Surprise

He-El was weightless.

In an instant, He-El felt like an ordinary person standing on level ground, falling backward out of control, about to crash into the earth.

But what he crashed into was not the ground. It was like shattering glass; within the fragments, everything from the past was reflected—things and objects, flowers and grass, sounds and ocean waves. He fell into the first layer of the Dreaming dimension.

Time moved ten times faster than reality.

There was a sense of time overlapping, of a thousand years passing in an instant. The bewildered sensation of falling backward felt dreamlike and unreal.

His mind fell backward once more, into the second layer.

Reality.

The first layer ran at ten times the flow of external time.

The second layer ran at a hundred times the flow of external time.

The fractured time and thoughts seemed about to split apart, as though three minds at different stages had appeared. They were all his thoughts, yet they seemed separated, no longer like himself.

The third layer.

The fourth layer.

The fifth layer.

The sixth layer.

The seventh layer.

The eighth layer.

The ninth layer.

The tenth layer.

With every layer he fell deeper into, he craved an even deeper stream of time, like the flowing time of the universe about to pass through his mind and enter the truest depths of his thoughts, unveiling every mystery of the cosmos.

The Dreaming dimension.

It held an incomparable, fatal temptation greater than any drug, a craving impossible to stop.

He-El's psychic field projection body floated above the palace. The hem of his black cloak-like coat snapped in the wind, while his black eyes were blank and vacant, devoid of life.

On the International Space Station, He-El opened his eyes. He had always controlled the psychic field projection body, using it to act in his place on Earth.

"Stunning. Truly stunning."

Edward's surprise had far exceeded his expectations.

He-El had considered that Edward possessed psychic abilities and would develop all kinds of applications from different angles, but he had never imagined Edward would be so ingenious. He had spotted an angle He-El had overlooked and used the Dreaming dimension to trap him to death.

If Edward had been three or four levels below He-El, it might truly have been possible for him to use the Dreaming dimension to trap He-El to death.

That was what He-El found so astonishing.

Edward was simply too outstanding.

So outstanding that He-El could not bear to shatter the Dreaming dimension with a violent psychic assault.

This was the seed of a dimension. It had the potential to become something far grander—to become a supreme god who ruled over the Dreaming dimension.

Destroying it with psychic violence now would be far too regrettable.

At the moment the mind of his psychic field projection body fell to the tenth layer of the Dreaming dimension, He-El deeply sensed the dimension's formation and function. He analyzed and experienced this admirable dimension.

He intended to fulfill this Dreaming dimension.

Lying on the International Space Station, he curled his lips into a smile, raised two fingers like scissors, and severed his psychic power's connection to the psychic field projection body, leaving that psychic power forever within Edward's Dreaming dimension.

Above the palace, after He-El severed its psychic power, the psychic field projection body's black cloak-like coat fluttered wildly, and the entire body began falling from above the palace.

The many Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association members who saw this were dumbfounded.

"Did He... fall?"

"He's falling!"

"We succeeded."

"Edward... well done!"

"Oh... YES!! We saved humanity."

"Haha, from now on, we will lead human civilization toward a new future."

"I'll gladly accept all of this... Hahahaha!!!!"

At first, these people were still in a daze.

They stared wide-eyed, their swirling wineglasses coming to a halt as they stood frozen, staring fixedly at the screen.

This... alien... was dead just like that?

They had once believed the alien to be incomparably powerful, capable of withstanding nuclear bombs without dying, and thought He would be the lifelong opponent of this group of Earth humans.

They had believed that, at the very least, they would have to wait for Gaia to awaken, for the Earth's magnetic field to turn and continental plates to become the battlefield in a vast future war.

Or that Lazarus would resolve to run with death, accumulating kinetic energy as he ran, and eventually kill Him in the future.

Or that they would wait until their various supernatural methods matured, then ignite a fierce future war for humanity's freedom.

But they had never imagined that Edward's very first probing attack would kill a god!

It had merely been Edward making a move.

He truly was a terrifying master psychologist, possessing methods to manipulate people's hearts without leaving a trace.

He was also the first to receive the superpower gene serum and gain superpowers.

They had thought it was only a test, meant to probe how many weaknesses the god still possessed.

Never in their wildest dreams had they expected to see this!

Edward had drawn upon the psychic power of five hundred million people and faced He-El directly, and then that god fell from the sky.

They might not understand just how dangerous psychic battles were, or how much powerful technique they required.

But they could see it clearly: that body which had loomed over all Earthlings had lost its bearing and was plummeting toward the ground. Every pair of eyes saw it, wide open and staring.

"Is this real?"

Jupiter watched the image of He-El falling from the sky in uncertainty. Her heart clenched tightly, her slender fingers curled into fists.

Deep inside, she longed to kill this alien who scorned humanity and scorned them, humanity's most intelligent people.

But reason told her that now... was not the right time.

Her heart wavered amid tense emotions. With her beautiful eyes wide open, she swallowed and stared fixedly at the screen.

The many Humanity Self-Rescue Heroes Association members watching the satellite footage felt as though happiness and good fortune had struck them on the head. They were filled with unbelievable disappointment, regret, and excitement, their emotions hopelessly tangled.

They were disappointed and regretful that the god had not been brought down by them.

They were excited because they would rule this world, leading its people into an unprecedented superpowered future.

This world would be ruled by us!

Even before He-El's psychic field projection body hit the ground, they had already crossed their legs with elegant poise, smiling with wineglasses in hand, their eyes gleaming as they began planning their own schemes—preparing to impose dictatorship, divide territories, and fulfill their ideals and ambitions.

Without a god looming above their heads, without that veil of gloom, the air was so fresh, the sky so blue. Even the fragrance exploding across their tongues from the wine seemed vividly sweet, bead by bead.

The next moment, their rising ambitions and joy had not yet reached their peak before plunging into the abyss.

Before the psychic field projection body in the sky could hit the ground, He-El, lying aboard the International Space Station, poured another measure of psychic power into it.

The falling He-El abruptly opened his eyes. His black cloak-like coat swept through the air as he shot into the sky, hovering above the palace and facing Edward, whose psychic power had weakened to the point of almost vanishing.

"...Sigh."

As though his gaze itself carried through, Edward let out a long, deeply regretful sigh from within his mind.

This was already the best method he could think of to kill a god.

To strike from an angle He-El had never noticed.

To create the Dreaming dimension and let Him perish within it.

But clearly, sensing the mind returning to He-El's body, he had failed.

There would be no second chance.

With His ability to learn, He would master the Dreaming dimension and innovate beyond it, perfecting it into something even more impossible to counter.

The sighing Edward no longer had any hope.

This faint psychic power dispersed with the wind and sand, and beneath the clearly visible dust, the kneeling masses remained.