Ruger drifted into the dream in a daze. Lush grass brushed past his feet, bringing a strange sense of reality.
He frowned slightly and turned to look at the Twin Dream Trees, which had grown a little taller, their branches draped around each other's shoulders. Ever since he had planted them, whenever he dreamed, he inevitably entered this dream. They were like a pair of anchors. Even if he initially found himself surrounded by something else, in another dream, that dream was still connected to this place. In the end, he could never escape them. The moment he thought of them, he was bound to see them.
Keeping his eyes on the two trees, Ruger slowly walked over and sat beneath them. A thought stirred in his mind.
His ability to detect the aura of the Nightmare World deep in that alley earlier seemed to owe more than just to the wings on his back. These trees had played a part, too. The pair of dream trees was exerting some inexplicable effect.
Ruger reached out and stroked a trunk.
Unlike the ugly, barkless dead trees commonly seen in the Nightmare World, these two dream trees had the basic appearance of what one would call a tree. Only their bark was rather strange, covered in various swirling patterns that were still fairly sparse. Some curled into shapes resembling open hexagons, while others wound around five bends, or even four. Interestingly, the patterns on one tree spiraled left, while those on the other spiraled right.
Ruger's eyes widened slightly.
Just as he was about to lift his hand from the trunk, a strange perception came to him. Somewhere in Burning Blood City, in a certain direction, the aura of the Nightmare World had appeared again. It lasted only briefly before dissipating into