"Nara, wake up! how can you fall asleep like this?"

I opened my eyes to find Sistina's face right in front of mine. The distance between us was in centimeters which pointed towards the fact that she came closer because of some kind of curiosity.

"Is there something on my face?"

"No, but were you having some kind of weird dream? You were making strange faces."

I probably showed reactions here when the voice cornered me with that countdown. Before she could ask further questions, I decided to shut the matter down with a simple reply.

"Probably because I fell asleep here. I do that when I sleep in an uncomfortable position."

"It's odd that I never saw you do that before. Probably because I never paid enough attention. Anyways, you don't have to worry about Ronald that much, you know. We are all here for each other, so stop worrying so much and take proper rest."

When she realized I was trying to stand up, she stood straight. It looked like she was worried about me since falling asleep in this state was indeed weird. And it was probably obvious to all that I was stressed because of the reaction that I showed earlier.

"How's Nina doing?" I asked since I remembered she went to Nina's room with her earlier.

Nina still looked somewhat shaken up by what she saw this morning, so I was thinking of visiting her next. She was strong natured so if this was able to hit her that hard then the shock must have been really deep.

"She is doing fine. She cried for a while, but she is fine now."

"That's good to hear. I was about to go and check how she's doing."

"Yeah, you don't have to worry."

Normally, I would have skipped the crying part, but unlike me, Sistina was brutally honest. That is why I was always somewhat cautious while displaying my feelings around her.

It somewhat felt like there was no point in worrying about things anymore. It could be because of the meditation, or the voice that I met in the gap between spaces, I was feeling somewhat relaxed and calm.

Even though it was faint, there was a hope that if this being is who he claims to be, or even close to what he claims to be, then that would make things a lot easier for me moving ahead.

"I will go and check if Arica and Marina need a break or not. They have been there for a while now."

I looked out of the window, and much to my surprise, the sun was already high up. It was only then that I realized that the meditation was several hours long. At least the good part was that the endeavor was fruitful.

"Okay, I will soon join you. Let me check how Nina is doing first," I said when Sistina was about to leave the room.

She turned around with a smile when she heard that. "Okay, but go and have lunch first."

After she left, I decided to test something out before going out. If what the voice was saying was right then I should be able to contact him just by thinking about him.

The only problem here was that there was very little that I remembered about him. He didn't have a body or a form that I could remember. I still somewhat remembered his voice, but it was something once could easily forget if they don't hear it properly.

Anyways, for now, I tried closing my eyes and remembering his voice and the words he said.

[Hey boy, what happened? You needed me this soon]

Before I could even try speaking, I heard a familiar voice that I had just heard a while ago in my head. It felt somewhat like telepathic communication with my familiars.

I basically had nothing to ask since this was just a mere test, so I somewhat felt guilty about doing that. But instead of mentioning that this was just a test to see if it works or not, I could just ask him a serious question.

[Hey, you never told me your name. What should I call you?]

[You can call me Zero. Is that all you wanted to ask?]

[No, I wanted to ask what happens when a spirit is manifested using a human body as the host.]

[Hmm.. I thought you would already know the answer to this. It's simple. They either co-exist in a symbiotic relationship, or they just fight against each other for dominance. But considering the fact that spirits are immortal beings, they rarely try to take over their host. They do try to test if the host is worthy of having them or not.]

[Ah, thank you. That is all I wanted to ask.]

[Okay, see you.]

What he said was basically the same thing that Flare told me in the morning. Hearing that from someone else made me a little more assured.

After this conversation with Zero, I came out of my room and knocked on Nina's door. It was almost afternoon, which was way past lunchtime, so I was planning to take Nina with me if she hadn't had her lunch yet.

"Please come in."

"Nina, how are you feeling now?" I asked as I walked in.

She was sitting on her chair. Her purple hair that was still somewhat wet pointed towards the fact that she just recently took a bath.

"Oh, it's you Nara. I thought it was Sam...?I think I am over it now. It just took me by surprise, that's it," she replied as turned around and looked at me.

"That's alright. I would have freaked out too if I was in your place. Anyways, have you had your lunch yet?"

"No, Sistina was calling me, but I decided to take a bath before lunch."

Normally, at this point, I would have said a few words about eating on time. But today, since I, myself wasn't in a much different position than hers, I decided to skip that part.

"Then let's go and eat something now. I haven't eate—"

Before I could finish my sentence, I realized someone just came inside, so I turned around. It was Marina.

She was breathing heavily and could barely utter a word. So, instead of asking her, I decided to ask Lucy.

"Lucy, what happened?"

"Guys, it looks like Ronald is finally awake now."