The hall, and the rest of reality, disappeared, replaced by a far smaller room made of white marble. There were while columns in every corner, making the place a lot more sophisticated than Dallion’s own awakening room. Frames of skills covered the walls, like paintings. At a glance, Dallion could see that Gloria had gathered a lot more acrobatic skills than him.

A blue rectangle glowed, indicating her level. As expected, she was capped at ten, meaning that no matter what she did, she’d never improve beyond this point. Her skills were no different, all ending at that level.

“Amused?” a copy of Gloria asked.

This caught Dallion off guard. He could see that this wasn’t an echo, which was rather unusual. Last time he had entered someone’s realm, the person in question hadn’t been there. Then again, the person in question was merely a semi-awakened.

“It looks much different from mine,” Dallion said. “More artistic.”

“Of course, you’d say something like that.” Gloria’s lips moved in a semi-smile. “Is there anything I must do, or just wait and watch?”

“Take me to the gate,” Dallion said. “Or rather, take me to where you thought the gate would be.”

Gloria didn’t move. Despite having invited him into her realm, she still felt uncomfortable by the fact.

“I don’t need to see any of the other rooms,” Dallion reassured her. “I just need to see the corridor.”

“This way.” She went towards the nearest entrance.

Dallion followed her into a curved corridor that wrapped around the awakening room like a ring. The layout was nothing like Dallion’s own realm. There was truth to the saying that everyone’s realm was the same, but unique in their own particular way.

“You’re staring at the walls again,” Gloria said.

“It just reminds me of something.”

Dallion only saw two doors along the way—nothing but the basic setup as it were. Gloria still didn’t have the ability to add rooms on her own. It was possible that she hadn’t understood Dallion when he had asked about the gate’s location. A short while later, he saw that he was half right. The place Gloria had led him to was a dead end. If Dallion were to guess, he’d say that the combat arena was located on the other end of the corridor, leading her to expect the gate to be in this one. Interestingly enough, that turned out to be correct. Dallion was able to see the outline of a door, the same way he could see hidden realms. The faint shimmering was a lot fainter, though, and whitish in color.

“Stand back.” Dallion drew his Nox dagger. “I’ll cut through the seal.”

“Wait.” Gloria reached out. “Give me a moment.”

“You want to remain sealed?” Dallion asked.

“I just want to be ready. The last time I went through the gate, I didn’t know what would be on the other side. Now I do and…”

She’s afraid of admitting to a Moon she wants to change her mind, Nil explained to Dallion. Frankly, I don’t think there’s a more appropriate reaction. One shouldn’t be able to unseal a door.

I guess I’m an exception to the rule.

Dear boy, you are a stack of exceptions woven together in one giant impossible rug. I’ve long stopped counting how many statistics you’ve broken.

“Take all the time you need.” Dallion lowered the dagger and waited.

Clusters of fear and regret formed within Gloria, like grapes. Slowly, they faded away, replaced by wonder and hope. Then, she nodded.

“Go ahead.”

Dallion slid his hand along the wall, stopping at the corner of the door outline. There he pressed the tip of the dagger, pressing it inside.

“Nox is quite useful,” Gloria said as she watched Dallion slide the knife down, ripping the wall.

“He’s become a real rascal. All of my familiars are.”

“That’s right, you have more than one. Even Falkner was a bit jealous.”

That’s not what he was really jealous about, Dallion thought.

Bit by bit, the outline of the door was formed. As Dallion moved the knife towards the final connecting point, something made him split into instances. It was a good thing too, for the moment the entire gateway was cleared, a massive mace broke through the stone, crushing two of Dallion’s instances.

“Lux!” Dallion shouted in the remaining instance. Wings of blue flame emerged from his shoulders, propelling him and Gloria away from the opening seconds before the section of the wall was smashed to bits.

“What the hell is that?!” Gloria shouted, summoning her bladebows. Dallion followed suit, summoning his harpsisword.

“I don’t know,” he said, playing a chord of charm focused both at her and himself. “This didn’t happen last time.”

Last time, you didn’t break into the chamber of a Moon, Nil said.

The giant mace pulled back. Through the doorway, a room was visible—the exact same room in which the trial had taken place. From this distance the details were unclear, but Dallion thought he recognized the stone furniture. A tall man in shimmering white armor and an enormous mace calmly stepped out of the chamber and into the corridor.

Seeing the white rectangle was enough to make anyone feel afraid. Dallion had never seen a Moon Echo, he hadn’t even heard the term, but even so he knew perfectly well what it represented. Of course, it was naïve to expect that breaking a gate would be as easy as a simple unsealing. The Moons had created all the rules in order to maintain some sort of balance in the world. Of course, they would step in if someone abused it. If not, the Star would have ruled freely over the world by now.

Taking a few steps forward, the echo looked at Dallion, then at Gloria.

“It’s not here to punish us,” Dallion said. “It’s only here as part of the trial. Since you refused before, now you must prove your resolve.”

“And you’re here to help me,” Gloria said. “Just like in the good old days.”

It was funny how a year’s time was referred to as the “good old days,” but Dallion got the point. Back then, Gloria had asked him to help her level up by joining forces against a sandstorm dragon. Now it was no different.

“Don’t worry, it’s probably level fifteen at most,” Dallion said. “We’ll take care of it.”

“I’m just a level ten,” Gloria replied.

“Lux, onto her.”

The blue flames jumped from Dallion to Gloria.

“Now you’re more than level ten,” Dallion winked. “Now, let’s get you unsealed.”