The dream came in fragments—flashes of light splitting the darkness, the scream of twisting metal, tens of glowing red and white eyes burning through a landscape of twisted wreckage. Something massive pursued me through an endless junkyard, magnetic pulses rearranging the landscape before I could locate an exit. Each time I thought I'd found safety, the labyrinthine walls of scrap would part, revealing a monster in the distance.

Incorporating whatever metal it touched into its frame, the lynx haunted me growing in size as it absorbed metal—car doors transformed into armored plates along its spine, rebar twisted into grotesque limbs with jagged edges, shopping carts fused to form a rib cage protecting a pulsing, black magnetic core. Its face was a horrific collage of sunken headlights and twisted chrome, jaws fashioned from scissored sheet metal that gnashed with a sound like industrial machinery failing.

I scrambled backward up a precarious mountain of debris as the massive beast stalked forward, each step sending tremors through the junkyard. Fragments of abandoned appliances shifted beneath me, threatening to send me sliding down into those waiting jaws.

"WHERE IS THE DOG?" The thing's voice was a horrific chorus of grinding metal and electrical interference, more felt in my bones, than heard, vibrating through my entire body as searing pain. "THE ONE WHO DESTROYED MY NEST, SMOTHERED MY YOUNGLINGS?!"

"I'm sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to, sorry…" A soft whimper reached my ears from somewhere below. Glancing down, I spotted a flash of black and white fur through a gap in the scrap—Nessy, cowering in a small alcove formed by a crushed refrigerator and a bent car axle, trembling as she pressed herself deeper into the shadows.

In that moment, clarity struck me like lightning. This was a dream.

Not just any dream—a System-influenced nightmare in the Astral Ocean where the boundaries between worlds had thinned. And in a dream, I didn't have to be a mere human, didn't have to obey physical limits of reality.

I stepped outside of the dream, outside of myself, became more, realised what I truly was.

I was Reconstituted. I was Pack Leader. I could not be killed, could not be easily broken, especially not here, amidst this illusory rubble.

"How about you fuck off," I called down to the beast, my voice stronger and more resonant as if woven from a chorus of myself, echoing across the junkyard. "She's my dog!"

The lynx's headlight eyes flared with blinding intensity, electricity arcing between its antennae-ears. It coiled its massive form, metal groaning and screeching as it prepared to pounce.

"YOU CANNOT STOP ME, LITTLE MEAT THING," it growled rushing towards me.

"We'll see about that," I replied, grounding myself.

As the lynx leaped, I imagined stretching, being more.

My body responded to my will in ways that my lucid dreams usually did but times a thousand. My hands suddenly unfolded like impossible origami, multiplying—tens, hundreds, thousands of fingers and hands blooming outward like branches from a central trunk. My legs rooted into the ground, boots splitting and multiplying to anchor me, creating a forest of limbs expanding in all directions.

I was transforming, unfolding into a monument of human form repeated endlessly. A tree of myself, each branch a perfect arm, each leaf a hand, fingers reaching out to catch the beast leaping at me.

The lynx crashed into this forest of arms, and I felt the pain as jagged metal shredded my flesh, as fingers broke and snapped under its weight. Blood rained down in crimson rivers, yet the pain was distant, almost abstract—a necessary cost, accepted and transcendental.

I was a vast tree and trees do not break so easily.

For every hand it destroyed, ten more grew in its place. I was an ocean of humanity that would not yield, would not break, would not let this monster reach Nessy crouching below my roots. My countless mouths opened in unison, speaking with the voice of a multitude:

"SHE IS UNDER MY PROTECTION!"

"Vile flesh man… you are nonlinear!" the lynx howled as thousands of my hands grasped and tore at its metal hide, pulling wires and bending steel.

"Yes," I agreed through a hundred mouths. "I'm a tree!"

We struggled against each other for a minute or two, flesh branches snapping but holding on against metal bones.

A streak of blinding light suddenly cut through the junkyard—violet and silver, trailing electric arcs that left burning afterimages in the air. It manifested into a raptor-shaped figure with magnificent wings of crackling lightning that spanned twenty feet.

"What? Who?!" I blinked with a thousand eyes, momentarily blinded.

It took me a moment to realize who I saw, as she slowed, tearing with dark claws at the body of the lynx.

Krysanthea.

She was transformed—her feathers flashing with electric discharge, her scales gleaming with violet and green reflective shimmers, her eyes glowing like miniature suns.

The thunderbird-raptor screeched, a sound that split the air and made reality itself tremble. She tore right into the hollow chest straight for the magnetic heart of the lynx, her talons extended, electricity flowing between them to form a crackling spear of light.

