Origin Seeker

Chapter 258: Chase

Dream raised his arms, his cosmic gaze locking onto the old man. The hellish aura around him spread throughout the battlefield.

"You call yourself death incarnate? No, this is real death. Gaze upon this horror. Death does not discriminate between good and evil, innocence or corruption, friend or foe. I don't know of the souls you have destroyed or your moral character. But I also don't care. You have threatened what's close to me. So whether now or in the future, I will bring real death upon you, and there is nothing you can do to stop me."

"Y-you..."

The old man stuttered as Dream took a step toward him. From the depths of his soul, he was dreading the aura that Dream released. 

Truly, this dark manifestation could be considered death itself. Even the ground below, originally covered with grass and vitality, had withered and died simply because of this aura. The only reason the armies of class 4's hadn't died as well was that Dream didn't will it. 

But this wasn't why the old man was frightened. No, he was terrified of the sheer amount of deaths that rested within Dream. This wasn't millions or hundreds of millions, but billions! The old man had enough experience to judge such a thing. 

Killing billions of people, to only imagine the number was hard enough. But to actually perform the feat of killing billions was entirely different. Through his thousands of years of life, the old man had only killed several million. Each one was done personally, bringing him up to his level. But Dream, a mere class 4, had actually killed billions. This required him to end the lives of those far below his level. What reason was there to do such a thing? Any normal person would immediately assume he was some kind of evil being. 

But he didn't seem like such a person. At first glance, one would just think he was a nice scholarly man. Even in his cosmic form, he was the embodiment of wonder and discovery. There was no hint of evil on his being. 

To all who watched this scene though, those thoughts were thrown out the window. The aura of death coming off of Dream branded itself onto all souls who were within several miles of him. They could feel the terror and despair of the innocent souls he killed right before their death. There was no resentment, no anger. There was only fear and hopelessness that came from facing a force that they could do nothing against, not even in their dreams. Some of the weaker willed soldiers within this aura began to break down and tremble, their minds falling into the pits of the abyss. 

But there was also a demonic aura, formed from the demons Dream had laid waste to. The aura they created was one of hell itself, full of wrath, ruthlessness, and chaos. These two auras combined created Dream's version of Death's Knell. The surroundings seemed to turn into hell itself. 

The majority of this power though was focused on the old man. He withstood the full brunt of the technique. Despite that though, and despite being shocked and horrified by the number of deaths within the aura, his power didn't diminish. 

The old man wasn't a class 6 for show. With the release of his full aura, he was able to steady his mind. He faced Dream who had already combined with Aegis. Only, his face was now solemn with a tinge of lingering fear. 

As he stood there, Dream raised his hand. In it was a pistol, made of basic metal. It didn't seem threatening in the least. Only, the old man could sense a small bundle of absurdly dense energy within the pistol. It carried immense physical power. 

*Bang!*

With an explosion, Dream fired the weapon. Out of it came a stream of energy in the form of ultra-dense plasma. This plasma carried with it the energy of a nuclear explosion. Any material in front of this bolt of plasma would be annihilated in its entirety. 

And because it was so fast, the old man didn't have the time to react. The only thing defending him from this bolt of energy was the mana he had mustered before Dream's attack. 

The two collided.

*BOOOM!!*

An explosion sent out shockwaves directed at the old man. However, these shockwaves weren't physical in nature, but magical. Through Dream's [Arcane Transmutation], all of the energy behind that small nuclear bolt was converted to magical energy that would affect mana. 

And because it was so concentrated, the result was a hole that blew directly through the old man's chest, bursting out behind him and releasing all that energy into the sky. 

The old man wasn't even thrown backward. For a split second, he just stood there, shocked as he looked down at the hole in his chest. This was a hole that punched directly through his spiritual body. The damage was immense. 

"Ah... AAGHH!"

Finally, the pain set in, and the old man roared. Meanwhile, Dream looked at his gun with a raised eyebrow. 

"That worked better than expected. Here, have another one."

