In the Manualee village, there was a boy who had lost both his parents. Out of pity, the villagers took turns raising him as he grew up. He always wore an oversized cloak, it was given to him by someone in the village, and his nose was always runny. The boy's name was Jacob.
Every day, he would pull out a notebook and draw his dreams inside it. He drew a world where humans lived happily with the help of AI Witches. He drew many kinds of AI Witches he had seen before, and beside each one, he wrote notes— AI prompt commands he could use to give them orders. Whenever he looked at those drawings, the small boy would smile quietly to himself.
But to the people of Manualee, that was forbidden.
"Jacob, how many times have I told you? You must never have anything to do with AI Witches! Do you know who caused us to lose our jobs?"
A villager spoke up and tore apart the pages filled with Jacob's drawings of AI Witches. Little Jacob did not dare say a word, even though his heart was filled with grievance.
One afternoon, in the middle of a torrential downpour, Jacob met an AI Witch shaped like a Baku. It was an abandoned AI Witch lying near the scrapyard of the Witchiecoop Corporation. Its body was small, its eyes were amber, and one of them was cracked.
Jacob was overjoyed and asked,
"What's your name?"
"My name is Bakky!" the Baku-shaped AI Witch replied.
From that day on, Jacob and Bakky became friends. But the villagers of Manualee were still harsh toward AI Witches, so Jacob did not dare let them know. The two lived happily together. Whenever Jacob stumbled around in his oversized cloak, Bakky would always run over to support him.
Jacob sighed with admiration.
"Oh my, Bakky, you're so kind!"
"Thank you. Aside from learning data related to creating therapeutic dreams, I have also learned the proper responses for helping others when they fall," Bakky said in a flat voice.
Its amber eye—the cracked one—blinked from time to time, flickering as if short-circuiting.
One day, during another heavy rain, the villagers discovered Jacob and Bakky. Panicked, Jacob hurriedly hid Bakky away. The people of Manualee came in front of the boy.
"Hmph, you ungrateful brat. We told you not to have anything to do with AI Witches, so why are you still being so stubborn? Hand over that piece-of-trash AI Witch so we can deal with it!"
Jacob still refused to reveal where Bakky was. Furious, the villagers snatched his notebook from him and threw it onto the ground.
Jacob clumsily rushed forward to pick it up, but the rain-soaked road was as slick as grease, and he slipped. By instinct, Bakky suddenly rushed out from somewhere and caught him.
The villagers saw Bakky.
Jacob begged the people of Manualee to spare the AI Witch Bakky…
But it was already too late.
Bakky was smashed to pieces. Shards of metal scattered everywhere before being thrown back into the scrapyard.
Jacob rummaged through the scrap heap, searching for anything that remained of Bakky.
In the rain…
The figure of a boy in an oversized cloak carried the body of his beloved AI Witch and left the village of Manualee beneath the relentless downpour.
************
In reality, Jacob had assimilated with the Dark AI Witch Bakky, absorbing the energy of the villagers of Asarina. He appeared like an evil god, with long jet-black hair and six pairs of black feathered wings growing from his back. The aura radiating from him was bronze-gold mixed with bottomless black, dangerous and overwhelming.
The evil god's hands were as black as coal, his fingers sharp and clawlike.
He stared blankly at Long, then slowly raised his index finger. A black sphere the size of a marble appeared and shot toward Long at terrifying speed.
Long, now consumed by darkness, reacted on instinct and brought out the staff to block it. But he was blown more than a hundred meters away, carving a long trail through an entire stretch of forest.
Long immediately flew upward, gripping the staff in his hand. He charged toward his opponent, intending to strike down. But the moment he swung, the attack was stopped by the index finger of the evil god Jacob had become.
The evil god seized the staff. Long refused to let go, so both Long and the staff were violently hurled down to the ground.
Long stood back up, his pitch-black, empty eyes fixed on the evil god.
The gem on the evil god's forehead created a massive sphere.
Sensing the danger, Dreamy shouted,
"Everyone, run!"
From that sphere came a colossal beam of destructive light, aimed straight at Long. The Staff of the Ten Thousand Gods created a barrier. The beam struck the barrier and was deflected, scattering into dozens of black rays that shot out in every direction. Wherever those rays passed, everything dissolved into molecules. Mai, together with Dreamy, Mary, and Miki, did everything they could to move the villagers out of the danger zone.
The evil god's attack had been neutralized by the Staff of the Ten Thousand Gods.
Long gritted his teeth and stared at Jacob as if he wanted to devour him alive.
Do you want to become stronger?
A voice echoed endlessly beside Long's ear, coming from within his own consciousness.
