"What... is this?"
March slowly walked forward to Nero's side and voiced her confusion.
"I don't know." Nero's answer was simple.
"It could be an illusion, it could be a memory, or it could be something else," Nero said. "After all, we fell into this place from the Memory Zone."
As he spoke, Nero turned to look at March.
"How are you? Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
Looking at Nero, who wasn't even a little surprised that she had woken up, March suddenly felt that the kid had become much more steady, as though the person standing before her wasn't Nero but Dan Heng.
But there was nothing strange about that. After all, this "ocean" made of white sand was a completely unfamiliar place to Nero.
Who knew what unusual things might appear here, or what dangerous situations might arise? Although he was usually carefree, in a place like this, it was only natural for him to be more composed.
"Don't worry. The little girl is fine, healthy as can be."
Fuyan floated over behind March, blue ghostfire burning around her. The Heliobus spoke casually.
The three of them turned their attention once again to the scene formed from the sand beside them.
Miss Black Swan invited Acheron to dance while speaking about some shocking news, such as...
Duke Inferno was dead.
But after that, the atmosphere suddenly took a sharp turn. Just as it gradually became somewhat ambiguous, and March was wondering whether she should cover Nero's eyes, Black Swan suddenly fell silent, then made a move to flee.
Unfortunately, she failed.
Everything was woven into the two women's dance. It looked as though the one leading had suddenly changed from Black Swan to Acheron. The change in Black Swan's demeanor was so abrupt and obvious that both Nero and March realized something was wrong.
It was as though the scene had changed from a dance into a hunt.
Or a fight to the death.
March frowned. Out of instinctive kindness, she reached out, wanting to separate the two dancers.
But her hand passed straight through the sand.
Even though she stood in this sea of sand, she couldn't touch these scenes built from it.
And as March reached out, the two dancers and the ballroom itself rapidly crumbled apart as though blown away by the wind, disappearing in an instant.
In the end, all that remained before them was a boundless sea of sand, without a single landmark in sight.
There wasn't even a tiny plant.
March stood there in a daze.
"Huh, you made it all disappear in one go." Fuyan narrowed her large eye. "Now there's nothing left to watch. What's the plan?"
"Normally, in a situation like this, we'd have to think about food and water. But the temperature here doesn't seem to change, and there isn't any food or water either. Still, after walking for so long, I don't feel hungry or thirsty. Do you feel anything?" Nero looked at March.
March came back to herself, carefully checked how she felt, then shook her head.
She didn't feel anything either, even though Fuyan had already been using her body to travel through this place for a long time.
"If we don't have any physical needs to satisfy, then let's keep moving forward for now." Nero looked at the footprints they had left behind and confirmed their direction. "If nothing works, then we'll just have to see if we can smash this place apart."
March said nothing.
She didn't have any better ideas.
As they continued onward, those illusions made of sand appeared in Nero's and March's field of vision again and again.
Many different people appeared.
For example, Mr. Yang inside a huge library.
Or March herself at an auction.
When it involved other people, it was hard to tell what these scenes really were.
But when they involved herself...
Recalling the sand illusions in which she had appeared, March slowly frowned.
She was almost certain that everything shown in those illusions had actually happened to her.
They were as though she had watched her own memories all over again.
But if these things really were memories, then what the other illusions showed became rather thought-provoking.
For example, they had also seen Acheron surrounded by a group of people. After Nero introduced her, March remembered the quiet-looking woman's name. Acheron was talking with the people surrounding her about something incomprehensible.
They also saw Acheron swiftly end the life of a goat-headed figure somewhere.
Or slash through a bustling city, where the overwhelming force of that single strike engulfed the entire city in an instant.
In yet another scene, she fought Sam.
No matter how one looked at it, this woman seemed like a dangerous person.
That made March worry, because Nero had said that before coming to find her and Himeko, this woman had been together with Stelle.
Besides Acheron, there were scenes involving other people as well.
They saw Sam chatting with Silver Wolf, but in the next illusion the scene changed again.
Three men were playing billiards.
Of the three, March only recognized one.
The long-haired knight in armor was undoubtedly Argenti.
As for the other two... Nero said one of them was Veritas Ratio from the Intelligentsia Guild.
As for the other cyborg... She didn't know him.
There was also one moment when March saw a large group of people fighting an enormous... something.
She saw this scene twice.
The first time it appeared, she saw the Astral Express charging down from beyond the sky and slamming straight into that gigantic creature.
At that moment, it felt as though something loosened inside her mind, making her instinctively want to shout, "Run him over, Astral Express!"
The second time the same scene appeared, they saw countless starskiffs filling the sky.
Dan Heng stood beside Jing Yuan.
The enormous Divine Foresight Spirit nearly covered every part of the visible sky.
Amid the dragon's roar and flashing lightning, it brought down a slash toward that existence, which already seemed unimaginably huge to March, yet looked incredibly tiny before the Divine Foresight Spirit.
If repeatedly watching scenes involving Miss Acheron had made March feel some suspicion and fear toward her...
Then the enormous creature with the giant face, looking like a creepy puppet with visible joints, made her feel a trace of sympathy instead.
Regardless of whether these white sand illusions were actually related to memories, at this moment, both Nero and March felt that this fellow was rather pitiful.
First it got rammed by the Astral Express.
Then it got cut down by the Divine Foresight Spirit.
Even Phantylia hadn't received treatment like this when she invaded the Luofu.
Although, being refined inside a furnace wasn't exactly a pleasant ending either.
As the two of them continued forward for some distance, the next illusion was still about that thing.
This time, the expression on March's face completely fell apart.
With a strange look, she poked Nero.
"Who is this guy? He's way too miserable. Even if he's a bad guy... why does he keep getting beaten up...?"
Nero shook his head.
