"So… to those monsters with white masks beneath their faces, wouldn't someone like me, who can't take off their own face, be just as bizarre to them as the Faceless are to us?"
Gawain spoke slowly.
"...Indeed. From that perspective, it makes sense," Andersen replied, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "So what you're saying is, you may have gone through something akin to what 'The Real One' experienced… and you think your identity might be 'The Real One' or at least someone with the potential to become that?"
"Precisely," Gawain nodded. "That masquerade I encountered at the very start—perhaps that was already within the deepest layer of the nightmare. I just didn't realize it back then."
"If that's the case, then the entrance to the depths of the nightmare would be...?"
"It should be with Queen Kassilda," Gawain said. "When I first entered the dream, the first thing I saw was her sleeping form, and the place I found myself in was her bedchamber. Even this sword…"
He tapped the hilt of the blade strapped to his back.
"This sword was something I 'borrowed' from her bedchamber."
"I see..." Ritsuka Fujimaru nodded. "In that case, let's trust Mr. Jekyll's judgment and go meet this Queen Kassilda together!"
Seeing that the others were, at least partially, buying into his nonsense, Gawain kept a straight face and nodded calmly.
"Then our next destination shall be Ityl Palace."
—Of course, everything he had just said was complete bull.
The real reason he believed the entrance to the nightmare's depths lay with Queen Kassilda was a simple one.
Gawain casually opened his task log and looked at the most recent entry in the completed tasks list:
[Special Task: Escape from Kassilda's Deep Nightmare]
When he first saw that quest title, he hadn't thought much of it. He was, after all, clearly within a nightmare already—it didn't strike him as unusual.
But now, in hindsight… wasn't that essentially the system giving him a big hint?
Knowing the outcome in advance, all he had to do now was reverse-engineer a plausible process. Whether it made sense or not didn't matter—so long as everyone believed it.
"However, before we set out, I think there are three things we need to address."
"Three things? What are they?" Ritsuka asked.
"I suggest we split into two teams," Gawain said. "We can't have everyone diving into the dream to reach Ityl Palace. We need to leave people in reality as well—to go after their base of operations."
"Oh? Why?"
"Have you forgotten what Babbage wrote in his logs? About their original plan?"
Gawain picked up the worn notebook again.
"They had planned for Paracelsus to engineer a type of mist. Though it wouldn't send people into dreams, it would expand explosively upon contact with electricity, and it carried lethal levels of magical toxicity to ordinary humans."
"That plan was shelved after Makiri discovered the ritual to summon the King in Yellow... but all the necessary components had already been assembled."
"And now, with two of their people still out there—and probably possessing the ability to traverse freely between dream and reality—if they realize we've foiled the King in Yellow's summoning, they could very well pivot back to the old plan. And that would still mean the destruction of humanity."
"So we need a two-pronged assault: one team to stop their final ritual in the depths of the nightmare, and another to track down and disable Babbage's mist generator in reality before they can retaliate."
He paused, then continued.
"Fortunately, my other persona—Hyde—is still in the real world. He's reliable. So we don't need to send a large force—just someone to deliver the intel."
"Mr. Jekyll, you've really thought this through!" Ritsuka gave a thumbs-up.
"But," Andersen interjected, "if we split up, it'll be hard to share intel. Without a communication link, coordination could be a problem."
"Well... in that case, we'll just have to trust the other team," Ritsuka said, clenching her fist with determination.
"You're such a damn optimist... but fine. That works too," Andersen sighed and gave a reluctant nod.
"Um... excuse me..." A small voice suddenly piped up from the corner. Nursery Rhyme peeked out, speaking timidly.
"If you need someone to pass messages between the dream and the real world... I think I can do that."
"Oh right!" Gawain slapped his forehead.
Nursery Rhyme's ability to traverse between dream and reality wasn't particularly useful in combat, but as a messenger? She was perfect.
"Well then, with that problem solved, let's move on to the remaining two matters..."
He turned back to the group.
The next day, under another descent of the Black Star, time rewound once more. Gawain waited at Scotland Yard and soon welcomed back the group re-entering the dream.
After a brief discussion, the teams were decided.
Since Hyde was already in the real world, the team assigned to support him would be small: Ritsuka Fujimaru, Mash Kyrielight, Hina Kagetsu, and Andersen.
Andersen would pass information to Hyde, Ritsuka would coordinate with him, Mash would protect Ritsuka, and Hina—whose powers were ineffective in the dream—would assist in the real world.
