"Hard to understand? But this is the essence of your power." Dane began his grand deception again.
"Fate is actually to bring freedom to humanity, Death is actually life, Dream brings reality, the essence of Destruction is actually creation,
Desire also leads to hatred, behind Despair lies Hope, and behind Madness is the yearning for Order."
The Endless Family represents two sides of their respective concepts. Currently, only "Destruction" has seen the signs.
During the time he went on strike and left home, he saw that the World did not stop having destructive events because of his departure, and he knew then that their estimation of themselves had always been wrong.
"You have always had a wrong perception of yourselves, as if everything in the World cannot operate without you, but this is actually wrong."
Morpheus was furious, because these words overturned his worldview.
He had always been proud of his identity and was indifferent to gods like God.
When Morpheus performed the Dream of a Thousand Cats, his power was so immense that he could even reshape God. With such power, it's hard for ordinary people not to become arrogant.
In fact, before he was imprisoned by humans, Morpheus's personality was extremely poor: cold, introverted, arrogant, self-righteous, and autocratic.
He once fell in love with a woman (who was also Black...), and to obtain her, he did not hesitate to violate the Endless Family's commandment against falling in love with mortals.
However, that woman was very self-aware and unwilling to accept his love, and in the end, an enraged Morpheus threw her into Hell for nearly ten thousand years.
What kind of person would do such a thing!
The fact that he could speak calmly with Dane now was, to put it bluntly, because most of his power was in the three artifacts.
And the three artifacts were on Dane.
Otherwise, you'd see if he could speak like a normal person.
Morpheus's anger was completely painless to Dane. He just looked at Morpheus and asked:
"Shall we continue to compete?"
Playing this game with him also had an implicit meaning.
He wanted to use this game to tell the other party that the Endless Family was not the master of all living beings; in fact, from an essential perspective, it was the other way around.
This is like the relationship between a listed company and its shareholders. The Endless Family is similar to the company's legal representative, having the right to legally use the shareholders' money for development, but they don't actually own that money.
As long as the shareholders are still there and still trust the company, then the company will not collapse, and the legal representative can be changed at will.
And Dane proposing this game was subtly reminding Morpheus of this point. If he pushed him too hard, he would kill Morpheus here and become this "Dream."
But he didn't want to do that unless absolutely necessary.
Because once he became a member of the Endless Family, he would have to be responsible for all "shareholders" like a company's legal representative, and he would also have to abide by the company's rules and regulations.
From a free man to a background figure constrained everywhere.
Who would want that job!
So his real idea was to let Morpheus continue to be this "Dream" and bear the restrictions of the rules, but all of his power would be exercised by Dane.
Does that feel familiar? This is the source of the Shazam Force!
It was exactly like the Wizard Shazam's methods of forcibly taking and deceiving various gods of their powers back then.
"You truly live up to the Shazam lineage; even this shamelessness is inherited!"
Morpheus gritted his teeth.
In the DC Universe, gods are born from dreams, so Morpheus can be said to have witnessed the rise and fall of the Greek pantheon, and naturally, he would not forget the Wizard Shazam, who dared to steal the power of gods.
And now, the Wizard Shazam's face and the man in front of him highly overlapped. The key was that Morpheus truly had no way to deal with him, and his mood was terrible.
He angrily said, "You never intended to compete fairly with me; you deceived me!"
Upon hearing this, Dane simply stopped pretending and laid his cards on the table!
He materialized an armchair using Dream power, sat on it, and crossed his legs.
"Fair competition is based on the premise of equal strength between both parties. Now, Dream, do you think you have the qualifications to talk about fairness with me?"
Ever since Dane learned the true nature of the Endless Family, he never cared about their immense power. It's like having the World's largest hydrogen bomb, but you're too afraid to detonate it.
So why should I be afraid? I'll just take it!
However, Morpheus, as a conceptual God who has lived for countless ages, wouldn't easily back down just because of a few words from him.
Morpheus sneered, then materialized an armchair and sat down.
"You think that after getting the three artifacts, you can just use my power without paying any price? You must be dreaming!"
He pointed at Dane, hinting at something:
"I can feel Death's power on you. She gave it to you, didn't she? Do you think you can just avoid fulfilling the God of Death's duties because of that?"
Dane didn't speak. Morpheus had hit a crucial point.
While he could use this method to bypass the Endless Family's restrictions, he would, in turn, become a subordinate God under the Dream.
