In a dim cave, a strange sight occurred. The top of a pile of rubble was lifted up by a blood red claw and then thrown aside.
Ciel coughed violently from the cloud of dust that rose from his movements. He could feel a faint iron taste in his mouth and a sticky but semi-solid sensation on his back as he rose unsteadily while supporting an unconscious Erin. The floating claw dispersed in a cloud of red before reentering the cut he had made on his finger.
When he had woken up, both of them were buried in the pile of rocks. Ciel could immediately tell that he was mostly unharmed when he had found Erin squashed under him, with both his black wings around his body, protecting him. Except for a few bruises, Ciel had no other wounds on him.
Though, it seemed that they were slowly being suffocated by the lack of air in the small pile of rocks.
'...so that was what he meant by me being fine if I woke up in time.'
He would have died if he hadn't woken up and broke out.
Ciel hobbled over to a larger rock and gently set his brother down. Thankfully, his space ring was also intact, and the emergency potions and medical supplies he had taken from Lilian's storage had finally come in handy.
Bringing out some water and damp cloth, he carefully cleaned Erin's wounds and wrapped them up neatly. He was very skilled with his hands, and finished up in about an hour.
'I wonder if he can still retract his wings after this.' He examined Erin's broken wings. That crisp crack he had heard before fainting wasn't the sound of the floor breaking, but the sound of Erin's wing bones snapping from the impact of the rocks falling. But because his wings were so large, they covered up both boys completely and were the only parts that were badly injured, not including a few bruises from Erin's previous fight.
He examined his surroundings only to find that they seemed to have fallen into a cave system, with rubble above him and all around him.
\You always seem to attract trouble.\ A familiar voice sounded out behind him.
"Theresa?"
Ciel whipped his head around, but only saw Erin, still leaning quietly on his stomach in the position Ciel had rested him in to avoid putting pressure on his wings.
\Down here, look down.\
Ciel's gaze lowered down and stopped at a cute bunny doll the perfect size for him to hug. It was covered in fluff from head to toes. Because of the darkness, he could only see the shape, not the colors, but other than rocks, nothing else was below him.
Ciel choked on his shock. She truly was the sister he grew up with.
"...can you move by yourself?"
\Nope. Hehe.\
Ciel was speechless.
Hehe your *ss! Couldn't she have chosen a better body? This doll was indeed cute, but it had no damn use!
"When you said that you were going to join me, I thought you would be human. At the very least, a living being. Why are you a rabbit doll?"
He bent down, poking the doll's stomach.
Wow, it was so soft and fluffy. He liked it.
Theresa amusedly watched the youngest's expression change from one of shock to enjoyment as he continuously rubbed the doll's fur.
\I didn't want to be like this either. But when transferring worlds, souls need to reconstruct their bodies to adapt to the new world. Otherwise, won't someone be immediately infected by foreign diseases and other things? Switching worlds is akin to throwing a fish on land. The environments may seem similar but a lot of things are different so my entire body needs to be reconstructed. Don't worry. I'm not actually the doll. I'm just a soul attached to the doll right now as my body is being reconstructed by Delmira. In reality, I'm standing right next to you.\
Ciel stopped rubbing and realized why he hadn't been able to immediately pinpoint Theresa's location from her voice earlier.
It was because her voice was coming from his left side, not from the doll.
"So you're technically a ghost?"
Theresa nodded, but then remembered that he couldn't see her.
\Yes. Delmira said that he'd be done with my actual body in around five-ish years. You can only hear me because Delmira made it possible for you and Erin.\
"Was it part of the deal?"
Theresa's voice sounded very happy.
\I requested for him to send me back to my brothers. This was a little bonus from him.\
"How far away can you be from the doll?"
\Ten feet? I tried it out when you were still under the rocks. By the way, the two dragon children are in the pile of rocks on your left side.\
"....I have another question. How do you know what's happening here when you were supposed to be living life in another world? You even know big brother changed his name to Erin."
Ciel slowly pulled the rabbit's ears.
\Eh…"\
"Stalker."
Theresa scoffed.
