Leaving the Ivory Forest behind was an indescribable relief. Having the luxury of walking without needing to think about every single step was the kind of privilege you only notice once it's taken from you.
After their last encounter with the horde of mimic trees, the trio's journey became unnervingly quiet.
Now and then, the air carried a faint cadence, gone before he could focus on it.
None of the Sleepers would complain about a well-earned rest, but recent experiences had taught them to be wary whenever peace arrived without paying a price.
Soul Fragments: [111/1000]
Consuming fifteen Awakened Soul Shards from the mimics, along with a few dormant ones taken from creatures slain before the ambush, had pushed him into the triple digits.
Even if it didn't compare to the explosive growth of becoming Awakened, his physical attributes were gradually turning more superhuman.
His Aspect benefited greatly from the strengthening of his Soul Core, deepening in a way he could feel.
The range of his seismic sense, which had once seemed incapable of increasing no matter how much he trained it, had stretched farther in the past few days, nearly doubling in range.
The [Earth Domain] hadn't shown any remarkable evolution, but the sheer amount of soil Giovanni could move had increased as well.
It helped, sure. But lately, the creatures they encountered simply ignored any defense made of pure rock, and he'd had an incredibly unlucky streak of enemies that countered his fighting style.
'First a golem of earth and now trees… all that's left is for a mountain to decide to show up.'
But it was transmutation that benefited the most from his progress. Right now, any meaningful use of it was a dangerous gamble.
Usually, he limited its utility to turning soil into mud and then into stone, but if he grew stronger, he might gain more freedom to use it in combat.
"Is that… a road? How wonderful…" Shelly noticed something unusual ahead and approached, intrigued by signs of intelligent construction after so long seeing nothing but hostile wilderness.
It was cracked and uneven, but still unmistakably man-made.
The faint remnants of what must once have been a wide road, where carriages could advance side by side, appeared at the start of that final biome.
The cold didn't bite, but it lingered on the skin.
With no dramatic rises or dips, the local vegetation resembled a tundra, with no trees in sight.
On the ground, mosses, grasses, turf, and reeds spread wildly, painting the landscape in a blend of yellow and red.
The moss gave slightly underfoot, springy and unpleasant.
Hours passed, and nothing came prowling out of the wild. Even Eric, who had been eager to acquire a new Memory to replace his destroyed shield, looked confused.
"We're finally near civilization. Good."
Eric said, taking the lead with Shelly.
"Think all the creatures are gathered ahead?" Giovanni asked, suspicious.
The last time he'd felt relieved that there were few enemies nearby, it had ended with a corrupted centipede grafting itself into him.
Shelly frowned, disturbed by the mere idea. She didn't even want to imagine how large a horde would have to be to hold every creature from an entire biome within its ranks.
"Pretty high, if you keep jixing it." She jabbed the short boy lightly with her elbow, sulking.
A few days had passed since their brief argument, but Giovanni still thought about what he'd said to her.
He'd let himself act in anger, and for a while now, he'd been searching for the right moment to apologize. He took a deep breath and nudged her shoulder, trying to get her attention.
"Huh? What is it now…" Before she had time to complain, she felt a Memory being transferred from Giovanni's Soul Sea into hers.
[Seeker's Instrument] had been vital for Sofia to defeat the early enemies, but now she had stolen the sword of a dead knight in the mansion.
The rank of the new weapon was also Awakened, so the girl had asked for the Memory to be returned to its owner.
"Sofia told me to thank you deeply… so, thank you."
Shelly summoned the dagger, staring at its black blade with an indecipherable expression. Then she turned her attention to him.
"Tch… at least she used it properly, by the looks of it. You said the payment would come with interest. Did she get any other Memory?"
Giovanni's expression became complicated as he tried to come up with a good answer.
"Yes… she did."
Shelly raised her hand, silently demanding that he keep his word.
"You… want drugs?"
