Chapter 340: Duties and a Dream

Axel entered the teleporter, and to his shock, it activated in mere seconds. The lag during startup was shorter than their previous Interdimensional Teleporter!

Looking left and right, he quickly realized where he was. He was at the teleporter guarded by two dragons, just as he'd asked for.

"I'm back at Axevaria Kingdom's teleporter!" he grinned with joy.

After all, with this, they finally had their very own Interdimensional Teleporter. Much more advanced and much faster too!

"I spent 1 quintillion in materials to build it, but it seems like it was well worth it!" he added. "The Singularity Falcon would definitely fetch a million times more than that if it were sold!"

Immediately, of course, greed got the better of him.

He checked how much money he had left, and also checked the remaining vouchers on hand. Regarding funds, he still had plenty, nearly a hundred quintillion. For vouchers, he still had five left.

"I have enough to build another mothership instantly..." he thought.

However, despite feeling greedy, part of his mind remained cold and rational.

'Do I even need two of those? Just one is enough to shelter everyone on this planet, and then some.' he thought.

A ship that could basically be called a world unto itself.

"...No."

In the end, he shook his head.

"I don't have a use for a second mothership right now." he said. "I'll just keep the vouchers in reserve, in case I ever need another one built fast."

Having decided that, Axel headed back to the castle.

But to his surprise, the girls weren't there.

When he asked one of the maids working nearby...

"The queens and administrators all went to AZF. Something about training, I believe. They should be back by tomorrow." she said.

"Oh, right. They did say that." Axel sighed, the memory surfacing now. "To me, it's almost been a year, so it completely slipped my mind." he clarified.

He had spent six days with Navi and Mimir in the laboratory, with time accelerated, which to him had felt like over ten months. So in his own memories, the conversation with Eve and the others had happened over ten months ago.

Although he wanted to brag to them about the new ship, he had no choice but to suck it up and return to his usual routine.

Most of the day-to-day matters were already handled by the people the girls had designated. However, those overseeing civil affairs had one thing they couldn't manage on their own.

Repair and construction.

For that, Axel and the others still relied on the system.

It had been just six days since the last repair, yet the walls had already dropped to 36 percent durability. A few more days, and they might have crumbled under the nightly zombie attacks.

As such, Axel's first task upon returning to his throne was to use the system to repair the entire kingdom.

Since everything in Axevaria Kingdom was linked as a single entity, one repair command could fix everything at once. But what shocked Axel was the price.

"T-Ten trillion...?"

The cost of the repair stunned him.

It was true that Axevaria Kingdom was larger now, with more facilities, more walls, and far more things needing upkeep, mounted defenses among them. Still, 10 trillion colts just to repair a week's worth of wear felt outrageous!

After reviewing the breakdown and seeing it was mostly small repairs across households, fences, pathways, and the like, he found himself won over by the sheer scale of it.

"Well... they do say even dust, piled high enough, can form a mountain." he shrugged with a sigh.

Once everything was repaired, he moved on to the paperwork his substitutes couldn't handle alone. Then he made his rounds, fixing things, hearing out requests, and so on.

By the time the sun had set, Axel already felt like he was dying from exhaustion.

"I have EX-Rank Stamina, and I'm still this worn out... This definitely isn't a workload one person should have to handle alone." he grumbled, collapsing onto his bed.

Sleep caught up to him quickly, and his mind slowly drifted into the world of dreams.

---

When Axel opened his eyes, he immediately understood what was happening.

"Another dream? How nostalgic..."

While he'd been decoding the blueprint of Trismus's mothership, he hadn't been able to dream at all. His sleep had lasted barely an hour each time, spread across roughly four times a day, never long enough to shift from non-REM into REM sleep.

So experiencing a dream now felt oddly nostalgic.

Looking around, Axel realized he was standing in the middle of an intersection.

Luckily, there were no cars in sight. And even if there had been, with every stoplight frozen on red, he figured he'd be safe regardless.

"But this place... it feels familiar..."

Axel rested a hand against his chin, thinking.

A wide road with a single pedestrian crossing, and two stoplights hanging overhead. He was certain this wasn't part of his usual commute, yet it felt strangely familiar all the same.

Especially under the cover of night.

The answer felt like it was sitting right on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't quite grasp it.

"It's the place where it all began."

Suddenly, a young voice echoed from behind him.

Startled, Axel spun around and stared, lowering his gaze slightly to meet the other party's eyes. A boy, dressed in something resembling miniature noble's attire, complete with a puffy neck collar.

His golden eyes bored straight into Axel's soul, drawing a gasp of realization from him.

"You...!" he shouted. "You're the boy I saved from the truck that day!"

A thin smile crossed the boy's face at that.

"I wouldn't say you saved me, since I was never actually in danger. But yes, that's when we first met, Axel Walker." he continued.

Hearing this, Axel felt a growing sense of confusion.

Was this just a dream, with even the boy nothing more than some fragment of memory his mind had conjured at random? Or...

"This is a dream, of course." the boy said, as if reading Axel's thoughts directly. "But at the same time, it's reality too."

"...Pick one. Not both." Axel grumbled.

The boy shrugged. "Then, for now, just think of it as me entering your dream to talk to you."

They stared at each other for a moment before he continued.

"I came here to warn you, my chosen one."

"Warn me?"

Axel raised a brow, puzzled.

"About what?"

The boy, however, didn't answer directly.

Instead, he tucked both hands into his pockets, turned to the side, and gazed up at the night sky. The stars above twinkled, indifferent, as if nothing happening in the world below could ever touch them.

"The great gods are moving."

"Gods?" Goosebumps rose along Axel's arms at that word. "Wait, what do you mean? When are they coming? How many? Which gods?!" he asked, panic creeping into his voice.

But the boy pressed on as though he hadn't heard the questions at all.

"Soon, you'll be forced to choose. Think carefully, so that you don't come to regret the path you take."

"...?"

Just as he opened his mouth to ask again, Axel realized his voice wouldn't come out.

The boy's smile widened further as he glanced toward him.

"Looks like my time's up. They've noticed I've interfered again." he said, before raising a finger and pointing it at Axel.

Axel watched as that finger slowly shifted, moving from pointing at him toward the dark, starry sky above. Or so it seemed.

CRACK!

The sky itself suddenly cracked open, a fragment breaking loose and falling, vanishing into nothing before it could land.

And beyond that crack...

"...!"

Was a giant, golden eye. Bloodshot and emanating an ominous presence.

An eye staring directly at the spot where the boy and Axel stood.

"You should go." the boy said. "Wake up."

And then, the moment he snapped his fingers, Axel...