Dream and Reality

Meters in the air, the figure soared into the clouds, his clothes fluttered like bandages.

Kongsu, the moon god.

Everyone present in the command room saw that figure—a huge and stalwart body, with black eye sockets that seemed to hide the abyss of death, and the sharp crescent blade that resembled the scythe of death.

No one could understand what was going on.

They all knew now that everything they had seen, experienced, and felt so far didn't make sense. It was all just a dream—a false reality created by the Dreamwalker. This meant that everything should have been a dream beneficial to the Dreamwalker.

But this giant with a bird's head and a human body seemed to be on the side of the white knight, following the masked man against him.

So, unless this masked lunatic had a strange habit of getting his ass beaten, then this giant was probably not his doing.

But if it's not a dream...could it be real?

The thought was even more frightening, especially with the oppressive force brought by the giant with the bird's head and human body. The whole ship seemed to sink with each footstep, making every cell in those looking directly at him scream that he was real—that he was some kind of god.

The agents could no longer believe their eyes.

What is real? What is a dream?

Not even the Dreamwalker could understand. He now stared at the huge figure with wide eyes beneath his mask, doubting everything and muttering, "Impossible."

This was the dream he fabricated, the space he dominated. Everything should have been under his control, easily transformed according to his will.

How could this happen?

Could it be that the dream he created was invaded by the white knight's dream? Did he fail to invade the opponent's Nightmare?

Dreamwalker's face twisted under the mask. Dreams were his domain, his most trusted ally. Having his dream invaded felt worse to him than his wife being taken.

Charlie was quite pleased.

Kongsu signed in himself, and Charlie could now hang back and watch.

Although it seemed a bit overkill to fight the young ones and the old ones, it didn't matter. The funniest part was that this most powerful god-level daddy was not summoned by Charlie himself but by the enemy.

It is well known that Kongsu, the moon god, cannot affect reality, and he basically operates only in the spiritual world of Moon Knight. But Dreamwalker invaded the spirit of Moon Knight, opened the gate of the Nightmare, and released Kongsu, who lived in the Moon Knight's spiritual world, into the nightmare realm he created.

There is a saying that it is easier to invite gods than to send them away. Kongsu was released unintentionally, and it may not be so easy to put him back into Moon Knight's mind.

Charlie thought Kongsu might be happy now. In the past, he had to fool his hard-working soldier, Moon Knight, through threats and temptations to get him to do anything for him. The results were often disappointing.

But this time, things were different—the enemy released the old man himself. Kongsu would be delighted. He had been punishing evil for so many years, and it might be the first time he saw someone so eager to face death. He must have enjoyed it.

"No, no, no...you can't," Dreamwalker yelled hysterically, raising his cane violently.

At that moment, everyone felt that the entire mothership was being gripped by an invisible force. The windshield of the command room began to crack, and the surrounding metal walls deformed under the terrifying pressure. Broken pipes and cables exploded, sending sparks everywhere.

The cabin shattered, and the airflow engulfed the sky full of glass and metal fragments, sweeping toward Kongsu like a violent storm.

But Kongsu only raised a hand, unhurriedly.

In an instant, all the debris in the sky froze. The glass was ground into powder, and all the metal parts were crushed by dozens of times the gravity, compressed into a point, and disappeared without a trace.

If this scene was already suffocating, what happened next was almost cardiac arrest.

Kongsu raised the scepter in his hand, the sharp crescent moon pointing directly at the dark and boundless night sky.

He is the god of the moon and night.

The starry sky is his domain.

Dreamwalker's eyes widened, and his mouth under the mask opened involuntarily, as if his soul trembled at the sight.

He saw the stars... falling.

Yes, that's exactly what it looked like. The twinkling stars in the sky began to move, growing larger in his field of vision. They swooped down at the speed of light, and the dazzling brilliance they trailed seemed to draw a star road, rushing straight toward him.

Everyone saw the shocking scene they could not comprehend. All the stars in the night seemed to respond to the call of the moon god, following the direction in which the scepter swung down, and swooped toward the ship.

Dreamwalker tried to remain calm.

It's just a dream, just a dream, not real. He tried to tell himself.

These tricks were all invented by him, his best work. This was his domain, the Nightmare he created. At worst, he just needed to release his ability and wake up immediately...

