{"canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender","locale":"en","author":"Dima Zales","type":"work","modified":"2026-11-06T00:01:55.083702+00:00","data":{"title":"Dream Ender","author":"Dima Zales","authorUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/authors/dima-zales","year":2021,"heat":5,"isbn":null,"seriesTitle":"Bailey Spade","seriesOrder":4,"seriesUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/series/dima-zales/bailey-spade","tropes":["apocalyptic-supernatural-threat","dangerous-dreamwalking","Dreams","estranged-family-reconciliation","Found Family","friends-to-lovers-romance","memory-loss-and-recovery","portal-hopping-multiverse","prophetic-chosen-ones","resurrection-with-a-price","siege-and-last-stand","symbiotic-companion","twin-bond-and-reunion","Urban Fantasy"],"summary":"Not only is Phobetor real, he’s about to destroy life on every world with sentient beings. You could say he’s becoming a bit of a problem.\n\nUnless I’m somehow the hero of an ancient prophecy—and let’s face it, I’m not—everyone I care about is in major trouble.\n\nMy name is Bailey Spade, and this is how my story ends.","pitch":"Dream Ender by Dima Zales is a 2021 romance. Tropes: apocalyptic-supernatural-threat, dangerous-dreamwalking, Dreams, estranged-family-reconciliation, Found Family, friends-to-lovers-romance, memory-loss-and-recovery, portal-hopping-multiverse, prophetic-chosen-ones, resurrection-with-a-price, siege-and-last-stand, symbiotic-companion, twin-bond-and-reunion, Urban Fantasy. Heat 5/5. Book 4 of Bailey Spade.","publisher":"Mozaika Publications","ownRecap":true,"englishUrl":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender","chapters":[{"n":2,"title":null,"summary":"The chapter opens on an intimate moment between Asha and Valerian in a hospital room, interrupted by Felix, compelling them to return to the war-torn city of Gomorrah. Traversing corridors littered with Icelus virus victims, the team—including necromancer Rowan with her undead escort, the werewolf Fabian, and the eerily altered resurrected Dylan—prepares to depart. Felix reveals he distributed the Cure formula across this world’s internet while Asha was unconscious, and Dylan confirms the treatment works prophylactically, explaining their discarded masks. Rowan demonstrates how her zombie chain passes through the pink plasma gate, while Dylan’s Cognizant status allows her passage without possession. Tensions rise as they learn dead vampires cannot be resurrected for intelligence, and Dylan’s blank behavior deepens the mystery. The chapter culminates as the group steps through the gate into a forest meadow hub, only to emerge into the sound of battle, leaving their safety uncertain.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-2"},{"n":3,"title":null,"summary":"Asha finds herself under siege in the hub by a hundred Overtaken—sleepers with burning eyes possessed by the nightmare god Phobetor. Desperate to reach her mother, she fights alongside Valerian, Fabian in wolf form, and Itzel's lightning while Felix quips about Star Trek amidst flying cookware. When Rowan arrives with a daisy-chained zombie litter, the tide turns; the Overtaken are subdued and given the Cure. Yet as Valerian knocks out the cured victims, Dylan kneels over a corpse and consumes it in a horrifying act of cannibalism, leaving the team questioning whether resurrection has truly saved her or unleashed something darker.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-3"},{"n":4,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey and her companions grapple with the dark aftermath of Dylan's resurrection, as the young woman awakens with a terrifyingly altered nature. When an ambush by the Overtaken strikes at a transit hub, the group fights off possessed attackers only to face fresh horrors in a giant-infested world, where Rowan's necromantic ingenuity turns the tide through a macabre scouting formation. Fleeing stampeding mammoths across an alien savannah, they finally reach Gomorrah—only to discover that four members of the New York Council, including old acquaintances, have fallen to the Overtaken's fiery possession. With Valerian's growing affection for Bailey simmering amid the chaos and Dylan's humanity hanging in the balance, the chapter ends on a cliffhanger of political betrayal and lurking supernatural threat.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-4"},{"n":5,"title":null,"summary":"Phobetor possesses Colton to bargain for the dreamwalker, but the group refuses. Valerian turns traitor, collaborating with Gertrude, and retaliates by unleashing psychic agony on her before gunning down Nina when the telekinetic lifts Asha into the air. While suspended and helpless, Asha fires at Cheetah-Kit but accidentally wounds Felix instead. Below, Fabian transforms into wolf form alongside Ariel and Dylan to topple the giant Colton, while Chester incapacitates Rowan. Valerian moves in to finish Nina, leaving the protagonists scattered and vulnerable as betrayal reshapes the battle's stakes.