*A few minutes earlier...*

"I was right. Damn..."

Dream was still flying towards the battle, but he still had some ways to go. At this point though, the connection between him and Luna was cut off. He couldn't feel her, and the tugging he had felt was gone.

[We're almost there. Another minute or so before they come into view.]

Dream narrowed his eyes and buckled down, putting a bit more mana into his flight.

Eventually, he got within a couple miles of the battlefield. He stopped his flight and hovered in the sky.

[There!]

Sophia blipped his vision and Dream turned. He saw two men. One on the floor, and one standing above the other.

[The one on the floor is Riddick. No sign of anyone else. Including the girls.]

'...So they were beat. What's the Old Man's status?'

[On the verge of death. The one above him is also very weak, but compared to Riddick, is in much better shape.]

Dream nodded. As he was about to prepare a plan to head down there though, he saw the unknown man pick up Riddick by the hair.

"Shit."

Dream took out his Railgun. Riddick didn't have much time left.

'Sophia, fire this for me.'

[Understood.]

As Dream was over a mile away, he wasn't confident in hitting the shot. He let Sophia take over and the next second, she fired.

*DSH!*

The highest power shot the gun could produce was unleashed and went straight for the man's head. Barely a second later, it crossed the distance and nailed its target.

"Whoah."

Dream was surprised by the sudden influx of notifications.

"Wait, that was a class 3?!"

[It was a very weak class 3, but yes, it still was.]

"Hold up... Arghh..."

Dream suddenly grabbed his head. He was hit by a wave of dizziness and pain coming from his body. It felt like his muscles were being broken down.

[It's from the level-ups. It should pass soon.]

"*grunt* Sure..."

Sophia was right though. After a minute of grunting, Dream felt the pain subside and power take its place. He felt rejuvenated.

[Congrats. Now let's go help Riddick. He's almost dead.]

"Right."

Dream remembered and darted straight towards the dying man. He quickly arrived and saw some corpses littered about the area.

"You okay Old Man?"

[He's unconscious. Go over and I'll take a look.]

Dream moved over to his body and put his hands on his back.

[Major internal damage. He's lost a lot of blood. His arm is gone. He'll die within the next few minutes if we don't act.]

"Go ahead and do what you need to give him time. We can repair him when we're in a better place."

[Understood.]

The next moment, Dream's mana moved in and began working on Riddick's body. Wounds were sealed, bleeding was stopped, and they even did a transfusion to give him some much-needed blood. After a couple minutes, Riddick was in a much better state than before. Though he was still drained of energy.

[He'll be good. We can move now.]

"Alright."

Dream got up and looked around.

"...No sign of the girls?"

[None. I'm sorry. The drones-]

"It's fine... We at least know that they're safe."

Dream didn't let her blame herself and thought about it logically. They wanted Riddick dead, not the girls. The girls were still the daughters of a princess and the granddaughters of a king. In fact, they might be safer now than they ever have been. He just won't see them for a while...

Dream looked at the corpses on the ground.

"Let's take these and go."

[Alright.]

Dream went around and collected the corpses. Then, with Riddick in tow, began flying back to the Dome.

...............

..........

When they arrived at the dome, Dream entered and went into the lake. He flew all the way down until he reached the root container for the core.

'...We need a house.'

Dream spread out his mana and pushed the water around him away. Then, the house that he had built at the other lake was brought out and secured into the ground. After that, he enchanted the house and made it hold back the water.

When he was finished, he had an underwater house surrounded by a dome of flowing water. He entered the workshop and brought out a metal table, laying Riddick on top of it.

"What'd you have in mind for fixing him up?"

[Well first, we put his arm back together with the limb you picked up. Then we'll fix up his body and let him heal. I'll also bring out the mana balls and increase the mana concentration so his body can absorb energy faster.]

"Alright."

Dream took out his cut off arm and Sophia placed it back onto the stump. It was reconnected and the tissues were repaired. Then, she went through his body and did a more thorough treatment.

