Topside--

Nothing had really changed with regard to Elma’s condition. When I was talking with her dream self, she had started muttering in her sleep, and when the nightmare came, she wore a pained expression, but nothing else. The dream did exhaust her, though, and she seemed to be sleeping more ‘peacefully.’ Svilran had taken that as a good sign, but I knew better.

When I turned into her nightmare, I had to hide my eyes behind my hand. I couldn’t show how freaked out I was. While Narlivs and I spoke about the change in my power, I had to put my head down. I was getting a massive headache at the time. Svilran just took that to be an expression of how worried I was. Maybe Narlivs was helping her not be so inquisitive... Thanks, Narlivs, in case you did.

Now that I was fighting the remaining Parasites in the Inverse, I lifted my head up. Incidentally, I couldn’t really feel the pain up here. If I focused really hard, I could feel it in real-time, but otherwise, I only had a memory of the pain. It was actually really dream-like in that regard. Ironically, I understood what was going on with +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ when I thought about it from this point of view and considered how the pain felt to the me up here.

“Are you okay, Fainn?”

I took a breath and prepared to deliver my analysis. “Svilran... I think Elma is suffering from withdrawal. Or, at the very least, her body is reacting to the lack of something.”

“Withdrawal? How do you know?”

I gently turned Elma’s face to the side and shifted her hair, exposing the dark puncture scars. “See these? The people that enslaved Elma would bite her and inject her with some substance that nourished her body.”

Svilran shuddered. “That happened to her?” She grew quieter. “I had no idea... We were only informed that they fed on her kind...”

“It’s not like she spoke openly about it. Anyway, these scars--I’m sure they weren’t as dark when I saw them before.”

“She showed them to you?”

“Yeah, back on the first day she was here.”

“Oh...” Svilran said, more dejected than before.

“That might be what’s going on. Elma hated it, but her body might have grown reliant on it... whatever it is.”

Svilran gave a loud “Okay,” and slapped her cheeks many times. “Is there anything we can do for her that would ease the withdrawal?”

“Umm... Nausea is pretty common, so maybe something that keeps her stomach under control... She hasn’t vomited yet, though... Otherwise, we need to keep giving her fluids.” I looked at her black arms and the faint trails of mana leaking from her. “Thing is, she’s a different species. I don’t know if there’s anything unique to her to be mindful of. That entry was pretty surface-level too.”

“That’s okay! We can stick to the basics!”

Svilran grabbed a cup of water that was at the bedside and lifted Elma up. Suddenly, she stopped; her eyes seemed to be pointed toward Elma’s lower body.

Svilran looked at me with a sad look on her face. “Fainn, please, could you go and check on Dorthaunzee?”

“Huh? But I can help.”

I reached for Elma, but Svilran stopped me and shook her head.

“No. Fainn, please. I’m begging you for Elma’s sake. She may not want you to see this.” She pressed her lips together as she looked at me. “Please, Fainn, I promise I’ll take care of her. Check on Dorthaunzee.

I was as confused as I was worried, so I asked Narlivs down below. According to her, Svilran was trying to preserve Elma’s dignity.

With that information and with a heavy heart, I acquiesced. “Okay, I’ll go make sure Dorthaunzee’s mission is going well. Please, don’t take this on all on your own. I’m your other half here. I can help.”

“I know. But we both have things we’re better suited for.”

“Okay...”

I left the room and headed for the <Observatory>.

“Elma, don’t worry. We’re all working hard for you!” I heard Svilran say.

***

Meanwhile, in the Inverse--

I sighed as I finished up the last Parasite. 

“How do you feel, Fainn?”

“Physically? I’ll live. Emotionally?” I breathed out and gave her a weary look. “No one likes seeing someone they like in trouble.”

“I understand. Svilran and I are both worried too.”

“So, how many points do we have? What’s the scaling for this place?”

“At the moment, we have earned 4 points, 1 point for each.”

“What. Four? Really?”

“Yes,” Narlivs replied, smiling.

“Oh...” Her smile disarmed me. “Anything we can buy?”

“Unfortunately not. Our screens are so empty that I have a strong suspicion that the system is still initializing. It’s very unlikely the higher forces were prepared for our defeating Parasites so early.”

“Hmm… I guess I could accept that.”

“Alternatively, it could be we’re underestimating how many Parasites we’re expected to counter.”

“No, I don’t like that.”

Narlivs giggled. “I don’t either.”

“Hmm... Hey, you mentioned something earlier... What’s dream-walking? Can you tell me?“

“I most certainly can,” she said with a smile. “First, what you must understand is that the Inverse--the Hero Hub's equivalent of a subconcious--is a space within the Underside of the the Imaginal Realm, much like how the Hero Hub is a space within the topside of the Imaginal Realm. In the topside, worlds are separated by Imaginal space. In the underside, what separates ‘worlds’ is Dimensional Depth. The Hero Hub’s Inverse occupies up to Depth Level 2. Then there is the Realm of Dreams... Let’s call it the Dream World for ease, but do not get caught up in the ‘World’ label. The Dream World exists between Depth Level 2 and Depth Level 6. When Depth Levels intersect, it means that the spaces can intersect. That’s actually why the dreamer fog can come into the Inverse--because of the Depth Level Intersection. The fact that the Inverse can’t reach further into the undersides depths is ALSO why the dream only appears as fog. If the Inverse reached Depth Level 3, we could perhaps enter the dream fog properly if we had the necessary skill.”