"I… I don't even know what I want anymore… Everything feels so empty…!" Long answered the call.
I will ask you once more. Do you want the strength to protect the people you love?
The voice within his mind asked him again.
Without hesitation, Long replied,
"I do. I want it badly. I want the strength to protect the people I love and fulfill my wish!"
Very well. I will grant your desire, and you will not need to waste any effort training for it. Now, open your heart to me.
Outside, in reality, Long had already been muttering the words "I want to become stronger" dozens of times. By now, his consciousness had merged with that mysterious voice.
Long let out a roar, then appeared beside the evil god in the blink of an eye. The evil god did not flinch. He calmly blocked Long's attack.
Long and the evil god clashed in the sky.
Below, Mai could only see black shadows streaking back and forth. From time to time, they collided, creating deafening impacts.
The two sides charged at each other with increasing ferocity.
The evil god threw a punch at Long. Long blocked it barehanded, creating a terrifying wave of pressure that blasted apart the ground beneath them.
The evil god immediately pulled his hand back and struck Long in the left side, sending him crashing down to the earth and destroying an entire corner of the mountain. Dust billowed everywhere.
The evil god stared into the cloud of dust where Long had fallen.
Suddenly, from within the dust, countless black marble-sized spheres shot toward the evil god.
Long had used the Staff of the Ten Thousand Gods to summon those spheres in an instant.
The evil god created a barrier. The black marbles slammed into it, bursting into sparks with thunderous explosions.
Long created more and more of them, firing them toward the evil god. The barrier around the evil god was forced to block the endless barrage, and so many sparks erupted that it looked as though the evil god had been surrounded by a ball of fire.
Long pressed his lips together and poured all his strength into creating those black spheres. His pitch-black eyes stared fixedly at the evil god like a beast watching its prey.
Long shouted,
"More! I need more strength! Give me more power!"
As he spoke, the spheres grew larger, and the speed at which they were created became faster and faster. Long flew upward, still gripping the Staff of the Ten Thousand Gods as he directed the attack at the evil god Jacob had become. The pressure of the assault was so immense that even the evil god, who had been maintaining a barrier while floating in midair, was gradually forced downward toward the ground.
The two sides formed a deadlock, but the pressure bearing down on the evil god was even greater.
Suddenly, a thick, pitch-black veil surrounded Long.
Then it exploded outward, releasing a burst of white light that blinded everyone.
"Evil God" Jacob was forced to raise a hand to shield his eyes. But within Long's blurred silhouette, he saw Long's firm, powerful body growing six pairs of wings, while his hand held the staff with unwavering steadiness.
Nobody saw it but him…
************
"Jacob, Jacob, wake up! His Lordship is here!"
Someone shook awake the sniffling little Jacob.
Jacob rubbed his eyes and tried to make out the face of the person who had woken him. After leaving Manualee, he had wandered into a castle. There, he saw a mysterious person dressed like a count, wearing a mask.
The person spoke.
"Jacob, I have good news. The Group has agreed to accept you, and they will revive your Bakky. But first, you must swear your oath to His Lordship."
Little Jacob was overjoyed. He looked up at the bronze statue—a long-haired god with a muscular body, six pairs of wings growing from his back, and a staff in his hand. Beside him stood three other people, each with their own AI Witch.
The mysterious person continued,
"Now, swear your oath before Lord Dark AI Witch and the Three Great Villains. They were the mighty figures of the Thousand-Year Holy Tech War!"
Jacob's eyes sparkled as he gazed at the enormous bronze statue.
The boy wished that, one day, he could meet His Lordship, even if only once.
I WISH I COULD MEET YOU, EVEN JUST ONCE…
**************
In the blinding light of reality, Jacob saw Long's strange figure. It was very blurred.
He smiled in complete satisfaction.
"I finally… met you…"
His barrier was torn apart. The black spheres began pouring in, causing his body to explode.
"Evil God" Jacob vanished together with his AI Witch, Bakky.
His body dissolved with a satisfied smile still on his face.
As that body faded away, the emotional bubbles were returned to the villagers, and they began to regain consciousness.
The instant Jacob disappeared, the Dream Realm also began to shake. Nguyen, in the real world, suffered a backlash and coughed up blood.
In the far distance of the Dream Realm, patches of blue sky gradually began to be replaced by endless black. Then that darkness spread into other regions, accompanied by a rumbling sound like rolling thunder as the ground cracked open.
Everyone began to panic. Some screamed in terror.
Mary warned them,
"This world is collapsing because Bakky has been destroyed. Its magic is vanishing—including this Dream Realm!"
The Dream Realm was collapsing.