And a painting resembling the chapter's intro!

Maybe this is just paranoia at this point, but there seems to be a ton of black dots around. And they were pouring outta the wall a couple of slides back.

Reminds me a ton of the grey child.

@Mallory

Don't worry, those are ants.

Well, that totally doesn't look out of place at all.

Not just "a bed," Noah. THE bed. Don't you read the page titles?

@Mallory Reminds me of the particle effects in those old flash games by Scriptwelder, particularly the Deep Sleep trilogy.

Why doesn't he use his spirit sight to locate Chernyl?

A dream within a dream? we going Inception?

@ Mallory: Are you talking about how the black dust seems to be related to the cracks in the walls in the rooms above? Because I can't see any of them "pouring", with the closest being the crack on page 3279 where the wall-crack reached the floor.

We haven't seen any major wall-cracks on this level that obviously match up with the black floor-dust, though.

Looks like Ciel is slowing down. What's she plotting...

Is that Chernil in the painting ? Sitting under the tree

And Ciel is lurking in the shadows?

That heart looks like one of yours to a T, Neo.

Why does Ciel suddenly stop? That's suspicious.
I guess Chernyl isn't here, but in a dream within a dream. The Hollowman did say she was in a happy place.

@Mallory: Those dots were on all chapter title pages before, I don't see any change between when we first seen those places and when Noah came through them, except the very first one (https://www.neorice.com/hoh_noah_2162) - but this seems like an art update only.

mallory : i think those black dots are bugs
in creepy old houses, theres often a sequence where the viewer see piles of bugs scurrying around

Well, since now Ciel is tangible...

That painting looks a little bit

https://www.neorice.com/hoh/2001

familiar

@Z2

Trees do tend to look similar yes.

Are we going to Mario 64 this dream world?

@ Mallory & Zyzyzyryxy: Actually, looking at the previous Noah Titles, it seems like that black dust seems to be dried blood. And, given the intermission Zalander gave, which I was reminded of purely due to the link Z2 provided, it's entirely possible that Chernyl is actively either supporting or preventing something trying to break into the universe and change it.

Zalander Intermission start:
https://www.neorice.com/hoh/2000

Title where what would become black dust looks the most like blood:
https://www.neorice.com/hoh_noah_2162

Page where those maroon puddles seem to have formed into black dust:
https://www.neorice.com/hoh_noah_3281

@Z2 neat callback! Its always fun to get a reminder of story teaser segments like that.

And can you imagine how cool it would be if the tree and the stranger in the shared dream people have was similar to the tree in the portrait in the mind of the girl with dream powers because like… they’re potentially the same tree? What a wild guess~