"We're here."
"Where is... here exactly?
Nova followed behind her now regular sized, but still taller friend as they stood before a golden and white coloured pond. The pond was mostly milky white, with swirls of gold floating over it.
"Nova..." The white haired woman called out, staring at the ground with regret glimmering in her eyes. "...I'm sorry I said those horrible things to you. I was just—"
"It's fine." Nova interrupted with an understanding smile.
"No, it's not fine." The woman clenched her fists. "The thing is, I'm the one who steals your EXP. I found a way to block you from taking any I gained, but I couldn't find a way to not take half of yours.
So... In the first place, I'm pretty sure I stuck around you because of guilt... So it's all my fault."
Nova was surprised, hearing what the woman had said, but to her, it was already in the past. The both of them were here now, so they could fix whatever issues they had as they got to know each other better.
Nova held the woman's shoulder, but it seemed she wasn't done talking yet. "But I can fix everything. I'm the heart of your sword you're looking for, not that red eyed guy. I don't know how I got into it, but everything else except that is still vivid in my memory, so you'll know it too once we re-bond."
"...And that's what this pond is for? To merge you to me?" Nova stared at the strange body of liquid.
"Yeah."
Nova turned her head to look at the woman in the front. "And you're sure you want this? I mean, don't you want your own life after all that time of being stuck with me?"
But the woman shook her head. "We were supposed to be together in the first place. And besides, someone's already fixing us from the outside so, this is just a faster alternative."
Nova looked back at the water, thinking about the woman's former words. Why did she come here in the first place? Was it not to finally regain her freedom?
"Hey..." Nova walked to stand beside the woman. "I don't think the name, 'Bird' is going to cut it anymore."
"Hm? What do you— Ah!" All of a sudden, Nova lifted the woman up in the air.
From the sudden movement, the white haired woman was forced to grab Nova's neck as she was carried to the pond like a bride on her wedding day.
"What... What are you doing? I'm supposed to go into the pond alone so it'll assimilate my soul half. If we go in together..."
"...It'll dissolve and reform us into different entities, right?" As Nova was one step away from the pond, she looked down at the woman in her arms with a smile.
Her eyes were with question, as if she was asking Nova where she got that information from.
"I'm a good guesser." Without thinking twice, Nova jumped into the body of milky water.
———
In a completely dark room, a rhythmic, repeating sound could be heard disturbing the peace. A small round ball soon lit up purple from on top of a desk, bathing half of the night black room with its gentle light.
A hand reached out to the glowing globe, making its purple light fade down. "This better be important." A tired voice came from beside the globe.
"Hi Yenn, its Naomi. I know you were probably asleep, but there's an emergency." The globe vibrated with blue colour as a voice came out of it.
———
"Is it open yet?" One of the doctors surrounding the door to Nova's room asked the man tampering with the door controls.
"No. But maybe if you ask me that another hundred times, it will." The doctor got a sarcastic reply.
"You're supposed to be our best technician! How can you not break open a single door lock?!" The same doctor poked again in panic.
They were all freaking out knowing that one of their patients might be in trouble. And although most would say that it was because they cared that much about the unknown patient's safety, in truth, they actually cared more about losing Validation points to other private Healthcare.
In this time and age where the majority of jobs were in beast farming, Healthcare was a booming occupation. And competition in this industry only got fiercer the bigger the company was. So being among one of the top three private hospitals on Ansel, the place couldn't handle the kind of loss in Validation, losing a patient because of a security flaw would cost.
"Sir, I'm working on it. But if you put down your pride and risk a little face to call a techsmith member of a battle squadron, this wouldn't be happening. Heck, even call the entire squad here, because this is alpha level encryption we're talking about.
Something a fifty thousand coal employee can't handle."
[A/ N: Coal is a universal currency unit.]
The doctor, also chief physician of RiverFalls hospitals was about to retort when they suddenly heard a commanding and imposing voice from behind the crowd of people.
"Move." Yenn ordered.
From the tone of her voice, the people didn't even think to question her identity. Their bodies had already cleared a space in the corridor before they even knew it. The chief had also stepped back to let her pass, before he suddenly realized he was obeying an unknown, young woman's orders.
"Excuse me, but you do you think you ah!—" Before the man could get back in her way again, he was already flying towards a wall.
"This hospital has five hours to submit an official statement to the healthcare district HQ for why an appropriate personnel wasn't assigned to this matter. Failure to do so, or provide good reasons will result in immediate expulsion of all RiverFalls businesses from Ansel."
As Yenn got to the door, the technician crawled out of her way, leaving a few words of unwanted wisdom. "The door is fully enforced with Red-Titanium steel, coded locked by nine layers of high-level encryption. It is impossible to —"
"Shut up." Yenn pressed her fingers on the door, making them sink into it like it was melting butter. With an easy tug, she ripped out the door, along with a very large portion of the wall and the metal platings in them.
Without checking to see if she had hurt any of the dumbstruck onlookers, she moved the broken off wall aside. But when Yenn and everyone else looked inside, all they saw was the patient, Nova, lying peacefully on the bed with a nurse who looked to just be waking up from a nap on the ground.
However, looking closely, Yenn could see the irregular in the room; a man sitting upside down, hanging off the ceiling.
Without hesitation, she shot up at the strange figure and took him out of the room, through an open window.
Yenn grabbed the unknown man by his wide, round collar as they shot through the sky, when he suddenly rose his hands up in surrender. "Even now, you just couldn't let me sleep peacefully, could you? Bad habits die hard I guess."
Yenn frowned, as Asher started pulling his hood and the zipper on his collar down.
When Yenn saw the person beneath the cover, her eyes opened wide in shock. It has been seven years since then, however, his features were very much familiar to her.
The sharp outline of his face, his creamy, caramel skin, and his eyes like pure black obsidian, with only small white circles around his pupils to differentiate from his iris's black.
"What? Don't recognize me?"
How could she not?
Yenn's eyes quivered, as the grip around Asher's collar loosened. "A... Asher...?" She asked to confirm what she already knew, or rather, to prove to her exhausted mind that this was in fact not a dream, but reality.
Asher smiled.
And that was it, the confirmation she needed to calm down her turbulent heartbeat. Yenn gave a tired smile and suddenly passed out in his arms, unable to stop that disobedient tear from sliding down her face.
The soles of Asher's shoes glowed with silver light as he stopped their bodies from skidding any further through the air. "Looks like we've all had an exhausting week." Asher smiled as he caressed her silky smooth hair, a serene aura emanating from his pores.
"I'm home." He whispered into her ears, influencing a smile to slowly curve on her face as she picked up his calm voice wrapping her arms around him.
———
Katie, Lucius' personal assistant sighed in relief as she watched Nova's body from beside her bed. Her body was transparent, yet at this time, not even Asher, nor Yenn could sense her looming figure.
"So?" The President's voice of anticipation sounded in her head.
"She made the right choice." Katie clarified.
It was now Lucius' turn to sigh. "It's good that she chose that option. Neither she, nor the world is ready for that soul touch yet. But at least now she can continue to grow normally till she finally reaches the Lord's Sanctum."
However, a small look of confusion soon appeared on Katie's face.
"Sir, I think 'finally' is going to come sooner than we've all expected..." She continued to watch Nova's different looking body.
[A/ N: Just a quick reminder: Lord's Sanctum = S-rank]