An hour earlier, in room 024.
Anni opens her eyes. Her vision is blurry for a moment before slowly clearing. She finds she cannot move her body, leaving her only able to observe her surroundings. She is in a hospital room, bandages are wrapped around her forehead, and a constant, low beep from a nearby monitor tracks her heart rate. The room is quiet.
Suddenly, the door opens and a person steps inside.
Anni's eyes widen in terror; she feels terror, as if she is staring at a monster. The person is her stepfather, Mr. Jones.
He closes the door and locks it with a sharp click. His slow footsteps echo unnervingly as he approaches her bed. Anni stares at him, paralysed by fear, unable to move or escape.
Mr. Jones stops beside the bed and leans over, looking directly into her eyes. Then, he reaches out and touches her cheek. His nails are leaving scars on her skin.
"Oh, my precious, how are you?" His tone is low and menacing. His touch makes her skin crawl.
"Leave me, you monster," she whispers, her voice trembling.
Mr. Jones swiftly grabs her throat. Anni is helpless, her arms immobilised. Yet, in that moment of suffocation, a flash of memory breaks through—a scene of guards dragging her away, and a man who looks like Joseph is rushing towards her. The memory of her previous life.
"I don't want to leave you again, my love."
"AAGGGH! Somebody help me!" she screams, louder than she knows she can.
Meanwhile, in the corridor, Johan and Jennifer move slowly, their eyes scanning for danger. Everyone they pass is unnaturally asleep. Johan pauses and gently pries open the eyes of a nearby sleeping man; his eyes are completely white.
"Jennifer, they're possessed by Oneiros," Johan states, his voice tight with seriousness.
Jennifer's worry intensifies. She suddenly hears a muffled sound coming from room 024 behind her and strains to listen, catching Anni's desperate cry: "Somebody help me!"
As soon as she hears the scream, Jennifer lunges for the door, trying to open it, but the handle is locked from the inside.
"Johan, something is happening inside!" she quickly warns her brother.
Johan shoots multiple bullets at the door lock. The door opens, and they rush into the room.
Mr. Jones is still clamping his hand around Anni's throat. Johan raises his gun and points it directly at him. Mr. Jones looks back, startled and speechless. Jennifer sees blood already coating his hands. In a furious burst of power, she makes a dagger in her hand and hurls it at his wrist. The dagger pierces his hand and pins it to the wall with sickening speed.
Mr. Jones screams, but before he can recover, Johan delivers a sharp kick to his face. He slumps to the floor, immediately unconscious.
"Johan!" Jennifer calls, her voice trembling as she rushes toward Anni.
They see Anni. She is unnaturally still. Her body is not moving. Blood is staining the oxygen mask that comes from her mouth. Scars mar her cheeks and throat, and her eyes are wide, fixed on the ceiling, as if in a final, desperate plea for life. Her mouth is still slightly open, frozen in the act of trying to breathe again.
"I think she is Anni. The classmate that Joseph talked about," Johan says to Jennifer in a grave tone.
They have witnessed multiple deaths, but her innocent face shatters their composure. Both of them feel a wave of bitter disappointment.
"We're too late," Johan says, his depression palpable.
Suddenly, they hear a roar from the corridor. A man enters the room. He is Daniel.
"Mesanychta, sleep them," Daniel casts a spell.
Johan quickly forms a mana ball and throws it at Jennifer. A wave of light hits them. It does not affect Johan, but Jennifer staggers, feeling dizzy. She quickly snaps back into focus and makes a dagger in her hand.
Daniel snaps his fingers, creates a blue ball of energy, "Dimension!" and hurls it at them.
"Jennifer, alert from his power—!" Before Johan can complete his words, he vanishes.
"Johan, Johan," Jennifer calls his name, but he is gone, trapped in an unknown dimension.
Jennifer suddenly hears another sound of roaring that comes closer. She turns toward the sound and sees a beast. It looks like a human but is grotesquely monstrous, with sharp, feral teeth, long nails, green eyes, a chest covered in brutal scars, and exposed bones clearly visible beneath the skin. It is Antonio, transformed into a terrifying creature.
