For the first night in a while, Sariel arose on Otherside in complete safety. It was irregular; you could see quite a few people running around the place, getting their bearings, before letting out a sigh of relief or getting to work. Indeed, Sariel had found himself in The Final Castle.

Dreamers had been struggling on Otherside for ten years, ever since the first batch of them had been shipped to the island-crater. Sariel had watched their progress every step of the way from the sky, observing and watching through his dreams. Eventually, after they sorted out their leadership issues and communication problems, they organized themselves to construct a castle on one of the locations you could spawn into; thus, the Final Castle was constructed.

It was terribly difficult to communicate since it was taboo to reveal your Symbol (in other words, the symbol on your mask) to anyone else. This development came after a large problem with people targeting each other in the waking world, which resulted in a desperate situation for the Dreamers. The monsters sent by the Abyss grew in power and number; it was at this point that the Dreamers realized that the monsters being killed actually impacted the Abyss negatively.

In other words, the current co-operation between Dreamers was built on a desperate requirement to fend off the Abyss. Ever since that incident was etched into the history of the Dreamers, it has been forbidden to share your Symbol in the waking world. The other reason was so that you wouldn't keep too close of an attachment to anyone else; every leadership group on either of the four segments of Otherside heavily prioritized mental well-being. It was possible to recover from a single death on Otherside; it was even possible to recover from five, or eight. But every death is another crack in the mask, and a little bit more of the Abyss in your mind. The leadership attempts to make sure everyone is as sane as possible to be able to survive as many 'deaths' as possible.

As Sariel went through the history that had took place two years ago, he looked around the surroundings. Although there are not many people around due to the low population of Dreamers and the even lower chance to actually get sent here of all places, the square still bustles with activity. Most notable were the colourful stalls being set up all around, each selling a variety of goods, but mostly Aspects, rings, necklaces and Omni Orbs. It was the beginning of the night, so everyone was getting in position. Some vendors called out to him whilst laying out their goods, trying to entice him to come see their wares.

There were a total of five zones on Otherside, so it was around a one in five chance to be sent to the Final Castle. It was entirely safe, so it was naturally thought to be the best place to end up. He watched as people gathered around a quickly constructed fire in the middle of the grounds, resting up for the first night in a while. More interestingly were the group of Dreamers that immediately sought to leave the castle walls; these Dreamers fought the monsters around the castle to keep it safe, as well as to participate in the incredibly curious system around this entire zone.

Every stall had been set up in advance by the ones constructing the Final Castle, and it was agreed that any merchant could set up shop wherever they wanted, since it wasn't possible to predict if you would or wouldn't be sent here. However, a very special stall was set up by one specific Dreamer; or rather, it might be accurate to call them a Dreamer Coalition. The group lead by Ruby, the Dreamer Merchants. Each one of these members sought out their own interests, but they all agreed to work together to supply the Dreamers with equipment whilst empowering themselves. They ran one of the most essential services in the Final Castle; that is, storage.

You could leave any items within their care for a small fee under a password, and any other Dreamer with the same password could take the item. This allowed for the continuity of anonymity whilst facilitating trading, as well as co-operation throughout the duration of long projects. As such, Sariel imprinted his Fountain of Lethe on an Aspect Ring that they provided, and left it under the password Moonlight for the uncle to take eventually. He'd pay for the ring, naturally. Nothing was going to be given for free, of course.

Sariel moved towards the fireplace after his attention was caught by loud rumours. 'Have you heard of Sir Felic? The Star of the Dreamers?'

'Oh, yeah, of course! He was the hero that organized the construction of the Final Castle and defended the area whilst it was being constructed!'

'Well, he's gone mad! He took a death, and now he's rampaging! Keep your eyes out, and wary of the Shattered Star!'

'Join the Climbers today, and promise to support your brothers and sisters as we raise ourselves higher!' Sariel's attention was caught by a confident man who interrupted the rumours to walk in front of everyone, drawing the attention of everyone in the plaza. Sariel moved closer to listen; this was something he hadn't heard before. His power to spectate Otherside from above through his dreams was suddenly cut off around three months ago, and Sariel couldn't figure out the reason. By that time, he had already steeled himself to enter the island, and that gap of information was deeply frustrating.

'We are a newly formed Coalition, attempting to break free of the crater those bastards have placed us in!' His words generated assent from the crowd. 'Each one of our members has no obligation but to assist each other in the darkness of this wretched world! Register today!' The man looked earnestly at the crowd, many of whom seemed to be swayed by his words. It didn't take very long before people walked up to him one by one to register their Symbols and grab the badge that signified their affiliations.

Sariel wasn't very interested, however. He had seen hundreds of idealistic groups attempt and fail to survive in this world. It simply wasn't possible to survive whilst allowing dead weights to attach themselves to your feet. The desperate cries of the weakest members for help put off the strongest lone wolves from ever joining, and a horde of cowards would never be able to stand up. He stood up to leave, and made his way to the castle gate. Enough resting; it was time to earn more power.

---

As he walked through the worn road out of the castle to go towards the border, he pulled out the two Aspect Gems he still had and crushed them simultaneously. No point in keeping them that long, after all. Time to roll the dice.

Sariel fell into thought upon seeing the two Aspects. A Deep Breath was incredibly useful whilst you act as a frontliner, or perhaps a direct brawler. It would ensure that escaping becomes difficult and it also gave you health sustain on top of that. He always thought that power that allowed you to survive longer would be more useful than simply doing more damage. After all, he could rely on his own skill to deal the damage, and surviving for longer actually resulted in a larger damage output over time as compared to if you would die or be forced to retreat earlier in the fight. Therefore, Sariel always valued survivability much higher than raw damage.

But what was more interesting was the Red Trigger. It was a special command on certain Aspects. When you wear an Aspect with Red Trigger, a floating red button would appear beside you. Pressing the Red Trigger would immediately active all Aspects labelled with Red Trigger, and disable it for the rest of the whole night. They were by far the strongest and most impactful Aspects, acting as an ace in the hole.

Furthermore, there was a special technique you could utilize the Red Trigger for. After burning the Red Trigger ability on an Aspect Ring, you could actually remove the ring and wear another one to allow you to use another Aspect! The only problem with this was that taking off an Aspect Ring with a depleted Red Trigger would immediately permanently shatter the ring, losing both it and the Aspect. However, when you were in a life and death scenario, no sane person thinks about these small details.

As such, Sariel decided to save his newest Red Trigger for an Aspect Ring, whenever he got one or bought one. It was too much of a waste to directly put it on the Omni, since the same technique wasn't possible with the Omni. However, he decided to directly apply A Deep Breath to his Omni; after all, it seemed to directly synergize with his melee fighting style. After all, it was impossible for both healing and crowd control to be ineffective.

The roar of metal clashing interrupted Sariel's train of thought. He had arrived. The northern border of the Final Castle.