Noticing that the purification ritual was successful, Aurora cleaned up the outlined crescent symbol perfectly.
At the same time, Sonar grabbed the Tier 5 Ethereal Artifact from the ground. Using his Ethereon, he removed the seal from the transparent jar.
Aurora then got up, looking at Sonar and observing three stars leaving the jar. They looked like little fireflies, lightly illuminating the dark room that only had faint purple moonlight creeping in.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
Aurora and Sonar waited patiently as the three stars clung to themselves and Johnathan.
Nine seconds, ten seconds.
Instantly, Aurora and Sonar saw their entire surroundings turn dark.
After an unknown amount of time had passed, a grey fog permeated the dark expanse. In a few seconds, it parted itself like a dispersing storm.
Immediately the duo found themselves near a school in Luna. While it looked like a normal school at first, there were many key differences:
The hovering roof and staircase that led to it shifted randomly, as if it was glitching out of reality. Many people that were walking about had foggy bodies and blurry faces. The holograms that were plastered on the school's front had strange letters and symbols that appeared Dreamurian, but weren't. There was noise from the students, teachers and parents, but it was indecipherable no matter how close one got to them. The horizon had clearly stopped past a certain point…
Aurora and Sonar immediately knew what this meant, based on their ethereal intuition. They had successfully entered Johnathan's dream.
Using their powers as an Ember of Dreams, they retained their lucidity and their forms.
"Tim! How was school?" Behind them, they had heard an excited male voice. They looked and saw a man dressed in casual clothing spreading his arms out for a hug. This was Johnathan. He was lively and expressive as he looked at his son.
Timothy, wearing a clearly faded out black blazer, ran towards his father. They embraced each other as they talked about the mundane things of their daily lives.
Aurora stared at them for a few seconds, having no thoughts.
She only stopped when she felt her ethereal intuition flare up.
Something was staring at her from behind!
In an extremely quick motion, she turned her head. Even though she saw nothing abnormal, only the glitching staircase and the faceless people, she knew something had deliberately retreated itself in order to hide.
Following her ethereal intuition, Aurora traveled behind a certain tree. She moved so fast it almost looked as if she teleported.
Immediately, she saw the thing that was staring at her. It was a black and purple humanoid blob that had its eyes spilling out of its 'body'.
"An evil spirit…it came in because of his weak mental state due to his corruption…" Aurora whispered to herself as her nebula-like eyes glimmered.
At that moment, it quickly disappeared. It was like the spirit was being torn to shreds by a grinder.
"It must've been really bad before the purification. There are still remnants…"
"Sonar," Aurora then used the nature of dreams to talk to her partner without even seeing him. "Are you getting the Ethereon remnants?"
"Yes," He replied as his voice echoed in Aurora's ears. "They're strange, like little blobs of blue light. I'm destroying as much as I can."
"Excellent. I'll try to keep the scenery of the dream the same to make things easier for us." She replied.
"Wow, Aurora. You're so smart for that." Sonar said, nearly in a sarcastic tone.
"Dude, it's common sense…" She almost didn't reply, but she felt the urge to anyway.
…
After an unknown period of time, Sonar and Aurora had finally destroyed any remnants of Ethereon and evil spirits.
Thus, using their dream manipulation powers, they had forcefully exited the dream.
However, they weren't tired or groggy. They instantly took in the sensory details of the room. The moonlight still peeked through the window, signifying not much time had passed.
Thus, Sonar and Aurora didn't waste any time as little stars began to cling to them once more. Sonar walked up to Johnathan and saw that while his eyes still looked heavy, the darkness under them had virtually disappeared.
Raising his hand, he looked at Aurora, who had held the Ethereal Artifact in her hand. She nodded, giving him the signal to wake up Johnathan.
Pa!
"Gah…!"
He softly struck Johnathan's neck, causing him to gasp somewhat painfully.
The moment Aurora saw Johnathan's eyes wake up, her eyes began to shine once more as she used her Ethereon, making the ethereal energy wrap around the bottle's tip.
As it did, the stars stopped clinging onto Johnathan, Aurora and Sonar and immediately began to rush inside of the case, as if they were being vacuumed inside.
As soon as Sonar saw that the Ethereal Artifact was sealed, he used his powers as an Ember of Dreams to forcefully make Johnathan go to sleep once more. This was rather easy, as he was already tired.
Whoosh…
Not even a second later, Sonar and Aurora witnessed Astra coming through the door.
Her eyes widened slightly as she asked, "We're done?"
