Not only would it explain these inexplicable urges she’d had ever since she first came to the King’s audience chamber, but it would also explain why she felt so ineffective as a Knight of Understanding. When she compared herself to Ricardo, it was clear to see that there was an air of comfort and a fluidity in turning his empathetic nature into concrete action, all of which she had demonstrably lacked. And maybe that was because she had been putting a glass cover over a flame all this time, handicapping herself by trying to fit into the mold of a soft, affable aide when really she was always meant to burn ferociously as a warrior. But there was one problem with this idea, bringing to mind a face, a plunged helmet, and a crimson cape as an unforgettable image that pierced Lucy’s mind like a spear.

  “Diana…”

  She detested everything about her personality, her demeanour, and her way of doing things. Now that they were apart and no longer forced to work together, Lucy could admit all of this with scathing honesty. If Lucy couldn’t stand the idea of being anything like her, then surely she couldn’t be secretly pining for the Axis of Rebellion. She wouldn’t let that be true, and her body shook down to her soul as every fibre of her being proclaimed that intention. And on top of that, Diana clearly believed Lucy would never be one of her ilk, for she had claimed quite confidently that the two of them were destined to clash again.

  Lucy gasped as she remembered another important question, one that had left her utterly confused just before leaving Kenneth’s Dream.

  “Are you quite all right?” said the King, who had witnessed Lucy grasping and shaking her head, then remaining in complete silence.

  “I-I’m fine,” Lucy said, bringing her head back up and forcing a solid stance on her cloud platform. “But there’s something I heard from another Dream Knight that’s been bugging me. She said that we would meet again. I already know that Dreams will sometimes summon multiple Dream Knights, so by chance I might end up with her in the same Dream again. But she made it sound like the two of us meeting again was expected or even inevitable. Why would she be so sure of that?”

  “I see. It is interesting that information was imparted to you about Dream Knight teams, yet the concept of Intertwined Icons was not explained. But that is no matter, for I shall draw upon the knowledge of the collective unconscious.”

  Besides this mention of a new term, “Intertwined Icons,” Lucy’s mind fixated on this mention of the knowledge of the collective unconscious. She knew from the King’s earlier explanations that all human minds were connected to the collective, but given the conversation they were having, Lucy wondered if that connection was purportedly a good thing as the King was implying. Could it have been the reason the King was acting against her wishes, influencing him with thoughts and desires that weren’t even her own? Thoughts and desires brewed by the mental mass of all generations of human life, choosing to bear down on Lucy’s soul? The thought was chilling, like looking up at the night sky to see the moon rapidly plunging toward the spot where one stood.

  But Lucy caught her choppy breathing and reaffirmed her stout stance. No matter the nature of where this information was coming from, she need this answer now.

  The King stood straighter than before and raised his head so that his gaze, if it were visible, would have been looking aloft into the distant sky. He said: “When the roads of destiny for Dream Knights intersect, leading down a unified path to the successful rescue of a Dreamer, their roads do not break into their own directions forever more afterwards. In fact, it is quite the opposite. For you see, the collective unconscious is always watching the efforts of Dream Knights. When it witnesses multiple Dream Knights combining their efforts toward a resounding success, that picture of teamwork and camaraderie is forever impressed into the collective. Because of this, those Dream Knights are highly likely to be summoned as a team again throughout their journeys. It is not dissimilar from how pantheons of gods in many mythologies are often woven together into the same stories. Like the figures themselves, their relationships become iconic, hence they are Intertwined Icons.”

  “I see…that does make sense.” Lucy let out a breath. Now that the King had explained it, it really was a simple concept to grasp for anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of mythology. Poseidon and Athena appeared in quite a few stories of Greek mythology due to the collective understanding of their rivalry. Similarly, Thor and Loki naturally cropped up in the same stories due to their familial relations. These were all relations between mythical figures as old as the art of storytelling.

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  And since Dream Knights occupied a similar spot in the collective unconscious’s memories, it wasn’t hard to believe the same could apply to Dream Knights who had teamed up in the past. This made Lucy’s heart swell with hope, for this meant she had a good chance at meeting Keilani and Ricardo again and seeking their forgiveness for having let them fall to their untimely demises.

