Chương 75: Sleep Paralysis

Every individual Dreamer was a one-person army. Even the weakest Dreamer would be capable of killing a few Aspirants with ease. When an Aspirant ascends to the rank of Dreamer, their bodies are reformed to fit an affinity. Body Manipulation. Mind Manipulation. Soul Manipulation. Affinities themselves are often categorized into one of these three groups. Body Manipulation gives a Dreamer an intuitive understanding of their physical self and reforms their entire body into its superhuman peak.

Mind Manipulation increases the neuroplasticity of a Dreamer's mind to a supernatural degree, making those with this affinity unparalleled geniuses. Soul Manipulation gives a Dreamer an increased affinity for the world; people with this affinity tend to have an easier time forming mana nexuses or cultivating QI, making those with this affinity geniuses when it comes to raw power.

June walked past several Dreamers while entering the broken spire where Leo and Leonard used to live; every second in the enemy encampment was a tense one since any one of the Dreamers around June might have an ability to sense the invisible. He continued up the spiral that hugged the central pillar of the spire, narrowly avoiding passing Dreamers, either enjoying the ruined architecture or storming away from Martin's office.

Silvester was currently sent to procure a spot to set a camp in while June carried out his deadly mission. The Royal faction's Dreamer army had settled in Brighthaven, and for the last few days, June had quietly scouted the state of his fallen city. He had learned from passing chatter and a few context clues that Martin had made his office in the highest room of the spire, and now June was on his way to handle the royal.

'Should I kidnap him? Or kill him?' June held in a sigh and sneaked in behind a Dreamer entering the royal's quarters. The room was in shambles; at least to June.

The hammocks that littered the room were torn down and replaced with eyesore banners; the plants that were carefully placed around the room were gone; the rocks that Leo collected were carelessly tossed into a pile behind his old desk, where a blonde man sat, adorned in an oversized embroidered coat made of gold, silver, and reds; his face was a little pudgy, round and was covered in freckles. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Despite being invisible, June hid his clawed hand behind his back.

'I think I know what I'm going to do.' Around the room were a dozen other royals; most of them were Aspirants, and only a couple, including Martin himself, were Dreamers. June watched the Dreamer he followed, unenthusiastically salute to Martin with a fist thumped against his chest.

"Sir Marti—" Martin slammed his pudgy fist on the table and, with a voice that carried the entire horrible persona of teenage angst, squealed out.

"KING MARTIN…" June had to cover his mouth to avoid laughing out loud.

'His Dreamer transformation gave him voice cracks!' The Dreamer didn't react to Martin's outburst and continued with their report.

"Most Dreamers and Aspirants in the Brighthaven domain have been eliminated or captured under your orders. Shall we keep them in the northwestern brig? Or send them to work in the camps?" Martin stood up and pointed.

"YES! Do that!" He then plopped back down with a finger in his nose, making Leo's nice wooden chair groan under his weight. June looked at the man with disgust. From the hearsay June heard from the Royal Factions' own soldiers, people didn't respect him much; he was weak even by Aspirant standards despite being a Dreamer himself. The man also enjoyed abusing his power as the leader of the Royal Faction; he was a voyeur, a lustful man, and frankly, someone who said things that should have stayed unsaid.

The reason why people didn't kill him outright was that the retainers his father sent in with him were obsessed with giving the bratty prince everything he wanted; they ran the show, and Martin simply claimed their wins and boons as his own.

June had a bit of a vendetta with Martin; he may have plucked his eyes and jarred them somewhere, riddled his back with buckshot, buried him under the earth for three entire months, killed most of his friends, destroyed his home, flowers, belongings, and so on, but those weren't the reasons for his vendetta. Silvester and June conversed a lot when they reunited since June was 3 months behind on current events.

Apparently, Silvester, while he was undercover, heard from an instructor who often worked with Martin's retainers closely, and purely by accident, the instructor let loose that Martin once tried to court Lilia in a not-so-normal way; he tried to drug her during a ball several years back, and the retainers were complaining since the mad prince was talking about trying again after the Colosseum. Of course, when Silvester told June, he simply dismissed it and didn't act as if he cared much.

But silently, every day since he heard what Martin was planning, June slowly unraveled. An unhinged piece of him woke up. And an unhinged piece of the voice reminded him. June was going to teach Martin something about perspective.

In the dead of night, June slowly snuffed out the lights of the spire. He didn't try to kill any of the Dreamers or any other Royals since they were useless in the war. He slowly snuck past the retainers guarding the highest room in the spire that used to be Leo and Leonard's safe space, and he walked over to an extravagant cot that once belonged to Eren. Martin was in the nude, and to his left and right were two nude beauties, but June didn't care about them.

June wrapped a hand around Martin's ankle and pulled him off the bed; there was no thump when he fell. When Martin came to and started kicking and scrambling, no noise came from his efforts to escape. He tried to scream, but no noise came out. The only things he could see in the darkness were two glowing eyes and an inhuman grin staring at him from above.