“Your idea, it’s lunacy,” Iris said.

“And it worked. It’s true madness, madness that defies natural laws.”

Iris glanced at the smiling Ludmint and then returned to the holy staff floating in dark green liquid. Arrays of pulsating crimson veins oozed out of cracks on its surface, which widened and contracted as if it were a beating heart.

“How long has it been in equilibrium?” Iris said.

“Three months, eleven days, fifteen hours and counting.”

Ludmint snapped her fingers. A black slab below her floated up, hovering beside the cylindrical tube housing the submerged staff. The golden liquid in the slab slithered to the front facing Iris and joined into a ticking timer. The timer matched Ludmint’s number.

“Your research, if published, will shake Main Material Plane itself,” Iris said. “You might be the first to turn the Holy Evil, the Corrupted Pure.”

“I’m not the first one. You are, Iris.” Ludmint leaned on Iris. “If the world knows of your existence, not just Main Material Plane but also other Planes will come for you.”

“Will you protect me?”

“Only if you love me.”

“My life then is destined to be tragic.” Iris turned around and stared skywards. “I’ve seen too much and asked too many questions. My body’s aching.”

Ludmint smiled. “Then we shall rest. Would you like a cup of tea?”

She flicked her right hand. The black slab displaying the timer returned to its place, and those beneath Ludmint and Iris quivered. They carefully detached from the floating platform and descended toward the ground. During the descent, Iris admired intricate floating structures that melded into one unity.

After getting caught by Ludmint, Iris began her official tour of the second floor. She scrutinised every contaminated Artefact and observed every tainted organism. Every question she had, Ludmint answered them, and she praised Ludmint for her ingenuity, sometimes even rewarding her with a tender kiss.

Ludmint made significant progress in combining the Holy and the Evil Powers, but she made little progress in dissecting the Corruption Power. Its otherworldly origin proved too insuperable. Everything it touched decayed, and every artificial organism it touched perished.

Even small female animals failed to control the Corruption Power. Nothing could fuse Corruption Power with other powers, except for Iris.

“Giving up my body for science isn’t why I accepted your proposal,” Iris said.

“I would never do that.” Ludmint chuckled. “Only my hands can explore your body.”

She clicked her tongue. Tiny black blocks separated from the ground and assembled into a tea table set. Golden liquid flowing along their rims illuminated the surrounding. Ludmint pulled out a chair for Iris and, after Iris sat down, went to her seat. She made herself milky tea and Iris herbal tea.

“Extraordinary control.” Iris sipped her tea and praised its sweetness. Ludmint indeed knew her taste. “I couldn’t feel any flow of magic. Is this the fruit of the Grand Formation research?”

“I incorporated the invisibility feature of Evil Punisher into this Grand Formation. I named it Black Polylith, created with special material I developed with Mecalia.”

“You hid this from me and not her?” Iris narrowed her eyes, her hand squeezing her black teacup.

“Only you know what I do here, if we exclude the Court Founder.” Ludmint sniffed her milky tea. “I could never hide anything from her. None of us could.”

Iris leaned forward, tilted her head, and smiled. “I believe you. Memory Forever Cherished is the collateral.”

Ludmint tried to convince Iris that she never told anyone anything about her research, but Iris merely rested on her chair and drank her tea until her Slime Girl body changed its hue to cyan. In the end, Ludmint got up and massaged fatigue and wariness out of Iris. Iris requested her a few simple requests, to which Ludmint agreed.

“Why are you the one who’s mad?” Ludmint said. “You sneaked into my underground lab. I should be mad.”

“Why aren’t you?” Iris placed down her teacup and popped her head with her right hand. “You forgave my trespassing. You played along with my sulking. You allowed me to take advantage of you. For what are you compensating?”

Ludmint averted her eyes, her eyelids twitching. “Why must I say it, when you already know?”

“Sins remain unforgiven without confession.”

“I hate you, Iris.” Ludmint pouted. “I confess. I lied about the interview, and you found out. You knew that I’d give in to your demand, that I’d feel too guilty to punish you.”

“You’re the loveliest when you’re angry.” Iris blew a kiss at Ludmint, who turned her left cheek to receive it. “I take it you’ll show me the third floor?”

“If I don’t, will you try to open the door again?”

“Only if I can’t find another way in.”

Ludmint sighed and finished her drink. She waited until Iris finished hers before she got up. “Have you been rejuvenated?”

Iris nodded and complimented Ludmint for her stylistic choice and delicious treat, to which Ludmint smugly grinned. The two walked to the worn-down grey door, with Ludmint standing in front of Iris, holding hands. She worried that Iris might try something reckless again.

Using her Corruption Power, she drew a series of circles and spun each with varying speed. They gradually evolved into other shapes, forming a coherent array of gears making up complex machinery. As she drew her hand forward, the formation expanded backwards, gaining depth in which an incorporeal key manifested.

Ludmint grabbed it, turned to Iris, and gave it to her. Iris took the key and inserted it into the keyhole. The grey door glowed, its hidden mechanism shifting. It slid open, revealing the infinite expanse, where black stars glimmered and white space obscured.

The Void Creatures, noticing a rift into reality, peered through it. Their invisible, all-permeating presences crept toward Main Material Plane, but a thin film of grey light obstructed their intrusion. Facing this protective film, the Void Creatures recoiled, their unseen silhouettes trembling. They remembered this gate, specifically its creator, a mad lady who liked to torture them.

