MIDNIGHT PRINCE: Empire of Sin

The next morning, Adam was still sitting on the sofa and waiting for his mother's arrival. He hadn't felt the need to sleep as it was already near morning when he finished his rather profound and slightly depressing conversation with Makarov. Thankfully, with his current body, pulling a few all-nighters would do nothing to his body.

Later during the night, he planned to start working on Hae-Won and make her spill as much information as possible. He still hadn't decided what he would do with the woman and what choice to make out of the three possible ones for his ordeal but he was in no hurry in the first place. He would take it slow for the time being.

For now, he was just studying. Clearly, he would never be able to escape from studying and gathering more and more knowledge as this was basically the foundation of all his powers and his way toward eternal growth. His acquired power was literally a book, at the end of the day, so that said a lot about his circumstances.

He was working on the so-called dreamscape or dream world and the only way for him to start was by studying the book Eve had given him the last time he visited the library.

He had been curious about certain terms Eve used during their discussion. Thankfully, while he did not have the Library of Akasha back here on earth, he had something nearly as good.

Internet. But more precisely— Google. Perhaps the greatest creation made by man.

From the research he made on the internet, the [Blind Idiot] referred to an immensely powerful deity that was mentioned in the books by a man called H.P. Lovecraft. He created a mythos, a generation of stories about the other gods which was dubbed the name of Lovecraftian mythos by many.

[The Blind Idiot God] || [Deep Dark] || [Nuclear Chaos] || [Sleeping Chaos]

They were pseudonyms of some of the most powerful outer gods in existence in the Lovecraftian mythos. The deity Eve had mentioned to him was called Azathoth, an outer god and a supreme omnipotent being who was also dubbed as the greatest of all outer gods. By far, one of his pseudonyms that caught his eye the most was… [The Oldest Dream]...

Adam, like any contemporain young man, had of course some offhand knowledge about the Lovecraftian mythos and while he had never delved deep into them, it was easy to know that all of them were related to madness and chaos.

Azathoth in particular was said to be an entity who was always asleep and who needed to be kept asleep, as the entire universe was born from his dream and was maintained because he dreamed of it, and thus came one of his most prominent titles… [The Oldest Dream]...

When he dreams, a universe is created and when he wakes up, a universe is destroyed. That is the cycle that is maintained by the lord of the gods.

In terms of scale, this was a magnitude above and beyond anything he had created even when using the powers of Asmodeus.

Just thinking about how a being could create an entire universe from scratch with just a thought sent shivers down his spine.

'I wonder if all the beings in the Cthulhu Mythos really exist…'

He shook his head and focused on his current circumstance.

Reading the information through Genesis was giving him a headache.

Every time he turned a page, he felt like he had read nothing and remembered nothing. But when he would reread the page he would remember exactly what was said in it.

This situation seemed outside of the control of even his Eidetic Memory.

'What is happening?'

[The author of this book is the [Crawling Chaos]— a very nasty being as Eve had mentioned. All the books he writes have the attribute of madness inducement…]

Adam could feel as though Genesis was admiring this entity which caused him to be perplexed as he had never seen Genesis admiring anyone.

Nyarlathotep, the [Crawling Chaos]... If one had to give an analogy, he was the equivalent of Hermes.

A deity that served as the messenger on earth for all the Outer Gods. He was also the spawn of Azathoth.

[Unlike the exiled Outer Gods, [Crawling Chaos] is the only one who can walk on Earth. Though he is extremely limited and suppressed by the restrictions of the world.]

Nyarlathotep, as his epithet showed, loved leaving chaos wherever he went by bestowing snippets of information that would drive humans crazy.

[Since you are reading this book through me the madness inducement is largely countered. But he is still an entity too large and powerful for even the book to completely counteract. So reading this information will still affect you somewhat.]

'And you have a reason for not informing me about this earlier?'

[Indeed. Outside of the fact that you asked me nothing earlier, the thing here is that just trying to read this is a great form of training for your soul. Furthermore, many books in the silver section will have some form of restriction like this one in them as they will be filled with the aura of those it originates from.]

Peering in the world of gods was not something anyone could do.

It needed a powerful soul and great strength.

[If you can build up resistance to this phenomenon, then you will be less susceptible to mental attacks. Do not forget that you made an enemy of Asmodeus.]

