By the skin of his teeth, Victor managed to plunge into the water after taking a deep breath. The moment he submerged himself, the world above muffled, the storm’s roar reduced to a distant rumble.
But relief was fleeting. The lake itself wasn’t ordinary — its waters vibrated unnaturally, rippling with residual Dreamscape energy from the storm. The currents seemed alive, twisting strangely, causing him to suspect that there was something far more dangerous beneath the surface.
Victor wasted no time. Extending his right hand, he activated the sigil etched at the back of it. “{Ethereal State}! {Space Fold}!”
Victor cast two spells at the same time, creating a distortion in the space around him. The water warped, bending unnaturally as he was sent into the subspace, becoming a barrier that protected him against the raging Temporal Riftstorm.
As more and more of the storm’s dreamforce seeped into the lake, they clashed violently against Victor’s magic. Space cracked and splintered around him like fractured glass, each rupture sending faint, ominous ripples through the void. Victor gritted his teeth, beads of sweat trickling down his face as he channeled every ounce of focus into sustaining the spell.
The pressure of the storm bore down on his subspace. Despite possessing the enigmatic Cosmo element, he could feel the horror of dreamforce, as it seeped through even his advanced magic. I have to give it my all... or this will be the end!
Minutes stretched unbearably, feeling like hours as the storm raged on. As the dreamforce affected him, Victor’s perception of time began to distort, making him unable to tell how much time had gone by.
Days? Weeks? Months? Years?
It felt as though an eternity had passed before the storm finally began to subside. In that boundless, unmeasurable expanse of time, Victor's grasp of time itself seemed to evolve, deepening into something profound and abstract. As the last speck of dreamforce dissipated, he remained still.
“Time is not a river, not a constant. It’s a labyrinth, twisting with each step,” Victor murmured. Slowly, he lowered his hands, and his magic began to fade. A bitter chuckle escaped his lips, devoid of humor. “To conquer time, one must first accept that it can never be conquered.”
“An eternity passed, and yet, here I stand.” With those words, Victor stepped out of the subspace, and he rose above the calm, reflective lake that now belied the chaos that had so recently engulfed it.
Victor huffed in exhaustion. If not for his status as a Magus and his potent affinity with the Cosmo element, the storm would have swallowed him whole, casting him into an unfathomable abyss with no hope of return. But as his breathing calmed down, he became acutely aware of an abnormality within him, mostly on his head.
Focusing his mind, Victor discovered that there was actually a new sigil that looked slightly different than the three he had painstakingly formed, and it seemed to contain the Chrono element!
“The fourth sigil… To think I would forge the fourth sigil in this way..” he said in disbelief.
Curious, Victor activated his Master Shadowlink Mark to see how much he had progressed.
Victor Asteriscus
HP: 92%
MP: 581/1408
Power Rank: Fourth-sigil Elemental Adept Magus | Ki Sentinel
Elemental Affinity: Cosmo (97%) | Chrono (92%) | Anemo (82%) | Pyro (57%)
Mana Aptitude: Advanced bright grade
Meditation Technique: Omni-Elemental Fusion Method (fourth sub-level, 37%)
Breathing Technique: Harmonic Resonance Art (second level)
Status: Slightly injured
Strength: (40 → 41)
Agility: (39 → 40)
Vitality: (40 → 41)
Magical Power: (51 → 53)
Infused Mana (total): (1222 → 1408)
Spell Repertoire:
- Aleph: {Blink Step}, {Spatial Mirage}, {Slicing Wind}, {Zephyr Dash}, {Tempest Burst}, {Wind Guard}, {Flame Whip}, {Flame Dart}, {Flame Prison}, {Ember Shield}, {Heat Wave}, {Demonic Eye}, {Mind Programming}
- Bet: {Warpblade}, {Blink}, {Gap Hole}, {Ethereal State}, {Nova}, {Space Fold}, {Gravity Hammer}, {Volcanic Spear}, {Tempest Gale}, {Blazing Burst}, {Curse of Nightmare}, {Indomitable Will}
As I expected, the unknown elemental affinity was the Chrono element… Victor couldn’t help but wonder if his experience mirrored the tales of protagonists who stumbled upon fortuitous encounters in the midst of hardship. Just thinking about it made him laugh.
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What surprised him even more was the leap in his meditation progress — jumping immediately to 37 percent rather than beginning at zero. Perhaps it was tied to his comprehension of the Chrono element. He was confident the progress would continue to climb rapidly as he delved further into this in the Dreamscape.
Yet, as Victor inspected more of the newly-formed sigil, something unusual caught his attention. Other than containing the mysterious Chrono element, there was a faint trace of another force woven within. And it appeared to be a trace of… dreamforce?
“Holy shit!” Upon knowing this, Victor’s heartbeat quickened with elation.
This discovery was monumental. He had never heard of anyone in the Arcane Radiance College — or anywhere else for that matter — who could use dreamforce, much less control it. Dreamforce wasn’t just another magical force; it was a force far stronger than infused mana, rivaling the power of Magi who could tap directly into the Primordial Nexus. As such, it wasn’t something that a mere Elemental Adept Magus like him should meddle with.
