It felt illusory, but it also seemed so real.
It was as if a thunderbolt had struck something that had wanted to fracture.
Astra froze as her heart sank. Chills ran through her body, and it felt as if an imaginary power had coursed through her veins.
Her skin began to turn pale as strange, purple-like veins began to appear all over her body. Her eyes were fading into white, appearing as if they belonged to a ghost.
"Huff…puff…" Her breathing got a lot heavier as her body convulsed. Her panting sounded as if she was going through a panic attack. All she could've thought about was the words that Loken had cryptically given her:
"If something goes wrong due to your abnormality, do not panic."
Because of this, she tried her best to compose herself. But it was in vain.
Not even a second later, her skin began to glow a faint blue light as glass-like fragments started to appear on her skin. Her eyes were narrowed and her teeth were slightly grimaced, as if she was stopping herself from screaming.
She later completely fell on the ground to her side, covering her mouth with her glowing hands.
"Call an emergency response team. Now!" Not wasting any time, James hurriedly pointed towards Sonar and ordered him. He later used the fog to 'grab' the Orb of Consciousness and quickly placed it on the pillar of light that held the other two orbs.
"Yes!" Immediately, Sonar snapped his wrist back and a blue holographic screen appeared in the palm of his hand. With a thought, he maneuvered the interface to immediate emergency services that dealt with soon-to-be mutations. He rushed towards the elevator, his mind filled with images of the chaos that would ensue from a mutation at the facility.
Using the powers of a Vanguard, James isolated Sonar and turned the entire room into a dream-like space using a faint gray fog.
This dream-like space looked like the halls of a library that were lined up with shelves on each side.
Innumerable books were on the shelves, each containing historical knowledge, memories, feelings, and all sorts of things related to James' inner mind.
This was his subconscious, and he had imparted it onto reality. He had done this to make it easier to enter the very depths of Astra's subconscious, and to expel the fragment of Ethereon that was causing the mutation.
In front of James was the glowing, pale Astra, who was still lying on her side—her hands covering her grimacing mouth.
Instantly, James' red eyes glowed a soft violet light as his gaze centered towards Astra.
Immediately, the surrounding area had warped. It was as if the entire hall was dipped underwater.
Suddenly, it began to close in on itself. The floor, the bookshelves, the ceiling, the hallway—all of it began to warp and collapse towards a single point.
This 'single point' happened to be in the center of Astra Sera's brain.
Wait, this wasn't supposed to happen…
Something had gone wrong…
Again!
"What-" Before James could even react, he too felt himself being pulled towards this point that wasn't supposed to be there. His face showed a shock that he hadn't experienced in years.
Naturally, he didn't expect to be involuntarily and rapidly pulled towards Astra—no, this error!
Because of this, he instinctively closed his eyes as his body collapsed to a single point and trailed towards the center of Astra's brain!
…
…
…
Dressed in a black trench coat and wearing glasses that could be considered fashionable, James slowly opened his crimson eyes as he pinched his forehead.
His mind felt like mush and his body felt as if it was suspended in space.
"What just happened…? Where is Dreamer Sera…" James said to himself as he tried to recollect the past events.
At the same time, his eyes had opened fully and his vision was beginning to clear up.
Then, he saw that he had found himself in a great nebulae that contained an abundant amount of stars.
The nebula looked like it came from out of a marvelous oil painting—its scenes looking like the boundless stretch of the Milky Way. Iridescent colors spilled out of the darkness, illuminating what appeared to be the vacuum of space.
Countless stars of varying colors—red, blue, orange, yellow, purple, shimmered greatly. They looked like little spots of light, each having their own sizes. The entire space made James feel as if he was in the center of the galaxy.
He almost couldn't believe what he saw. His eyes widened greatly as he scanned the environment in front of him, his body floating in what seemed to be outer space.
"Is this her subconscious…?" James muttered, his voice expressing his disbelief.
"It makes sense why she chose the night sky." He continued as he curiously turned his head around to examine the rest of the space.
He did this so he could find Astra. He needed to fix her situation fast, after all. Every second counted.
Not being able to find Astra in front of him, he decided to turn his entire body around, finally gazing at what was behind him.
When he did that, he saw something completely different from the scene he was exposed to originally.
He saw a great, blinding white light that looked as if it stretched infinitely throughout the space.
There was a blurry boundary that separated this white light and the area that resembled outer space.
Near this boundary was a silhouette. Above the figure were seven circles, each the size of the humanoid creature below them.
This entire scene was completely blurry—James could not have properly seen the details of the figure or the circles.
"That must be Dreamer Sera…!" Immediately, James flew towards the figure, confident that he had found Astra.
As he flew closer, his speed accelerating, he noticed something strange. Everything was still blurry!
No matter how close he got, the clarity of the circles and the figure never improved!
