The door frame was lined with blood, the hinges were made of human tendons and connecting the door and the frame were tons of nerves. Despite the door’s complexion, it let Arata tear it open. The hinges moving with Arata's pulling to reach his next destination.

  On the other side of the door is the Selena who dropped him the sword, she rushes over in fear.

  “Arata! Are you real? I can prove my identity-” Selena exclaims before Arata cuts her off.

  “No need, you dropped me that weapon, it's enough for me to trust you, besides, you seem to have no… defects. As for the proof I am real, I don't really know what I could offer you. This must be a pretty terrible nightmare for you.” Arata explains before Selena grabs his arm.

  “When I saw another me, she told me to keep going up. Did you find anything on whether they’d be trustworthy or not?” Selena questions.

  I don't even know the layout of this place. If this is the dream world, we just have to survive until we wake up. “Let's stay here for as long as we can. We're in the dream world, there's just a timer until we wake up.” Arata beckons her to sit with him.

  “I’ll bandage that wound…” Selena pulls out a knife, shredding the sleeve of her white shirt.

  Oh, I almost forgot I got stabbed by a lance. It feels strange, there's blood but no pain nor did it really impede my movements during the fight, other than the initial shock of being stabbed. When the knight died, she didn't drop a script either?

  Arata sighs, taking his mind off the situation, “You’ve got a pretty big collection of weapons, where'd you find them?” Not that I’m complaining but if there were more where that came from, I’d love that.

  Selena responds, “I sleep with them, I had them from when I used to be a squire… it makes me feel secure at night when I hold them.”

  Ah… I probably shouldn't ask more than.

  As she finishes wrapping up Arata's arm, he is relieved that he can feel the touch of the cloth even if the pain is numbed to him. He peers down into the lowest floor of the mental hospital. Watching from the ledge Selena had dropped the sword from.

  “I saw some pretty strange versions of you… You’d probably want to be spared the details though. This place… your dream takes place in a mental hospital?” Arata questions her.

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  Selena sighs, her shaking makes it sound like an admission of guilt as she scrapes away at her legs in frustration at herself, “Ye- yes, it's a common experience for me. I don't know why my mind always goes to such dark-”

  “You think I'd look hot in a straitjacket. All my other outfits are picked apart for make me look homeless.” Arata comments, Selena is left stunned, after picturing it in her mind and being unimpressed, she grounds herself and lets go of her leg. The comment lightened the mood a little, Selrna giggling at the immensely stupid comment.

  Wait- mental asylums shouldn't exist yet in this world…

  There were cameras, reinforced glass? How could she recognize it? Arata glances at her in confusion, trying to recall what other things he knows about these places.

  “These kinda places can be harsh… people who need help are locked up just to be treated like animals.” Arata points out, causing a frown on Selena.

  Selena sighs, “Just asking for help doesn’t save someone, Arata… nor does just trying to help someone. An outsider may think such an institution is good if just given a vague idea.”

  There was an awkward silence; it wasn’t a fun topic, nor did it give much insight to Arata. He wanted to steer away from the conversation.

  Luckily, Arata has the next hour to engage in conversation with Selena. She's nice to talk to, soft spoken but has a lot to say. Arata also watches the various Selena variants from above, partially due to morbid curiosity and another part to make sense of this place.

  Suddenly, darkness begins to shroud the first floor, crumbling and crunching is heard; the screams of the patients grow silent. The all-consuming darkness creeps its way up the asylum.

  “Selena, do you know a way up? We're running!” Arata points out as the two make their way to a staircase.

  They open the door to a nearby stairwell, it looks to continue up and down limitlessly yet from below you can see the darkness. They should've trusted the Selena variant.

  The two of them run, luckily, the void is too slow to be an efficient pursuer. That is if it was the only threat. A dismembered head of Selena attacks, several heads fused together, decapitated yet alive.

  One of the heads attempts to bite Selena and she's quick, deflecting the fangs. Despite being blocked, it's mouth spews flames, engulfing around the knife. Arata dashes forward, pushing Selena out of harm’s way but his arm is burned. These creatures are nightmare fuel! We don’t have time to fight. Should we just run past?

  Slashing back at the creature with his sword, having no fear for his own death or any pain from its attacks, he swiftly swings towards the head of the creature as chunks of its brain fly out of its skull.

  The Selena variant lets out a screech, tumbling further down the stairs but when it dies, the level of the darkness rises. Now it's faster and they’ve reached the top of the stairwell.

  The two of them are swallowed whole, their eyes go dark. The sensation was like falling, yet it never ended.