Within the infinite darkness, three figures could be seen doing their own things.
While Flanna was shooting her pistols at the distant enemies to practice her aim, Lilith was shaping her own power to whatever she could think of to smash the grotesque lifeforms that were trying to approach.
Ophis, on the other hand, created a bubble around them and released her aura to push back the majority of these wriggling creatures all the while munching on some banana chips that she had been saving for such an occasion. And all in all, she's the one keeping the dimension closed.
As Lilith and Ophis had now taken the forms of a teenager to follow Claire, Tanis, and Kunou's physical growth, they looked like triplets.
"This is tiring and boring." Flanna put back her precious pistols and took out her own set of banana chips, "Aren't the two of you enough here?"
"Don't ask me. I can never understand what he's trying to do." Ophis strengthened the bubble that was keeping the unknown beasts back because Lilith had also stopped what she's doing and sat beside her and Flanna to eat some banana chips.
After that, there was a silence that spanned for a few minutes. It was also during that time that Kisuke's aura suddenly plummeted to dangerous levels and they were extremely worried. However, none of them moved from their spots since they knew the importance of their presence here for his victory. It was only when the fighting resumed that they were able to continue eating their banana chips.
"Why did you come to this side?" Ophis suddenly asked, "You could have returned to your home after regaining your body."
Without missing a beat, Flanna answered, "I'm interested."
Ophis and Lilith turned to him and the latter asked, "Interested?" before the former continued, "You were not interested in him at all when you first met him and only played along with him until recently."
"Oh? You could tell?" Flanna asked back but she didn't receive an answer. She then thought about it for a bit before answering her, "It's true that I was not really interested in him. The people on his level are mostly divided into two types, those who are brimming with ambitions and aspirations and those who are apathetic and don't want anything more. When I first met him, he fell into the latter type, which I don't really like. He was interested in his surroundings, but nothing beyond that."
Tossing a single chip into her mouth, Flanna continued while chewing, "But as he influenced the world more, he had more things to protect. As time went by and his strength went along with it, he only found more and it only became harder and harder for him."
Ophis stopped her hand and asked, "What's strange and interesting about that? That's normal for you who watches all the 'dreams' in the world. Only the 'strength' of the 'dream' matters to you."
Nevertheless, Flanna chuckled before continuing, "It's strange. After all, instead of being fulfilled or burned by his ambition and aspiration to protect those who were important to him, he was plagued by nightmares of his own creation. He's an idiot who doesn't know how to relax and that's very interesting and funny.
"Well, there might be other people who are like that out there, but that isn't really important anymore since I realized that it's better to experience things myself instead of just perpetually watching."
Flanna turned to Ophis and Lilith and saw that there were no apparent reactions from them so she continued while grinning, "I'm jealous though. Unlike me, the two of you are in his nightmares. Looks like he really cares about the two of you."
Although there were no apparent changes in their expressions, Flanna, as the Great Red Dragon of Dreams and Illusions, never really looked at the physical attributes of people. Instead, she was always looking at the floating thoughts of everyone surrounding her so she could see how happy the blackies were.
"What about you? How did you get interested in him? I think you only approached him and Yoruichi because they're quite unique individuals that didn't exist in the world and most of your attention was on Aika. Lilith only tagged along because you were always attaching yourself to him."
Ophis gave it a small thought and looked away. She was trying not to show it but Flanna could easily see that she was embarrassed. Thanks to the time they spent with Claire, Tanis, Kunou, and the Ouroboros Academy as a whole, the three of them had managed to learn some common sense that allowed them to develop more like a normal person. And that included developing all sorts of emotions that shouldn't have been possible if they didn't 'disappear'.
Lilith suddenly raised her hand and said, "She was lured by food the first time she met them! Not very Dragon-like!"
Ophis' eyes widened. Since they were intricately connected, the memories they have are shared between them, but she didn't expect that Lilith would betray her like this. As retaliation, Ophis punched back with, "You were lured by a bar of chocolate from Azazel! At least I got a full dinner!"
"You can't blame me. I was a newborn at that time!" Lilith immediately retorted.
From then, it became a war of words by revealing each other's embarrassing moments between the Dragon Gods in an attempt to preserve their dignity and pride. But from an outsider's perspective, their actions were very far from achieving what they wanted.
Flanna watched all of this with warm eyes. As she was in a better position than both of them since she could experience everyone's dreams and learn from them, she didn't really have any embarrassing moments. But if her thoughts were to be revealed to those around her, they'd just sneer and tell her that she has a skewed common sense and standards.
'I was apprehensive with both of us leaving our 'positions' but it looks like it was the best decision we've ever made.' Flanna thought to herself when she remembered something, "Ah, by the way, it seems that boss is planning to leave-"
" "We'll follow him." ", Flanna couldn't even finish her words when Ophis and Lilith stopped their bickering and gave their answers.
"Even if Lilith could establish herself within this void and gain the same authority as Ophis without relying on her?"
Lilith didn't hesitate and immediately answered, "I don't care. I want to see more of what's out there."
"What about you? You can become more powerful than you ever were the moment you establish yourself in this world." Ophis returned her question.
And similar to Lilith, Flanna didn't hesitate to answer too, "I don't care about any of that. I want to see more of what's out there too! And it's the place that shaped him, you know? I can never miss this trip!"
Without his consent and knowledge, Kisuke gained some freeloaders for his next trip.