This ancient book flowed out from the cave prison that sealed the Dragon of Mars. Is it an extension of its consciousness, its diary from within the prison, connected to the Dragon of Mars' dreams, and essentially a part of it?
How did this thing flow out of the Dragon of Mars' prison?
Was it an accident, some chaotic conspiracy, or an attempt by the Dragon of Mars to escape its confinement?
Alexander frowned, looking at the ancient book in his hand.
The material of the book itself, at first glance, seemed like simple, heavy leather, its surface covered in cracks from the erosion of time. These cracks intertwined with the natural patterns of the leather, forming a series of dizzying geometric shapes.
The angles of these geometric shapes were completely illogical, defying the most basic mathematical principles of the universe, yet they undeniably existed on the book's cover, like the scales of some higher-dimensional being projected into a narrow three-dimensional universe.
Oudia had discovered this very fact at the time, which made him realize the unique nature of this ancient book.
However, to this day, no one has been able to read this book. Their wills would merely foam at the mouth and descend into madness with just a glance.
But Alexander could. The moment Alexander touched the book, he heard the malicious, deranged, and fragmented whispers and roars.
Those were the Dragon of Mars' murmurs in its sleep, revealing a primal evil.
Those with weak wills could not comprehend the meaning of its whispers; they could only sense the presence of the magnificent will that emitted these sounds.
It was an ancient being that existed long before humans were born, tens of millions of years ago. It drank the blood of stars, devoured the souls of all living beings, and was revered as a god across a million galaxies.
It existed before the gods of the Empyrean uttered their first cries.
It existed before the rise of the servants known as the Aeldari.
It was born in the first moment, the first instant of the material universe's birth, amidst the high-energy forces that determined the universe's physical laws.
The twisted abominations in the Sea of Souls were mere usurpers of the material universe and the name of God; it was the true God and master of the material universe.
Fear and reverence for it permeated every atom of this galaxy. Any living or even non-living creature, the moment it became aware of its existence, would have all its sanity shattered.
This is also why those who had previously read this book fell into a coma.
They couldn't understand the meaning of these whispers, but the mere existence of the Dragon emitting them was enough to drive them mad.
Alexander, however, could understand the meaning of those whispers.
"So hungry, so hungry, so hungry, I want some sweet Necron snacks..."
"Savage monkeys, stupid primitives, thinking they can... with just a spear."
"Oh, what the heck, you medieval knight!"
These whispers didn't sound so intelligent after all.
There was only a craving for sweet Necron snacks, hatred for a certain Psyker medieval knight, and confusion over its inexplicable downfall.
The poor Dragon had been sealed for tens of thousands of years and still hadn't recovered.
Alexander fell into a brief thought. The book in his hand connected to the Dragon's dream, and Alexander could think of a myriad of tools to enter a dream.
If he wanted to understand the current situation of the Dragon of Mars, the best way would naturally be to use a tool to infiltrate the Dragon of Mars' dream.
Alexander glanced at Nobita beside him, but there was no will of the Emperor residing within him.
Pure trash, always going offline at critical moments.
Does he need a movie adaptation to have a shining moment?
After muttering to himself for a moment, Alexander's gaze fell upon the four-dimensional pocket, looking at the Future Department Store interface.
Then, under Oudia's curious gaze, Alexander pulled a ladder from the four-dimensional pocket.
The ladder itself was about one and a half meters long, and curved.
[Tool Name: Dream Cloud Ladder]
[Origin: 22nd Century Earth — Future Department Store]
[Production Date: 231.M2]
[Function: A ladder that can freely enter and exit others' dreams, quickly move between different dreams, and also entice others into one's own dream.]
"Ta-da! The Dream Cloud Ladder!" Alexander said, holding up the ladder in his hand.
Then he noticed Oudia's curious expression and explained, "This is the Dream Cloud Ladder, a ladder that can enter others' dreams."
Oudia was first filled with intense curiosity, but then both faces of his diminutive terminal showed worry.
"Sir, is this not a bit too risky? Perhaps I should—"
Alexander shook his head.
This was the Dragon of Mars' dream, and both Alexander and the Emperor believed that the Dragon of Mars was the C'tan Void Dragon.
Oudia's 'meat content' was even lower than Cawl's; facing the Void Dragon, he was purely a bidet. The Void Dragon could make sparks fly from Oudia's power port with a single thought.
What was the difference between sending him into the Dragon's dream and sending a pure-hearted beastman into a Dark Eldar cave?