Gods have duties. Before satisfying their own desires, they must fulfill their responsibilities; otherwise, their power will drain away and eventually be reclaimed by their superior.
So, for Morpheus, he could simply wait until Dane neglected his duties to reclaim this power. It would just take a bit longer.
But wouldn't that be even better? If someone helped him fulfill his duties, he could take a long vacation. Did you think Morpheus had nothing to do usually?
He also had to work to weave dreams for humanity, didn't he!
But did Dane have that kind of time? No!
Besides managing his company and Justice League affairs, he also had to take care of his girlfriends. How could he have so much time for Dream Realm matters!
So, from this perspective, he was severely understaffed.
The Dream Realm was different from hell. Order in hell was optional; Dane only needed to prevent the demons inside from escaping.
Even if the demons inside beat each other's brains out, it would still be considered eliminating harm for the people and acting on behalf of Heaven.
But the Dream Realm required strict adherence to duties. It was a vital link in maintaining the Real World and could not be compromised.
So Dane said, without changing his expression, "Perhaps I need to find some people to help me manage these complex affairs."
Morpheus hadn't yet grasped his sinister intentions. At times, he was truly unbelievably slow-witted.
He just said, very honestly:
"Of course you need help, but there aren't many people familiar with Dream Realm affairs, and I remember you only became a God recently. Who could you possibly bring in..."
But the next second, he saw Dane staring intently at him. After a moment of stunned, he couldn't help but curse loudly:
"You bastard! You stole my power, and now you want me to work for you while you sit back and enjoy the benefits?"
"I have never seen such a shameless person!"
Dane pulled him down and helped him calm his breathing:
"Don't be angry, we're discussing this, aren't we? You name your conditions. I just want to slack off occasionally. I'm sure you can understand, right?"
Seeing Morpheus about to explode again, he pointed at him and said, "Don't deny it! I know about it. You haven't forgotten about Nada, have you?"
Nada was the woman who had rejected the Dream and was consequently imprisoned in hell by him.
Morpheus, of course, remembered her. How could he forget?
Nada was the first human to madly pursue him, and he reciprocated with an equally irrational love, but she had rejected his love.
This was a monumental humiliation in Morpheus's life! But how did this Shazam know about it?
"Don't worry about how I know. Anyway, you're so busy, yet you found time to fall in love. Why can't I do the same?"
Morpheus had never seen such a person, already thinking about how to slack off before even officially starting his job. Could the Dream Realm truly be entrusted to such a person?
In truth, Dane wouldn't have resorted to this if he could manage everything himself, but he was stretched thin.
He had to keep an eye on things on Earth, lest Flash restart something because he missed his mother again, completely unaware of it himself.
Speaking of which, the time for Barry Allen to gain the Speed Force was approaching, so he couldn't leave Earth now.
The Speed Force felt even more mysterious than any other authority; he had to study it.
So, after another round of back-and-forth, the two finally reached an agreement.
Dane would return the dream sand and the helmet to Morpheus, allowing him to recover some of his power, which was enough for him.
As the Dream, he could also recover power by devouring dreams, so with just these two artifacts, he could return to his peak.
When Morpheus mentioned "dream-eating," Dane looked suspiciously at the strangely shaped helmet.
This thing wasn't designed after a baku, was it... So ugly!
Finally, the dream stone was kept by Dane as his spoils of war for defeating the Dream.
However, Morpheus reminded him, "In the Real World, it is merely a gem containing infinite energy. You can use it as an energy source for magic."
"But it can only unleash its true power in the Dream Realm."
Furthermore, Morpheus also told Dane another very important thing: do not try to kill people in the Dream Realm with the dream stone; it is useless.
Even Morpheus, the Master of the Dream Realm, could not wantonly kill people, so how could his creation be an exception?
Destiny didn't acquire the dream stone to kill people; he wanted to enslave the minds of all humans, making them worship him as a "God."
Except for the Endless Family, all other deities in the DC Universe rely on the faith of mortals to exist.
According to Morpheus, it was the imagination of mortals that constructed the image of the Gods in dreams.
This is also why almost all Gods look like forms familiar to humans.
Even non-humanoid Gods are composites of animals recognized by humans; this is the power of faith.
So, if Destiny's plan succeeded, he could immediately make everyone on Earth imagine him as a God. This was indeed a shortcut to godhood, and the success rate was very high...
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