"Huh? Is this something I shouldn't see?" James asked himself a reasonable question as he completely stopped his tracks.
"But how can someone like her have something like that residing in her subconscious…" The moment James had finished this statement, he had noticed something even stranger.
One of the circles—no, the first hovering circle, had looked fractured!
Not only that, a strange, indescribable liquid was pouring out of it like a bucket! It trickled down like a waterfall to infinite depths!
This peculiar liquid also looked faded. Not only was it faded, it appeared like it was glitching—like something wanted to come out of it!
A terrifying chill ran down James' spine. His entire body was signaling to him that this is something that he cannot see or know in any circumstance!
Right when he exerted all of his strength to turn his head back and fly away, he saw the blurry figure under the circles begin to move.
Again, he exerted all of his strength to turn his head back, but he couldn't.
It was as if he was frozen in time.
"Shit!" He cursed himself as he could only bear witness to the figure turning around.
As it turned around, the blur that coated the figure was rapidly being removed like a towel that had suddenly dropped from a person's body after a shower.
Thus, one could now see its features properly. It was a humanoid figure that was bathed in a majestic, glowing blue light. It had silvered, wavy hair that cascaded down to the middle of its back.
It then completely turned around, leaving James in complete awe of what he saw.
The humanoid figure was a bewitching, glamorous woman that looked as if she came from the heavens. Her entire body—including her robe—was glowing with a faint blue and white light.
Her figure looked abstract, as if it was carved from the mysteries of the cosmos itself. Her hair spiraled in soft braids and tousled strands that danced like the arms of a galaxy—some of those strands draping over her shoulders.
Her eyes were not visible. So, like a curtain, her wavy hair had parted to cover up the area of where her right eye should have been.
She had something on her lips that appeared to be pale blue and violet lipstick.
In an instant, her ethereal lips had curled into a teasing smirk.
"Heh." A female voice that came from an infinite distance away had resounded throughout the entire space.
It had shook the entire area—the stars, the nebulae, even the darkness in between.
All of it vibrated, causing terrifying tremors. Every point of 'matter': stars, nebulae, dust, light, even James himself, were beginning to coalesce and collapse into a single, infinitesimal point.
These sequences of events had happened so fast that James didn't even realize that he had collapsed into a single point of matter once more.
Boom! Crack!
A booming force, followed by a sound that resembled many windows being destroyed had erupted throughout the room housing Sonar and the helpless Astra.
"Gah!" Returning to the real world, James had let out a yelp of pain as he flew through the air.
Thud!
He tumbled and rolled several meters away, finally landing at the walls of the room that showed a glamorous, plentiful night sky.
By the elevator, Sonar had instinctively covered his ears due to the loud, booming noise that had invaded his head. As he hunched back slightly, he grimaced in discomfort. This interrupted his attempt to call for the emergency services that would prevent a mutation.
"Ugh…" He let out a noise of annoyance and confusion. "What the hell just happened!?" He shouted as he slowly opened his eyes, his back finally straightening.
He immediately scanned the room. The first person he locked his eyes on was Astra.
She was now lying on her back, her blonde hair covering half of her face. Her skin was now back to its normal color. The faint glow and the violet streaks that resembled lightning finally disappeared. The uncovered part of her face, her left side, had dawned a half closed golden eye that stared up at the ceiling.
However, something was off—her golden eyes looked dead. They had completely lost its luster, giving off a slightly darkish yellow.
Sonar didn't hesitate to rush towards Astra. Standing above her, his violet eyes glowed as he used extra-sensory powers that came from the Dreamscape domain to accurately read any signs of life.
"She's still alive…phew…" He let out a subtle breath of relief as the purple in his eyes got fainter.
"The signs of a mutation are gone. That's a good thing. Though, what was the cause of that sound? That obviously wasn't normal…" Turning his head, he locked eyes with James, who was now walking towards himself and Astra.
James' eyebrows were creased, and his mouth was slightly open. He held his forehead gently and painfully, as if he had a scorching fever. His body was trembling, despite him trying his best to mask his fear.
"You're right. It wasn't normal." He said, his voice fluctuating despite it being almost as low as a whisper. "Is Dreamer Sera okay?"
"Yes." Sonar acknowledged quickly. "What happened?" He immediately asked while raising an eyebrow.
"I don't know. I just know that there is something inside of her that is completely abnormal. It prevented me from truly going inside the depths of her subconscious."
"It could also be the reason why she failed the ritual." James sighed as he stopped mere meters away from where Sonar stood, the pillar of light adding on to the extra illumination from the background.
"…" Sonar was speechless, and his confused expression never left his face.
"No wonder the ritual failed like that! Could that be the reason why she's a Protector…? That there's something so dangerous inside of her that even Captain can't describe it…"
"Then why is she with us and not in some other facility…" Sonar couldn't help but think to himself as he nervously casted his gaze downwards.
