"Have Alka and Lucilia been captured?" Jason asked Simon, running furiously.
Simon nodded, his hands constantly releasing constructs that landed across the island.
Juanlu followed them.
The three of them gathered together as they made their way to shore.
"Sofia has been captured too," Simon said. He had just heard Sofia's voice, but hadn't seen her approach.
After all, Sofia's speed should have been the fastest of the group.
It was clear she had been captured, too.
The distorted changes in their surroundings forced them to slow down, and they grew even more concerned for Alka and the others' safety.
Elsewhere, Julia Porollo and Matresa, gathered together, also quickly fled toward shore.
The distorted changes in their surroundings made Julia frown.
"There's something fishy about this island."
"Wasn't that villain's doing?" Matresa asked.
She thought the general was attacking to slow their escape.
Julia shook her head. "No, it's the island itself that's changing. That's why I felt so strange after arriving."
Then she suddenly stopped, no longer fleeing.
As she stopped, the two people following her also stopped instantly.
"What's wrong? Do you want to go back and rescue them? We can't defeat them. Let's go back to the ship, reunite with them, and then find a solution." Pororo spoke quickly from his position.
The crisis had his mind racing.
If they went back to rescue them, they would only be walking into a trap.
But if they ran away, it might actually increase Alka and the others' chances of survival.
The more people who escaped, the greater their chances of survival.
"No, we can't escape either."
She could already sense that the island and the surrounding sea were being dragged into a strange place.
It was becoming disconnected from the surroundings.
This place had been sealed off.
This was the area where Alka and the others were.
The rapid distortion of the surroundings caused the general to pause.
Even the pressure he had exerted on Alka and the others was being reduced.
It seemed as if he wanted to conserve more strength to deal with the unknown.
Alka continued to control the pink mist sprayed out by the Dreamcatcher.
This behavior made the general, already extremely irritated by the drastic change in the surroundings, turn around.
"Since you don't want to stop, then I'll become you!"
The general's face was gloomy. Standing still, he pinched Alka hard and killed him without hesitation.
The crushing force from the immense force caused Alka's entire body to begin to deform and compress, then twist into a heap.
Twisted into a ball, Alka fell to the ground like scraps of flesh.
The bloody, fleshy mess formed a ball on the ground, spreading outward.
He had now become Altan.
Watching this scene, Balazs looked up at the sky, his face filled with despair.
As for the dramatic changes in the surroundings, they no longer mattered.
The general observed the changes around him with a heavy expression.
He couldn't understand why Alka's death hadn't caused the changes.
He could sense that the changes seemed connected to his dream.
He thought they were caused by the pink mist emanating from Alka.
Changes caused by a controlled artifact like this should cease upon the death of its owner.
At that moment, the bloody debris covering the ground vanished as if refreshed, and in its place reappeared an unchanged Alka.
Alka's sudden resurgence surprised everyone.
However, Alka didn't wait. A mirror appeared on his face, and mirrors also condensed above Lucilia and Shadaiti's heads.
These mirrors shimmered with pink light, and a red mist enveloped them.
They fell down like hammers, enveloping them and vanishing.
Alka had already manifested a mirror, carrying him with it.
Watching Alka and the others successfully escape, Balazs's eyes widened with despair.
How on earth had they managed this?
Resurrection?
Even if it was a treasure, he had never heard of it having the power of resurrection.
He turned to look at General Kriel beside him.
The general's face was grim. He paid no attention to the disappearing Alka and the others, instead observing the changes around him.
As the changes became increasingly apparent, he realized what exactly was going on.
He no longer had the energy to focus on Alka; a bigger problem had arisen.
"This place... I've been dragged into a dream, damn it!"
Here, a strange look of anger and resignation crossed his face.
"Dream?" Balazs repeated from the side.
What was that? A dream?
The general no longer had the heart to explain. He rubbed his hands, and the line-shaped bird quickly flew off into the distance.
The soldiers who had just left were all called back.
...
Alka and the others appeared a few hundred meters away. The moment they appeared, the three of them quickly fled.
A halo of light appeared on Sofia's forehead, and the surroundings were instantly plunged into pure darkness.
A restrictive measure to prevent the enemy from quickly pursuing them.
Soon, they had run several kilometers into this distorted space.
The sea was already visible in the distance.
But at this moment, Alka, who was fleeing, frowned and stopped where he was.
"What are you doing? Running?" Lucilia shouted.
"No need. He's not catching up, and there's no way he can escape." Alka shook his head, observing the changes around him.
