Origin Seeker

Chapter 277: Merge

Dream's focus returned from his concepts. In front of him was the portal. The sudden changes from his enlightenment and the subsequent conversations only lasted a few minutes. 

[Universal War huh...]

Sophia was a bit fearful of the information she got from Dream. His tiny action of taking control of a concept had actually set off such huge waves. It seemed unreasonable. Couldn't they just glance over it and leave it as an anomaly? 

But instead, they immediately laid out the colossal ramifications for doing what Dream did. There was no escaping what just happened, no hiding it from their eyes. 

Now, Dream was going to be attacked by a faction that spanned the entire universe. There were literal gods that would be hunting him. How was he supposed to escape this?

Luckily, his identity was still hidden. Nobody knew who he was. 

When Dream grabbed the spear of Vursoid, he had been given a ton of information. First was the true identity of Vursoid. He was the leader of one of the 7 highest Asura clans, the Calamitous End Clan. This clan was just as powerful as the Blood Drop clan. 

Apparently, every one of the 7 clans had a god ruling over them, meaning the Asura faction had 7 gods defending them. Vursoid was just one. 

And to defend Dream, he naturally had to know who and where he was. So Vursoid gave Dream directions on how to get to him. This included a map of the entire universe, territories and all. 

Dream could see the territories of Heaven and Hell, both of which took up the two halves of the universe. As for the Asura, Immortal, and Wanderers, they had abysmally small territories. 

The Asura faction only held 7 primary worlds, each of these worlds residing within Heaven's territory but near to Hell's. They weren't on the vanguard, but weren't far either. Getting attacked by Hell was a strong possibility. 

As for the Immortals, they actually had a spot near the center of the universe. It was small, but they were definitely strong to be able to survive for so long between the two dominant factions. 

And then there was the Wanderers. They actually didn't have any marked territories. They had known gathering sites, many of which were strewn throughout all of the factions. It seemed the Wanderers really were wanderers, not particularly aligned with any faction. They gathered as much in Hell as they did in Heaven. They even had a spot in the Immortal territory. 

With this information, Dream could actually move to the primary world that Vursoid controlled right now. The map naturally had coordinates to just about every location marked on it, which meant Dream could move himself to anywhere in the universe. This was exceptionally important information, so it went to show just how serious Vursoid was about protecting Dream. 

And Dream trusted the man. As one got more powerful, they became simpler in their thoughts. Vursoid seemed like a straightforward person, and Dream wouldn't mind going to him now. 

But he had other plans, one of which was to take care of the current situation. Of course, direct connections to Heaven posted around Earth were now a problem. He had to play his cards right, using his anonymity to his advantage. 

Dream looked around. He could sense Archangel Giros on Earth attending to things. He naturally left while Dream was having an epiphany. Other than that, everything was still normal. 

"...Heaven won't immediately move."

Dream spoke after thinking. Sophia nodded at this conclusion. 

[They won't move to declare war, but they will begin their search for you. They'll search anywhere they can for Seekers. That means there's one person who threatens your life the most right now.]

"Archangel Giros. He knows I'm a Seeker. He was able to figure it out when I was much weaker than him. Now, that information is surprisingly dangerous."

[Killing him now would be the best course of action.]

"Well isn't that cold of you."

Dream chuckled a bit. Still, Sophia was right. This wasn't a matter to be taken lightly. That man who was a class 5 could now threaten Dream's life with a small tidbit of information. When this Universal War started would be determined by what Dream did with Giros. 

"Come here."

Suddenly, Dream waved his hand, and Giros appeared next to him. The Archangel was a bit surprised before looking at Dream. 

"You've awoken?"

"I have. And plans have changed again."

*Flick*

Dream snapped his fingers, and suddenly, the book in Giros' hands disintegrated. He was baffled. 

