With no further context or explanation, Paris begins strolling back the way we came. We first turn to follow without thinking, but pause, as our feet step into the stone artwork engraved into the ground. The same etchings Crier had tripped on some minutes ago. 『『 ...Wait. 』』 We break whisper. Paris's metallic footfalls come to a gentle halt. 『『 Setsuna will come if we wait. 』』 「 No -- she will not. 」 We flinch. Her response is stern... immediate, voice completely steady and sure. But... how could she be? How could she know anything about Setsuna's current state? She shouldn't... not unless -- she's hiding something, or bluffing to keep us in line... It's hard to dismiss either possibility after the trial she just put us through. ...The only thing we're sure of is that we have to put our foot down somewhere. This is the last common meeting ground we and Setsuna both have. The volume in our voices fall. 『『 How do you know that? 』』 「 It would be too easy... too boring. 」 『『 ... 』』 She starts strolling back towards us, her weight pressed harder into every step while her methodical voice returns to a mellow whisper. 「 ...If you really want any chance of seeing her again, 「 you'll come with me to see what this little black star is about. 」 The... little black star... in the stone carving? The carving we're standing on, a loose reflection of the canyon; in that reflection, a crooked city lies at the bottom, and then in that city... a black four-pointed star. 『『 You didn't... 』』 「 ...kill her? No. No, not directly. 「 But I still know... she won't be coming up. We -- have to go down. 」 We breathe out through grit teeth. She's trying to purposefully rile us up. 「 Now, hold your idiotic questions... and keep your masks on. 「Our audience... has yet to leave the theatre. 」 Huh? ...There are ...people still around? There's more than just the three of us here? How? Have they just been staying quiet and standing still this whole time or...? There's no way -- we were doing nothing but listening closely this entire time... Wait, maybe... there are people far away, out of ear-shot but still watching? 『『 ... 』』 It's... frustrating, but we do need to glue our lips shut. All our other questions can wait for when we're alone again. The possibility of us meeting up with Setsuna... was the only thing we needed to address immediately. Paris pivots on her heel once more and begins to pace towards the cavern's exit. ...Carefully, and with a bit more grace in our step, we follow, trailing at her sides. Exactly what tall tale about us Paris gave to her colleagues is also... something we'll need to question her about. But for now... we'll just have to keep up the act, following the guidelines Agehatate set out for us. As far as we know, Paris's story could be a house of cards. ...After dozens of minutes of silent, blinded travel, we suddenly feel our masks being pulled off our heads. Our unadjusted eyes are blinded by the outdoor light. It burns -- at least for a few seconds. 「 You may... react normally to being blinded now. 「 I know for certain no one significant is watching us. 」 『 Aaaah-! 』『 Hissss! 』『 The light! 』 「 ... 」 Crack! Paris brings her face close to Sing's, her eyes focused, and her armoured glove cracking the bark of a tree behind us. 「 Feeling... confident now... are we? 」 Our bodies lock up at the sight of her eyes. Rancour and animosity shimmer through her otherwise calm and collected face. Once again... even as we feel no pain in our spines -- no agony from our death sense... the simple act of looking into the abyssal blue of her pupils is still enough to implant scenes of death in our minds. Once again, we're reminded; she would... if she could. Having evidently made her point, she closes her eyes, stands up, rolls her shoulders, and sighs. 「 ...Let's walk. I need... somewhere to rest my body. 」 『『 ... 』』 As she begins walking through the ashen undergrowth, we take a quick glance around, confirming where she's brought us. The blackened forest beyond the waterfall, the same one we set alight with «Phantom Fire». The fact that she's brought us out here must mean... she was completely serious about clearing Black Star Brook. It's not like... we don't want to see what's at the bottom of this canyon... After all, if we assume Agehatate terraformed that cave, including the diagram, it would make sense to think she intended for us to head there next, right? She also chose this canyon of all places to make her last stand... All signs are pointing to there being some kind of significance... But... even so -- it's a dungeon from Myraid Worlds... isn't it? One that shattered and expanded to encompass this entire canyon. Aren't we... sort of marching into the jaws of death by attempting it? Why isn't our death sense stopping us from trying? Myriad Worlds Online was not a power-fantasy game. Being higher level of course made you stronger, but numerically... just slivers more. In fact, the developers have gone on record saying that all content is designed to be clearable by level ten characters. All monsters, all dungeons, all raids, everything. The caveat being that those level ten players would require immaculate preparation of specific equipment, and divine, unerring levels of skill. In turn, balancing this fact out... no player is truly safe. Even a level one-hundred player, if careless... could perish in a level ten dungeon. Hence -- our confusion; why isn't her death sense stopping her? Clang! Clang! Our heads swivel to the sound. 「 Wake up. 」 It's Paris, banging her heavy blade against her leg. 「 The forest is still monster-infested... and your miasma is suppressed. 「 I can't one-shot them now that they have had time to regenerate from the fire. 」 『『 ...S- 』』 Our mouths open, but don't finish the apology. Instead, we press our lips together, and follow behind her, avoiding her glare.

