Shin Megami Tensei: Sonata of the Collective

Dream

     I saw before me the hazy silhouette of a man. I squinted, trying to adjust my eyes to the bright glow around me. I seemed to float in this strange blue void as if there weren't gravity here. The walls were white and translucent, I appeared to be in some sort of maze. The silhouette was familiar to me. It was completely featureless, but looking at it I somehow knew who it was, like I was looking into his very soul. A booming voice broke through the silence, and it startled me.
    "This is the spirit of one whose soul is offered to god, one who seeks out order for all who live."
I looked around but saw no source of the voice. The silhouetted man drew closer to me.
    "Hey, Let's work together!" He said to me, holding out his hand. I nodded and shook it. Together we continued down the corridor in front of us. The walls subtly moved like the waves of an ocean. We came across another silhouetted figure, and I again recognized who it was.
    "This is the spirit of one whose soul survives for itself, one who seeks out power for those who deserve it." The voice boomed again. The silhouetted woman approached me with her hand out.
    "Yo! Let's all work together." She said as I shook her hand. The three of us continued forwards in the hazy blue labyrinth that seemed to have no end. Soon, we came across a man in a robe. He was small and hunched over, which gave the impression he was very old, but his face and hands weren't visible to us.
    "Who are you?" I asked. He stood in our way, so there was no other route forward. The man raised his hand at me.
    "Soon... A terrible event will come upon the world. The fate of all things will fall into your hands, child... Will you side with the forces of chaos, or of law? Or does the fate of the world lie somewhere else entirely..." The man said. His words felt like ice. I turned back, to see that the labyrinth had morphed into a completely different form. The two figures that had followed me were now both high on pedestals, one to the right and one to the left. It felt as if the world was shaking, the walls crumbled around me.
    "Ollie...Ollie!" Called out a familiar voice. It was then that I knew I was dreaming.

    "Just because it's summer doesn't mean you can sleep all day long!" Said my mother, standing next to my bed. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. It was already almost noon.
    "Oh! Didn't that Devland boy ask you to visit?" She asked. Devland was a kid I knew from school, and he had indeed asked me to visit. He was a shy kid, and he was often picked on by other students. I had shown him kindness, and he latched onto it. I got out of bed and got dressed.
    "I'm heading out mom!" I said as I put on my backpack. I walked outside and hopped on my bike. It was calm as I rode towards Devland's house. Things had been stressful lately. The political conflict between seemingly everyone was growing bigger, even someone like me who avoided things like that knew tension was on the rise. Small moments of calm escape like that bike ride were nice.
    "Yo! Ollie! Where are you going?" Shouted a voice I recognized. It was the woman from my dream, one of my childhood friends, Umeko. I came to a stop and put down the kickstand. I walked over and greeted her with a hug. She wore a dark green denim jacket over a white dress shirt. She wore a black necktie, she often did things like that to stand out from the rest of our peers. She had wavy, light brown hair and had it put up into two buns on her head. We had met in middle school when one day I got sent to detention for skipping class. She was a regular attendant in detention as she often got into fights, and as outgoing of a person as she is we soon became great friends.
    "I'm on my way to Devland's, he has something to show me." I said.

    "Ah alright. Well after you're done, me and Keiji are gonna go hang out near the mall if you wanna join?" She said. Keiji was another childhood friend of mine, as well as the man in my dream
   "Sure!! I'll meet you there!" I said to her, giving her a fist bump before getting back on my bike.