That day, Alice brought her parents over to the Dreamer household. And sure enough, when her parents saw Dream, they were stunned, though not as much when they saw their resurrected daughter.
Being Alice's boyfriend, Dream naturally had a good relationship with her parents. They were a more mellow couple unlike the people in his family. Alice was also an only child, so their family dynamic was very different. Nonetheless, the two families were on good terms and kept in touch, so Alice's parents had heard of Dream's own death, which they also grieved. They couldn't help but feel guilt as well since their daughter's death had dealt him such a huge blow. But now, these two people had both returned. It was inconceivable.
After seeing Dream though, Alice's parents seemed to come to terms with the new reality. The world was different now, and while they didn't understand magic systematically, they understood that seemingly impossible things were no longer impossible. They just needed enough to convince them, and the revival of two dead people was enough for them.
Dream's own family was also shocked to see Alice. When Austin saw this, he was able to quickly piece together some things and determine that both Dream's own arrival and her's were related. Although he didn't know how, he was convinced that it wasn't a coincidence. This was the conclusion of the rest of the family too.
There was only one problem that the two families eventually thought of. Dream had come back with two women, but now, his original girlfriend had appeared. The situation had turned into a love triangle with Dream at the center. Austin was especially baffled thinking about this, and he couldn't help but worry for his brother's love life.
But miraculously, no problems arose. In fact, neither Dream, Luna, or Iris were shocked by Alice's arrival. They acted so natural, as if they already knew about Alice, and the girls never got into any conflicts. If anything, they looked to be rather close, still strangers, but gradually getting comfortable with each other. The family didn't really notice this at first, but thinking about it, they were stumped.
Dream didn't mind this though, and everyone gradually settled down. The two families had a breakfast, and they all happily conversed.
After breakfast ended though, Dream stood up and prepared to leave.
"Where are you going?"
Melody asked him as she wolfed down a thick slice of ham. He rolled his eyes at her.
"The city needs more land, so I'm planning on building an island off the coast."
"Building an island? Like, an actual island?"
"Yea. I'm thinking I can make it pretty big, much bigger than the islands of Hawaii. At minimum it should be able to fit another 5 cities."
"How the hell are you supposed to do that?"
Melody asked as she looked at him like an idiot. Dream thought about it for a second.
"I was thinking I could either punch a hole down to the mantle, effectively creating a volcano that would naturally construct an island for me, or just manually gather tons of dirt and stuff to build one. I'm more inclined toward the first option."
"I see, I see..."
Melody nodded as a matter of factly, seemingly understanding. Dream just send a flick her way though, and a tiny blade of air knocking into her forehead.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"Dumbass."
"Shut up! You tryna fight?!"
"I'm literally about to pull up an island, and you're thinking of fighting me? How did you manage to get a high position in your guild?"
"Playing with a bunch of dirt does not equate to combat power!"
"Oh wow, did you just say 'equate'? I'm surprised that monkey brain of yours could comprehend such a word."
"That's it!"
"Enough!"
"..."
Suddenly, both Dream's mom and dad yelled at exactly the same time. Melody glared at her brother for a second before snorting and sitting back down, wolfing down another few slices of ham. Alice watched the exchange with a smile on her face. Austin and Walter just continued eating their food as if nothing happened, clearly used to such banter.
"Sigh, be careful on your little trip."
Shaking her head, Dream's mom spoke to him. He smiled and told them he'd be back soon before disappearing into thin air.
Teleporting away, Dream quickly appeared above the ocean, the boundless blue spreading out for miles.
He also wasn't alone. All around him were bots. There were around 10 million, all of them purposed for construction or material manipulation. Dream had already been planning to pull up an island, so he naturally had some assistance.
"You know what to do."
[Deploying bots.]
Sophia responded, and all the bots flew down into the ocean. They created a huge ring, each bot standing side by side.
Dream wasn't lying about what he said to Melody. His plan was to punch a hole through the Earth's crust, causing huge amounts of material to spew from this artificial volcano. With a bit of his guidance, this would provide the foundation for his island. However, this would cause massive tremors, so Dream prepared this little army of bots to mitigate that.