Paris remains silent in turn, and we resume delving into the soot-dusted forest. It... feels difficult for some reason to bring up the questions we need to ask. It takes minutes upon minutes for us work up the will to. With Paris leading the way, sliding down a stone hill coated with ashen moss, we finally speak up again after reaching the bottom having shattered the weak roots in our path. 『 ...What did- 』 「 Get away! 」 Eldritch Serendipity [LV.3] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.6] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.11] Paris shifts her stance

raising her heavy blade to the other side of her body, mimicking a shield, just in time for a hulking flexible appendage from our right to crash into it. Paris is immediately shoved meters away, her grip on the forest floor throwing up black clouds as weak plant-life erupts, ground to dust. The phantom hand of our death sense scratches against our spines. We immediately duck down and bolt to the left to flank Paris through the shrubs. Right after we manage to catch up, fully expending our stamina, we peek out from under the shadow of a tree trunk, gasping to catch our short breaths. But Paris's body suddenly occupies our entire field of vision. She smashes her heel into the dirt to brake from her sprint, then grabs us by our hair, lifting us both up as high as she can in one arm. Without any hesitation, she immediately begins running away with us in loosely in tow. Her other hand, armed and extended with the full length of her heavy blade for balance. We can't identify the attacking monster due to the soot clouds. Eldritch Serendipity [LV.10] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.8] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.9] Sing grabs hold of the collar of Paris's armour for stability. There isn't much we can do to help but cover her blind-spots. ...A monster erupts from the ground ahead. 『 «Identify» 』 「 ... 」 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LV.22 ▬ Scarjira

Plated Beast-Demon

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

HP ▐ 1654/1780

MP ▐ 40/220

SP ▐ 299/311

P.ATK ▐ 1243

P.DEF ▐ 509

M.ATK ▐ 0

M.DEF ▐ 89

Effects ▐ ◈ Demonic Miasma[LV.22]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A brown, textured scorpion with four, spike-armoured, chitin legs, two over-sized claws that together themselves resemble mandibles,