Of course, Alexander didn't intend to go in like this either. He naturally had to take precautions.
With a thought, Alexander's consciousness transferred into Nobita's body.
He would use Nobita's body to dream, and then enter the Dragon of Mars' dream.
This way, even if something went wrong, Alexander would at most only damage the part of his will that he had released.
Furthermore, Nobita's strength was close to that of a Primarch, and with the old crone sword capable of channeling Alexander's and the Emperor's power, unless the Dragon of Mars truly recovered into a complete C'tan, it wouldn't be so easy to harm him.
Alexander handed the Dream Cloud Ladder to Nobita. 0.3 seconds later, Nobita fell asleep directly.
The will Alexander had injected into Nobita's body woke up in the dream, clutching the Dream Cloud Ladder.
This feeling was somewhat unique; he felt like he was inside a hazy bubble, everything before his eyes ethereal and seemingly able to change with a single thought from Alexander.
This was also one of the uses of the Dream Cloud Ladder: it could, through deception and trickery, induce others to enter a dream completely under one's own control.
Alexander subtly looked around. He saw a gigantic cloud emerging above the diary, ethereal and like foam or mist, reflecting a huge silver figure that was indistinct.
That was the Dragon of Mars' dream, a long dream that had lasted tens of thousands of years.
This dream was so long and vast that the dream cloud before Alexander's eyes was so enormous it almost covered the entire Mars, engulfing everything on Mars within it.
No wonder Oudia dreamed of the Dragon of Mars on Mars; the Dragon of Mars' dream was already vast enough to cover the entire Mars. Everyone's dream on Mars intersected with the Dragon of Mars' dream, making them easily influenced by the Dragon of Mars' subconscious.
Alexander took out the Dream Cloud Ladder tucked under his arm and extended it towards the Dragon's dream, forming a bridge connecting their two dreams.
In a few steps, he entered the Dragon of Mars' dream.
Broken, broken, broken... It is shattered.
Betrayal, their servants betrayed them.
The giant dragon, flowing like mercury, let out an angry growl.
It was born with the universe. The energies that determined the laws of the material universe formed its body.
At that time, everything in the material universe had not yet cooled, all things existed as energy, and infinite dimensions had not yet folded at the microscopic level.
In that great Golden Age, the boundary between the individual and the universe was not clear. The energy that formed the universe's shape was no different from it. It could freely twist, reshape, and fold the entire universe.
Its infinite divinity was established then.
Even as all things cooled and dimensions folded later, it still maintained the magnificent posture of that Golden Age, existing on stars that still retained the high-temperature environment of old, drawing energy from them to survive, retaining its past authority.
Yet, it, so sublime and great, suffered such humiliation.
It was not an enemy from the sea that wounded it, but its servants, its slaves, who took advantage of its weakness and betrayed it, shattering it and its brethren.
It still remembered how the Nightbringer's body exploded into hundreds of fragments, remembered the Burning One being torn apart and stuffed into engines, remembered the Deceiver no longer cackling but wailing.
They were all completely shattered; their wills, memories, bodies, and authority were all fragmented, then confined within prisons.
But it was different. It was indeed shattered, but it successfully escaped in part.
It was the most intelligent among its kind. While its kin indulged in slaughter, rampage, and soul-devouring, it was researching.
It researched the material universe, its own origins, different technologies, and also the sea.
It forged a substance called blackstone and integrated this substance into its body. This substance was a dam, capable of isolating the sea on the other side.
But a dam is both a barrier and a reservoir.
Blackstone had a dual nature: it could both isolate the sea and enhance the sea.
With the help of blackstone, it could even do things its other brethren could not.
It could isolate the sea, and it could also use the sea.
It was by this art that it escaped, by reversing the polarity of blackstone, drawing in the tides of the sea, and using the sea to traverse time and space, escaping the encirclement of the betrayers.
Although its body was shattered, by relying on the accumulation of past technology, it successfully concentrated most of its will into this broken body.
It could still recover, it could still become whole.
Not only that, it could go even further.
It wanted to use blackstone and soul technology to control both the material and sea dimensions simultaneously.
It could do it, given enough time and enough souls.
It had already found a suitable testing ground.
It was a remote, primitive planet, tens of millions of years after the War in Heaven.
This planet was filled with intelligent life that resonated greatly with the sea; their souls were exceptionally delicious and suitable for experimentation.
It lay dormant on this planet until it became whole, until it mastered the power of the sea.
It had already confirmed that the people on this planet were still in the Middle Ages.
It was absolutely safe.