Antonio attacks her. Jennifer quickly snaps the fingers of both hands, instantly making two daggers. She thrusts the blades at Antonio. He tries to strike her with his claws, but Jennifer blocks them with her daggers.
A huge surge of mana flows from the clash. This energy shatters all the light bulbs in the room. Jennifer jumps back, releasing the daggers from her grasp, but they float suspended in mid-air. She focuses another ball of mana, which forms many sharp, crystalline shapes around it.
Antonio roars, trapped momentarily by the sharp crystals. Interrupting his cry, Jennifer hurls a mana ball directly into his mouth.
But from the smoke, a claw comes at Jennifer.
SSKKRRRITCH!
The blow shatters his jaw, but he lunges at Jennifer and stabs her with his claw. "Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!Now, now, I give two types of blood to the master. One from you and the other from the girl," he snarls.
Blood spreads rapidly across her suit. Her eyes widen. "I can't die here. Who will care for these kids and my brothers? Who will save the people of the world? I can't die, I can't die, I can't die here."
The image of Anni's dead face flashes in her mind. Jennifer grabs a floating dagger and slashes Antonio's arm. A wicked smile twists her lips.
"Blood River Dimension," she hisses. —A red orb forms from the blood on her wounds. The ball erupts, and the reality around them shifts.
Antonio's monstrous rage dissolves into pure fear. He finds himself standing on a river under a red sky—a new dimension. He cannot find a way to run. Suddenly, the water beneath his feet turns to viscous, flowing blood.
Jennifer rises from the blood, the wicked smile still on her face. A dark, root-like structure grows and spreads over her face. A sword, its blade a sinister red, appears in her hand, the grip created by those very dark roots. She slashes in mid-air, and the blade cuts half of Antonio's body. His roar turns into a wretched scream. She thrusts the sword into his eye.
The crystals grow and burrow inside Antonio's head. His body dissolves into the blood. His screaming still echoes in the river. Jennifer looks at the red sky. "I'm back to Blood River," she whispers.
Meanwhile, Johan finds himself in an unknown dimension that looks like a glass sphere.
"In here, at least nobody will find you, can't help you, Johan Bennet," a voice tells him.
Suddenly, a blue slash from a sword streaks toward him. Johan blocks it with a mana slash of his own, but he cannot stop it for long; the light burns him.
Daniel appears, floating in mid-air with a glowing golden sword and a grin. Suddenly, Johan reappears directly behind him, a mana ball ready in his hand.
The ball blasts in his hands, creating a massive impact on Daniel. The force is so huge that it creates cracks in the dimension. Daniel is thrown to the opposite side and crashes into the surface.
Johan raises two fingers. "Oi! Don't fly so much. Your wings can't handle your ego," Johan says to him with an arrogant look. Johan lowers his two fingers, and Daniel falls onto the surface.
How does he do all those things? He is in my dimension, Daniel thinks.
"Because you are in my dimension, Mr. Daniel Williams," Johan replies.
"You can read my mind. But how? It's supposed to be my dimension," Daniel asks him.
Daniel looks at his surroundings. Through the cracks, he sees another dimension outside his own. He looks at Johan in surprise and fear.
He stands and attacks with multiple mana slashes from his sword.
Johan teleports at the speed of the wind.
Daniel attacks wherever he sees him, but Johan dodges everything using his power of Tilespar.
"Dark form," Johan casts his spell. His gun appears in his hand. He shoots multiple bullets at Daniel, all while teleporting from one side to another.
Six bullets hit Daniel's body. His body collapses into the surface.
Then, Johan releases his mana again, creating a huge force. A wind-like force appears from him and shatters the glass sphere. Johan is back in his Tilespar dimension.
He scans for any other dimensions nearby. Two miniature dimensions appear in front of him: one is dark red and the other is blue.
"Ah! I told her not to use her dimension. His mana ball is still here," he says in frustration, recognising the red one.
Then he freezes, and a horrific aura emanates from the blue dimension. He identifies the blue dimension. "This might be Arthur's dimension."
He measures the aura from the miniature dimension. "How much power is it originally hold?" His dimension melts like water, and he comes to the normal world. He then runs toward the corridor. He sees Jennifer also returns to the normal world, but she is unconscious.