"Brother?!"

After the Dream Resting Master finished speaking about the "conditions" needed to join forces with it and withdrew from the dream, Anna, who had stabbed Leon in the back, instantly woke up.

Looking at Leon's blood-soaked back and her own hand stained with his blood, the color drained from the pale girl's face, becoming even paler than freshly cut white paper.

"I'm not... you... don't move! Call for help! I'll go get someone!"

"I'm fine."

Subconsciously shielding William and Melanie's eyes, Leon tightened the muscles on his face, lips pressed into a thin line. First, he glanced in the direction from which the Dream Resting Master had left, then turned to cover the kitchen knife stuck in his back and comforted warmly:

"It's just a nightmare. You'll feel better when you wake up."

A nightmare? How can this possibly be a dream!!!

Looking at Leon still trying to be strong after being stabbed, Anna, with reddened eyes, anxiously shouted:

"Don't move! I..."

"I said, it's just a nightmare."

Activating the nightmare powers belonging to the King of Nightmares and utilizing the enhancement of the Root's splendor, Leon gently created a small "sanctuary" in the dream. He softly sent the two little rascals back to sleep and then gently touched Anna's forehead.

"Sleep now, when you wake up again, the nightmare should be over."

After sending the dream Anna into a deeper layer of the dream, Leon reached out to pull the kitchen knife from his back and tossed it aside, then looked upward toward the Dream Resting Master's presence.

"What? Unwilling to let go?"

Seeing Leon not end the dream by killing Anna but instead gaze at it through the dream, the corner of the Dream Resting Master's mouth lifted slightly, with a playful gleam in its eyes, reminding:

"If you truly can't do it, you can try to break out, but each of the subsequent core eighty-three thousand dreams will fall upon them. If you choose to break through..."

Under Leon's expressionless gaze, the silhouette of the Dream Resting Master snapped its fingers, and the surrounding dream shattered instantaneously as if struck by a heavy hammer.

Influenced by the fragmentation of the dream, countless glass-like cracks appeared on the dream version of Anna, her face showing clear pain. Finally, along with the two little ones waking from the dream, she shattered before Leon in terror, leaving only a void of darkness.

"That's the result you'll get."

Watching Leon silently emerging from the dream, the Dream Resting Master took the opportunity to erode Leon's exposed Spirit core while continuing to provoke:

"Though you can resist my Root in the dream, your weakness is far too apparent... you awakened too late, haven't lived long enough, and cannot perfectly control your Spirit, being ensnared by those meaningless things.

Even knowing it's a false dream, aware they're not your real family, you're still rattled by the shattering of these illusions. Judging by your current level of wavering will, perhaps ten more dreams will..."

"Continue."

"?" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Didn't you think I could withstand about ten more dreams?"

Looking upward at the silhouette of the Dream Resting Master, Leon surveyed each main ravine, every branch, the ends adorned with dreams, holding his breath for a long time before speaking with an expressionless face:

"Then continue; let me see what your next dream will be like."

"..."

Heh... meaningless struggle.

After meeting Leon's deep black eyes, the Dream Resting Master felt a slight tightness in its chest but quickly scoffed, disdainfully laughing as it lowered a branch adorned with thousands of dreams.

Anger, hatred, dependence, longing... these so-called emotions are merely slight fluctuations born from circumstances. In endless dreams, there's as much as one desires, creating any type of family wished.

And as a descendant of the Root, spanning countless millennia, returning with a mission, No.3 being ensnared by such triviality, losing to so-called familial bonds formed in just a few years, this is truly...

Quite laughable.

In the Dream Resting Master's somewhat lackadaisical gaze, the branch full of dreams lowered down, enveloping Leon's cracking Spirit core like resin dripping onto a fly's back.

Wrapped in these "resin," Leon appeared as if trapped like a fly in amber, instantly submerged by the surrounding dreams, the initially wavering will followed suit...

Breaking straight through the dream!

"?!!!"

Seeing Leon not fall back into dreams but instead "leak" out of the layered overlapping dreams, the Dream Resting Master was shocked!

"What did you do! You... you're clearly in my mind! How did you manage to come straight out of the dream?"

No, I don't need to come out of the dream; I can choose not to enter.

Glancing at the astounded Dream Resting Master, Leon reached up to grab the lowered branch, simultaneously looking at the new emblem evolved from [Dream Awakener] on his panel.

[One Thousand and One Nights (Special Color·Rose·Cannot be upgraded): Having consecutively awakened from a thousand and one dreams created by the Dream Resting Master, you, still able to maintain your complete self, have become a special existence surpassing the source of dreams]