"Giros, right now, you're a very dangerous individual. This should have nothing to do with you, but a war may be coming soon, and it all depends on what I do with you. If I kill you now, I could buy myself more time. But I'm reluctant to do so. You've taken care of my home. There's nothing that justifies you dying by my hands. It would be a completely unethical act on my part. And well, I'm not a cold machine. But I do have my interests in mind, particularly keeping my life, so I can only resort to this spontaneous experiment."

Saying that, Dream, in his cosmic form, touched Giros' forehead. Before the man could even process Dream's words, he felt a small searing in his soul. A large mark was branded on his forehead, and he suddenly felt completely bound. He quickly passed out under the influence of the brand. 

Dream grabbed him with a sigh. Then, his hand sunk into his head. 

Dream was made aware of Giros' entire soul. Of his eight soul seas, two of them were skills, and the rest were aspects of his being. One of them was a soul sea of the mind, containing his intelligence, wisdom, and everything mental. 

Dream tapped into this soul sea. Then, he found his intelligence. He found all of the information Giros' soul had ever come to know, not unlike Dream's catalog that held all his experiences. Basically, these were his memories. 

"Modifying memories should be simple, right? It's just information."

[I've already read all his memories, so I can tell you that just changing the information will be easy. Not hurting his soul in the process won't be. His intelligence is ingrained into his soul, so you need to change his soul, albeit only a bit. How easy this is depends on how little damage you want to cause.]

"I'd prefer no damage. Let's make this as inconspicuous as possible."

[Alright. I'm recreating memory information. We just need to infuse it in the right places. A simple cut, reconfiguration, and paste. You'll be in charge of actually controlling his soul.]

"Very well."

Dream nodded as he took hold of Giros' memories. Sophia was the best information processor he knew, so good that with her help, he could rewrite existence. Modifying and recreating memories was a cakewalk for her. There would be no abnormalities in the information. 

Dream just needed to be the scalpal. It would be like surgically removing neurons in the brain and then switching the neurons around before placing them back. He had never done this before, but that's why this was a good learning experience. To Giros' detriment, of course. 

Still, this way, Giros wouldn't have to die. With atomic precision, Dream cut into his soul, slowly cutting out certain tiny chunks of his soul. 

When he cut them out in the millions of places Sophia designated, she took control and modified all the bits of information. 

Doing this was actually much more difficult than it seemed for her. She had to go through and change every single memory that had to do with Giros knowing Dream was a Seeker. Every single time Giros thought of Dream and made the unconscious association of Dream being a Seeker, and every single time he remembered the legends of the Seekers and thought of Dream. Literally anything he thought about or made associations with had to be changed, and with Giros' sheer amount of intelligence, there were tens of millions of different instances that these associations were made. It could be a casual thought, and Sophia needed to change it. 

Then, she had to replace it with a similar thought process. In doing this, she had to perfectly replicate Giros' thoughts, including all the little mannerisms. Basically, she was simulating Giros' mind in order to replicate his thoughts and generate new ones according to his thought scheme. 

It was an astronomical amount of information processing, and not just simple data crunching. Intelligence of the soul was a higher type of information rooted in power, so it was many times more complicated than computer data. Doing what Sophia did would take a long time for Dream to do it. And Sophia was able to do it in mere seconds. 

It was a testament to her now unfathomable abilities. And with Dream's energy control, she was able to exercise her own abilities to their fullest. 

With just a tiny bit of practice, Dream was able to immediately pick up on how to properly cut and paste Giros' soul. With that, Sophia was able to easily rewrite his memories. Now, he no longer knew that Dream was a Seeker. Instead, his thoughts of Dream being a Seeker were now of Dream being an Asura craftsman. Any blank spots were filled in by some random but sensible memories. 

As for knowledge of Dream's wives, he didn't see a need to change anything. Dream and his wives were still famous individuals on Earth. But Giros was the only outsider, specifically of Heaven, who knew he was a Seeker. 

After making sure there were no loopholes in the memories, Sophia finished, and Dream planted them back. After a bit of reconstruction, Giros' soul was perfectly fine. 