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-5"},{"n":6,"title":null,"summary":"The narrator plummets through the air only to be caught by Valerian, landing in the midst of a brutal skirmish. Allies lie incapacitated—Colton and Itzel unconscious, Gertrude whimpering on the floor—while the possessed Chester, channeling the entity Phobetor, holds his own against Ariel, Dylan, and Fabian using probability manipulation. When Valerian's weapon malfunctions, he resorts to an illusion, flooding Chester's mind with a pleasant vision that neutralizes the threat. Just as victory seems possible, a sudden movement at Fabian's feet triggers a primal surge of dread, leaving the outcome hanging in bloody suspense.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-6"},{"n":7,"title":null,"summary":"Asha watches in horror as the resurrected Dylan brutally executes Gertrude before consuming her remains, a visceral reminder of resurrection's dark costs. Valerian pulls Asha into a comforting embrace as they grieve the death of Fabian, their fallen werewolf ally, the loss deepening the chapter's emotional toll. When Valerian must depart for Earth to transport prisoners and confront a new pandemic threatening billions, he and Asha share a charged farewell kiss that leaves her breathless. Vampire Enforcer Virgil escorts them to a subterranean Senate bunker deep beneath Gomorrah, where Asha reunites with gnome doctor Dr. Xipil. Inside a hi-tech medical pod, Asha prepares to dreamwalk into her comatose mother's mind, hoping her powers can finally shatter the enchantment holding her captive.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-7"},{"n":8,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey discovers her REM-induction powers fail on her comatose mother, Lidia, though they work flawlessly on the gnome Itzel. With Dr. Xipil unable to help and the Koshmar drug unavailable, Bailey summons Maxwell, a mysterious dreamwalker, hoping he can breach Lidia’s defenses. While waiting, Bailey retreats to the dream palace to train with her symbiont Pom, practicing combat in a simulated subdream—a surreal realm of black water and magma skies—until the mantra “this is a subdream” becomes instinctive. When Virgil finally summons her back, Bailey finds Maxwell waiting in a secure room, and the sight stops her cold: Maxwell bears an uncanny resemblance to Valerian, her father. The chapter closes on the crushing realization that the stranger she summoned is family, leaving her to grapple with trust and inherited legacy.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-8"},{"n":9,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey confronts her father Maxwell, who meets her gaze with hollow confusion—Soma illusionists have erased his memories of her, her twin Asha, and even his wife Lidia. When a joint attempt to push the comatose Lidia into REM sleep fails, Bailey resolves to dreamwalk alone to rescue her mother from the dream prison. Despite Maxwell's terrified protests and Virgil's warning that she might turn violent inside the subdream, she seizes Lidia's wrist and dives into the darkness, accepting the danger to bridge the gap Phobetor has carved through their family.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-9"},{"n":10,"title":null,"summary":"The chapter opens in a surreal subdream of black water beneath a magma sky, where Puck battles a gang of semi-humanoid anglerfish creatures with rows of shark teeth. Wielding a furry katana that feels like an old friend, Puck dispatches the monsters despite a bleeding shoulder wound, the creatures' taunts about 'the master' fueling his resolve. When the fight seems lost, Puck recognizes the weapon as Pom and realizes he is lucid within a subdream, unlocking the ability to heal himself, fly, and manifest additional weapons. Empowered, he effortlessly destroys the remaining anglers, only for the nightmarish entity Phobetor to congeal from the void, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger of escalating supernatural dread.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-10"},{"n":11,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey awakens from a nightmare assault by the towering entity Phobetor, whose hypnotic gaze nearly claims her as one of the Overtaken. After jolting back to reality—where vampire Virgil reassures her that Valerian is en route—Bailey insists on entering her father Maxwell’s dreamscape to investigate a trauma he’s sealed away behind a Black Window. Navigating his dream palace and the tower of sleepers, she uncovers a buried memory of his desolate past. When Maxwell discovers her snooping, their psychic duel escalates through gravity manipulation, cryogenic attacks, and the revelation of her Consciousness Duplication ability, culminating in Bailey creating duplicates of herself to smash through the forbidden black glass and force a confrontation with his repressed pain.