Enter the palace.

Masumi leads you through the front doors. The interior is gorgeous. Immediately, you find yourself in some sort of grand hall leading to a large throne at the other end. It isn't all that different than your own castle. Though here, the floor is so shiny that it casts your reflection as you walk across it. Everything is decorated in gold, red, black, or brown, and in the center of the large room is a fountain shooting water up into the air from a tiny Vex's mouth.

Lady Vex has gone ahead, and she reaches the seat before you arrive. It looks comically large compared to her body, perhaps to look more imposing, and she throws herself back as she swings one leg over the other--a lazy pose. She doesn't seem to care that much for your presence.

"So what brings you to my land?" she asks, though her eyes aren't even on you when she speaks. She looks to her black-painted nails instead.

"Pardon me, m'lady, but you called for them," Masumi says.

"I know that!" She perks up to slam her fist down on the seat's armrest. "I was testing them, Masumi. Thanks for ruining it. Listen, Warren. This is my domain. Are you impressed? I know you are. Everything you see here I earned! You think that pitiful Castle Phoenix is anything special? No. This is how a Demon King lives."

"Castle Phoenix kicks ass!" Niki snaps back.

"Control your woman."

"What?!" She slams her foot down, actually cracking the tile under her strength.

Vex's eyebrows raise. She lays back gain, turning one leg over to the other. While she has hardly a chest, that doesn't mean she doesn't have a great body. You can't help but watch her thighs as she readjusts herself. "Regardless, did you run into any trouble while you were here?"

"Yeah. There was this spider lady and a devil guy. Harassed us, but we took care of them," you reply.

"Taffeta and Cid?" She looks to Masumi for affirmation, but she turns back to you after seeing her nod. "That isn't surprising."

"So where is Aris?" you ask.

She lifts up her foot--wiggling her toes. Those nails are painted as well. "She's around. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of control over her."

"Ah. Do you mean me?" comes a voice from behind.

You turn to see the figure finally in person. She's just as she was before, so that was no illusion. It's even more surreal now. Her body is nothing more than a dark shape filled with the colourful clouds of the cosmos, besides her glowing white eyes and flowing nebulous hair. You didn't hear her approach at all, so she must have appeared from nowhere, just as she was doing in your dream.

"Of course she was waiting for a dramatic time," Vex says with a groan. "I have other things to do you know!"

"She doesn't." Aris chuckles. She reaches out to touch your cheek. "At last, I can feel you for real, Kyle Warren."

"H-Hold on there. What even are you, and what do you want with our Kyle, huh?" Eva asks. "I think I might have read something about this... I just can't remember."

"Are you even really here?" Niki asks. "You look like a magical projection or something."

Aris slides her hands down her figure. "Would you like to touch me and find out?"

Niki calls her bluff and immediately reaches out to grab her waist with both hands. Much to her surprise, it makes contact. "Oh. Weird. You feel just like a person."

She giggles. "That tickles. Of course I'm real." After being released from the curious warrior's grip, she curtsies. "I am Aris, and I'm an etherite. We're walkers between the planes. Embodiments of space. Perhaps that's hard to understand, but it's also hard to explain. I imagine it would be difficult for you to explain what a human is, correct?" She glances to the orcish boy still following behind. "Hello again, Farin."

"So what is this erotrain thing?" you ask.

Like a glitch, she flickers away, though at the same time, she appears at the foot of Vex's throne, much to the Demon King's dismay. She raises up her hands to speak dramatically. "I'm glad you asked! Etherites have the power to create pocket spaces between the planes, and that's where we reside. After much travel and study, I decided to push my limits, and create the ultimate pocket dimension, more impressive than any other. Not only that, but a challenge. The Trial of the Erotrain is my ultimate creation. You will go from space to space along a chain and if you can make it to the end, you will come out far stronger than ever before."

Since I'm stuck at 10th level, I'm definitely open to other ways to progress.

She continues. "I know you've only just arrived, but we're taking this party back to your own land. There it'll begin at last." She marches to the side. With a wave of her hand, a large opening in space tears open as if it were nothing. Through the window is the courtyard of Castle Phoenix. "You have to come too, Vexy."

"I know, I know." The devil girl hops from her seat.

Suddenly, Kashura comes running from a side room. She holds onto her hat as she frantically makes her way over. "Wait for me, m'lady!"

"Ah. Perfect," Aris says. "I was hoping you'd come too." Without saying anything else, she puts her hands behind her back and strolls casually through the tear.

Assuming you're meant to follow, everybody in the room marches through.