Watching the gigantic Void Creatures fleeing, Iris glanced at Ludmint, who meekly beamed.

“What did you do?” Iris said.

“I gave you the key to my room.”

“They feared you. What did you do?”

“I hid the entrance to the third floor inside the Void. And experimented on a few of them. And occupied their territory.” Ludmint coquettishly lowered her head. “Do you hate this unladylike me?”

“It’s Ludmint-like, and I like Ludmint-like.” Iris, giggling, stepped forward.

As she lifted her foot and landed it on emptiness, an immaterial path manifested beneath her. It led her and Ludmint to a white door floating among black stars. This white door, anchored by ethereal silver chains, glittered as if it desired attention, that its vestige should linger in the mind, that everyone should be curious about it.

Iris lifted her head. Gigantic Void Creatures, some of which exuded a suffocating presence akin to a raging ocean, drifted beyond the grey gate, away from Iris, away from Ludmint. They hovered near the passageway, their multitude of eyes staring at the curious reality.

Such a vibrant, lively land, they wanted it; they needed it. If not for that terrifying lady, they would have flown even nearer.

“Found it.” Ludmint pointed at a Void Creature. “That ugly thing, do you remember it, Iris?”

Iris observed it. The Void Creature, twisting in pain, howled and flung its ink-like tentacles at smaller, weaker Void Creatures, striking them until their bodies shattered into pieces. As it assimilated more pieces, the injuries on its gigantic body gradually healed.

Though Iris couldn’t recognise its appearance, she recognised its scream.

“Ludmint, your trap nearly killed me,” she said.

“It’s the punishment for your recklessness.” Ludmint shook her head. “However, that thing still hurt you.”

She unfurled her hand and clenched it abruptly. Her silver Corruption Power exploded forth. Its ghostly wavefront painted the Void pitch black, its residue energy condensing into snow-like dots, which randomly drifted around Iris.

For a moment, the darkness lit up, and the whiteness darkened. The Void Creatures nearby shrunk and fled, but their speeds failed to escape the white death. When they touched the ghostly wave, their eldritch bodies unravelled into sparks and ink drops. Their tentacles disintegrating, their mouths dissolving, they screeched and screeched until their hoarse tones gained a hint of life, of fear of death, and then they vanished.

The Void Creature who attacked Iris roared. Its tentacles splattered into a pale rain, whose droplets morphed into tinier versions of itself. The swarm of insipid monsters continuously imploded, reformed, and imploded until the blackness painted by Ludmint became tainted.

“Did you expect that?” Iris said. “Should I be impressed or worried?”

“You should give me your body after I kill this annoying pest.”

“I will, if you kill it in the next strike.”

Ludmint licked her lips. Her eyes lit up, and she clasped her hands and pulled them apart. Her fingers pinched into the void itself, pulling apart the emptiness. The black void rippled forward, twisting distance and time, collapsing stable structures. Even the blackness tainting the void folded onto itself, its elementary components merging, annihilating each other.

As the copies crumbled onto themselves, the original flew away, sacrificing its grey tide to delay its death. Its tentacles widened into translucent wings, which flapped and glided through nothingness as if swimming. Due to its extreme speed, its murky outer skin peeled off, yet it paid its reducing mass no heed.

Its only thought was to survive.

“How pathetic,” Ludmint said. “You don’t even have the gut to fight me, yet you dared harm my Iris?”

The Void Creature ran into an invisible layer that fractured its perspective. Paradoxical visions of past, present, and future assaulted its senses, throwing off its balance, scrambling its spatial awareness. The ripples of space-time flung it back to its original place, in front of Ludmint. It met Ludmint’s impassioned gaze and melted into an ink puddle, its vitality vanquished.

Looking at the puddle, Iris sighed. “You hid your capability.”

“You were too fragile.” Ludmint covered her face, her lips peeking between her fingers. “I didn’t want to break you.”

“You just want a reason to embrace me.”

“It’s my privilege.”

“Our privilege.” Iris grasped Ludmint’s hands and pulled them close to her chest. “Can you feel it? Our heartbeats, they resonate.”

“Not just our hearts, but also our bodies, and soon our souls. You can’t leave until you know my everything.”

“As if you’d let me go.”

Ludmint dragged Iris’s hands downward, pressing them on Iris’s abdomen. She shifted her posture, bending forward, and pushed her breasts against Iris’s. Iris didn’t resist. She slowly, delicately exhaled. A puff of hot air cloaked her eyes, muddling the atmosphere.

“It’s time for your punishment,” Ludmint said. “Tell me when to stop, or I might go overboard.”

“You’ll have to piece me back together.” Iris got on her tiptoes and kissed Ludmint. She bit Ludmint’s lower lip, winked, and separated away. “The Void is full of hidden observers. I’m not an exhibitionist.”

“Iris . . . I hate you.”

“I hate myself too.”

Laughing, Iris walked across the immaterial staircase toward the white door. As she came before it, she turned to Ludmint, who urged her to open it. She grabbed the handle and pushed onward. Her silhouette sank into the door, passing the rift between Planes, and landed in a worn-down laboratory riddled with rusty chains and untidy notes and illegible marks.

The first thing to attract her gaze was a clean rectangular chamber, in which a pale carcass of a frail man floated. Preserved by a blue fluid, his withered skin and the diabolical symbols etched on it glimmered as the Evil and Corruption Powers coursed under his veins.

He was Ludmint’s human experiment, her glimmer of hope.