The space was unnaturally straight, with there only being one direction forward. They saw black roots had invaded here too, with them growing along the wall, wrapping around the pillars that spread across and coiling through the ceiling.

But they didn't block the path and simply created an archway of glowing golden-veined wood that drew the eye forward.

They continued forward and picked up speed as they were extremely close to Martha.

But then Phantasm Beasts emerged from side passages they hadn't noticed, which were gaps in the walls where roots had torn through. A Bumbodusk charged from the left, with two Autumn Deer leaping from the right, and even behind them, they could hear the sound of Phantasm Beasts coming.

"Keep going!" Joseph's shout as his grey lance appeared, spinning in his grip. "We'll handle them!"

Reinhard glanced back to see Joseph plant his feet, facing the charging Bumbodusk. Wind began gathering around him, visible as swirling currents that pulled at his clothes.

Then a Bear-Terror crashed through a wall ahead. Debris exploded outward as it forced its bulk through cobblestone, and its golden eyes fixed on the running group.

Roana's hands swept forward, and a wall of ice quickly formed between the bear and the group. The beast crashed into it with a crashing noise, leading to cracks forming on the ice, but it still held as Roana glanced at them.

"Go!" Roana's golden eyes met Reinhard's for a brief moment. "Don't stop!"

She turned as hands were already moving in new patterns as more ice formed to reinforce the wall.

Reinhard, Marie, Scath, and Nikki kept running, with the corridor seeming endless despite being only a hundred yards. Each second stretched as more sounds of combat erupted behind them.

But then three Cheronos dropped from the ceiling vents ahead. They landed in the corridor, blocking the path with lean bodies and extended claws.

Scath laughed as her spear transformed, becoming three separate blades that all connected to her hands by threads of energy. She threw them forward, and the blades spun through the air, each one finding a different Cheronos.

They struck chest, throat, and skull simultaneously, piercing through the Cheronos as blood splashed out.

Then the beasts fell down.

Scath ran past the beast as she quickly rejoined them, and her weapons dissolved and reformed as a single spear in her grip.

Then, more roots emerged ahead, which began moving like serpents. They lashed out from the walls and ceiling, trying to entangle the runners.

Nikki's flames erupted as she swept her arms in wide arcs, creating waves of fire that burned through the grasping roots.

The wood crackled and hissed, pulling back from the heat, but then more Phantasm Beasts poured into the corridor behind them.

A pack of Werefangs alongside multiple Bumbodusk, and then something larger that Reinhard couldn't identify in the shadows.

"Nikki!" Scath's voice rang out. "With me!"

Both women stopped running before they turned to face the pursuing horde, weapons manifesting, flames igniting.

"Reinhard!" Nikki shouted without looking back. "Keep going! We've got this!"

Scath grinned, her wine-colored eyes blazing with battle lust. "Don't make us wait too long!"

Reinhard and Marie kept running.

Just the two of them now, boots slamming into the stone as they further pushed themselves. But then they saw it, the doorway at the corridor's end growing closer, and it was only ten yards away from them now.

Then more roots burst from the walls ahead, quickly forming a barrier of black wood across the doorway.

Marie Longinus appeared in her hands, and the crimson-gold began to shine with a terrifying light as she continued rushing forward.

Marie then pulled her spear back before she hurled it forward with all of her strength. The spear blasted forward, and a pillar of golden-white light erupted from the spear's tip, condensing into a beam that struck the root barrier dead center.

Wood exploded outward, fragments scattering as a hole opened large enough to run through.

They burst through together.

The chamber beyond opened dramatically, with the ceiling stretched fifty feet overhead. Thick pillars supported that ceiling, each one carved with symbols that caught the sparse lamplight and threw it back in strange patterns that seemed to move.

The floor was smooth stone, and everywhere were black roots that covered every surface, wrapped around every pillar, spreading across the floor and ceiling. Behind them, sounds of combat filled the corridor, and then a massive impact shook the walls.

