Anna woke up after a few hours of being unconscious. She had just woken up from the bad dream of her infected mother chasing her through the Cathedral they had grown up with alongside her little brother.

She remembered the flames that burned down the entire place when her First Gate decided to awaken at eight years old--which was odd at the time--as though fate had chosen her that day. On that fateful day, the divine flames had protected her until the ascender group discovered her under the church's ruins the next morning.

When they asked how the infection found its way into a protected area. Anna obviously pretended not to know what had caused thirty people to get infected in a Clean Zone all of a sudden.

She didn't keep quiet because she had to. No. Anna withheld the cause because no one would believe her if she said that that very night, she had heard the creator's voice telling everyone to awaken.

"Are you okay?"

Anna's eyes fluttered open, disoriented. The question pulled her from the shadowy depths of her memories. She squinted as beams of golden light poured into her vision, harsh after so much darkness.

Raising a hand to shield her face, she blinked until the silhouette in front of her came into focus.

It was Luna. She was standing tall, her back against the rising sun. The morning breeze caught her raven-black hair, making it shimmer like flowing silk, and for the first time in what felt like forever, Luna didn't look like a phantom or a ghost of war. She looked alive. Human.

"Lara…" Anna breathed softly, barely believing what she was seeing. "It's morning…"

"I can see that," Luna replied with a rare, warm smile. The kind that melted the frost clinging to one's heart.

A sudden gust of wind swept past them, and Anna's heart nearly leapt out of her chest as she finally registered where they were. She stumbled slightly and looked down, wide-eyed.

They weren't on solid ground.

They were soaring through the skies atop a translucent wyvern phantom, its wings beating rhythmically against the wind currents. Below them stretched an endless sea, glittering like a field of scattered gems under the morning light.

The realization hit her like a cold slap. "Where is the Nightmare?" she demanded, forcing composure back into her voice, though her body still trembled faintly.

"We left him in the Ruins of Mercury."

"The Ruins of Mercury?"

Luna nodded, "Yes...The Ruins of Mercury. It is where Memory of Snow was born, and the place where we faced the Nightmare," Luna explained briefly. "The Nightmare deemed us worthy, but we were expelled from the Trial."

"Expelled?" Anna paled. "Are we dead?"

"No." Luna chuckled. " It appears that the Master of this domain has plans for you and I. We're currently using a shortcut to the Astral Castle by following the Sea of Avilaine. We'll arrive in two days."

"How long is a day, though?"

Luna's face turned disdainful. "Seventy-two hours. A day in the dream is three days in the mortal realm. We've been here for one day. Also, time moves slower here, so an hour often stretches more than it should."

Anna groaned and touched her head. There was still a pain she couldn't make sense of yet, let alone figure out where it was coming from.

"It doesn't make sense." She winced. "Does that mean you beat the Nightmare. But he was so powerful. Ha....How?"

"Acceptance. I accepted reality and faced it."

Luna then took the initiative to share her experiences with the Nightmare. She left out the details of how the fight happened exactly and shared the fact that Nightmare was, in fact, a creation of the Dream Master. In other words, this was Aaron Phillips' world, and they were playing by his rules.

"Huh."

Anna rubbed her forehead as though it would jog her memory. She vaguely remembered the Nightmare's words. All she knew was that she had lost this fight because she failed to accept her own reality.

The reality that she'd left her family to die that day.

"And the others?"

"The others will find us at the castle."

After that response, Anna lay herself down and continued her recovery. She did not sleep. Afraid that maybe she might dream again.

Stolen novel; please report.

The phantom raven then let out a sharp, bone-deep cry that echoed across the open sky. It wasn't just a warning. It was a declaration: I am the apex here.

Birds scattered below its shadow. Even the wind seemed to hush as the beast beat its immense wings, propelling itself toward the unknown.

With unwavering resolve, it crossed the sea within another hour, leaving the endless, silver-tipped waves behind. Then, with a sudden rise, it pierced through the veil of clouds.

The world below vanished. And above them, a new part of the sky stretched like it had been kept a secret for a millennium.

They both gasped.

Anna grasped harder onto the phantom's spine out of fear. This wasn't in her calculations. She didn't like it when things veered out of control like this.

Floating islands hovered in the open air. These impossibly vast chunks of land were held aloft by glowing crystals embedded in their cores. Waterfalls spilled from their edges and dissolved into mist before ever touching the clouds below.

Lush, iridescent trees shimmered on the sky-isles, their leaves sparkling with morning dew and stardust. Bridges of light connected some of them, pulsing faintly with ancient runes that hummed like lullabies to the stars.

The morning sun peeked over the horizon, brushing everything in gold. Its light mingled with the lingering starlight from the fading night, casting the floating world in a surreal blend of dawn and dusk.

Stardust swirled in the air, drifting in slow, deliberate currents as though the sky itself were breathing.