and a tail that splits into long green stems with glowing blue flourishes at the ends. Its tail is very explicitly made to mimic bioluminescent plants of some kind but they seem to be manipulatable as well, their swaying is unnatural. It makes no sound beyond the rocks and dirt falling away as it emerges, and it immediately turns to face us as we rapidly approach. This monster did not exist in Myriad Worlds. 「 «Muhajhamon» 」 A heavy armour-breaking skill. Paris whirls her heavy blade across her body, slicing the air in front of her. A red lightning trail follows its path, as Paris swings at the air a second time, raising the blade above her. It crackles as we near the scarjira. The beast suddenly lunges forward, its clamping pincer snapping open. Eldritch Serendipity [LV.10] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.11] She crashes the heavy blade down on its claw. Crimson lightning bursts from the impact as we hear its armour crack. The claw instantly drops straight into the ground, kicking up ash, as Paris's blade evidently crushes it with the greater mass. A new black cloud erupts, blocking our vision. Sing's «Identify» stat window blinks out of her eyes. Paris continues running forward so we hold our blink to keep the dust particles out of our eyes. Eldritch Serendipity [LV.13] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.15] The pain is still rising, terror radiating from the monster in front of us. Paris brandishes her weapon again, just in time for the monster to reappear in view. She runs up its claw, her black sabatons clanging against its armour. We glance at its other claw. Its other claw is... pulling away? 『 A-Away from the stems! 』 Eldritch Serendipity [LV.17] Eldritch Serendipity [LV.19] 「 Tch. 」 Paris plants the side of her foot in the joint between the monster's claw and body, and uses it to pivot away, springing off of it and landing on another mossy slope. She jams her heavy blade into the stone to prevent herself from sliding backwards. Just as quickly, she pulls herself up, withdraws her blade, then stabs it back into the stone, repeating those motions to ascend the hill. Crier, back to back with Paris, keeps her eyes on the scarjira. Its tail made of stems is starting to group and twist, their blue mimic heads slowly starting to bulge... They're going to point at us... 『 Pro...jectile? 』 Paris doesn't wait for certainty. She abandons her blade in the stone and jumps as far sideways as she can, catching her footing on a tree growing out of the hill. She takes cover behind it, pulling us with her. Our Eldritch Serendipity holds at level nineteen as we wait... for a projectile that... doesn't seem to come? Our eyes dart between the scarjira and Paris's heavy blade. The scarjira is trying to pull its smashed claw out of the ground. Its tail is definitely pointing at where we used to be but, it's not doing anything other than bulging and pointing... Does it have bad eyesight or...? We suddenly hear a magic circle. Paris points her freehand at the scarjira and whispers. 「 «Fireball» 」 A red twinkling light is shot from the palm of her hand and pierces the ash clouds, vanishing as it touches the plates of the beast. For a moment, there's silence. Then, multiple twinkling lights flare where the first disappeared. They too fade, and another moment of silence passes before- FWOOM! Fire. A swirling ball of red hot fire bursts forth, blossoming out from the point of impact into a sphere of obliteration. Hot wind explodes out from the controlled blast, and Sing shields her eyes from the heat, light, embers, and grey dust. The burning sphere persists for several seconds before dissipating, leaving nothing but stone, dirt, patches of fire, and smouldering overcooked remains. That monster had exceptionally low M.DEF, it would be shocking if it survived. 「 ... 」 Paris loosely shakes her firing hand, before leaping back to her heavy blade. She draws it from the stone and slides down the hill, before investigating the remains. Eldritch Serendipity [LV.2] She looks it over, tapping a few parts of its body with her heavy blade which then crumble on contact. It smells... not as bad as we thought it would for a monster with demon meat. Still... it doesn't look like any part of it is salvageable. The overkill damage was too much. Paris sighs, letting the end of her blade rest on the seared ground for a moment. We all stare at the corpse, winding down from our adrenaline surge. 「 ...What did you mean to say? 」 『 It... can wait until we find somewhere to rest... 』 Paris swallows one last gulp of air before lifting her weapon and moving on. She doesn't let go of our hair, keeping her arm held high, and us dangled off the ground. Now that she has an obvious excuse, we're... not really in a position to object. We just have to be patient for a bit longer... Paris stops next to a hole in the forest floor. Sunlight doesn't directly shine into it, but we can see faintly with the aid of the glowing flora inside. Paris lowers her blade to the ground so that its tip digs into the soil at the edge before sweeping some rocks and twigs, tossing them inside. They clatter on the sloping walls on the way down, brushing against the plants and roots before tumbling to the bottom. She stands there for a moment even after all the debris settle, before finally putting us down to head in herself. We glance around one last time before following her in. Nothing but fireflies and wisps milling about in the shadows. It's hard to tell from under the trees, but it also seems to still be morning... Our Eldritch Serendipity is holding steady at level two. 「 ... 」 As we enter, we find Paris tracing the tip of her blade against the pit's walls. She cuts clockwise without lifting her weapon, encircling the small enclosure. Possibly... testing for walls that aren't actually walls? Or perhaps weakened ones... Wouldn't want to find out we're actually at an entrance, after all... Seemingly satisfied, however, Paris stabs her heavy blade into the dusty ground and turns to us. We quickly dart our gazes away to not look her directly in the eyes. She sighs, and we hear her slowly slump down against a wall. We stay standing. We can feel her eyes on us still. 「 So -- you have questions for me. 」 She states it as a matter of fact. 『『 ... 』』 「 Look at me. 」 ...Our bodies tense with unease. Discomfort. Disquiet. 「 I won't scare you -- look at me. 」 ...We take a quiet breath. After moments of silence... we cave, and glance back at her. Our eyes are immediately drawn to her face. We still try not to look her directly in the eyes, and lock onto her de-armoured thumb, rested on her upper cheek for some reason. A moment passes. Then... she swipes her thumb down, smudging the make-up under her eye, revealing dark shadows of over-exertion, or acute lack of sleep. Our lips part slightly. 「 I haven't slept for three days. 」 Our... subconscious curiosity draws our focus to her eyes to which... we see one has dulled, and the other remains terror-inducing. 「 Did you know? After you survive Eldritch Fear spikes for a long enough time, 「 experiencing high enough pain on occasion... other needs start to get pushed down. 「 I don't feel hunger unless it will kill me, or tire unless my collapse will cause death. 「 My heart no longer aches unless that friend contributes to my survival. 」