Half an hour later, Riddick looked, for the most part, as good as new. Though his aura was still extremely weak. The mana balls came out along with the cubes and were placed in a dome around his body. The same mana blob environment that Dream had while flying was created around Riddick.

[Now he just needs time. His body will take care of everything.]

"..."

Dream nodded and backed away. He moved to another area of the workshop and took out another table. He put the corpses he gathered on this one.

"So what can you tell me about these?"

[Hey, are you okay?]

"No. My girlfriends were taken away and now I'll need to infiltrate an Empire to get them back. Just as I had begun preparing a safe haven. So to put it lightly, I'm pretty fucking heated. And it's all because these pieces of shit couldn't just let a family be!"

*BOOM*

Dream slammed his fist down onto the corpse, shattering the metal table underneath.

"....I'm not doing this right now."

Dream walked out of the workshop, leaving behind the corpses and Riddick. He went over to the core container and stepped inside. He sat down next to the altar.

"Bring me up."

His vision went black and he appeared in the cabin. Sophia was standing in front of him, her face worried.

"...I want to sleep."

Dream walked to the bedroom and laid down on the bed. Sophia silently followed and climbed under the cold covers with him.

"Can you knock me out?"

[Sure. Goodnight.]

She kissed him on the forehead and his vision started to fade. Soon, he fell asleep.

.............

........

....

2 days after the battle, Riddick finally began waking up.

"..."

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was the metal table he was on. His muscles were stiff and a bit sore.

He looked around and saw these floating balls and cubes surrounding him. He also felt the high mana concentration and could see the system of mana channels going between the objects around him. He'd be impressed if not for his situation.

"*grunt*"

He sat up and massaged his shoulder. But he froze midway when he realized what he was doing.

"...My arm?"

He looked at the arm that was massaging his shoulder. It was the one that was cut off. But it looked and felt perfectly fine.

"When did..."

"You're up."

"Hm?"

Riddick spun his head around to the voice. Entering the workshop was Dream. But he seemed... different.

"Boy?"

"Yes?"

"...Nevermind."

Riddick shook his head. He didn't feel like questioning him right now.

"You should be 100% right now. Your body is totally healed and it looks like your energy is recovered. Do you feel 100%?"

Dream walked over to Riddick and handed him a bottle of water. He responded after downing it.

"...I feel fine. You healed me?" (Riddick)

"I did."

"How did you regenerate my arm?"

"Didn't have to. I just reconnected it."

"...I see. Your skills have increased."

"More than you know. But it's still not enough. Come on. I got food in the house."

"..."

Dream collected the mana balls and cubes and walked out of the workshop. Riddick followed after hopping off the table.

When they got outside, Riddick saw the dome of water around them. It was an odd sight.

"Where are we?"

"We're at the dome under the lake. I'll explain later."

Dream walked into the house with Riddick. In the living area was a table with food already on it.

"Go ahead and eat. It's not 3rd class meat, but it'll do."

Riddick nodded and sat down, on the table were plates of meat, fruits, and other foods. He began eating. Dream just took a seat.

Riddick ate quickly after he realized how hungry he was. Soon, the table was cleared of food.

"Need more?"

"...No, I'm good."

"Alright."

"..."

Both of them were silent. Dream just watched Riddick, while he quietly pondered.

"...You weren't able to find them?"

After a couple of minutes, Riddick broke the silence, getting straight to the issue he wanted to know most about.

"No. I barely got there to save your life. I healed you just enough to get you back here and fix you properly."

"Did you look?"

"No. My concern was you."

"...You should have looked. You might've found them."

"And you would have died. Look, I'm not arguing with you. You needed to stay alive. That was my priority. And yes, it was higher priority than scouring the area to get a trace of the girls. I know you understand that."

"..."

Riddick went quiet. Dream knew exactly what he wanted to say. But he also knew that him being alive was important.

"...So what now?"

Riddick asked Dream.

"For now, you're going to rest. Do nothing for a week or so. Then, you can do whatever you need. You can go to the Spire, go find a dungeon, whatever you need to get more powerful. You're a free man, for the most part. The foxes have the girls and they aren't going to waste manpower on tracking and killing you."