Saying that, Dream raised the pistol again. Seeing this, the old man felt his entire body shiver. He mustered all the mana he could, taking out a sword and chopping at the trajectory of Dream's aim. This was one of his most powerful strikes, and it was being used to defend. 

*Bang!*

Another shot rang out, and a beam was fired straight at the old man's sword. The two collided, but surprisingly, the bolt was cut. Dream was impressed as the bolt split in two and sailed past the old man's body.

Only, there was no way to totally avoid the energy of the bolt. In exchange for the block, the old man watched as the blade of his sword was obliterated, the remnant energy throwing the weapon out of his hands. 

"What?!"

"Wow, you actually blocked that. Class 6 energy is no joke."

"Silence, you monster! One day, I will have your head for this!"

The old man yelled at Dream. The next moment, his body blasted off into the distance. Seeing this, Dream smiled. 

"Running? I already told you that you can't escape me."

With a derisive comment, Dream suddenly disappeared. After that, he reappeared in front of the old man. The old man was shocked before snarling and taking out another weapon. 

"Die!"

He chopped down with another sword at Dream who was now right in front of him. In response, Dream brought up his pistol again, firing another round.

*Bang!*

An energy bolt and sword collided. The result was the same as last time, with the energy bolt being split in half and the sword being disintegrated. This time though, the old man followed up with a punch. Behind his fist was his full power, the power of a class 6. It was immense despite being heavily injured by Dream's first attack. With a blank face, Dream countered with his own punch. 

*Boom!*

The two powers collided. Behind Dream's was the profundities of the laws of magic, while the old man carried sheer power. 

Surprisingly, Dream was on the losing end. Despite having precision on his side, Dream found the old man's power obliterate his attack. In terms of absolute strength, Dream obviously lacked. 

The old man's fist crashed into Dream's. With another explosion, Dream's fist was blown apart. He frowned before teleporting away, escaping the attack. 

"...Ouch."

Dream mumbled as he looked at his fist. It was reduced to a cosmic mess. With a thought, the hand was quickly repaired, but the damage had still been done. Dream had consumed a large chunk of his energy in the attack and now with repairing his body. 

The next second, the old man continued running away. Dream merely hovered in the air, thinking. 

"...Despite heavily injuring you, it'll still be difficult to kill you now that you've seen my attacks. My personal power isn't enough to overwhelm you. It's the neutron star. If I had the other 45% of my power, this wouldn't be much of a problem."

[Hey, at least you can actually compete with a class 6 as a mere class 4. I guess we've found the limit of your power.]

"Very true. Oh well, he still can't keep me from killing him. Let's see if I can do so before my advancement."

Saying that, Dream looked off to where the old man had escaped. By now, he had already disappeared over the horizon. But Dream had satellites watching the entire planet as well as his knowledge into the very concept of magic itself. It wasn't an issue to track his every movement. 

With that, Dream tore a hole into the chaotic void, entering it. After that, he appeared right in front of the old man again. This time, the old man was even more shocked. He had hidden his aura to his best ability, so nobody below the class 6 realm should be able to sense him. But Dream had still found him. 

"Dammit! Just die already!"

With a desperate scream, the old man took out yet another sword and slashed at Dream. This time though, Dream didn't respond with his pistol. He raised his finger. 

With a slash, Dream's finger tore across space, forming an extremely thin but extremely powerful horizontal exposure of the chaotic void. The old man's sword met with this void fissure. 

*Shing!*

With a slice, the sword was severed in half. The part of the sword that made contact with the void fissure was directly sucked into the void. 

"The void! No, you cannot possibly be a class 4! You must be a demigod! Is this your incarnation? Why must you fight someone like me?!"

The old man was panicked as he tried to justify why Dream could use such an attack. The only conclusion he came to was that Dream wasn't actually a class 4, but someone much more powerful who used an incarnation. This seemed logical, but regardless of what the old man thought, Dream didn't let up.

