After taking away the corpse, Dahlia pondered aloud, lightly tapping the back of one hand with her fingers:
"Why did Gofemwood leave her here? As some kind of warning? Or... part of the key?"
"Whatever he is planning, no matter how I look at it, I can't directly connect it to [Propagation]."
"And how deeply is your past connected to this place?" She looked at Firefly, her gaze probing.
"I still don't know." Firefly shook her head helplessly.
"But it's obvious that she bore many wounds that should have been fatal—she definitely didn't die from entropy loss. She reached her end in battle."
"Before we set out, Kafka told me that, in her view, dreams were originally where [the past] converged. It was the same for everyone."
"No matter how much you don't want to face it, or what you wish to obtain, you can't avoid it—perhaps she was right."
"However, the Dream Master's weakness has also given us an opportunity." Her tone shifted, and her eyes sharpened once more.
"Indeed." Dahlia smiled, regaining her composed air as though everything remained within her grasp.
"Next..."
She suddenly froze, pausing as if listening closely. Then she smiled, the corner of her lips curving with interest.
"Oh?"
"They seem to be getting closer. Shall we go take a look?" she suggested, her gaze turning toward the maze's exit.
The two swiftly left the secret corridor, a memory maze, and returned to the Dream Hotel's upper levels—a ruined area whose structure was relatively clear.
A wind blew across the heights, carrying the faint chill unique to the edge of dreams.
Under Dahlia's lead, Firefly came to the edge of a broken balcony and carefully peered down.
In the relatively open area below, Yan Huan, Black Swan, and the always aloof purple-haired woman, Acheron,