The entire world had become utterly bizarre.
The sky, once bright and clear, had transformed into a distorted glow, as if various paints and pigments were randomly splattered across the sky.
Through the distorted light and shadows, one could see a scene that resembled clouds, the sun, and the sky.
The ground beneath their feet rippled and twisted like oil on the surface of water, shimmering with sickening hues.
The surrounding flowers, plants, trees, and everything else were changing.
A black bird, a composition of light and shadow, flew past him.
Watching the passing bird, Alka's expression darkened.
"Isn't this...isn't this a bird of light and shadow?" Lucilia stared in amazement at the bird as it flew past them.
Xadaiti also sensed the same changes around him that he had felt before, the same changes he had experienced in his dreams.
He turned to look at Alka.
"What's going on?"
Arka's face was heavy as he spoke gravely, "This is why this island is so strange."
"The reason I didn't tell them my plan in my dream last night after I fell asleep wasn't because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't even leave my dream bubble.
There's a powerful being in this area's dream world, and all dream bubbles that appear there draw their energy from it."
"And the reason Julia feels the island's environment is strange, and the reason I feel at home on it, is because the barrier between dreams and reality has long been eroded."
This was what Arka noticed last night when he infused the overlapping space with pink energy.
But the feeling wasn't clear at the time.
It wasn't until Kriel shattered the space, allowing the dream mist that remained within to escape, that the changes became fully apparent.
This led to Arka's subsequent frantic eruption of pink mist.
"This island and its surroundings are rapidly being dragged into the dream. These bizarre changes are the chaos created by the fusion of reality and dream."
After saying this, Alka pointed in the direction they had just been about to flee.
"Look, are we heading in the right direction?"
The two turned to look.
They saw a slightly raised slope behind them, and the sea surface was completely invisible.
It had been there just a moment ago.
Everywhere they looked was the island's land. The distorted land and the changes in the surroundings made them feel dizzy.
They felt like vomiting.
"The directions in the dream and reality are roughly opposite. Now they're intertwined, and the direction has already changed because the chaos is constantly shifting.
Furthermore, the island's scope has expanded."
Dreams are distorted and abstract.
At this moment, the surrounding soil and tree stumps also stabilized amidst the distortion, becoming distorted, no longer swaying as before. The exaggerated colors began to fade, and the sickening distortions vanished.
The elements of the dream stabilized.
"Stabilize. This area is being dragged into the dream at a steady pace.
We are now traveling between reality and dream, sinking rapidly downward."
As he spoke, a monster appeared nearby.
It was composed of three shadowy arms, interconnected, looking incredibly grotesque.
Alka looked at the shadowy creature.
A pink spear condensed in his hand and hurled it forward.
The strike pierced the arm with a single blow.
This time, there was no need for the pink spear to capture it as a trophy; it shattered instantly.
A strange, diamond-shaped metal object fell to the ground, dissipating some dream energy.
The object landed next to Sofia, who bent down to pick it up. "So what should we do now?" Sofia asked.
They couldn't just do nothing. After all, there was a powerful enemy chasing them.
"I understand, but I've never actually experienced anything like this," Alka said helplessly.
"Because this isn't a naturally occurring weakness in reality; it's intentional."
"Intentional?" Lucelia asked in surprise.
Alka nodded. "That's right. I deliberately unleashed a large amount of dream mist to trigger this weakness.
But this place had already become a flammable fire, soaked in fuel."
"And I was just that spark. But as I burned, I realized this was already a weak point, someone had deliberately hidden it."
If he hadn't deliberately triggered it, this weak point would have remained hidden until someone else activated it.
But Alka had acted first.
There was no way around it. The situation at the time was beyond Alcard's control.
"But this dragging won't last forever. Once the island is completely drawn into the dream world, it will quickly return to reality."
Alcard had been traveling in the dream world for so long, and with the information provided by the dream catcher,
Objects from the real world had never appeared in the dream world, according to what he knew.
Most of the time, it was the dream world that invaded reality.
And when reality entered the dream world, it would be repelled by the dream world.
Let alone such a large island.
As for whether the creatures on the island could survive? That was none of Meng Jing's business.
The desire of dream creatures for real life was incomprehensible, especially for intelligent creatures in the real world.
The spiritual energy and soul within the brain were precisely what dream creatures coveted.
Because dream bubbles are the product of rest for the mind and soul.
The main force behind this attack is naturally the shadow creatures.
The weak points where dreams invade reality are easily repaired, usually only on a small scale.
