Not long after, Max slowly opened his eyes. The bright light blinded his eyes for a second. It took a couple of seconds before he was able to adjust his line of sight. He woke up in a familiar place, with a familiar face staring back at him. Once he was aware of his surroundings, the person staring at him jumped at his arms and gave hugged him tight.

"Lumi, I'm glad you're alright and full of energy." He smiled at her and patted her head. As he was looking around he was surprised, he was once again in his consciousness. However, there were a lot of changes compared to the last time he was here. The surrounding has turned bright as if a sun was shining brightly. Even though the whole surrounding was bright, there was still the blue lights surrounding the space which looked like clouds in the sky. The twinkling stars were hard too see, as they were over-powered by the bright light from a single source in the sky.

However, something felt different in his surroundings. The whole place seems larger and he was unable to distinguish the extent of the place. Suddenly, he found what was different, on the south side of his consciousness, the whole side was covered in darkness. It looked as if a curtain of darkness was covering the entire southern side. It was conspicuous considering the place was covered in light.

He looked at Lumi, "Lumi what happened here?"

Lumi looked at the surrounding and explained, "It appeared after you defeated the demon in the dungeon. At first, it was only a small dot of darkness, but as time passed it grew bigger and bigger. Now, the entity which was a single blot made that curtain of darkness while trying to expand. I did my best to stop it, but by doing so, I could not get out of your consciousness."

Lumi tried her best to explain what happened for the last couple of days. It was then that Max realized that something was happening inside his consciousness without his notice. He once again patted Lumi's head and said with full of appreciation, "Thank you Lumi. If it wasn't for you then it might have been too late before I've realized it."

Max started to walk while heading to the direction of the curtain of darkness. However, Lumi tried to stop Max.

"Be careful. It is so powerful that it took all the effort I had to control and lock it into one place. The others helped me but I do not know how much we can keep that entity locked up."

Max was confused with what Lumi said, "Who were the others?"

He saw Lumi gazing upwards at the stars that used to twinkle brightly. However, compared to before, the twinkling was dull as their power seemed depleted. Max finally understood that those stars might be the same entity as Lumi. It was possible he could not communicate with them at the moment due to some restrictions.

"I have to check what it is or I won't have any idea on how to solve the problem."

Lumi looked hesitant with Max's request but she knew that it was the case. She was worried for Max's well-being as they will be facing the unknown. But, she still nodded and agreed.

Lumi looked at Max with concern, "Okay. But be careful, that dark entity discharges dark energy around it from time to time. I do not know how that will affect you or your body."

They started to walk to the distance. Max thought it was close but he felt he had been walking for quite some time and yet the curtain of darkness looked so far away.

As they were getting closer to the location, the feeling of the surrounding changed, there were darkness blots that scattered all around the place. The closer they got the more darkness blanketed the land they were stepping on. It looked no different from the first time he arrived at his consciousness when it was covered in total darkness before Lumi arrived at his side.

The surrounding felt eerie with the darkness covering the surrounding. Max felt a sudden chill from his back as they got closer to their destination. He felt someone was looking at him and scrutinizing his every move. Max looked ahead and found that they were only a couple of steps from the curtain of darkness.

"STOP!" Lumi shouted.

Max tried to reach out his hand to the curtain but Lumi stopped him. He surprised himself as he had the sudden urge to touch the film of darkness and enter without him noticing it.

Not long after the curtain of darkness made a path where they can enter. Max was once again surprised as he realized that the feeling he had earlier of being watched by the entity which was hidden inside this place.

They continued walking on the path which leads them inside the place. The curtain returned to its prior appearance once they got in.

Inside the curtain of darkness was a castle.

It was similar to the hunted castles that he saw from his past life.