With his blank cosmic face, Dream raised his pistol again. Seeing this, the old man raised a barrier of thick mana. The pistol fired, shooting a bolt of energy into the shield.

*Shatter!*

The shield directly collapsed. The remnant energy crashed into the old man, launching him into the distance. But instead of fighting this, the old man rode the momentum to fly off. Seeing this, Dream was curious. 

"Sophia, where's he going?"

[According to the satellites, there's another large city a few tens of thousands of miles away. I would say that it's his clan, and there are class 6's he can fall back on there.]

"I see. So I need to kill him before then. Question is, can I?"

Dream pondered as he opened up another void portal. It took much more energy to travel like this, but it was fast and Dream didn't like having to waste time shuttling through space. 

The pistol Dream had been using was armed with fusion marbles. Over the past couple of months that he had been working, he had enchanted these marbles heavily, allowing their full power to be converted to Flux that could propel mana. The result was consumable mana nukes, and he had made a bit over a dozen. Not only that, but with his energy manipulation skills, he could ensure that all the energy was directed a certain way. Instead of the old man needing to face a fraction of the energy released by an omnidirectional explosion, he had to face the full power of a nuke.

And yet, he was still able to resist the power with his own. This had shocked Dream quite a bit. Normally this old man would be an all powerful existence should he get to use his power properly. It was only against Dream that he was thrown off, needing to use brute force to resist. 

Though, this also went to show how powerful Dream had become. He could produce weapons that could heavily injure and even kill class 6's. He hadn't even gone through his class 5 advancement yet. Normally, this would be inconceivable. 

And after Dream had flown away with the class 6, Durack and Melody, both of whom were still back at the ships, were baffled. Especially Durack. He had recognized that patriarch of the Blue Blood clan. That was a true class 6, and Dream had forced him to run away. This went against everything Durack had come to know through his many years of life. 

It was the same for Melody. She had trouble fighting a class 5 with even Aegis's assistance, but Dream had come and driven away a class 6. While he was a higher level than her, she still couldn't fathom his ridiculous strength. 

Meanwhile, Dream continued his chase after the old man, the two traversing hundreds of miles every instant. Crossing tens of thousands of miles, he continued to shoot his pistol loaded with fusion marbles. 

Only, Dream had a limited amount of rounds. After firing off 14 of the nuclear bolts, he ran out, and the old man was still alive. This caused Dream to frown. 

He wasn't completely helpless though. Thinking, Dream came up with an idea. From behind the old man, Dream pointed his finger and thrust out. 

Suddenly, the old man felt a chill crawl up his spine. He flipped around, expecting another nuclear attack. However, what came at him was a small black dot. 

After thrusting his finger out, a black line extended from Dream's fingertip. This black line was an exposure of the chaotic void, and it traveled forward toward the old man. The old man only saw a black dot approach him, but he immediately understood what it was. 

Unfortunately, with Dream's understanding of space, the old man couldn't dodge the exposure. This line shot straight into his body, and anything within the vicinity of the exposure was sucked into the void. It poked another hole in the old man's body. 

"Ahh! Damn you!"

The old man screamed as he retreated from the line, a new hole in his shoulder. After that, he threw out a cluster of energy with his fist. To this, Dream manipulated the space around him, bending all the energy away. That cluster of energy looked as if it actively avoided Dream. 

Seeing that, the old man could only start running again. He even took out a ship. It was a small personal ship, and the old man loaded it with powerful mana crystals to power it, achieving extreme speeds. However, after Dream teleported through the void and appeared next to the ship, he merely sent a small wisp of his power into it. After that, the entire thing detonated, all the enchantments and mana crystals exploding. In an instant, he had overwritten the enchantments to do his bidding. 

The old man was blasted away by the mana explosion. He was truly in a sorry state now, poked full of holes, dripping blue blood everywhere, and unable to escape from Dream. The only thing prolonging his life was Dream's inability to pin him down in one place and kill him properly. He didn't yet have the sheer power to directly contend with the old man. 