He didn't know either.
He didn't recognize him.
Everything from this point onward was part of the story he hadn't reached in the game yet.
One could even say that only now had he truly taken the first step into his new life.
"Wait, Nero, look, look! This time it looks like you're the one beating him up," March suddenly said.
Nero blinked and looked in the direction March was pointing.
A small figure stood in midair.
A huge, heavy spike floated beside him.
It really did seem to be him.
However... That version of himself seemed a little wrong.
Unlike the other figures made of sand, that "Nero's" body was horribly damaged.
Cracks covered almost every part of him.
Something seeped out from those cracks.
The most severely damaged part was his head.
Nearly a quarter of the area around his left eye looked as though it had been forcibly gouged away.
The sight quickly made March's expression stiffen.
If these illusions really were connected to memories...
Then what kind of attack could have left Nero in that state?
There wasn't much time to think.
This time, the giant getting beaten seemed ready to launch a counterattack.
It looked similar to the one that had been rammed by the Astral Express.
As it spread apart the hands covering itself, a gigantic face was revealed before March and Nero.
Then it slowly reached a hand toward the sky.
Accompanied by the words, "In the beginning, there was action,"
the giant's outstretched hand seemed to pass through some indescribable barrier.
At the same moment, the sky was torn apart by an unknown great power.
A colossal shadow appeared behind the opening, as though responding to the giant reaching upward.
However, what emerged from the opening the next moment was completely unexpected.
It was a gigantic cat tail.
For an instant, even the creature reaching toward the sky seemed to freeze.
Things had developed far beyond expectations.
A giant Cat Cake head appeared behind the opening and let out a soft, "Meow-nyo, meow-nyo~"
Although the scene was rather absurd, the attack did seem to have succeeded.
As the cat tail touched the fingertips of the hand reaching upward, an immense power suddenly erupted, sweeping outward in every direction like raging waves, spreading as aggressively as a blazing wildfire.
Yet in the very next moment, that sand-made Nero merely waved a hand.
The violently expanding energy instantly flowed backward as though time itself had reversed.
Then, in a single instant, layer upon layer of shadows emerged and spread, covering the enormous opening in the sky.
It seemed like nothing more than a tiny gesture.
Yet the attack the giant had painstakingly prepared vanished without a trace.
The Nero made of sand made no further movements.
He simply seemed to gaze calmly at his opponent.
The next instant, the giant could no longer maintain its existence.
It broke apart in the wind and disappeared without leaving behind even the slightest trace.
At the same time, a terrifying phenomenon rapidly spread outward, sweeping across the entire world with unstoppable force.
The scenes made from sand quickly vanished.
That disappearance even spread throughout the rest of the sea of sand.
Every grain of sand rapidly disappeared, becoming blank emptiness.
In less than the blink of an eye, the world before Nero seemed to undergo an unimaginably long upheaval.
Blankness swallowed everything.
The endless sea of sand disappeared before his eyes.
March and Fuyan beside him also vanished.
In the end, only that sand-made version of himself remained, floating ahead.
Nero blinked and looked around at the completely blank surroundings.
"There isn't anything here... What is all this supposed to be? This is way too awful. Why does it feel like I played a game and got the bad ending where only I was left? Can't I restart?"
As Nero's voice fell, the sand-made version of himself trembled twice, then disappeared before his eyes.
At the same moment, the blankness surrounding him rapidly contracted, retreating all the way back to the point where it had first appeared.
Then it vanished.
Nero returned to the endless sea of sand.
March and Fuyan also reappeared beside him.
A moment later, March sighed.
"So it got taken out in one move... Though if it was you making the move, I guess that's normal."
"That's completely normal." Fuyan shook herself.
Since this might involve Nero, she didn't use her usual unpleasant tone. Instead, she seriously played along.
The two of them acted as though they had simply watched a complete but straightforward illusion together with Nero.
It was as though they had no idea what had just happened.
———
After passing through the doorway Black Swan had created within the Memory Zone, Stelle arrived at the Golden Hour.
She looked up at the grand theater floating in the distant sky, dazzling like a star.
Then she felt her phone vibrate and took it out to check the messages.
———
[In The Astral Express Family Group Chat]
[Match 7th: Stelle, are you still at the Dream Hotel?]
[Match 7th: @Stelle]
[Match 7th: Nero, are you with Stelle?]
[Match 7th: @Nero]
[Match 7th: Nero?]
[Match 7th: What's going on? Why aren't either of you replying?]
[Welt: Did something happen to you?]
[Himeko: We got separated in the Memory Zone, but Stelle has that Memokeeper accompanying her.]
[Match 7th: I'm so worried!]
[Match 7th: Help.]
[Himeko: March, stay calm.]
[Dan Heng: Do you need me to get off the train?]
[Himeko: Not for now.]
[Dan Heng: Alright. Let me know immediately if you do.]
[Welt: The Reverie Hotel in reality is very peaceful. Nothing has happened.]
———
Looking at the messages in the group chat, Stelle gradually frowned.
At that moment, she couldn't help recalling what Aventurine had told her.
She still remembered that before they parted, Nero had gone to look for March and Himeko.
Now it seemed that both March and Himeko were fine.
But Nero still hadn't replied to any messages...
'That isn't normal.'
'Very abnormal.'
No matter how busy he was, that kid would always reply.
Just like before they gathered, when he had been busy with Argenti, he had still sent a message to let everyone know.
But now...
Stelle took a deep breath.
The air in this dream suddenly felt so cold.
A terrible thought appeared in her mind.
The scene from the explosion on the Luofu replayed over and over in the girl's thoughts.
Before she realized it, the hand holding her phone had begun to tremble.
[Stelle: I'm done investigating on my side.]
[Stelle: Where are you all?]