"FOR GOD'S SAKE!!" Cam mutters furiously since he wakes up in a different place, again.
His body lying down on the darkened moldy floor, making him breathe hardly due to the unpleasant humidity. Cam slowly opened his eyes due to the former coincidence. The antique mirror he used to examine scattered all over his body. Luckily, he did not get any wounds from it.
He stood up and looked around, knowing that he was in the new scene of the dream which was a deserted village. Every single wooden house was abandoned. The floor among these houses was dilapidated as if an enormous disaster had recently occurred. The maroon sky was shrouded by the dark nimbostratus clouds, making the place look like it's sealed with a deadly curse.
Cam had never felt as exhausted as this moment before in his life. He tried to close his eyes, thinking about the woozy reflection in order to come back to the real world. Immediately, he felt drowsy as if he's going to fall asleep in no time.
..
"Huh?" Cam furrowed his eyebrows due to the unexplainable situation.
Instead of waking up into the real world, Cam is still in the mysterious house. That's when he knows exactly that his situation is getting worse since he can't go back to the real world.
'Maybe I have to try this again when the REM cycle is done? But I can't feel the rhythm of my body at the moment. How am I supposed to know when I should try that again?'
He decided to walk out of the old house he woke up in, wandering over the place to find the key to awake to the real world.
The surroundings here were like…there was an enigmatic force that interacted with him in a weird way. The more he stepped forward on the road, the more he got palpitations. The atmosphere around him is deadly quiet. The dim light from the light pole beside the road kept flickering as if it's going to break somehow.
After wandering for a while, Cam saw the ancient castle full of red rotted vine, or was it a blood vessel vine exactly? At first, he decided not to go in there because he didn't want to deal with more coincidences. In a trice, his previous thought disappeared as if there was something distorting Cam, or maybe it's someone?
As Cam attempted to discover the castle, he opened the door, causing a squeaky sound from the door echoing inside the castle. He immediately felt the creep. The inside castle was like an empty room. There's nothing else except the dust and webs. Even the second, third, and fourth floors were still nothing but empty halls. Nothing seems quite interesting to him.
Just at the moment Cam came out to the first floor, there was a bizarre enormous trap door that closed right behind the exit door of the castle. He then used all his strength to open it without any hesitation.
The moment that trap door is opened, the inside it's like a swirling endless black hole. Cam suddenly heard the incomprehensible voice in his head, making him slightly lose his self-control.
While Cam attempted to calm his mind down in order to get rid of his uncanny state, his foot was involuntarily stepping forward to the trap door, knowing that he couldn't control his body anymore.
Cam let everything go, waiting for the next chapter of life to happen with a feeling of worldweary, no longer wanting to live his life anymore.
…
As Cam opened his eyes, in the dark surroundings that make Cam feel like he's living in the realm of his thought, he heard the sound of someone familiar from before, yet still couldn't remember, moving toward him.
"Cameron!?" She gasped heavily, then added, "W…why are you even here?"
The sound of the similar woman drifted from his back. She dressed up in a plain dress, wearing no shoes, her left iris is gray, the other is dark. As Cam turned around, her face was full of shock.
'Is she the one who…w….wait.'
As he recognized that woman, he eagerly shouted.
"LUNAR?"
Lunar sighed desperately as if the whole world were falling apart.
"Cam…you are not supposed to be here for any reason in the damn world."
"Well, that doesn't mean you're supposed to be here either."
"I did not intend to be here. I tried controlling the dream for a pleasure of mine, the next thing I know, I can't get back to the real world since then."
"LIAR!! You came into my dream 7 months ago and said that you tried to find an endless way to disappear from the world, didn't you?"
"Why are you so sure about that dream? Aren't you aware that it's just a normal dream?"
"I…I'm not that naive. I know what it's like between a normal dream and a strange one."
"Well, if you say so, I'm not going to argue with that. I just want to let you know that I never try to get into your dream or whatever. Why do I need to drag you into this cruel situation? The friendship is worth more than that."
"It sounds like you need a little bit of help from me in that dream."
"I swear to God that's NOT me."
Cam's body suddenly became shaken, his heart beating rapidly as if it's going to fall out of his soul.
'Then what was that dream about?'
"I don't want to say this, but maybe you've been lured here for some reason. For your information, this is not a normal dream. I don't know if you have tried it, but you can't go back to the real world because you're now in the next phase of the dream dimension.