A bulb went off in my head. “So when I’m using +Nightmares ARE Fiction+, I’m messing with the depth levels?”

Narlivs tilted her head like I caught her by surprise, and smiled. “Yes, that would be a way of understanding it... It would be a very localized effect, targeting an isolated element, but yes, you could see it as so. Regardless, thanks to +Nightmares ARE Fiction+ you can understand how Depth Levels work. The more they intersect, the more you can enter a ‘world.’”

“Okay, so dream-walking.”

“Yes, dream-walking is the specific ability to walk from a dream and into intersecting spaces. Imagine two cliffs with a deep ravine between them. They exist in the same space, but you cannot necessarily cross them. Do you sprout wings and fly? Do you throw a rope or do you build a bridge? Whatever method you use to cross them, the method that allows you to reach the other side is what dream-walking is to the cliffs called dreams and the rest of the underside. So if someone can dream-walk, they could walk out of their dream and enter a neighboring world, should they know how to navigate the worlds.”

“So if Elma could dream walk, she would come out here?”

“If the dreamer’s fog was appearing in the Inverse, then there’s a good chance she could.”

“Could?”

“We’re speaking about extra-dimensional worlds, Fainn. Also, please recall the Dream World extends deeper into the underside. Elma could exit her dream and enter the deeper Dream World.”

“Huh... I think I’m missing something.”

“You are. It’s the capability component of an individual.” Narlivs giggled. “Fainn, you’re not able to dream walk, you know?”

“I can’t?” I asked, chuckling warily.

Narlivs held onto my arm and gestured for me to walk with her. “There’s a progression. Usually, one would first learn how to recognize they’re dreaming.”

“I can do that.”

“Yes, and then the next step would be learning how to exit your dream without waking up.”

“Hmm... I could see that being difficult... I can’t even imagine how to go about doing that...”

“It is very hard to do. But that is what distinguishes people. See, if you could do that, you, Fainn, would have the Skill to be able to go deeper into the underside of the Imaginal Realm. Since you would be going in through dreams, you could feasibly reach Depth Level 6.”

“What? But the Inverse only reaches Level 2.”

“Exactly.” Narlivs giggled again and wagged her finger. “Fainn, you and I are worlds too. Everyone is a world. Do you understand what that means?”

I looked up into the deep darkness of the Inverse’s sky. “It means... I exist at Depth Level 2... And Depth Level 1, I guess.”

“That’s right. It’s not that you can come here because the Inverse exists. It’s because you, as Fainn, all of you, whether it was done with the aid of your subconscious or not, have achieved extending your consciousness into the depths of the unconscious. You are here now because your world intersects with the Inverse.” Narlivs held out her hand. “Fainn, how many worlds do you think my hand is intersecting with right now?”

“Hmm...” I smiled at her. “That’s a trick question. One world... Or maybe two if you count me. But... I shouldn’t get caught up with spatial relationships... Are there hundreds of worlds right there? Worlds at deeper Depth Levels, all overlaid on top of each other. Like different dimensions.”

Pain shot through my head like that question opened a door. In a sphere around Narlivs’ hand, a myriad of colors burst forth. Each color had a painting-like image within it. Dark caverns, deep oceans with lava spewing from the cracks, pink clouds against a purpler sky, a heaven-like golden paradise. Each image was beamed into my head and burned my eyes.

Narlivs spoke, unaware of what was going on. I knew that much. I could see her simultaneously from all angles.

“That is the beauty of the Inverse and all others that live in the underside. Everywhere and nowhere all occurring at the same. There is nothing here, yet there is infinity. And it’s all separated by Depth. If one had the eyes to pierce through the darkness and see it all unfiltered,” she finally looked at me, “I wonder what it would look like--“ her smile turned into shock and she grabbed my face. “Fainn?!”

When she said my name, it was like she was reminding my body that it was me. I fell to my knees, and she came down with me. I could see myself like I was standing outside my body. My eyes--they were burned badly--actually burned. Like someone stuck a hot rod into them. But even so, I could still see.

“Fainn!” she cried.

On the topside, I was in pain, too. My eyes were okay, but things were flickering around me. Between flickers, I could see figures in the distance. Was that me and Narlivs? But then there was a figure standing next to me to, or was there? Was it a shadow? I wasn’t sure—it was too fast.

“Fainn! You stared into the abyss for too long!” Narlivs cried. “Depart! Pull your consciousness out of here! Go and recuperate!”

“Got it!” I yelled, topside. I pulled my consciousness out of the Inverse and the moment I did, the flickers stopped. Not only that, all the pain went away.

“Holy shit,” I said. I looked around. I was inside the <Observatory>, a few steps from the door. “Holy... Wow...”

I knew I saw some wild stuff, but when i tried to recall them, I just drew up a white canvas.

I recalled something Narlivs had told me—

“If you stayed here for long, the last boundary between conscious and subconscious would be forcefully burned away…”

“Stared into the abyss, huh? All I did was wonder about something... Trippy...”

I went up to the telescope, with many thoughts in mind...

“I should come up with more questions...”

Yeah... for some reason, I was filled with the desire to see more of the world beyond the Hero Hub’s Inverse... And, it was a little scary, but I was sure I forgot about the danger Elma was in when that all went down…

“Believe in Dorthaunzee...” I muttered.

For some reason, that thought was in my head, but it didn’t feel like it was me that was saying it. It was almost like I was recalling it... But I had no memory of someone saying it to me. Even so, why did it feel like someone did?

“... Maybe it’s a side-effect from staring into the abyss,” I finally concluded.