“I’m an anomaly now,” Elena realized, her eyes steadily monitoring her accusers.

One adventurer made eye contact with her, their trembling hands inching their weapon towards her as if probing for a reaction.

“‘Dream Hunter,’” she thought, her eyes tracing the spear still in her hands. “So that’s what they see when they look at me.”

She flicked her eyes over towards Irin.

“Figures,” she mused. “It all comes down to what we make.”

“What do you have to say for yourself, Dream Hunter?” Waker asked, his deepened voice biting for an explanation.

“That I’m not the ‘Dream Hunter’ you claim I am,” Elena replied plainly.

“Don’t play dumb. You should understand the kind of punishment this warrants.”

“Wait!” Irin shouted, throwing himself between Elena and Waker. He bit down hard and tried to steady his nerves, hoping that nobody could tell that his heart was racing.

“She’s not from these worlds. I met her when she first arrived here. If she was a Dream Hunter or anything like that, I would’ve known—”

“And how so? Can you prove that she’s not one of them? Can you trust that her stories are true?”

Irin took a deep breath.

“I don’t need absolute proof.”

Hearing this, the corner of Elena’s lips curved upwards.

“I know the kind of person she is. Her values, personality— She’s not something we can just file away under a title. She’s… a dreamer. In the truest sense.”

“That’s not a word you can just throw around lightly,” Waker warned. “Irin, I’m only going to ask you once. Please, step aside.”

Irin stood his ground, a defiant glare in his eyes.

“You’ve got a bright future. Don’t throw it away for some Dream Hunter.”

Even still, he didn’t budge.

With a sigh, Waker took a step forward.

“That’s enough.”

Irin turned his head to see Elena still behind him, her arms now crossed.

Steadily, she placed one hand on Irin’s shoulder and pulled him aside, stepping forward in his place.

“‘Dream Hunter’ this, ‘Dream Hunter’ that. What proof do you have for calling me anything at all?”

Irin wanted to warn her—to tell her that talking back right now would be suicide. Waker was not one known to be prideful or vengeful, but even so… Despite all the common sense he had gained throughout his life, he found himself looking into Elena’s eyes and feeling an impossible sense of assuredness.

“Why…? Why isn’t she afraid?”

He asked himself this, but he already knew the answer. From the moment they met, he could already tell that she, an outsider, understood something about this world better than he himself did.

“You’ve brought this upon yourself,” Waker declared, plunging his sword into the floorboards as immense pressure radiated from his body.

The nearby pillars holding up the hall creaked under the strain, and even the adventurers that once stood beside Waker were now struggling not to kneel, their weapons trembling.

Yet, in the face of overwhelming presence, Elena simply stood still, her breath steady—the air bending minimally around her as if unwilling to resist her. There wasn’t a hint of anger nor frustration in that blank, quiet gaze. 

Waker’s eyes briefly widened before he focused himself again, clenching tighter onto his sword. 

Yet, before he could do anything more, a blaring siren roared throughout the Confluence as echoes from all directions converged on the ears within the building.

The pressure vanished instantly, and Elena fleeted from their minds just as quickly.

A frazzled young man flung open one of the doors to the hall, struggling to catch his breath before shouting, “Dream leeches! Two reflector-types! They’ve broken past the gates—!”

No more needed to be said as the adventurers hurriedly fixed their gear and rushed outside. A few of them even found the time to shoot looks as Elena, purposefully bumping into her on their way out.

“We’ll settle this after.”

With that, Waker joined the rest, leaving Elena and Irin alone once more.

Irin had already begun to rush towards the door as well, but Elena suddenly pulled him back.

“The guards from before, their presences are gone.”

“What—?”

“The ones from the gate. I started paying attention when that guy burst in. Also, the disturbance is wrong,” Elena said. “One of them isn’t a reflector.”

“You can sense all that from this far away?”

Elena nodded.

“Alright, let’s go. When the alarm rings, all the adventurers are supposed to—”

“We should be fine with Waker out there now. He should be strong enough to clear them out.”

Irin tensed at the mention of Waker’s name.

“About Waker…”

“You don’t need to defend him. He’s not a bad man. He just doesn’t see beyond the world he’s lived in.”

He hesitated for a moment before continuing towards the door.

“You don’t have to follow me here. You’re not tied to this place. This is a duty I gave myself when I registered to be an adventurer.”

He began to run, but quickly paused, adding, “I’ll see you when this is all over,” before vanishing around the corner.

Now truly alone, Elena looked up at the lofty interior of the hall, taking the time to observe the floating dust illuminated by rays of light that beamed in through the large windows. She sighed and glanced around the empty hall, picturing the furious faces that just recently aimed their fears and concerns at her.

They all had somewhere else to be.

“Hah. Let’s see where this goes then.”

Before Irin had realized it, Elena had fallen in step beside him. 

“So, you’re joining us?” he asked, trying to suppress a smile.

“This place is interesting—far more so than where I came from.”

She said nothing more, but for the both of them, it was enough.

Up ahead, a wall of adventurers had formed a sort of roadblock across the central road, now devoid of pedestrians.

Just beyond them, a pair of dream leeches surged forth, seemingly magnetized towards those adventurers, each carrying one of the axes the guards had once proudly wielded by the gate. A third arm emerged from one of the leeches, leveraging the massive axe.

The other leech slightly lagged behind the other, warping about the width of the street with each movement.

Finally, as they neared the adventurers, the illogical creatures released a bloodcurdling screech similar to the one Elena had heard before.

She tightened her grip on the spear.

At the head of the group, Waker raised his sword, assuming an unfaltering stance to which the others followed suit.

Yet, to Elena, the outline of his form wavered.

“He’s still not in the right state of mind.”

She stepped out of line from Irin, simply stating, “I’m heading to the front.”

“Wait— What?!”

Before he could even try to stop her, three shadows descended from the sky, cloaked in black save for a single emblem depicting a golden, open eye, fastened behind each of their left shoulders.

The air was shifting towards them now.