Dream Devourer

*"The creature causing the contagious coma plaguing your town has taken notice of you! You must defend yourself or perish!"*

The **Dream Devourer** is the boss enemy of Curious Case of a Contagious Coma.

Defeating it will lead to Ending A.

## Appearance

The Dream Devourer is an eldritch being normally invisible to the naked eye. Its upper body resembles a vaguely humanoid torso complete with two arms and hands, the fingers of which taper into sharp points. It has no face; instead, in its place, there is nothing but a gaping void with alien lines and geometries in it, which apparently functions similarly to a mouth. Its lower body is an elongated, snake-like tube that extends out of sight through a portal, typically on the ceiling, from which the Dream Devourer descends to seek out and feast on the dreams of its victims. Falling prey to this feeding induces a coma, and, after an extended period of time, death.

The Dream Devourer is actually one of many semi-sapient appendages, and as such its seemingly endless 'torso' connects to a much larger otherworldly organism. After surviving the fight against the creature, the player character glimpses through the portal that the dying Dream Devourer came from, realizing that what they'd just killed was "only one of its fingers."

## Story

The Dream Devourer is called upon to the world by a man, who dabbles in summoning rituals that ended up bringing the Dream Devourer. It targets the man, who is designated as "Patient Zero" and begins secretly invading Shiokawa, Japan and absorbing the dreams of many unsuspected people, leading to mass coma. Because of its eldritch nature and invisibility, scientists and doctors cannot find the accurate cause, which draws in the player.

Should the player have the Dust of Seeing in their inventory, the Dream Devourer is exposed as it attempts to drain more from its victims and attacks the player. Upon defeat, the affected finger is cut off and slowly dies off, with the rest of the bigger body's "hand" retreating, unlikely to bother Shiokawa again.

Should the player not use the Dust of Seeing and investigate the patients, the Dream Devourer had successfully drained all of the energy from its victims, killing them in the process. It is unknown what happened to the creature afterwards, though it is likely to return back to its dimension, judging on Ending B titled as "Sated... For Now."

## Enemy-specific Tactics and Conditions

Enemy's Skill: Relentless (You can't escape this encounter)

During the fight, a special action button will appear on the offensive action window called "Unplug Life Support," with a description detailing how the Dream Devourer draws strength from the surrounding patients. Performing the action will damage the Dream Devourer for 15 points of health but will kill one patient, costing you 3 Reason. Defeating it without using this action at all will earn an achievement.

## Trivia

* The combat sprite and the event and demo sprites share some differences from each other:
	+ In its combat sprite, one of its hands is wrapped with a small chain, which is absent in the latter.
	+ The Dream Devourer has a thicker neck in its event and demo sprites, while the combat sprite is slimmer and more human-like.

## Gallery

Demo appearanceThe Dream Devourer prior to combat