Flying calmly through the sky, Cain soared above a vast grassland where giant creatures fought over the land.
'Another territory with no intelligent life present. Are these types of territories common? I wonder what powers this place has...'
Although he could swoop down and hunt for cores, Cain didn't have any reason to believe it would be worthwhile. Plus, he was already digesting one himself; another could cause unforeseeable problems. It was best to take on one core at a time.
Focusing on his body, Cain felt the Dream Core slowly sinking and connecting with his body and mind.
'As of now, I'm most likely going to get powers of creation and distortion. Funnily enough, distortion seems to be more powerful. The Dream Realm was meant for Nightmares after all.'
Having the power to create and distort would be monumental! Being able to distort almost anything is a power one could only dream of!
As always, there are limitations, not to mention the creation power might only be limited to imagining things with no proper laws or rules of reality, resulting in a massive weakness just like the same creations in the Dream Realm.
'Distortion might not be so limitless...'
Balance was heavily enforced; a single power was seldom more powerful than another.
The only exceptions to this rule were cores from the inner, middle, and outer Zones, all having different statuses in raw strength.
An example would be a combat-based power from the Inner Zone trumping all other powers based in combat outside the inner zone. When it came to combat the power would be on top other than the other powers from the inner zone.
This however did not mean that less battle-centered powers outmatched more battle-focused powers of lesser Zones. Say a power that was versatile from the inner zone went against a heavily battle-focused power from the middle zone. In battle, the lower zone has a better chance of coming out on top.
But even looking at the many powers in this way, it's impossible to rank most of them. There were unique and strange powers everywhere, allowing these abilities to have a few counters to them.
Sometimes even the Inner Zone couldn't compare to an Outer Zone power, making a standard ranking system impossible. This was also how gatherers who came from the outer zone, could compete even when being hunted by rulers of the inner and middle zones.
Even in such a great chasm, there was some semblance of order.
Cain couldn't distort the sky, but he might be able to distort an attack. Similarly, with distortion coming from the realm of dreams, almost no powers could counter it unless it had connections to the mind or inherent resistance to it.
'That is not to say if I encounter someone from the Middle Zone, I cannot defeat them. It will just take that much more effort. Only through combining multiple abilities can someone grow beyond their means. This is how Rulers and Gatherers dominate this world!'
Of course, Rulers weren't as radical as gatherers. Their use of cores was mostly to enhance their own core's powers. Only rarely did their cores mutate and gain additional abilities.
It could better be called a supplement or miniature path. The effects were negligible but helped diversify a ruler's territory.
As Cain digested his thoughts, he suddenly felt something protruding from inside his head.
'The sleepyhead is waking up... where are my notes...'
Prepared for the oncoming assault of yelling, Cain braced himself.
Unfortunately, he underestimated the barrage of screams and alarmed yells that followed.
(Cain! What's going on?! What have you done? Where's the Dream Lord!)
"Heh, good morning to you as well."
(Bastard! Answer me! You caused this and colluded to take the core! You ruined the peace I built! Monster!)
"Hey hey! I'm not the bad guy here! Do you not use your head?! Stop pointing the finger; you killed all those people!"
(What? No, I didn't. I've never killed anyone! And those that I have can only be counted on one hand!)
'Oh right...forgot I took most of his memories. Man, he's so delusional...'
"Right, right, sorry. Everything was just so chaotic."
(What happened? Is this some Nightmare Pocket in the Dream Realm?)
Cain stopped flying to prepare himself.
"No... this is the Landfill. The Dream Realm collapsed and is now gone. Everybody died...."
(...)
(WHAT!)
The inner voice was so loud it caused Cain to lose control of his mist, so much so that he plummeted. Unsurprisingly he caught himself but decided to continue on the ground for a while.
Then began to use his amazing silver tongue and explained the situation to his unknowledgeable half. Of course, he'll also twist truths here and there.
