Dream or Reality?

As soon as the two siblings disappeared, the guards also noticed the strange vibration emanating from it, a sign that something had disturbed the flow. Alarmed, they quickly alerted their superior, unsure of what had just happened. But by the time they acted, the siblings were already far beyond their reach.

However, their travel hadn't been entirely smooth either. Because they entered without following the usual protocol, the portal had randomly teleported them to a location far from where they had intended to go.

Instead of arriving in the low-level regions of the Arcana world, they found themselves in a vast, sandy desert in a level-3 region. The scorching heat and vast emptiness stretched out before them, the air thick with the scent of dust and the distant cries of unseen creatures.

Rael, for a moment, was taken aback by the desolate landscape. "This doesn't look like what I imagined," he muttered, looking around. "Where are we?"

Eon tilted her head, scanning the horizon. "It's an endless desert. I couldn't see its end. How far this goes?" She wondered aloud.

Rael nodded, adjusting his stance. "It looks like one of those open habitat regions that have all kinds of desert beasts. Anyway, let's not waste any time and start hunting."

"Yeah, let's go."

The two siblings began to make their way through the desert, Rael scanning the terrain for any sign of life. Eon, meanwhile, used her time manipulation powers cautiously to speed up their search, while keeping their presence concealed from any potential threats.

To their surprise, the desert was empty. They couldn't encounter a single monster on the way as the siblings walked in a random direction.

After a few hours of searching, they decided to take a break as the sun was setting down.

As it is an endless sand desert on all sides, they had to just sit down on some dune. Eon eventually lay on her back and watched the stars, chatting with her brother, as the night sky slowly revealed the stars.

Fortunately, most of the night sky was dominated by one particular celestial body and obviously attracted their attention the most.

It was the biggest body in the sky, occupying almost 4.8 degrees, i.e., more than 9 times the size of a moon they see from their home. It is Gaia, their home planet, filled with greenery and waters almost everywhere in their sight. If not for its low luminosity, it could have blocked the view of the beautiful sky.

"Look at that shape at the north. That should be our home, right?" Eon exclaimed, pointing to the planet as Rael lay next to her.

Rael nodded, "Yeah, I suppose it was." He took a brief pause and asked, "Do you miss the home."

Eon fell silent for a second and looked at him. "No," she said, her lips turning into a smile. "Home is where our loved ones are. My loved one is here."

Rael sighed. "Unfortunately, we have to return home. This place is uninhabitable." His facial expression clearly shows that he doesn't want to go back to that place.

Eon shook her head in disagreement. "We have yet to explore this world completely. No one did. Perhaps, there exist places suitable for living. For example, this kind of open region. Instead of a desert, if there was a forest, we could cut down the trees, build some houses, and create a barrier over the village too."

"Hmm…" Rael thought about it, grabbing his chin and sitting cross-legged. As he was trying to weigh his options, all of a sudden, the desert trembled like an earthquake hit the region. The siblings fell down from the top of the dune and were almost buried in the sand as a giant centipede erupted from the sand not far away. It was a massive creature, its body resembling that of a giant centipede armored in thick, impenetrable scales. Its many eyes glowed with an eerie light, and its massive mandibles clicked menacingly.

"What is that?" Eon's entire body trembled, her hands grabbing her brother instinctively.

Rael's face hardened. "Xyliroth, The Centipede Armored King. Now, I realize where we ended up," He said calmly.

"Xyliroth?" Eon panicked upon hearing his words. "I, too, remember from your memories of the library. A rank-7 platinum-grade beast that rules the region of Thar Desert, isn't it?" She said, her voice trembling.

Rael nodded.

Rael and Eon froze when they saw the beast rise up more than one-third of its body, which was already more than a hundred feet in size. "Sh*t." Both of them immediately realized the danger they were in. They had come unprepared, with Eon not carrying her rank-8 protective dress and Rael not having his rank-9 one-time-use magic scroll. "What do we do now?" Eon asked as she summoned the hourglass.

"We need to get out of here," Rael whispered urgently, but Eon's eyes changed all of a sudden. Her panic disappeared and determination took over her.