\Delmira would check in from time to time and give me updates in my dreams. If not for our unfulfilled promise, I wouldn't want to come over at all ah.\
"Liar. I bet you got bored without us."
Ciel wandered around the pile of rocks Theresa had pointed out.
Drawing out blood again to form a claw similar to the one from earlier, Ciel smoothly swatted half the pile into the cave wall. Feeling how easy it was, he looked up at the claw. To prevent dust contaminating his blood, a layer of his mana covered it entirely. But even after using all that mana, Ciel felt fine. In fact, he felt like he could create another one.
"Theresa, I think I broke through."
\Congratulations.\
Listening to his sister's half-hearted reply, Ciel knew that Theresa wasn't paying attention to him, instead, the most likely possibility was that she was checking up on Erin, this older brother of theirs.
Spotting a turquoise feathered wing sticking out of the rubble, Ciel easily formed another claw and began to dig. It was a good thing that the blood being in his magic was the same as it being in his body, or else he would have collapsed from blood loss a long time ago.
'I need to start practicing with other types of blood. I don't want to be at the risk of dying from blood loss every time I use large scale magic.'
The two claws were like extensions of his hands as he skillfully excavated two dragons, one was mint green, and the other was the owner of the turquoise wing he had spotted earlier.
After randomly wiping some healing potions on them, he threw them beside Erin and retracted his blood before gulping down a mana-replenishing potion.
"Ciel, you better also drink another hair changing potion. Your breakthrough reverted your hair back to its natural silver color. Those two are very sturdy, they'll wake up soon."
Huh, that had never happened before.
Ciel was confused, but he still obliged and soon, his silver hair color was back to Erin's pitch black color. Then he stiffened up.
That wasn't Theresa's voice.
"Erin?"
At some unknown time, Erin had sat up with Theresa's doll in his arms. His wings were tucked in neatly by his sides.
The previous immaturity had vanished, leaving behind a sharp air of indifference, only dispelled by the gentle smile in his eyes.
Ciel could immediately tell that this guy was his elder brother.
"What happened to you before?" Ciel was referring to when Erin had a child's mentality.
His brother shrugged: "Didn't you only regain your memory sometime when you turned five? It's something similar. Theresa explained it to me just now, we only regain our memories when our bodies are ready to accept them. I don't know where we fell into, but the mana here is very dense, allowing both me and you to break through."
Ciel looked around, the mana here truly was more pronounced.
"How much do you remember now?"
"Although I feel like something is missing, nothing very noticeable is missing from my memory."
Ciel felt some mirth in his brother's eyes.
"I can assume the five year trial period is gone?"
Ciel tried very hard to stay composed. For a moment, he wished that Erin hadn't regained his memory.
"You've been my brother for more than five years, of course it's gone."
\Bwahahahaha!\ Theresa fell over laughing, and the edge of Erin's mouth twitched upwards.
Ciel felt very nostalgic at this lighthearted atmosphere, but as happy as he was, his ears were flushing red from embarrassment. Wanting to find a reason to change the topic, he discretely punched the turquoise dragon's stomach.
"I think the two dragons are waking up soon."
Erin turned around doubtfully—Ciel hoped that Theresa had done the same and…
No reaction, the two reptiles were out like a light.
Ciel tsked, 'damn, I forgot how weak my body was.'
Theresa, who had witnessed the entire process: Damn, better stop before he actually does something serious.
They all grew up with each other anyway and knew each other's personalities, so Ciel gave up when he sensed that they weren't going to tease him anymore. Raising his head, he stretched out his mana senses, feeling every inch of the cave carefully. From the moment he had broken out of the rocks, he had felt a faint air flow.
That meant there was a way out.
"Ciel, it's here. Theresa already found it when we were unconscious."
Walking over to where Erin was. Ciel felt a small opening where a thin breeze was blowing in. He patted the doll smilingly.
"It's really nice to have you guys back."
Pausing, he added regretfully.
"But Erin, the previous you was also very cute."
Erin snorted.
"I think you mean gullible."
Ciel paused, before smiling cheekily, "I don't know what you mean."