“What... what is this.”
The Dreamwalkers could not follow the sudden turn of events.
Neither could Clara Cowen, nor Julia Plumehart, nor Zantman.
All of them were the same.
Not only had Franz suddenly appeared, he had managed to wound Nirva, who had seemed impossible to bring down.
And now, masked reinforcements of unknown identity had joined the battle.
Even if Nirva had been caught off guard, the way he had been pinned to the ground and beheaded in an instant—these were not feats of ordinary people.
Only Sedina recognized the masked figures.
‘Seniors!’
She barely suppressed the cry of joy that threatened to burst out.
She had suspected as much ever since Hans and Seridan had shown up, but now it was clear: the other members of Owens had entered Dreamland as well.
“At least we arrived at the best possible moment.”
Alex peered out from behind his mask, surveying the scene.
Because of the fight with Nirva, the Dreamwalkers looked battered and broken.
The surroundings were devastation itself.
Any later, and things would have been beyond repair.
“Tell me this—you’re sure he can be beaten, right?”
Alex’s gaze settled on Nirva.
Decapitated, both arms severed, his body nailed to the ground with a harpoon—he looked no better than a corpse.
Yet he was still alive.
“These days, people greet me rather roughly. Why is it that every last one I meet is so eager to chop off my head? Do you all want it that badly?”
Nirva’s voice resounded.
Even headless, his words echoed as though directly in their minds.
Sand swirled in the air and attached to his neck.
The severed head regenerated, and the left arm Alex had lopped off returned as well.
Nirva gripped the harpoon that had impaled his chest.
Crack—
The harpoon dissolved into sand and fell apart.
The gaping hole in his torso closed, and clothing covered the wound.
The only thing he could not regenerate was the right arm severed by Franz’s dagger.
Though Nirva had returned to a seemingly intact form, his face was grim.
It would have been one thing if only the Dreamwalkers were present, but now Franz and other powerful opponents had arrived one after another.
‘And that bothersome headmistress girl seems ready to join in too.’
On top of that, the Seorn instructors who had been stalling for time in the sandstorm were regrouping and heading this way.
Nirva let out a faint sigh.
“So be it. This too must be a trial.”
His eyes shifted.
From the twisted face lined with creases, a fierce resolve rose up like flame.
A will, as if he had steeled himself for something.
“Something’s coming!”
“We must stop it!”
Just as they all rushed forward to strike Nirva—
Kuguguguung!
A massive earthquake shook the entire Depths of Dreamland.
The eyes of all turned toward the epicenter.
This wasn’t Nirva’s doing.
“What now?”
In the distance rose a colossal obelisk.
And beneath it, something vast and black moved like shimmering heat haze.
What was that? A shadow? Darkness?
Its sluggish squirming resembled tar flushed out with factory waste.
Until now it had gone unseen. The fact that it was visible meant it had grown immense.
For the moment it only shifted faintly under the giant stake that pinned it, but what if it fully rose?
Even that slight movement had shaken the whole of Dreamland.
If it truly awoke, the world turning upside down would not be strange.
Everyone thought the same thing at once, and that faint terror restrained their actions.
The only one who could act was Nirva.
“Ooooh! Goddess!”
Nirva exulted purely.
This earthquake that had struck at just this moment seemed to him like the mercy of the Goddess, granting him opportunity.
“Just a little longer! I shall destroy these insects and offer you a sacrifice in your name!”
With a face full of rapture, Nirva praised the Goddess.
When he clenched his left fist, the desert moved.
Boom!
Huge pillars of sand erupted everywhere.
The sand surged and roared like a storm-tossed sea.
“Everyone, be careful!”
“Do not get swept away!”
Nirva slowly raised his clenched fist.
Rumble rumble rumble.
The violently trembling sand rose into the sky.
All the dream-sand he had spread around responded to his will.
The desert that had engulfed the surroundings floated up into the air.
That desert swallowed everything within its range.
Franz, Clara Cowen, Sedina, Julia, Owens, the Seorn teachers rushing in from afar, even Hans and Seridan watching with Ludger in tow.
Craack!
Cracks split the sky of Dreamland’s Depths.
Like glass breaking, shards rained down to the ground.
The sky collapsing—literally.
Beyond the shattered sky was pure blackness.
And from that darkness, human forms poured down in swarms.
They were the ones left behind in the Middle Layer, awaiting rescue.
Nirva had forced the last of his strength to shatter the boundary between Depths and Middle, causing people to fall through the gap.
The desert swallowed them whole.
Rumble rumble rumble.
Devouring them greedily, the sand began to gather into an immense wall, slowly shaping itself.
“Come forth.”
The dream-sand that absorbed all became a giant sphere.
As large as the obelisk that sealed the Goddess of Dreams, the massive sand sphere floated in the sky of the Depths.
“Into the endless prison with no end.”
* * *
Drip. Drip.
Julia awoke to the tickling sensation of water drops on her face.
The first thing she saw was Sedina’s face looking down at her with worried eyes.
“Sedina?”
“Julia! You’ve come to!”
“Yeah. But, where are we?”
With Sedina’s support, Julia raised her upper body and looked around.
Her eyes widened.
The scenery was strange beyond words.
It was like a three-dimensional prison.
Staircases covered everything—even walls and ceilings.
Doors, railings, banisters too.