Eric, walking ahead, stopped to stare at the two of them. Shelly also fell speechless, caught between confusion and indignation.
"Who asks that?! Am I traveling with a dealer or something?"
Realizing how weird that had sounded, Giovanni stumbled over his own words.
"N-No! It's just that you… you… asked for the Memory and it… It makes you high!"
"And it wasn't easier to just say that?!"
"It's the same thing! Do you want it or not?!"
"What do you think? I didn't know you wanted to see me so wasted that badly, you pervert!"
The argument continued behind him, leaving Eric with an expression that was a mixture of boredom and fascination. Were they stupid?
Rubbing a hand over his face, the giant kept walking until he stopped short.
At the edge of the road, a broad, long creature resembling a monstrous fox lay in deep sleep. Its "fur" was strange, made of leaves and roots, turning it into something more plant than flesh.
The smell of sap and wet bark clung to it.
Eric tensed, ready for it to spring up. It stayed limp and asleep.
Giovanni was the first to truly notice it, sensing the beast enter the passive range of his seismic sense. Shelly, seeing both of them staring at a certain spot, finally spotted the sleeping monster.
"I don't think it'll wake up…" Eric hesitated to attack. Something abnormal was happening here, and acting impulsively would be foolish.
"Can you sense other creatures like it nearby?" Shelly asked seriously, seeming to have finished bothering Giovanni.
Giovanni closed his eyes, letting his seismic sense spread, sweeping the surroundings in wider and wider circles until he reached the limit of his Aspect.
"Yes. Other similar creatures are sleeping nearby… have either of you noticed something like this before?" Giovanni confirmed, opening his eyes.
Shelly felt like she had seen something familiar… but the thought slipped away.
"There was nothing like that in the Ivory Forest." Eric had nothing to contribute, unfortunately.
The three of them weighed their options for a few minutes… and caution won. They decided to leave the creatures behind.
Their goal was to reach the citadel, not pick fights, and the situation looked far too suspicious. Following the road, the group continued without any obstacles in their way.
Curious, Giovanni closed his eyes and focused on trying to see the light guiding him.
It remained distant, fading into the horizon.
'Why does this place have to be so huge?'
He couldn't take walking toward that damn crater anymore!
As he complained internally, he noticed Shelly whistling a distracted tune. Recently, it had become her new habit.
Giovanni was glad to see her more open with the rest of them.
***
A massive arch, made of polished, colorful stone, rose above the road on the horizon. Two colossal columns connected to form a monumental passage that had once welcomed countless outsiders and inhabitants.
Every inch of the architectural wonder had been carved with obsessive care. Two giant statues of an elderly woman, covered in long, thin veils, hiding four slender arms beneath her garments, stood as guardians of the place.
Unlike the arch, they were made of a material completely pale and pure. Without paint or any variety of color, the work stood unfinished… Yet, a sense of reverence crept into him.
"Imagine if they come to life and attack us."
Giovanni fantasized aloud.
Shelly glanced at him from the corner of her eye and snorted.
"That'd be an easy fight… they're old and made of stone. Isn't your thing breaking rocks?"
"Old women fifty meters tall sound mortally dangerous to me… and controlling something that size would be impossible."
He argued, clearly offended by how Shelly failed to grasp the danger they'd be in.
"Focus on something other than hypothetical giant old women."
Eric scolded them, no longer able to endure their pointless conversations for the entire trip.
"I want to see you say that when one of them comes to kill you."
Giovanni replied casually.
Eric huffed, refusing to entertain the delicate boy.
Little by little, Giovanni was letting his true personality slip as he spent time with them. His persona mainly served to fool people who hadn't seen him fight.
By now, both Eric and Shelly had saved him from tight situations and witnessed his real level of skill.
His real concern was still keeping his flaw hidden, just in case.
He didn't want to believe the two of them would abuse that knowledge… but he wasn't willing to take unnecessary risks until he returned to the real world.
