An Emanator—did he really dare make a move?
Gopher Wood narrowed his eyes.
No one knew how a crow could possibly narrow its eyes, yet this black crow before them had already shut its eyes completely.
Gopher Wood's consciousness existed throughout this space.
To erase him completely, one would have to destroy all of Penacony.
But if anyone truly dared to destroy Penacony, then they could prepare to be hunted by the entire universe.
And on top of that, Penacony still possessed another terrifying trump card.
That card...
was the Stellaron.
That's right—the Stellaron.
Did people really think Penacony's routes remained so open and convenient simply because of luck?
Visitors from all directions could come and go from this region at will.
But who knew that Penacony itself was also a place corrupted by a Stellaron?
Just as had been said before, the appearance of a Stellaron would indeed cut off star routes.
But that was only true for lesser civilizations.
Penacony was no lesser civilization.
Had no one ever wondered how such a massive dreamscape had come into being?
Did they really think Gopher Wood and a handful of others could control such an enormous sea of memoria spanning the entire Asdana star system?
Impossible.
How could mere people manipulate a domain of that scale?
Only by controlling a Stellaron could such a feat be accomplished.
Dreams did not simply appear out of nowhere.
If the memory zone was an ocean, then constructing a land of dreams within a sea of memoria was no different from reclaiming land from a raging ocean.
Unless an Emanator connected to memory or mystery personally intervened—
only a Stellaron could achieve something on that level.
But after Mikhail had been framed and turned into a villain, very few people still knew that secret.
And unfortunately for everyone else...
Gopher Wood was one of those few.
Penacony was no longer facing merely the resurgence of Order.
The Asdana star system was also in the middle of a Stellaron crisis.
So, Emanator—
did you dare make a move?
Gopher Wood could say with absolute confidence that he had already grasped that Emanator's limits.
As long as he held these cards in his hands—
that Emanator would never dare strike at him.
So naturally, Gopher Wood had no reason to fear him.
The Golden Hour remained just as it always was.
Still dazzling. Still extravagant.
The travelers moving through it had no idea of the despair and terror hidden beneath the surface of this dream.
As though indulging in this sweet illusion had already become the most natural thing in the world.
After all, outside the world of dreams, could you drink as much SoulGlad as you pleased?
Outside the dream, could you enjoy such freedom?
That was why this land of beautiful dreams had drawn so many people from across the cosmos.
So that all who chased after beautiful dreams...
would remain forever in this dreamscape.
That was Gopher Wood's dream.
The thing he had pursued all his life.
And so, in that year, he took in two children—
two children who had lost their home to war.
One was named Robin.
The other...
was Sunday.
Inside the shattered dreamscape, Evan slowly opened his eyes.
Only then did the sensation of weightlessness around him finally fade away.
And by Evan's side, only Sparkle remained.
Firefly was nowhere to be seen.
"Darling~ You're finally awake~"
"This should be the path leading to the deeper dreamscape, right?"
"But... aren't we standing on the ceiling right now?"
Sparkle's voice made Evan frown.
He slowly closed his eyes.
A moment later, he opened them again and looked out at the broken dream before him.
"We've fallen into the shattered Reverie Hotel."
"This place was once part of someone's dream, but it's been twisted into chaos by the Stellaron."
"Oh right, Sparkle—did you see Firefly when we fell?"
Evan frowned.
The Child's Dream.
This was Mikhail's dream.
Or more accurately, it was Misha's domain.
It was also one of the only two ways to enter the deeper dreamscape directly.
The first method was suicide.
Or being killed within the dream, which would cause one to fall directly into the deeper dreamscape.
The second method...
was accidentally entering this shattered world.
This place was twisted. Chaotic.
It felt utterly incompatible with the rest of Penacony.
Even Evan, after falling into this dream, could only leave through the proper method.
He couldn't simply use his authority to descend straight into the deeper layers of the dream.
"Firefly?"
"Nope. I just woke up too—I didn't see her at all."
"I was wondering about that myself~"
"So, darling, where exactly are we?"
Sparkle asked curiously.
This upside-down world and twisted dreamscape had clearly piqued her interest.
As a Fool, she was naturally curious about everything.
It took Evan a while before he finally replied.
"This is the passage into the deeper dreamscape, but it's heavily distorted."
"The one who arranged for us to end up here probably didn't expect there to be so many familiar faces in this place."
"It's troublesome, sure."