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-11"},{"n":12,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey plunges into the icy black water of her father Maxwell's dreamscape, swimming through a trial of endurance to access the memories hidden behind his Black Window. She witnesses his past with her mother Lidia, including the joyful birth of their twins—Bailey and Asha—and the horrifying illusion where their Overtaken parents chase the seven-year-old girls with machetes, seemingly killing Asha. Bailey reveals this was a trap set by illusionists Davu and Valerian to deceive Phobetor, the dream demon who once possessed both parents. Maxwell confesses he banished Phobetor after believing he murdered Bailey, and now warns her against entering Lidia's dreams, where Phobetor has taken residence during her coma. The chapter culminates in the revelation that only 'Two working as One' can defeat the nightmare god, leaving Bailey with the crushing weight of possibly being part of that deadly duo before the dream world explodes around her.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-12"},{"n":13,"title":null,"summary":"The narrator awakens from a vision to find her father Maxwell fully restored to himself, his memories intact after the ordeal in the dream realm. Their reunion is interrupted by Virgil, and Maxwell urgently requests to see the narrator's mother, who lies in a sealed glass bed. While Maxwell grips her hand in the waking world, he explains that to save her they must travel to Soma to reunite with Asha, the narrator's twin sister. The weight of an ancient prophecy crashes down: defeating the god Phobetor is the only way to enter their mother's dreams and wake her. Though terrified by the impossible task—and the risk of Phobetor overtaking them—the narrator resolves to journey to Soma, determined to find her sister and face the prophecy, even if she is no hero.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-13"},{"n":14,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey navigates a charged reunion with her father Maxwell after discovering they share a bloodline obscured by masks and exile, their recognition sparking both relief and unspoken tension. Valerian reveals the dark cost of Bailey’s recent dreamwalk victory: the dreamwalker Rattie descended into homicidal madness, leaving a trail of bodies and vanishing toward the JFK hub, possibly now possessed by Collywobbles. As the family confronts the impossibility of reaching the secret world of Soma through Overtaken-infested Otherlands, Maxwell reveals a desperate gambit—a world-jumper named Karina who owes him a final favor. Between preparations, Bailey and Valerian share a stolen, heated moment in the dream realm that is abruptly interrupted, leaving a promise of intimacy deferred. With Mom’s comatose form secured on a portable bed and Karina’s plasma gate standing open, the family steps toward Soma, bound by the ticking clock of a favor that could end in disaster.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-14"},{"n":15,"title":null,"summary":"Asha wakes with her father Maxwell and Valerian in a padded glass cell on Soma—the very room where Maxwell was once imprisoned. They realize Karina's cruel joke: instead of escaping to safety, they've been returned to captivity. Trapped with dwindling oxygen and their comatose mother Lidia's nutrient bed nearby, they debate desperate options until Maxwell uses REM sleep to dreamwalk and contact Asha's grandmother, Bailey. A chrome-suited guard escorts them through Soma's vertiginous, spaceship-like streets where the sky forms a circle and buildings defy gravity. Valerian's illusion magic briefly tries to normalize the impossible geometry, but Asha asks him to stop—she wants to see the truth. They finally reach a cafeteria where Bailey waits, offering hope amid the surreal danger.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-15"},{"n":16,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey accompanies her family to Soma, where her grandmother Bebe subjects them to a dreamwalking security check to rule out Overtaken infiltration. While her comatose mother Lia is wheeled to the medical bay under armed guard, Bebe clears Bailey and Valerian, discovering both are safe but noting Maxwell is vulnerable. In the dream realm, the sharp grandmother reveals Bailey’s family history: her twin Asha is married to Kojo and raising daughter Chloe. Their reunion is cut short by news of an Overtaken threat on Soma itself. Back in the waking world, the group shares sterile nutrient cubes while Valerian uses illusion to mask their tastelessness, his fingers brushing Bailey’s as he hands her a manna packet—a charged moment deepening their connection. The chapter ends on the unresolved promise of Asha’s whereabouts and Phobetor’s growing danger.