"There was another." Celestia continued, and now Rosaria's expression had darkened considerably, her crimson eyes fixed on the floor. "A man with a Beast Spirit called Prometheus. He had dreams of being eaten alive."

She let those words hang in the air for a moment.

"The result was..." Celestia's voice faltered slightly. "The man was sent into a coma for months before he recovered. When he finally woke, he wasn't the same person. Parts of him had been... Consumed by those dreams."

Rosaria finally spoke up with a sigh. "We even had a case with a Beast Spirit called Nyarlathotep, which placed a student into a coma on the same day of their awakening." Her hands curled into fists. "She never even got a chance to use her power. Just... Gone, locked inside her own mind."

The room felt colder now, despite the afternoon sunlight still streaming through the window.

Rosaria lifted her gaze to meet Reinhard's directly. "The point is, certain Beast Spirits can severely affect you, and Angra Mainyu is the Source of All Evil. Being the vessel for all curses, evil, sins, guilt, and every negative aspect imaginable is simply calling for exactly this kind of thing."

A shiver ran through Reinhard's entire body.

The thought of being sent into a coma was terrifying enough on its own, but what made it worse was considering when it might happen. What if it occurred while he was in Nuevo with Klein, Anasha, and Anna? He imagined his younger siblings watching him collapse, unable to wake him, not understanding what was wrong. Anasha panicking, Anna trying to shake him awake, and Klein crying face.

Or what if it happened during an expedition? He'd become a liability to his teammates, dead weight they'd have to protect or abandon. Marie fought alone because he was trapped in a nightmare, and Joseph defended both their positions.

The thought made his chest tighten with guilt that hadn't even happened yet.

"Based on what I've experienced from Odin..." Reinhard said slowly. "I'll most likely be seeing the curses and sins that Angra Mainyu has experienced."

Both Celestia and Rosaria grimaced simultaneously, their faces mirroring each other's concern.

Celestia spoke first, her voice heavy with worry. "The biggest issue is we have no idea when these dreams will come." She glanced at Rosaria before continuing. "Of course, this is the same for all Beast Masters. Dreams from Beast Spirits follow no predictable schedule; they come when they come. But because you have two other Beast Spirits already..." She trailed off meaningfully. "It becomes even harder to predict for you specifically. Three different sources of dreams, all competing for space in your sleep."

Rosaria's brows furrowed deeply, creating lines across her forehead, and then she looked at Celestia. "But I'm guessing you have a method?"

Celestia nodded before saying. "Give him the Mystic Key, the Glove of Hypno. His school points should easily cover the cost of it."

Rosaria blinked, processing this suggestion, and then she nodded slowly. "That could work. Yes, that could actually work."

Reinhard raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two women. He lifted his left hand, showing the glove that was in his hand, the one they had given him to hide his changing Beast Symbol and prevent others from peering through to see the marks on his hand. "Is it like the current glove I have now?"

Celestia shook her head, her white-gold hair swaying with the motion. "Not quite. The Glove of Hypno has a different function entirely." She stepped closer, her indigo mantle rustling softly with the movement. "The gloves will send a massive shock through you whenever they sense you feeling a high amount of emotions while dreaming."

Reinhard's eyes widened slightly at that description.

Rosaria picked up the explanation, her voice taking on a more reassuring tone. "This will wake you up from the nightmare and stop it from plunging you into a terrible fate. The shock is intense enough to jolt you back to consciousness, no matter how deep into the dream you've fallen."

"But." Celestia added, raising one finger in warning. "This will stop the dream, yes. However, there is a chance that the same dream will continue the next time you sleep. The gloves interrupt the experience, but they don't erase it from the Beast Spirit's... Intent, I suppose you could say."

Rosaria nodded in agreement. "But that's usually rare. Most of the time, the dreams don't connect with each other. They tend to be an isolated experience from the Beast Spirit's history and experience." She paused, studying Reinhard's face. "Each dream tends to bring something different rather than continuing a linear narrative..."

She trailed off mid-sentence when she saw Reinhard's lips twitch, and then he looked to the side.

Rosaria sighed deeply, the sound carrying both exasperation and concern. "You think you'll be put back into the same dreams, don't you?"

Reinhard met her gaze again and said. "So far, my dreams for Odin have been connected. There have been some gaps in between, which are jumps in time or location, but most of them have connected from the previous one."

Rosaria sighed again, longer this time, and pressed her fingers against her temples while Celestia's expression grew more thoughtful.

"If it really does push you back to the same dream." Celestia said slowly, working through the problem aloud. "Then the gloves will wake you up again." She brightened slightly, finding the solution as she spoke. "And then you can have Brunhilde use one of her runes to give you a dreamless sleep. She has runes specifically designed to grant peaceful, empty rest without any dreams at all."

Reinhard blinked, genuine surprise appearing on his face. "I didn't know runes could do that." He paused, processing the implications. "Doesn't that mean I could possibly do that myself? Create runes for dreamless sleep?"

Rosaria nodded and said. "Most likely, yes. Which will be very much needed in the future. Because Brunhilde's sleep rune will become less effective the stronger you get. Your Beast Master spiritual armor will naturally resist external influences, including beneficial runes. It's an unfortunate side effect of advancement."

Celestia smiled and said softly. "It's fine. We might have more solutions by then. Medical research continues, and new Mystic Keys are discovered regularly. Or maybe..." She spread her hands in a gesture of hopeful uncertainty. "Maybe we're all overreacting, and nothing happens at all. Perhaps your connection with Angra Mainyu will be different from those other cases."

"We can only hope." Rosaria muttered, though her tone suggested she didn't believe in that hope very much.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.