She punched right through the shopping cart cage with a single strike, unleashing a thunderblast that illuminated the entire junkyard in stark white light. Lightning arced from her wings, striking the lynx's vulnerable core and causing catastrophic interference.

The lynx howled in agony, its form destabilizing as the magnetic field fluctuated wildly. Metal parts began to detach and fall of it.

It howled and snarled, pulling itself away from me with a horrific grinding of gears and metal. "Vile thunder and tree! I WILL FIND THE DOG. You cannot shield her dreams forever! THIS IS NOT OVER!"

The beast leapt backwards, leaving a trail of scattering metal parts in its wake, its headlight eyes flickering off as it melted into the shadows.

I turned to look at the thunderbird-raptor that landed beside me, my thousand-handed form still blooming outward like a fractal pattern. Her electric wings cast violet shadows across the junkyard as she stared at me with equal shock.

"Who… whaaa… Alec?" she whispered, her voice carrying the static charge of a storm.

"Kristi?" my chorus of mouths replied.

Our dream-forms regarded each other with wonder. Her dark taloned claws reached out towards one of my many hands and—

I woke with a gasp, my heart hammering in my chest. Pink morning light filtered through the RV windows, casting the interior in a soft glow.

I realized that I was holding tightly onto Kristi's hand. The raptor's orange eyes shot open.

"Damn it," she exhaled. "That conversation about the lynx must have inspired a new nightmare. Thanks a lot, dog."

"Waaarhh," Nessy let out from my other side, sounding half-asleep. "So many tree and thunder noises."

"Tree noises?" I rubbed my eyes, trying to shake off the lingering images from the dream.

"Yeah, like..." The husky opened a single eye and made a rustling sound with her throat. "Tree-ish. A tree in a thunderstorm?"

"You were in my dream?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"I think we were in each other's," she replied thoughtfully, opening both eyes now. "Our tinfoil guru did mention that."

"Heh. You were there too," I turned to the raptor. "You had pretty cool wings."

Her clawed hand let go of me and moved unconsciously to her shoulders, as if checking for electric wings. "Wings? What?"

"You were… A bit different," I said. "Like a… thunderbird or something."

Nessy looked between us with growing interest. "How romantic! Did I have wings too?"

"No. You were hiding from a giant magnetic lynx," I told her. "We chased it away."

"Sounds like a typical Tuesday night for me then," Nessy quipped, then leaned down to give my cheek an appreciative lick. "Welp, thanks for being my valiant dream-knights!"

Before I could respond, she offered the bewildered-looking Kristi a lick too and bounced off the bed and headed for the bathroom. "Dibs on first shower! Gotta look smashin' for our Superstore invasion!"

Once the bathroom door closed, Krysanthea turned to me, her expression serious. "That wasn't an ordinary dream."

"No," I agreed. "I think it was... connected somehow. To reality."

"System-influenced, you mean," she said. "The way you looked—all those hands..." She shuddered slightly.

"Calvin—the Mini-Mart archmage—warned me about dreams being more tangible now," I explained. "He said it's important to stay together in dreams or risk not waking up."

Krysanthea's feathers ruffled slightly. "That's... disturbing."

"Why do you think you appeared as a thunderbird?" I asked.

She shook her head, brow furrowed. "I don't know. I've always dreamed of flight and thunderstorms, even as a hatchling. My sisters teased me for it—said I was trying to be more bird than raptor."

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"That sounds kinda neat," I said. "What else do you usually dream about?"

"A white citadel atop hexagonal cliffs," Kristi said. "A boy with green eyes… You, but slightly different. More cheeky, I guess? Sometimes you are a fox too. A cute, orange fox."

"Even neater," I said.

"That's exactly what you told me last time too," Kristi smiled and wrapped me in a hug of feathers and scales. "I guess that you are really a tree of Alec-ness and maybe… I didn't lose you after all."

I hugged her back, not confirming or denying anything.

The bathroom door opened after a few minutes, releasing a cloud of steam as Nessy emerged wrapped in a towel. "Your turn," she announced cheerfully. "Talking about fancy dreams n' cuddlin', are we?"

After we all took turns in the bathroom, we gathered in the kitchenette for breakfast. Nessy rapidly whipped up a respectable meal of eggs, bacon and toast, humming to herself as she worked.

"How's your Scrutiosmia this morning?" I asked her between bites.

"Fully charged after leveling up!" she replied cheerfully. "Totes ready to sniff out all the soul fragments!"

While Krysanthea and I cleaned up after breakfast, Nessy wandered to the front of the RV, examining the dashboard controls with curious eyes.

"Hey, guys?" she called. "You might want to see this."