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-16"},{"n":17,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey learns that her twin Asha lives among the Escapists, a reclusive faction on the Soma colony who escape reality by retreating into a shared solipsistic dream world. Bebe, Bailey's grandmother, explains the colony's grim history: Soma orbits a dead Earth destroyed by the dream-deity Collywobbles, and the mission was to breed a dreamwalker powerful enough to behead him, though anyone approaching him becomes Overtaken. The group treks through guarded forests to find Asha, her husband Kojo, and their daughter Chloe hooked to machines that keep them suspended in the dream world, having been placed there against Asha's will to hide the truth about Bailey. As Bebe, Valerian, and Maxwell prepare to enter the dream realm remotely to retrieve her, Bailey confronts the seductive danger of abandoning reality for blissful ignorance.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-17"},{"n":18,"title":null,"summary":"Maxwell and his companions descend to a luminous underwater city—the Water Domain—inside Asha's dream construct. Guided by Bebe, they tour impossible rooms where water meets air and windows open onto Sand, Snow, and volcanic Seismic Domains. They meet Maxwell's niece Chloe, a math prodigy who eats her diamond tiara and initially sees only Bebe, until Asha and Kojo materialize with their infinity halos. Bebe finally introduces Maxwell as Asha's father and twin sister, revealing the family connection. The chapter closes with Asha's curious, slightly uncanny scrutiny of Maxwell's borrowed face and her lingering question about what he truly looks like beneath it.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-18"},{"n":19,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey finally meets her twin sister Asha in Soma, only to discover Asha has locked away every memory of their family—including Bailey, their father Maxwell, and their childhood friends—behind black windows in her dreams. When they reunite in the waking world, the sisters confront the painful gaps in their shared history: Maxwell admits he beat Overtaken but erased the victory from his mind, while their mother lies in a coma in the medical bay. Asha reveals she and her husband Kojo live as selective Escapists who remember their past only when awake, unlike typical Soma dwellers who forget entirely. As they walk toward the medical bay, the weight of the prophecy settles on them—only Two as One can defeat Phobetor. The chapter closes with Bailey and Asha preparing to enter dreams together, desperate to unlock what their reunion might mean and how to save their mother.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-19"},{"n":20,"title":null,"summary":"The narrator arrives in her dream palace with her helper Pom and teleports to the tower of sleepers to meet her twin sister Asha, who woke early from the Escapist world. They discover their dream structures—her palace and Asha's castle—are identical in every architectural detail, a shared design from before their memory loss. After bonding through a memory gallery exchange that lets them experience each other's most precious moments, including Asha's memories of motherhood with Bebe, Asha begins teaching advanced dreamwalking techniques. When size manipulation eludes the narrator, Asha stages a violent combat training session using throwing stars and swords to trigger the fear necessary for growth, ending with Asha growing to giant size and threatening a lethal slash to force the narrator to master the power.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-20"},{"n":21,"title":null,"summary":"Bailey trains with sister Asha in the dream world, where Asha stages a terrifying sword attack to force Bailey to master size manipulation—growing giant to block the blade before shrinking back. When Bailey demonstrates remote REM induction by pulling grandmother Bebe into the dream, the family attempts the legendary 'Two as One' merge, hugging while mixing molecules, but the effort leaves them nauseous and separate. Father Maxwell then teaches Bailey to conserve mental energy by manifesting armies of dream constructs—friends, the dead, mythological figures, and fictional heroes—who clash in a spectacular but exhausting battle. Finally, Bebe challenges Bailey to jolt multiple people awake simultaneously; channeling fatigue as fuel, Bailey successfully awakens all three at once, ending a day of intense lessons with a promise to rest and practice further.