Beyond the Apocalypse-Chapter 1080: The terrifying power of Dream of Madness

As soon as Vlad gazed upon the dimension, a solemn expression appeared on his face.

Before doing anything, the Quantum Eye glowed. Space rippled, and White Death, along with the rest of the Sovereigns, emerged from the eye. Just like the True Depravita of Wrath, sharpness and caution filled their eyes as they took in the state of the realm.

The dimension was in complete chaos.

Giant cracks stretched across the sky like wounds in reality itself, where the Laws were visibly collapsing. The ground beneath their feet trembled and broke apart in fragments, drifting into the air before dissolving into nothingness. Storms of unstable energy swept across the land, distorting space and warping the horizon. Everywhere they looked, the world was falling apart.

They had formed an image of what the Primordial God’s Tomb should look like based on Vlad and Overlord’s memories.

This, however, was pure pandemonium.

"This dimension has months... maybe even weeks before it collapses into nothingness. What is going on?" White Death spoke, his voice grave.

As the Sovereign with the greatest mastery over collapse and catastrophic forces, he needed only a few glances to predict the fate of the realm.

The True Depravita of Wrath immediately shook his head.

"I don’t know. I did collapse the core dimension that held the tomb, but that should not have affected the entire realm like this."

Silence fell.

Solemnity appeared in the eyes of every Sovereign. This mission had already been dangerous enough. Now they were facing unknown variables in a dying dimension.

The True Depravita of Wrath took a deep breath. Focus and killing intent rose in his gaze.

"It doesn’t matter what caused this. Our goal remains the same. We move to the citadel at the heart of the realm. I will open a path into the broken dimension... and we kill Dream of Madness."

The Sovereigns clenched their fists and nodded.

There was no turning back.

They had fought, bled, and broken their limits again and again to reach this moment.

Seeing the resolve and battle will rising within them, Vlad led the group forward.

Despite the realm’s collapse, monstrous creatures still roamed everywhere. During his first visit, they had been a serious threat. Now, however, they were insignificant.

Driven by madness and instinct, the creatures still rushed toward the group.

They never reached them.

Golden portals appeared one after another, and divine weapons shot out like lightning. Bodies exploded like blood-filled balloons. Others were erased entirely by the White Death’s Entropy Flame, reduced to ash and fading particles before they could even scream.

With their overwhelming speed and no true obstacles left to slow them, it did not take long for the Sovereigns to reach the massive citadel that contained the tomb.

Just as they were about to get in—

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

An explosive sound thundered across the sky and the earth.

The entire dimension trembled.

Shock appeared on the Sovereigns’ faces as they instantly adopted battle stances.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Before they could understand what was happening, another detonation echoed. Reality itself shuddered violently.

Then more followed.

Cataclysmic shockwaves erupted one after another. Each carried power so immense that the fractures in the sky widened and the ground split further apart. Space twisted, and the instability of the realm intensified with every impact.

The barrage lasted nearly a full minute.

Then, suddenly, silence returned.

The Sovereigns exchanged uneasy glances. The cause of the realm’s deterioration was now obvious.

But they had no idea what was behind those explosions.

The heaviness in their hearts deepened as they continued forward.

Inside the citadel, the situation was no different. Chaotic abominations and defensive constructs attempted to stop them, but none could stand against their combined power. Vlad’s divine weapons and the White Death’s Entropy Flame cleared their path effortlessly, erasing anything that stood in their way.

The journey inward was long.

As they neared the center, the explosive shockwaves manifested again.

This time, they felt them clearly.

Every Sovereign turned toward the heart of the citadel—toward the broken dimension where the tomb was located.

Where Dream of Madness was sealed.

"These shockwaves..." Merlin’s voice trembled slightly. "...they are the attacks of that monster."

The implication chilled them all.

Dream of Madness was sealed inside a tomb designed to imprison a Primordial God, within a dimension where space itself had already collapsed. Yet his strikes were so overwhelmingly powerful that their impact reverberated across dimensional barriers, spreading throughout the entire realm and slowly pushing it toward total destruction.

Even Vlad was shaken.

He had expected Dream of Madness to be weakened.

But the power behind those blows...

Not even the mightiest Paragon should have been capable of affecting reality on such a scale. Each strike was literally shaking the laws and rules that keep reality in place.

The reason, however, was not difficult to understand.

If the realm collapsed completely, everything inside it would be crushed by endless waves of chaotic spatial energy. Anything that survived would then be expelled into the main plane of existence.

The tomb itself was durable enough to endure such destruction.

Even if Dream of Madness were brought into the main plane, he would still be sealed...

However, it would become far easier for the Alien Powers to locate him and set him free.

Vlad glanced at the Sovereigns and sensed the turmoil in their hearts.

They were not cowards.

But they had come here believing they would fight a battle.

Not walk into a one-sided massacre.

Now they were hearing the blows of a being whose attacks could cross dimensional boundaries.

How do you fight something like that?

Vlad opened his mouth, intending to speak.

No words came.

After a moment, he simply exhaled and moved forward, leading them deeper through the citadel.

Step by step, they advanced in silence.

Until finally—

They reached the entrance to the inner dimension where the Primordial God’s Tomb awaited.

Vlad placed his hand against the entrance and released a steady stream of power into the fractured barrier. His voice remained calm, but its gravity was unmistakable.

"It will take some time before I can stabilize space-time inside the dimension. You should rest for now."

The Sovereigns did not hesitate. One by one, they assumed meditative stances, drawing their energy inward and attempting to steady their breathing. In any other circumstance, such discipline would have come naturally to beings of their level. But now, with the weight of what awaited them pressing down on their minds, calm proved difficult to achieve.

The tension in the air was suffocating.

It felt like the quiet before a storm—the kind of silence that forces the mind to wander toward every possible failure, every disaster that might unfold. Thoughts of death, of annihilation, of a battle that might end before it truly began crept into their consciousness. And the longer they remained still, the worse those thoughts became.

Time, instead of soothing their nerves, sharpened their anxiety.

Strangely, Vlad did nothing to hasten the process.

He could have completed the stabilization in less than an hour. With his mastery over dimensional forces, forcing the space into temporary order would not have been difficult. Yet he worked slowly—deliberately so—guiding the energy with extreme precision, as if he were in no hurry at all.

One hour passed.

Then two.

By the time eight hours had gone by, the strain inside the Sovereigns had grown so intense that even maintaining their seated positions required effort. Their souls felt tight, their thoughts restless, their instincts screaming that danger was approaching.

And then it happened again.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

The explosion rolled across the realm like the roar of a dying world.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Another followed immediately after.

Shockwaves tore through the fabric of space itself, rippling outward with such force that the ground beneath their feet trembled. Fractures of unstable energy flickered in the air, and even the distant sky seemed to distort for a brief moment.

Every Sovereign rose to their feet.

Their fists clenched. Their eyes hardened. The dread they had been trying to suppress surged back stronger than before.

If those strikes reach them directly, they will not survive.

Yet while tension burned in every other heart, a completely different expression appeared on Vlad’s face.

He was smiling.

Not a cold smile. Not a forced one.

A wide, radiant grin.

And that smile only grew as the echoes of the explosions faded—because the barrage ended a few seconds sooner than it had the previous time.

The Sovereigns stared at him in confusion. Sweat lined some of their brows. Their nerves were stretched to the limit, and yet the leader of their assault looked... pleased.