When reality invades dreams, it must completely overcome the invasion before the dream can begin to rebound, essentially repairing itself just like reality.
However, the island is still being dragged along, trapped in the gap.
So the dream's repair hasn't begun yet.
But the dream is already taking its toll, due to its highly invasive nature.
"So all we need to do is wait and see?" Sofia asked nearby.
Alka shook her head. "That's not the case. The danger only begins after being completely immersed in the dream.
If this were any other dream realm, I'd be confident I could keep everyone safe, but that's clearly not the case here, so we'd better find a way to hide."
"Why?"
"Remember what I just said? In this dream area, there's a dream creature so powerful that I can't even escape my bubble."
"This island happens to be related to dreams, and you're saying this is a deliberate act. And the dream area corresponding to it also houses another powerful dream creature."
Xadaiti muttered, then frowned at Alka. "Don't you think these circumstances on this island are too coincidental?
Think about it, the one seeking treasure on this island is a royal general."
No matter how you look at it, there seems to be a deeper problem at play, one clearly beyond their reach.
What they thought was an ordinary treasure hunt seemed to have led them into a terrifying realm.
I thought I was just being used as a pawn, but I'd stumbled into a deeper conspiracy.
Arka nodded. "I've certainly thought about that. I even suspect it was the former Kylian who did it."
The two looked at Arka with puzzlement, awaiting his response.
Xadaiti was merely raising a question; her understanding of dreams was limited.
"That general keeps saying he wants Kylian's treasure, but why would he want a Holy Grail-level artifact?"
"I noticed it when he started just now. He has two."
It's easy to detect; intense use of magic is easily observable.
The magical fluctuations emitted by using a treasure's abilities in battle are exceptionally noticeable.
Especially when using a treasure's abilities.
For example, when Arka used the dream mist combined with the mirror, the enemy saw it immediately.
Alka could see the same thing.
The invisible attacks he had been using relied on one of these treasures, and Alka had always believed that this was the only one he possessed.
It wasn't until he shattered the space and stabilized the process of shattering that Alka sensed the aura of the second treasure.
The reason he didn't sense it when he teleported here must be that he had used some similar device.
Adding to his sudden appearance, Alka suspected the second treasure was related to teleportation.
"Could these two treasures possibly be inherited from the royal family? Without some capital, how could they possibly occupy Signpost Island?"
Alka said, and the two nodded in agreement.
"He also said before that the treasure he was looking for was also a reborn treasure."
"It belongs to the royal family, so it's very likely that this treasure is also a matching set."
"That way, you can control all three treasures."
This is one reason, and it's completely worth considering.
After all, the more treasures you control, the more difficult it becomes to find a matching treasure. The difficulty increases exponentially.
"That's not right," Sofia said doubtfully.
"If that were the case, their family wouldn't have been exiled. They would have tried every possible means to force them to hand over that treasure."
How could an exiled family possibly carry such a foundation?
No matter how hard they tried, they wouldn't let it fall into the hands of losers, who might even become enemies in the future.
If you think about it carefully, you can see the huge problem here.
"Yes, that's why I said he might have had other purposes for coming here.
And if that were the case, he wouldn't have let us touch those treasures back then. "
As he spoke, Alka raised his hand, and a round coin appeared in his palm.
It was neither a silver snake nor a golden sail.
It was an ordinary silver coin, one side engraved with the head of an unknown beautiful woman, the other with a terrifying, burning skull.
This was the coin Alka had secretly hidden when he touched it. Why did he take it? Because it was wrapped in a golden glow.
This was also Alka's sudden decision.
If it were any other treasure, he would hardly Hiding it through trickery, seizing it when the opportunity presented itself.
But it was a coin roughly the same size as the silver snake.
"Could this be..." Sofia looked at the object in Alka's hand.
The coin was ordinary, seemingly without any apparent special features.
But Alka had taken it out specifically, and it still had such ordinary characteristics.
So it was very likely...
"Yes, just as you think. This is the treasure. I secretly hid it when I touched those coins earlier."
For a magician, hiding this coin without any magical power, purely through trickery, would be incredibly easy.
At the time, Alka had used no magic at all to avoid detection.
"So if he came for this treasure, he couldn't have been unaware that it looked like a coin.
Even if he knew, he wouldn't have let us touch the treasure. After all, the bulk of it was coins.
And if he came for the treasure, you and I both used treasures, for a total of three.
He was happy that my treasure was related to the dream, not that we actually had so many treasures.