Silvio remembered how he was staring at the ceiling last night, before falling into a fragile sleep, and he woke up before feeling rested. Thoughts of how unimportant he must be to everyone were the same thoughts that woke him up. He knew he was no one’s priority, and it made him want to sleep and have an endless dream. However, he was born from a dream, and he started to wonder about the truth about the dreams. It was a big waste of time, and they still had to save Cole.

Silvio got up and stretched. The guy seemed to be a decent fellow, but Silvio doubted he would do the same for him. While it was true that he was doing this for Julia, he was unsure how she felt about either of them. Maybe it didn’t matter, but it was a feeling that he couldn’t brush off.

Silvio walked into the bathroom and rinsed his toothbrush. He hated to look at his own reflection. It was always distorted in his view, with his reflection looking back with a frown, a pair of unmoving eyes, and furrowed eyebrows.

He got ready, got his sword and license, texted Arthur and then called Julia. Her voice was still shaky, and she sneezed once. She must have cried so much that she caught a cold. All those tears were for Cole.

He went downstairs, and found Arthur fumbling with his hands and looking left and right. Silvio told Arthur to wait so that he can go get Julia.

Silvio went in front of her dorm building. Julia descended the steps.

“Good morning, Silvio. I got my wand charmed again. I was told not to go in front of DTCA. Oh well.”

Silvio faked a laugh and said, “Yeah”.

The two of them walked.

“How are you, Silvio?” said Julia

“If I’m being honest… not good.”

Julia looked at his face. Her eyes were kind of swollen.

“Why, what’s wrong?” she said

“It’s nothing.”

Nothing important, at least. Julia was wearing a dress with a shirt, and socks. Even in this state of hers, she caught his eye. There was some sort of aura of virtuousness about her, which he wasn’t sure she possessed. It made him want to know her better.

“I need a hug,” she said

At once, Silvio came close and wrapped his arms around her. It was an unusual coincidence that she smelled sweet, just like a strawberry. He could feel her long hair against his arms, and the gentle warmth of her clothes and body. He let go.

“Arthur is waiting for us,” said Silvio

She walked alongside Silvio. He saw Arthur was no longer in that spot. Silvio scanned the area. There were benches, bushes, and signboards from various clubs.

“Arthur, over here,” said Silvio

Arthur wore his backpack, and ran towards Silvio, almost crashing into him.

“Slow down!” said Silvio

Julia giggled. He gazed at her, and for a second, the liveliness in her face was back. After a few seconds, her expression displayed sickness again.

“Let’s go,” said Silvio

The three of them walked toward an area with a DTCA warning sign. He saw how Julia was fixated upon the sign. Arthur got his magic wand out of his bag. It was the shape of a kingfisher bird attached to a stick.

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“Deep-sunken thought chaotic aggregation, start in motion.”

A few birds appeared. They circled around the trio. A circular pattern lit up on the ground which surrounded them. The orange light flowed through them as Silvio shut his eyes with little pressure.

Silvio opened his eyes after he heard Arthur mumble something. They were in a dark room. Silvio told them to follow him. They walked into a place with bright yellow lamps, an evening sky, and various evergreen trees and shrubs.

He watched as his two companions were surveying the place.

Julia said, “This isn’t where I last saw him.”

Silvio looked at Arthur who was fiddling with his magic wand.

“Doesn’t matter as long as you cast the correct spell,” said Arthur

The trio was silent while Arthur looked through his book.

Silvio crossed his arms.

“Umm, let’s see…”

He waved his wand that left orange sparkles behind.

“Seeping and sinking into deep chaos… let our hearts be one with our minds,” said Arthur

The orange sparkles surrounded them. All of a sudden, there was a loud pop followed by a crash. Silvio checked and saw that he took no damage, and then checked the others.

“Julia? Julia?! Arthur?” said Silvio

“I’m fine,” said Julia

“So am I,” said Arthur

Arthur sighed. The sky was grey with clouds. The three of them were standing at the edge of the ground and the tree stood in the centre. Cole was right there in front of their eyes, tied with vines to the trunk several feet above, and had his eyes closed.

The bubbles gave off colourful reflections as they floated towards the three of them. Cole’s face showed no sign of discomfort. Instead, his face had a soft smile and he looked as if he was in a deep yet gentle sleep. His glasses were gone.

“Cole?” said Julia

He opened his eyes and blinked. He turned his head towards Julia. His expression changed to widened eyes.

“J-Julia? It’s dangerous here… go back.”

Cole closed his eyes again and fell back asleep.

“My goodness. The tree hasn’t absorbed him yet,” said Arthur

Silvio did nothing but stare at Cole. He couldn’t help but feel that he had seen this scene somewhere before. The feeling of déjà vu couldn’t be erased.

“Silvio! Just don’t stand there,” said Arthur

He grew holographic dragonfly wings and flew towards Cole.

Silvio saw that Julia got a broom from somewhere.

“If I sit on your broom, it’ll snap,” said Silvio

“Don’t be silly.”

She was in her strawberry witch outfit. Julia was floating six feet above the ground.

“I’ve been practicing,” said Julia

She lowered until Silvio sat on the broom sideways with caution. Julia struggled to fly faster.

“You’re heavy,” said Julia

“What did I tell you?”

He heard a shriek from Arthur. Silvio saw that Arthur was falling as a part of his wing cracked off.

“Arthur!” cried Julia

She somehow got to land, commanded Silvio to get off, and followed Arthur until she caught him.

The harmless bubbles were no longer there. Instead he heard a loud boom followed by a flash of light, and a series of flying bullets and arrows that pierced through the various trees as Silvio ran.

“Julia, let’s get out of here,” said Silvio

The three of them raced off, with Silvio running and the others flying. Silvio took one last look at Cole who had a tear stained face, and pursed lips. Something about it made Silvio feel bad. Cole must have been suffering. But he looked unscathed and healthy until now.

The two of them rushed Arthur to the emergency.

Silvio sat on the bench where Julia was sitting with watery eyes as she stared at the ground.

“This is all my fault… I shouldn’t have involved Arthur,” said Julia

“Yeah…”

Julia sighed.

“I just hope he gets conscious soon,” said Julia

“He will, I hope. I had a similar attack happen to me once. I was up in an hour. But…” said Silvio

“But what?” said Julia

She faced him. He wished he could make her stop crying. It made her look broken. Silvio wanted to hug her, and tell her that everything will be alright. But he chose not to.

“Do you wonder why we got attacked all of a sudden? Now that the core tree has attached itself to Cole… I’m afraid that the two of them share the same mind. If not, Cole would be fully absorbed by the core tree by now,” said Silvio

“What? Do you mean he meant to attack Arthur? He wouldn’t do that, would he?”

Silvio watched as the doctor approached them.

“I don’t think he meant to, but it was he who attacked us,” said Silvio

The doctor said that Arthur was fine and they could take him home.

They took him to the back of Silvio’s friend’s car.

“Julia?” said Arthur

Julia sat beside Arthur and Silvio sat in the front with Cliff driving.

“What’s wrong? Do you need anything?” said Julia

“Cole whispered something weird to me before the attack started,” said Arthur

“What was it?”

Arthur coughed for a bit.

“Give up, there are infinite copies. That’s what Cole said to me.”

Julia wiped her tears away and said, “What could that even mean?”

Silvio watched Julia in the rear-view mirror. She was so close to him at the moment, yet she felt so far away.

Afterwards, Silvio waved goodbye to Julia and left for his room. He fell asleep at once.