Something large, hitting the root barrier Marie had broken through with roars and shrieks.

"Reinhard!" Marie's voice carried urgency and something else. "Go! Find Martha!"

She turned to face the doorway, Longinus held in both hands, light already gathering along its length.

"Marie-"

"I know!" Marie glanced back at him, platinum hair swaying with the motion. Her light-gold eyes met his blue eyes, and a determined smile appeared on her face. "Do what you think is right! All of us will support your action!"

Three Werefangs burst through the doorway, but Marie's spear thrust forward and pierced through all three of them in one hurl.

Reinhard's fist clenched as he gritted his teeth before nodding and then rushing ahead.

He quickly crossed the chamber before moving onto the platform with stairs leading up. That was where he saw the thickest roots were moving towards something at the platform's center.

And then the platform's top revealed everything.

The massive root that they'd slid down, the one that had torn through every floor above, had originated here.

Its base was enormous, easily sixty feet in diameter, rising from the platform's center like a pillar holding up the world.

Smaller roots spread outward from that base, there were dozens of them, each one wrapped around something.

They had formed cocoons that hung in the air, suspended by the roots themselves, or lay against the platform's surface.

Reinhard's eyes widened as realization struck, the cocoons were formed around bodies.

He could see the white floats stained with blood, the torn guard uniform, and the shredded worker clothing through gaps in the root wrapping. They were the Mehko researchers, the guards, and the workers.

Everyone, Martha had killed with her Circle ability.

The roots had wrapped them all and encased them while glowing faintly with sickly light. But at the center, lodged into the front of the massive root's base, one cocoon shone differently.

It shone so bright that it hurt to look at it directly. From that cocoon, streams of golden energy rushed upward along the massive root's surface, feeding into whatever lay at the top in the closed flower.

Reinhard's breath caught. That's where Martha is.

Then the dot above his Beast Symbol flared before a streak of black materialized into Mimir, the crow settling with familiar weight.

"There." Mimir's voice carried certainty as its head turned toward the golden cocoon. "That's the node and the center of everything."

Reinhard rushed toward the base of the massive root.

"Wait." Mimir's voice stopped him. "You need to understand what you're walking into."

Reinhard paused before glancing at Mimir.

"When you touch that cocoon, you'll be pulled into her fantasy. Into the dream she's created for herself." Mimir's golden horns caught the shining light. "Whatever she's built in there, it's her perfect world. Her escape from reality and her refuge from the truth."

"How do I wake her up?" Reinhard's question came quietly but urgently.

"Break the fantasy." Mimir's black feathers ruffled. "Show her it's not real, make her remember, and then make her choose reality over the dream… No matter how painful that choice is."

Behind them, another flash of golden light blazed. Marie's voice rang out with laughter while more Phantasm Beasts foot steps could be heard.

"And if she won't wake up?" Reinhard had to ask.

Mimir was silent for a second before saying. "Then you do what you must to stop Fenrir and to protect your friends."

Reinhard frowned before he quickly crossed the remaining distance to the massive root's base. The golden cocoon hung before him, and up close, he could see more detail.

The way the roots wrapped around something human-shaped within, the way golden energy gathered at the cocoon's surface before rushing upward.

Reinhard's hand extended and his fingers spread wide as they approached the cocoon's surface.

The roots responded before smaller tendrils began unwrapping themselves from the massive base.

They rushed out towards him and then reached him.

"Remember!" Mimir's voice carried urgency. "Whatever you see in there, it's what she wants to believe. Not what is, so don't lose yourself in her dream!"

The reaching roots wrapped around Reinhard's extended arm before more came and began wrapping around his arms, torso, and legs.

They pulled him closer to the golden cocoon, lifting him from the platform's surface.

They then moved his body to touch the cocoon, and then golden light exploded outward.

It consumed everything!

His vision, his senses, his awareness of the chamber and the battle and the roots. The last thing he saw was the light intensifying until it became everything.

Then he fell into Martha's dream.

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