"I didn't do it! You don't know what happened, but let me explain. For a quick overview, the Dream Lord was the First Nightmare of the Dream Realm. He colluded with the territory core, which had intelligence, and used it to gather the imagination of the inhabitants. Not to mention, he is most likely the person who made the Dream Folk and opened the Realm to outsiders.
"The Dream Realm originally was only for containing Three specific beings who now escaped; you know them as the Primordial Horrors. However, because of the Dream Lord, the cage was destined to crumble and they escaped.
"Durrin tried going against fate, and fate struck back, along with the system. This was how the Realm collapsed."
(.....Wait....he....he was a Nightmare? He was stealing imagination? I....I....)
Cain continued, "Not only that, I was being forced by the Three to help them in destroying the Realm and killing the Dream Realm."
(So....I was being lied to....not only that but that place was only meant for Nightmares. We were never meant to settle there.....my utopia was destined to fall.....)
'One last push!'
Cain grinned and bobbed his head, "Yes! The Dream Lord caused the end of the Realm and all those people's deaths. Now, the Three are loose, and I don't know where they went. Although I believe they went North, toward the Middle Zone."
(...)
The Cain trapped in the mindscape stayed silent.
'Try intervening with my fun while you digest all of that! Serves you right for what you pulled.'
Cain smirked and spoke in a very caring and saddened tone, "I understand if you wish to remain silent. We were both used, take some time to digest it all. I needed time to think in a situation similar to this in the past, remember?"
(.....Okay.)
'He's lowered his guard. Now I just have to wait for him to adjust and the first step will be complete.'
Cain tried a few more times to communicate, but from the looks of it, his other self went into a deep slumber like he had once done.
"Hahaha! Idiot, truths are so easily warped. Now you can't stop me from digesting the Core and having my fun!"
Cain continued to cackle as his body turned hazy and red. Once more he flew across the sky as a red streak, heading North, looking for another territory to lay low for a time.
...
A few days passed.
The terrain once again changed. Cain was flying past purple-covered foothills.
'Finally, it's been a whole day. I never thought I would leave this purple hell!'
The foothills were not only barren but there was nothing to eat or do. Cain once landed when he first entered and found the purple grass was poisonous, with thorns embedded in the soil. It was so strange he immediately turned into his half-mist form and expelled the poison.
Leaving behind the purple hills, the ground turned gray. It was made out of a material Cain had never seen before.
The ground seemed cracked, weeds sprouting through it.
'Something is covering the ground? What is this, it appears to be rock but it's too smooth. Like gravel but more refined.'
It was concrete, an invention of humans once they reached a specific point in advancing themselves. This wasn't any old concrete but the modern kind, mass-produced. There were things similar in the other Territories Cain had been to but not this kind of concrete.
'So strange. I've never seen rocks like this... but this isn't a rock right?'
Shifting his gaze, Cain studied the road. He saw markings of white and yellow paint.
'Strange. Man-made?'
Coming out of his half-mist state, Cain decided to follow the highway to see where it went on foot. It would give him the chance to study this new material.
As the hours passed, Cain saw even more structures. The ground seemed like it was lifted up, or more accurately the concrete was being lifted. The roads extended above and far surpassed Cain's height.
It was an interchange junction.
The highway was crumbled mostly, but Cain could put together the image of the past. He could imagine the sprawling roads that switched directions with one another to create an organized system of transportation.
'Did they use carriages on these? No, there should be a specific device to traverse this type of road.'
Catching something else, Cain turned his head. Far away, there were lights so bright they were encompassing the sky.
As Cain focused his vision, he could see a massive wall holding something inside it.
If one were to see from above, one would realize the wall was part of a massive hexagon shape. Inside was a partially destroyed city, with some of the walls showing signs of being repaired.
But there was more; inside the grizzled city, was life! The intelligent kind!
Cain couldn't help but mischievously smile.
'Bingo.'