> "Dreams are not born. They are inherited.
And the gods… left behind their nightmares."
— Whisper etched on the inside of Ayra's coffin
---
Kai stared at the girl sitting up inside the cracked coffin.
Ayra's eyes were like stormglass — cloudy, shifting with impossible colors.
She blinked, saw Kai, and instantly—
> Screamed.
Not words.
A scream in reverse.
As if time around her resisted her waking.
---
Lira stood in silence, clutching her bleeding shoulder.
Kai moved carefully.
> "Ayra. Do you know who I am?"
She looked up.
And spoke the words that should not exist.
> "You're Kaius. The Recaller."
---
> [💥 SYSTEM RECOGNITION UNLOCKED]
Hidden Title: The Recaller
"One who remembers what should be forgotten."
Effect: Immunity to Memory Corruption (Tier 1)
Effect: Dreambinds react violently to falsified realities.
---
Kai's body trembled.
> "What does that mean?"
Ayra touched her chest.
Pulled out a pendant — cracked, containing a swirling black ink.
Inside it was a moving map.
Alive. Shifting. Screaming.
Each coordinate — a location where a god once dreamed.
---
> "There were nine gods," Ayra whispered.
"Now only three remain unbound."
> "The rest… were killed."
Kai's eyes widened.
> "You can kill gods?"
Ayra nodded.
> "If you find the Dream-Cores they left behind."
> "But each core is guarded by a Labyrinth Layer… so deep, so broken, even the Waking Realm denies its existence."
---
Lira finally spoke.
> "I've only heard rumors."
> "Of a war beneath the dreamline. Where the sky is inverted and the dead gods still whisper."
Ayra held out the map.
> "We go to the first point. Inverted Sanctum of Veylun, God of Sleep and Silence."
> "But…"
She turned to Kai, and her voice cracked:
> "We need a third. The Sanctum requires a triad of bound minds."
> "And we don't have one."
---
Kai's eyes narrowed.
> "We do."
He turned to the shadows — and called a name that hadn't been spoken in eight chapters:
> "Rei."
The temperature dropped.
Ink on the walls began to rearrange itself.
And from Kai's back, a phantom emerged:
> Rei — Echo of the Forgotten
Bound via Emotional Scar
Form: Partial
Class: Phantom Companion (Unstable)
---
Rei's voice echoed like a broken bell.
> "So you finally trust me again, huh?"
Kai smirked.
> "No. I just don't have better options."
Rei chuckled.
> "Fine. Let's go wake a dead god."
---
🌠 Location Shift: Inverted Sanctum — Layer 47: "The Dreamdrop"
As they stepped into the coordinate marked on the map, the world inverted.
Up became down.
Light became sound.
Gravity bent like a scream.
And they stood before a temple made entirely of sleeping faces.
---
At the center: a door that didn't open outward or inward… but forward in time.
Inscribed on it:
> "Speak your truest memory. Or be consumed by false ones."
---
Ayra stepped forward first.
She spoke in a trembling voice.
> "I watched my brother fall into a dream and never wake up.
I held his hand for seven days before I realized he was gone."
The door absorbed her words.
And opened halfway.
---
Rei went next.
> "I wasn't born. I was imagined by someone who needed to scream but didn't.
I'm just that echo, pretending to be real."
The door creaked further.
---
Kai stepped up.
Paused.
Then said:
> "I once reset someone's life to save them.
But I think… they were better off broken."
The door snapped open like a jaw.
---
Inside—
An ocean of sleep.
Not water.
But layers and layers of people floating, faces blank, mouths open.
All dreaming. Forever.
At the center: a massive crystal.
Inside it — the body of a dead god.
Beautiful. Hollow-eyed.
And holding a key made of stars.
---
> [MISSION TRIGGERED: "Godslayer Protocol — Phase I"]
Objective: Shatter the Core of Veylun
Bonus: Survive the Reflection Loop
---
They approached.
But suddenly—
> "Welcome, trespassers."
> "You've entered without permission."
> "Prepare to be remembered."
A figure rose from the water.
Not a god.
But a Memory Warden.
His face was a collage of everyone Kai ever failed.
His voice — the combined tone of every "I hate you" ever whispered to him.
---
> [BOSS ENCOUNTER: "Remnix — The Mirrorfeeder"]
Type: Thoughtform Guardian
Weakness: Contradiction
Strategy: Deny your own truth.
---
Kai stepped forward.
> "I'm not afraid of myself anymore."
Remnix smiled.
> "Then why do you always run in your dreams?"
---
They fought.
A battle of mind and memory.
The battlefield was shaped like Kai's childhood room.
Every time Remnix struck, it turned into a memory Kai didn't want to relive:
His first nightmare
The time he was locked inside his room for 3 days
The moment he watched someone he loved forget his name
---
But with Ayra's healing dreamflow…
And Rei's echo-lash slicing through illusions…
They reached the crystal.
Kai pressed his hand to it.
And whispered:
> "Veylun. You've slept too long."
> "We're taking your Core."
The god did not scream.
He simply… cracked.
Like a silence that couldn't hold itself anymore.
---
> [SYSTEM EVENT: First Core Acquired]
Veylun's Dreamcore: "Silence Rewritten"
Grants: Null Zone (Suppress abilities in 10m radius), Passive Calm, +1 Path Fragment
---
But as they turned to leave—
A shadow fell across the water.
A voice, like thunder inside a book.
> "You've crossed into sacred territory."
> "The Executors have arrived."
> "Let judgment begin."