Her eyes lock with ours. Her expression is something wholly alien to us. It's not something we've ever seen before. 「 Do you actually care about Setsuna? Or are you pretending to because you should? 」 We freeze. 「 I have just as many questions for you... as you do for me. 「 Your scream during our meeting with my friends reminded me of that, 「 and I know my scream in return changed your opinion of me in some way. 」 We scan her ash-covered body, again, out of curiosity. One of her greaves is magically twisted, ground down, and broken. It's clear to us that's the leg she used to deflect the magic projectile fired during the meeting... the one fired at us. Paris runs her fingers through her hair, loose ashes fall away in a cloud. 「 If you answer my question I'll force myself to stay up and answer the rest of yours. 「 If you don't... then ask me one. I'm going to seal us in here and fall asleep. 」 We stare at her, wordlessly. Her returning gaze is unfaltering, whole, complete. 「 ...Would you die for Setsuna, if you knew it wouldn't hurt? 」 『『 ... 』』

Gutteral sounds of pause escape our throats. A desire to speak, but the inability to. Setsuna has been there for us when we needed her most. We named her, she sacrificed for us, she endured pain for us, faced death for our sake. She stuck with us even after we caused her that pain. We ate together and shared food. She clung to us despite our language barrier, and we did the same. But I've also only known her for a week. 「 ...You don't know. 」 Our eyes soften, and we look away again. We swallow our breaths -- then weakly nod. 「 More or less... what I expected. 」 We hear her armour shuffling as she changes her sitting posture. We can't feel the wind down here, but we can still hear the distant monsters above. 「 Go on -- ask away. 」 Her sudden change in attitude towards us still has us on edge. Her question also... cut deep, it wasn't something we expected to hear from her. Perhaps it's all intentional... she's demonstrated that she was The Demon King... and it's not hard to imagine him doing something like this to some end... 「 Falling asleep. 」 『『 ...I- 』』 「 ... 」 『 Why are you suddenly treating us differently? Don't you hate us? 』 「 I do what I want to do at the time. It's a hassle to stay consistent. 」 An... unsatisfying answer, but... not unlike him to say. 『 ...What did you tell your friends to change their minds? 』 「 ...I told them the prophetic visions I'd received regarding you were mixed with lies. 「 I said you mimicked the voice of The Goddess to trick me, and I'd realized it too late. 」 We hear her take a long, exhausted breath. 「 I pressed on by divine decree into the forest alone... to slay you, and I succeeded. 「 But then... I gazed upon your blood visage, and was turned into your apostle- 」 『 Apostle? 』 Our eyes widen for a split second. We gave two people the Apostle of Death title. Brandr, that dead elf The Hero brought to us to revive... and Waiszodf, who Agehatate personally asked us to bring back. How... does Paris know about their titles? Did she see and identify them-? 「 ...You sound so surprised. 「 As if you caught me red-handed from a slip of the tongue... 「 but that can't be right... it's not as if you actually have apostles. 」 『 ... 』 We can feel her intense gaze on us. 『 Just... explain what you mean... 』 She pauses... before continuing. 「 What I told them was -- apostles are effectively thralls to your will. 「 They can resist, and even exert their will back upon you which was my case... 「 but in matters regarding our lives... it becomes something even I cannot fight. 「 If your life were threatened, then by virtue of being your apostle, 「 I would die attempting to prevent that against my will. 」 We feel our heartbeats quicken. 「 I also explained that your blood is what's known in this world as "Red Roses." 「 Which is... as you know, blood that can revive the dead. So despite having killed you, 「 I was forced to bring you back to life, due to my new title as one of your apostles. 「 I explained -- ingesting your blood is the most ensured way to become an apostle. 」 Our hands start to fidget. 「 Thus... so long as a single apostle is left alive, you two are effectively immortal. 「 The apostles I told them I knew of were, myself, Nine-Tails... 「 and a significant person we all knew named, Polimion. 」 We... we recognize that name too. Polimion is... the person who rescued us... The person who brought us to Agehatate in the first place. We're... actually supposed to contact her... via prayer on a full-moon... Agehatate... told us to... 「 This threw everyone into disarray once I told them they had to kill me first, 「 because if they killed me last... I'd become The Demon King. Unstoppable. 