"Once the nightmare began, a crimson moon appeared in the sky. Everyone who was walking around fell asleep. All of them faced it without exception. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"But..." Suyin trailed off.

She hugged her arms, unable to forget the presence that stared at her.

"Something was crawling around the city. Something was definitely here but I couldn’t see it. It felt like... If I stared any longer, I would’ve died. Even from behind the screen."

Alice furrowed her brows.

Even through this puppet, she could tell just how fearful Suyin was. A sight she didn’t think she’ll see in the young genius. And yet here they were.

"Urg... Forget it. Nothing is normal in this place. Let’s focus on the task at hand instead." Suyin sighed, trying to distract herself from this cursed feeling.

"First of all, good news is that all of the data transferred over to me properly without any issues. I have a full reading of every single change your body experienced while inside the Nightmare realm.

"Second of all, despite sleeping, your body was still ’experiencing’ the movements you make inside the realm. Well... Maybe using the word experiencing is wrong. Your brain is registering the movements but your body is stationary.

"Running, walking, emotional condition, stress and so on. Everything got recorded as though you were performing them in real life." Suyin explained, walking over to one of her machines and pulling out a portion of the paper used to note down the changes.

Alice saw her report, the sudden spike of stress at one point before returning back to normal.

She figured it was probably the records of the man who went insane.

"If you mentioned good news then there should be bad news too right?" Alice asked as Suyin nodded her head.

"Yes. The bad news is more so for Elias rather than you because your capacity is just freakishly high."

Hearing this, Alice couldn’t help but tilt her head in confusion.

"You’re aware that too many deaths turn you into a drone right? That’s not the only thing. I don’t know what causes it but there seems to be a stream of corruption every so often. the data gets jumbled and well... I’m not entirely sure of the effects.

"What I do know however, it’s linked to the soul. So Alice, who has 2 voices in her head and can house several souls isn’t struggling that much. But Elias who’s just a normal human should be feeling the effects a little." Suyin turned to Elias who blinked his eyes in confusion.

"I... don’t feel any different." He frowned.

Activating his skills, he gave himself an examination but as expected, nothing was off.

Suyin folded her arms.

Her data wasn’t lying.

Something definitely affected Elias. They just don’t know what yet.

"What about retaining memory after leaving? Since you still remember stuff despite observing from the outside, I’m guessing it’s something specifically done to the soul." Alice turned to Suyin.

"We can test that later. For now, I don’t sense anything wrong with the body."

Organising her notes, Suyin handed everything over to Alice while Cayla made a copy on the side.

The more Alice read, the deeper her frown became.

With her time in the Nightmare realm, a new value was beginning to pop up.

A foreign energy that’s threading together with her Abyssal.

It wasn’t much and the values were low, but it’s definitely there.

And...

Based on the time of the spike, it seemed to be around the same time when she upgraded her stats.

Folding her arms, Alice let out a deep sigh.

If she wants to reach the Zenia family, she’ll have to explore this nation more and understand the true scale of what she’s up against.

But the issue with this is...

The longer they stay here, the more the Nightmare will grab a hold of them.

Instead of letting this happen...

"What do you need in order to make this puppet of yours?" Alice asked.

"Hm?"

"I’m thinking we should investigate the next Nightmare. See what this invisible presence is and try figure something out." Alice suggested.

Blindly following the Nightmare was advised against, especially with Monika’s information that she received.

The more they understand, the more insight they gain, the more the realm becomes real.

While they can’t stop the others from doing this, as this world was now already deeply intertwined with Extalia, they can at least stop whatever effects this ’insight’ might have on them.

"Hmm... Alright. But it’s not exactly something I can just smack out in 2 days. Suyin Mk2 was something I was working on when you left. Now that I have the blueprints, work will be faster but it won’t be done in time." Suyin shook her head.

It wasn’t an issue of more manpower either since she has all the tools around her to speed things up.

It’s preparing the materials and the time needed to do so.

Unless they have something that can speed up the time of the object, they won’t be able to create the puppets quickly.

"Then do you have any faster alternatives?"

