Aquarius felt surprised he had a big brother. Well, I am actually not his big brother but yeah… It is not like I can think of anything more convincing to tell to his recreation inside a dream, better to just play around with the setting to not distort the dream and make us all fail the Trial.
Ding!
[The [Trial Boss]: [Tyrannical Shark of the Dead Seas (Rank 9 Middle Stage)] is glaring at you furiously!]
[The [Trial Boss]: [Tyrannical Shark of the Dead Seas (Rank 9 Middle Stage)] as summoned more [Sea Monsters] between Rank 7 to 8!]
FLUOOOOOSH!
Suddenly, the seas began shaking as more and more critters started coming from the dark depths. Gigantic octopus, titanic squids, monstrous crabs, and all sorts of chimeric creatures I could barely discern to be a mix of many sea critters continued to emerge one after the other.
"Stay still boy, more are coming from all sides!" I said, protecting the young Aquarius with my larger body.
"T-That thing is way stronger than my mother said it would be… Has it mutated or something?!" Aquarius wondered.
"Maybe." I said. "They're here! Ready yourself!"
"Okay…! But what's your name, big bro?! I didn't knew there was a big brother living in this territory!" Aquarius said, his childish demeanor was rather adorable.
And nobody ever treated me like a big bro like he did either, it made me felt strangely happy.
"Heh, just call me Drake." I said with a smile.
"SHAAAAAHHHH!!!"
A gigantic Rank 8 Lightning Eel Emperor rushed towards us, unleashing a massive storm of thunderous lightning shocks against us. Aquarius suddenly began shaping and changing the sea flow, generating a spiraling vortex that then shaped into a shield-like form.
BOOOOOOMMMM!!!!
The shield easily blocked the lightning and redirected all of its shocks back at the gigantic eel, before I got near it and pierced it a hundred times with Skadi's tip.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
"Fly off!"
I charged Skadi with my Divine Power and threw the massive beast into the surface, as it flew into the skies and disappeared.
BOOOOOOOMMMM!!!
As I did that, my Freezing Aura began expanding around the water's surroundings, freezing the water and creating thousands of icicle spears underwater, which I constantly fired against all the monsters that got near us, while Aquarius valiantly started hitting them with his magic.
"Amazing, big bro, you're super strong!" He seemed to admire me.
"You're strong too, Aquarius." I said with a smile. "Despite being weaker than most of these creatures, you can easily overpower them by manipulating the seas."
"Yeah, this is the Magic of us Sea Dragons, the [Sea Manipulation Hands] and the [Divine Sea Magic]! How come you don't know about it?" He wondered.
"Ahem! Well, as you can see I am better at ice magic." I said while looking elsewhere.
"Oh, I see!" He seemed innocent enough to trust me quite easily.
As we continued fighting the hordes of monsters, my allies also took down over half of the total amount of monsters. Aquarius was surprised I had brought many non-dragon allies with me. Amongst them, there was Sapphire that was showing a clear interest on him.
"You're Aquarius?!" Wondered Sapphire, swimming towards him while fighting dozens of monsters using her special Stigma's powers, which generated curses and black chains to weaken and kill monsters.
"Err, yes?" Aquarius wondered. "This is the first time I see a Mermaid talk to me so casually! Hey big bro, is she your friend?"
"Something like that." I nodded, before slashing into pieces a gigantic Rank 7 Three-Horned Shark.
SLAAASH!
"I never thought I would be able to see you again like this…" Sapphire sighed. "You're so young and energetic, this is a facet I never knew about you."
"D-Do I know you from somewhere?" Aquarius felt confused.
"(Hey Sapphire, stop messing around! He's just a Dream. As much as he looks like him, he's not him… He's gone. Please, focus on the Trial.)" I told her through telepathy.
Her eyes quickly opened wide, realizing she had been entranced by the Dream's Illusions themselves. It is said that those that fall into a Dream and begin to think its reality will end up lost forever, losing their souls inside these dreams.
Even if this is a Dream designed to be a Trial, I doubt that rule is excepted from this place. If she does anything dumb, she'll end up killing herself.
"R-Right…" Sapphire said. "I… I am sorry, please forget what I said!"
Sapphire quickly swam away in embarrassment, generating thousands of Cursed Chains and summoning Chimeras out of her Stigmas Magic Powers to deal with the incoming armies of Sea Monsters.
However, I noticed how Aquarius stayed looking at her in surprise. It was a rather well-made dream, huh? To be this alive and convincing. Belle, the little Dream Spirit that has been slacking around these last days quickly showed up over my head, alongside the phantom of the Fox Venerable of Dreams.
"This Dream Trial is rather well made. It appears that it incites to awaken lost memories within the Soul of this Dragon." Analyzed Belle. "Anyways, need a hand? I know it has been like I haven't existed for a while but I've been rather busy inside your Divine Realm, you know? You left me all of the Dream Areas on my charge and that of my Mom so we've been busy!"
"Huh, sure." I laughed. "Well, now that you're here, how about we make this insanely unfair Dream Trial a bit more fair?"
"I never thought Dreams could be used to create such complex Trials and Dungeons, it seems that after my death, other people have figured out new ways. I am quite surprised there are others that can manipulate the Element I brought to this world…" The Fox Venerable wondered, looking around with her mischievous eyes.
"Do you know anything about the Deep One. His powers were fragmented into Stigmas and they all have a part of these powers. Rose, the little Mermaid that shares her name with the other Rose seems to have inherited this power." I said.
"Interesting…" The gorgeous pink-haired fox woman in a beautiful cherry blossom kimono said. "Well, I might or might not know something~ Though for now, how about we complete the Trial first?"
"You're right! Belle! [Divine Dream Spirit Magic]: [Dream World Authority]!"
FLUOOOOOSH!