"But all the paths in this place ultimately lead to that room."
"There... I can sense the messenger of memory, the emptiness of Nihility, and also..."
"March, Stelle, Mr. Yang, and Himeko."
"Strange. Where's Dan Heng? Why isn't Dan Heng here?"
By the time Evan finished speaking, even he looked slightly surprised.
Gopher Wood had thrown everyone he considered a threat into this place.
And in the room at the very center of this dream...
there was also a massive, terrifying presence.
A Memoria Meme.
Something Unto Death.
"Hm? Wait—I found Firefly."
"Looks like Elio's script really is something. Even after all our interference, she still got discovered."
"Huh?"
Sparkle blinked in confusion, glancing down at the script on her phone.
"So... does that mean she's going to die once?"
"That monster won't actually kill her, right?"
Evan frowned.
He remembered a bit about Something Unto Death.
It was defined as an entity born from a specific cognition, a mysterious and dangerous Memoria Meme formed from fragments of subconscious thought within the memory zone.
A being regarded as a death that should not exist in dreams.
Its dark shadow roamed through all twelve hours, and wherever it passed, disaster followed.
It spread omens with its blade and cloaked beautiful dreams beneath the shadow of death.
And yet...
it was also the key factor that directly connected to the deeper dreamscape.
"Come on. This time, Gopher Wood probably didn't expect this."
"This childish dreamscape won't be able to hold us back at all."
"We'll find Firefly first. It's just a meme. It won't be able to deal with her."
Evan gave Sparkle a brief explanation.
"She is a Stellaron Hunter, after all."
Sparkle wasn't in any rush, but she immediately followed behind Evan as he ran in Firefly's direction.
Meanwhile, elsewhere within the Child's Dream—
the moment Firefly fell from Dewlight Pavilion, she landed directly in the central region of this space.
She had just begun searching for Evan and the others when the shattered dream suddenly began to shift around her.
"Looks like Elio's script still took effect after all."
"My first death..."
"...is about to arrive."
Inside the Child's Dream—
Acheron and Black Swan had already regrouped.
Stelle, meanwhile, had discovered traces of Misha.
March, Welt, and Himeko had also found each other.
Elsewhere, within the twisting and shifting space, a gigantic Memoria Meme appeared, roaming through the dream.
It pursued anyone who entered this dream world without exception.
On Evan's side, he and Sparkle were moving in Firefly's direction.
Within this twisted dreamscape, Sparkle stayed close behind him.
As the Emanator of Memory and the holder of authority over consciousness, this entire space was laid bare before Evan as clearly as if it had stripped itself naked.
Only these Memoria Memes were somewhat annoying.
Their strength was pitifully weak.
Even Something Unto Death, the one currently hunting Firefly, wasn't on the level of the Abundance Deer.
But the problem was...
there were simply too many of them.
To this day, the birth of Memoria Memes remained a mystery, much like memoria itself.
If you insisted on defining exactly what they were, no one could really explain it.
The main issue was that once killed, they would dissolve into memoria and vanish—
only to crawl back out from who-knew-where moments later.
In short, within this shattered Reverie Hotel dreamscape...
there was no shortage of troublesome things.
"Darling, over there!"
At that moment, Sparkle spotted a small figure appear ahead of them.
Evan immediately turned his head—
and saw a petite figure standing in front of him.
"Misha?"
"Come on, Sparkle. Follow him. He's showing us a shortcut."
Just as Evan and Sparkle started chasing after Misha—
in another area, Black Swan and Acheron also caught sight of a small figure darting across their path.
It vanished with a laugh, slipping into what looked like a mirror.
"A mirror?"
"You really think too little of us Memokeepers."
"Miss Acheron, come on. Let's follow the little one."
Acheron didn't really care.
By this point, she had already cut down who knew how many Memoria Memes on the way here.
She hadn't felt the slightest bit tired.
As for the figure that had just appeared, it didn't matter whether it was friend or foe.
If it was an enemy...
she could simply cut it down with one slash.
Stelle's side was different.
She too had encountered Misha, but unlike the others, the Misha before her was clearly guiding her somewhere.
Every now and then, strange bits of text would appear as clues, leading Stelle toward the correct destination.
But Misha moved far too quickly.
Just when she managed to catch up with him—
he would vanish again in front of some doorway...
or disappear around the next turn.
To read advanced Chapters, head over to p@treon:
patreon.com/nani_kaito