wasn't just a weakness from injury, but as if his power had been reduced.
His soul only matched that of an C level being. It was far from the impossibly powerful soul that he had before. And whether or not he recovered would only be seen with time. So they waited, staying by his side the whole time.
..........
.......
....
4 days later...
Riddick and Selene had been made aware of the situation. Not to its fullest extent, but they at least knew that things had taken a very bad turn. That much they could pick up from Dream's extremely weak soul.
On the other hand, they were shocked at how strong Luna and Iris had become. Iris's aura could already put significant pressure on Riddick, as did Luna's, albeit not as much. Maybe it was the difference in their types of powers. Iris's matched up with Riddick's, but since she seemed to occupy a higher version of his power, he felt an instinctual inferiority.
Unfortunately he couldn't pry out of them any details. Neither of the girls wanted to even speak, and the depression was evident in their dim eyes. Literally. Usually the colors of their eyes were vibrant, but the blow to their mental states had actually dimmed them.
Either way, with neither of them speaking, eating, or drinking, and the parents could only console them as best they could.
This went on until the 4th day.
At this time, Dream was finally waking up. His eyes opened, instantly focusing and seeing the dark ceiling of the dome.
'...Sophia.'
[They're alive.]
'...Good.'
Sighing in relief, Dream started doing a one over of his body. Seeing what he was doing, Sophia gave a rundown.
[Your bodily systems are normal. However, your soul isn't in the best state ever. I recommended checking your status.]
'...Status.'
|Profile|
Name: Dream
Species: Maghdisynthetic Human Male
Class: [Exalted Arcanist]
Titles: [Origin Seeker]
Level: 299
Stats: Strength- B Agility- B
Stamina- B Magic- B
Passive Skills: [Sophia] Lvl. 11, [Arcana] Lvl. 31, [Translate] Lvl. 27
Active Skills: [Summons From Another World], [Particle Manipulation] Lvl. 24
'...That's a significant decrease.'
[I was able to repair the strings, but not the power that occupied them. The girls' power spread to nearly all of your Nexus skill, some of your Arcana and Particle skills, and even seeped partially into mine. Your nucleus was also damaged some, but luckily nothing irreparable. The damage they spread wasn't light, and considering you're almost entirely recovered, I think this might be permanent.]
'...It's fine. They're alive. That's all that matters. Power is only a tool, and I used it. It's not like I can't come back from this. Besides, I didn't only come out of this with losses. My mind seems... clear. It's stronger, definitely stronger. And I got some skill level-ups.'
[Yes, that's true.]
'Mm. Now, what about the girls?'
[They're not doing the best. They've been at your side for the 4 days you were unconscious.]
'...'
Turning his head, Dream saw Luna on his right and Iris on his left. Both were a bit paler and thinner than usual, Iris was curled up like a child, and Luna had tear stains on her face. They were both sleeping.
"*Sigh* You two... It's not your fault."
Reaching out, Dream rubbed his thumb across Luna's face, getting rid of the tear stains. This obviously woke her up, and after her eyes went wide, she quickly started crying again.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
"You didn't do anything. Don't cry. Come on, I just wiped off those stains."
"Heh. *sniff*"
Luna chuckled a bit, causing Dream to smile.
"There's my girl. No more tears. It's over now. Isn't that right, Scarlet?"
Turning his head, Dream looked over to Iris. She hadn't done anything, but he knew she was awake.
"..."
"Come on. Dream wants a hug."
"..."
"*sigh*"
Dream sighed as he looked at her. He realized she had really taken a blow.
'She probably thinks that she's the main one at fault considering her power is destruction. And yes she did do most of the damage, but that wasn't her fault...'
He shook his head. She really was blaming herself for all this.
Without words, Dream pulled himself off the floor and moved over. Seeing that, Iris moved away.
"N-no..."
"Yes."
"No-"
"Come here."
Suddenly shooting out his hand, Dream reached out and grabbed Iris's arm. He then pulled back, falling to the floor with her on top of him.
"No! I can't..."
"I don't care."
"But you..."
"I don't care."
"..."
After struggling a bit, Dream just tightened his hug. Iris eventually stopped resisting.
"...I need you here with me. I did this so I wouldn't lose you."
"..."
"It wasn't your fault. You did your best. It's over, and we're all here."
"..."
"Can you stay with me, Iris? Will you stay by my side? That's all I want. Do you want that?"
