Kaivan froze in shock, then snapped back into motion, rolling aside. But William's movements were unnatural, driven by an invisible force. He drifted, floated, as if wearing a hidden jetpack.
"What is this…? How is he flying?" Kaivan thought, heart pounding.
In the dream, William truly wore a jetpack. He soared through the air at blinding speed, raining down punches that shook the very ground of that dream realm. His attacks were not mere physical force, they were the will of a man refusing to wake.
In that world of sleep, Kaivan appeared transformed. A blazing shield of molten light wrapped his arm, while a karambit glimmered in his other hand. Even though the dream dulled his movements, his mind stayed sharp. He read William's patterns with a calm, smoldering focus.
In the waking world, echoes of the dream bled into reality. Kaivan pressed the Tome Omnicent against his arm, shaping it into a shield. The book pulsed with a faint aura, felt only by William. In his other hand, the karambit waited. Every one of William's strikes carved through the air, yet the Tome remained untouched.
William shot forward, spinning through the air like a living bullet. But each blow clashed against the invisible radiance surrounding the Tome. Even in this strange state, where dream and power merged, any contact with Omnicent was repelled. A force pushed him back, an unseen boundary he could not cross.
Kaivan seized the opening. With a sweeping motion, he slashed upward, the karambit gliding toward William's throat. But William ducked in an instant and unleashed a spinning kick.
CRASH!
Kaivan's body was flung across the room, slamming into the wall. His breath burst from his lungs, but the fire in his eyes did not fade. He felt the impact not just in the physical world, but in his mind as well. The line between the two realms was beginning to blur.
"This isn't just a physical fight," Kaivan thought, sweat dripping down his brow. "I have to pull him out… out of this world."
Under the cold light of the moon, the night felt quieter than usual. The wide grasslands before Radio Malabar were bathed in pale silver, casting long swaying shadows of trees stirred by the gentle wind. The rustle of leaves and the passing breeze formed the only symphony accompanying the tension within the group.
Radit sat leaning against a large stone, letting out a long breath as his eyes fell on Thivi, who was bound on the ground. The girl kept struggling, her wrists and ankles tied tight, her wild eyes reflecting a turmoil she could not voice. Zinnia stood beside her, arms crossed, her expression sharp. Raphael remained silent, his gaze sweeping the darkness around them. Even Frans, usually the most relaxed, looked tense.
Felicia and Ethan, still holding the struggling Isabel, emerged from the ruined remains of Radio Malabar. Felicia's long hair swayed in the cold night wind as her gaze immediately found Thivi tied to the ground. Her brows furrowed. "Why is Thivi tied up like that?"
Radit straightened his posture, his voice heavy. "She kept screaming Kaivan's name. We tried to calm her down, but nothing worked. We had no choice but to restrain her."
Felicia glanced at Isabel, her condition was the same. Empty eyes, trembling limbs, struggling like Thivi. Worry darkened her expression. "Isabel too... What's really happening?"
"Where's Kaivan? We need the Tome Omnicent to know what's going on!" Zinnia demanded, her tone urgent.
Ethan, arms crossed, answered firmly, "Kaivan is still inside."
Zinnia stepped forward, her voice rising. "Then we have to help him! We can't just stand here!"
But Ethan caught her arm. "No. He gave me a direct order. We're supposed to set up a trap at the entrance."
Zinnia stared at him, stunned and disbelieving. "A trap? For who? While he's in there alone? That's insane!"
Ethan didn't budge, his gaze unwavering. "Kaivan wouldn't ask this without a reason. If he wants a trap ready, it means something, or someone, is going to come out of there. And we need to be ready."
Silence settled over the group as they tried to grasp Kaivan's intention. Felicia exhaled slowly, then finally nodded. "Alright. We don't know what's happening inside, but if Kaivan told us to prepare, then we follow his lead. I'll handle the trap."
Felicia knelt down, pulling a coil of rope from her bag. Carefully, she began assembling a mechanism, tying one end of the rope to a large stone, linking it to the trigger of a flashbang grenade she placed along the underground pathway. Every knot was firm, her movements precise, while Frans and Raphael stood beside her, keeping watch.
Radit glanced at Thivi and Isabel, still restless, then turned his eyes toward the entrance of Radio Malabar. "Whatever's happening in there, Kaivan must be fighting for his life. All we can do is hope he makes it out."
Suddenly, Isabel and Thivi screamed louder. Their bodies arched backward violently, as if something was pulling them from within. Felicia and Zinnia rushed to hold them down, but an overwhelming force surged from the girls' bodies, making it hard to keep them restrained.
