The boy put his palm on the nozzle and pulled the trigger.
"No way?!", I looked down beside me, at Taeyang's left hand. There was no scar mark there.
Taeyang kept looking at himself.
"I thought about ending it many times, Ray... but I just couldn't."
'Ofcourse, I didn't see any old scars when I healed him. He is the kind of righteous person who wouldn't resort to that.'
Finally, the entire layout of the place turned back to the first scene I saw.
The park. Where Taeyang and Sophie had first met.
"You're right, Ray. I am in my refuge. This is where I look for clues. Clues to tell me where it all went wrong."
"So that is why you have secluded youself here."
"Like a King in an Abandoned Castle", he smiled at me.
They were my words but hearing him speak them broke my heart.
"I found out that she had entered a coma. The doctors predicted that she'll never wake up again..."
"Taeyang..."
"So I built this. To be honest, it's still in its experimental stages, haha..."
His laugh was filled with bittersweet emotions.
This was a huge invention. The ability to tap into the subconscious, a person's dreams.
But...
His whole life of achievements was overshadowed by his loyalty to his lost love.
I had to apologize to him.
My words may have been factually correct but sometimes the truth takes more than two colours to understand.
This curse bound him and shackled him to his past. This curse called love.
However I knew, the reality was that no matter what I said, I couldn't take back my words.
"Taeyang, I..."
Suddenly, the space around us cracked and started collapsing in bits.
I looked at Taeyang. He had frozen in space.
'Lianne what is happening?'
'It's all okay, Ray. Taeyang's device was not compatible with your soulframe. I stabilized the diffusion rate. The new energy flow should allow you to exit this dream.'
[Active Skill: ??? acquired]
"Lianne... did you just... learn a new skill on your own?", I was stunned.
'No...? Can I say no?', she acted shy.
Lianne, when did you become so cheeky?
"So we can exit this space?", I wanted to know what she did.
'Yes, infact I recommend it', Lianne told me.
I walked though a good gap I found in the cracked screens that were acting like walls of this memory simulation.
Soon, I found myself back in the place I started. Except...
"Is that me...?"
I saw my own body, passed out, sitting on the chair. Taeyang was sleeping beside me.
'You're both dreaming right now. Well, atleast Taeyang is.'
Lianne materialized outside. She still looked the same as she did before.
Did the upgrade not change her looks?
"Didn't I just leave? What will he see if I'm not there?"
"If you had exited normally without disturbing the dream world, he would have just continued to dream like he was doing before. However, since our exit was a bit 'unusual', he's been pushed into a deeper NREM sleep", Lianne answered me.
"That doesn't sound good."
"For him, a normal human, time will slow down further but he won't be able to live and experience his dreams, so it's not a problem. However, in your case Ray, your mind will stay intact no matter how deep inside your soulframe you venture."
I remembered the place she was talking about.
"So I am not a normal human?"
"You're a Contender. Your frame is reinforced to protect your mind."
"So all Contenders can do this?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"Will he also be able to do this if he became a contender?"
"Yes, he will be."
This was good to know. The First Task of Destiny had allowed me to recruit Enna in my party but I wasn't actually going to do that.
If party means that I can have her with me while fighting in this crazy game, it basically translated to me having the power to make Enna a contender.
If that is the case, then wanting someone like Taeyang in my party was natural. He was not only smart but I could also help him with his wish to cure Sophie. Being able to enter the dream land would surely help him to understand her condition a lot.
"Can I recruit Taeyang in my party?"
"Yes, you can."
"How do I do that?"
"Have a God sponsor you."
"How do I get a God to sponsor me?"
"By winning their Trial."
What? Then...
"So the Goddess sponsoring me...?"
"Now you know what it means", Lianne drove back my own ignorance deep into me.
"Being chosen as a contender is to be noticed by a God. Since you were already chosen, you didn't need a Sponsor but that is not the case for him."
Lianne looked at Taeyang and said, "He is quite gifted but he still has a long way to go. The machine he's built may have worked during his individual runs but he must have never used it together with another person. If I hadn't solidified the connections when he started the process, an unfortunate accident could have occured."
So I was his companion scapegoat?
"It's... alright, I guess. He didn't have anyone to call a friend before me and he must have been desperate. "
Lianne looked at me.
I scratched my neck.
"Thank you, Lianne."
"You're welcome, Ray."
Silence pursued.
Trying to break the awkward ice, I opened the window curtains and said, "The weather looks nice today. All greyish and...nostalgic..."
"We're at the entry point of the Soulframe Network, Ray."
"Ah, the place where I fought Astracus."
"No, a layer above that. Just below this starts the deep dream space. Up till here, the physical world overlaps with the dream world. That is why you can see your body lying there."
I looked at Taeyang. He was still sleeping beside me.
"Did the other Guardians take away Astracus' body?"
"Yes, they are in charge of maintaining the whole place."
So the ruins from our fight must have also returned to normal.
While talking, I remembered about the absurd thing Taeyang showed me.
"Lianne, what did you find when you saw the tooth?"
"There was a section of her soulframe in there. I performed a quick scan and found multiple energy signatures. Most of them are unknown but I found one match."
This can't be good.
"Give it to me. Who did it? Some CEO, some assassin, some God?"
"One of Deep Hell's most famous contracted killer. He has no name. I found his energy signature on her tooth."
"Lianne, this isn't the time for fairy tales."
"I am serious Ray. There are 3 possibilities of what could have happened to Sophie Turner. One, her soulframe was encroached with a curse by some devil and a further fight with others ensued. Two, a God may have wanted her to ascend but something prevented that. Or, if what I'm suspecting is true, then three. .."
Lianne raised her hand and emitted a holographic red light.
The light showed complex fine particles, rapidly changing structures and below it all, I saw the words written, 'Match confirmed. Datatbase: Heaven's Most Wanted list'.
"Someone stole her soulframe."