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-21"},{"n":22,"title":null,"summary":"The narrator awakens in the waking world at Soma refreshed, having merged with Valerian in a way that defies the usual exhaustion. Asha teases them about their intimacy, and the group receives silvery uniforms and tower rooms from their supervisor, Bebe. But the relief curdles when they see the narrator's mother restrained in the medical bay, her muscles mechanically exercised—a grim reminder of the stakes. Vowing to free her, the narrator accepts her new quarters only to find Valerian waiting. Their chemistry ignites into a passionate first intimate encounter in the waking world, Valerian weaving illusions of a nebula around them as they explore each other with raw, real sensation. Afterward, they collapse into each other's arms, but the chapter closes on the lingering threat of the mother's captivity and the promise of tomorrow's lesson.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-22"},{"n":23,"title":null,"summary":"The narrator wakes beside Valerian with a racing heart, struggling to process the significance of their intimate encounter the night before. Their quiet morning is interrupted by hunger; they visit the cafeteria, where Valerian operates the dispensing machine to procure nutrient paste and water from silver cubes. As she gathers courage to discuss their relationship, a sudden noise startles them, and Maxwell bursts in, pale with urgency. He leads them to a surveillance room where most of the family—excluding Mom and the narrator's niece—gathers with grim expressions. Asha reassures them that Chloe is safe at the building's daycare, but tension mounts when Bebe activates a massive screen showing drone footage of Soma's entry gate. A large male elf with the fiery eyes of the Overtaken steps through, leaving the family staring at the unresolved threat.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-23"},{"n":24,"title":null,"summary":"Soma’s perimeter is under relentless assault as waves of Overtaken—orcs, werewolves, chorts, and giants—pour through the Gate. While watching via security feed, the narrator and allies witness guards overwhelmed by foes immune to gunfire, forcing desperate close-quarters combat. When a family of Escapists is slaughtered on the live feed, panic grips the command room, especially Elder Bebe, who struggles to maintain order as Kojo and Asha fail to wake the sleepers remotely. Adding to the horror, Rattie—the homicidally insane Nutcracker now possessed by Phobetor—joins the horde. With ammunition failing and illusionist powers providing only fleeting reprieves, the survivors realize the attackers are heading straight for their side of Soma, leaving the defenders bracing for an inevitable, brutal breach.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-24"},{"n":25,"title":null,"summary":"A desperate last stand erupts outside the besieged building as the defenders form a firing line against waves of the Overtaken. Led by Bebe’s tactical commands and Idi’s remote intel, the group repels illusionist elves, flying dwarves, and a telekinetic attacker who hurls weapons and bodies at the squad. When the gunmen sacrifice their firearms to deny them to the enemy, the line holds with blades until Rattie leads a massive final horde. In the chaos, Bebe throws herself in front of a thrown sword meant for her brother, the blade piercing her stomach in a devastating sacrifice that leaves the narrator reeling as the battle’s cost becomes painfully real.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-25"},{"n":26,"title":null,"summary":"The battle reaches its fever pitch as the narrator's grandmother collapses from a grievous wound after intercepting a lethal flying blade meant for her grandchild. With the possessed Rattie—now housing the god Phobetor—closing in and allies falling around them, the narrator stands between the monster and their bleeding family in a brutal sword duel. Trading cuts in a crisscrossed blade lock, they exploit Phobetor's predictable attack pattern to wound him, only to watch the deity lose control and revert Rattie to a feral killer. Refusing to yield despite blood loss and dizziness, the narrator finally breaks the clinch, driving their blade through Rattie's heart as Phobetor's fire returns too late to save him—a pyrrhic victory that ends the duel but leaves the grandmother's fate hanging in the balance.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-26"},{"n":27,"title":null,"summary":"The battle for Soma leaves the survivors reeling as Rattie falls and Bailey's grandmother Bebe sacrifices her life to shield Bailey from a killing blow. Hauled to the medical bay amid pools of blood, Bebe dies in the arms of Bailey and twin sister Asha, leaving the narrator consumed by guilt and the crushing weight of a family she barely knew. When intelligence reports an Overtaken necromancer resurrecting the dead at the gate, grief hardens into resolve: Bailey and Asha vow to take the fight directly to Phobetor, the god of nightmares, by invading the dream world itself. With Valerian battling outside and Soma's destruction imminent, the twins stand united in a desperate pact to destroy their enemy or die trying.