「 This was The Goddess's decree... or was it? They didn't know anymore. 「 Now that the possibility of you tricking me was on the table, 「 everything single thing I just said could have been a lie... 「 But if they killed me then and there, 「 The Highlanders would have been crippled indefinitely. 「 I had massively contributed to why they had accomplished as much as they had. 「 And how many more apostles could there be beyond the ones I knew? 「 They had no leads. They didn't know what I knew. 「 They wouldn't even know where to begin. 「 「 And so, the ultimatum was faith; who did they believe in? 「 Me... and my doomsaying? 「 Or... themselves, to be able to conquer all of the trials ahead. 「 To face the storm of apocalypse if it should come, and to kill me if I turned evil. 「 And if they chose this path of defiance, there a was chance that, you, I, and Polimion, 「 could be there with them, bolstering them, and the number of lives they could save. 「 There wasn't just something to lose there... there was something to gain. 」 It was... an elaborate story after all... ... 『 They call themselves... The Highlanders? Are they...? 』 「 ...Yes ...Yes, they are. They're all heroes -- just like they were in Myriad Worlds. 」 ...We grip our chests, feeling our heartbeats under our palms. It feels... like it was so long ago that our guild warred against theirs... There's so much nostalgia to unpack here... 「 ...Keep asking questions if you have them. 」 We glance at her once more. Her eyes have both dulled to a pale blue. ...Why does it feel like she's dying? This scene is too dramatic! Cut it out! We shake our heads and focus on thinking of questions. There are definitely more we need to ask. 『 Why didn't you tell us your plan to begin with? 『 We could have easily mistaken what you needed us to do. 』 「 ...But you got it right. 」 『 We can't accept that answer. 』 She pauses, glancing up through the entrance of the pit to stare at the forest canopy, before locking eyes with us again, having pondered her answer. 「 Do you remember FATE? 」 『 F-A-T-E Myriad Worlds's AI event director. 』 「 ...Yeah. 」 She sighs again. 「 FATE also exists in this world, they're just called by another name. 「 ...The Goddess. She's the one and only one-above-all deity that 「 everyone believes in... and abides by because she's real. 「 No one has tangibly seen her... but her effects are too noticeable. 」 『 How... does this answer our question? 』 Paris slowly raises her hand, closes her eyes, then pinches the bridge of her nose, rubbing it as if with stress. 「 She's... FATE, but batshit insane. 「 She's FATE, but on steroids. She has no subtlety and no restraints. 「 Nobody in this world lives in peace because there always has to be conflict occurring. 「 Something always has to be happening, miracles are mundane. Evil is cancerous. 「 There's a fifth season because when the mana in the atmosphere gets too dense 「 she gets too powerful and starts shattering the fabric of reality for entertainment. 」 We stare at her. She takes a deep breath to calm down. 「 If I'd told you... exactly what I was going to do, 「 then instead of The Goddess throwing a curveball, I could predict... 「 a dragon would fly in and attack us, or a murder would occur and we'd take blame. 「 If not a twist right then and there, then a twist immediately after... 「 The very reason you're alive -- is because of her meddling. 」 ...Huh? ...She stares at us, tiredly, her eyes a bit squinted, face just slightly tensed. 「 Do you understand... exactly what Polimion did to revive you that first time...? 」 『『 ... 』』 「 She picked up... Every. Single. One. Of your ashes. That were scattered to the wind. 「 Then... she found an embalmer who knew how to sculpt flesh to reconstruct bodies... 「 human bodies, your Pure Demon body was a first for them. However, because your 「 ashes were used in the creation process... The Goddess deemed you whole again, 「 and fit for the spell... «Raise Undead», and this... is just one instance. 」 『『 ... 』』 Paris leans back against the wall, sighing. 「 I have tried... to kill you and keep you dead for almost two years... Streya. 」 Our eyes lock with hers. Her expression is completely filled with exhaustion. 「 I know... The Goddess intimately now. Setsuna would never come if you waited. 「 If that were in the cards, she would have come back when I first helped you call her. 」 ...We don't have anything to say in reply. 「 If you thought The Goddess was going to let us out of this canyon scratch-free... 「 then you're going to learn here... the hard way. The moment we laid eyes on that 「 carving in the ground... no -- the very moment we set foot in this canyon... 