We joined her at the front to find the dashboard lit up with what looked like stat screens—except they weren't ours.

| Bulwichu RV |

| Alignment: Astral Amplifier Tree

| Grafted Branches: Slime Tree | Level: 3 | | Health: 100/100% | | Fuel: 100/100% | | Domain Integrity: 99.87% | | Engine: Operational | | Defense Systems: Bulbee swarm (small) | | Passengers: 3 | | Fruits: 30/30 |

I noticed that silver-glass roots had spread through the dashboard, connecting to the steering wheel, pedals, and various controls. The same crystalline network we'd seen spreading across the floor had now integrated with the vehicle itself.

"Holy shit," Krysanthea breathed. "The tree's taken over the entire effing RV."

"She's not 'taken over,'" Nessy corrected, patting the dashboard affectionately. "She's become one with it! Bulwichu is the heart of our mobile domain now. See? It can send bees to sting hostiles!"

"Where's the fuel coming from?" I asked, tapping the gauge that showed full. "This RV hasn't been driven in years."

"Systemfall magic," Nessy shrugged. "Probably got filled up like your healing skeeel when you levelled up."

While Krysanthea continued to examine the dashboard with mild dread, Nessy began digging through the RV's storage compartments.

"Yass!" she exclaimed, pulling out a wooden baseball bat from under the passenger seat. "Perfect!"

"Ah," I said. "My old baseball bat. Haven't seen it since leaving for uni…"

"Is mine now," Nessy stated like it was a fact.

"Aight," I shrugged. "I wasn't that into baseball. Running after balls is your thing."

"Mhmmmm." She continued rummaging until she found some old rusty nails and a hammer in a toolbox. Taking her treasures outside, she set to work hammering the rusty nails into the bat's head.

"What are you doing?" I asked, stepping outside to watch her impromptu crafting session.

"Making a proper weapon," she replied, driving another nail through the wood with alarming enthusiasm. "For bashin' Superstore baddies!"

By the time Krysanthea joined us, Nessy had created a dangerous-looking nail-studded bat that looked like something from a post-apocalyptic film.

"That looks... lethal," Krysanthea observed.

"That's the idea," Nessy grinned, swinging it experimentally. "Ready to roll?"

"Don't give yourself tetanus," Kristi rolled her eyes at the husky.

"We should invest our points and stuff," I said.

"Yeh," Nessy nodded. "I already shoved ten into Foresight. Gonna need much future-seein' mojo to survive the shoppery."

"What can you sniff ahead?" I asked.

"Nothin'," Nessy shook her head. "The store is far away and in another dimension. I'll sniff things once I'm inside."

"What do you recommend I invest in?" I asked.

"Hmmmmm.... intelligence," she replied. "You gotta crank up your mental powers to out-think our enemies. Infinity can't be beaten with brute force like the slime-dungeon. She's got to be... outsmarted."

"Aight," I said, mentally sliding ten points into Intelligence, "And Kristi?"

"Kristikins..." Nessy sniffed. "Should invest in something... electric. I think. Maybe."

"None of the options are electric!" Kristi crossed her arms.

"I dunno. N'ways you guys figure it out," Nessy said and rushed outside. I watched through the windows as Nessy disconnected the power line and hopped into the driver's seat of the RV. She then fished a metal key out from a dashboard, turned it in the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.

"Slayer," Kristi commented, turning to the husky-girl. "The hell?! This thing is actually drivable?!"

"Why else would it have a full fuel gauge?" Nessy asked.

"You can drive this thing too?" Krysanthea asked.

"I can drive everything, my dude," Nessy replied smugly, adjusting the mirrors. "I'm a mechanic, remember? Now buckle up, ya' butts! Superstore, here we come!"

I took the shotgun seat beside Nessy. The raptor-girl simply stood there, looking genuinely shocked.

"Wait," she said. "I gotta relocate all the weapons from my car trunk. Give me a few minutes."

"Go go, raptor-bae," Nessy said and Kristi rushed out.

In about ten minutes, Kristi returned and buckled herself behind me. We pulled away from the campsite, the RV handling with unexpected smoothness despite its age and the crystalline modifications. The tree twinkled with crystal bulbs, flowers and leaves. As we drove through Ferguson, early riser dogs paused their morning jog to stare at the vintage Airstream making its way through town.

At the town exit, we found the Strand sisters already waiting—two in a police cruiser and another in a pickup Toyota truck with what appeared to be a machine gun welded to the back. The female fox officer I met at the cave quest manned the weapon, her keen eyes scanning the surroundings.

Katerina approached as we parked, her golden eyes narrowing as she examined the RV. "The fuck? Why aren't you in Kristi's cruiser?! How is this thing even running?" she demanded. "Wasn't it totally dead for like… decades?"

