Core Realms. Dream Realm.

Welch stood alone. In front of him, an army of blue armored Aggressors got ready for war.

The situation wasn’t good. Welch could sense every single Aggressor in the field was at the peak of their respective power scale. He could kill a dozen of them easily. He could kill a hundred of them at a small price. But a thousand Aggressors were too much. even for him, to handle.

More importantly, the Aggressors didn't have to kill Welch. All they needed to do was buy enough time to get Ka out of here.

On the side, Ka slowly approached Al. Al stood up, about to resist, but one of the Aggressors moved behind him and restrained him.

But Welch wasn’t frightened. In fact, he was smiling under his helmet.

Chilling words were spoken.

“The Dream Realm is located in the Core Realms. It is sovereign, but it is surrounded by worlds under direct Protector control. I called for help a long time ago. Do you really think reinforcement took this long to arrive?”

At the next moment, twelve figures came down from the sky and pierced the Aggressor phaseship on the way down. The entire vessel exploded under the white power of the newly arrived Protectors, along with any personnel left inside. All twelve Protectors landed around Welch.

Unlike regular Protectors, these Protectors had black and red stripes on the arms of their armors. They weren’t just any Protector. They were ARCADIA Protectors.

What the acronym ARCADIA stood for has become irrelevant a long time ago. Instead, it was more of an honorary title. During the Merge, during the darkest days in the Protector history, ARCADIA was the entity that stood side by side with the Grand Protector and led the fight against the enemies that threatened to destroy their very civilization. If the Grand Protector was the general, then ARCADIA was her most loyal guardians.

Since the formation of the Protector Corps, ARCADIA became an elite unit with more privilege and authority than any other Protector unit. ARCADIA Protectors answer directly to the Grand Protector. While a lot of Protectors carried out all types of missions in the Infinite Realm such as patrol or expedition, ARCADIA Protectors devoted themselves to tracking down the Enemy and ruling out internal disloyalty.

When Welch heard about a presence allegedly strong enough to challenge the Protectors head-on that was organizing resistance throughout the Infinite Realms, he contacted ARCADIA. The ARCADIA squad arrived a long time ago, but they decided to stay hidden.

Ka was just a small fish. He was likely just a puppet put into the open by a much deadlier enemy. Even if he knew something, it wouldn’t be important enough. The Protectors were after the ones behind him. They were after the larger fishes.

A thousand of these so-called Aggressors counted as one of the larger fishes, so the trap was sprung.

All twelve ARCADIA Protectors instantly formed a seal around the Dream Realm. Unlike that of Welch, their barrier was nearly impossible to penetrate. If the 1,000 Aggressors had a few years, then they stood a chance, but the Protectors would never give them the time.

For all intents and purposes, everyone in the Dream Realm would be trapped here until the ARCADIA Protectors allowed them to leave.

First, shut the door. Next, time to act and strike down the trapped beasts.

Ka’s heart sank. This was it. He has seen the Aggressors take down Protectors, but their victories were against ordinary Protectors. They have never faced off against ARCADIA Protectors. He has never seen them in action, but from what he heard, ARCADIA Protectors were completely different from their ordinary counterparts. If normal Protectors were the police, then ARCADIA was the special forces. During the Infinite March, they followed the Grand Protector up to the corners of heaven and down to the depth of hell. Their name was forged by the blood and soul of countless gods.

“It’s over.” Al was almost pleading. “Please! Ka! Surrender your arms! You can’t win. There’s no need to shed extra blood!”

If Ka surrendered, then maybe the Protectors would gift him with a quick death. As for mercy...that was out of the window a long time ago.

Ka nodded slowly. Suddenly, he waved his hand and shouted something.

His voice echoed through the Dream Realm.

“Da! Fiqi! Liu! Hame! Gwen! Akl! You have promised to stand with me against these Protector scum! The time is now!”

Ali gulped. Those were the names of six Dream Lords. In an age where the Dream Realm was weakened to its core, they constituted half of the Dream Lords in the realm.

“Why? Why?” He was almost screaming. Tears flowed down his face as he realized what was going to happen. “Why are you doing this?”

Ka was silent. The moment he screamed out those names, he has doomed all those Dream Lords that conspired with him. ARCADIA has already gotten involved. These specialized Protectors would do anything to protect their homeworld. They would rather slaughter these named Dream Lords, whether they were innocent or not, just to be safe than conduct a careful investigation and risk letting a conspirator run free.

With the whole realm locked off, these Dream Lords were dead. They couldn’t even try to run away.

The only thing they could do was go down fighting.

Ka lowered his head as he sensed the endless fury of his conspirators. Not all of them were willing to be martyrs. Most of them expected to be mopping up defeated Protector forces when the Aggressors win the real fight, not be slaughtered in a futile attempt of resistance.

