Back as the tiger was going down the passage, Dream had quickly made up his mind.

"I'm taking the heart now. Sophia, lock him in."

[Roger!]

"And since I'm on a clock, we'll need to speed this up."

Saying that, Dream became active. He went down into the tunnel with Aegis and quickly drilled through.

*Thud!*

When they were through, the section of the floor with the altar on it fell down into the tunnel. When it did, liquid mana began to flood through from in the room into their tunnel. Not only that, but Dream was blasted with intense pressure from the heart itself.

"Ugh, damn. This thing is insane! Cut the altar from the floor!"

"Of course, my lord."

Aegis quickly got to work and separated the altar from the metal floor. When he cut the circuits and isolated the altar, Dream took the piece of floor and put it back where it was supposed to be.

Like that, Dream fixed the floor, leaving no trace that it had ever been cut. Then he looked at the altar.

"...No time to waste."

He put his hand on the altar, instantly putting it into his inventory. With that, the aura and pulsing mana coming from the heart disappeared.

[...The tiger has noticed the disappearance.]

"Shit. Then let's get out of here."

Turning, Dream equipped Aegis and flew back through the tunnel. Along the way, he collapsed the tunnel, filling it back up.

Not turning back, Dream collapsed the tunnel near the wall and went back to the giant empty room. After closing the doors, he flew up and out through the huge tunnel the miners dug.

The tunnel was over 100 meters from wall to wall. This was necessary as the cores were just as big. Dream looked like an ant as he flew through the tunnel, but his influence was anything but ant-like.

As Dream flew, he did the same as with the other tunnels. He destabilized the dirt and stone around him and sent everything crashing down. This was able to mostly plug the tunnel and he wasn't really that worried about anyone knowing there was a tunnel here.

Like that, he flew quickly through the 70 miles of tunnel. At the same time, he could sense auras springing up around the Empire.

"So they've noticed."

[The tiger was able to quickly notify the others. Currently there are 6 people charging over to the passageway.... They are now going through the passageway.]

"That's fine. I'm almost out anyway."

Dream smiled as he said that. He could already see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Not long after, Dream breached the surface. Behind him, plumes of dust were kicked up as the last of the tunnel was collapsed.

Dream didn't bother with that though. As soon as he breached, he shot straight up into the sky with his highest speed. It wasn't long until he had disappeared into the atmosphere.

........

.....

"Haha! That was freaking awesome! Hehe, oh yea, I'm so awesome..."

Up in the space factory, Dream walked over to the storage area while dancing a victory dance.

[Well aren't you feeling proud.]

"Heh, very much so. I managed to snag the most powerful item probably in the world. All right from under the nose of the world's strongest Empire. If that isn't awesome, what is?"

[It honestly wasn't that difficult. Aegis could've done it alone, let alone you.]

"All thanks to our enchanting ability. *sigh* I really love being powerful. You get to go steal treasures."

[Well I can tell you that those Ancients are not happy. They know the heart is missing and they're going wild.]

"Any suspicions?"

[Nope. No trace of a thief, let alone one that would lead back to you.]

"Very good. Huuhh, now I can relax. I got really anxious back there."

Taking a couple deep breaths, Dream went over to the couch in the storage area and sat down, closing his eyes. As he sat there in silence, he focused on his heartbeat, or at least what he thought was his heartbeat.

"..."

[So you've noticed?]

"Yes. Is that heart really so powerful that its power seeps through my inventory?"

As Dream sat there, he was able to feel the pulses of the heart in his inventory. Not only that, but his body radiated powerful mana uncontrollably. Although it wasn't as intense as when the heart was in the open, it was still noticeable.

"I hadn't noticed before since I was so nervous. This heart really is something else. Let's take it out."

Saying that, Dream stood up and pointed to a spot on the floor. There appeared the altar with the heart on it.

As soon as it was in the open, the heart's power burst out and filled the entire factory. The mana in the area immediately turned to liquid and flowed violently through the air.

Dream just stood as the mana poured over him. He wasn't very concerned about free mana moving around. But one thing he was concerned about was the sheer power this heart radiated.

