The atmosphere in the room turned from almost relaxed to tense when the group appeared outside. Yet, when they left…
The air only ever got worse.
This time, there was no noise of footsteps to warn Leo of the forthcoming danger. This time, he had nothing but the girl’s trinket to believe and the few words of hers he understood to assess.
‘Yeah, what are the chances, huh?’
But what were the chances Leo would have the luck of not transmigrating into a solid stone? Or a mile below the surface of some ocean?
What were his chances of appearing in a fresh, beautiful world like this one? And what were his odds of being the only one with guts sensitive enough to escape, along with his fortune to appear just near the edge of the hill to reach the cliff at the very last second?
Going even further, how likely Leo was to meet a living replica of the very same monster that decimated his team?
‘With all of that going on, what would be the chances that whoever she’s scared of, is that…’
The mere idea of that bloody murderer wearing the same face as the saint nearby was enough to make Leo tense up…
Right as the girl stood up from her chair and clutched her fist while taking a long, silent breath.
She looked up. Her eyes flashed with a glint of determination right as she stepped on towards the doors.
(Stay “here.”)
There was no need for Leo to fully understand what she said. The meaning was plain obvious.
Which in no way meant Leo was willing to follow this advice.
‘Should I follow her?’
Rather than falling in line with the girl's wants, the young man considered his chances. Yet, no matter how he tried to think, they were… slim.
Without any of his equipment, not even the advantage of surprise could cast the odds in his favor.
‘Shit, I would really use some of those things!’
“I will try to talk with her, but…”
Surprised, Leo raised his eyes and looked at the girl. His own plans for the next moment were instantly thrown to the backburner of his mind.
‘Wait, how can I learn it so quickly?’
The rate at which Leo’s understanding of the girl’s world increased was beyond Leo’s wildest ideas.
The concept of nanites was pretty much widespread throughout the society. It was the barebone foundation for any physical alters one might desire, after all. And while way beyond anywhere near what Leo could ever afford…
He knew the general timeframe for some of its better-known constituent parts.
‘It should take at least two days to gain a basic communication level,’ Leo thought, gritting his thought when the girl’s movement forcibly accelerated his thoughts.
‘Putting that aside…’
The seconds trickled by.
The girl’s hand reached out for the knob of the doors right as Leo managed to feel the vaguely familiar presence.
It was a strange feeling as if sinking into the world already owned by someone, finding oneself in the middle of their mansion only to be revealed as a perverse intruder.
A mere moment later, the space around grew so thick with a foreign presence, that Leo started to have trouble breathing.
Overwhelmed by the presence, his throat refused to move to disturb it.
‘The hell is this?’
Right as the first tone of panic settled in Leo’s mind, the girl pressed the doors and pushed them open, casually walking out of the room into the adjacent corridor.
Still in Leo’s view, the girl stood by the doors and simply looked down the corridor's side. She breathed heavily and walked out of the doorway, pressing the doors shut behind her as she left.
“What is it now?”
If opening the doors surprisingly did nothing to raise the already overwhelming strength of the foreign presence, then closing it did nothing to stop the voices.
“What kind of ill-conceived near-fake reason do you have to raid my damn clinic again?!”
The voice, the words… and his knowledge of who spoke them threw Leo’s thoughts for a spin.
The gentle face he witnessed up until now combined with this angered voice… with the likely relation of the presence of the same-faced slaughterer.
“It’s different today.”
As Leo kind of expected, even the other party’s voice had exactly the same tune as her likely twin sister.
‘Okay, am I a genius or what?’
As keen as Leo was to listen in on the conversation, he could only do so by the grace… of an error. A glitch in the software within his nanite swarm somehow allowed him to speak a foreign language despite only facing it for a…
Leo’s face contorted.
‘Wait, it wasn’t just the moments when I was awake!’
The sudden discovery of something so extremely obvious yet so in his face he simply failed to see it nearly overshadowed the next words that followed from the corridor.
“It’s always different!”
