Chapter 29: Dream Entry
2023-10-23 Author: Rowing Without Oars 233
Orin Vale had a strange dream.
In the dream, a dark red sky enveloped Gotham. A grim aura blanketed the city, and the air was so heavy it was suffocating.
Skyscrapers fractured with sharp cracks, toppling to the ground one after another. Steel and concrete were twisted into grotesque shapes amid the explosions. Ruins and rubble were scattered on every street corner, covered in layers of dust and debris. A sky thick with smoke and dust shrouded Gotham as piercing screams and desperate cries echoed from the distance, like the final, mournful cry of this city of night before its end.
Orin Vale walked along the dilapidated street, gazing at the burning debris and the surrounding ruins with a somewhat dazed expression.
He couldn't quite remember how things had gotten so bad, nor could he recall why he was here. The shattered streets beneath his feet felt strangely unreal, and the choking smoke was irritating.
The sky cracked.
Countless fragments shattered and fell, as if a mirror had been hammered into powder. In the fractured sky, a bizarre face appeared—a red face with kaleidoscopic eyes and a body covered in red barbs.
He did have an impression of this figure.
"Hahahaha!" The strange shadow cackled from within the rift. "Another world has fallen into darkness! This is now my dimensional domain!"
"You're that... that one guy, who was it? Hold on, don't tell me."
Orin Vale frowned, trying hard to awaken a distant memory.
"The dimensional being... Part-Time Emperor? Boss Killer?"
The red-faced monster roared in fury, "What 'Part-Time Emperor'? I am the dimensional being Yapool, the aggregate of hatred and resentment! The deepest nightmare of your Ultraman Race!"
"Uh, my apologies. You rank a bit low on the Land of Light's wanted list, so my memory of you is a bit fuzzy," Orin Vale said, embarrassed.
He remembered now. Yapool was Senior Ace's main opponent in the TV series, the behind-the-scenes villain throughout the entire show. However, over the long history of Ultraman, his threat level had dropped lower and lower, and in subsequent appearances, he was usually just a henchman for some more powerful big shot.
Working for others was one thing, but the key was that he also liked to jinx his own bosses. Every time he was about to die, he would shout something like "Long live Lord XXX!" to show his loyalty. Yet, it was later proven that every one of his declarations of loyalty became a jinx. No matter how high their status or how great their strength, any boss he rooted for would inevitably have their ashes scattered by an Ultraman.
Yapool shrieked in anger, spouting nonsense about how Orin Vale was slandering him and tarnishing his reputation out of thin air, asking when he had ever gotten a boss killed.
"Well then, the Cosmic Emperor, Alien Empera. You got him killed, didn't you?" Orin Vale began to list them off.
"That was his own fault for standing there to attack without knowing how to dodge! A max-level account with the skills of a Bronze-leaguer. It had nothing to do with me!" Yapool said self-righteously.
"What about Dark Lugiel? A ruthless character who single-handedly tore through the Land of Light. He was a victim of your jinx too, right?"
"And what about the Emperor-level cosmic demon from the Multiverse, Judar? I bet your cheers of 'loyalty' jinxed him to death, too."
Yapool: "..."
The dimensional being grew increasingly agitated. With a loud roar, his massive body squeezed out of the rift, and a huge fist came crashing down toward Orin Vale's head.
"Hold on."
Orin Vale made a 'stop' gesture. Yapool's fist forcefully halted just before it landed, and he glared at him in annoyance.
"What now?"
"Wait, that's not right. I'm in the DC Universe. What's a Yapool doing in Gotham City?" Orin Vale held his chin, trying hard to recall. "Did you transmigrate too? Or could it be..."
With a thought, Orin Vale closed his eyes and concentrated, gathering his mental energy.
The surrounding scene changed abruptly. The giant Yapool vanished like a phantom, and the dark-red sky and burning streets began to spin. Everything was sucked into a massive vortex and swallowed by chaos.
When he opened his eyes again, Orin Vale was back in the cafe, realizing he had fallen asleep in his seat at some point.
As expected, it was just a nightmare, something he had imagined.
"You actually woke up on your own?"
The Old Wizard's voice sounded by his ear. Orin Vale turned his head to see Wizard Shazam looking at him with some surprise.
"This is a rare and powerful form of dream energy. I have special methods to avoid being ensnared by nightmares. How were you able to do it?" The Old Wizard paused, looking at Orin Vale with a complicated expression. "Your mental fortitude is impressive, outworlder."
"I've had some related training."
Orin Vale stood up as he spoke, stretching his muscles.
"What's the situation?"
"A wave of dream magic washed over the city out of nowhere. It's very likely it has already covered everything... See for yourself."
Orin Vale glanced around and saw that everyone in the cafe had indeed fallen into a deep sleep.
Tom, a regular, was slumped over a table, a pool of drool forming at the corner of his mouth. Old Wang, a regular from Gotham's Chinatown, was also lying face down on a dining table, snoring away and muttering in his sleep.
If one got closer, they could faintly hear him mumbling something like, "Sister-in-law is amazing."
Even the talk show host on TV had fallen asleep, snoring into the microphone. The man's resounding snores echoed through thousands of households.
Not even the Kryptonian girl, Kara, was spared. She had been studying a supplementary book called "English Textbook Companion." Halfway through her studies, she had slumped forward into the book, fast asleep. The ahoge on her little golden head swayed back and forth...
Oh, that might not have been related. She usually dozed off while reading anyway.
"Dream magic... this domain should be under the purview of Morpheus of The Endless. I don't know how such a mishap could occur..." the Old Wizard frowned. "But if this continues, it will be very dangerous. My dream-entering spell can help me enter the dreamscape to find the culprit, but with less than a tenth of my magic power remaining, the journey will be perilous, and I don't know if I can handle it. You will watch over my physical body. If you sense that I'm in trouble, wake me immediately—"
"Or, I have a better idea," Orin Vale said. "Maybe you could take me with you."
"You?"
The Old Wizard frowned.
"I know you are strong, outworlder. But the dream world and the real world are entirely different dimensions, each with its own laws. I understand the rules of dreams, so my magic is effective there. But you? No matter how powerful you are in reality, you can't bring that power into the dream world."
"Don't worry. I know a thing or two about the laws of dreams," Orin Vale said confidently.
The Land of Light strives for every Ultraman to be a well-rounded 'Hexagon Warrior,' and our training includes courses on the dreamscape.
In past TV series, more than one generation of my Ultraman predecessors has entered dreams to defeat monsters that manipulate the dreamscape. This was proof enough that the power of Light could also be effective there.
Seeing him so confident, the Old Wizard was even more surprised.
He's even dabbled in the laws of the dreamscape? Are his skills really that extensive?
It made him even more curious about Orin Vale's origins.
"Alright. But I have to say this first: in my current state, I lack the power to protect you if a crisis occurs."
The Old Wizard took a deep breath, waved his arm, and shouted in a resonant voice.
"Now then...
Let us enter the dream!"
(end of chapter)