I saw rayen in that form. A horn formed on the right side of his head, his hair turned pure white, the whole right side of his body got wrapped in a dark void-like armor, it looked like it was his true body. A Void Body.
A long moonlight like scarf flowed freely from his neck, it was white and bright. His right eye turned shining crisp white. The sight of that form was divine. It looked peaceful yet lonely to me.
I shook my head and grabbed the revolver that I dropped while dodging an attack of Salthas.
"You should have told me if you had such trump card with you." I muttered to myself as I looked at rayen with a smirk.
***
I felt my body changing in many ways, one of my visions turned white but I could still see through it, like I'm seeing through a very thin white paper. I could feel a little extra weight on my head and something on my neck flowing freely. Half of my body was covered in a dark substance that looked like void.
I wasn't feeling that same chest pain or any pain anymore, my body felt extremely light similar to a feather. I had questions but I don't think it was the right time to ask them.
Grahh!
Salthas roared at me and lifted its head up, opened its mouth and slowly a blue dazzling power blast started forming in there.
[Salthas Skill 'Predator Beam' is charging!]
(That attack again? I should dodge it)
Grahh!!
The beam released from Salthas mouth reached rayen, for a moment it looked like everything there got demolished but the one which got demolished was the beam itself.
I looked at my hand in front of me, and all the beams that came into contact with it were pulled inside.
When the beam finally ended my hand started throbbing, but before I could realise anything, a beam came out from my hand with a huge force and charged at Salthas.
Gwahh!!
The beam hit the monster and it got thrown back at a building, the beam didn't harm the monster much but it burned the furs on its head. I turned my head and saw Sia, who was looking at me with shining, starry eyes and a wide smile. It was almost enough to creep the hell out of people.
(Maybe I should defeat this monster before this power ends.)
I turned my gaze at Salthas once again, it was already standing and observing me. Maybe it was planning a new attack. Though it would be better if it didn't have any trump card anymore.
Whoosh!
I was now behind Salthas, suddenly my right hand which was wrapped in void turned into a sharp claw, or it was a claw from the beginning.
Slash!
Blood poured out from the leg of Salthas that I slashed with my claw. But that blood was not blood, it was dreams. When that blood touched me, I saw the dreams of many humans who wanted freedom, who wanted to be predators, who wanted to be lone wolves, and those who were arrogant.
Maybe these 'Dreams' are actually the dreams of humans who somehow turned into creatures like these.
(Yeah, that makes sense why they are named Dreams and why we are called Dreamers.)
While I was thinking, Salthas silently tried to attack me, but I dodged it effortlessly. My scarf reached like a tentacle and hit the wolf, throwing him back again.
(It has its own will?)
I extended my claw and walked toward the wolf.
"Rayen, don't kill him! We need him to complete this quest!" Sia shouted from far away. And what was she doing?
"Why are you eating popcorn? No, that shouldn't be the question. It should be, where did you even get it?" I was looking at Sia, who was sitting on a slab, watching me and Salthas fight.
"I stored it in my inventory a while ago. I thought maybe it would be useful someday, and see, it is today!"
(I should focus on fig—)
Whack!
I let my guard down. Salthas' claw hit my head and I got thrown back by the huge force.
Before I could react, Salthas charged again. This time his claw tore me open from the front. His eyes weren't normal, they were blood red.
[Salthas Skill, 'Merciless Predator' is activated!]
He turned around and threw me in the air with a smack from its tail.
Even in the air, it didn't stop. It bit my scarf, spun me in the air, and threw me far away.
(I... can't breathe.)
***
I was enjoying popcorn, but soon I stored it back in my inventory. "I will finish it next time."
(Because this time I don't think it's fun anymore.)
The revolver was empty, so I picked up the sword, and with a deep breath I ran toward Salthas.
***
My head was dizzy from the spin and hits, but still I tried lifting my head. I could see Sia running towards Salthas. I raised my hand and signaled her to stop.
(That sword won't do anything, this monster is now in his berserk form. What we need here is... Something powerful.)
Salthas didn't even look at Sia, all of its focus was on me. It walked toward me and rested his claw on my shoulder, that dream then started smirking. It was a strange sight.
(Maybe its arrogance has won in this fight. In the end, no power could save me from destruction.)
[Exp: 300/500]
It lifted its claw back up, then with a sharp pace it charged at me. As the claw touched my body, a message came in front of my eyes.
[Conditions for an Influence Skill are met!]
[Influence Skill, "Lonely Void" is activated!]
Salthas' claw started wrapping in the void body, it tried to separate itself but nothing worked. Slowly my eyes closed too.
***
"What d¡d y0u d0 †o m3?!"
I could hear a strange voice in my head. I slowly opened my eyes and saw a huge creature with no shape. It was very uneven, even hard to describe.
"Who are you? And what is this place?"
"iTß ur hArt!"
"It's not, my heart has a snowy mountain in it."
The creature lowered a shapeless hand down. I looked down and saw the snowy mountain. We were in the air, above the snowy mountain.
"tak3 m3 0ut!"
Suddenly multiple faces came out from the creature's body. But as they reached me, they all started screaming in pain.
"it's s0 l0n3ly, tak3 us 0ut, tak3 us 0ut!"
"ÆÆÆÆ!" With that scream, all of the faces disappeared from the shapeless creature.
***
As I opened my eyes, I saw someone feeding me water. It went into my air pipe and I coughed hard, then stood up.
"Oh you are awake?" It was Sia, she had a water bottle in her hand, maybe she was the one feeding me water.
(Wait.)
I realized my right eye wasn't white anymore. Then I touched my face and body. They were all back to normal. Even the attacks of Salthas that had torn me apart were all gone.
"Where is Salthas?" I asked calmly.
"There, but I don't know why it is so quiet since then?" She pointed in a direction. When I looked in that direction, I saw Salthas, who was sitting peacefully, looking at me and making a puppy-like sound.
"It is making sad sounds since you used that strange void to wrap it."
"How many minutes have passed since the battle started?"
[Time passed: 37 minutes]
[Penalty for Failure]:
Saddening The Order
(You don't have to remind us the penalty, you know.)
I took a deep breath to catch the moment, then looked at Sia. "Let's make our glorious entry."
***
In a massive colosseum, there were more than a million Dreamers. Some were old, some were young, and some were even babies.
Among those millions of people, there were many groups that formed just now. Many of the Dreamers had taken this otherworldly adventure as a gift from God.
Many were even confused if they were in an isekai anime. Many of them were thinking of making their own harem, many were trying to act like a lone wolf.
[Dear Dreamers!]
[The announcement is going to happen soon, so wait patiently.]
[There are still two Dreamers who haven't joined us!]
[Time left: 1 minute]
"Only because of two, you are making us wait?!" A big guy yelled at the huge window in the sky.
"That's stupid." A girl with a noble attitude sighed.
Soon the time passed and came the last few seconds. Many Dreamers were confused, some were angry, and some didn't care.
[Time left: 10 Seconds]
[9]
[8]
[7]
[6]
[5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
Smash!
The west-facing wall of the colosseum smashed open and smoke spread everywhere.
"Ugh! What was that?! Do you know how much my skirt cost?!" The noble girl yelled with anger in her eyes.
[The last two Dreamers have arrived!]
[Let's start the announcem—]
"Hah, all of you fools. Shut up and listen to me!" A young lady in a grey trench coat yelled into a microphone with a smirk.
"I am better than you all!" She started laughing.
The young man beside her, who was younger but looked older, said, "Where did you even get that?"