Now, Giros only remembered being knocked out by Dream's aura when it slipped. As for Dream's plans with Earth, he knew all that. He wanted to bring Earth to the Asura clans. Except now, Giros didn't think of Dream as an almighty Seeker, just a very powerful Asura craftsman. 

He woke up under Dream's beckoning.

"Hm?"

"Hey, sorry about that."

"Huh? Oh..."

Giros rubbed his head. The two were in space, and he recalled what just happened. Dream released his cosmic form, and it had shaken Giros' soul a bit too much. 

"Anyway, do you remember what I told you?"

"...You wanted to bring Earth to the Asura clans? And you need to move the gates as well."

"Right. If you could, just go make sure there aren't any problems. I'll be able to finish the portal soon. I have a fondness for this planet, even though its people aren't powerful."

"Mm. You said your master sent you here, right? Now because of that, the people get to experience the inner universe. This planet's luck is amazing."

Giros spoke with a bit of wonder. Meanwhile, Dream was nodding inwardly. This is what he wanted. 

"Oh, and here."

Suddenly, Dream held out his hand. It was Giros' book, the one Dream had destroyed. 

"I accidentally damaged it a bit. I repaired it as best I could."

"Oh. Thank you. It seems to be working."

Giros smiled as he received an identical book, one that glowed gold like always. Dream had understood the simple tool, so he could easily recreate it. 

"Anyway, I better get back to work. I'll come around soon."

"Of course."

With those words, the two bid farewell. Dream watched Giros fly away with another regretful sigh. This was his best course of action that didn't involve taking Giros hostage for the foreseeable future. It would also eliminate any unknowns. After all, Dream didn't know if Heaven had any secret triggers or controls over angels, maybe even ones that were conceptual in nature. He couldn't risk Giros becoming a tracking beacon that gave him away. 

Now, the loose ends were tied. 

Dream turned back to the portal. With a wave, it instantly expanded from 5000 miles to 8000 miles. This was enough to slip Earth through. 

Compared to his recently struggling self, Dream was now able to expand the portal with ease. With his infinite power, he changed how he structured the portal so it held itself together, allowing it to constantly expand with the power it received. Not only that, but his enlightenment gave him even greater access to the power of the concepts. 

[So now, your power is just a difference in infinities. Your infinite power must now grow to be a bigger infinity.]

"Pretty much. This much be how people at my level fight. The one with the greater infinite power wins."

[Now, how does your neutron star fit into this? With Dust, you receive infinite power from it too, since the star is constantly converting the physical energy into magical energy.]

"Good question..."

Dream pondered for a second. He focused on his concepts, his neutron star, his Dust, and how all these powers tied together. 

He came to a quick conclusion. 

"Two different sources of power. The infinite power from my concepts is one power source, and the neutron star is another. The Dust that isn't enchanted to the star accommodates the infinite conceptual power. The other small portion gives me power from the star. In fact, some of the Dust is being wasted, not contributing to power output. After all, my conceptual comprehensions are limited. So the unused Dust can be enchanted to the star until I need it for the concepts."

As Dream spoke this conjecture, he moved to enchant the neutron star in his inventory with the unused Dust. Leaving only a bit extra for his concepts. If he comprehended more of the concepts, then he would receive more conceptual power, and Dust would be needed to actually wield that power. It was like increasing the size of a pipe. If the pipe was smaller, less water could go through it. Dream made the pipe just a bit bigger than the output, leaving room for growth. 

And with the rest giving him power from the star, he now had maximum power output. Dream saw his infinite power take another small leap, pushing him to yet another unfathomable height. 

"Now, time to handle the gates."

With a wave, 6 beams of mana shot out. They all reached the gates, and in mere moments reprogrammed them. Finally, Dream released his infinite power and surrounded Earth with a barrier of mana. 

Sophia smiled as the entire planet began to drift. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed. The portal had long since garnered mass attention from the planet. 

She spoke, her voice echoing from every device on Earth and reaching everyone's ears. 