"B-but...*sniff* what if I hurt you again? I don't wanna hurt you. I don't want you to die..."
"Don't worry about that. I'm not going anywhere. I made a promise to take care of you two, and if I have to get a little hurt, then so be it. Besides, at this point, we're kind of linked in a non-reversible way. I couldn't get rid of you if I wanted to."
"What? How?"
"The contract, dummy. It's a contract of equals. I have a contract with both of you, and your powers conflict across those contracts. If we get rid of that, you two will end up killing each other."
"..."
"You two are stuck with me whether you like it or not. I just hope you're okay with that... Will you stay with me?"
Stroking her hair, Dream looked toward Iris who was hiding her face in his chest. Softly, she nodded.
"Mm. I will... I'll stay with you. I won't leave. B-but you can't leave either. I'll only stay with you if you stay with me. Please..."
"Yes, of course... Promise?"
"Promise."
"Aww, are you two making a promise without me?" (Luna)
"Huhu, come here you."
Smiling brightly, Dream went and grabbed Luna, bringing her in the hug too. Together they laid there for a while.
"...I love you." (Iris)
"...I love myself too."
"Y-you..."
"Hahaha! I'm kidding! Kidding! Please don't hate me. Come on, I love you too. Gimme some kisses."
"Shut up! You broke the- mmph!"
"Mmmwah!"
"....Meanie."
"Alright, lemme give your sister some sugar."
Saying that, Dream turned to Luna and did as the french do. For a while, the three made up and made out, greatly easing the tension.
...........
After a while, the three stepped out of the dome. Outside were Riddick and Selene, both of whom were surprised to see them.
"Dream?"
"Hey Old Man. Were you waiting for me? I'm flattered."
"...Hmph."
"Huhuhu..."
"Dream... Are you withholding your aura or... did things really get that bad?"
Selene walked over, clearly worried. She could sense his power, or lack of it
"Eh, It's not that bad. I'm still in the B tier."
"What?!"
"It's not as bad as it could be. Besides, I have these two with me. And my machines all work. It's only a little setback. Nothing I can't fix."
"...If you say so."
"Mm. Plus I got Aegis."
"My lord."
"There he is! Sorry about taking those capillaries from you."
"It was no problem at all, my lord. I'm only glad that you surpassed this tribulation."
"Huhu, you always know how to butter me up. Anyway, it's been a while. Two months?"
"Uhh, 5 days." (Iris)
"...Right. Anyway! We better get started with testing these new abilities you guys got. I imagine you guys got some good stuff."
"B-but..."
"It'll be fine. Just doing some experiments. How bad could it go?"
"Bad! Very bad! Do you not remember how you almost died?!"
"Eh. For what is to die than to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?"
"Wha... What does that even mean?!"
"It's poetic! Gosh. No sense of profoundness."
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So what exactly is wrong with him that had his stats decreased? Because almost every single one of his stat increases was usually because of something he did to his physical body through external means, he didn't start to thinker with his soul until after he was already S rank in all attributes.
Job advancement is the only one that give him stat increase outside of his control so maybe these are the ones that were f*cked with cause they resided in his soul?
I'm similarly confused with the loss. I do understand that he swiss-cheesed his soul, but it was explicitly stated previously that you could rip your soul to shreds and it would heal back stronger. Dream even did so, previously, to such an extent that he was in a multi-month coma before he healed much stronger. This didn't even seem all that bad; he was able to patch up his soul in a half hour and chose to sleep while his patched soul healed. His core wasn't irreparably damaged. The strings lost power, whatever that means. His arcana and particle manipulation skills degraded. (Is that possible? Did he un-learn stuff? Get really forgetful about stuff he clearly did?) Someone needs to explain to me how XP, memory, and soul work together!!! So a double downgrade in his soul, much less his physical stats?!!!!?... WTF? Wasn't much of his skill knowledge backed up into Aegis' robo-soul (with whom he shares skills)?
And, as was stated, when he was able to boost his physical strength by upgrading physical parts, without (in the process) doing anything to upgrade his soul, it makes no sense that a degradation of his soul would have any significant impact on his physical stats now?