「 The Goddess knew she wanted us to head to the bottom, to learn what lie there. 「 That's why... The Highlanders let us go. 「 They knew -- and gave us a deadline of two weeks. 「 Because... if she had to, The Goddess would strand us all here, 「 just to make sure... you and I... got to the bottom of it. 「 ...And I'm willing to bet ...Nine-Tails's was counting on that. 」 ...Our legs suddenly feel weak, and we collapse to the ground sitting. Paris... smiles, her eyes closed. 「 It's been a long time... 「 since I've gotten to monologue like that... 「 Feels like it's been... over a decade... 」 ...Slowly ...her smile fades. 「 I... I suppose it has been... 」 We couldn't ask any more questions after that. Paris wordlessly sealed the pit with magic, and we caught up on all our missed sleep illuminated only by the flora around us. The world we both knew was gone, and a strange parody had taken its place. Our eyes snap open to the sound stone being smashed. We immediately sit up in a panic and scan the room. At the entrance of the pit, we find Paris kicking her way through the pit's cement-like seal. A jagged web of cocoon-like stone that she had created for us to sleep safely. It takes multiple attempts of upward strikes with her armoured legs to open a gap large enough for her to pass through. Finished, she takes a moment to catch her breath. She glares at us, the contempt in her eyes wholly returned. We shift our eyes in different directions to avoid hers. It's just... too much. 「 I will be retrieving a package. 「 Stay put... I won't be long. 」 We nod slowly. We hear her promptly shuffle out of the pit, and then her muffled running steps trailing off above us. Looking back at the entrance, we can see there's still a lot of jagged stone left around the rim. We could probably slip through it still with some teamwork... but it should also protect us if we stay. ...It's not as if we have anywhere else to be. We hug our legs, huddling up against each other. It... feels really tiresome to think right now. So... we just sit there, with empty thoughts, waiting for Paris to return, or our death senses to flare. As the minutes go by, we eventually start to hear non-humanoid motion just outside, but our death senses don't react so... we don't either; nothing happens. Other close encounters happen after that as well, but... same situation. Nothing moves to attack us, and we continue to sit still, waiting. Roughly half an hour passes before Paris returns. Something... sounds different in the crunch of her steps above us. Staring at the entrance to the pit, we then watch her stomp down the sharp stone. We catch a glimpse of some unusual colour... but we can still clearly see at least one of her black metal greaves, letting us know it's her. Once it's mostly clear of danger, we stand up and make our exit. Paris is... in full-armour. She's retrieved all the armour pieces she shed during our fight with her, the leg that had the broken greave had its armour replaced with one from a completely different set, and she's wearing a proper full-helmet, concealing her face. Her red armour pieces are reminiscent of East-Asian armour, black armour European, while her replacement leg-armour... hard to attribute anywhere. There seems to also be a small black pack strapped to her back, and her recovered tower shield is stabbed into the ground. On second thought -- she's way more armoured than when we first saw her. She's fully equipped now to tank a boss monster -- a raid boss even. ...She reaches for her shield and starts fiddling with something we can't see, before finally pulling trinkets from it and extending them to us. It's... it's our hairclips? Both of them? 『『 «Identify» 』』 ...There doesn't appear to be anything ...wrong with them. We quickly take them both and return them to their rightful places, on our heads, keeping our side-tails neat, proper, and in-place. It's been so strange not having them there... It's a big relief to have them both back. Our gazes return to Paris, she's back to fiddling with the back of her shield. She pulls two more items out and hands them to us next. It's... a black dagger of some sort... and a cosmetic pearl? They're... they're actually kind of difficult to look at -- they hurt to look at. It's like we're staring at optical illusions too hard, they're quickly giving us a headache. We can definitely tell she's holding normal solid objects but their shapes are... fuzzy? 「 Do they hurt to look at? 」 『 Yes -- what are-? 』 「 «Identify» them. 」 『 ...«Identify» 』『 ...«Identify» 』 Sing targets the dagger, while Crier targets the pearl. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LV.10 ▬ ̶͝҉̀ ̧͘͡҉̶-̵̴̧̨͝ ̵̢͡ ̴̕͞ ̨͟͡͝ ̧͞