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-27"},{"n":28,"title":null,"summary":"Valerian rallies a dream army to confront Phobetor, the god of nightmares, after learning the entity commands legions of subdream monsters. Restrained to gurneys to prevent possession by the Overtaken, the family enters REM sleep and assembles an unlikely coalition in a candy-colored canyon: necromancer Rowan, vampire hunter Ariel, siren Vickie, and the lutin Napoleon, alongside Asha’s conjured dream constructs. As Maxwell prepares to lure Phobetor into the fray—accepting temporary possession as the price—Valerian recruits allies across the Cogniverse, from the New York Council to the Escapists with their infinity halos. With trillions dying in the real world and the Overtaken attacking randomly, the chapter closes on the precipice of an impossible battle, the weight of sacrifice hanging over every strategist as they prepare to face the nightmare incarnate.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-28"},{"n":29,"title":null,"summary":"Allied commanders gather inside a colossal snow-globe simulation conjured by Maxwell to rehearse an assault on Phobetor’s nightmare army. Reviewing the magma-sky battlefield, they confront the lethal rule that dreamwalkers who die here go mad while others merely wake. To counter Phobetor’s prophecy-driven expectations, Napoleon orchestrates a decoy scheme: Asha and Kojo swap identities, the narrator impersonates Valerian, and another Escapist mimics Asha, allowing the real pair to infiltrate on foot while decoys draw fire from the air. Rowan’s necromantic zombies and manifest dream-constructs serve as cannon fodder against the enemy cavalry. Just as deployment begins, orcs breach the real-world perimeter, and Maxwell sacrifices himself—consumed by magma and fire, he vanishes into Phobetor’s domain, leaving the allies to face the impending horror.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-29"},{"n":30,"title":null,"summary":"A desperate aerial battle rages across a magma-skied subdream as the Escapists' sheltered dreamwalkers clash with Phobetor's hundred-thousand-strong horde of condors, vultures, and tardigrades. The narrator and her sister fight side by side while concealing their true powers to protect Kojo, whose death would drive him homicidally insane. When Napoleon is knocked from the sky and the general's construct is destroyed, the tide turns; dream duplicates of gods and superheroes join the fray but fall one by one to nail-swordsmen and anglers. Banter about collective nouns masks rising panic as cannon fodder dwindles and the sisters race to shield Kojo from diving predators. The chapter ends with the infantry—the real dreamers—ordered to attack, their lives now on the line as the battlefield descends into chaotic carnage.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-30"},{"n":31,"title":null,"summary":"The Escapists launch a full assault on Phobetor's army in the dream world, trading devastating blows with subdream monsters while the narrator fights with bow and katana, desperate to use her dormant powers. Key allies fall in rapid succession—Vickie the siren, Rowan, and finally Ariel—as the battle crosses the invisible threshold into Phobetor's reach. The enemy king unleashes terrifying might, consuming duplicates and crushing air support with intensified gravity, leaving the dreamwalkers vulnerable. In a brutal climax, the narrator and her twin Asha fight back-to-back against waves of creatures, but the narrator is ambushed and grievously wounded just as Asha faces a killing blow, leaving the outcome hanging in agonizing suspense.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-31"},{"n":32,"title":null,"summary":"The narrator faces their deadliest test when Phobetor assaults the Escapists in a volcanic dreamscape, striking down the narrator’s sister’s attacker before turning on the group. As Kojo succumbs to a horrifying Overtaken possession and allies perish one by one, the narrator shatters their long-standing power embargo to heal Asha and counter Phobetor’s gravity attacks, unleashing abilities that instantly mend their own wounds. The victory is hollow: every remaining ally dies gruesomely, leaving only the narrator and Asha—their disguises fallen to reveal they look like twins. With Phobetor swelling to monstrous size and summoning millions of minions to close in like a noose, the pair stand alone against annihilation, despair hardening into grim resolve as they prepare to fight to the end.