... it really feels like "god" [Sp4de] is nerfing Dream because he experienced power creep, while boosting the foxes to keep them from being irrelevant. This is especially apparent since Sophia, who exists as part of Dream's soul was not impacted in any appriciable way; fully functional before Dream was unconscious, so I can't believe his soul was shredded or degraded seriously. (And, if it was, wouldn't it instantly regrow, since his spiritual power was largely a function of his knowledge and experience... Install Aegis backup... Done; all the physical bits were already rebuilt by nanites.)
So, from the cheap seats outside That diety's universe, my evaluation of Dream's downgrade this chapter...?...
{Hmm... That's the crudest solution I've ever seen.}.
... But...
{Declare him worthy.}.
Mostly because the story must go on.
If this was Webnovel i'd say it was the usual trick to prolong the story by suddenly making him weaker so you could get more words into the story.
But here ? no clue, lets hope its temporary.
And as TDM said it could be a power creep issue but it's way to late for that.
@TDM well he did say he had the potential plus it was still a solution .I think that something like that was most likely the trail for him to unlock the other class, to try find a way to stop 2 seemingly opposite energy's to either stay balanced or fused instead of ripping each other apart wich would also make sense of why he was dropped where he was at the beginning of the story (he had to meet the 2 girls so that he could develop feelings so that he would do the trial voluntarily). Also the reason i dont think its power creep (well at least not completely becuase the story could still have been passed a bit better) is because there seems to be a bunch of stuff he still dont know and a whole realm and society and new laws of mana and such he has to discover, like ffs he still can't make and manipulate fire like scarlet can and on top of that he's got how many energy manipulation skills to learn and use (still aint used his sound manipulation like skill for anything and god there is like a million possibility for that)
@R_E_A_D_E_R ... I'm sure that the author has plans for them, but at this point all of the supporting characters are utterly replaceable or "fridge-able". There has been no setup for a yin-yang, creation-destruction, theme up to this point. The fox twins could die and, after a bit of weeping and revenge from Dream, he could move on; if the focus of everything up until now was supposed to build up to a deep connection with the fox girls... nope. Dream knows a lot about them, and protects them, but they are essentially furry onaholes (one heals, one eats) that are instantly replaceable by his recently rescued schoolmates or the big sister from the Tower (yeah, I've read the whole story, but the characters are so unimportant that remembering their names isn't needed).
@TDM gotta disagree with ya. While most of my argument was just trying to tie a few plot points up feasibly the one thing im sure of is that from the begining the writer wanted these girls to be integral to the character and hears me reasons. 1) there in the fudging description (yeah weak but it ties in with my other points ,2) only a few chapters in he is becoming so involved with them he is creating a mana link and please remember this is a man that was so unstable he killed himself for knowledge so the girls became a perfect anchor for him, 3) the girls where his only family in this world and the first people to reach out there hands in his time of need (linking in with point 2), and lastly...onaholes...really... yeah the acts are mentioned but thats only really to show that he is tied to them completely and not because "ah yes we need a s*x scene" come on this story is the same one that takes about quantum mechanics the 4th dimension and now is integrating philosophy into a fudging power...if ya wanna talk onaholes then go read some of the casual smut that's thrown on this platform but this is not that. (Also revenge on who the gods? Its never been about that its not some f*cking glory murder story for revenge against a powerful being, if anything the only thing close to that is our good old best skill/girl wanting to punch the system)
@R_E_A_D_E_R ... if the story weren't s*x focused, the author wouldn't have little girls and grown women melting all over him. The author could have made them important friends, without sex. Teenage Dream getting "married" and sticking it into Iris while she was in fox form don't advance the plot. (Don't tell me that there isn't gratuitous and unusual s*x in this story.) The only persistent male character beside the MC, of note, is the father-in-law (note that his importance is merely as an extension of the fox girls).
While you claim that the fox girls act as an anchor, to keep him from killing himself... does that in fact pass scrutiny? Have the girls, in fact, kept him from doing unnecessary dangerous and/or life-threatening things? (Things that put him in multi-month comas or might result in him becoming the enemy of an empire of demi-humans, for example. Magic nuclear explosions, where he has no idea what the outcome will be. GIVING AN AI PERMISSION TO DESTROY HIS ORGANIC BODY AND REMAKE HIM AS AN ANDROID!) The girls have done nothing. His death-seeking behaviors have not decreased an iota, he just has new things to learn on this planet (he killed himself because he ran out of things to learn); if he runs out of new stuff to learn again, maybe he will kill himself again (though that is less likely to happen anytime soon, since he is through the bottleneck of human limitations, which gives him access to far more he can learn)?
