The garden was quiet. Alene stepped into it, and "Dream" followed like a silent, heavy shadow, his presence absorbing the light and sound around him. Suddenly, a small child emerged from behind a withered rose bush, running toward her. He was about three years old, his clothes slightly torn, and a faint blue bruise marked his cheek.
"Mama!" he cried in a small voice.
Alene ran to him and knelt, hugging him tightly. "Rio..." she whispered, her face buried in his hair. This moment was the only true warmth in this cold day.
"I love you, Mama," the child said, crying softly.
"I love you too," she said, all the cruelty in the world melting from her voice.
But behind them, Dream was watching, and within him, a war was raging. It wasn't just an intellectual conflict; it was a collision of two realities, two memories, two beings trapped in a single body.
Reality began to warp. For a moment, he no longer saw the luxurious palace garden, but the muddy rooftops of the House of Despair. He no longer felt the massive stone frame, but the weakness of a thin boy's body, the cold seeping through a torn shirt. He heard whispers, the sounds of children laughing in the shadows, and the crack of a whip splitting the air.
Why? Hong-min's broken voice screamed from the depths of his consciousness. Why do you give him this warmth? This love? Wasn't I the one who was supposed to protect you? Weren't we supposed to travel together? Why are you betraying me...?
At the same instant, 404's logic fought against this flood of chaos.
The thoughts clashed, and logic collapsed under the weight of emotion. For a moment, Dream sank into a complete delusion. He looked at Alene hugging Rio, the garden around him melting away to become a rooftop under a pale blue moon.
"Is... is this our son?"
The words came out as a hoarse whisper. He was dreaming. He must be dreaming. A bad dream where she had left him. No, no... this had to be their son.
Alene and Rio were silent, staring at him.
"Where is 404?" Hong-min said through Dream's mouth. "Where is he?" He looked down at his stone hands, then at his massive body. He slowly raised the "Ash Blade," not as a weapon, but as a distorted mirror. He gazed at his reflection on the light-absorbing black blade.
He saw a stone face. Gray eyes. Long black hair.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
It wasn't him.
Who am I? he screamed, an internal cry that shook his very being. Am I 404? Or Hong-min? Ah... I am Dream.
He regained control. The painful confusion vanished, replaced by the chilling coldness of a machine that had found an error in its system and forcibly corrected it. He looked at Alene, who was still holding Rio tightly.
"Does this child impede the mission?" he asked, his voice returning to a deep, logical rumble.
Alene looked at him, fear creeping back into her eyes. "What mission?"
"Traveling with me."
Before she could answer, a loud, disgusting voice interrupted the scene from behind them.
"Alene! I was looking for you! Are you here?"
An old man appeared from one of the palace's side doors. He was fat, wearing fine clothes that didn't suit him. His small eyes gleamed with greed when he saw Alene. But his gaze froze and turned to shock when he saw the massive stone creature standing beside her.
"A... a Panyer?" he stammered, backing away. "Guards! Guards!"
But no one came.
The old man stumbled backward, tripped on the edge of a luxurious rug, and fell to the floor.
"What do you want?" he shrieked from the ground, his voice trembling. "Money? I'll give you anything you want! Just leave us alone!"
Dream advanced toward him slowly, each step heavy and deliberate.
"Feelings," Dream said simply.
The old man looked at Dream, then at Alene, who was frozen in place. A disgusting, twisted smile of understanding formed on his face. "Ah... I see," he said. "You see that woman behind you? Look how beautiful she is. I'll give her to you. Do you want other women? I have the most beautiful in Chang'an! I'll give you anything you want!"
In that moment, Dream's two warring identities united. The echo of Hong-min screamed with pure rage at the man who had shattered his world. And the logic of 404 classified the man as the source of the acute trauma inflicted upon Alene, and therefore a negative variable that must be eliminated.
For entirely different reasons, they reached the same decision.
"If I want her, I will take her," Dream said, standing over the terrified man. "I will not ask."
He didn't use the blade. He bent down and grasped the man's head in his stone hand. Then, with absolute coldness, he squeezed.
He tossed the headless body aside. He looked at Rio, who was staring in shock at his father's corpse.
"Papa... Papa..." the child whispered, then began to cry, clutching the head that lay on the grass. "Wake up, Papa!"
At that moment, another woman emerged from the palace, dressed in even more luxurious clothes, with another child, fat and plump. They saw the body and began to scream.
"Papa!" the fat child yelled.
The woman tried to flee, but Dream was faster. He caught her.
"What do you feel now?" he asked with scientific curiosity.
"Fear! Please!"
He killed her.
He killed the fat child.
He stood amidst the three bodies, a cold frustration creeping over him. It wasn't an emotional frustration, but that of a scientist whose experiment was failing again and again.
"I'm going to kill you."
The small, decisive voice came from Rio. He had stopped crying. He was standing, his small eyes burning with a pure, focused hatred. "I swear I will kill you."
Dream looked at him. He sensed the killing intent. He raised his stone hand, ready to end it.
In that instant, Alene moved.
She didn't speak. She didn't scream. She simply moved, stepping between Dream and her son, her slender body forming a human shield. She was trembling from head to toe, her face a mask of pure terror, but she did not back down. She stood firm, protecting the only thing she had left in the world, ready to face the mountain before her.
