Van once again found himself in a dream, but this time, he was no longer surrounded by darkness. Instead, he found himself in the sky.

"!!!"

​​

Van tried to cast his [Air Step] but was unable to do so as his System did not even work in the dream. But he did not need it in the first place as he was not really falling, he just remained floating; his body rotating and gliding like a feather in the air.

And so, realizing that he was safe, he let out a long and deep breath as he focused his eyes towards the ground below. It would seem that he was… back outside? He could not really tell since there were numerous buildings that towered almost to the skies.

Buildings that were similar to those he could find in the Deadzone, but instead of being in pieces, they stood tall and proud-- almost hundreds of them as far as he could see, and even taller than the Wall itself.

The cars that Van has only seen once in his life also littered the road, moving like ants with how many there are.

"...What is this place?" Van could not help but let out a whisper. He has never seen something like this before, so full of splendor and life. And even from afar, he could also see the people leisurely walking the streets, without even any worry or care in the world.

He could only imagine… what if he was born in this place instead? Everything seemed so… peaceful...Would he even need his System then?

"..."

Van has stayed in the skies for what felt like hours. But even then, his eyes did not get tired from all the new things he was seeing…

...But then, the lands started to darken as a huge shadow covered even the colossal buildings.

"!!!"

Van quickly turned his floating body upwards, only to see a gigantic Portal covering the skies above him.

And from that Portal, emerged a familiar gigantic figure. The one that appeared from Van's last dream-- a gigantic tall soldier covered in armor, its head entirely hidden by a helmet, and most noticeable of all, of course, were the 6 wings that were attached on its back.

The winged-soldier was then followed by another familiar figure… Van scoured his mind to remember what that lightning-clad gigantic bearded man called him. Finally, after a few seconds, the name appeared in Van's mind.

"...Hermes," Van muttered. Due to the previous dream being short, he quickly forgot about it. But if this gigantic man is called Hermes… Does that mean his System came from him?

Both of the gigantic beings were bleeding profusely, their blood showering the people below.

'...Why aren't the people running away?' Van thought as he squinted his eyes towards the people. Instead, they seemed to be busy watching the two giants chasing each other, holding this very familiar thin black box that Van has only seen in the Relic Graveyard.

A loud noise then echoed through the air as another Portal opened up, and as soon as it did so, the winged-soldier flew through it; and before it could fully close, Hermes was once again able to follow it.

"..."

Something is wrong, Van thought. He, however, did not think for long as a loud snap echoed through the air.

"!!!"

Van quickly turned around, only to see that the Portal that Hermes and the winged-soldier came out from was still there… and slowly, a 3rd shadow emerged from it.

A gigantic snake, 9 of them. No… as soon as it fully emerged from the Portal, Van found that the nine snakes shared the same body. The Academy mentioned this creature before…

...A monster that one could only see in Rank A Portals and above-- A Hydra.

And without even a warning, one of the heads opened its mouth, causing a deafening whistle to ripple through the air; what followed was a scenery of death and destruction. With just a single roar from one of its heads, the buildings that once stood glorious quickly crumbled to the ground, crushing those that were unlucky enough to be near it.

Or perhaps they were the lucky ones, as what followed could only be described as carnage. The splendor that once comforted Van's eyes turned into a blaze of hell.

"T… this…" Van could only stutter as he watched the scenery in front of him; there was a monster that was capable of this kind of destruction? All the buildings, even those that already blurred from Van's eyes, were decimated.

The strongest monster he has seen was the talking Arachnaea who gave him a feather… but he was sure that even she was not capable of this much destruction. Will… he even able to scratch this overgrown lizard?

Van then squinted his eye as he noticed that another shadow was coming out of the Portal, but before he could see what it was, he was awoken by a whisper.

"Messenger… You have a job to do."

"!!!"

Van let out a loud gasp as he sat up from his bed of leaves. He quickly looked around the room to see who it was that whispered in his ear, but no matter which corner he looked, no one was there.

"..."

"What… the fuck," Van could only shake his head as he tried to calm himself down. He doesn't know whether it was from the dream or the hot and damp air inside his new house, but his body was completely covered in sweat.

After a few seconds of collecting his breaths, he let out a long and deep sigh. He was about to lie down again, but he suddenly heard the door opening. Van quickly put up his guard as he looked at the swaying door, but what he saw there completely made him drop his guard for a full second.

"You awake… boy?"

It was Latanya, the solemn light of the moon seeping from the corners of her curved silhouette as she slowly entered Van's humble abode.