Amy and Lain made their way back toward the meeting point, their footsteps eerily muffled against the floor—a detail that Amy might not have noticed if she hadn't been hyper-aware of everything around them.

"...could this be..." Lain whispered, her voice barely audible.

As expected, she had already caught on.

"The way towards the main hall. Yes," Amy interjected quietly.

She subtly looked in Lain's direction. The frown on the girl's face hadn't disappeared for a while now, something which would become a problem if not addressed. From now on, the spell might not only listen but there was also a chance it would observe them.

"Say Lain, are you perhaps in pain? Could it be that we both have eaten the same rotten food? Your expression looks rather concerning," Amy said casually, trying to convey her warning through seemingly innocent words.

Lain's silver eyes narrowed slightly, her lips pressed into a thin line. After a moment of contemplation, she gave a slow nod, catching Amy's subtle message.

"No, don't worry..." she murmured, her voice carrying understanding beyond Amy's words. Her expression shifted back to its usual neutrality.

She was playing along, thankfully. She probably understood at this point most of what was happening.

Nightmares, that was what they were called in the manga. They were this world's version of dungeons but creepier, and each one had its own weakness related to its nature.

This one was special because it was created by the Blood Emperor to manifest one of its incarnations into the Academy. In the original story, Zayd and Lain were the ones trapped in the Nightmare.

In the end, they had managed to escape, but the other twelve souls of trapped students did not. This time though, they would all escape.

Ugh... why did it have to be me…

If it had been Crow who found this place, he would probably have brute-forced his way through with his broken abilities, but of course, it was her and Lain. She still didn't understand why Lain had decided to follow her.

Maybe it wasn't a good idea for us to have separated...

The thing was that there was a time limit. The moment the golden key entered the building, this time limit was set up. It would only be a matter of time before the incarnation was awakened by the spell. So they were in a hurry.

Either way, right now wasn't the moment to dwell on it. She had to check how things were going on Crow's side. She hadn't known that the book could contact her remotely, but now that she did, she would make sure to take maximum advantage of it.

"Libris," Amy whispered, keeping her voice low enough so Lain could not hear, "where is Crow right now?"

[Oh, now you want to talk to me? After cruelly abandoning me with the brooding mystery boy?]

Amy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "...my life is kind of on the line here, you know..."

[Fine. They're at the meeting point, waiting. Crow seems... concerned. He's been checking his watch every thirty seconds. And... your copies are already there, though I assume you would know that much.]

Copies... That was the peculiarity of this nightmare. Once someone entered this fake reality, a creature disguised as the victim would leave into the real world. This was a security measure to prevent the nightmare from being discovered. Since its creation, the dungeon had already replaced thirteen students, including Elias Varn.

The one held in ropes was Elias Varn's copy and the main gateway to the nightmare. By simply approaching the room he was in, they had been immediately transported to this world.

In the original story, none of the thirteen sacrifices survived. While Lain and Zayd were trapped in this alternate reality, their respective clones almost managed to fool the protagonist, but the original Zayd and Lain managed to escape just in time and warn them. From then on, a battle took place. Though, this time that last part wouldn't be necessary.

With her foreknowledge and Libris's, they had an advantage. Without having to worry about warning Crow, they had more time to find the sacrifices and get them out of here.

"Describe to me what's happening," Amy whispered, her eyes darting to Lain who was walking slightly ahead, scanning the corridor.

[Two versions of you and Lain appeared at the meeting point about three minutes ago. They're... convincing. But—.... Wait…you clever girl, I did not expect you to find a loophole.]

Amy couldn't help but smile at the book's words. "What is it?" she whispered.

[They don't acknowledge me at all, even when Crow tried handing me to your copy. How did you know this would happen?]

"I didn't. I just assumed that our relationship wouldn't be able to be...you know. In the manga, the author made a point that these things could copy others based on the knowledge obtained straight from the World Tree. But you are you, and I am me. I barely began existing in this world, and you... well, you might as well be above it."

[So, in short, you just threw and prayed it would hit.]

"...yes..."

[...]

[Still, I don't quite forgive you for what you've done, you know. You could have just told me.]

"I wasn't planning on doing this; it was a spontaneous idea that I didn't really know would work."

[Tsk!]

Are you a child…?

"I'll make it up to you... What do you want?"

[...can I ask for anything...?]

Suddenly a bad premonition hit Amy, but she forced the thought away. Surely whatever it had in mind could not be that bad... surely...

"Yeah..."

[Then, I'll tell you later. First, get out of there alive.]

Amy shuddered at the thought but did not comment further. Instead, she kept walking in silence. They were getting close to the replica of the place where they had agreed to meet.

When they finally arrived, her blood ran cold. Despite knowing full well what awaited them there, she still couldn't suppress a shudder.

