The guards around the room tensed up as they clicked their safeties off, all ready to act at a moment’s notice as they continuously monitored Anthony. Two kept their guns ready while the other two brought out their maces, inching closer to the pair.

  Meanwhile, the Mindtap brought out a syringe and injected him with something. Anthony’s eyes flickered as they slowly closed as he struggled to stay awake. But eventually, he fell into a deep sleep. His chest slowly went up and down as his breathing calmed down.

  Whatever the Mindtap was doing, it was working so far.

  The Lieutenant, standing next to Leo, glanced over to him, or more specifically the shadow below him. In a hushed tone, he said, “I’m guessing the person in there is the one who wrote that note?”

  Leo nodded, keeping his eyes on the procedure. He hoped that the mindtapping won’t end the way he thinks it will.

  The Lieutenant nodded. “Interesting. I almost couldn’t detect them, quite the impressive Refraction.” He directed his words to Connie. “You wouldn’t be willing to introduce yourself, will you?”

  Glancing down, Leo saw his shadow move as if rippling before shooting into the room escaping their vision. Seeing this, he shrugged. “Guess not.”

  The Lieutenant murmured to himself. “A shame…I’ll have to steal them before the others…”

  “Steal?”

  He glanced at Leo. “None of your concern, don’t mind it.”

  With that said, he leaned on the side of the doorframe, locking his eyes onto the Mindtap.

  Leo looked upon the disturbing sight as the Mindtap’s body seemed to go limp, falling to her knees onto the cold stone floor.

  He worriedly looked towards the Lieutenant. “Um, is that supposed to happen? What’s she doing?”

  He lightly nodded. “Mhm. All is well. Right now, she’s just entering his dreams.”

  “Dreams?”

  “Mhm. She put your friend there to sleep, then entered his mind through the dreams. It’s a much more complicated process than that but that’s the gist of it. She’ll look through his mind for anything we should be concerned about, but once that’s over, she should get back up.”

  “Uh, right… How long’s this going to take?”

  The Lieutenant thought for a moment before answering. “With this Mindtap, I’d say 30 minutes? She is pretty experienced so it’ll be a much faster process.”

  ‘30 minutes is considered faster?’

  Looking around, he could see some of the other dormitory residents peeking through their doors looking at his room. The sudden appearance of these heavily armed soldiers would obviously be a cause for concern. Now that he thought of it, how important could this Mindtap be for such an escort?

  He knew they were there for security, but their presence alone caused him some anxiety.

  Leo sighed. This was going to be a long 30 minutes.

  Sera was an experienced Mindtap, having served the great Solar Tribunal all her life. She followed their teachings faithfully, even witnessing the pope with her own two eyes! What a blessing it was.

  Unfortunately, she had been assigned to the Northern Wastes for a routine mission. Upon entering, the decrepit scenery appalled her. Compared to Central, this place was Hell!

  All she wanted to do was get out of this place as soon as possible.

  Having entered the boy’s mind. She looked around to see she had entered some sort of house. It looked like this was the source structure of his mind.

  But why was it so big?

  The house was more of an office building if anything, with glass windows replacing the building’s walls. In front of the doors were two stone pillars holding up the entrance of the building. The surroundings were in a grey blur, but that was to be expected as that area would lead to a different section of his subconscious, an area she didn’t really care about.

  The area she was going into was where he’d be storing information regarding his loyalties as well as any subconscious thoughts he could have. This time, her assignment was to confirm whether this boy was actually a demon contractor or not as well as whether his intentions will harm Hellsgrog in any way.

  Entering the glass building, she saw a reflection of herself. No, it wasn’t just one, but thousands of reflections. It appeared the building was a mirror maze. But why were they mirrors?

  This complicated things for her as it would most likely increase the time it took for her to wrap things up. Sighing, she tied a rope to herself and tied the other end to one of the pillars. Walking a distance from the tree, the rope extended itself as if it were endless. She smiled, happy her Refraction had worked properly.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  In the dreamworld, her Refraction allowed her to simply enter dreams of the recipient, allowing her to navigate the mind of the other. This also meant she’d be able to imagine anything into existence in this dreamworld, as everything here was a dream, the imagination was power here.

  Of course, there were strict conditions.

  First, the recipient had to be asleep before she could do anything, as without a dream, her powers were useless. Hence the need for the use of propofol, a sedation drug kept hidden in her sleeves.