Right now he was a thousand kilometers off the coast of Baja California, a spot halfway between there and Hawaii. He decided to place this island on about the same latitudinal line as Hawaii, ensuring the best climate year-round.
As for the island itself, He was just going to make it a simple circle. Only, it was going to be a really big circle. The diameter was going to be a thousand kilometers, making for an area of almost 800 thousand square kilometers. For reference, that was 10% bigger than Texas.
Each of the bots powered up with their enchantments, anchoring themselves to the ocean floor. They placed themselves in a ring, outlining the circle that the island would be built within. With this, they would be able to negate the tremors caused by Dream's terraforming.
With that, Dream had nothing else to wait for. He quickly shot down into the water, gliding through with no resistance. He didn't even stop when he reached the floor, instead smashing straight into it.
*Boom*
A low but powerful thud shook the ground, causing a small earthquake. When Dream crashed into the ground, his magic split the floor, creating a big crack in the surface. This crack was an entire mile wide and several miles long, and it quickly deepened as Dream went further and further down.
The Earth was split open, like an axe through wood. The bots had to use significant amounts of power to negate the tremors that spread from the epicenter. In fact, they created their own tremors that collided with Dream's. The only problem with this was that the collision of the tremors destroyed the crust further, causing even more trenches and ravines to appear.
Dream was totally okay with this though. Anything that helped him create volcanos was welcome, and destroying the crust would do that.
Soon, Dream had deepened the trench several miles. The temperature rose quickly, indicating that he was getting close to the mantle. He kept flying down, his magic continually splitting the Earth as he did so.
And soon, he reached the mantle. The rock he encountered started to appear molten, but he just kept going.
10 miles... 20 miles... 30 miles... 50 miles...
Dream used atrocious amounts of power splitting everything open. The earth around him got heavier and heavier, but he didn't mind it. It was only when molten rock and such started exploding upward that he slowed down.
He eventually stopped and looked around him. Water continued to fill in the trench with massive waterfalls, and all the rock around him was flowing lava. The only reason the lava wasn't blowing upward was because he had lined the walls of the trench with mana to retain it. He didn't keep that lining there for long though. He spoke.
"Explode."
With that word, unprecedented amounts of power exploded from his body. The earth around him for 5 miles was blown back, creating a huge void. The lining of the trench was also removed, and with nothing holding back the pressure, everything was let loose at once.
*BOOOOMMM*
Matter came crashing down like a wave. The ridiculous pressures of the Earth exerted their full force on each other, searching for an outlet. Lava and rock and water shot upward through the trench, widening it even more.
In only moments, the massive amount of material came surging from the trench and out into the ocean. Lava spewed out like a broken fire hydrant. It was as if the Earth itself was bleeding, covering the ocean floor with red hot blood. The explosions were several times worse than even the most violent volcanos, and the ejected lava spread out for miles.
Dream came flying out of that mess moments later, totally untouched. He looked down at the chaos below, nodding to himself.
"Now I just gotta do that a hundred more times."
[Why don't you just claim a piece of land in the middle east or something? There's plenty to go around, and it would be much less troublesome.]
Sophia spoke up as they watched the apocalyptic scene.
"If I create my own landmass, then nobody can say that I don't deserve to own it. Besides, how can claiming land in some war ravaged country possibly be cooler than this?"
He smiled as he looked at the surging explosions of lava. The scene looked like doomsday, only for the ocean. And it had only taken a couple minutes for Dream to cause.
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Hearing him, Sophia just sighed. Meanwhile, Dream dashed off to a spot only a few miles from the first trench and shot through the ground again, creating another fissure in the crust.
.........
Several hours later, Dream emerged from a trench that was gushing lava. When he did, he looked around him.