"Damn it! What is this?!" Zinnia shouted, struggling to keep Isabel pinned.
Ethan raised his weapon, ready for anything that might emerge. "Kaivan… hurry…" he muttered under his breath.
From inside the building, a thunderous crash echoed outward. Everyone flinched. Radit immediately reached for his weapon, preparing for whatever might come next.
"We need to hurry!" Felicia increased her pace, working to finish the trap before anything unexpected happened.
Below, in the underground bunker of Radio Malabar, Kaivan and William were still locked in a violent struggle. The tight space had become a battlefield of clashing bodies and desperate breaths. Sweat drenched them both, but Kaivan didn't yield. With fierce determination, he pushed William into a corner. Though his body trembled, his eyes burned bright.
He leapt, clinging to William's back.
His karambit plunged again and again into William's body. Blood splattered, yet the giant remained standing. In a final strike, Kaivan pressed the Tome Omnicent against William's body, his last gamble to end it.
Inside William's dream, the world twisted into horror. Kaivan transformed into a thick, crawling slime that devoured the iron armor William treasured. Terror engulfed him as his defenses melted away under that unexplainable revulsion. Even in the depths of his subconscious, Kaivan hunted without mercy.
"Why am I losing even in my own dream?!" William screamed inside his mind.
His dreamscape collapsed, devoured by a formless fear.
In the real world, William's body slammed into the wall with a heavy crash. Kaivan was thrown as well, smashing through a wooden cabinet that shattered beneath him. Both men collapsed. Kaivan's breath trembled, chest rising and falling, but the fire in his eyes had not gone out.
William rose first. Wounds tore across his body, yet an even greater fear forced him back to his feet. His frantic gaze searched for escape, and he darted toward the exit, instinct overpowering pain.
Kaivan saw him flee. Amid the ruins, he spotted several shotgun shells scattered across the floor. Even though his body was nearly paralyzed, his fingers still reached for them. Slowly, he pushed himself upright, driven purely by stubborn will.
With the shells in hand, Kaivan searched for William's shotgun. He found it buried beneath shattered wood in the corner of the room. He loaded it with trembling hands, then staggered outside, chasing the man who had slipped away.
Outside, the trap was ready. Ethan, Felicia, and the others held their positions, waiting in tense silence. Kaivan emerged with the shotgun in hand and the Tome Omnicent strapped to his arm, prepared for the final confrontation.
Inside William's dark dreamscape, he shot through a cavern passage, imaginary wings carrying him toward a distant light. Hope flickered. "That's the exit," he thought, convinced he was close to freedom.
But from the shadows, a colossal serpent lunged. Its scaled body coiled around him, crushing, suffocating, grinding bone. Panic swallowed him. He thrashed wildly, but the harder he struggled, the tighter its grip became. His breath hitched. His ribs felt as if they would snap.
Then, without warning, the serpent's head exploded. Blood and fragments splattered across William's face, blinding him. He spun violently through the darkness, unable to stop. A thunderous impact followed as his body struck a massive tree at the cave's mouth. Pain rippled through every inch of him.
In the real world, William shot forward, caught by Ethan's trap. The flashbang strapped to him detonated, deafening and blinding him in an instant. Disoriented, he flew uncontrollably toward the exit.
Felicia, Radit, and Raphael were already in place. Each held a triple-stick nunchaku with all their strength, standing in an unshakable formation.
"Hold steady!" Radit shouted, his voice cutting through the night. Felicia and Raphael gritted their teeth, muscles tensing, hands trembling beneath the weight of the moment. Yet their eyes stayed sharp, cold, unwavering. There was no room for error.
William's roar tore through the air like a storm as he burst from the darkness. The wind split around him, his airborne body speeding forward like a living projectile, ripping across the field at nearly seventy kilometers per hour. The night shook beneath his approach.
The next instant, CRAKK!!
William's neck collided with the nunchaku. The sound echoed, wood splintering, flesh crushed by brutal force. He snapped awake, eyes flying wide. His face froze under the moonlight, shock hollowing his expression, panic erupting, pain seizing bone.
His massive body crashed to the ground, DUAGGH!!
The impact shook the earth, tearing through the quiet night. Wet grass flattened beneath him, dragged into a chaotic trail. William's body rolled, limp and uncontrolled, until it finally stopped on its back.
He lay sprawled across the open field like a fallen iron bird, direction lost, will shattered, soul fading into the night.