On the other side of the arch, the ruins of a smaller city awaited them. Dozens of houses separated by streets, devoured by vegetation.
The architecture was very similar to the ruins where Giovanni had awakened for the first time. A preference for soft, rounded forms, with pillars and vaulted ceilings being extremely common.
If one vital difference could be pointed out… it was that everything was covered in long layers of silk.
The place must once have been an artistic hub, but moss and weeds had consumed whatever beauty remained of the monuments and buildings, now demolished and looted.
'It's a shame there's no one here to welcome us…'
He'd hoped other Sleepers might have reached this region too, even if only a handful, but the area remained as deserted as ever.
Where was everyone else? It couldn't be that only the three of them and Sofia had been summoned here.
His mind didn't linger on that thought for long, because there was something far greater to focus on.
After days of fighting hordes of monsters across dozens of kilometers in hostile land, they had finally reached the end of the enormous rift that had opened in the ocean.
The walls on the horizon finally parted, allowing them to see, with great difficulty, the vast expanse of the main crater.
Sofia hadn't exaggerated when she said they would definitely see the castle once they arrived.
'It's really… amazing.'
Even from several kilometers away, the massive bastion floating at the center of everything was radiant, standing out against the eternal bluish twilight that hung over those submerged lands.
"How the hell are we supposed to climb that? It's flying up in the middle of nowhere."
Shelly asked a question none of them could solve right now.
The only visible alternative was… to fly.
Something none of them could do.
"The ancient inhabitants must have had some method of reaching it… We just need to find it."
Eric declared confidently, but it was a vague answer.
Nothing guaranteed that the old technologies of an unknown people would still be intact after ages.
Giovanni shifted his focus to the city, using his seismic sense to search inside intact buildings, discovering a few basements and hidden areas in the process.
His expression grew tenser with every new sleeping creature he found.
"This place is full of them, too… all asleep."
Giovanni said nervously.
What was happening? From trees twisting into abominations to dozens of beasts sleeping without explanation… it was starting to gnaw at his nerves.
It wasn't that he wanted to fight them… but at least a physical battle could be solved simply.
"Let's move. We need to put as much distance between those things and us as possible."
Eric summoned his warhammer and helmet, even though there were no signs that a fight would break out. He was on high alert, too.
Then Giovanni noticed it, a melody echoing.
He turned to look behind him. She was whistling again, distracted, surveying the surroundings without paying attention to the conversation.
"Hey, Shelly! Wake up. We need to pick up the pace."
Her unfocused eyes sharpened as she heard him.
"And what do you think I'm doing? Just walk ahead!" she snapped back, irritated by Giovanni's tone.
"Whistling like a beast! Are you playing dumb?" the boy insisted.
Instead of getting angry… Shelly looked confused by the accusation.
"What do you mean? I don't know how to whistle."
***
Lying on the bed, Sofia stared at the bluish twilight outside, her head throbbing with pain after so long exposed to the Memory's incense.
Somewhere in the mansion, the air carried a faint rhythm, too soft to call a sound.
It was hard to measure time coherently in that submerged land.
Still, she was sure enough time had passed for her body to start showing basic needs, like thirst, hunger, or rest.
Her access to all of those, except rest, was exactly… zero.
Anything consumable that had once existed in that mansion was rotten or contaminated, sometimes both at once.
At first, she thought securing supplies would be the most essential part of her days in the Dream Realm, but now, likely days later, her body remained fully functional.
That allowed the Sleeper to take her time ambushing and eliminating the creatures that prowled the rooms and corridors, but it also left her deeply intrigued by her condition.
'I just wish they'd get here already…'
Sofia crawled out from the mattress and crossed the cold floor toward the balcony, where she could gaze upon the same crater landscape.
The breeze beyond the balcony moved in gentle intervals.
No matter how many times she did it, she always felt a trace of fascination.
'How can a world so beautiful be so dangerous?'
The answer surfaced at last.