A flash of light traveled across a randomly placed line that went perfectly perpendicular to the floor.
“I mean it.”
The exchange between sisters quickly heated up and revealed the saint-like one to be much fiercer of the two when compared to her calm and ice-cold twin.
“You always do.”
The flash ran across the wall at the exact same height as before.
And then another.
“But I hope you didn’t think everything would always stay the same!”
The walls all flashed up… only for the light to condense inwards into the corridor outside, leaving Leo with nothing but what little shone through the doorway.
“Enough.”
Keeping her cool, the murderous sister did… something.
In a single instant, all the power, all the presence that came with this weird light… vanished.
Just like that, and to this limit. No counterattack came, only…
The sound of a single step.
“Whoever you are harboring for the sake of your sick dream, is different than all the other stray cultivators who end up here.”
Leo’s body tensed up when he heard and, what was far worse, understood every word that the murderous twin spoke.
Mostly, because he himself knew just how right this murderous girl was.
“It doesn’t matter,” calming down much quicker and easier than Leo anticipated, the saint-like counterpart of the murderous twin replied. “Tell me,” her voice changed, taking on a slightly mocking tone. “Wherever they came from, have you tried even once to ask them to surrender?”
The silence that followed was so thick Leo had to resist the desire of conjuring up a sword out of his ass to then hang it in the thick air that came to the room all the way from the corridor.
“They?”
It was just a single word. But one that carried so much meaning behind it, Leo found yet a new reason to adore the nicer of the two twins.
A simple implication is that she had more than one person in her care. Rather than directly opposing her sister’s idea, she shifted it. And she did it so naturally… even that murderous twin of hers got caught off guard.
“I see…” one of the two girls spoke, yet due to the passive tone of it, Leo couldn’t make out which one it was. “Well, make sure to be careful with who you take in. The guy I’m looking for, he…”
Realizing the owner of the voice, Leo twitched. And when he heard where the murderous twin was going, his body tensed up.
“He came from a dimensional slip.”
The atmosphere in the room turned from almost relaxed to tense when the group appeared outside. Yet, when they left…
The air only ever got worse.
This time, there was no noise of footsteps to warn Leo of the forthcoming danger. This time, he had nothing but the girl’s trinket to believe and the few words of hers he understood to assess.
‘Yeah, what are the chances, huh?’
But what were the chances Leo would have the luck of not transmigrating into a solid stone? Or a mile below the surface of some ocean?
What were his chances of appearing in a fresh, beautiful world like this one? And what were his odds of being the only one with guts sensitive enough to escape, along with his fortune to appear just near the edge of the hill to reach the cliff at the very last second?
Going even further, how likely Leo was to meet a living replica of the very same monster that decimated his team?
‘With all of that going on, what would be the chances that whoever she’s scared of, is that…’
The mere idea of that bloody murderer wearing the same face as the saint nearby was enough to make Leo tense up…
Right as the girl stood up from her chair and clutched her fist while taking a long, silent breath.
She looked up. Her eyes flashed with a glint of determination right as she stepped on towards the doors.
(Stay “here.”)
There was no need for Leo to fully understand what she said. The meaning was plain obvious.
Which in no way meant Leo was willing to follow this advice.
‘Should I follow her?’
Rather than falling in line with the girl's wants, the young man considered his chances. Yet, no matter how he tried to think, they were… slim.
Without any of his equipment, not even the advantage of surprise could cast the odds in his favor.
‘Shit, I would really use some of those things!’
“I will try to talk with her, but…”
Surprised, Leo raised his eyes and looked at the girl. His own plans for the next moment were instantly thrown to the backburner of his mind.
‘Wait, how can I learn it so quickly?’
The rate at which Leo’s understanding of the girl’s world increased was beyond Leo’s wildest ideas.
The concept of nanites was pretty much widespread throughout the society. It was the barebone foundation for any physical alters one might desire, after all. And while way beyond anywhere near what Leo could ever afford…
He knew the general timeframe for some of its better-known constituent parts.
