"Enoch?" Four Arms froze. He hadn't expected a Forever Knight at all.
"Heh. We're going to keep you busy nonstop. That's the only way we can remove the Omnitrix."
As he spoke, a large number of Forever Knights appeared all around them, lightsabers in hand, surrounding the group completely.
Four Arms tried to send Enoch into the Null Void.
But the moment he raised his hand, the Null Void Projector melted into a wisp of gray smoke and vanished into the air.
Enoch's icy voice rang out again. "Now, you will live in... your most terrifying nightmare."
As soon as he finished speaking, the surroundings changed dramatically.
The barren plain took on a strange, eerie cast, and in the blink of an eye, everything around them was swallowed by endless darkness.
Within that darkness, multicolored streaks twisted through the air like blood vessels in a human body, tangled and interwoven like a maze, trapping Ben inside.
"You really are vicious, but I can still pound you into the dirt!"
Four Arms clenched his fists and moved to attack Enoch.
Beep beep!
The Omnitrix flashed, bursting with crimson light.
"Oh no!" Ben stood frozen in place, panic written all over his face.
A crowd of fierce-looking Forever Knights closed in on him, their sharp lightsabers raised.
"Heatblast!"
Lucian transformed into Heatblast and unleashed a roaring pillar of fire, wiping out every Forever Knight in sight.
Enoch let out a cold laugh. "It's useless. Here... I am the master!"
His body rapidly grew taller. In just a few breaths, he became a giant over a hundred meters tall.
Heatblast slapped the Omnitrix and turned into Fasttrack.
Then he hoisted Grandpa onto his back, scooped Ben and Gwen into his arms, and shot away like a ghostly blur.
But no matter how far they ran, they still couldn't escape Enoch's control.
Fasttrack's heart sank. It looked like Enoch really could control Ben's dream to a certain extent.
But this was Ben's dream.
Ben was the real master here.
"Ben, this is your dream. You're the strongest one here. You're the true master!" Fasttrack shouted, trying to help Ben overcome his fear.
"What?"
Thud!
The gigantic Enoch stomped down behind them.
In an instant, the ground split apart, like some monstrous beast opening its abyssal jaws and swallowing them whole.
...
In the real world, Grandpa Max, Lucian, and Gwen were inside the Rustbucket with Dream Machines on their heads, maintaining a link to Ben's dream.
Elsewhere, in an abandoned warehouse, Ben lay motionless on a cold bed with a Dream Machine on his head as well.
Beside him, someone else was also lost in a "pleasant dream."
It was Enoch.
Forever Knights moved busily around the two of them, coming and going as they worked nonstop to control their dreams.
...
"Aah!!"
The group plummeted downward at high speed.
Bang.
They hit the floor and slowly got back to their feet.
The scenery around them shifted rapidly.
The walls turned corpse-pale, and rows upon rows of bookshelves rose from the ground, packed with countless textbooks and books.
At the sight of it, Ben grabbed his head and cried out, "Oh no! It's school!!"
"Only a super huge idiot would be this scared of school." Gwen couldn't help laughing.
"For a bad student, school really is nightmare fuel..." Lucian said with a faint smile, because he felt the same way.
Grandpa Max took out a detector. "We need to find the exit, fast."
Then the group started down the deep, shadowy hallway.
The light of dusk fell across the corridor floor, casting the place in a bleak, desolate stillness.
"What is even going on? Why am I stuck in a pleasant dream?" Ben couldn't help asking.
Gwen explained, "Enoch wants the Omnitrix, but removing it takes time, so they used alien technology to put you into a happy dream."
"Luckily, Grandpa tracked the Omnitrix's signal and fed it into Enoch's Dream Machine frequency. That's how we managed to get in here and find a way to rescue you."
"But what if they remove the Omnitrix and I still haven't woken up?" Ben's face turned pale.
He didn't dare imagine what Enoch would do to him if the plan succeeded.
"Then you and us both would be finished. Move," Lucian said calmly.
"Wait. Since I'm dreaming, wouldn't waking me up solve the problem?" Ben suddenly had an idea.
Gwen immediately stomped hard on Ben's foot and ground her heel down with all her strength.
"Aaah!!" Ben yelped in pain.
But there was still no sign of him waking up.
"It's no use. We can only leave this place by finding the exit." Grandpa Max shook his head.
The group quickly reached the end of the corridor and came to a corner.
Suddenly, a ragged black-haired boy appeared in front of them...
...
Hi everyone, just a heads-up: I've finished translating this fic on Patreon, and I'll be releasing chapters here little by little, but at a faster pace. But if you already want to read the entire ending and support me, feel free to follow me on P--@-treon/PinkSnake.