I agree that the author WANTS the girls to be important to the reader. I don't mind them as characters, but how they've been used is lackluster. Maybe they are important to his plan for the story, and Dream cares about them, but so what... I don't care about them. What have they done that I should care about? What possibilities do they create that don't exist without them? What use will the be in the future? How do they help Dream advance his goals or get where he wants or needs to be (or readers want him to be)? When I ask these questions, there isn't anything to these characters. I care about them a tiny fraction more than Dream's whole family on Earth, whom I imagine he also cares about greatly, and we know are doing things and training pets or something, but aren't particularly important to the story thus far. ... I'm sure the author might use them as well. But, again, if Dream can go months without speaking with them, and we aren't told much about them as readers, I don't see why I should care about them.
I'm evaluating based on effect not in intent.
@TDM honestly on a few of them points yes I can agree with ya so ill just say that i enjoy this story and was just putting together a feasible excuse forward but I know it is just that, an excuse. Whilst I love this story like many others it has its flaws but those flaws do not completly ruin it and in all honestly i respect this story more on what it wanted to do than what it has done, yet I still continue to enjoy it. So ill just say to you agree to disagree.
@R_E_A_D_E_R ... oh, I agree. The story isn't ruined. And I do find it worthy of going forward, totally. (I even gave the author a reluctant "pass" on the clumsy Dream reboot.) But, if the author is realizing that his character developed in a bad way it might be something he would fix in a revised publishable version. Should that happen, I'd personally prefer that he dump the marrying foxes and s*x aspects of the story. Or, if he wants to keep them (since apparently their inclusion is now integral to Dream's future development) he does things that make us want to see them stick around. For example;
(1) Have one or both of them stay in communication with Dream's family on Earth, while he is doing ridiculously dangerous experiments and going into multi-week comas or isolated work sessions.
(2) Have one or both of the girls share an interest in one of his academic pursuits. Or, have them contribute a goal, personal or professional, that works with Dream's goals or facilitate's Dream's development as a character.
(3) No Harem: Don't throw other women at Dream. And, make Dream uncomfortable when ONLY women keep showing up at places where he is alone. Don't have dream engage in cyber s*x with an AI avatar and/or enter into lifelong partnerships with other women while doing other stuff that he shouldn't be doing... like midnight strolls with women on the beach.
@R_E_A_D_E_R ... I'll add that I appreciate your defense of the author, as a reader of the story. I generally find myself defending the story on other points. But, this was a clumsy chapter, and if someone was going to call it out, I wanted to at least be clear about why it was clumsy, rather than reading lots of ambiguous gripes.
@TDM I don't see why you have such a problem with the so called "AI" which is literally PART of him and probably incapable of directly harming him on purpose.
@shotaboat ... wow, I can hardly remember. I stopped reading this story around this chapter. But, as I recall, my issues with the AI were probably more about her place in the greater context of the harem. (1) She isn't necessary. (2) If he is being loyal to his wife(s) he shouldn't be having sexyfuntimes, since that is emotional cheating at worst or digital masturbation at best.
Generally, I don't like autonomous AIs living in the heads of my protagonists. A dumb AI that does what you want it to is better, or perhaps one with the emotional depth of a puppy wanting to help its master. But a full-fledged digital woman in my head?... no thank you... I've been on the angry end of a sarcastic emotional woman... having one in my head, such that they see all and I can't get away from them, HARD PASS.
This probably doesn't answer your question, and I'm not going to re-read the chapter or try to recall why I wrote what I did, but hopefully this is somewhat helpful.
@TDM first of all, hi. Secondly, your point is valid but I think the writer needed a (...hmm how to put it....ill go with) filler into the story from when dream is alone. Yes, I wouldnt first enjoy a woman in my head, but if it stoped me from going mad? I'd be thankful. I do think her access to his mind was to much, yeah an idea on how he felt would be ok, but knowing every thought? No, because at that point where do you draw the line betwrrn him and her. Also (to go back to one of our previous discussions) I belive the story seems more a draft than a full story. Its pased not that well so we get flooded with Concepts and to many ideas at once not allowing g use to appreciate his progress, the connections are...shallow at best, it does better at this at earlyer chapters but later not so much , and a few other things. A re write with better packing and a bit more...descrption... put into it would be good.