Everything jumbled together in all directions, as if puzzle pieces had been thrown together haphazardly.
If Ludger had been awake to see this, he would have recalled a work of art.
Maurits Cornelis Escher.
His drawing [Relativity] was uncannily similar to this sand prison.
Julia brushed her hand along the floor.
It felt astonishingly smooth.
Though made of sand, it had the polish of marble.
“It seems we’re trapped here.”
“Trapped? Then the others?”
“I don’t know. I only woke up not long ago.”
“Ah.”
Julia recalled the moment before she had lost consciousness.
Just before the sand swallowed them, she had hugged Sedina with all her strength.
Perhaps thanks to that, the two had fallen into this infinite prison without being separated.
“But, where did you get water?”
“Oh, you mean this?”
Sedina grinned and showed the root she held.
“It’s called a Kurunga root. A plant that stores a lot of moisture. I squeezed this for water.”
“That plant is...”
“I created it.”
Her answer was so matter-of-fact that Julia blinked in shock.
That meant Sedina knew how to use imagination properly in Dreamland.
Had she also seen Sedina summon the World Tree against Nirva, Julia might have fainted outright.
“This isn’t the time to sit still. We need to move.”
If they had fallen here, then surely the others had as well.
They had to regroup with their seniors and make plans to escape.
“Who knows what that demon will do next.”
“But I think we’re safe for now.”
Julia looked puzzled at Sedina’s calm response.
“Why?”
“The demon locked us here, but we’re alive. I think this is the best he could manage.”
“Now that you say it, that makes sense.”
Julia nodded involuntarily.
If Nirva had truly been able, it would have been easier to just kill them all.
But he hadn’t.
More precisely, he couldn’t.
“Surely the wound he took then was the deciding blow.”
Sedina recalled the dagger Franz had plunged into him.
Julia thought the same.
And at once, her face grew complicated as she thought of Franz.
“Why did he come here at all?”
Sedina knew Julia was speaking of Franz.
But she had no answer to give.
Franz had been a direct subordinate of Zero Order, moving separately from the First Orders.
His true identity, his actions, his goals—all were kept secret even within the Black Dawn Society.
The only thing they now knew was that he carried a burning desire for revenge against Nirva—
And that he had prepared to act on it.
‘But what about the seniors... are they safe?’
They had only just reunited, and then been torn apart without even a chance to speak.
Sedina couldn’t help but worry for Owens.
* * *
“This is enough to drive me insane.”
Alex lifted his head.
Everywhere he looked, stairs and walls and doors jumbled in bizarre ways.
Was it the ceiling above, or was he standing on the ceiling himself? He couldn’t tell.
It wasn’t just appearance—gravity itself seemed twisted.
On an upside-down staircase above his head stood Bellaruna.
“A strange space.”
On a wall standing sideways, Phantos crossed his arms.
Violetta, perched on a stairway at the ceiling, replied.
“Space all mixed together. No matter where we go, it all looks the same. Clearly this is a trap to cage us.”
“Not killing us, but trapping us... likely he’s buying time!”
Arfa, ignoring all perspective, marveled at the spectacle.
If seeing it in pictures felt like that, how much stranger to behold it in reality.
His childlike curiosity outweighed despair, fascination glowing in his eyes.
“This isn’t the time! Before that sealed Goddess awakens, we must stop it!”
Bellaruna trembled, crushed by dread.
No one contradicted her.
“That Franz fellow must’ve been cast elsewhere. We can’t just sit still. We need to find a way out.”
Alex gave a hollow laugh and asked,
“So, how do we regroup?”
First, they had to deal with this twisted maze of a space.
* * *
Hans wiped his brow with a dark look.
He had thought they had escaped to somewhere safe, only to immediately fall into this infinite prison.
‘Had I known, I would’ve run farther.’
But in truth, he knew he couldn’t have escaped Nirva anyway. Still, people always harbor petty regrets.
What crushed Hans more than being trapped in this twisted space was something else.
Tremble.
Hans looked down at his right hand.
His fingertips were trembling faintly.
Sensations beyond his will crawled through it, and his hand slowly warped into a grotesque shape.
His fingers lengthened, his nails sharpening into blades.
Dark fur sprouted across the back of his hand, then receded, then sprouted again.
“Stop. Stop it!”
Hans clenched his teeth and forced power into his hand.
The convulsing transformation barely receded.
“......”
But he could not feel relieved.
This was only temporary.
His gaze shifted to Ludger, lying unconscious nearby.
He looked like some Sleeping Prince, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) eyes closed in peace, untouched even in this nightmare.
But such thoughts were luxuries now.
‘If this continues....’
At any moment, the beast of Jévaudan he had suppressed might break out.
Even if Ludger was fine, if Hans lost control while Ludger lay so vulnerable—
‘Then... I’ll end up killing someone precious with my own hands again.’
Hans slowly rose to his feet.
Even if unconscious, Seridan was there as well, so surely she would take care of Ludger.
“Seems I’ve reached my limit.”
No one would hear him, but he still wanted to leave these words behind.
“Thank you. For everything, brother.”
Leaving those words, Hans walked off with heavy steps.
Where those steps led, even he did not know.
Only one thought filled his mind obsessively, before the beast inside swallowed him whole—
To get as far away from Ludger as possible.