“Allentown!!!!”  

Dod woke up with a start. Very quickly, he felt a comforting hand on his forehead. He was drawn in, soothed, and like a child; he lay back down and closed his eyes partially. Dod felt a warmth against his neck, just as comforting as the welcoming hands that had embraced him, a human warmth.  

“Stay calm, Dod, you're not fully recovered yet. Don't move, stay lying down.” 

It was vague, but Dod recognized the voice of Princess Evangeline. She was chanting a healing spell that Dod could barely understand or hear. His pupils seemed to be fighting against his eyes, trying desperately to turn them in their bloodshot sockets. From what he could discern, Dod knew at least one thing: he was lying on the ground, his head between the thighs of the princess of the Ordinal continent.  

“There are worse ways to die, I suppose,” he chuckled weakly. 

“Be quiet, will you?” Evangeline snapped irritably.  

“Princess? Where are we?” 

“I thought I told you to be quiet! I need silence.” 

Dod remained silent for a few minutes, giving Evangeline time to enchant her fantasia. He felt a slight shiver run down his spine, relieving some of the immense pain he was feeling at that moment.  

“That's it! I'm done,” she exclaimed in a low voice. “I still advise you not to move too much for now. I'm far from being a healer, but with this, you'll at least be able to stand up.”  

“What happened? Where exactly are we?”  

“Well...” 

*** 

 A few moments before his encounter with the gargoyle, Evangeline had actually cleared the labyrinth just like Danaël. Princess Evangeline arrived in the white room. She had two options:  

OPTION 1: JOIN DANAËL ON FLOOR 27  

OPTION 2: SAVE DOD FROM CERTAIN DEATH AND TAKE SHELTER IN THE SAFE ZONE FOR 1 HOUR  

*** 

"In this situation, it seemed most logical to me to save you. Option 1 gave me no information about Danaël's condition, but at least I know he managed to make it to floor 27. And I needed some rest myself; my fantasia reserves are almost depleted. Which brings me to my next question, Dod: how did you end up in this state? Did you make it down several floors too?"  

“No... not at all,” Dod said, grimacing. “I fought a monster in the maze, a gargoyle.”  

“A GARGOYLE!?” 

“A gargoyle, yes.” 

“And you're not dead???”  

“I definitely feel like it,” Dod boasted painfully.  

Evangeline put her head in her hands and sighed. The “safe zone” was a simple room several kilometers long, filled with greenery. Only one tree stood in its center, and the princess was leaning against it with her legs half bent and to one side, Dod Allentown's head comfortably resting between them.  

“I knew it; it was far too dangerous,” Evangeline muttered. “Introducing you to fantasia this way was far too dangerous!”  

“What are you talking about, princess? My fantastic powers literally saved my life!”  

“They'll end up killing you, Dod!” Exclaimed Evangeline.  

The princess took a deep breath before continuing more calmly:  

“As I told you and Danaël, I am only a novice. I am in no way a good teacher to teach you how to master fantasia. It is an imaginary power, and that is what makes it so dangerous.”  

“What... what do you mean? I don't understand,” asked Dod between two coughs.  

“To defeat that gargoyle, you had to break through the barrier of imagination. When that barrier breaks, it has harmful effects on reality.” 

“Okay,” replied Dod, nodding slightly, "well now I understand even less.  

“Okay, I'll make it simpler for you,” sighed Evangeline, “imagine a line.”  

The princess picked up a twig from the ground and drew a line on the floor.  

“On one side is the real world, which allows me to interact with you, to eat and drink so on and so forth. Then on the other side is the imaginary world, the thoughts you form in your mind, the dreams you have and, above all, what allows you to express your fantasia in the form of enchantments. Are you with me so far?” 

“Yeah, I think so.”  

“Okay, let me continue. Every time you use your fantasia, you create a bridge between these two worlds.” 

The princess drew another line, perpendicular to the previous one, representing the bridge between the imaginary and the real.  

“Since you need action from both worlds to use your fantastic powers, the bridge must form a perfect balance. So, what I meant by breaking the barrier of imagination is that, since you don't know the limits of your own power, that balance is broken and the imaginary spills over into the real world. When that happens, the consequences are felt in the real world, and more specifically in your body."  

“Wow, it would have been nice to know all that when you were teaching us how to use fantasia, dear princess.” 

“I didn't think you'd be able to do it! Breaking the barrier of the imagination is no small feat, even I haven't done it yet, to tell you the truth.”  

“What do you mean, not yet?” 

“Yes, because in theory, every user of fantasia is supposed to break it at least once in their life to better control their power. At least that's what I've heard. Breaking the barrier of the imagination repeatedly, however... leads to a certain death.”  

 Dod stood up abruptly, ignoring his body's cry for help, before turning to Evangeline:  

 “But then, we really have to catch up with Dan before...”  

 “About that, we may have a little problem.”