After the explosion, the old man continued to run as fast as possible. In his last acts of desperation, he took out several tools from his inventory to either heal himself or help him run. Dream was surprised by how effective these tools were as the old man was able to create distance and keep his life intact. 

Of course, the old man also couldn't prevent Dream from poking him with the chaotic void. He was constantly injured further and further, his life about to slip away. For a while Dream thought he would be able to end this old man's life. 

But unfortunately, he truly did have something to fall back on. At some point, the two reached the outskirts of the Blue Blood clan. It was here that the old man shouted.

"All class 5's of the Blue Blood clan! This is your patriarch! I order you to defend from this intruder!"

His voice bellowed throughout the lands, shaking entire buildings. After a moment, a few people came flying out. They were class 5's. 

"It's the patriarch! You there! Stop!"

It didn't take long to assess the situation. After the class 5's saw Dream, they rushed forward to meet him. Dream frowned. 

"Get out of my way."

He waved his hand, extracting power from Aegis. Suddenly, the closest class 5 was subjected to spatial shockwaves that emanated from Dream's hands. His body was shaken before he directly exploded, torn apart from the turbulence. 

The shockwaves didn't stop there. They continued to the ground, and under the power of space, the land in the surrounding dozen miles shook violently. Massive fissures miles long opened up, exposing deep ravines and obliterating buildings that occupied the land above. 

Seeing this, the other class 5's were stunned. They stopped in their tracks, and Dream and the old man flew over their heads, disappearing into the distance.

Only, they continued to head deeper and deeper into the clan's territory. Dream looked at the cities below as he threw out more attacks at the old man. By now, he was also getting tired since everything had relied on his own power after he ran out of fusion marbles. He made a note to prepare more weapons for the future. 

A few more class 5's came out to block Dream as he infiltrated deeper. The unlucky ones that got close were hit with spatial attacks, being instantly obliterated. Unlike the first class 5 Dream had killed, he wasn't trying to precisely extract souls for research. Thus, he could be cruder with his attacks, using much less energy. This let him kill more, but it still took energy out of him. 

Finally, the chase came to an end. Dream's mood became a bit regretful as he approached the center of the territory. He felt two auras in the distance, as did the old man. 

"Fellow Patriarchs! Save me!"

The old man bellowed, shaking the buildings below with his voice. At that moment, the two powerful auras in the city appeared a few miles away.

Dream stopped, but not without sending out a last attack. A line of chaotic void shot forth and pierced the old man's neck, creating another hole that spilled blood. 

"Stay your hand!"

Seeing that, the two other class 6's stepped forward, both launching attacks at Dream. Dream sighed before the chaotic void enveloped him, teleporting him away. 

After he reappeared a mile away, the two attacks simply flew off into space. Those patriarchs looked at Dream with shock. 

"You... Who are you?"

One of the patriarchs asked. He was a man who stood almost 10 feet tall with massive muscles building from his body. Contrary to the scholarly feel of the Blue Blood clan, he exuded the aura of a barbarian. 

In the air, Dream turned to this barbarian. His cosmic form had no facial features, but the barbarian could still feel his gaze as well as his stifling aura. Not only that, but Death's Knell was still active. He began to sweat as he felt that aura straight from the depths of hell, comprised of billions of souls both evil and innocent. He couldn't fathom was kind of figure Dream was. 

"I... am here to claim the life of that old man. He threatened that which is close to me."

"He what?"

The barbarian frowned before looking at the old man. The old man had already retreated to safety behind the other two patriarchs, and he shook like a scared puppy. His feeble aura caused the barbarian to feel a tinge of disgust. 

But the old man was still a class 6 of the clan, one of the pillars of its existence. He couldn't be killed as that would weaken the clan by an unimaginable degree, possibly even spell their doom. 

Yet, there was still Dream who had attempted to claim his life and still intended to do so. This put him in a bad position. He could sense Dream's power, and that last attack had left a deep impression. Dream was absolutely not someone easy to deal with, and he alone could obviously threaten the entire clan. 

He thought very carefully about his next words.