It was the same as betrayal, but Ka had no regret.

Death was bad, but he would rather see his people go down fighting than watch them kneel before the Protectors and beg for mercy. The Dream Lords have stood tall for millennials. This was an honor that should be defended with their lives.

Just like he expected, six powerful surges of energy erupted across the realm. The last stand of the Dream Lords.

Immediately, billions of entities across the realm were brought back to life. Magical beasts. Aliens. Human beings. Voyagers. These were outsiders who have lost themselves in the endless hallucinations crafted by the Dream Lords throughout millennials of the realm’s existence. They have been dormant ever since their fall, but now, activated by the power of the rulers of this realm, they have risen up to fight one last time.

Their souls were washed to a shell of their previous forms. Only their most basic instincts guided their bodies.

The leading ARCADIA Protector drew his blade. His order was simple.

“Execute all that stands against the Grand Protector. No survivors.”

The next second, he was jamming his blade into the lead Aggressor. White energy washed over the man as they sealed off his entire body and all the energy inside. Perhaps he ordered the deaths of all the Aggressors and the rebel Dream Lords, but he did want to get a few prisoners as sources of information. The lead Aggressor was the best choice.

The lead Aggressor smirked. He couldn’t move an inch of his body or dispatch a fraction of his energy, but there was one more thing he could do.

“You are going down, Protector. The Coalition of a million worlds will smash down upon you!”

The next second, the man suddenly collapsed.

The lead ARCADIA frowned. He scanned the lead Aggressor and realized he has imploded his own soul into millions of tiny bits that quickly evaporated into thin air. Even the Grand Protector couldn’t extract information from a soul like this.

That was weird. The lead Aggressor might be defenseless against him, but in the greater scale of the Infinite Realms, he counted as a decent combatant. He could be a lord or a general in most worlds with no one to challenge him. But here, he committed suicide with a single declaration.

Things might be more serious than he imagined.

But the thoughts going through his head didn't stop the action of him or his men. Either way, these Aggressors were rebels, and rebellion must be exterminated. While the lead Protector continued to try to take captives, the other eleven ARCADIA Protectors formed eleven blurs as they smashed through the army of Aggressors. Dozens perished every second. They were nearly at the top of the Infinite Realms, but nearly at the top and at the top were two whole different worlds.

Welch quietly snapped the neck of a strength major Aggressor as he walked to the Pond of Sorrow. A quick glance told him Jean was no longer there. He spread out his power, stabbing another assassin in the process with his own dagger. Finally, he found who he was looking for.

Without a word, he retreated into the shadows, observing.

“What the hell is going on here? This is not part of the mission! The mission is over!”

Allen screamed in anger. He and Jean just returned to their bodies. The watches have returned to them, and he received a notification from the watches that the Trial Mission was a success. But the light beam that should’ve taken him and Jean back to the City of the Voyagers was nowhere to be seen.

He didn't know the ARCADIA Protectors’ seal shut off all forms of interdimensional travel, including the light beams.

Before the two could cheer for the return of their power or feel the growth of their souls, they realized they were in the middle of a battlefield. All around him, creatures of all kinds were moving and fighting, and they didn't look too friendly.

A dragon dashed down from the sky right at Jean. It was governed by its basic instincts since its soul was worn out and ripped to pieces by one of the Dream Lords. For some reason, it really didn't like Jean.

The dragon might be lost, but it was still alive, and all living things despise death by nature.

Jean took a step back and summoned her halberd. She was no longer the defenseless girl in the nightmare who could be killed by a single wraith. A storm of Power of Death punched its way into the dragon’s brain and ripped out whatever fragments of soul it had left. Immediately, the dragon lost control and slammed into a sea of other lost beings, crushing them to bits.

Jean glanced at her hands. She suspected that the dragon at least doubled her in CAS when it was at full power, but she instantly killed it. On one hand, the dragon’s soul was already tormented for god knows how long. It was practically ripe for the taking.

On the other hand, Jean felt as if the Power of Death she could control was amplified.

What Jean didn't know was that the Pond of Sorrow repeatedly batters a soul by killing the participants again and again. If the soul broke, like that of Chaos, Trinity, and most of the Voyagers, then, well, that body would be no more than a fragment of its true self. If the soul survived, like Jean and Allen, then it would be much stronger. It was just like forging a blade. While the soft ones crack, the strong ones become even more durable.

Allen quickly recovered as well. This was unexpected, but he was used to expected things. Sending out a wave of black flames with some sort of sword that burned a line of charging dwarf-like creatures to crisp, he turned to Jean. She was his only ally as far as his eyes could see.

“We need to work together. These beings are frail, but there are too many of them.”

