Ten minutes passed.
Uriel had grown used to how real everything felt, but certain details still left him dazed now and then.
The bones of small animals, the tiny insects crawling over them, the wood dust the wind blew into his nose... Everything his senses told him felt undeniably real.
Only the hazy Text Panel in his vision told Uriel that this was a dream... No, as Blanche had put it, this was an Instance.
An Instance of a kind called Wonderland.
"Mr. Uriel, our goal this time is to uncover the truth about the Evil Spirit." Blanche swept fallen branches aside with the stick she had picked up earlier. "But finding the truth on our own may be difficult. Why don't we look for Kemei and decide what to do once we've joined him?"
"Kemei? Is he the one you mentioned..."
Blanche nodded. "The Challenger who discovered the Evil Spirit's identity on his own."
Before they entered the Mist Swamp Instance, Blanche had told Uriel roughly what to expect inside.
Uriel frowned slightly and looked across the overlapping shadows of the distant trees. "Mist Swamp must be enormous. How are we supposed to find Kemei?"
Blanche gave him a mysterious smile and patted her chest. "Don't worry. We have some powerful help!"
Under Uriel's puzzled gaze, Blanche slowly opened her hand. A swirl of gray mist appeared in her palm, floating gently like a miniature rain cloud.
That little cloud was... an illusion node.
Angel had passed it to Blanche through Luigi earlier.
He had told her she could contact him through the "illusion node" if she needed help.
Now that Uriel was fully "awake," had begun to adjust to the Mist Swamp Instance, and had some idea of what to expect from the "supernatural," Blanche decided to contact