HISD Chapter 72: Dream Anchors, The Method to Prevent Losing Control
Atlanna looked at the three-meter-tall, bone-spiked being clad in black battle armor.
She was both terrified and relieved.
Terrified, because an intelligent and overwhelmingly powerful existence meant she had no chance of escaping its control.
Relieved, because if it possessed wisdom, perhaps it could be reasoned with.
"G-greetings, bone-spiked lord… I am Atlanna, a woman of the sea…"
Atlanna inhaled deeply, but her trembling body betrayed her fear. Hugging the infant tightly in her arms, she asked, "May I know… your name?"
The bone-spiked being ignored her. Instead, it suddenly let out a furious roar, its eyes bursting with searing red flames of destruction. Twin beams of blazing heat lanced forward, carving apart the hidden sea within the Earth's core.
Szzzz—
Seawater vaporized instantly, the scarlet beams splitting the ocean into two.
Atlanna felt the scorching waves of heat rushing over her. Her face went pale, and she fell back in terror, clutching the sleeping infant even tighter.
Boom!!
The creature took a single step, the sand beneath collapsing into a deep crater. Then, with a feral leap, it crashed into one of the floating mountains, shattering it into rubble.
The subterranean ocean erupted into chaos—storms roared, mountains crumbled, the once-majestic hidden sea now transformed into a hellish purgatory.
The gray-white monster in black armor vanished into the distance, leaving only the echo of its rampaging destruction. Waves crashed violently against the cavern walls.
Atlanna, still shaken, looked around in desperation. Hesitating only a moment, she entered the alien Kryptonian ship whose doors remained open.
…
On the far side of the inner sea, Doomsday-Yi Meng landed heavily upon a floating mountain. His crimson eyes burned brighter, fixated on the massive crystal sun embedded high on the cavern wall thousands of meters above.
On his forehead, a fractured glimmer of yellow light flickered weakly—suppressed by the will of destruction.
The shard of the Mind Stone was not strong enough to suppress the hunger of Doomsday. Even with the radiation of the yellow sun and the Kryptonian Codex anchoring him to a thread of humanity, his rationality barely lasted half an hour.
Now, his destructive instinct was once again on the verge of devouring his mind.
"If this continues, I'll have no choice but to vent my fury on Poseidon. Hopefully, he won't die too quickly."
Yi Meng wrestled with himself, then glanced back toward the island where Atlanna held the Kryptonian infant. His vision pierced through the ship and fixed on the baby.
Would the remaining half of the Kryptonian Codex help?
He pondered, then shook his head. The more he was corrupted by Doomsday's power, the more truths he began to understand.
Doomsday had no genetic flaw. Its problem was its extreme evolution—developing too quickly, too violently, forcing it to annihilate everything around it to vent its boundless energy.
The Kryptonian Codex did not "aid" his evolution—it merely slowed it slightly. Its real effect was forging a familial bond with Kryptonians, giving him a fragile human anchor.
"No… the Codex, the yellow sun, even venting on Old Gods—all of this is just treating symptoms, not the cause!"
Yi Meng clenched his fist. The reason he kept losing control, in both reality and the DC dreamscape, was simple—his will was nowhere near strong enough to truly master Doomsday's power.
"The complete Mind Stone…"
The thought sparked in his mind. The shard already proved effective. If he could obtain the full stone within the Marvel dreamscape, his consciousness would grow vastly stronger—perhaps strong enough to control Doomsday.
Perfectly merging the powers of both dreamscapes—
That was the true path of the Doomsday Superman!
…
But the question remained—how to shift from the DC dreamscape to the Marvel one?
Yi Meng forced himself to sit cross-legged on the floating mountain, trying to hold back the destructive urges. Bolts of destructive lightning still crackled from his body.
Previously, he had jumped seamlessly from the Marvel dreamscape into DC. That meant the two could be switched between. But in the DC dreamscape, his Doomsday form's power was too great, pulling his consciousness here with overwhelming force.
"Wait… I remember. There were times I nearly fell into the DC dreamscape, but ended up in Marvel instead."
He grit his teeth, thinking hard.
At those times, he had faintly heard Morgan Stark's voice calling him.
A sudden realization struck.
Could it be that figures connected to him within each dream served as anchors, guiding which dream he entered?
"Morgan, Morgan! Can you hear me? It's me, Teacher…"
His guttural, monstrous roar scattered the winged reptiles nearby, terrifying them into flight.
But across worlds, how could his voice possibly reach?
Damn it. He had no choice—Poseidon would be his outlet.
Yi Meng staggered to his feet. Just as his reason was about to be swallowed by destruction, a faint voice reached him.
"Little Dream, have you forgotten me?"
A woman's tender, sorrowful voice. But then it turned cold—
"No matter which world you hide in, I will find you. And I will kill you."
Time froze.
The entire DC dreamscape around Yi Meng—winged beasts, crystal light—halted. His awareness was pulled out of the dream, as if he were waking.
Then, in the next instant, his consciousness plunged downward—
Falling, falling, falling—
Until he reached another dream.
Yi Meng's eyes snapped open. Starlight filled the night sky. He was no longer Doomsday, but an artificial intelligence piloting a towering white mechanical body through the air.
Below him, cities glowed with the lights of human civilization.
This was… the Marvel dreamscape!
The destructive frenzy instantly dissipated, replaced by perfect rationality.
White Vision-Yi Meng blinked, his synthetic mind racing with excitement. "It worked… I really switched! From DC to Marvel!"
But as he recalled the woman's voice that had dragged him across dreams, his artificial heart chilled.
It had to be the Scarlet Witch.
Even as a machine, he felt fear. In his current White Vision form, he was no match for her.
Still… the discovery was invaluable.
For the first time, he had successfully chosen which dream to enter. He could gather powers from both worlds, and more—he could cheat the system.
If he began to lose control as Doomsday in DC, he could leap into Marvel, where his AI mind restored his clarity. Then, when ready, he could jump back.
By continuously switching between DC and Marvel, he could delay the collapse of his sanity. It might just be the solution to his greatest weakness.
"No matter what… I must first find a way to repair the Mind Stone."
Yi Meng pressed a hand to his metallic brow, where a shard of golden light flickered faintly. Repairing it would benefit both his dream selves—and his real body.
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