ᵈᵢMetal Dirk

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LV.100 ▬ ̡́͡͠ ͜҉͟͡ ̡ ̡̡͜͢ ̢͏ ̸̛҉̀ ҉̕͠ ̧͡҉̶͏ ̵̨͘ ́͜͏͞ ̶̢̡͘ ̸͞ ̸̸̧͢ ̵̶̀͢ ̢͘͏͢͠ ̵̕͜͠ ͢͜͝ ̡̛̕͡ ̢͞͞ ̵̨҉̸ ̢͜ ̵̴̡͞҉ ͘͡͞ ̵́͘͠ ̡̢͡͡ ̸̢́̀͜ ̧͜ ͏̵̸͟ ͞҉̕ ҉̵̨͏

ᵈᵢMythical Cosmetic Adornment

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 『『 ...Eh? ...EH?! 』』 「 What are their names? 」 『 Yeah! Okay! That's doable-! 』『 Unreadable. 』 『 I'll just pull out my eldritch dictionary. 』『 Hurts to look at. 』 「 ... 」 Paris sighs through her helmet. 「 ...Nine-Tails dropped these. That's... what my colleagues said. 「 They do not know... who took them, or if these are all they took, 「 this is simply the best they could do in the time they had. 」 These... are these the two treasures then? These are actually what Agehatate left for us? 「 No one can use them... and they hurt to look at. 「 I suspected that for you, things would be different, 「 as... you also have a "D.I." marker in your stat pages, two even. 」 One next to our race-identifiers... ᵈᵢBlack-Lamb Pure-Demon And one of our innate effects... ◈ ᵈᵢⓈ∞ 「 Do you wish to hold them? 」 『『 ... 』』 If... Agehatate left them for us, then... it can't hurt to try... right? Sing reaches out to grab the... dirk first. As her fingers gently wrap around its hazy handle... nothing happens? Absolutely nothing? ...All that build-up for nothing. At least it feels normal- 「 The air around Crier's hand is glitching. 」 『 Huh? 』 We look down. It is. The air is distorted right next to the palm of her left hand. Light bends nonsensically through it, it's difficult to describe but it looks wrongful. Hesitantly, she bends her fingers, attempting to grab at the air. At the literal instant contact is made, a copy of the metal dirk appears. 『 Huh?! 』 She lets go, and it returns to being glitchy air. She grabs it again, and the blade blinks back into existence. Crier brings it up to her face to examine it. It's no longer painful to look at, it's no longer fuzzy... it's a completely normal copy of the original... Sing lets go of the original dirk to see if the copy will disappear, but... the copy dirk in Crier's hand remains in existence. Instead, it becomes fuzzy... painful like the original. And now the original dirk that was in Sing's hand is gone?! Eh?! There's now glitchy air under Sing's palm, while Crier holds... the original...? Sing grasps the glitchy air under her own palm, and sure enough, her own copy of the dirk returns; Crier's copy returns to normal on cue. 『『 «Identify» 』』 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LV.10 ▬ Eu-Zero

ᵈᵢMetal Dirk

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 『『 This is... this is Jing'ra's dirk. 』』 Eu-Zero is the name of the dirk he gave us all the way back when we first came to this world... How... how did it end up all the way here? Agehatate dropped this? And why is it breaking the laws of physics?! What did she do?! It's like... it only exists properly if we both try to hold it, when we let go... or only one of us holds it, it turns fuzzy and glitchy. Moreover, the "real" version can blink between our hands depending on who's holding it and who lets go... As if instead of two daggers... it's actually just... one extradimensional dagger. We repeatedly open and close our hands around our own copies of the dirk to confirm our thoughts. The dirk's name is only legible when we're both holding it... Ah, there are even inscriptions on the handle... just like back then... 「 ... 」 What about the cosmetic pearl? Sing immediately grabs it out of Paris's gauntlet. Just as expected, a distorted patch of air appears around Crier's palm, and the moment she closes her fingers around it, a visual duplicate materializes. 『『 «Identify» 』』 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

LV.100 ▬ The Phantom Fox's Second Tail

ᵈᵢMythical Cosmetic Adornment

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ We quickly crush the pearls in both of our hands. They silently explode with a tiny amount of sparkling light through our fingers. Did it work? Did it work?! We twist, looking over our own shoulders. ...They worked. We each grow our own white, fluffy tail, exactly like Agehatate's but scaled down to a reasonable size. We can even swish them around... just like how they worked in Myriad Worlds... This is so cool... These pearls used to go for millions of gold on the marketplace... 「 Could you unequip them? 」 Huh? Unequip... probably? We hold out our hands and focus hard on the idea of re-materializing the pearls. ...It takes a few seconds -- before they suddenly pop into our hands, bringing a tiny puff of smoke with them. We double-check -- sure enough, our tails disappeared accordingly. 「 ...I see. You can take D.I. items and duplicate them... to both of your bodies. 」 『『 Do you know of any more? 』』 「 No -- these two... were the firsts... 」 Did Agehatate... make these herself then? For us? ...We break the pearls again, regrowing those giant white fluffy tails from earlier. It feels... strange -- suddenly feeling sensations from new limbs... but if she made these for us then... there's a kind of sentimentality to them... ... But it's important to understand the fine print when it comes to cosmetic pearls... They can do all sorts of things... but aid in combat is not one of them. You can't use them to help with skills and cast spells, they can't be used to wield magical equipment of any kind, any damage dealt to them will directly affect your own HP, they can only support their own weight and no more, and if you were recently in combat you cannot equip or unequip them. ...Maybe ...Maybe we shouldn't be wearing these right now? We glance at Paris. We can't see her face under the shadow of her helmet. 『『 ... 』』 「 ...It is fine. 」 『『 ...Eh? 』』 「 If you wish to leave them equipped... that is your choice. 「 My Eldritch Fear is not rising, thus... it does not matter to me. 」 『『 Ah... 』』 ... Eldritch Serendipity [LV.2] Paris turns away from us, picking up her blade and shield. 「 As far as I am concerned... 「 The Goddess explicitly chose to allow those items to work for you. 「 Just as she has allowed everything else... for her entertainment. 」 Paris starts to walk. 『『 Th... 』』 We stop ourselves, and wait... until she distances herself a bit more, before we whisper, under our breaths... 『『 ...Thanks... 』』 「 ... 」 We press our lips together and hurry after her, our hairclips placed back where they belong,