"It's…" Luna whispered, her eyes wide, reflecting the constellations. "Nothing like the archive descriptions."

"Of course it's not." Anna was also caught between disbelief and wonder. "The Astral Vigil is very secretive, as you already know."

A great spire loomed in the distance. It was an enormous tower that stretched from one floating landmass to another, its tip vanishing into the heavens. Celestial birds with glowing feathers circled it, singing songs no mortal tongue could replicate.

"Hold on," Luna called out, tightening her grip on the reins made of spirit and shadow. "To find the Castle, we need to follow the spire!"

Anna leaned forward, eyes wide. "How?"

"We go up!"

With that, Luna yanked the reins. The wyvern responded instantly, tilting back its head as its wings beat with unnatural force. The wind howled around them as gravity seemed to fall away. "Hold onto something!"

Anna didn't hesitate—she gripped the phantom's spine, pressing her body against its cool, smoke-wreathed scales. Luna, not willing to take any chances, wrapped the reins around her wrists and hands, anchoring herself to the beast's will.

The wyvern pitched skyward.

They ascended vertically, slicing through the air like an arrow launched from the gods themselves. The laws of nature bent beneath them. The creature's wings beat slower, yet more forcefully.

They were propelled not just by air, but by essence. Silver runes along its shoulders pulsed with dim power, each beat of its wings unraveling reality just enough to allow this impossible climb.

Beneath them, clouds swelled into a solid wall, sealing the world below like a forgotten dream. The sky thickened with stardust, the stars now above, beside, and beneath them.

Time felt thin here. Then, as they crossed a threshold of the spire—marked by a faint shimmer in the air—the world shifted.

The sky folded inward for the two women. Colors inverted for a breathless moment—blues became violets, gold became shadow, and the stars bent like reflections on broken glass.

And suddenly, they all felt it. A new presence had joined them. It came in the form of a powerful gaze and fell upon them like the weight of a thousand skies.

It wasn't just watching. It was studying, as if peeling back every layer of their souls to glimpse what lay beneath.

Luna shivered. Her breath quickened as she turned her eyes upward, toward the stars.

That's where it came from. Not a planet. Not a shape. Just a point in the infinite night where no starlight flickered… and yet it saw everything.

Luna didn't need to guess who owned this gaze. She already knew who it belonged to.

Only someone with godlike control over a domain could watch from such a distance and still make them feel so exposed. And if this was just a glimpse of their awareness…

'Has Storm Rider even revealed her true strength?' Luna wondered, heart pounding. Even the memory of Storm's fire felt small compared to this presence.

Then, without anything odd happening, the gaze vanished. And like a hand pulling away from glass, reality snapped back.

The wyvern's form unraveled, its phantom wings dispersing into streaks of smoke and silver flame. Anna and Luna, no longer anchored to anything, were flung forward—no longer flying, but falling.

The spire disappeared, blinked out of existence as if it had never been, and the space gave way to gravity.

"Ahhh!" Their screams came in sync as the two of them plummeted from the heavens at an incredible speed. One of them had her armor on, while the other was in pieces.

Splash!

They both hit the water.

The impact was sharp, jarring, like slamming through a mirror. Cold flooded their limbs. Starlight rippled across the surface of the vast lake they had fallen into. And silence followed, broken only by the gasping rush of surfacing.

Minutes later, soaked and breathless, Luna and Anna swam to the rocky shore. They pulled themselves up onto solid ground, coughing, shivering, but unharmed.

No creatures rose from the depths. No shadows stirred beneath the water. The morning sunlight had vanished, and only starlight remained to illuminate this part of the dream world.

Luna lay back against the cool stone, staring up at the sky. The stars above looked different now. They were much Closer. Brighter. Sharper. As though she had crossed into a realm where even constellations had weight.

Anna sat beside her, hugging her knees. "Was that…was that part of the trial?"

Luna didn't answer right away. Because deep down, she didn't know. The fall into the lake had left her feeling off.

Finally, she spoke, her voice low. "It's not." She stared ahead. "That… thing was searching for something."

A flicker of realization crossed her mind. Something she hadn't considered before. She turned her gaze back to the still waters of the lake, something about them calling to her.

Without a word, Luna summoned the Sun Ember, its faint light breaking the uneasy calm. Instantly, Anna reacted to the sudden surge of battle aura, rising shakily to her feet. Despite her injuries, she called forth the Elemental Catcher, forcing it to stabilize enough to form a longsword in her hand.

Luna stepped into the water, her mind razor-sharp despite the dull ache in her bones. The cold crept up her legs, but she pressed forward until the water reached her waist.

That's when she saw it. The surface rippled, clearing just enough to reveal what lay beneath.

Her heart froze. It was her. Her own body was drifting below the surface, pale and still. Eyes closed. Peaceful. Almost serene.

For a terrifying moment, Luna wondered.

Was she… already dead?

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