"The power of ancient gods is truly troublesome," Truman thought, feeling the challenge. Ultimately, he opened the Book of Dreams.
The illusory dream ocean beneath Dream Heaven descended into reality, colliding with the real sea.
The clash of two oceans was an unimaginable spectacle, like two colossal beasts, hundreds or thousands of meters tall, battling fiercely!
Boom!
The earth trembled and cracked, the sky's heavy leaden clouds shattering into fish-scale patterns from the intense shockwave.
The city-state behind Truman suffered a terrifying earthquake.
His dream wings drooped, shielding the city-state, preventing its collapse in the violent quake.
The humans in the city-state, witnessing the scene, forgot to breathe, struck with unspeakable terror.
"What is this thing!?" Cohinem's pupils contracted, losing composure for the first time. She could only see the dream ocean's shadow, fighting an enemy that didn't exist!
Truman didn't waste words, flipping to the second page.
"Cause and Effect"!
Cohinem's gaze followed Truman's actions to the Book of Dreams.
The next moment, he turned to the third page.
"Dreamweaving"!
Buzz!
Cohinem lost sensory perception, passively forgetting everything, ensnared in a dream woven by herself.
In the dream, she stood in the familiar elven palace, even seeing the Elf King's back.
He sat atop the palace, unusually devoid of tyrannical, frenzied lightning, gazing calmly into the distance.
"The Western Continent?" Cohinem looked that way.
Not an original elf, even as Elven Queen, she couldn't touch a secret the Elf King guarded deeply.
A longing stirred within her, and the dream shifted.
An unseen continental outline appeared in her dream.
Cohinem instantly knew it was the Western Continent she sought, her body irresistibly flying toward it.
In that moment, even knowing it was a dream, she didn't want to wake.
It was an irresistible temptation.
But as she neared the continent, a thunderbolt exploded in her mind.
"Wake!"
Boom!
Cohinem's eyes snapped open, instinctively flying away from Truman, gripped by intense danger, desperate to escape that book!
At the same time, Truman's vision blurred, the roar echoing in his mind.
It shattered his "Dreamweaving," leaving him shaken.
"Elf King!" Truman's pupils contracted, his body trembling uncontrollably, as if electricity coursed through every fiber, threatening to unravel him from within.
"Begone!" In that instant, the Book of Dreams erupted with intense light, repelling all abnormal sensations!
This was the power of an ancient god?!
Truman's heart raced.
He looked up, finding everything bathed in light, gentle like a rising dawn, dispelling the lightning.
The dawn-like light soon faded, revealing the world's true state.
He saw a sun descend from the Astral World, pressing toward the Elf King's divine kingdom.
The Ancient Sun God had finally joined the war, igniting a divine battle.
The Elf King roared, treading waves, crowned with dark clouds, clad in storms, wielding a lightning spear, commanding the world's oceans.
The Ancient Sun God's form emerged from the sun, a halo behind his head.
A shadowy curtain loomed at his back, as if an eye peered from within, watching all.
He didn't use the Chaos Sea's power or his other authorities.
Sunlight and lightning engulfed everything, obscuring the battlefield.
"Angel of Dreams, what are you!?" Cohinem asked a second time, their distance vast, her voice carried by the wind.
Now, Cohinem's face showed shock, her eyes wary as she regarded Truman.
Seeing "Cause and Effect," she had no resistance, drawn to the Book of Dreams. With "Dreamweaving," she instantly fell into her own dream.
Throughout, she had no power to resist, not even the thought to, her myriad ancient god blessings ineffective.
Without the Elf King's intervention, she'd never have woken!
She even sensed the Elf King's gaze on Truman, yet he remained unharmed.
The power Truman unleashed wasn't overwhelming, but it broke free of an ancient god's lock.
As she probed deeper, sunlight veiled everything, blinding her sight.
"I'm not entirely sure myself…" Truman sighed softly, closing the Book of Dreams. His role was done.
This battle held no suspense; the Ancient Sun God wouldn't win.
Not couldn't, but wouldn't.
Over centuries, the Dream Parliament had convened often. During ancient god race wars, its four members had deduced key points for the next few centuries.
Truman provided the most critical insights…
The giants' cooperation was anticipated, as was the ensuing conflict with the elves, planned to an extent.
"You won't win!" Cohinem, unwilling to accept such an answer, probed further.
"You mean that dragon?" Truman suddenly glanced at the city-state behind him.
Under dreamlight's glow, he detected an anomaly in the city's collective conscious sea—a massive entity had slipped in, unnoticed even by Hermes, who held a Sequence 2 artifact.
Only the Dragon of Imagination could do this.
"You!" Cohinem's expression grew grave, staring intently at Truman.
"Look, this divine war might drag on," Truman said, ceasing to speak. He conjured eyes with dreamlight, observing the battle between an ancient god and a dual-pathway true god.
In that boundless sea, shrouded in raging storms and flashing thunder, the Elf King's body turned ethereal, becoming lightning itself.
He drove the entire ocean to the limits of speed, creating a "tsunami" capable of destroying planets.
Compared to this, the wave Cohinem raised earlier was insignificant.
The Ancient Sun God, meanwhile, had become countless radiant, searing suns, forming an ocean of light.
Extreme heat vaporized everything, infinite energy bursting from those suns.
The two were locked in a stalemate.
"Roar!" The Elf King's tyrannical roar persisted, the sea of lightning shifting, other authorities' powers emerging.
His characteristics weren't pure, housing high-sequence traits from other pathways.
What they were, Truman couldn't discern.
In this era, many high-sequence characteristics were untraced: "Black Emperor," "Arbiter," "Hermit," "Paragon," "Demoness," even the remaining two characteristics and uniqueness of "Wheel of Fortune."
Those "dead" could affect vast regions; "living" ones became angels or monsters. Undiscovered ones were likely consumed.
(End of Chapter)