"Nothing." Astra composed herself as she answered—her voice shaking subtly. "It's just that I'm not used to such successful mystical sights yet."
"After all, I just went through a ritual that had failed…"
Aurora and Sonar both stared at Astra with worrying, somewhat doubtful expressions.
However Sonar shrugged as he and Aurora exchanged glances.
"I'm not surprised. Well, you're going to have to get used to it," Aurora informed bluntly.
Astra nodded.
"We're going to enter his dream now. Leave the room so you can get out of the ten meter radius. Once thirty seconds have. passed, you can enter the room again to check on us. If anything is wrong with us, make sure to wake us up in under ten seconds. If not, then leave the room again. Repeat this until you see us wake up." Aurora later added.
"Mhm." Astra didn't hesitate to leave the room, leaving the sound of a mechanical hum behind her.
She entered the silent, dark hallway as she still felt those countless eyes stalking her.
She glanced at the pale blue ball of light at her side, seeing it vibrate violently.
Astra only felt more chills run down her spine witnessing this anomaly. She had never seen this star that was by her side move this erratically. It was like someone—or something—was shaking it.
Or rather, it was like it was sentient; like it was trying to warn her of something chaotic, dark, and mysterious.
Astra then looked to her left. There was a smart window that had the purple moon's rays peeking through it.
Suddenly, she felt the inclination to walk towards it and take a look at the night sky—to solve the mystery of that thing that was constantly watching her.
Tap.
She took one step towards the window, but she instantly felt a sharp pain in her stomach.
It was as if she had stepped into a wall full of spikes. However, it was not an outside force that was warning her—like a wall. Instead, it was her own body.
She was feeling uneasy once more.
"No…" Whispering to herself, she ran in the other direction, passing Timothy's room.
In less than a second, she appeared at the top of the staircase.
"Hah…" Controlling her breathing, she took a deep breath as she felt her heart pumping in her chest.
Then, as if a weight was lifted off of her shoulders, Astra had gradually felt the cold, piercing gazes disappearing.
It was like a grey fog was slowly covering the eyes, concealing them from the real world.
Plop!
She sat down—though it wasn't controlled. She had allowed gravity to take full control over her body, making her plummet on the staircase.
At that moment, Astra didn't understand what had happened or what existence had placed her eyes on her.
For a second, her mind was like static. It was like a person finally processing their predicament after going through a near death experience.
Controlling her breathing and composure once more, she wiped cold sweat from her burrows as she tried to muster up some thoughts.
"What the hell…was that a result of the ritual? What would've happened if I prayed? What would've happened if I entered the dream…?"
"Sigh. Light mission? Devoid of danger? Seriously…" She immediately thought back to Kaelyn's words.
Then, an influx of gratitude and joy entered her heart for a moment.
"Thank goodness for my mind…for figuring out that the entire case was a trap…"
But then, a sense of dread immediately replaced those feelings. All she could've thought was the words: "Beware of those from the first dimension".
Adjusting her golden hair, she thought, "Was it that existence staring at me? The existence from the first dimension that I am supposed to be wary of?"
Astra immediately shut off certain thoughts that were present in her mind. She did this to prevent any knowledge she found out about the Demigoddess in their shared subconscious space from intruding into her head.
"What's worse was that my reasoning was correct."
"This entire case was planned by the Parallax of the Rising Stars in order to trap me to make an ethereal connection with the fragment placed inside of that man from that existence! Once it was purified, that existence looked at me!"
"But how was this arranged?" Then, Astra immediately thought of an answer.
"There's only three possibilities: an insider in the Dreamlanders or police, an Ethereal Artifact that arranges events, or both."
"As for the insider in the Dreamlanders or police, it has to be someone who has the power to assign missions or at the very least suggest missions to those who assign them."
"This means that Captain Smith and Vice-Captain Nyxen are potential suspects. Lucian and Loken are also suspects as well…"
At that moment, Astra immediately recalled Lucian's actions and the reasoning for doing so. At the same time, she also reasoned through Loken's thoughts.
"Lucian and Loken can be eliminated. After all, Lucian operates on a much larger level than a common case like this. He conceived an entire plan that destroyed a secret organization because of his interest in the First Dimension. And, that interest was fulfilled because of Kayla, while the second part of his plan is currently underway because of me."
"He also allowed me to become a Protector because he knows about my abnormality. If he wanted to take advantage of it, he would've used his authority as a Leader to do so rather than using such an unreliable case—one where I could just not involve myself in."
"For this same reason, I eliminate Loken as well. He is a Vice Leader after all."
Astra's eyes softened as she thought about James and Kaelyn.
"As a Vice-Captain, Kaelyn doesn't have the authority to assign missions, but she can suggest her own missions along with simply reporting them. While I don't think it's likely she's an insider, she could've easily created that plan of finding out my abnormality in an attempt to cover up for her actually knowing about it."
"As for Captain Smith, I don't have any reason as to why he would be an insider. But he did assign this mission to us, so he has to be considered. After all, the Energy Orb coincidentally wasn't there, and had to get replaced by an Orb of Consciousness…."
"However, this assumes he knew about my connection to the Third Dimension, which is a very big assumption."
"But, if there is an insider, it is unlikely to be any of these four. Loken and Lucian are obvious. As for Captain Smith and Vice-Captain Nyxen, their backgrounds, thoughts, and actions can be easily tracked if an investigation starts. And I doubt that they would risk something like that, especially since they don't have the political power as Dreamers."
"Regardless, I still have to be cautious. Anything can happen in this world…"
"With that being said, it's very likely that if there is an insider, it is a high-ranking Dreamweaver that I don't know of."
Astra then thought of the next possibility.
"What about an Ethereal Artifact that can arrange events?"
"From what I can see, if this is true, this Artifact can't arrange actions as a nigh-omnipotent force. If it would, it would simply make me choose to pray."
"So, there are three ways that this Artifact can work.
"One, it can arrange events as a general rule, but not an individual's actions. For example, it can place me in an event where I would have to choose whether to pray or not, but it won't force me into the action of praying."
"Two. It can arrange events and actions but only what logically follows. It won't make me do something that I won't logically do. In this sense, if there were two or more logical options, then the Artifact would make me go for the logical option that benefits it the most."
"Three. It can be a mix of both. Where it can arrange events with little to no conditions, but actions have to be logical."
Astra's eyebrows then pricked up as she thought of a fourth possibility.
"Could it be that it truly is nigh-omnipotent, and it is currently creating these thoughts of mine, trying to misdirect me?"
"Then, it could…" Astra thought, but she stopped herself from thinking lest she be corrupted.
She then glanced at the pale blue ball of light next to her.
"If that thing truly is that powerful, then I'd have to be protected by something similar in power in order to pry into its secrets. Like the Demigoddess' subconscious. Then, I'd also be able to figure out who's using it."
"I just have to enter that space first…"
After this thinking session that only lasted a few seconds, Astra gave another deep breath as she tried to force a smile. She felt like this situation was quite similar to that fated night. She also had a strange feeling that it was so similar, that the existence that watched her was the same existence that pointed towards her.
"This is the world touched by the heavens…" She almost struggled as she muttered under her breath.
"How terrifying."