In the snowy parks that surrounded the white building, other Awakened were leading their own batches of Sleepers to the sa destination.
Hundreds of kids, all quiet, all pale, all walking toward the unknown.
It was the Academy's dical center.
The last stop before the Dream Realm.
The center looked more like a shrine than a hospital.
Its interior contained both highly advanced technology as well as so of the best Healers among the Awakened.
For the duration of their first journey into the Dream Realm, the bodies of Sleepers would be kept safe in specially designed pods and sustained by the magical powers of those Healers if anything unfortunate were to happen on the other side of the Spell.
Of course, whether or not they would wake up in the end depended wholly on the Sleepers themselves.
To Sunny's surprise, after entering the dical center, Instructor Rock did not take them directly to the wing containing the Sleeper pods.
Instead, he led them to a comparatively deserted floor and then opened the doors to a spacious gallery that was brightly illuminated by the beautiful crimson rays of the setting sun.
There, they saw rows and rows of wheelchairs stretching into the distance.
In each wheelchair, there was a person with a blank, strangely peaceful expression on their face.
All these people were completely silent, motionless, and still.
They did not show any reaction to the appearance of guests.
They all seed to be… empty.
In the eerie silence, Sunny felt his hair stand up and a creeping terror seep deep into his heart.
Instructor Rock looked at the empty people with solemn eyes.
"There is a reason I brought you all here."
"Look well and rember."
"So of you may know who these people are… for those of you who don't, they are called Hollow."
He gritted his teeth, his jaw tight with old anger.
"Each one of them was once either a Sleeper or an Awakened."
"So of them were weak, so of them were strong."
"So were even incredibly powerful."
"All of them have perished in the Dream Realm."
'Their… their souls are gone,' Sunny realized, horrified.
'If you're lucky, once your spirit is destroyed, your body dies with it.'
'But if not, you'll beco just like them.'
'Hollow.'
Instructor Rock glanced in the direction where Caster, Elysia, Aurelia, Nephis, and Senrix stood, and then added:
"So don't die out there."
Half an hour later, the Sleepers had been led to their personal rooms and were preparing to enter the pods.
In one of the rooms, Rembrance Cassia was helplessly trying to orient herself in the unfamiliar space, touching the walls and strange pieces of machinery with her hands.
Tears were streaming down her beautiful, doll-like face.
She rembered the words of her only friend, Elysia.
"Don't worry! This young and beautiful lady will make sure to co and save you in the Dream Realm!"
They had both laughed at that, but they knew the truth.
Cassia had more chances of dying than surviving.
Then she heard the words that made her heart sink:
[Welco to the Dream Realm, Cassia!]
In another room, Clockwork Caster was staring listlessly at the floor.
His lips were moving, repeating one strange phrase over and over again.
He was trembling.
"I can do this. If Father and Mother were able to do this, so can I."
As soon as he said that, he stepped into the pod and heard the words that might be the last ones he would hear on Earth.
[Welco to the Dream Realm, Caster!]
Sowhere else, Light Bringer Nephis, Changing Star, was looking down at her hands.
Underneath her skin, soft white radiance was slowly growing brighter and brighter.
Her face was contorted in a grimace of harrowing agony as she forced the flas down.
She stepped forward and climbed into the pod.
The last words that she heard as she fell into slumber were:
[Welco to the Dream Realm, Nephis!]
There was a room where Shadow of Mysteries Sunless, Solace of Stars, turned away from the sleeping pod and glanced down at his shadow.
"Well? Are you ready?"
The shadow shrugged and didn't answer.
Sunny sighed.
"Yeah, too."
With that, he stepped forward and climbed into the pod.
In the vast, echoing darkness, he heard:
[Welco to the Dream Realm, Sunless!]
Next to Caster's room, Scourge Bringer Senrix, Avatar of Apocalypse, looked at the environnt outside the window and sighed to himself.
"Mont of truth."
As he said that, he stepped towards the pod and entered it, and then heard the chanical voice of the Spell.
[Welco to the Dream Realm, Senrix!]
In another room decorated fully in pink, Humanity Elysia, Everlasting Love, looked at the painting she had drawn of her past life.
There were exactly fourteen people in the painting.
A female with green hair and snake-like eyes.
A little girl with light blue hair being lifted up by a taller boy who had ssy dark blue-grey hair and golden eyes.
Then there was a small woman with light brown hair being held by the nape by a man wearing a featureless black and yellow mask and with a muscular build.
On the man's right was a pink-haired woman who didn't seem to express much emotion.
Then a woman in a steampunk outfit was being chased by a black-haired woman in a tight combat outfit.
A scholar with long hair.
On the scholar's left was a woman who seed to be a nun, and an elegant woman.
Then at the front were three people.
On the left was a young-looking girl with pointed elf-like ears and light pink hair tied in a long ponytail.
On the right was a tall man with spiky silver-white hair and icy blue eyes. He wore a cold, stoic expression.
At the center was a young woman with long dark purple hair and indigo-colored eyes.
"I miss you all... hey, Kalpas, do you know that soone in this new universe looks exactly like you? Crazy, right?" Elysia reminisced with a nostalgic look in her eyes.
She knew how she died in both the living world and the digital world, and she was happy that she had managed to help the next era win the war against the Honkai once and for all.
"I will not be the woman from my last life who was always being pampered by you guys."
"This ti I will be protecting humanity with all of my heart once again."
She walked towards the pod and climbed inside, hearing the voice of the Nightmare Spell.
The voice seed sad and heavy, as if it already knew what was about to happen to the woman.
After all, the Spell did not have any power against fate, and fate demanded that the Spell send her to that harrowing place.
[Welco to the Dream Realm, Elysia...]
A/N: I spent more effort on writing and fleshing out Elysia's character, a side character, than the main character, Senrix
Well Senrix did nothing of worthy to write in his ti in the academy anyways, maybe except the fact that the arena of the combat class was practically useless in a whole week.
Plus forgotten shore will be where many changes happen, like Elysia and Senrix confronting the [blank] [blank] with just the two of them
Cassie's vision about the siege of crimson spire which will differ so much from the original.
Harus being part of the [blank] [blank] and is actually the [blank] [blank] most prominent [blank]
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