By this point, anything that was living within his circle of operation had either hurriedly evacuated or died. What Dream was doing was especially harmful to the ocean's ecosystem, but luckily, he was nice enough to help out with that. After some systematic lava manipulation, Dream had created a ring of solid rock that would be the perimeter of the island. This ring rose to the ocean surface and isolated the water in the area, preventing the sulfur or harmful chemicals from spreading through the ocean currents. After everything was done, he would just filter out the water and send it back into the ocean. Easy peasy.
With that said, Dream now just had to wait for his island to fill itself in. The area was continually filled with lava, stacking on top of itself to create mountains of land. There were already several peaks of rock poking above the water.
The only reason this could move so quickly was because Dream had punched down into the mantle itself. The pressures there were immense, resulting in amounts of lava that couldn't be compared to something released from a standard volcano. Not only that, but he had ensured that there would be no blockages with his magic, allowing the matter to flow without inhibition.
By his calculations, he could have the foundation of the island in another day or so. After that, he would get some dirt and other materials to make the island more hospitable, effectively terraforming the place.
He wasn't planning on loading this island with cities might off the bat. While he was planning on making another megacity in the center of the island, he was going to leave abundant space for the people of the Haven, and even the people of Earth, to do with as they wished. He wanted the place to be a land of development and commerce. Needless to say, the real estate was incredibly valuable. The fact that it would have a climate like Hawaii only reinforced this point, and it could become a grand tourist attraction later on.
With all that in mind, Dream got even more excited. Suddenly, he wasn't willing to waste time, and he dove back down to accelerate the land formation process. He also had Sophia prepare bots and materials to build the main megacity.
Dream went on to form the land for a few more hours. After that time, one could see vast swaths of black, cooling rock. The landmass present above the water had already filled in half the designated area, with most of it being in the center. With that, Dream ordered the construction of the city, and the bots got to work.
At this time though, four people appeared above the landmass. They looked down to see Dream raising his hands in the air, lava exploding from under the water as if he were some kind of lava bender.
"Dream! What the hell?! You were gone for half a day!"
Melody shouted as she flew down to him. Luna, Iris, and Alice followed, a bit stunned by his progress, but more so by the sheer size of the landmass.
"Oh, hey. So how do you like it? I still need to terraform a bit, but there's enough land for the city, so I got to building it."
"This is insane! How the hell did you even do all this?!"
Melody looked around, still baffled by what she was seeing. Dream just smirked at her.
"Simple large scale manipulation. I poked some holes in the Earth and let the lava spew out. It's a very effective way to get yourself an island. After all, that's how many islands were originally formed, like Hawaii. I just simulated and scaled the process. So how about it, Luna?"
"It's... a bit more than I was expecting. When you said island, I thought you were going to make something smaller like Hawaii, not this..."
Luna sighed as she got the measurements from Sophia. It wasn't that she was unapproving, just that Dream had gone so far beyond her expectations. She would be ruling over this plot of land in the future, and the difference between controlling a small island and a pseudo continent was vast.
As they conversed, Alice suddenly noticed something in her inventory while she observed around her. She could feel an energy pulse from an item. The next moment, the parchment she received, which had her task on it, flew out into the open, garnering the attention of everyone in the vicinity including Dream.
"Alice?"
"I'm not sure. It's the letter I received before I came here."
"..."
Dream stared at the paper that floated in the air. As they did though, it glowed golden and separated itself into three equal pieces. Each piece then flew toward Luna, Iris, and Melody. It was so quick that Dream couldn't even react, and before they knew it, the pieces had been absorbed into their bodies.
"What the..."
[It's a Title bestowal.]
Sophia suddenly spoke as she received a connection from the three girls. Dream could also feel it.
[This paper... It wants to turn them into Specialists.]
"How the hell can a piece of paper do that? No, I guess I should be concerned about why Melody of all people is getting this. What the hell does that guy think he's doing..."
Dream frowned as he realized what was going on. That god wanted to turn them into specialists, like him and Alice. While he wasn't opposed to Luna and Iris receiving this benefit, he wasn't so happy with him poking around his sister. This god had already spread his influence throughout most of his life, he wanted his family to be left alone.
