I was standing in a verdant meadow with a woman that looked like Dorthaunzee in front of me.

"What's going on?" I asked, ready to snap my fingers.

"You're dreaming, Fainn."

"Huh? What?" I asked. I looked around frantically. "But I can always... tell when I'm..."

"Fainn, you have to listen to me. Something terrible may be occurring--"

"Hey! You!" I said, pointing at her. "You! I remember you! You've been in my dreams recently!"

Yes, it was all coming back to me now. It was a unique phenomenon--dream memories. I was the type who would forget about 90% of a dream when I woke up if it wasn't a particularly amazing one. When I was dreaming, however, I could recall the dreams as easily as I recalled my waking life memories while awake. It was like remembering that you were living a double life. And now, my dream memories were coming back to me. This woman had been pestering me across many dreams.

"You, you keep wanting me to open that door!"

She lifted her hands. "Fainn, please calm down; I need to speak with you--"

"About the door, right? I told you I--" I caught myself and held my head. "The door... wait... why is that door dangerous?"

The memories were coming back to me. Whenever I was dreaming, I would have a foreboding sense about that door... but it was different than when I encountered it in the Inverse. Why was my perception of the door different while I was dreaming? Why was I noticing it now?

"I had seen that door before the time in the Inverse... why am I thinking differently now?"

"Fainn, it has to do with what's currently happening."

I looked at the woman, and she nodded after seeing that I was willing to listen.

"Fainn, you are not dreaming like normally. Your consciousness has more weight right now. You exist similarly to how you exist in your Hero Hub's Inverse. That is why you're seeing things differently right now! It's why you couldn't notice you were in a dream as easily as you do!"

"What? But how--how'd I end up in an altered state? How couldn't I notice I was dreaming? I'm a little good at that."

"It was your enemy, Fainn."

"My enemy?"

"Think to your waking life, Fainn. You were attacked."

I held my chest. "But we got him..."

"No, you didn't."

"I didn't... Wait, so everything after that first attack was a dream? Did the girls not strike back?"

She shook her head, which made me shake all over in turn. "Your power was activated, but..."

"+Nightamres ARE Fiction+ didn't work..." I mumbled. "Well, there wasn't damage to be negated..."

"I'm not sure we can say it didn't do anything just yet... I don't fully comprehend what occurred, but when he attacked you, that weapon did something to both of you. You were ensnared in a dream and dragged down here into your mindscape. Think, Fainn. Your dream of your women. Do you remember the transition between the scenes?"

"The transitions?" I thought back to it. "N-No. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was in a new scene--damn it! That was clearly a dream!" As I thought back, all sorts of things started standing out. The game on the screen not being super defined, the crack in the mirror, the weird temperatures, Kanae wearing a shirt--the signs were there. "How didn't I notice?"

"It was the effect of the weapon, Fainn. It had to be," she said. "I believe it was meant to trap you in a dream. I was trying to interfere with the prison it created, but it was difficult with me in this form. But then, I thought you saw me in the mirror. The dream pulled you away, but when I saw that, I knew I would be able to wrestle you away from the weapon's power."

"The mirror..." I thought back to that mirror. "Yeah... I had thought I saw a shadow in it, but then Kanae talked to me, and I forgot." I shook my head. "Okay, what's going on? Why did that punk trap me in a dream?" My heart raced as I realized the danger we were in. "Hold on--the girls--"

"Worry not, Fainn," the Dorth-lookalike said as she raised her hand. "The weapon forced your mind into hypertime. You were trapped for an hour, but only a second has passed in the outside world."

I cocked my head as I looked on, confused. "So, I was trapped in a dream... but for what purpose? The hypertime doesn't make sense if they were trying to remove me from the battlefield."

"Actually, I don't think they were trying to do that." She pointed at something behind me, and I turned around.

"The door!"

That door that haunted me--it was wide open with nothing but swirling darkness within it. I turned toward her again.

"You! Did you open the door?"

She shook her head as she walked past me. "I didn't. Though, I do admit I was curious about what was behind it... But now..."

"But now what?" I asked, following behind her.

"I feel a little ashamed. I was curious, but I always intended for you to open it. A foreigner coming here and violating your sanctity--even I have a bad taste in my mouth."

"So what happened here?" I asked as we came before the door.

"I saw everything. I noticed when your mind was forced into hypertime, and I watched as you were swallowed up by a dream. I also watched as that silver-haired child opened this door and went inside."

"He went inside?!" I yelled, my heart beating so loud we could hear it. "And you didn't do anything?"

"This version of me is quite limited at the moment. It took great effort to pull you out of the dream. That was, I think, the most I could do at the moment."

I squinted at her. "This version of you? What are you? No, who are you, and why do you look like Dorthaunzee... Hold on." I came closer to her. "I've seen you before! But where..."

"Fainn, my identity doesn't matter at the moment. What matters is what's beyond this door. Someone is intruding into your space... Do you not know what might be behind this darkness? What may have made you a target?"

I faced the darkness. "I don't... I just know that this wasn't supposed to be opened." I held my chest and squeezed. "I'm not supposed to be thinking about this thing. I'm not supposed to be here."

"Hmm."

I stared deeper into the darkness and then turned toward the Dorth lookalike. "Hey, I can't be here. You need to help me--"

She placed her hand on my chest and pushed.

"Huh?" I asked, my eyes showing nothing but surprise.

"You need to confront this," she said.

I fell into the darkness, speechless. The light of the plains was getting further away, but somehow, her voice reached me. It was as if it was falling with me.

"Locking out uncomfortable truths--no, a god cannot do such a thing. They must wield all of themself lest something terrible festers within them. You do not have the luxury of not understanding yourself any longer, Fainn Sviklander."

Even though she was so far away, I could see her face in my mind as if she was right in front of me.

"You live for more than yourself now."

I was silent and betrayed as I fell into the darkness.

...

..

.

"Argh, oww," I said as I held my head and sat up.

I was in some dark chamber. The walls were made of gray stone, and the floor--

"Snow?"

I was caught off-guard. There was snow here. It wasn't cold, though. I stood up and looked up toward where I would have fallen from. There was nothing but darkness. Strangely enough, even though there was no discernible light source, I could still see well enough. I'd say I could see twenty feet ahead of myself.

I gripped my chest. "Given the uncomfortable feeling in my heart, I must be beyond that door."

"And you're right about that."

My heart jumped, but it wasn't because there was someone behind me yet again. It was because of the voice. That voice was way too concerning.

I spun on my heels and almost passed out from sheer shock.

The impossible guy waved at me. "Hi, Fainn," he said.

I mustered up some courage as I collected myself and forced out a smile. "What? So I've gone from a Dorth lookalike to a me lookalike?"

"I guess so," said the guy with my face. "That's just how dire things are right now, " said this other Fainn.