But if it’s only in the sigil, I’ll be able to use it just once in battle before needing to recharge it. And there’s no way to recharge dreamforce in Seraphia, Victor thought. Maybe he could get Lillie’s assistance in restoring it, but relying on her wouldn’t be dependable and, in most cases, not an option.
Speaking of Lillie, he couldn’t help but feel a little worried. Was she safe from the storm? He couldn’t check her state through the Shadowlink Mark, so he couldn’t relax.
His train of thought was abruptly interrupted by a croaking voice. “Stranger. What are you doing there, staring at nothing?”
Victor whipped his head around, and his eyes landed on a familiar toad sitting casually on a nearby rock, seemingly unaffected by the storm.
“Hmm? Aren’t you the toad from earlier?” Victor asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Toad from earlier?” The creature tilted its head, blinking its bulbous eyes. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
Victor frowned, taking a closer look. Now that he examined it more carefully, the toad was noticeably smaller and younger-looking than the one he had encountered before. Its emerald-green skin lacked the same polished sheen.
“Huh?” Is it a different toad? Or is this just another trick of the Dreamscape?
But then Victor remembered that the toad he met earlier claimed it had seen him before. If that were true, then this younger toad must be the same one, but from a different point in its timeline. Did the Temporal Riftstorm send me to the past? But how is that even possible?
Then again, this was the Dreamscape, and a lot of things couldn’t be explained through common sense. From his harrowing experience weathering the storm, Victor had already grasped that time and space here were intangible, fluid concepts that didn’t operate as they did in the material world like Seraphia. This instability made the Dreamscape uniquely dangerous. Weak creatures might become instantly powerful, while beings at their peak might be reduced to nothing more than specks of dust in an instant.
Then if I were swallowed by the storm, what would become of me? Victor shuddered at the thought. His mind conjured a terrifying image of himself becoming younger before disintegrating until only a trace of dust remained.
He clenched his fists, forcing himself to focus.
The younger toad hopped closer, peering at him curiously. “You seem lost, stranger. Perhaps I can help you if you want.”
Victor shook his head. “No need. I already know where I’m headed, thanks to you.”
The toad blinked in surprise. “I did?”
“Probably. Or I must have mistaken you for someone else.”
Without waiting for a response, Victor turned toward the white castle perched on the hill of the floating island and launched himself into the air. He didn’t want to waste any more seconds since there was the risk of the Temporal Riftstorm returning at any time. If that happened, the landscape might transform beyond recognition, and he might not be able to fulfil his objective, which was to save Lillie.
But not even a minute into flying, Victor realized that moving through the Dreamscape’s air was very tenuous. It consumed his limited infused mana at an alarming rate — nearly five times more than it should have been. If he kept this up, he would burn through his mana reserves before he even got close to the castle. And without the Primordial Nexus to recover naturally, he would be completely defenseless.
“Luckily, I brought plenty of mana-restoring potions and mana crystals…” he muttered, caressing the three interspatial rings on his fingers. But a moment later, he shook his head. “Still, I can’t afford to squander them when I have no idea what kind of danger lies ahead.”
With that thought, Victor descended and continued his journey on foot. Although it was much slower, it was necessary.
Once he passed the lake and the small forest of giant flowers that surrounded it, he came across a shallow marsh, with a narrow dirt path winding through it. The path was oddly well-trodden, as though it had seen frequent use by people and carriages. Small wooden fences lined parts of the road, adding to the odd juxtaposition of familiarity in such an alien realm.
Victor’s sharp eyes caught sight of a wooden signboard ahead. As he approached it, a shadow rippled into existence above it, taking the form of a black cat with a wide, sinister grin stretching disproportionately wide across its face, and its glowing yellow eyes fixed unblinkingly on Victor. It smelled like trouble.
Victor stopped in his tracks, instinctively tensing. “Now what? Another talking animal?”
The cat’s grin widened, revealing sharp, glinting teeth as it spoke in a silky voice. “Talking? How quaint. I’d call it… exchanging pleasantries.” It stretched lazily atop the signboard, as if utterly unbothered by Victor’s presence.
“Right…”
“So, what brings you here, traveler from afar?”
“I’m looking for Princess Lillie who lives in that castle,” Victor said, pointing to the white castle in the distance. Although he was on guard with this Dreamscape creature, there was no reason to keep this a secret, as it might tell him about the right way like the green toad.
“Princess Lillie…?” The black cat raised its eyes and leaned forward slightly. “I’ve never heard of it here. But names are tricky here, don’t you think?”
Victor frowned. “Do you know the way or not?”
The cat yawned theatrically. “Oh, I know the way. I know all the ways. But knowledge, my dear traveler, comes at a price. Why don’t we make it fun? A little game. Win, and I’ll let you pass and show you the way. Lose…” its grin turned menacing, “I’ll eat you. Fair, isn’t it?”