Outside of the dreamworld, Leo now squatted outside the doorway waiting for the procedure to finish. It had long been past thirty minutes, and he could see the Lieutenant growing more concerned as he continuously looked at his watch, a hand caressing the katana’s handle.

  After the thirty minute mark, the guards had trained their guns at Anthony, ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

  ‘Something’s definitely wrong…’

  Leo looked down to see if Connie had any thoughts on the matter. Unfortunately, she could only communicate so much in his shadow so he didn’t get much.

  His shadow suddenly began to ripple, causing Leo to get up. Was this her telling him to get ready? Just in case, Leo refocused himself as he locked his eyes on the scene before him.

  Just as his eyes landed on the scene, the Mindtap’s eyes closed as her head snapped back as if hit with something, her veil floating to the ground revealing her struggling face.

  Everyone froze as they watched for any abnormalities, the guards now aiming down their sights at both the Mindtap and Anthony.

  The Lieutenant carefully approached the Mindtap with a cold expression, his right hand now firmly gripping the katana. “Apostle Sera? Are you alright?”

  As if in response, Sera’s head snapped back to normal as she stretched her neck as her eyes remained closed.

  After a moment of stretching, she opened her eyes and turned to Teddy. “I am quite fine, Lieutenant. Thank you for your concern.” She picked up the fallen veil, putting it back on her head.

  Despite the confirmation, Teddy remained unmoved as his gaze remained locked onto Sera.

  “Did you discover any abnormalities in the individual in question?”

  She shook her head, her veil vaguely revealing the green pupils underneath. “I did not sense any abnormalities in the subject. He is clear of both treason and demonic presence. If you still remain uneasy, I can check again, Lieutenant.”

  The Lieutenant nodded to the guards, allowing them to ease their weapons. But despite the deescalation, tension remained thick in the air. “No need. We should be good to go.”

  She got up as she patted her robe off. “It seems your senses were a bit off, Lieutenant.”

  The Lieutenant met her eyes, quickly wearing a professional smile. “It would seem so. I apologize for the inconvenience, Apostle Sera. Please, allow me to escort you to your room for tonight.”

  With that said, he motioned for the guards as they lowered their weapons and moved aside allowing her to leave the dark room.

  Before she left, Leo pointed at Anthony.

  “Um, how long will he remain like that for? He’s fine, isn’t he?”

  Anthony still remained completely motionless as he lay asleep on his bed, his chest slowly rising and falling as he took deep, calm breaths.

  Sera turned to Leo, her emerald eyes piercing through the dark veil as if they were glowing. For a moment, she scanned him up and down before answering him. “The effects of the drug will wear off around…one and a half hours or so. In the meantime, please don’t do anything that could potentially harm or disturb him. Otherwise, he should be good to go.”

  “Ah, right. Thank you Apostle…Sera was it?”

  She nodded as she smiled at Leo, her eyes remaining strangely focused on him. “Of course. May the Sun God illuminate your journey, child.”

  Finishing the conversation, she turned to follow the Lieutenant to her chambers, her hands in the pockets of her cloak. The guards returned to escorting her in the same square formation they were in before.

  ‘Interesting…’

  He quietly closed the door to his room, not wanting to wake Anthony, and sat on a table in the dormitory, trying to comprehend what just happened.

  Finally, the speakers announced:

  “ALL TRIAL PARTICIPANTS ARE NOW AUTHORIZED TO LEAVE THEIR ROOMS.”

  Following the announcement, the doors to everybody's rooms clicked as they unlocked, some doors flew open while others remained closed, their former owners no longer present.

  One of the doors that basically slammed open was none other than Patrick, as he gleefully left his room, quickly stretching. “Whew! Finally able to get out of that cramped room! Who’s up for another match?”

  ‘Already…?’

  “Something’s still wrong, Leo.”

  “Woah!”

  Leo jumped as Connie suddenly appeared sitting across from him, stretching her arms and letting out a long yawn. “I still smell the scent on Anthony, so that thing is still with him.”

  “I figured as much, but did anything change?”

  She looked Leo in the eyes. “I mean, the demon’s got a slightly stronger hold on your friend in there. But other than that, nothing much changed. ”

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  His hands raced through his hair as he supported himself on the table. “What do you mean? How could that have even happened? I thought this procedure was supposed to help him, not make it worse!”

  Despite saying that, he knew it was true. Although he couldn’t smell the presence like Connie could, he could still feel the changes. At some point moments before the Mindtap returned, he felt a sudden chill as if a deep hatred was directed straight at him.

  Connie shook her head in frustration. “That’s what I thought too. But something must’ve happened in that dreamworld of hers, because…”

  “She was different.” She didn’t need to even tell him.

