Faint dawn light touched the horizon above the campfire.
"Hah—" Matthew jolted awake, gasping for air. His ragged breathing echoed through the silent camp.
When he had passed through the mist and his viewpoint had shot up to an impossible height, he had felt as though he were drowning.
Once he caught his breath, Matthew quickly looked around.
The fire at the center of camp no longer burned gray-white. Everything around it had its normal color.
The rest of the Exploration Team had not vanished, either. The Chocobos and Two-legged Pack Beasts tethered beside the tree stumps were asleep on the ground.
Link and the logistics wizard Alphard were on watch. They sat near the fire, occasionally nudging it with sticks and exchanging a few quiet words.
Link seemed to hear Matthew's breathing and glanced over. Matthew gestured that he was fine.
The Gray Fog outside the camp was gone as well. Everything had returned to normal.
The sight almost made Matthew think that everything he had just experienced had been a dream.
But he could sense that the Red Crystal on the Metal Disc held more energy than before. Even if it had been a dream, it had been a real one.
Matthew carefully recalled what had happened. Could the world he had entered be the same one Jack White reached through the Dream Ritual?
He had seen Jack use the Dream Ritual to enter another world in fragments of Jack's memories. But the ritual led to different places depending on where it was performed, and Jack had not visited the place Matthew had just entered.
According to what Matthew had learned from Jack, they called the other world reached through the Dream Ritual the Divine Kingdom.
Performing the Dream Ritual at the mine made it easier to enter