"It was," Kristi said from her seat. "Now it's not. We're… driving it to the store."

"I fixed it!" Nessy lied with a broad smile, her tail twitching behind her. "I'm an awesomesauce mechanic, remember?"

"That effing old thing better not die halfway on us," Katerina's suspicious glare suggested she wasn't buying Nessy's explanation, but there wasn't time for further questions. The rangers were already unlocking the first of several heavy metal gates that secured the mountain tunnel leading out of Ferguson.

The passage through the tunnel was like moving through a militarized zone. Sandbag-fortified machine gun emplacements lined the walls, manned by grim-faced and somewhat bored rangers who watched our small convoy pass by with vigilant eyes. Each gate required verification before opening, the entire process designed to prevent unauthorized entry or exit.

Finally, we emerged out of the gloomy tunnel onto the valley road. Waterfalls rushed down the green cliffsides. I relaxed as Nessy drove the RV, humming merrily.

The green valley ended in about ten minutes, the road emerging onto wide open, rolling yellow-orange wheat fields.

"Stats," I said, pulling up everyone's stats to see who invested in what.

| Name: Alec Benoit Foster

| Species: Human (Reconstituted) | Level: 3 | Core Affinity: Reconstitution | Health: 100/100% | Reconstitution: 100/100% | Strength: 14 | Agility: 4 | Dexterity: 12 | Vitality: 36 | Charisma: 9 | Foresight: 2 | Intelligence: 47 | Wisdom: 30

| Skills: [Reconstitution], [Pack Leader], [Depictomancy], [Syntropic Fusion]

| Domain: Fort Pack LV 3 | Pack Members: Alec Foster (Leader), Nessy Whitepaw, Krysanthea Strand

 

| Name: Nessy Rex Whitepaw

| Species & Subtype: Pradavarian - Husky | Level: 3 | Core Affinity: Scrutiosmia | Health: 96/100% | Scrutiosmia: 100/100% | Riffweld: 100/100% | Strength: 23 | Agility: 32 | Dexterity: 25 | Vitality: 14 | Charisma: 20 | Foresight: 40 | Intelligence: 3 | Wisdom: 3

| Skills: [Scrutiosmia], [Riffweld], [Pack Bond], [Emotional Resonance]

 

| Name: Krysanthea Liss Strand

| Age: 25 [soul] / 23 [body] | Species & Subtype: Pradavarian - Velociraptor | Core Affinity: Fallbeast Slayer [Cursed] | Level: 10 [-8] | Health: 60/100% | Corruption Perception: 100/100% | Strength: 137 [-63] | Agility: 119 [-63] | Dexterity: 96 [-63] | Vitality: 88 [-63] | Charisma: 78 [-63] | Foresight: 27 [-20] | Intelligence: 126 [-63] | Wisdom: 67 [-63]

| Skills: [Taintsense], [Fallbeast Slayer] | Afflictions: [Highway 69 Dungeon Soul Damage - 62/65], [Apeirophobia - 62/65]

 

I noted that Kristi's HP was only 60% now. It was definitely steadily dropping. Maybe I could locate a healing potion in the store for her or something?

At a fork, large, blue and white road signs pointed toward two destinations: "Highway 69" and "Superstore."

"There it is," Katerina called over the radio strapped to Kristi's chest. "Stay in formation."

The Superstore loomed in the distance—a massive white, big-box retail structure that should have looked ordinary but somehow didn't. Its proportions seemed slightly wrong, the parking lot too vast, the building itself somehow looking wrong perspective-wise.

We parked in the empty lot, close to the front doors, joining a handful of abandoned vehicles—likely belonging to shoppers who never made it out.

Nessy turned off the engine and was the first to exit, her nail-studded bat swinging loosely at her side.

"Hrmm… the RV won't fit through those doors," she observed, eyeing and sniffing the glass-door entrance. "Bulwichu will have to wait here for now, I guess."

She approached the Superstore with confident strides and paused at the entrance. Through the glass doors, we could see rows of abandoned checkout counters, their conveyor belts mysteriously still running despite the lack of groceries and cashiers.

My mind slid sideways as I stared at the rows of aisles past the checkout counters. The aisles went on forever, vanishing in distant gray-white fog of flickering lights.

"Slayer," Kristi breathed out beside me. "It's actually become fucking infinite. What the fuck. Fuck my life."

Her hand closed around mine and I felt her fingers trembling. I turned my eyes to her. She looked extra-stern, but it was just a mask that was barely held on. Through the tremor in her fingers, I felt that she was terrified of the infinite, endless aisles, afraid to take a step into the store.

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