"By that you mean highly unstable prototypes then I have one that I haven’t scraped yet. I wouldn’t recommend it though. It’s a prototype for a reason."

Alice was about to suggest it when she felt Suyin’s stare.

As a researcher and inventor, she was all too familiar with pushing the boundaries and limits.

And when someone like Suyin is suggesting her not to try it, then it must be something truly dangerous.

"Alright. Focus on making two puppets for me and Elias. I’ll try make a memory chip or library using the data you’ve given me and the data I’ve gathered. We should be able retain memory even outside of the country." Alice sighed.

"Alright. But what’s our end goal here? I don’t think retaining our memories will be enough to destroy whatever this Nightmare realm is."

"My personal end goal is to destroy the Zenia family. And that by extension is connected to this Nightmare realm. I would say... My... Brother might have more information on this but he’s in the North. And you probably already know what happened there." Alice creased her brows.

Suyin blinked.

First time she heard Alice having a brother.

But considering her expression, it was probably a touchy subject and she took the hint not to say more about it.

"You have a brother?" Elias raised an eyebrow.

Suyin facepalmed as Alice glanced over at the doctor.

"Yes. Two actually. One left the Zenia family, the other is still there. I don’t like either of them but the one who left might be useful." Alice had a stormy expression.

But if they’re gunning after the Zenias, these two would probably find out in due time.

"Unfortunately, I don’t know how recent this Nightmare is so he might not have any clues on it either." Alice shrugged.

The group fell silent once more.

It’s hard to trust their current sources of outside information since Karina is part of the Nightmare. What she says might be false in order to force a certain kind of action.

While Monika...

She was a whole different can of worms that Alice wasn’t familiar with yet.

"Let’s make the memory chip first then travel through the Abyss. I think reducing our contact with the Nightmare is top priority until we can get some better information." Alice suggested as Elias and Suyin agreed.

###

"Oh? Seems like a certain sleepy head is finally awake. Did you sleep well?" Caera glanced over with a smile.

Clutching her head, Verona let out a slight groan.

"You’re back..." She mumbled, still feeling weak.

"I’ve been back for a while. But you... Where did you go?"

Verona furrowed her brows.

"What do you mean?"

"Your soul. It got dragged away but the tether remained with your main body. I reinforced it to make sure nothing bad would come to your body but... can’t say seeing your soul being dragged away isn’t concerning."

Verona looked at Caera and saw that she wasn’t joking.

"I... had a dream. Of the time I was a little girl." She mumbled while Caera leaned against the wall.

"A dream? Were you observing in spectral form or something?"

"Not quite. It felt... Real. I won’t ever forget that hunger." Verona shook her head.

"I was in my own body, observing my actions in the past. But... I couldn’t change anything. I simply watched everything happen again. And..." Trailing off, Verona narrowed her gaze.

"I felt divinity."

Caera’s ears twitched for a moment, her expression turned serious.

"Divinity?"

"Mnm." Verona nodded.

"Was it the false divinity that we had to cut off?"

"Similar but also different."

"What did it feel like? What did it look like?" Caera asked but Verona shook her head.

"It was hard to make out since I was observing my own dream. I couldn’t go look for it either, it was simply ’there’."

Folding her arms, Caera was silent.

Perhaps the reason why Verona’s soul was dragged away was due to the divinity they cut out.

Even if they removed it, the source and original connection couldn’t be forgotten. In that regard, it was technically still an extension of Verona.

To properly cut it off...

’So I’ll need to find Allura if I want to cut things cleanly. Unless the divinity is completely removed, even if I supplement her soul, she wouldn’t be able to last.’

But doing so could... yield surprising rewards.

If the divinity is completely removed from Verona, it means whatever is done to the divinity wouldn’t affect her. Even if it’s ’killed’ purified then recycled.

Verona wouldn’t be harmed by it.

And with that, a plan began to form in her mind.

"My queen, I hope you can do me a favour of establishing a contract for me. In order to bring us out of Terminus, I might have to reveal things that might cause a few accidents if not ’forgotten’."