"No," she replied. "I don't think we can outrun it. I'll try stopping it. You make the escape."

"Are you crazy? There is no way in the world I would ever abandon you." Rael shouted back at her, proceeding to summon the death scythe. "Let's fight," He said in a resolute manner.

With no other choice, the two siblings worked together, using every tactic they could think of to fight the Xyliroth.

Eon used her time-manipulation abilities to freeze the creature in place for a few seconds, allowing Rael to land a few powerful blows. Rael's enhanced physical strength allowed him to strike with force, and he did so with all his might, but the beast's armored body absorbed most of the damage. Meanwhile, the Xyliroth retaliated with vicious speed, launching deadly, venomous attacks, its mandibles snapping dangerously close to the siblings.

The struggle dragged on for what felt like hours. Both Rael and Eon were exhausted and heavily injured, their bodies bruised and bloodied. They had pushed themselves to their limits, but the beast was far too strong for them to overcome. Rael continued, seeing there was no strong aura of death on his sister.

However, three hours into the battle, Eon staggered, nearly falling to the ground after one particularly brutal strike from the Xyliroth. Rael rushed to her side, his chest heaving as he fought to stay conscious. The beast advanced once again, its sharp mandibles poised to strike.

"No! Eon!" Rael cried out, his voice filled with desperation.

It was then that something strange happened. A sudden, overwhelming surge of power coursed through their bodies. Both Rael and Eon froze for a moment as a strange, cold presence seemed to wrap around them.

The Reaper's presence enveloped their souls at the same time, and without warning, both of them were thrust into a fusion. Their bodies glowed with pitch-black energy as they were enveloped by a dark aura.

The giant centipede momentarily halted its attack and stared at them in wonder.

In a flash of light, Rael and Eon merged into a single entity, their forms shifting into the shape of a specter.

Rael's and Eon's combined consciousness now stood before the Xyliroth as the Reaper. A deathly figure, wielding a massive scythe in one hand and an hourglass in the other, stood in stark contrast to the beast's brutish form. The Reaper's eyes were now cold and calculating as he looked at the monster with newfound power.

The Xyliroth, sensing the overwhelming force before it, lunged at the newly formed Reaper, its jaws snapping shut with a roar. But before it could reach them, the Reaper lifted the hourglass, and time itself seemed to stop. The sands of time began to swirl, and with a single, swift motion, the Reaper released the sands in a massive burst. The white sands enveloped the centipede king and within no time, the sands retracted to the hourglass, only for Xyriroth to remain as a giant skeleton that's stripped of everything else.

"Ha…" Rael suddenly woke up, after an unknown amount of time passed away, finding himself back in his room as if nothing had happened. The sounds of the night filled the air, and everything seemed eerily calm. Eon also woke up after a moment, her eyes fell upon her brother, "Rael…"

Rael opened his eyes first, his head spinning. "Was that... a dream?" he murmured, rubbing his temples.

Eon sat up, looking around in confusion. "I... I don't know. That was strange. I can't remember much."

Rael sat up as well, his mind racing as fragments of what had just happened began to return to him. "It felt like a dream but at the same time, it wasn't a dream," he said softly.

"What do you mean?" Eon's confusion only increased further.

Rael's eyes widened as he clapped in realization. "I remember it now. We were merged and we... summoned Chronos."

Eon blinked in disbelief. "Chronos? But that... that can't be real. Was it?"

Rael looked at her, his expression serious. "I remember everything about the fusion, Eon. I remember how we became the Reaper, how we summoned the sands of time. We became one for sure."

"Uhh… Rael…" Eon suddenly tugged his sleeves and pointed her finger at the wall clock.

"Hmm?" As Rael looked at the clock that displayed the time as well as the day, his face was frozen. "It's 1:15 a.m. and still the date is 8th?" He rubbed his eyes and stared at the window. Yes, the world outside is still dark. It is indeed the night and not daytime. "But, didn't we escape the house at around 1 o'clock and stay hours in the Arcana world? How is it that only 15 minutes passed?"