Cam immediately has mixed feelings, not only hearing the fact that he's not going to come back to the real world soon, but also the overwhelming information about the new world that is too unbelievable to be true.
'Dimensions? What's that even mean??'
"I don't exactly know much about this world. So far, I have only known that this world is divided into many dimensions. In each dimension, it literally looks like the normal world. Well, not exactly normal. I mean, there are many arcanists existing there. And you can even travel from one dimension to another, if you know how to.
"So, there is some kinda strange power existing in this world, isn't there?"
"Indeed, in this world, you can obtain those powers through various ways, but the only way I know is by doing a specific ritual. This is how I got my power.
Lunar added, "But just ignore these things first. What's more important at the moment is that…there is something called 'Loops' which is a situation where you discover something weirdly unexplainable in your dream that you controlled, and you are lured to the next phase of the dream, so you are trapped in the Loops. You have to get over that variant in order to get out of the Loops so you can go back to the real world"
Cam slowly shaken his head.
'What the hell is she talking about? This is nonsense as hell!'
Lunar sighed, "Do you remember anything about that dream before appearing in this place?"
Cam eagerly nodded his head. "I saw an antique mirror in the forest scene, after I touched it, I was moved to the village scene, then I'm here after I opened the trap door in the castle."
"That trap door is mine. I'm trying to learn and practice my power by using the trap door as a trap. I don't know that you're going to be this dull seeing that you attempt to try everything you see."
Cam furiously rolled his eyes.
'damn…you don't have to be this sarcastic.'
Lunar continually said, "The point is I have to get you out of the Loops before it's triggered again."
"What's going to happen if the Loops are triggered?"
"In the Loops, there's a Loops' sequence. If the Loops is triggered, you will fall into the deeper loop, making it harder to find the way out of the Loops. Plus, your soul will gradually leave your body in the real world. If you can't find the way out of the Loops, I think you know what will happen next."
Lunar added, "But seeing through my power, your situation is worse than that. This is the last sequence of the Loops, if it's triggered, every single of your attempts to go back to the real world would be nullified. The Realm of Immersions that you used to travel will be reverse to the origin of emptiness, resulting in the absence of your body in the real world, also, your soul would be incarcerated here."
"Realm of Immersions? Sounds like a place where my dream occurs, doesn't it?"
"To be correct, it's a dimension where you are in while you're controlling the dream, which is a lot more different than a normal dream that occurs during sleep. If your Realm of Immersions is destroyed, there will be no place for your soul to come back to the real world."
Cam furrowed his eyebrows, thought to himself.
'I don't get why controlling the dream makes the soul leave the body, moving across to this world. Is our earth related to this world somehow? '
As Cam finished his thought, he inquired for more information.
"Is this the reason you can't come back to the real world? Have your Realm of Immersions been destroyed already?"
"Indeed, It's been destroyed a long time ago. That's why I have to live in this world instead. Fortunately, I have a way of attaining power, and creating a new body form for my soul to live in this world. Yet still can't go back to the real world due to the absence of my real body."
Lunar suddenly turned gloomy, not long after, she said, "It's quite difficult for you to find and solve this mystery to go back. Plus, you will never know how long it takes to find that variant. So there is only one way in my mind to get you out of the Loops as soon as possible."
Lunar paused, then added, "I have to use my power to open the dimension gate back to your Realm of Immersions"
Cam frowned curiously about what Lunar said, but instead, he chose to ask other questions that troubled him more.
"Then why don't you use your so-called power to bring your soul back before your body is gone?"
Lunar turned her back, "I got my power after my Realm of Immersions was destroyed, that's why."
'Oh'
Cam instantly asked, "What if your body is still in the real world, will you be able to go back to the real world through my Realm of Immersions?"
"It's yours, not mine. So I'm afraid I can't. Unless I have a specific power about it. Let's not think about it. We have more important things to do."
Lunar added, "To not waste any time, I'm going to start doing a ritual to send you back. In order to do that, I have to make sure you are asleep, then I will get into your subconscious realm while you are asleep in order to open the gate back to your Realm of Immersions. If I finish the ritual, you will awake into your Realm of Immersions. In other words, you will awake into the first scene of your dream before you get in here."
Cam noded. "I see what you mean."
"If so, let's start the ritual, shall we?"