  Secondly, she needed to be mentally stronger than the individual to even enter the person’s dreams. If she was weaker, then there would be nothing she could even do. Of course, the only other way she’d be able to get into a stronger mind would be if they allowed her in of their own will. But the drug she used had an unintended side effect of making the target’s mind become significantly fragile, and if not used properly, could result in permanent brain damage.

  Prepared, she took a deep breath, clutching her amulet near her chest with a dim glow and entered the mirror maze.

  13 minutes passed as she continued navigating through the maze. She had bumped into the mirrors numerous times, each time increasing her annoyance. But the longer she was in the maze, the more anxious she felt.

  The fact her reflections were all around her gave her a sense of unease. Not only that, but she had no idea how close she was to the end. How long was this damn maze?

  Thankfully, the way out would be easy with the rope, all she had to do was pull on it and follow along.

  As she moved, she continuously reminded herself that she was doing this for the Sun God so as to not just stop and call it a day. She couldn’t do such a sloppy job in the name of the Sun God, after all!

  Suddenly, the floor changed from concrete to wood. Noticing this, she focused, keeping an eye on her surroundings. Her body tensed, ready for whatever may come.

  In the dreamworld, anything could happen. The difference was how well a person could shape the dreamworld to their whims. It all comes down to their mental fortitude.

  Turning a corner, she finally saw an open room. It looked like a bedroom with a bathroom attached to the side. A blue fan spun above with a rug below. Besides it was a queen-sized bed with a dark blue blanket covering the mattress. Across the room was a desk with a lamp as well as a shelf sitting on the desk, a window lay in front of the desk, giving whoever sat in it a view of the outside.

  Here for information, Sera moved to the shelf as it was filled with books, hoping to find something inside. But before she could reach the shelf, as she stepped onto the rug, she noticed it ripple like water. Jumping back, she conjured a jian, ready for an attack.

  But nothing happened.

  Carefully, she peeked her head over the rug, looking in to see another reflection of her.

  This time, however, something was off about the reflection.

  It wasn’t facing her.

  Without a moment to spare, she used her jian to cut the rug in half, quickly backing away to the room’s exit back toward the mirror maze.

  The rug, now sliced in half, returned to its dark blue color. But that only further alarmed Sera as she kept her jian up.

  At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared on the desk, reading a book. He wore a green tunic with black pants, sporting a light grey jacket over the tunic. What stood out to her were the short horns piercing through his white hair..

  In a calm voice, the figure asked, “What might you be doing here?”

  Sera swallowed hard as she slowly backed away, her eyes widened. It only took a glance for her to know that he was stronger than her, far stronger. Both mentally and physically. It didn’t take a genius to understand what creature was standing before her now. What she had to do now was get out as quickly as possible.

  The figure raised a hand, forming a peace sign with his fingers. Then he clamped them together like scissors. “Don’t go now, we need to have a talk.”

  Not wanting to waste anymore time, she tugged on the rope to prepare her escape. But to her absolute horror, when she tugged, the rope went limp as the cut end flung to her feet.

  “I didn’t want you running, so I untied your rope. I hope you don’t mind it. But let me introduce myself” He rose from his seat and turned to face her, his emerald eyes scanning her head to toe. With a smile, he continued. “My name is Lord Velmior, but Velmior will suffice. I am fro-”

  Before he could finish, Sera dashed into the mirror maze, disappearing around the corner.

  Velmior frowned. “Why do they always do this?”

  He turned to the window. “You see, Anthony? Someone like that couldn’t possibly have had good intentions. What do you think we should do about her?”

  Hearing that, the glass rippled like water as Anthony stepped out from the window. His eyes were cold as he looked to the mirror maze.

  Now wearing a frown, Anthony couldn’t help but sigh. “It doesn’t help that you’re a demon, Velmior, we both know that. Also, what’s up with this fuzzy feeling in my head? I feel a little weird right now.”

  Velmior pointed at his head. “That lady injected you with some liquid. I’m not too familiar with it, but I negated most of its effects minus its drowsiness. It appears she attempted to weaken your mind to sift through your information here.”

  He scratched his head. “No wonder. But what could she possibly want?” Anthony briefly looked toward the maze before glancing at Velmior. “Could you bring her back? I want to talk to her.”

  A joyful, but sadistic smile spread across Velmior’s face as he walked toward the mirror maze. “Your wish is my command.” Touching one of the glass walls, he seeped into the mirrors, his figure becoming a reflection as he multiplied across the glass.

  Anthony, left alone, sat on the chair of the desk and leaned his head back. He had come to a new realization.

  He hated mindtapping.