"Yes." Aurora nodded as she placed the Ethereal Artifact and the case that used to hold the Nightlight Grass back in her jacket's pocket.
"After the 98th time…" Astra remarked.
"You were counting?" Aurora asked as she tilted her head.
"No. I just calculated it." Astra replied nonchalantly.
Aurora was still confused, but she had no further thoughts. She took another item out of her pocket—it looked like a small metal disk with a small violet light on top of it.
While they were discussing, Sonar had grabbed the Moonlight Dust from the ground. In a similar fashion to Aurora, he went to the ground and drew an outlined circle with four dots of differing sizes inside of it.
"Is this the ritual to go back to the Dreamlander facility?" Astra asked, curiously.
"Yes. This one is a teleportation ritual." Sonar said with a smile as he got up, brushing his hands off in the process. "I'm not good at explaining rituals, so…yeah. That's why Aurora did it."
"Anyway, the symbol is different. It still represents the moon, though I don't know what the four smaller circles represent." After saying this, Sonar went to lean on the door, watching Aurora.
Astra placed one of her hands to her side as she thought, "They represent the Dimension of Dreams and Subconsciousness being the fourth dimension…"
She then looked at Aurora, whose slightly tanned face was lit by a violet light in the dark.
This was because she was typing on a holographic keyboard, looking up at a holographic screen.
"It's been a long time since I've seen one of those…" Astra thought as she looked at the keyboard.
"She still likes using those ancient relics, huh…" Sonar thought to himself.
"What are you typing?" She asked.
"I'm typing the note that I'll leave for the family when they wake up. I'll mention the fact that Johnathan is cured, that they should never venture outside without supervision, and that the Dreamlanders will give them 100 Veylars for extensive rehabilitation and compensation." Aurora explained emotionlessly.
"How generous." Astra said in her head. "I can't imagine that happening back on the previous Earth…"
Despite such thoughts, she wanted to ask a next question.
"Why are you leaving a note? Can't we just wait for the rest of the family to wake up?"
"Not really." Aurora finished typing as she looked at Astra. "While it is possible, it is better to do so now where no one can see us perform the ritual. Plus, I don't feel like staying here for too long."
She then left the sights of the hologram, allowing its violet light to touch her back, casting a faint shadow on her face. Using the a moment of silence, she obtained the jar that held the Moonlight Dust and the case that held the Nightlight Grass from the ground and placed it into her pocket.
"And besides…" Subtly, her voice got softer. Noticing this, Sonar's smile left his face. He knew what she was going to say next.
"As Dreamlanders, we save, protect, and fight for others, despite working in the darkness. Despite our true selves being unseen and unknown."
"This is what we do, even if it causes us to die."
As she said this, she walked closer to the circular symbol on the ground. She casted her gaze downwards as her nebula-like eyes lost a little bit of their luster.
Seeing the change in the mood, Astra didn't know what to say. She only nodded, trying to digest the words. Especially as she recalled the countless gazes that stared at her from earlier.
With a poker face, Sonar walked up to the symbol. Astra did the same.
"Sonar, you'll report the case to Captain Smith." Aurora said in an authoritative, but soft tone.
"I'll place the items back in the Umbral Reliquary."
"And Dreamer Sera," She turned her head towards Astra. "Good job on your first mission. It was a success partly because of you."
Astra nodded almost awkwardly, but she kept her composure.
"For this ritual," Aurora continued looking at Astra. "Since it's a transportation ritual, an imparting of Ethereon isn't needed. But for the last part, make sure to say: 'We ask for you to transport us back to safety in the Dreamlander facility—an organization that serves you and God's kingdom.'" She later added.
"I understand." Astra replied.
After a second of silence, all three of them prayed for the Demigoddess in a similar fashion like before.
"The Queen of the Abstract,"
"The Illusory Sovereign,"
"The Demigoddess of Dreams and Subconsciousness."
"We pray to you and we ask for your guidance, your power, your strength."
"We ask for you to transport us back to safety in the Dreamlander facility—an organization that serves you and God's kingdom."
Suddenly, an ethereal and illusory feeling rushed throughout their bodies. The white outline of the full moon glowed, almost illuminating the room.
A grey fog spewed out from the four dots, like it was lava coming out of a volcano. It wrapped around the three Dreamlanders, and like flags blowing in the wind, their hair and clothing flapped upwards as their bodies lit up.
In that instant, the three of them disappeared from Johnathan's room.
The only thing that was left was the violet hologram—whose light stretched towards the bed—and the symbol of the moon on the ground.