There, standing, were "Crow," "Ash," and "Lyra." Not their clones or anything resembling them. Just monsters acting like them. All around the building, monsters acting like students were present.

The creatures' skin rippled with unnatural movement, as if something crawled beneath their surface. Their proportions were subtly wrong—limbs just slightly too long, joints bending at impossible angles. Their faces retained the vague structure of the features of the respective persons they were copying, but the skin stretched too tight across the bones, and when they smiled, their mouths opened far wider than any human mouth should. Their eyes revealed bottomless black voids to Amy and Lain, with pinpricks of cold light buried deep within.

Lain stumbled mid-step, her silver eyes widening by a fraction—the equivalent of a scream of shock from anyone else. Amy caught her arm, squeezing it in warning.

"Careful," Amy murmured, her tone deliberately casual despite the horror crawling up her spine. "The floor's uneven."

Lain's face had gone completely rigid, muscles fighting to maintain her usual stoic expression. Only someone looking for it would notice the almost imperceptible widening of her pupils as she stared at the abomination wearing her friends' likeness.

"Yes," Lain managed, her voice unnaturally flat even for her. "Thank you."

After taking a deep breath, Amy approached the group with measured steps, her heart hammering beneath her ribs. The monsters turned to look at her. She focused on maintaining her practiced smile, even as she fought the urge to recoil from the creatures' proximity.

"Finally here," 'Ash' said exasperatedly while trying to mimic holding his stomach. "I'm dying of hunger. Please tell me you found the paper."

"No," Amy said, maintaining her practiced smile. "We haven't found anything yet."

'Ash' groaned, clutching his stomach more dramatically. "Great. And I was hoping we could wrap this up quickly."

At this, Amy simply smiled.

Every nightmare had a weakness related to its nature, and this one's weakness was disguise. If they kept their role, the creatures would never be able to tell. Funnily enough, Amy was quite adept at this.

"We'll need to keep looking," Amy continued smoothly despite the trembling of her body. "The paper has to be somewhere in the east wing."

'Crow' shifted his weight, moving with uncanny precision that perfectly mimicked his characteristic restlessness. "We should split up again. Cover more ground."

"Right," Amy replied, maintaining her casual demeanor while thinking it was the perfect moment to use her new powers.

"I'd like to check the north this time. Lain, do you want to come with me?"

'Lyra' stepped forward, her movement a perfect recreation of the real Lyra's suspicion. "Huh, when did the two of you get so close...?"

[Amy, you won't believe this!]

Amy kept her expression neutral, giving no indication she was hearing anything. "It's a long story—"

[Crow figured it out. The moment your copy ignored me, he knew something was wrong. Of course, that alone isn't really crazy; he is the main character after all.]

Amy's heart skipped a beat, but she maintained her composure as she explained her sudden interest in Lain, while the girl in question just nodded in silence each time a question was directed at her.

[What was crazy is that he used that third ability of his—the one that lets him detect life forms. He sensed something... wrong about your copies, but he wasn't sure. So, guess what he did... He assassinated your doppelgänger first where no one would see. Yours! I couldn't stop laughing. Legit zero hesitation.]

It took all her willpower to control her expression from contorting. Disbelief flooded her brain, and three single words took over: What the fuck!

Though she kept it carefully hidden behind her practiced smile, the fact that Crow had eliminated their copies was a positive, but she still couldn't help but feel annoyed. Zero hesitation, really...?

"We should probably get going," Amy said, seamlessly continuing the conversation. "At this rate, we'll miss class."

The creatures looked at each other, their movements synchronized in a way that human bodies never quite achieved—too smooth, too coordinated. Yet they maintained their perfect imitations, down to 'Ash' slouching exactly as the real Ash would.

"Fine," 'Ash' said with a dramatic sigh. "I guess no food today..."

As they prepared to part ways, 'Crow' stepped closer to Amy. She fought the instinct to step back as the creature wearing her protagonist's face came near.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" it said in Crow's exact edgy tone that he always used.

Amy nodded at 'Crow', maintaining her smile. "Well, when you asked me if I could find it, I responded 'probably,' didn't I?"

The creatures looked somewhat annoyed at this but in the end just nodded, and Amy felt a wave of relief as she and Lain walked away, their footsteps once again muffled against the too-soft floor.

They walked in silence for several minutes, taking seemingly random turns through corridors that subtly shifted and changed when they weren't looking directly at them. The architecture of the building remained familiar enough to navigate, yet distorted in ways that made Amy's head hurt if she focused too long on any one detail.

[Update from our brooding hero,] Libris chimed in. [After disposing of your copies, he went searching for the two of you and eventually found records from a deceased student who had discovered the impostors first. Deciding that the situation was serious, Lyra went to call the headmaster while Crow and Ash investigated some more.]