  Leo had seen it. Her different mannerisms, the way she walked especially. Before the procedure, she wouldn’t even glance at him, but now she was meeting his eyes and even speaking to him.

  Not only that, before she would’ve held her hands together in prayer the entire time. The whole time he saw her, she was praying nonstop, even mumbling to herself completely ignoring him. But now? She had her hands in her pockets like a normal person would. No way.

  But the most important change were her eyes.

  Why were they green?

  Connie snapped her fingers. “Bingo. I’m glad you noticed! But if you noticed, I bet you that Lieutenant of yours did too. You saw it too, right?”

  Leo nodded.

  While the apostle was speaking to him, behind her, the Lieutenant’s warm facade momentarily broke as he gave Sera a cold expression, giving the four guards six taps to his head with his left hand.

  He didn’t know what it meant, but he saw the four guards tense up at the sight of those motions. Not only that, a misty figure had floated out of one of the guard’s bodies and left the dormitory in the direction of the barracks Cain had brought him before.

  If that were one of their Refractions, then the Lieutenant was about to act soon.

  “Let’s just consider her a goner. Not much we can do with that ourselves.” Connie hung her head, obviously tired with this situation.

  “Which brings us to the new, much bigger problem! One, we’ve got that demon in Anthony, who’s obviously stronger than that Mindtap they brought in. And judging by the guards, she seemed important enough, which would make her strong enough.”

  She leaned back, letting her head hang as her black hair covered the white backrest of the chair like a shadow creeping across snow.

  “Secondly, we’ve got the Mindtap herself. As far as we know, she’s a lost cause. But let’s see what we do have. You and me. I can barely fight for long while you can barely even use your Refraction. In terms of fighting, we’re fucked!”

  As if coordinated, they both slammed their heads onto the table as they groaned in sync.

  The two sat like that for a while, causing some to give them weird looks as they walked by. Surprisingly Patrick didn’t call out to them like he usually would, perhaps sensing their distress.

  Without raising her head, Connie continued.

  “I think we can push the Mindtap issue to the guards there. I’m sure they’ll deal with it, especially with the Lieutenant there. We just have to focus on the demon in Anthony. Though, I think we’ll only be able to act after the guards do.”

  He agreed. If they cause a commotion now, then Sera might act before the guards can contain the situation. They would just make things worse now. But what could they do now?

  Leo pondered for a moment, thinking back on the Lieutenant. What could they do…?

  Realistically, the best they could probably do against Anthony is restrain him. He doubted they had enough strength or firepower to kill Anthony. Plus, he still wasn’t willing to resort to killing his friend. In his heart, he held onto the glimmer of hope that his friend could still be helped. That he could still reach the mourning man. The only issue was…how?

  ‘Restraints…Ah!’

  Leo glanced up at Connie. “Say, with that Refraction of yours, can you keep somebody immobilized?”

  Connie looked at him curiously before lifting her hand, a black, misty tentacle rose from below mimicking her hand. “I think I can restrain, but not for long. I haven’t practiced much with these. Why?”

  Leo shook his head. “I’ll explain later.” Well that’s one way to restrain Anthony now. But like she said, it wouldn’t be a long time before he’d be able to break out.

  But the restraint didn’t need to last forever. They would only need that one chance to incapacitate Anthony, resolving the issue altogether! Now all he needed to figure out was how to get an alert for when the military begins to act.

  In the background, the dormitory became lively once again with Patrick at the center of their shenanigans. It looked like they were playing another of Patrick’s games from Central as Patrick attempted to shadow the guy opposite of him the best he could, but ultimately failed.

  Having lost, it seemed Patrick had to do some push-ups, which he easily finished. Quickly joining the group for another round with a stupid smile.

  ‘Wait…’

  With a new idea, Leo’s head sprang up.

  “Connie, how much longer can you stay in that shadow for?”

  “Huh? Uh…probably long enough to not worry about it, why?”

  “Could you trail the Lieutenant or at least one of the guards? We can’t be left in the dark regarding this situation. It’s better to know what he’s doing rather than sitting here guessing.” He pointed at the doors. “It’s plenty dark out there for you to maneuver without being seen, my only concern is whether you can make it through.”

  She scoffed, leaning back in her chair. “Yeah I can do it for sure. But you just want me to watch what he does, right? That’s good and all, but what’ll you do here?”

  Leo glanced at the dormitory, Patrick’s little group messing around. The people eating at their tables chatting or taking a nap. Many cheerfully bantered with one another as they played cards. Nearby, a group of girls appeared to be gossiping, laughing as they pointed at a few of the men surrounding Patrick, sometimes at Patrick himself.

  Just how many would survive though…?

  He took a deep breath and with new conviction, he rose from his seat.

  “I’ve got some preparations to do.”