Blood

"Let's speak freely."

A meeting of four people, with a level of importance beyond imagining, meant there was very little they could discuss.

Sasrir had finished talking about Sequence Potions and fell silent, looking at the others.

In the end, it was the Goddess who asked Truman, "Have you been staying in the City of Darkness lately?"

"Probably not?" Truman wasn't entirely sure. "I'm going to the Kingdom of the Sun God. There's a group of believers I rescued there, and I need some time to instruct them."

"If the Sun God goes to war with the other Ancient Gods, I'll also fight as the Angel of Dreams."

Earning enough Anchors of Divinity wasn't just a matter of having a title. He also needed tangible deeds—acts of protecting his believers.

He had written the Apocalypse of the Night in the City of Darkness, leaving the deepest mark on the history of the Church of Evernight, but here, with the Sun God, he had only a name.

The Goddess glanced at Lilith. "You'll take her with you. For the time being, I'll be focusing on stabilizing the balance between Characteristics and Uniqueness. The power of concealment will weaken."

The Goddess was still waiting for the best opportunity to become a god.

"Okay." Truman nodded.

Lilith remained silent. Right now, she was only a Sanguine.

"All right, this Dream Council is over. Everyone, we are making history."

Truman waved his hand, and everyone left Heaven of Dreams.

Back in the real world, the Angel of Concealment gave him a slight nod, then gradually faded into concealment, as if erased by an eraser.

"I need some time." Truman left as well, leaving behind a stone-faced Lilith.

The Ancestor of Vampires suddenly felt irritated. For the first time, she realized that choosing to regress to Sequence 7 Vampire had been a mistake.

Truman found a stone room and took out the "Trojan Horse of Destiny" Characteristic he had received in the exchange.

Heaven of Dreams was bound to Truman more deeply than Mr. Fool and Sefirah Castle would be in the future. Doing something like this was a simple matter.

He took out the Gloves of the Ancient that the Goddess had given him, along with the "Miracle Invoker" Characteristic he had obtained in the Golden Kingdom.

"I've got all the Sequence Two Characteristics from the three Lord of the Mysteries Pathways!"

"Planeswalker," "Trojan Horse of Destiny," and "Miracle Invoker."

Why not Sequence One?

Sequence One was far too special. There were always exactly three copies, and they were essential for godhood. They were too precious, and gathering them would be far too difficult.

"The Gloves of the Ancient..." Truman rubbed his chin, feeling that this could be troublesome. After all, he wasn't an Artisan and didn't know how to make Mystical Items. "Then I'll shatter them!"

Truman drew an intensely bright Dream Phosphor from the Book of Dreams and shattered the Gloves of the Ancient and the other two Characteristics into specks of light.

Even an Angel could do this, let alone him.

In an instant, colorful specks of light filled the entire room.

"All Beyonder Characteristics will condense in a beautiful and reasonable way."

Truman made a prophecy in the Book of Dreams.

The next moment, the countless specks of light were stirred by some force and turned into a storm, swirling around Truman.

"The Beyonder Characteristics will ultimately form a glove."

Truman spoke again.

The specks of light coalesced, finally forming a glove etched with mysterious patterns.

"Let's see..." Truman began testing the glove's abilities, but as soon as he took it in hand, he sensed something was wrong.

"The union of the three Pathways caused some undesirable changes." Truman frowned. "It'll turn every living creature within fifty meters of me into a Marionette without my control?"

That side effect was too severe. In a crowd, it would be a deadly weapon. He wasn't afraid of the cost, but the people around him couldn't afford it.

"Again!" Truman drew down another stream of Dream Phosphor and shattered the Characteristics.

It was a crude method, but it would eventually yield results. After dozens of attempts, Truman finally figured out what mattered.

"The Beyonder Characteristics will combine with Dream Phosphor."

Truman spoke, and the Characteristics condensed into another glove.

It looked very much like the original Gloves of the Ancient: a deep black base etched with three strange patterns.

But unlike the first pair, this glove shimmered with phosphorescence, and a Dream Symbol had formed on its back.

The Dream Symbol was a simplified drawing of the Book of Dreams, glowing with tiny specks of light. Just one glance seemed enough to draw someone into an infinitely beautiful dream.

"Indeed, there's never been a perfect Mystical Item. That's simply how the rules of this world work." Truman was quite pleased with the new generation of the Gloves of the Ancient.

"But I can temper the madness in it, keep it from being so intense."

He had gotten it wrong before. He'd wanted to create a perfect Mystical Item, but madness was fundamental and impossible to escape. And at the level of Sequence Two, the madness was already very intense.

After several experiments, Truman tempered the madness. He didn't try to remove the drawbacks; instead, he used the Book of Dreams to restrain it, preserving the most distinctive abilities of the three Pathways.

Historical Projection, Wishes, theft, returns, roaming, recreation, and so on.

"All right. I'll keep the name Gloves of the Ancient. It suits me."

Truman put on the gloves. For a moment, it felt as though the entire world was under his control.

That was because they were closely connected to the Book of Dreams.

"Perfect!" Truman nodded in satisfaction.

"But did I forget something?" Truman stepped out of the stone room.

"You finally came out..." A chilly voice came from beside him, and Truman looked over instinctively.

Lilith's eyes were red, and a wild instinct was surging within her—the instinct of a Vampire!

"Hiss!" Truman sucked in a sharp breath.

He'd forgotten about this Vampire. A Sequence 7 Vampire really did need to drink blood!

And Lilith had regressed into a Vampire quite some time ago. She was already craving blood, and she was stuck here with no way out...

"I want to drink your blood!" An unmistakable longing showed on Lilith's flawless face.

"Uh..." Truman wasn't planning to offer himself up to a vampire. "How about I find a few people to bring in? Let them give a little blood or something."

"No. I want to drink your blood!" Lilith refused, staring fixedly at Truman.

Her gaze reminded Truman of the first time he had met Lilith. Back then, she really had been capable of swallowing him whole.

"Why?" Truman didn't refuse again. Instead, he asked her.

"Your blood is pure. It's special!" Lilith's eyes were bloodred, and she was about to pounce.

"Special?" Truman paused. "Is it because of the Book of Dreams?"

"Or is it because I'm supposedly The Purifier?" Truman remembered how the Potion had flowed through his body without leaving a trace.

Even now, he still couldn't figure out the principle behind it. He only vaguely sensed a kind of repulsion.

After confirming that the Book of Dreams was close to the Chaos Sea and Sefirah Castle, he had come to suspect that it might be the repulsion between Sefirot and different Pathways.