"So... everything is going well?" she whispered.

[Too well, I would say. Almost kind of unnerving. Be careful.]

When they reached a deserted hallway, Amy slowed her pace, feeling a familiar tension building behind her eyes. With Libris's confirmation that Crow was handling the situation in the real world, she could focus on what they needed to do here—save the other students trapped in this nightmare.

"I need to rest a moment," Amy said casually, leaning against the wall. Her voice was light, but her eyes met Lain's with intense meaning.

Lain nodded, taking up position beside her.

Amy closed her eyes, pretending to catch her breath while actually focusing her awareness inward. She needed to use her power—that strange new ability that let her navigate through the invisible threads of fate. Setting a clear objective in her mind, Amy concentrated: "Show me the path to the trapped students."

The effort was immediately taxing. It wasn't like reading a book or accessing memories; using her ability felt like flexing an atrophied muscle that shouldn't exist. The strain behind her eyes intensified, and she could feel resistance, as if the nightmare itself was working against her power.

Come on. Just one sign. Anything.

Like a camera slowly coming into focus, Amy sensed it—a subtle pull, a hairline fracture in reality. Not a vision exactly, but an awareness of something that didn't belong.

Three lockers down the hall, one had hinges that gleamed just slightly differently than the others. The difference was so subtle that no normal observation would catch it—but Amy's enhanced perception flagged it as significant.

The strain was becoming unbearable. Amy felt blood vessels constricting in her head, the pressure building to a sharp pain. She pushed just a little further, asking for confirmation, and received a fleeting impression of hollowness beyond that locker—a passage where there shouldn't be one.

When she opened her eyes, she felt warm liquid trickling from her nose. Blood. Without missing a beat, she casually wiped the blood away with her sleeve.

Lain's eyes narrowed slightly at the blood, shining with intensity, but she remained silent. Whatever was going on in her mind was a mystery.

Amy pushed herself away from the wall, fighting a wave of dizziness. "Let's continue checking this hall," she said, deliberately walking toward the locker her power had highlighted.

As they approached, Amy pretended to examine the hallway while actually focusing on the wall. Up close, it looked completely normal—the difference her power had shown her was invisible to normal perception.

"These walls are quite old," Amy commented, running her hand along the rocky surface as she surreptitiously examined the mechanism. "I wonder when they were created."

Lain caught on immediately, stepping closer to examine it as well.

Amy's fingers found a tiny irregularity on the wall's edge—a slight unevenness in the rock that no casual touch would notice. Her power had led her true.

"Look, some students have no respect for school property," Amy said, pointing to random scratches to justify her interest in the wall.

As she traced the scratch marks, Amy applied slight pressure to the irregularity she'd found. There was a nearly imperceptible click, and the hidden passage shifted inward by a millimeter—not enough to be visible, but Amy felt it beneath her fingertips.

Lain positioned herself to block the view from the hallway as Amy worked.

Amy tried to appear casual as she manipulated the hidden mechanism. Though her hands were shaking from the after-effects of using her power, and the blood from her nose was still coming, but in very small quantity, she continued to persevere, going where her power guided her.

This is actually so overpowered. No way it isn't nerfed, right...?

[That looks very overpowered... might need to nerf it if it becomes more versatile.]

"..." Is this thing reading my mind...?

With another soft click, the locker door finally released. Amy pulled it open slowly, revealing a dark passage beyond.

"How interesting," she said evenly, as if finding secret passages was an everyday occurrence. "This might be worth investigating."

Lain nodded, her face expressionless despite the significance of their discovery.

They had found their way—but just as Amy was about to step through, disaster struck. From behind the doorway, something fell with a thud. It sounded metallic and loud.

Amy froze, locking eyes with Lain. For several heartbeats, nothing happened. Then, from somewhere in the distance, came the sound of unnatural movement—the too-rapid scuttling of limbs that moved wrong.

A monstrous figure emerged and locked eyes with them. For a moment, none of the three moved. Then Lain suddenly grabbed Amy's arm and pulled her toward the passage, their pretense abandoned. Behind them, the scuttling grew louder, accompanied by an unsettling chittering sound.

"Go!" Lain hissed, practically shoving Amy through the opening before using an ice attack behind her while pulling the door closed with all her strength. As the door swung shut, she caught a glimpse of the dark and multi-limbed figure rounding the corner, its movements a horrific blur of unnatural speed.

The locker slammed closed with a final, damning clang. Amy and Lain found themselves in near-total darkness, a narrow passage stretching ahead, the sound of pursuit already scratching at the wall behind them.

"Run!" Lain repeated, and they barreled forward into the unknown darkness, leaving the sounds of their hunters temporarily behind.