"Doesn't that mean we should go and get them back? Why don't you want to do that?"

"I do want to, but no, that does not mean we should get them back. If you go to the landbridge and cut them off, getting back the girls, you'll only be hunted again. You'll be put on the run and you'll never be able to concentrate on gaining power. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to let them go, and do some soul-searching while leveling up and practicing your skills."

"Soul-searching? Let them go?"

"Yes. Let them be taken all the way back to the castle where they'll probably be locked up for a bit. But hey, it's not all that bad. They at least get to see their mother. It'll be a wonderful occasion, especially when I tell them that you're still alive."

"You-?"

"Yes, I know you gave them the wrist band. But no, I don't know where they are. I won't have a connection with it until whatever's cutting off my connection gets removed."

"..."

Riddick went quiet again. Besides wondering about how Dream knew about his handoff, he realized that his daughters would really be able to see their mother.

"I hadn't thought of that..."

"They'll be able to see their mother and you'll be able to grind your levels in peace. And whenever you're ready, you can go to the castle and fight bowser for your princess."

"...Bowser?"

"An expression."

"Right..."

Riddick disregarded Dream's weird statement and suddenly became much less depressed about the whole situation.

His daughters were safe, they were going to see their mother, and he would be able to focus. Though it would be difficult to get them from Raoul, he could at least prepare.

"So you can hang out in the house and do whatever you want. I'm still finishing my project."

"...Very well."

Dream stood up and walked out of the house. Riddick stayed seated, pondering more over what they talked about.

..............

When Dream left, he went back to the core. He wasn't lying about finishing his project, because he really was close to cracking the code. Or at least Sophia was.

He got back to the altar and sat down.

[Another several hours and I'll be able to start editing. You want to sleep for that time?]

"Sure."

[Alright. I'll wake you if anything happens]

Dream nodded as his vision went black. Sophia put him to sleep.

................

.........

[Dream.]

"Hm?"

Dream opened his eyes as he was woken up.

[We can begin.]

"It's done? Nice. How's the Old Man."

[He's sleeping.]

"Alright. How should we proceed with this?"

[Well I don't want to edit too much, but I've identified the sequences for the fog and barrier and saw the exception for animals. Once I remove that exception, everything with cognition will be confused and not allowed to enter. The only reason they can enter is if they can bypass the fog.]

"Nice. Anything else that we can change?"

[There is one thing. But first, I have found out more about the core.]

"What'd you find?"

[Basically, the energy inside it is definitely mana. But the reason I got confused was because the mana was in a different form.]

"Different form?"

[Yes. As you know, this core has to be able to power the entire dome. To do that takes huge amounts of energy. Well, that means that all the energy needs to fit inside that small core. Basically, the energy is extremely dense mana. To the point where it's basically a liquid.]

"There's liquid mana?"

[Well, that's the easy way to put it. The complicated way to put it is that the mana, once it reaches a certain density, is a 4th-dimensional fluid taking form in the 3rd dimension. We never technically see mana in the 3rd dimension because its 4-dimensional substance isn't able to cast a 3D shadow. But condense it enough, and it does. That's what's inside the crystal, is this condensed mana.]

"....Ya I think I'll just call it liquid mana. Makes more sense."

[Sure.]

"Anyway, are you good to go with editing this thing? How long will it take?"

[Not that long. Maybe half an hour.]

"Nice. Then let's do that and be done with this thing."

[Okay. Beginning edit...]

Right as Sophia began editing the core, Dream got two notifications.

"Well that was fast."

He nodded and laid back. His mana stayed connected to the core and kept editing.

Not long after editing though, the core began acting strange. It sent green pulses of mana out into the roots which caused the surrounding mana to agitate. Dream was hit with a wave of concentrated mana.

"Sophia?"

[It's part of the process. It has to update everything and that takes lots of mana, so it's sending out batches to complete everything. I've also decided to try something with the mana concentration.]

"Are you trying to raise it?"

[Yes.]

"Oh, well alright. You'll probably give the Old Man a spook though."

Dream just laid back once more, letting Sophia do her work.