The sky seemed to be gradually changing from bright to dark. Maybe night had fallen, or perhaps it was because of the light reflected by the diamond-shaped moon in the sky that constantly chased after travelers.
Out of habit, that glowing geometric object constantly changing in the sky should probably be called the moon. Ever since Nero fell into this sea of sand, that thing had been hanging above his head the whole time.
Nero kept walking forward. Whenever he looked up at different times, the shape of that glowing object was different. Right now it was diamond-shaped, but two minutes ago it had been jagged.
In fact, it was difficult to determine whether it was actually some kind of celestial body. It was more like a reflective object with countless faces. Viewed from different angles, different faces reflected different rays of light.
No matter what, that thing's existence didn't fit with ordinary common sense.
As for the sky above the sea of sand, it was filled with countless stars, just like an ordinary night sky. But that night sky wasn't ordinary.
It wasn't that dark. Instead, it carried a hazy glow, as if some luminous object were hiding behind the surging, mist-like nebulae.
Along the horizon, auroras of every color stretched across the sky like rushing rivers, and after colliding, they poured into a vast ocean of brilliant colors.
"Hss..."
March suddenly frowned and clenched her teeth. She stopped where she was for a moment, bent over slightly, and raised a hand to hold her head.
The faint blue flames attached to her body flickered twice, then gradually weakened. Just now, Cirrus had sensed that March's consciousness was beginning to awaken, so she loosened her control over the body.
At that moment, March only felt that her head hurt.
It hurt badly.
Her consciousness was also hazy. Even while standing still, she felt dizzy, as if she could collapse onto the ground at any moment.
Only then did she slowly open her eyes.
It felt as though, after a long darkness, a dazzling light had suddenly bloomed before her eyes. As her vision, hearing, and ability to think returned all at once, what flooded in first wasn't the joy of surviving or the worry and confusion of finding herself in a strange place.
It was sharp pain.
Several seconds later, that piercing pain slowly faded.
Like someone washed ashore by the waves, after the tide receded from her body, March finally regained the feeling of breathing again, and felt an unprecedented craving for air.
Soon after, the fuzzy static in her mind gradually faded, as though something had pierced the layer of water blocking her ears. The muffled sounds from the outside world suddenly became clear.
"I remember it all now. Back then, this is what I said to you..."
It was a man's voice...
It sounded somewhat carefree and self-satisfied. When they had first arrived on Penacony, March had met the owner of that voice in the lobby of the Reverie Hotel.
It was Aventurine's voice.
March frowned in confusion and looked up. She saw many familiar furnishings before her. This seemed to be one of the rooms in Penacony's Reverie Hotel, but... everything was pale white, as though it had all been piled together from sand.
And inside that familiar room, where she thought the Dream Pool should be, a rather familiar figure lay with her eyes closed. The Halovian girl, formed from white sand, looked as though she had died long ago.
Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, the people made of sand passed through her body like phantoms. March's eyes widened in surprise as she watched the executive from the IPC stroll up to the Dream Pool and say to Stelle, who was following behind him, "See, my friend."
"The game has already begun."
"Make a deal with me."
"You can't refuse."
March watched Stelle walk to the Dream Pool, her eyes widening in shock.
Then, in the very next instant, everything before her vanished.
It was as though an intangible wind had blown in from nowhere, scattering the people before her and blowing away the house itself. It felt as though an immeasurably long time had passed in the blink of an eye.
Everything before her weathered away during that brief yet endless instant, finally collapsing into history and memory, becoming part of the white sand covering the ground.
March stood there blankly, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings before her, looking at the endless sea of sand.
Everything she had just seen had disappeared, as though every time she looked back at the same place, she would see different scenery.
"Oh? Sleepyhead, you're finally awake, huh?"
A few wisps of faint blue ghostfire suddenly rose before her eyes. March snapped back to her senses and cautiously took a small step backward.
Only then did she see the ghostfire gathering together before her, gradually turning into an eyeball. The eyeball looked at her, seeming to carry a teasing smile.
"Do you know how exhausting it was carrying your body around? I'm an intangible ghost!"
To suddenly see something like this while still confused by an unfamiliar environment, March actually felt a bit relieved.
Completely ignoring Cirrus's teasing words, she immediately asked in delight, "Cirrus?! It's great to see you here! Where is this? Where's Nero?"
"How would I know where this is?" Cirrus rolled her eye at March. "As for Nero, isn't he right behind you?"
March quickly turned around and, sure enough, saw Nero. She found that the boy was looking at something.
Just like what she had seen moments earlier, buildings and people made of white sand had also appeared before Nero.
It seemed to be the scene of a ball.
Almost instantly, March spotted a familiar figure among the crowd.
Even though the figure made of white sand had no color at all, she recognized her at a glance...
It was... Miss Black Swan.