All the anomalies in her body and spirit shared a common denominator. One that had a name and a face.
Gigi.
After hours of reflecting on everything she had lived through so far, she managed to connect the pieces she needed to answer every doubt she had accumulated since arriving in the other world.
The first was the sudden shift in the potency of her Aspect.
Previously, Sofia had been able to see and interpret the functionality, characteristics, and properties of things and, of course, peek a little into other Aspects.
Now, her ability had evolved to a point where her awareness could do more than interpret… it could emerge into the truths held within the world, its stories and secrets.
It left her completely dazed, unfamiliar with her own power. As she examined her own runes and her friend's, one Attribute caught her attention.
[Acolyte] Attribute Description: "The fervor of faith manifests in your body. Positive effects are greatly amplified."
A seemingly useless ability for Giovanni, who possessed no skill that directly strengthened him. He could transmute, control, and sense the environment, but none of that counted as a positive effect.
On the other hand, both Sofia's Aspect, [Critical Insight], and the Attribute [Superior Intellect] were considered direct enhancements to something within her. One sharpened her eyes, and the other her intelligence and memory.
That was enough to clear her doubt.
The moment she became his vassal, she became an extension of him.
Her "soul" belonging to him connected them in such a way that any power or effect strengthening him directly would also extend to her, whether it came from Attributes or Memories.
That also explained why she wasn't dying from lack of food and water.
The effects of the [Grafter's Tunic] he always wore kept her alive as a consequence.
This must be what the Spell called "Blessings."
'So what would happen if he died?'
The mere thought sent chills down her spine.
Something unseen seemed pleased.
And then, a sensation swept across the world.
The sudden change wasn't perceptible by any ordinary means, but to Sofia, who could feel the truth of reality, the essence of it shifting so drastically and… so sinister.
Her eyes turned toward the only thing that could be causing that horrible feeling.
And they saw the impossible.
***
Giovanni stood frozen, baffled, trying to process what he had just heard.
The world moved first.
It began with the wind, which ceased to be a gentle breeze and became a gale that echoed through the leaves. Flowers swayed, branches rustled, and the noise carried intention.
The forest whispered, and it sounded awake. A cacophony of voices, of wills, all existing, dreaming together.
Then came the great waterfalls, which, instead of living water nourishing biomes and sustaining nature, became a sick and maddening flow of insanity.
The water took on the metallic hue of blood, darkened by something diluted within its turbulence. The earth drank the liquid greedily, as if it were an elixir.
And finally…
'Who is… singing?'
A familiar melody echoed through the submerged lands, reaching from the closest surroundings of the castle to the distant edges of the realm, allowing all to be bathed in the grace of its voice.
The hypnotic notes shattered mental defenses, opening the listener's consciousness to an embrace… a sincere contact with the sweetness of its promises.
For the first time, Eric seemed to lose his composure, feeling something wrong and ancient wrapping around him. The primal fear of the unknown came even to those who tried hardest to hide it.
Shelly froze in a trance, listening to the melody echo inside her head… the same melody that had haunted her for days, becoming more present, more inevitable in every action she took.
And Giovanni simply watched the world collapse firsthand.
The starry sky that poured bluish light over the submerged lands went out, utterly consumed by darkness.
The realm, now drowned in pure blackness, could only rely on the absolute radiance of the floating castle to offer a thread of hope. The pristine white glow pushed the darkness back for a moment…
Only to stain the world red.
A crimson star now shone above the great infinite hole at the center of the region, not as salvation, but as the perfect spotlight for a spectacle.
Everywhere, bodies once inert, trapped in endless sleep, reacted.
Their muscles contracted, their eyelids trembled on the verge of waking. With one detail: from their eyes, ears, pores… a black liquid spilled like tears and blood.
It had been so many years since this realm had received visitors.
And it would be the greatest offense not to offer a proper welcome.
That was why, on that starless night, from the abyss emerged…
An eternal Symphony.