Sowzo grins excitedly and claps his hands twice, and in an instant, the rose garden and the entire environment around you dissipates into purple smoke. You're caught off guard as the ground turns into a cloudy aura and you begin freely falling downward with Sowzo.
Sowzo giggles maniacally as he's falling next to you and you adjust your position in free fall to where you're on your stomach with your arms and legs outwards. Suddenly you both emerge from the purple cloud as you fall and you look down at the brilliance of Somniohm. The entire realm looks as if it's made out of smoke and clouds that take the shape of structures that move as if they're alive. You notice that there's a castle in the distance with a glowing beam of white smoke shooting into the sky, and as the beam propels upwards, it dissipates into an array of beautiful colors that merge into the surrounding structures.
As you and Sowzo both begin to reach the ground level, you catch yourself with your ability to levitate and let yourself down gently onto a solid purple cloud bridge. Sowzo, on the other hand, doesn't catch himself at all and splats down right next to you. His body gets completely mutilated and maimed upon impact and blood splatters everywhere in every direction. You look at his body in shock, but right when you begin to question whether or not that was intentional, Sowzo gets up and looks at you before laughing again like a madman. His face is bloody and mangled and his jaw hangs unhinged as he looks at you with happy eyes. Sowzo then pushes his jaw back into place with his hand and spins around in a circle like a ballerina before bowing down before you with his wounds healed.
" TA-DA!! HAHAHAHAH!! "
Sowzo cackles maniacally as he dances around you until he's standing behind you. You look over your shoulder at him, perplexed, as he puts his hands on your shoulders and speaks to you in a grandiose fashion.
" Behold! Behold, my special guest! The extravagance of Somniohm at my behest! A realm of dreams that mortal's visit when they sleep! Isn't Sowzo's realm the best!? "
You look out in the distance with Sowzo and you're stunned by the makeup of his realm. Now that you're able to get a better look at it, your mind is having a hard time comprehending what you're seeing as you inspect his realm with great detail.
As the beam of white smoke shoots into the sky from the castle in the distance, you can see it change color and distort into the surrounding purple structures that hover above an infinite void. You can see thousands of people experiencing their own dreams all around you as if the smoky atmosphere of Somniohm is layering reality on top of itself multiple times. You can see the path on the bridge in front of you clearly, but you can also see many people walking around in every direction as they dream without noticing you or one another. The perspectives of each dream all twist and turn; from people walking in their dreams upside down in comparison to you, to people walking sideways and diagonally in comparison to you as if their dreams within the smoke each have their own gravity as they layer through each other. This is truly a chaotic and mad realm for a chaotic and mad God, and it fits Sowzo perfectly. Curious about the void below you, you ask Sowzo a question.
" What's down there? "
You say to Sowzo as you lean over the edge of the bridge and look down into the abyss. Sowzo throws his arm over your shoulder excitedly as he gives you an answer, leaning forward and staring into the abyss with you.
" Ooooo, there are heathens down there. Ever wonder where people who don't believe in Sowzo go when they sleep? The abyss is where. Just black, black, black when they sleep. Mortals cannot dream if they do not partake in prayer. "
" Huh… that's an interesting explanation for why some people don't dream in this universe. Why pray to you though, when most people forget their dreams anyways? "
You say to Sowzo as you stand straight up and look at him. Sowzo then begins to giggle and dance in a circle, waving his arms through the smoky air before he disappears. Right as you begin to wonder where he went, the smoke in front of your face takes the shape of Sowzo's face and you step back startled as he speaks.
" See this smoke filling the air? Breathing it in leaves mortal's memories impaired! Mortals pray to me not because they wish to remember their dreams. They pray to me because of what their dreams declare. A dream is a reflection of a mortal's affairs! To dream is to understand their subconscious and become more aware of the things of which they care so they may prepare for the burdens they bear and the endeavors they dare to share! HAHAHA! "
Sowzo suddenly poofs back into a material form in front of you and begins walking away, waving his hand as he calls to you.
