yeah, sorry, i thought you referred to another dream with her.
what i meant by projections are not astral projections, but Idriel "simply" projecting images in MC's mind when he is unconscious, and not forcing out of body experiences to bring MC to her.
and now that his actual body is injured and dying, it's not just his astral body that needs to be sent to Eternum. so if we expand on your 4th theory, they keep MC real body in the hospital and MC astral body is in Eternum to do the quest but he is stuck in the game and reach a state similar to Thanatos, while still having the option to wake up when his body is healed much later.