Dream Council

"If Sasrir hadn't arrived, things might have gotten a little troublesome." Truman looked at Lilith, whose expression was growing ever colder, and reached out to grab at the air.

A woman wearing a Dark Robe was pulled out of the Historical Void.

At the same time, Amanises, who was far away on the outskirts of Giant King's Court, narrowed her eyes, surveyed her surroundings, and entered a concealed state.

The next second, wisdom flashed in the eyes of the Goddess who had emerged from the Historical Void.

She glanced at Lilith, who was confronting Sasrir, and instantly understood everything.

"Concealment!"

The Goddess's body abruptly blurred and expanded, shrouding the entire area.

Seeing this, Truman also reached out and tapped the Book of Dreams. Dream Phosphor burst forth, amplifying the concealment.

This already powerful ability surpassed a certain limit. Everything here was instantly erased, as if it were a sketch wiped away with an eraser.

Within that concealed world, Truman stood beside the Goddess, watching the surging Chaos Shadow and Moonlight Galaxy.

"So this is the power of an Ancient God?" Both sides were being restrained, and neither tried to break through the concealment, but the way they wielded their various abilities still opened Truman's eyes.

"It won't take long," the Goddess said softly.

Truman nodded. The fact that Lilith hadn't immediately tried to escape when the Goddess concealed everything already said a lot.

Perhaps the appearance of the Goddess of Misfortune had made Lilith realize this was a much broader front than she had imagined, and consider joining them.

"Let There Be Light!" Sasrir's chant was already approaching the Ancient Sun God's in power. Scorching sunlight blossomed from the chaotic-colored sea.

The Red Moon hung high, casting down its moonlight.

Beneath the moon, the pride and madness vanished from Lilith's face. She watched the Blasphemy Slate in Sasrir's hands with caution.

"Paths of the Divine? Mother Goddess, Moon?!" Lilith's expression shifted several times, but Sasrir had concealed the most important aspects of the two Pathways in time, making a red glint flash in Lilith's eyes.

A flicker of uncertainty crossed the Goddess's eyes as she looked at Truman beside her.

"That's the advantage of monopolizing knowledge." Truman sighed and opened the Book of Dreams in his hands. Dream Phosphor began to manifest knowledge of the Evernight, God of Death, and Warrior Pathways.

The difference was that Truman's knowledge was complete.

For a while, no one spoke. The two Goddesses were reconstructing their understanding of the world.

"So that's how it is..." The Goddess's eyes trembled slightly. At last, she closed them and let everything fall silent.

The Sequence knowledge had shaken the two Goddesses beyond imagining, allowing them to reassess themselves and plan for the future.

"The sun behind you is a True God like that." The existence of the Ancient Sun God left Lilith with no doubt about the accuracy of this knowledge.

When that sunlight shone down, she could clearly sense the difference between the being opposite her and the Ancient Gods.

There was a purity to it, while the characteristics within the Ancient Gods were far too mixed. Madness was unavoidable.

"We can cooperate, but you have to help me expel the excess characteristics." Lilith looked at Sasrir, Truman, and the others.

"Mm. I suggest you expel the Moon Pathway," Truman said suddenly.

"Why the Moon?" Lilith no longer dared to underestimate Truman. Instead, she asked cautiously.

"Because of what's up there." Truman pointed at the real moon.

Sasrir and Lilith both changed expressions abruptly!

The Goddess of Misfortune's eyes flickered. She naturally knew there was something wrong with the starry sky, but the moon...

"Agreed!" Lilith seemed to have thought of something. She was deeply wary of what was above and accepted at once.

"You know more than I expected," Sasrir said, looking at Truman as well.

Anyone at Sequence Two or above—even a Sequence Three Wanderer—knew there was something wrong with the starry sky. But Truman's ability to clearly identify the moon's influence on Lilith exceeded Sasrir's expectations.

"Of course." Looking at the three of them, who had now reached a basic understanding, Truman felt a strange sense of wonder.

A grand scheme that might have stretched across thousands of years in the original course of events had begun under his own efforts to bring them together.

"Mm..." Truman rubbed his chin. A brilliant glimmer of Dream Phosphor began to sparkle in his eyes as he looked at the three of them.

"Everyone, I have an idea..."

Truman suddenly grew a little excited and opened the Book of Dreams.

A wash of Dream Phosphor enveloped everyone. The three looked somewhat bemused, but none of them refused.

Inside the Book of Dreams, countless dreamlike spheres shimmered with phosphorescence surging like a torrent. Truman entered first, and with a single thought, the background transformed into the vast starry sky.

He waved a hand. Phosphorescence flickered and turned into a City of Starry Sky, ringed by magnificent stone pillars a hundred meters tall, as if they were supporting the entire heavens.

Looking closer, a fantastical palace stood at the city's center. Every part of it was exquisitely beautiful, adorned with glistening pearls, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, and other precious stones.

But these were merely dreamlike objects drawn from reality. Within the Dream Palace lay beauties beyond the limits of human imagination.

These beauties were more abstract still, an endless play of colors that reached the limits of perception and sensation. Like the vastness of the starry sky, they were boundless, and each person could see here what they longed for most.

Endless Dream Phosphor shimmered as all four of them descended here together.

"Here?!" Lilith's eyes were filled with an entranced look. At this moment, she possessed a beauty that could rival the Dream Palace itself.

"Ah..." A muffled moan rang out, languid and contented. Light shimmered in Lilith's eyes as she stared fixedly at Truman, her gaze seeming ready to devour him whole.

Truman had seen a similar look the first time he met the Goddess.

Don't misunderstand—devour him whole was meant literally.

"I've never been so clear-headed. It's as if this is the first time I've truly been myself..." It took Lilith a long time to calm down.

This was a dreamlike Heaven, a celestial realm where madness and indifference both subsided into peace.

"This place can suppress the madness inherent in your natures," Truman explained. He tapped the air, and an ancient bronze round table appeared, with five seats arranged around it.

"From now on, this place will be called the Dream Council!"

"God Almighty!" One of the high-backed chairs shimmered with a color impossible to describe, yet seemed to contain an ocean of endless knowledge.

"Lord of the Mysteries!" Another chair shimmered with unfathomable fate, time, space, and history. Twisted lines outlined Sefirah Castle, above the Spirit World.

"Mother Goddess!" The third chair held a mass of pulsating black light, the convergence of all negative forces. The filthy Mother Nest was faintly visible within it.

"Terminus!" The fourth chair represented the singularity of all things, the end and annihilation of the universe and all Gods and Great Old Ones.