Faced with Acheron's question, Black Swan replied that she and Stelle wanted to ask her the same thing.
After a brief silence, Acheron said, "Perhaps it isn't as complicated as you're imagining. It's all thanks to... a Masked Fool. Maybe something I said without thinking hurt her... After a burst of dazzling colors, I found myself here."
Listening to Acheron's description and recalling her own brief encounter with Sparkle, Stelle found it hard to imagine what this Galaxy Ranger, who was always getting lost, had said to that Foolish girl.
But thinking about how Sparkle had suddenly thrown both her and Firefly into this primitive dreamscape without a word, Stelle now only wanted to give Acheron a thumbs-up and say, "Nicely done!"
Beside her, Black Swan narrowed her eyes and stared at Acheron. After a moment of silence, she asked hesitantly, "You... aren't hiding anything from us, are you?"
Looking at Black Swan, Acheron let out a short chuckle.
"Hiding something? Before a Memokeeper, I don't think that's something I could do."
Acheron still didn't seem to realize where the problem lay.
Stelle, meanwhile, couldn't help admiring Black Swan's manners. Even though she was a Memokeeper with the frightening ability to peer into memories, she didn't casually use that power to obtain the information she wanted.
Black Swan rose another notch in Stelle's estimation.
Of course, perhaps Black Swan really was well-mannered, but not to the point of asking other people's permission every time she wanted to use her own abilities. In reality, her hesitation came from another reason.
Did you remember the slight PTSD symptoms she was currently suffering from?
The strange Galaxy Ranger who had left her at a disadvantage was none other than the Acheron standing before her.
The atmosphere fell silent again.
Black Swan looked at Acheron with a strange expression. This was the second time today she had found herself speechless.
After a moment, Acheron was the first to break the silence, inviting the two of them to travel together.
As the current guide, Black Swan asked Stelle what she thought.
Stelle naturally had no objections. No matter what, after watching this Galaxy Ranger mow through enemies like cutting grass just now, she had already confirmed how powerful the woman was. That was clearly another layer of safety within this primitive dreamscape.
The three then set off together, with Black Swan teaching them several simple ways of moving through the memory zone.
Things like reversing gravity and running along walls all became ordinary sights here.
Afterward, the three boarded an elevator leading to the lobby.
But when they stepped out of the elevator, they hadn't arrived at the lobby at all. Instead, they found themselves in a twisted corridor where the walls bulged inward and outward like building blocks, looking eerie beneath the dim lighting.
The three walked to the end of the corridor, where a crimson door stood.
Black Swan stopped the other two there. She could sense that beyond this door, the memory zone became even more twisted and chaotic.
That made Black Swan realize that if they continued following the rules like this, the time needed to reach the lobby would only keep increasing.
She had no choice but to use some methods that were... less elegant.
Seeing this scene inevitably reminded Black Swan of Nero.
The reason she had praised Nero's ability to manipulate memoria wasn't only because she had seen how effortlessly and smoothly the child kneaded it. There were other reasons as well.
Ordinary people might not have noticed, but as a Memokeeper, Black Swan had seen the strange phenomenon with perfect clarity.
The memoria floating around Nero, whether dense or thin, no matter how chaotic it became, would undergo a kind of collapse on its own, forming an extremely stable memoria structure around the boy.
Even though the model of that memoria and the connections between its finer particles weren't sturdy at all, to the point that they could even serve as a textbook example of how not to manipulate memoria, once that mysterious collapse was complete, the overall structure would become astonishingly solid, almost indestructible.
Even a Memokeeper would find it extremely difficult to manipulate or dismantle such a stable structure.
Black Swan didn't know how this strange collapse of memoria around Nero came about, nor could she determine whether it was something Nero did intentionally or simply an unconscious influence he emitted.
But either way, this kind of transformation in memoria was something she had never heard of before.
If Nero were here now, they probably wouldn't need to go through all this extra trouble.
Perhaps the moment they stepped out of the elevator, the lobby would already have been waiting outside the doors.
At that moment, Black Swan stopped Stelle and Acheron, asking them to wait for a while.
She herself closed her eyes, extended her senses, began examining the structure of this memory zone, and attempted to search the entire area for living beings.
"Hm... found it. I can see the center of this dream... the Family's people... and several other figures feeling their way forward. It seems your friends aren't having an easy time either... one, two, three...
"Hm?... No, that's not right. Why is there a fourth person searching for the way to the lobby? Wait... this is... the young girl who was with you before?"
"Firefly? Shouldn't she have already returned to reality?" Stelle asked.
"I don't understand."
Black Swan shook her head. Without opening her eyes, she answered Stelle while continuing to search for Nero.
Because of the strange phenomenon surrounding Nero, the Memokeeper unhesitatingly directed her senses toward the area with the most stable memoria within the range of her perception.
"But there's a familiar silhouette in the memory zone. She gives off a feeling very similar to hers... Does she have some reason she absolutely has to venture deeper into the dream? Is she... running? Or fleeing...? There seems to be something behind her..."
As she reached this point, Black Swan suddenly frowned.
She seemed to have fallen into shock.
Within her perception, the most stable region of the memory zone was moving rapidly, continuously disrupting the previously stable memoria.
Yet after it passed through, even the disturbed memoria would collapse into a stable reality.
There was no doubt that the constantly moving point was Nero.
When Black Swan expanded her perception and observed more closely, she saw the following scene.
A purple dinosaur, or rather, a memetic entity, was sprinting at full speed.
As it ran, the huge creature spewed thorns and flames from its mouth, scorching every memetic entity that tried to block its path until they were charred black.
But of course Black Swan didn't think the memetic entities were fighting among themselves.
The dinosaur-shaped memetic entity had an obvious goal.
It was charging straight toward the lobby.
The walls, doors, even the ceiling and floor of the dream hotel were smashed apart by the enormous creature.
This primitive dreamscape, this gigantic maze, was being left riddled with holes by its straightforward charge.
And the one directing this dinosaur memetic entity and causing all this destruction... was Nero.
At that moment, the child was riding on the dinosaur like a general leading an army into battle.
Wherever they passed through this primitive dreamscape, nothing remained intact.
The few memetic entities lucky enough to survive had missing arms and legs. Some of the more unfortunate ones had only half a head left.
One after another, these unlucky fellows hid behind ruined walls, trembling as they watched the terrifying figure disappear into the distance like frightened little quails.
"How long has that person even been in here? Don't you think he's becoming more and more ruthless?"
"Tell me about it... It hasn't even been that long, and he's already turned the entire memory zone into complete chaos."
"Do you know what everyone else calls him? The Memetic Entity Slaughter Machine. My god!"
"And that Shell of Faded Fury actually defected. It's helping that guy run wild around here. Those two together are practically Boss Stone and his lackey!"
"Shh! Keep your voices down. Don't let that person hear you. If he suddenly comes back, we won't be able to take it."