[Connection with Alice's [Master] intelligence has been established. Connection with the page fragments within the three girls has been established. The fragments want to use you as the medium to bestow the Titles and skills. It's asking for confirmation.]
"Wait, so this guy actually wants me to decide?"
[That is correct. If you so choose, none or all of them will gain the Titles and skills.]
"...Son of a bitch..."
Dream chuckled wryly. This god was actually leaving the decision up to him. That meant that he couldn't complain if he went through with it. The spreading of this god's influence was up to him.
Anger started welling up in his chest, but he quickly calmed down and went into thought. Sure, he was mad that this god had him in the palm of his hand, but this was also an opportunity, especially for Melody. This bestowal would essentially be giving them all wings, opening up a greater path of power. If it were anyone else in the family, he wouldn't be so hesitant to deny the bestowal. But this was Melody.
Melody was, at least by Earth's standards, an exceptional swordswoman. She was fast, powerful, and talented. While she had the assistance of the Seeker Program, having tons of knowledge that Dream gained at her disposal, she had pioneered her own path. Dream couldn't really help her down the path of the sword since he was essentially an artisan. This meant she had a good deal of potential.
Plus, she loved combat. While she may not be the best leader or general, she was a reliable presence on the battlefield. This is what Dream had seen from the Seeker Program. Needless to say, she couldn't go back to how she lived before. She was now devoted to the pursuit of power.
It was all this that made him hesitate. Denying the bestowal would be stunting her growth and future potential. It wasn't fair for him to make the decision. So he gritted his teeth a bit and spoke.
"Melody."
"Huh? What?"
"What do you think?"
Dream looked at her, and she pondered. When the piece of paper entered her, she had been given loads of data, basically letting her know what the deal was. She was given knowledge about the Specialists, the Title she would gain, as well as the skills she would receive. She could also feel a connection to her brother and Alice, telling her that they had what the paper was giving.
She thought about everything before smiling.
"I want it. This stuff is good! And I'm getting it for free! Why wouldn't I want these awesome skills?"
"The skills are nice, but it's not that simple. Listen up. The god that's giving these things to you is also the god that gave me the foundation to reach where I am today. However, should you accept this, he will have a hand in your evolution and your future. I'm already being led by the nose, and I don't necessarily want the same for you."
"How are you being led by the nose?"
"This god seems to know everything. He knows everything about me, my past, and seemingly the future. He's the one who tossed me into another world and likely planned every step of my rise to power."
"And that's not a good thing? I mean, you're already class 4."
"It's good, but look at what just happened recently. He brings me back to Earth and then sends Alice my way."
"And... that's not a good thing?"
"It's..."
"Okay, has this god or whatever actually done anything bad to you? It seems to me like he handed you a pretty damn good set of cards."
Melody spoke, and Dream went quiet for a second before coming to a conclusion. He thought about everything he's been through, from his death, to meeting Luna and Iris, to barely saving the world from demons, and finally coming back to Earth where he discovered that Alice had been alive all along. Everything seems like it was just one smooth path to the top, but to Dream, it all felt like a lie. Alice's arrival had made him understand just how naive he was to this god's influence. It was like everything he did was merely an expectation, a milestone down an already determined path.
He wasn't someone who desired absolute control over everything. However, he also wasn't someone who would stand for being led around like a dog. The relationship between Dream and this god wasn't as simple as him being angry, like a child would at their parent. It was an existential conflict that Dream had to come to terms with. The conflict was on a cosmic scale, an issue that couldn't be settled unless he rose to unfathomable heights. He became conflicted whenever he thought about all this, which was surprisingly often.
"It's not simply about good and bad. Look, my situation is probably a bit special, so I guess I'm not the best to tell you of the consequences accepting this bestowal would bring about. Talk to Alice. Listen to her, and let me know when you make a decision."
Saying that, Dream flew off to continue forming the island, his mood ruined. Melody watched his back for a bit before turning to Alice.