"It has its own aura, and it's far beyond the power of a class 4. I'm feeling pressure just being near it."

Dream observed it for a bit before getting closer, completely disregarding the pressure on his soul that increased with every step. He was soon right in front of the altar where he immediately let loose his own influence.

At first, his influence struggled to encompass the heart, but eventually it pushed through the heart's aura that had no purpose, and therefore no power to stop Dream.

In terms of shape, the heart didn't exactly look like a human heart, but it wasn't that far from it either. The heart was more spherical with some valves coming out the top. Pretty standard. But what wasn't standard was the material the heart was made from.

The heart seemed to be made from a crystal. It was translucent and lightly glowed red. It almost didn't look real and definitely didn't seem like a functioning heart. But it was in front of him, beating away as if it were still in a body. Sophia quickly did a scan.

[This material... I'm not sure what it is.]

"Really? Are you not able to sense the molecules?"

[Kind of. If these are even molecules. I'm not sure that this heart is made from regular matter. It looks like there's an atomic structure, but at the same time, it feels immaterial. Not only that, but this heart is 4 dimensional.]

"...How can it be 4 dimensional if it's a physical object?"

[Not sure. Either way, it seems this heart can manifest in both the 3rd and 4th dimension as a rigid object.]

"Hmm... That's a valuable property. It wouldn't be easily snagged... Is this heart attached to the altar in any way?"

[No.]

"Then I'll just... pick it up. While not touching that liquid in the bowl."

Saying that, Dream slowly reached his hands over to the bowl on top of the altar that also had some light red liquid in it, which Dream assumed was some kind of blood. He scooped the heart carefully.

*BA-DUMP*

*Ba-Dump!*

As soon as Dream made contact, his own heart pulsed along with the crystal heart. He felt a small resonance between his heart and the one in his hands. It felt a bit foreign, but surprisingly, he could feel power pulsing through his own blood vessels.

After a bit of time, Dream became totally enraptured by the heart. Wanting to study it further, he quickly sent mana into it. Not only that, but he had Aegis send some of himself into the vessels.

Aegis moved quickly and flowed into the spherical crystal heart. However, when he began filling the inside of the heart, his enchantment and signal pathways started to fluctuate oddly.

At first, Dream didn't notice. Sophia, however, did. Curious, she tapped into a signal pathway on Aegis to see what was going on. However, that's when Aegis' systems began to undulate wildly.

Finally, Dream noticed the change. He had a connection to Aegis that went from a part of his mana pathways to Aegis' processing systems. It was an attempt on his part to build a relationship like his and Sophia's, but the fact that Aegis was still a bunch of programming was still a barrier that limited his success.

Either way, Dream could sense the wild changes in Aegis. Before he could react though, Aegis suddenly flew off him entirely and went to go surround the heart, encapsulating it and his hands.

"Wha..? Aegis? What's going on?"

[My connection has been cut. I can't communicate with him.]

"Seriously? Why did... wait... Somethings going on with my mana."

After Aegis encapsulated the heart, Dream suddenly felt a powerful tug on his mana through his hands. At the same time, the mana he had inside the heart was absorbed into the heart itself, disappearing from Dream's control.

If that were it, Dream would've just cut his mana channel and let go of the heart. But for some reason, that resonance he felt grew stronger. Not only that, but he could feel the mana connection to Aegis growing stronger.

"...It wants more mana."

[Wonder why. You think we should cut it off?]

"Hmm... No. Let's just feed it. Though I don't know why it needs more mana. It's been gushing the stuff for years."

Shrugging, Dream kept his hands on the heart and started inserting his own mana into it. When he did, Aegis's capsule around the heart began changing.

First, Aegis dispersed himself into a gas and hovered around Dream's hands. Seeing that, Dream released the heart, which floated in the center of the Aegis fog. He didn't stop sending mana though, and after he had given around 15% of his mana pool, Aegis began taking on a form around the heart.

First, Aegis applied a layer of himself around the crystal heart, then on top of that sprouted vessels. It looked just like the heart, except steel. But it didn't stop there, and soon, these vessels began to grow longer.

"...No way. Is it trying to form a body?"