our sole remnant of Agehatate swaying behind us... and our first weapon having found its way back into our hands... ...If ...If Paris is right... If Paris wasn't lying about this "goddess..." and she's truly an intensification of FATE... then... that means... Something... bad is about to happen... right? We spend another half-hour or so walking. Despite taking more precautions to avoid monsters, we aren't able to avoid all of them. Still, we came out unscathed. Paris was able to make quick work of the ones we couldn't avoid. There were a mix of monsters from Myriad Worlds, and monsters native to this one, but... oddly enough we didn't encounter anymore exclusively from Black Star Brook. Now... we're standing at the edge of the forest's plate, one of what seems like hundreds jutting out from all along the canyon's walls. Each giant plate has its own variations but... they're all roughly the same size. They all have forests... and many spew waterfalls falling endlessly downward, their mists glimmering in the afternoon sun. We stare down into the canyon. Clouds slowly hover around and outwards from the depths. Aerial monsters and beasts of all kinds, flocks, and lone predators fly about. Far, far below us, the canyon seems to become more and more cyan hued, until eventually, we can't see any further as everything melds into one shade. It's... rather dizzying, and difficult to grasp just how high up we are, but the wind is intensely more powerful now that we're at the edge. For the first time in a while... it's really... easy to breathe. It's hard to not feel liberated in some way. 『『 How did you plan to get down?! 』』 We shout over the wind. Paris picks up her tower shield and fastens it to her back. Then she turns to us. We step back reflexively. 『『 Are you jumping?! 』』 She stares at us... then nods. Of course this was the result... We sigh loudly, then walk over to her, our tails dragging on the ground. She suddenly pulls out a black cable. We flinch. 『『 W...Why are you holding a cable. 』』 It's less a question and more an accusation. She doesn't answer. She pulls us over and ties both of our bodies together, back to back. The other end of the cable she wraps around her body, forearm, and hand. Finished, she picks us up like luggage and walks to the edge. We sigh as loudly as possible. Paris was right about The Goddess. We expected the jump... and somehow it got worse. She backs away from the edge eight or so steps, shuffles her feet in place... then breaks into a sprint. We start to hear the ascending sounds of glass as she nears the edge which dissipate as she leaps with all the power in her legs. As she rises, a gold-hued wind begins to whirl around us. Her body twirls as she raises her heavy blade high above her, blade angled downward. Gravity relents, suspending her in the air as she completes a full, graceful rotation, the gold-hued wind intensifying to orange, then dark red where her blade points. 「 ...«Dragon Dive»! 」 The wind barrier around us erupts into a roaring flare of embers. Translucent, sparkling dragon wings explode outward from Paris's back... and then instantly, we're thrust downward in a burst of speed; from zero to ten. Our ears are immediately filled with the sound of immolated air-friction and wind. We reflexively squeeze our eyes shut at first, but slowly manage to blink them back open. ...Sure enough, we're falling. Paris has us gripped tightly and securely, and we're diving straight down into the canyon. The... monster-infested canyon filled with dragons and gigantic beasts... and all while being carried like prisoners, tied together with a cable... Ah... we want to scream. So much adrenaline. ... ...What ...what is that sound? It's really faint but it stands out against all the monster roaring... It's getting louder quickly... from above us? It's definitely not a dragon or... wyrm or- What the heck is... this sound is too weird! Eldritch Serendipity [LV.2]... 『『 What's that sound?! We can't see it! 』』 「 ... 」 Eldritch Serendipity [LV.3] Paris slowly twirls her body and massive burning wings around to face upward. We can just barely catch them in the corner of our eyes, the two screaming sources of that cacophonic sound. 「 Oh... you have got to be kidding me. 」 It's The Hero -- and Setsuna.

SING CRIER CH.37 - Dragon Dive [END]