He was right. At this moment, twelve ARCADIA Protectors were slaughtering a path through the billions of lost beings to the rogue Dream Lords. As long as they could take the Dream Lords out, these lost beings would lose their source of power and go back to dormancy. The Aggressors have moved to shield the Dream Lords.

Across the millions of miles of the Dream Realms, tens of thousands perished every second at the hand of the mere 12 Protectors, but the rest kept on moving forward. While they did try to stop the Protectors as much as possible, their primary target was the Dream Lords who have elected to remain loyal to the Protectors.

That was Ka’s plan all along. Targeting these Protectors would be useless. As for Jean and Allen, they were never in his consideration. His target was his fellow people, and as weird as it seemed, it was the best he could do with the resources at hand.

The Protector Corps promised protection for those that yielded. This included the loyal Dream Lords. If Ka could hurt those Dream Lords right here in the Core Realms, under the nose of the Protectors, then he could show the world that even the Protectors weren’t invincible.

That was the most damaging thing he could do, and it was working. Armies of Protectors were summoned to this location, but it would take some time. As long as Ka could kill one or two Dream Lord, then that would already be a good start.

Jean nodded at Allen’s proposal. Most of the lost beings were much stronger than here in terms of physical power. As a glass cannon, she wouldn’t want to get hit by even one of their strikes Allen looked like he could do the tanking. Speaking of tanking, she tapped her watch and unloaded a hundred Kashank Guardians.

The next second, all the Kashank Guardians turned on each other.

“This place is filled with rogue energy that tries to draw souls into hallucination every second,” Allen explained. “This is the Dream Realm. It is part of their defensive measures. Anyone with a weak mind gets made into a puppet and becomes a part of the local defenses.”

“But these are constructs.” Jean frowned. “They don’t have souls.”

“Doesn’t matter. The Power of Hibernation, that’s the power of the Dream Realms, is one of the ultimate powers in the Infinite Realms. It doesn’t get limited by machines.”

Allen was a huge fan of the Protectors, which was why he spent a long time reading about the Protectors’ history, including that of the Core Realms. It was more of a hobby for him, but it came in handy now.

Jean nodded. Any of the ultimate powers wouldn’t be in a situation where they could instantly kill one type of enemy and could do nothing against another. Her own Power of Death worked the best when the enemies had souls, but it could hold its own against machines and inanimate objects as well.

This was the first time she used the Kashank Guardians in a real fight, and they have already been compromised. Thankfully, she didn't take Delta or her Wardens and Purifiers out, or things would be really regrettable.

The 100 Kashank Guardians, without formation or fire support, were quickly engulfed by the waves of fallen beings.

Jean and Allen worked together. Allen fought in the front. Jean could tell he was a skilled combatant. His strikes were fierce and deadly. Jean could sense an unwavering spirit from his every move. It was as if nothing in the world could stand against him. A layer of black flames covered his blade. Everything in front of his blade was worn down before being chopped apart.

Within half a minute, a layer of bodies has already formed under his feet. He never needed multiple strikes against a single enemy. Even those with strong armors or rapid regeneration didn't last long as Allen keenly exploited their weaknesses.

His forged soul most likely helped.

Jean wasn’t chilling either. If it was her at the end of her second mission, then with her primal zerg power, the best she could do was try to stay alive with her regeneration. The fact that all her minions would be easily compromised if they were used would have crippled her, but not this time. The Power of Death came with a heavy price, but at the same time, as a power equal to the Power of Hibernation, it was well worth the cost.

A bug-like creature capable of splitting plasma out of its back barely moved into position before Jean reached out to it. Instead of just taking it out, Jean tried something she learned from hundreds of deaths she endured.

Death by itself was silent, but all living beings fear death. Even the strongest would crumble before death. The nightmare killed the Voyagers hundreds of times to exploit their inner weakness. The fear of death made those as strong and experienced as the Voyagers crumble. Now, she tried to accomplish the same goal with her own power.

The bug-like creature screeched as its very instinct screamed a warning. It might have been mentally capable a long time ago, but now reduced to its basic instincts, the creature’s logic and reasoning were easily overwhelmed by the ultimate fear...it was a fear so strong that it completely broke the creature. Unable to find the source of the threat, the poor soul started unloading on everything around it, friend or foe.

In minutes, the creature has exhausted its life with all those plasma blasts, but it has also taken out a large chunk of the lost beings. Driven by their instincts, these beings didn't even try to take cover as the artillery rained down on them.

Jean has always been a master at discovering efficient ways to kill.

Suddenly, as Jean was about to make another move, a golden flame landed on Jean’s back. It made a hissing sound before the Power of Death ended its existence.

Jean turned around and found herself looking at Trinity.

"Hello there..."