Chapter 11

Alice pondered. She pondered some more as she looked at the source of her current headache. The thing in front of her was half a statue, half a concept, full monster. These were the nightmares known as Endbringers. No, Alice refused, Nightmares wouldn't cut these things anymore. They were Gods. Fuelled by the terrors and despair of billions of people. In the olden days, many ascended to Godhood with less, much less. Alice could remember many Godheads with less might from Great Red's memories. So, how to dispose of them became a problem. She could just destroy them, but the resulting bleed over would destroy the Dreamland she had just tidied over after much effort. Simply absorbing them wouldn't also work, it would give her a bad case of stomachache.

"The best way would be to…." Alice muttered to herself and touched the monster. The horned monster's body rippled. Under her careful guidance, the monster slowly changed. From its grey, leathery skin to smooth bluish tone as if sculpted from the finest stone. After much time, originally a beast settled into the form of a humanoid. Even as a humanoid, it was towering, with its height being around 8 feet. Its body was filled with defined, beautiful muscles to the point it was a work of art. Its face was square-ish and could be considered heroic and could inspire trust in its character. Its mind, though, not so much. She had managed to lobotomize its original personality characteristics, or what had passed for it. However, due to the short timeframe, she couldn't instil much personality. All it had in its head now, was to do the right thing and protect innocents.

Alice had a sudden desire to dump it on a 10-year-old, cold-blooded, unstable yet kind albino child. Still, she set it to standby. She smiled in triumph as her plan worked. If she couldn't destroy it then, she just needed to change it to a more acceptable form.

For now, though, since she had worked out a workable method to dispose of these things, she could move toward more pressing matters. Such as that interloper who blew a hole in her realm. Really, she had seen idiots with far less crude methods of employing Dreamland. Regardless, with a light jump, she stepped on the shoulder of the giant. It bent its knees and with one mighty heave, it pushed.

"Wow!" Alice shouted in exhilaration as her mount soared through the sky at a speed that broke the sound barrier. Soon, she arrived at a sinkhole. Endless sands fall into the holes through realms unknown toward the material world that many called Reality. Alice got down from the giant and floated toward the edge. She peered down the holes into the countless realms that resided between Dreamland and Reality.

Terrible intelligence of crystallised fleshes bore their eyes into everything. All aspects of reality were recorded, taken apart and examined. Every price was acceptable in furthering their goals. Under them laid the shattered remains of countless civilizations, blood flowing from these ruins, forming a roaring sea. Suddenly an eye looked up.

Alice stumbled backwards from the hole.

"What the fuck," she muttered, her face paled, "what the fuck".

Alice paced back and forth. After the discovery, she had managed to gather her wit enough to close the breach. However, the situation was more severe than she thought. A full-scale infestation. She grimaced. Alice questioned why she hadn't noticed them before. They were hiding and good at it, but she was Dream, she should have noticed. Alice could only blame that she was weaker back then. It was only after she reached Dreamland, her realm, that she noticed what she was lacking.

Things were pretty bad. These creatures were inhabiting a dimension adjacent to the material world. If she carelessly moved against them, there might be repercussions. From total reality collapse to disastrous storms that could engulf the entire world. The situation had forced Alice into doing one thing she hated the most, subtle. She cut off a finger of the giant nearby. Alice then moulded it like clay into the form of an eyeball with wings. It was a particularly small thing but enough. She bestowed it with the ability to look through dimensional walls. A little spy was completed. As for the giant, it will regenerate….in a week or two.

After everything was arranged, Alice decided that it was time to go back to Reality and collect that bounty of Mama Mather. She hoped PRT had sorted out things. They should hope so, too.

Alice felt the familiar grounding sensation of gravity and the atmosphere or its existence told her that she was in the material world once again. She looked at the city as it was in flames. Police sirens were filling the entire city.

"I just left for a week," Alice muttered, "how can they party without me?!" she said in outrage.

"Anyway, let's find out what happened first," Alice said to herself. With that said, she had a big grin on her face. A part of her twisted in outrage at what was happening.

"I see that you are excited too," she addressed to a dream, sleeping deep inside her, "hmph, don't worry, your precious dump of a city, I will protect it. Let me just have some fun".

The niggling presence inside her disappeared and became once again dormant. She sighed in annoyance.

"Well, it seems like I will have to fix you," her grin became wider, "so, don't mind if I do".

Her body twisted and turned into a hulking red Draconian armour.

She walked around a little before stretching her leg, and a vehicle slammed right into it.

"Greetings, officers. It's a nice day, isn't it?" Incarnate said to the PRT officers and created a metallic shield to block Containment Foam.

"State your purpose," The PRT troopers replied from the inside of the armoured vehicle.

"Just want to know what is happening to our lovely city," Alice said while holding her hands to her chest with palms facing outward.

"Don't you know? Dockworkers are attacking everything. With Tinkertech weapons, even. You, you are Incarnate, right? An Independent Hero. Are you going to help?" One of the troopers said with frustration.

"Oh, so, it has begun. Of course, I will help…after… checking the situation out. Yes, totally," Incarnate chuckled forebodingly and left.

"I have a bad feeling about this," a PRT trooper muttered.

On a building overlooking the bay, which is Medhall building, a cape in red armour could be seen looking down, "I didn't think they would move this fast. Must be the presence of a Parahuman giving them that confidence boosts," Incarnate said to herself thoughtfully.

She then stepped toward the empty space and stood on it before moving in a certain direction.

The battle scene was quite messy and filled with, well, a lot of bodies, from all sorts of factions of this city. Dockworkers weren't kidding when they said they would burn down the entire city after all. In the centre of the battlefield, a person in chainmail armour was fighting against the blue armour with a beard. In her eyes, Incarnate could clearly see the person in chainmail armour or Kurt was radiating red. Anger, it was staining all over his appearance. She looked around and saw that many Dockworkers also similarly wore accessories stained with red. A rather familiar sight. She could still remember when Kurt nearly broke his hands trying to punch the armour, at that time, his body was staining with red too. She had reasoned that he must have gotten some sort of Anger related power. Anyway, she just left after that. That was incredibly rude, punching someone when they were having a civilised conversation.

"Hello, it's been a while," Incarnate interjected herself into the fight. Letting both of their attacks hit the armour.

"Incarnate," Kurt growled but made no movement while still nursing his right hand.

"State your purpose," Armsmaster stated flatly while inspecting the blade of his halberd.

"Well, about the bounty," Incarnate first addressed Armsmaster.

"It was already processed; you can retrieve it whenever you can. Preferably, not in the midst of the active battle with an already acknowledged terrorist group," Armsmaster said with a bit of irritation.

"Noted," Incarnate said, but didn't make a move to move away.

For a few minutes, they just stood there awkwardly.

"Alright, I am gonna go beat up some other people, see you," Alice abruptly said and left.