Astra's half closed eye still stared at the ceiling. It didn't even blink once.
Almost ignoring this, James did the same, adding, "I saw something I shouldn't have seen. Right now, I'm trying my best to not even think about it. I even erased some parts of my memory."
"Still, I don't know why the Dominion placed her into our group knowing something like this was in her subconscious. At least we can say that the artifact wasn't a trap…"
Sonar creased his eyebrows, his face now showing an emotion mixed with worry and confusion.
"What do we do now, Captain?"
James paused. Inwardly, he thought:
"The reason why she failed, and the reason why she had that reaction was clearly because of that entity that resides in her subconscious. I don't even want to think about it, since I narrowly survived…"
"This is well above my pay grade. If an investigation is done, it has to be done under the supervision of a group of Rank 2 Dreamweavers at least. Maybe even a Minister."
"No. The Dominion definitely knows about this. Otherwise, she wouldn't be a Protector. Going forward with an investigation is meaningless."
"I don't think there are any records of a ritual failing like this. Though…it almost seems like those higher ups at the Dominion knew that this was going to happen."
"They must have expectations from our group…and specifically from this abnormality within her."
After a few seconds, James gave a soft sigh.
"There's not much we can do. I don't think much can be achieved through investigative means."
"We'll try the ritual again, but it'll be supervised by a more experienced Celestial. I think it's obvious that the Dominion really wants her to become one, so I don't think we would have to go through a lot to bring one in."
Sonar lifted his head up slightly to watch the dreamy night sky scenery, his expression laced with doubt and worry.
"Isn't that risky? Usually if a ritual fails once, it's extremely likely it'll fail again. Even under the best conditions."
James tersely acknowledged.
"Yes, but Dreamer Sera is far from the usual case. Not only that, the presence of an experienced Celestial drastically increases the chances."
After James said that, a short silence that was only threatened by the silent residual hum of the room ensued.
Sonar gave an extremely quiet sigh as he nodded in James' direction. He couldn't argue with James' logic, especially since he also recognized the Dominion of Dream's intentions.
"Huh…" Suddenly, a rather quiet hum pierced through the silence and residual hum. It came from downwards, and sounded like a human's breath.
Sonar and James looked downwards and they saw Astra's golden eye regain its luster. This eye had widened, and her mouth was open.
"I failed…" They had heard those words leave Astra's mouth.
"Are you okay, Dreamer Sera?" James asked, his eyes showing no discernible emotion.
"I don't know…my mind and body feels weird and slow, like…like I'm in a sea of honey. I feel like I woke up from a terrible dream…" Astra's eyes narrowed once more as her blinks became slower.
"Are you aware of what happened?" James asked again.
"No. I'm not. My memory turned to black as soon as I fell down to my side. I assumed something bad happened…yeah. Did it?" Astra asked.
"In a way, yes. You weren't wrong about the abnormality. I can say that probably caused you to fail the ritual."
"We can always try again later, but under the supervision of a more powerful Celestial." James spoke bluntly.
Astra continued to stare at the ceiling with a tired expression. Regaining her strength, she asked:
"Harnessing Ethereon is about self-awareness, right?"
James nodded.
"Then, could it be possible that the abnormality inside of me reacted that way because I don't properly understand myself?" Astra asked, as if the thought was always in her head.
James and Sonar's eyes both widened, as if they never considered that possibility.
They both looked at each other, and after a second, they looked downwards.
"Yes, that's completely possible." James had said after contemplating.
"Miss Astra," Sonar suddenly interjected, his still eyes showing traces of worry. "You're saying that you failed because you think you don't have the self-awareness necessary for the ritual?"
Astra gave a faint smile as she chuckled.
"Heh. I guess so. There's a lot of things I don't understand about myself."
"I don't understand the things I see, the things I do, the things that I feel—especially for those who I care about."
"I wanted to gain knowledge to truly get a grasp of that understanding. But most importantly, I wanted to find a connection through that understanding—a connection I couldn't have gotten anywhere else." Astra's half closed eye stopped watching the ceiling and they gravitated towards the walls that had scenes of the night sky.
"And now, this was the closest I've ever been." Astra gave a self deprecating chuckle. "Hehe, but sadly, I haven't felt further."
James and Sonar kept looking at Astra.
"So, you wanted to become a Celestial to have an opportunity to gain an understanding of yourself and of others?" Sonar asked.
"Sort of." Astra sat up slowly, her arm resting on her knee that was raised up. Her face wasn't half covered by her hair anymore, so she kept looking at the night sky. "Anyway, I failed."
"I don't care if you guys start an investigation. It's not going to solve anything if even someone like me isn't able to figure it out."
"We won't start an investigation." James replied matter-of-factly.
"I see."
"Is there anything else that you have to tell me?" Astra asked, her tone as dry as the cold desert on a stormy night.