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In an absurd, incomprehensible moment, Setsuna awaits Azmaria=Altemax's words. The eerie forest hums with oppressive silence, its cold air slinking through. No creature stirs, no breath breaks the stillness a suffocating dominion of quiet.
The trees stand rigid, untouched by wind. This unnatural hush screams anomaly, a danger signal.
(Ridiculous.)
Setsuna shakes his head, banishing foolish thoughts. A forest warning humans? Absurd. It cares nothing for their fate.
"Setsuna Kamiya, you answered my summons to this world. Clear on that?" Azmaria's voice cuts through.
"Nope. Not at all."
His bluntness earns a stunned look, but her peerless beauty remains unshaken. Flawless, undeniable she's a vision no one could dispute. Setsuna doesn't try.
He refuses to accept this as reality. Ilus Vale, she called it. Irrelevant. A dream's fabrication, nothing more. Yet, he can't resist probing.
"What's this 'summons'? You dragged me here? Magic or something?"
His tone sharpens, but the notion feels ludicrous. Anime, games sure, he's dabbled in fantasy. Escapism, once. But this, in reality? Unthinkable. No one accepts such madness instantly. It's a dream. He'll wake to dull routine soon enough.
"Indeed. By the power of my Summoning Armament," Azmaria states, her voice flat, almost bureaucratic. As if she's done this countless times. Perhaps she has.
"Summoning Armament? More nonsense," Setsuna mutters, a dream flashing in his mind. Facing an enemy horde, he shouted something crucial, summoned a weapon, and carved through foes. The thrilling part of his nightmares the good part. A lone warrior's ecstasy, game-like, guilt-free. A dream's privilege, not reality's burden.
He knows the difference.
"You perceived the Gate, saw it, touched it, opened it," she continues.
"That diamond castle gate?"
"I know not its form or material. My Gate shifts for each beholder. But you passed through it, yes?"
"I… guess?" Setsuna tilts his head. Touching the gate, he blacked out. Did he open it? Memory blurs.
"Then you answered my summons."
"Didn't mean to," he grumbles. Curiosity drove him, nothing else. A dreamlike spectacle demanded action. In a dream, it's trivial.
"If you didn't intend to, you could've ignored the Gate. Lived your normal life," Azmaria counters.
"No warning! It just dropped from the sky, your 'Gate'!"
He recalls the diamond gate crashing down, its grandeur irresistible. Too unreal to heed caution.
"Its existence is the warning. What caution can stop one who opens a sudden Gate without pause?"
He's speechless. She's right. Warning or not, he'd have opened it. Boredom's grip made the anomaly too enticing to ignore.
The dream's door swung wide, landing him in this forest, facing a named beauty claiming this is Ilus Vale. Too wild, even for a dream.
"You still think this a dream," Azmaria observes.
"Yeah. Nothing proves it's real."
"Fair enough." She glances around, shrugging. "Perhaps I should've summoned you somewhere more… otherworldly."
"That's the issue?"
"Likely."
Maybe she's right. A blatant fantasy world might've swayed him. Or he'd still dismiss it as a dream. He chats with her yet doubts her reality. Naming himself was just her overwhelming presence, not belief.
Not game obsession either. He's barely played lately. Anime, manga half-hearted. No daydreamer, not anymore. That was the past.
Azmaria looks genuinely troubled. "You're a first."
"How so?"
"Most accept it instantly. They see this, know it's not their world, realize they're summoned. But you…"
"Getting lectured by a dream, huh?"
Her exasperated expression feels oddly relatable. It spurs him to ask, "Why summon me? Even dreams have reasons, right?"
He waits, half-expecting something grand. People disappoint, his life's lesson, but here, he's curious. What's this dream's excuse?
"Reason?" Azmaria muses. "Never considered it. Does summoning need one?"
Setsuna nearly stumbles. Disappointing doesn't cover it. He craved fantasy—slay a demon king, be a hero. Anything. It's his dream; can't it entertain him?
"Gotta be one," he insists.
"Hm… wanted a chat buddy. That work?"
She tilts her head, her gesture adorable, more girl than goddess. Her upward glance could melt hearts.
What a captivating woman.
But Setsuna, analyzing coolly, isn't swayed. "No way."
"Joking aside," Azmaria's face hardens, eyes glinting coldly, piercing him. A chill runs down his spine. Sweat beads.
"Your summoning's purpose? Irrelevant now. No time to talk."
"What?" Setsuna shivers, scanning around. A rustle grows the forest groans. His skin prickles. Malice, sharp and vast, swirls nearby.
The dream turns nightmare.
"They've noticed us," Azmaria says.
Grotesque creatures emerge, encircling them.