  But then like an impatient hurricane storming over her mind, Diana’s last words to her echoed out over the sky.

  We’ll be seeing each other again, after all.

  Lucy took a white-knuckled grip on her Ideal’s handle, balling her other hand into a fist. Were she and Diana truly destined to clash with each other, over and over, for time immemorial in the collective unconscious of humanity? Although she was enthused from knowing that she really would get a chance to put Diana in her place, the thought of having to go through it many more times left her feeling bemused and already exhausted just imagining it. And what if that was already slated to happen in the next Dream Lucy travelled to?

  The next Dream…

  Lucy turned around, looking out across the floor-less audience chamber at the far corner where the doors known as Dream Thresholds stood — and nearly jumped. Only the tops of those doors were visible, for all the rest was obscured by a thick, ink-black fog billowing out of one of the opened doors.

  Wheeling back around to face the King, Lucy struggled to speak slowly and coherently as she said: “Wh-what’s going on? Isn’t Encroachment supposed to happen very slowly?”

  “That is the normal course of events, yes,” said the King, his absolute calm sounding even eerier to Lucy now that she knew there was darkness pouring into her Dream as they spoke. The King continued: “However, as was explained previously, the rate of Encroachment is tied to the mental state of the Dream Knight. If the Dream Knight is sufficiently stressed or otherwise in mental peril over the unfulfilled Dream rescue, it is possible for Encroachment to progress at a more rapid pace.”

  “But that makes no sense!” said Lucy. “I haven’t thought about it since entering the last Dream up until now.”

  “That may very well be true on a conscious level, and perhaps even at the sub-conscious level. However, unconscious anxiety plays an important factor as well, and in many cases might have an even greater impact on the rate of Encroachment.”

  “Unconscious?” Lucy wasn’t even sure how to gauge if she had been unconsciously worrying about the Dream of endless darkness.

  As if reading Lucy’s thoughts, the King said, “It is a level that is difficult to consicously discern. However, I implore you to ask yourself: ever since you returned here from that incomplete Dream, have you ever felt truly relaxed?”

  “I…” Lucy looked down, bringing her open palms up close to her eyes. The answer to the King’s question was simple: she had been in a constant state of unease and hyper-vigilance, even during those few moments in Kenneth’s Dream when they were in relatively safe conditions. So if it was unconscious anxiety about the other Dream driving this constantly-perturbed state, it would all make sense.

  But still, accepting this idea didn’t help with Lucy’s growing sense of disconnect with everything around her. Inspecting her hands, which were lightly shaking, she wasn’t sure what of her senses to even trust anymore. Encroachment could happen without her even knowing; her repeated clashes with Diana could be predestined completely outside of her control; and the entity who had guided and aided her all this time could withhold information because something deemed her unready for it. It all appeared to be a cruel joke, and here she was, floating high up in the sky with everywhere and nowhere to go.

  “Should you find yourself lost,” the King said suddenly in a tone that was calm as always but utterly inscrutable, “it is helpful to ask clear questions and answer them simply. So, I ask: Do you wish to rescue the Dreamer in that unfulfilled Dream?”

  Lucy remained silent, taking several more breaths as she stared at her gloved hands. Despite everything, the answer to that question was clear, and with it she was able to find her voice again: “Yes. I do.”

  The King regarded her for a beat, then asked: “And will you take the necessary steps to prepare yourself to cross through that Dream Threshold once more.”

  Lucy smiled. She knew that he was really asking if she would go ahead and do the alignment and Feat update, having successfully looped the conversation back around to what he had wanted all along. The slyness of it triggered Lucy’s rebellious irritation once again, but at the same time, she couldn’t deny that the darkness spreading out through her Dream would only get worse the longer she hesitated.

  So Lucy made a promise to herself: she would settle this Dream, rescue that Dreamer she had yet to meet, and achieve success entirely on what she believed where her own merits and ideals. It was the only way for her to reconstruct the beliefs that had been shattered along the way to her return. And above all, this was the chance for her to reaffirm that she was nothing like Diana.

  This, more than anything, led her to raise her head high, meeting the King’s faceless visage, and say: “Yes. Let’s update my alignments.”