But no.

He tried his best to activate his ability and roared hysterically, but when he opened his eyes again, the death-like giant shadow still stood there. The stars in the sky were still locked onto his position and falling.

It was a scene beyond even the most extreme movie special effects. Countless stars exploded in the dreamscape, bursting like clusters of extremely gorgeous fireworks.

Each agent saw the night sky shatter into countless fragments, with colorful starlight filling the entire space. The mothership crumbled beneath them, but they didn't fall. The brilliant light effects and the impact of annihilation swept past their eyes and bodies without harming them at all, as if the very laws of this space had been rewritten.

They were all stunned by the impactful panoramic picture, feeling as if they were witnessing a war at the edge of the universe...

But Dreamwalker wasn't so lucky.

He felt as if the entire starry sky had been thrown at him, as if all the stars in the universe had turned into suicide bombs. Every explosion made him feel like his body was being smashed to pieces, as if his entire being was being annihilated from flesh to bone to the molecular level, over and over again.

He had always played the role of hunter in his dreams, but today, he became the prey for the first time.

This is just a dream, Dreamwalker kept telling himself, just like countless people who had been trapped in his nightmares before.

It was just a dream, a long and real nightmare, the kind of thing he excelled at. He told himself not to be afraid, to face it, to unmask it as a mere ghostly illusion. It had no power to hurt him.

Nothing to be afraid of...

"...Don't come here!"

His soul seemed to be shattered into countless pieces, his reason pushed to the brink of collapse. It was an experience a hundred times more terrifying than pain or death. Under the endless cycle of torture, even death became a luxury.

The space shattered like a mirror, and among the falling stars, a snow-white cloak flew by as Moon Knight rushed toward him.

Dreamwalker was lifted up. He now felt that his body was like a patchwork of broken parts, barely obeying his commands.

"I'm not afraid of nightmares," Moon Knight said in a deep voice under the mask, the character's automatic response.

"Because I live in them."

The execution prompt appeared on the screen, and Charlie pressed it without hesitation.

Moon Knight dragged the opponent close, holding the crescent dart in his hand like a dagger. Dreamwalker's eyes widened, and his entire head, along with the mask, flew from his neck and rolled across the ground, trailing blood and bone.

Wake up.

The scene of the galaxy breaking and everything collapsing gradually faded, the fragments of space returning to their original positions as if rewound, and the stars returning to their rightful places.

The mothership that had been blown to pieces was also restored, with countless metal fragments automatically reassembling into parts, all returning to their places.

Everyone returned to the bridge. Although the command room was a bit messy, it was still intact. Their mothership had not been dismantled into pieces but was still floating in the sky... well, at least it was still in the sky.

Kongsu was the last to disappear.

Charlie had the sense that the old bird was a bit dissatisfied when he disappeared. Perhaps he had enjoyed the rare opportunity to take action without having to trick Moon Knight, but the fight had ended before he could fully savor it. It was a bit unsatisfactory...

But in the end, his body gradually disintegrated, blowing away like a gray dust curtain.

When they came back to their senses, the agents found that their clothes were soaked with sweat. Few had the strength to stand. It felt like drifting in an endless river for days and nights before finally being fished ashore.

The strong heartache gradually faded, replaced by overwhelming exhaustion.

They looked around the command room and found the headless corpse not too far away; his masked head rolled to a distant corner.

But the white knight who turned the tide had disappeared.

Many people were confused.

They couldn't tell which of the scenes they had just witnessed were real and which were dreams.

There was a deafening roar from the command room's engine.

When everyone turned their heads, they saw that the jet fighter, which looked like a bat, was slowly rising from in front of their portholes, with transparent tail flames blowing out from the bottom.

It turned its direction, as if locking onto the horizon, and the propeller roared to life, spewing out a transparent tail flame. The jet quickly disappeared into the clouds, vanishing from everyone's sight.

---

If you're enjoying the story and want to see more chapters

- 50 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter

- 100 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters

- Anything above 100 = 3 Extra Chapters

If you'd like to support my work even further and get early access to chapters, please check out my Patron at Patr_eon.com/OneSword (remove the underscore). Currently, I am sixty-plus chapters ahead on Patron.

Free Members can read up to 5 chapters in advance.

Thank you, and Sword out!