Face Nae.

"What is your obsession with this man, Nae?!" Aris yells out. Though it's difficult to discern emotion on the face of an etherite, you can see her cosmic hair flair up, and her voice echoes out with a terrifying rage, mixed with sadness. "Kyle is going to stop him. You won't stop us."

Nae giggles maniacally. "Oh sister, you're so silly. I'm not obsessed with any man. We aren't that different. Your magnum opus was the Trial of the Erotrain, but frankly, I think I can do better. See, this entire laboratory has become my domain. I've been carefully weaving my own series of extraplanar chambers that perfectly fit a tangible, real subterranean lair, melding the fabric of reality and unreality. It's real, but it's not. You see? I'm like a Dungeon Lord, but a hundred times cooler and cuter! And after we repel this silly invasion, I'll make it even better. Bigger. Elok Daven is just one in my glass tank of ants. It's... a symbiotic relationship, I guess."

"You're outnumbered, Nae."

When you blink, she's gone. You turn around quickly only to notice Aris is already facing her behind you. Nae is incredibly close, so much so that you could strike.

"But you'll never find what you want. Not here," Nae mocks. "You're trapped in my maze now."

The moment you move your wrist to strike, she's gone. "Damn it," you say as you glance around to see if she simply teleported, but after a moment, you realize she really did flee. All you see now is the outline of a door nearby. It feels as if it's approximately where the door would have been to enter the bath. Stepping around the area, you feel no water or anything of the like. The only way to go is back.

"We can do this," Aris says. She lays an affectionate hand on your shoulder and leans in close to whisper, "You have me with you." Then just as before, she sinks into your body to disappear once more.

You charge to the door and swing it open--not broken like the one in reality you left behind. Though when you peer through, you can see the same hallway more or less. It seems to be where you came through, though you can see the glitches in reality. Strange dashes of light trail along the walls, and everything just feels... off. Still, you're in the laboratory, and you need to make sure the others are all right, and you need to find Elok Daven himself.

First thing's first, you charge towards the large chamber where you sent most of your people. Wait. Where is Lady Sulta? Okawa. Bulrak. They were supposed to wait at the intersection I just ran through, but they're gone.

You continue onwards. Because of Nae's doing, they could be anywhere.

Speaking of which, the moment you reach the chamber in question... you don't. You know there was a massive room here before, but the hall instead leads you to an empty, medium-sized square room with the floor, walls, and ceiling all consisting of sleek white tiles. There's a door on the opposite end, though somebody blocks the path. The guardian is him--Elok Daven himself, and he waits for you with a smile.

He has a tall, broad figure and a handsome face, though it means very little when he designed his new body himself. Though you've never seen one in this world, he resembles a half-elf, as he's now seemingly a hybrid of his previous elven form and a human from Earth. Two faint lines run down his face in a manner somewhat similar to an ALICE. He has short golden locks, slicked back, and dresses in a fancy blue suit trimmed with gold. Rings adorn his fingers, and he now wears gem-encrusted earrings from the lobes of his partly pointed ears. Though he has no weapon, you know he's a mage and an artificer, so he likely has all manner of other methods to fight. When you approach, he withdraws both hands behind his back and watches you closely.