Dream stared incredulously as the vessels grew longer and longer, sprouting off into different paths. As Dream inserted more mana, the vessels branched off into the vague shape of a human.

After thinking for a bit, Dream just kept inserting mana. He could tell that Aegis was trying to do something. Whether it was according to his will or not was a question Dream couldn't answer, but he didn't want to lose what looked like a good opportunity for progress. So he threw caution to the wind and fed Aegis all the mana he needed.

Eventually, Dream had inserted over 3 quarters of his mana, but only the major vessels of the body were created. The vessels continued to branch off into secondary vessels, and then went even smaller to branch off into tiny capillaries. It wasn't long before Aegis had formed into a cloud of bloody strings.

Dream knew that his mana was being used to form the vessels, even if he didn't know why. And knowing that it would take much more for the entire body to be formed, he began pulling in liquid mana that the heart had released into the factory and converting it to his own, thereby giving it to Aegis.

After half an hour, Aegis had taken on the general form of a human with only blood vessels. Much of his floating particles had been formed into the vessels, leaving behind about half of his body to float as a gas.

Dream observed Aegis's new form as the tug on his mana weakened. The heart still constantly beat, but instead of the mana flying out into empty air, it flowed through its new body. Along with that, Aegis's vessels actually changed color from steel gray to blood red. Dream wasn't sure what caused that change, but everything about this heart was mysterious, so he didn't pay it much heed.

After another 10 minutes, Aegis had formed the last of the blood vessels. He really did look like a man made of strings, and there were so many strings that he was almost solid.

Once that was finished, the rest of Aegis's unused particles flew over and filled in the gaps between the vessels. Eventually, he truly became a solid body, but even then, Dream could still see the vessels glowing red underneath his gray skin.

Dream continued to observe Aegis as he stood there. He had ideas about what happened.

"...Maybe the heart wanted to take on a specific form. When it came in contact with Aegis, it realized it was a good host. Aegis is versatile both physically and magically, so I can understand why. But how did the heart have an intent of its own?"

[Maybe the person this heart belonged to was so powerful that his heart, when separated, took on part of the power of the soul. It has its own aura and I was even able to sense something like a soul string attached to the material of the heart. Although I still don't know what the material is, it's possible that it's a material outside the laws of our physical universe.]

"Something from beyond. Like another realm. That's what that guy said during the class advancement. He was speaking to me from another realm. Maybe the owner of this heart came from another realm too."

"...Lord..."

"Hm?"

Hearing a voice, Dream lifted his head. In front of him, Aegis had taken on a unique form. He was no longer a sleek metal humanoid like he used to be, but instead looked like a threatening, efficient killer.

His new armor looked futuristic and advanced and retained a high level of intimidating qualities. Blood red lines moved along his limbs, like circuits that delivered power to muscles. His head had no mouth or nose, only blood-red eyes that glowed with ruthless acuity, as if he were always primed to attack.

The armor wasn't at all bulky either, but instead refined and slim. This didn't take away from the sense of durability or power at all, however. Even now it looked like Aegis's material was evolving into something stronger and more flexible. Not only that, but Dream could feel a much stronger connection between them developing.

"Wait, evolving?"

Dream suddenly thought of something as he observed and concentrated his influence. He and Sophia both did a scan of Aegis, focusing on the material.

"It's... It's changing! Wha... Why is it changing! Crap!"

[It's changing into a material similar to the heart's. That's not really a bad thing.]

"But if the material changes I won't be able to do any upgrades! I was planning to shrink the particles more with the solid mana! Plus I could've used the solid mana to upgrade the enchantments... Shit!"

[Relax, it's not like we can't make another batch of particles. Although Aegis's steel had been enhanced to a rather high level... We'll just spend some time to enhance stuff personally. Maybe we can experiment more with carbon materials, or even pure iron.]

"Hmm, fine. But still. It could've asked me first. If I had done the upgrade before this, it probably would've been stronger too... Whatever."

Taking out a chair, Dream just plopped down and sighed. After calming himself, he took another look at Aegis. When he did, he could see Aegis's eyes glow as they focused on each other.

"So Aegis. How's the new body?"