[Attention, denizens of Earth. Your planet is currently being relocated. Earth will now be placed within the inner universe, leaving its place in the outer cosmos. Additionally, it shall be directly connected with a secondary world, coming under the motherly care of a Terra Core. This announcement is brought to you by Dream. We hope you enjoy your seamless migration into the wider universe.]

With a happy tone, Sophia alerted the 37 billion people that lived on Earth. Naturally, the entire planet seemed to screech to a halt. 

On the contrary, Earth drifted at surprising speeds through the portal. As Dream expected, it was a seamless transfer, no void shuttling required. 

From Tersa Prime, Tersa watched as Earth drifted toward her planet. Naturally, it was protected by Dream from the spatial turbulence. And soon enough, it had completely slipped through. 

Earth was graced by the large red star of this star system. After it slipped through, the portal shut, officially relocating the planet. 

Tersa felt bursting joy as she sensed the 37 billion souls on Earth. With a thought, mountains of nanites shot into space from the surface of her planet. When Earth was a mere 100 miles from the surface of Tersa Prime, the mountains she created connected to Earth. 

Then, the merging began. The nanites dug into Earth's crust, piercing to its core and tearing it apart. Earth seemed to bloom like a flower as the spherical planet unraveled, becoming flat. 

Billions of bots shot out of Tersa Prime as well. They all stabilized the catastrophic changes occurring, ensuring that nobody died. There were barely any buildings that were destroyed as well. For the most part, Dream cut out the continents as he flattened the planet, making it so no landmasses were falling apart and obliterating cities and such. 

Like that, Earth was lowered onto Tersa Prime, like a cut and paste. His infinite power made this process surprisingly easy, and Sophia was doing tons of calculations to ensure the planet merged correctly. 

And after a mere hour, the planet Earth was now a series of land strips on Tersa Prime. The two planets had become one. 

"Master!"

Tersa, after handling the urgent merging, rushed over to Dream. He smiled at her. 

"I've kept my promise. 37 billion souls, and they are yours to care for. Now this world isn't just cold metal."

"Master, in even billions of years, I can never thank you enough for what you have just done for me. For the rest of eternity, you shall be my Master, my everything yours to do with as you please. This world is forever yours to rule."

Tersa could barely contain her overflowing joy as she almost fell to her knees. To her, Dream was basically her god, let alone her master. She had already devoted herself to him, and now, her undying loyalty and reverence were cemented forever. 

Instead of falling to her knees though, she rushed forward and hugged Dream, squeezing him tight as if telling him to never leave. He chuckled as he returned the hug. 

"Haha, there's no need for buttery words, Tersa. This is just what you deserve, and I'm happy that I was finally able to give you people to care for. Now you can fulfill your purpose as a Terra Core. Of course, I do indeed still want you by my side. After everything that's happened, it looks like there's no longer any reason for us to separate."

"Master, you mean..."

"Wherever I go, you're coming with me. I can now move effectively anywhere in the universe with my infinite power. And as you just saw, I can move planets as well. Now there's nothing stopping me from just taking you with me. Plus, I'll need this place as my center of production. Inside of you is immense combat power that I'll need in order to survive an upcoming war."

Tersa's eyes went wide. She didn't even care about his words regarding a war. 

"Yes, Master! I want nothing more than to stay by your side! I will follow you anywhere and everywhere!"

"Hehe, then I'll gladly have you."

Dream stroked Tersa's hair with a wide smile. He was very fond of her, this daughter-like girl. Granted, she called him master, but he looked past that. This was a soul he nurtured, like a child. 

Now, they would march into the universe bearing the production of a massive planet. Dream knew a war couldn't be avoided. He would soon have many enemies. But with Tersa who helped him produce armies in the billions, he was confident in facing any invasion. 

Of course, he didn't intend to just sit back and accumulate. With Dream's infinite power, he now had a whole list of plans for Tersa's planet and its military production. How powerful of a soldier could Dream make with endless power? And how many could he make? 

His current army was about to look like children compared to what he had envisioned in his mind.