That left Mordred, Bavanzi, Jack, and Frankenstein to join Gawain's team, providing the firepower for the dream assault.
Nursery Rhyme would act as the courier between the two teams.
With the teams split and their roles clear, they set off. Gawain's group headed for Ityl Palace in the dream world, while Hyde's team descended into the depths of London's underground.
According to Babbage's logs, the heart of the original "Mist Plan"—and now the "Dream Plan"—lay beneath the city, deeper than the subway system.
No one knew who had constructed the vast catacombs down there, but they had once served as a haven for cultists—until PBM wiped them out. Babbage had then repurposed the location to house the mist generator, "Angrboda," powered by a Holy Grail.
Although there weren't massive numbers of monsters in the surface fog as in the original version of the plan, the underground mist tunnels were heavily defended. Hordes of creatures patrolled the corridors.
—But to Hyde, this was barely a warm-up.
"Oi, you lot! Can't you move any faster?"
After wiping out yet another wave of monsters, Hyde turned around and shouted back down the tunnel.
His voice echoed far. Two seconds later, Ritsuka's faint reply reached him:
"Lord Hyde! Wait! Please slow down!"
"Hmph."
He didn't bother responding. As soon as he confirmed the others were still following, he turned back and dove headlong into the approaching swarm of chaotic mechanical beasts, tearing them apart with ease.
He fought alone at the vanguard, obliterating everything in his path, moving so fast that the rest of the team could barely keep up. He had to stop periodically just to let them catch up—like a walking cheat code.
Meanwhile, progress in the dream was slower.
The monsters around Ityl Palace were stronger than those in other parts of the nightmare. Even with four battle-ready Servants, Gawain's team couldn't bulldoze their way through like Hyde.
But after fighting their way through wave after wave, they finally reached the palace gates.
"This is it. I remember this place."
Ascending the steps, Gawain's eyes fell on a corridor with vaulted ceilings and columns, potted trees lining the walkway, and a stone bench to the left.
He remembered it well—from when he had fled the masquerade and jumped off the balcony, injuring his leg. This was the spot where he'd landed.
With that in mind, retracing his steps was simple. His enhanced body—combined with a little explosive rune boost—made it easy for him to leap back up onto the balcony.
Inside, the grand stone hall was exactly as he remembered: empty thrones, marble tables piled with lavish food and drink still steaming with warmth—but no people.
—Because no one was here to enjoy it.
Gawain gave the food an extra-long glance, confirming that it wasn't going to turn into charred hands, slimy slugs, or tentacles. Only then did he look away.
The memory of everything morphing into grotesque horrors during the last dream still haunted him.
"Come on."
He shook his head, driving away the unpleasant memories, and led the others forward.
They passed under three vaulted arches and into a misty hallway. This time, they met no resistance—no monsters, no traps.
At the end of the corridor, they arrived at Kassilda's bedchamber.
Just as he remembered: a vast, sparsely decorated chamber overlooking a lake. Grand yet desolate. Rot and decay lingered in the air. One wall bore a tapestry of a girl leaping over a bull's horns. Another held only a bare mounting panel.
But this time, the queen herself was nowhere to be seen.
"Looks like Her Majesty isn't home?" Bavanzi muttered. "But if she's not here, how are we supposed to enter her nightmare?"
"Maybe there's some kind of trigger?" Mordred guessed. "Like in those knightly tales—something to activate the scene?"
Gawain scanned the room, then shook his head.
"No need. I think I know what's missing."
He drew the sword from his back, strode to the empty wall mount, and hung the blade upon it.
Immediately, the King in Yellow's manuscript slipped from his chest and flipped open on its own, golden script glowing on its pages:
[Prologue]
[Prelude: "Ilik Chudak," a traditional Tuvan dirge.]
[A room within Ityl Palace. The chamber is sparsely adorned, old and crumbling. To the left, a balcony overlooks a lake. The sky is pink; two suns hover above the water. To the right, a corridor. On the wall hang an ancient sword and a tapestry of a girl leaping over a bull's horns.]
[(As the curtain rises, Kassilda stands at the window. She wears a modest, elegant gown and a silver crown.)]
"Ah!" Bavanzi suddenly cried, pointing at the window. "Someone's there!"
Gawain turned to look.
A curvaceous figure in a simple gown stood gazing out the window. At the sound of their voices, she turned.
"Father?"
Mordred's eyes widened as she recognized the face.
But before anyone could respond, a blinding light erupted from the manuscript, engulfing them all.