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-32"},{"n":33,"title":null,"summary":"Amid a siege where the twins have split into millions to overwhelm the nightmare horde, the narrator and Asha retreat to the dream palace to strategize. Desperate for power, they hunt the mythical black window that has blocked their childhood memories for years. A flash of insight reveals it disguised as the dark bullseye of the lobby mosaic. Passing through it plunges them into a cascade of vivid recollections—their grandmother Bebe molding clay, their parents' tender care, and childhood adventures with Valerian and Kojo. The recovered memories bring tears and healing, but also a devastating realization: the \"Two as One\" game their family spoke of is merely a child's pact to share experiences, offering no secret weapon against Phobetor. The chapter ends on the unresolved pressure that they still lack the key to defeating the god of nightmares.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-33"},{"n":34,"title":null,"summary":"The chapter opens in the narrator's dream palace lobby as he and Asha debate the \"Two as One\" prophecy. They devise a desperate plan: collapse their multibody duplicates near the god Phobetor, recreate dream constructs to stall monsters, then merge into a single being. Teleporting to the battlefield, they dismiss all other versions of themselves and summon allies—Felix, Rowan, Ariel, and the New York Council—pushing them into REM sleep to buy time with anxiety-fueled power. The merge attempt fails, leaving both nauseated and exhausted. Phobetor mocks them, and nail-swordsmen disembowel Rowan and Napoleon. He attempts to Overtake them with visions of family solace, but they resist. Magma bolts strike; the narrator dissipates one, but Asha is consumed, her brain hijacked by fire until she vanishes. Left alone, the narrator faces Phobetor, the prophecy revealed as a cruel fantasy, with death or possession imminent.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-34"},{"n":35,"title":null,"summary":"In the dream realm's climactic confrontation, the narrator grows to colossal size to battle Phobetor, channeling grief over Bebe and desperation to save Valerian. When a fiery attack sears through their defenses, they realize Asha sacrificed herself to take the blow, leaving her Overtaken. Paralyzed and burning, the narrator uncovers that 'Two as One' refers not to Asha but to Pom, their symbiotic partner who shares their brain. As Pom's furry tentacles purge the fire from the narrator's holographic mind, the bracelet on their wrist transforms into a massive furry katana. With one devastating strike, they sever Phobetor's head and kick it away in vengeance, triggering a cataclysmic shockwave that plunges everything into darkness.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-35"},{"n":36,"title":null,"summary":"After defeating the apocalyptic threat Phobetor, the narrator awakens in the medical bay surrounded by relieved family and allies. Through the dream palace, she consults the mischievous seer Princess Peach, who cryptically hints at a future with Valerian before dismissing her with a wink. Back in the waking world, she reunites with her father, sister Asha—whose memories have finally been unlocked via the Black Window—and Valerian, sharing a private moment of confession and a passionate kiss that confirms their growing bond. As the freed Overtaken tend to the wounded, the family turns to the final task: with her father entering her dreams, they attempt to restore the narrator's mother from her comatose state. The chapter ends on a breathless moment of hope as Mom opens her eyes, the ultimate victory of this saga seeming within reach.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-36"},{"n":37,"title":null,"summary":"In the dream world of Soma, the survivors of the battle against Phobetor gather to mourn those lost during The Attack, including the narrator's grandmother Bailey—Soma's fallen leader—whose legacy now inspires a united people. Having recently convinced the Escapists and others to reunite, the community honors the dead through Soma's two-part funeral: the Body, where flesh is recycled in the real world, and the Mind, where a joint dream construct delivers a reverse eulogy. As Bebe's construct urges joy over sorrow, the narrator's mother weeps for lost family, embraced by her husband, before the family shares a tender group hug. Supported by Valerian, the narrator feels hopeful that their ordeals have forged a stronger future, culminating in a majestic fireworks display that births baby universes across the sky—a fitting farewell to the fallen and a celebration of the new world they secured.","url":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/dima-zales/dream-ender#chapter-37"}]}}