" Come, come! My palace awaits! You're gonna need me to get past the gates! "
You begin to follow Sowzo down the path leading towards the castle in the distance, and as you trail behind him, you take a moment to look at some of the dreams that people are having around you.
You see a dream of a beautiful teenage girl getting married to her crush, and she has a smile on her face as she walks down the aisle with her father. You see a dream of a young peasant man becoming the King of Moriarch, his face ripe with ambition as the crown is placed upon his brow. You see a dream of an older woman slowly dancing with her recently deceased husband, her face in a state of bliss as her husband softly holds her. You see many dreams of people living happily with their families, and their ideal vision of happily ever after is apparent from how they envisioned it in their heads. All of these dreams continue to play out simultaneously while you speak to Sowzo.
" This place is incredible. I didn't expect to see so many good things here in your realm after our experiences together. "
Sowzo puts on a conniving grin as he stops and stares eerily at you before responding.
" What is good? What is bad? What is glad? What is sad? Big brother Aatu told Sowzo one time that balance is important. Sowzo is the God of Dreams AND Nightmares… to favor only one would be abhorrent. "
Sowzo claps his hands twice as he turns back around and continues to walk, and all of the pleasant dreams dim out and the nightmares begin to make themselves more apparent in the atmosphere around you.
You see a nightmare of a young boy crying after his pet dog got killed by wolves, the little boy's sobbing breaks your heart as you see him kneeling over the dog's bloody corpse. You see a nightmare of a man that's been taken hostage in his own home, he screams in horror as his wife and children are butchered and cooked before he's forced to eat them. You see a nightmare of a teenage girl getting violated by her abusive father, and you see his fist strike her face over and over as she whimpers and cries quietly in fear. You see many more horrible nightmares playing out around you, and watching them disturbs you, so you politely ask Sowzo to hide them from your view.
" Can you please hide all of these dreams? I'd like to focus on the path to your extravagant palace, if you don't mind. "
" Yes! Yes! Of course, mortal! Since Sowzo needs you, Sowzo will be cordial. "
You and Sowzo continue along the path until you finally approach the lone castle in the middle of a white barren plane and you look up in awe now that you're closer. You see the castle glowing a radiant purple as it shoots the continuous beam of smoke into the atmosphere, and the sheer size of this beam of smoke seems impossible as you stand at the gates. Sowzo claps his hands twice again and the gates open. As you both pass through and continue your approach, you can hear a faint humming sound coming from the castle getting louder and louder until you finally reach it. However, to your surprise, there seems to be no entrance of any sort. Curious, you ask Sowzo a question.
" How do we get in? "
Sowzo looks at you silently with a grin before walking straight through the wall, and you pause for a moment before you follow him. Once you're inside, the wall then distorts around you until it turns into a blue smoky hallway. You look around and notice that Sowzo is nowhere to be found, so you begin walking down the hallway alone. The atmosphere is eerie and you can feel eyes watching you from the many corridors around you. You look through each corridor as you pass and you can see what looks like skeletal ghosts with glowing purple eyes glaring at you. They all fade in and out of a material form as they silently observe you approaching a glimmering grand doorway at the end of the hall. You look back at them one last time before you step into the light and are transported to a giant ornate room that looks like something out of a fairy tale.
You see a colossal golden chandelier made of glowing smoke hanging from a ginormous cavity in the ceiling in the center of the room with a throne underneath it. In this cavity you see a green energy radiate and flow as it slowly turns into the white smoke that you presumably saw earlier coming from the castle outside. The throne underneath the chandelier looks as if it's made of eyeballs that are all looking at you, and around the throne there seems to be a smaller area secluded from the rest of the room. You see a short but long staircase leading to the smaller area from where you're standing, and all around the smaller area you see sharp rocks protruding from a colorful aura that glows and breathes over what looks like a projection of the natural terrain of Aria.
The eyeballs in the throne divert their attention to the side and follow Sowzo as he makes his presence known by walking into the entryway of the smaller area. He holds his arms outwards in a grandiose fashion as he calls out to you.
" This room is where all dreams and nightmares are designed! Welcome, mortal, to the Chamber of Mind! "