Adam chuckled under his breath; he still remembered the somewhat confused Asmodeus had made after he managed to beat him.

It was very entertaining. Adam knew of course that this was just thanks to the situation and he wouldn't have won against a fully powered Asmodeus.

'Heh, if it was a game I could have gained a new title from this.'

He distracted himself with these idle thoughts as he continued to try and read the ever-elusive book.

From a psychological point, Dreams were the projection of the mind and our most inner and repressed desires.

But this book followed a more mystical way.

Dreams were not just desires. They also sometimes showed an alternative reality, a window to a Parallel World… A connection to our parallel selves where the lives we led embarked on a different path…

Through Akasha, Adam already had the confirmation that parallel universes did, in fact, exist…

'I wonder. Do many Eves exist in different universes?'

[Since she is tied to the Library, Eve exists above time and space. She is a singularity and there is only one Eve across all the multiverse. There can never be more than one of her as that would lead to the collapse of all time and space…]

'What about the other gods?'

[The gods have variations across different universes but they are all one in a way. Sharing the same center and information. You can take it as a hub. Now, stop stalling and continue reading. Knowing about gods when you haven't even opened your own Gate of Truth is a waste of time.]

Adam groaned as he could not refute the veracity of those words. He briefly entertained talking about a proper name for Genesis.

But this was something he had already used to further the bond between them. He didn't wish to use this argument just to not work.

Continuing to read, Adam found something interesting.

A fact about Dreamscape, also known as the collective dreams or the sea of the collective subconscious.

It seemed that it was a place where the dreams of all of humanity were connected, making it seem like humanity had, in reality, one hive mind.

It was to be noted that this place was not just about humanity but all races with the capability to dream.

It seemed that high-level Succubi could use this as a sort of pathway to enter the dreams of their targets.

Those Succubi or anyone who reached this level were known as Dream Walkers.

It seemed to be a marvelous place where anything was possible with no language barrier. But it was also a place that was extremely deadly as it was easy for one to lose their own sense of self if they were to traverse it without the necessary protection and capabilities.

'It seems like I really need someone to teach me about this.'

The level of difficulty this book was offering was off the charts and there were many things he didn't dare to attempt without someone keeping him safe.

The only way for him to reach a higher level was to have someone guide his path or spend an unknown amount of time studying this knowledge from the book.

'Why is it that… no matter what I do, my path seems to be pushing me towards Lilith and Bridget?'

This was starting to become uncanny. Adam sighed but then looked in the direction of the door as if he was tired.

"Mom, you should enter. You know I can see you directly with my domain, right?"

"Hehehe."

The door opened and Cecilia entered with a sheepish smile on her face, "Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be awake by now."

Adam shrugged, "Take a seat. I need to show you something before you crash on your bed."

Adam took out the serum Medusa gave him and placed it on the table. It was about time to give her this potion and relieve some of her ailments.

"What is this? Adam, I hope you aren't taking some weird shit."

Cecilia gave a worried glance toward Adam and even placed a hand on his forehead as if measuring his temperature.

"Stop joking."

Adam swatted the hand aside, "This is a potion made from Gorgon's blood."

The amused expression on Cecilia's face immediately vanished and she sat close to Adam before observing this object.

"How did you get something like this?"

She hissed quietly. Even at her peak, this kind of potion couldn't be obtained by her capabilities alone. Saying that this alone could cause a bloodbath in the hunter world was not an understatement. She was already wondering if they should start gearing up the defense of the house in order to protect themselves from an incoming attack when Adam threw another bomb at her.

"Someone gave it to me."

"..."

"..."

"....What?"

(AN: Kinda info dump sorry. But I think it was interesting? At least I tried to make it as interesting as possible. I think I have repeated this a hundred times by now but I like many concepts introduced by LoTM. I don't wanna copy everything and end up being a pitiful copycat with no originality. But the dream world is something introduced in many books and I like this concept.

As for the Outer Gods. Heh, well they will make an appearance. I don't know when of course. Someone talked about the SCP foundation once. I honestly never did any deep research about SCP, only saw some videos on the internet. So I don't know if I will introduce them. As I don't want to introduce something I don't understand. If anyone has a good site for introduction to SCP, I would be happy to look into it. Write in comments or in Discord.)