‘It should take at least two days to gain a basic communication level,’ Leo thought, gritting his thought when the girl’s movement forcibly accelerated his thoughts.
‘Putting that aside…’
The seconds trickled by.
The girl’s hand reached out for the knob of the doors right as Leo managed to feel the vaguely familiar presence.
It was a strange feeling as if sinking into the world already owned by someone, finding oneself in the middle of their mansion only to be revealed as a perverse intruder.
A mere moment later, the space around grew so thick with a foreign presence, that Leo started to have trouble breathing.
Overwhelmed by the presence, his throat refused to move to disturb it.
‘The hell is this?’
Right as the first tone of panic settled in Leo’s mind, the girl pressed the doors and pushed them open, casually walking out of the room into the adjacent corridor.
Still in Leo’s view, the girl stood by the doors and simply looked down the corridor's side. She breathed heavily and walked out of the doorway, pressing the doors shut behind her as she left.
“What is it now?”
If opening the doors surprisingly did nothing to raise the already overwhelming strength of the foreign presence, then closing it did nothing to stop the voices.
“What kind of ill-conceived near-fake reason do you have to raid my damn clinic again?!”
The voice, the words… and his knowledge of who spoke them threw Leo’s thoughts for a spin.
The gentle face he witnessed up until now combined with this angered voice… with the likely relation of the presence of the same-faced slaughterer.
“It’s different today.”
As Leo kind of expected, even the other party’s voice had exactly the same tune as her likely twin sister.
‘Okay, am I a genius or what?’
As keen as Leo was to listen in on the conversation, he could only do so by the grace… of an error. A glitch in the software within his nanite swarm somehow allowed him to speak a foreign language despite only facing it for a…
Leo’s face contorted.
‘Wait, it wasn’t just the moments when I was awake!’
The sudden discovery of something so extremely obvious yet so in his face he simply failed to see it nearly overshadowed the next words that followed from the corridor.
“It’s always different!”
A flash of light traveled across a randomly placed line that went perfectly perpendicular to the floor.
“I mean it.”
The exchange between sisters quickly heated up and revealed the saint-like one to be much fiercer of the two when compared to her calm and ice-cold twin.
“You always do.”
The flash ran across the wall at the exact same height as before.
And then another.
“But I hope you didn’t think everything would always stay the same!”
The walls all flashed up… only for the light to condense inwards into the corridor outside, leaving Leo with nothing but what little shone through the doorway.
“Enough.”
Keeping her cool, the murderous sister did… something.
In a single instant, all the power, all the presence that came with this weird light… vanished.
Just like that, and to this limit. No counterattack came, only…
The sound of a single step.
“Whoever you are harboring for the sake of your sick dream, is different than all the other stray cultivators who end up here.”
Leo’s body tensed up when he heard and, what was far worse, understood every word that the murderous twin spoke.
Mostly, because he himself knew just how right this murderous girl was.
“It doesn’t matter,” calming down much quicker and easier than Leo anticipated, the saint-like counterpart of the murderous twin replied. “Tell me,” her voice changed, taking on a slightly mocking tone. “Wherever they came from, have you tried even once to ask them to surrender?”
The silence that followed was so thick Leo had to resist the desire of conjuring up a sword out of his ass to then hang it in the thick air that came to the room all the way from the corridor.
“They?”
It was just a single word. But one that carried so much meaning behind it, Leo found yet a new reason to adore the nicer of the two twins.
A simple implication is that she had more than one person in her care. Rather than directly opposing her sister’s idea, she shifted it. And she did it so naturally… even that murderous twin of hers got caught off guard.
“I see…” one of the two girls spoke, yet due to the passive tone of it, Leo couldn’t make out which one it was. “Well, make sure to be careful with who you take in. The guy I’m looking for, he…”
Realizing the owner of the voice, Leo twitched. And when he heard where the murderous twin was going, his body tensed up.
“He came from a dimensional slip.”
