"Pardon me...but...what did you just say?" The brunette in a pitch-black blazer and dark trousers, tightened her grasp on the white purse on her lap. She had always sat with a taut, straightened back and kept her unflinching gaze fixed. Now, however, her gaze was wavering. Her back had slackened with the onset of troubling thoughts and a whirlwind of emotions.
Her brown pupils were quivering as the cool words of the detached and aloof medic seated across the table, rang in her ears. "Please pardon?" she asked again, her eyes widening disbelievingly but quickly losing focus.
The lips on his blurred face parted. "We have discovered some abnormal...structures within your body. Your condition is not necessarily fatal at the moment, but we're unfortunately unable to deduce the illness. If only you could grant us more time then..."
His words seemed to fragment into monosyllables the longer she heard him. The longer the lady sat there, the more she felt like the air was thinning. It was like she was atop a mountain, inhaling gulps of frigid air that froze her cells—her everything.
"How long will you forsake yourself to this past reality?" A cold voice interjected from behind her.
The lady tilted her face towards the door to the doctor's office. A masked man stood there, clad in a pitch-black outfit, leaning nonchalantly against the door with his arms crossed over his wide chest. Her brows furrowed at the man. "Who are you?" she inquired softly, her eyelids reddened by the tears that had refused to cascade.
His head turned to her.
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Divine Calendar Year 5568
The Faceless Realm
Outer World: The Forsaken World
***
[2 Minutes Remaining Until Your Discharge...] announced the large, glimmering, golden text floating in the blue sky.
Nova had woken up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes sluggishly. She vaguely felt like she had been in the middle of an important conversation with someone. Nonetheless, as her eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight, her senses confirmed that it had just been a strange dream. She couldn't recall much of it though...
"You're awake," Nyx suddenly spoke from behind her, interrupting her train of thought. He was still in a meditative posture. He was beaming broadly at her.
"Yeah. Sadly, I now have to face reality," Nova said, standing up and sweeping grains of sand off of her pleated skirt. "Haha, but this reality is better than the one which I've left behind. However, I don't even know where we'll be discharged. And that disgruntles me. This new life is becoming more and more like a game."
Nyx hummed, staring at a crinkled pleat in his black shorts thoughtfully. "Didn't you say that this was a hidden floor in a labyrinth? I suppose that this would mean that getting out of here would not be as simple as killing the final boss in a game then," he remarked, having calculated their chances of surviving. Nonetheless, he had concluded that their fates were not entirely in their own hands.
"If we aren't the playmakers, all we have to do is dance to the playmaker's tune so flawlessly that the mastermind themselves begins to question reality," Nova said, remembering something fleeting from her previous life. It was a nonsensical conversation between her and her past boyfriend, Adrian, who had been a detective in the States.
In fact, it was Adrian himself who had spoken those words, wasn't it? About playmakers...
Her grey eyes narrowed as an emotion she'd long buried in a dark corner of her heart unexpectedly resurfaced.
Adrian's kind, oceanic-blue eyes were fixed on her. His gentle and large palm clasped her calloused fingers. His right hand caressed her wavy, black hair as though each strand was a priceless treasure. She could feel her heart pound distinctly in her chest; each throb threatened to break her ribcage and let her feelings overflow.
"Nova..." His misty-eyed words always cleared her rationality. The world around them seemed to vanish into a distant blur of melding colors.
"Hey! Nova! Nova?"
The black-haired girl looked up at a familiar, delicate face with a pair of gem-like grey eyes that were looking at her concernedly. She felt like she had been pulled out of a dream. Or should it be...a nightmare?
"You spaced out for a moment there," Nyx said, sighing as they crossed their arms and looked at her carefully. "Is something wrong? 30 seconds are remaining now."
Nova shook her head slightly, her brows drooping slightly as a shadow hid the sadness in her eyes. "Not at all. I just recalled...the most meaningless moment of my life," she said listlessly.
Nyx's brows knitted deeply and he frowned at her deep remark, but he didn't delve deeper. Some things were better left untouched.
They sat in awkward silence for a moment before the text changed.
[Zero Seconds Remaining. You will now be discharged randomly from this hidden floor.]
A whirlwind promptly emerged from the blue skies and swept Nova and Nyx up into the air. Nyx instantly assumed his invisible state and Nova steadied herself with [Gravitokinesis] as she was rapidly devoured by the whirlwind...
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When Nova regained consciousness, it was frosty. Her lungs were already paining from the piercing chill of the ice and snow. She opened her eyes and assessed her new environment with curiosity.
Ice. That was one way to describe it. The white environs were a storm of ice and snow battling for sovereignty over the hilly, white lands around her. The vague sceneries of curvy hills and dark forests were blurred by the rapidly falling snow.
She was already ankle-deep in the snow!
"Nyx, it seems you'll...cough...have to assume your invisible state for a while...cough," Nova said amid coughs as bits of hail landed into her mouth and choked her. As she spoke, she pulled her feet from the snow and instantly reduced the pull of gravity on her body. She was levitating some five meters from the ground, breathing heavily as she assessed the frosted lands from above.
"Ugh, no good. I can't see any possible shelter around, but if I stay here any longer...uh!" Nova swallowed her words as her grey eyes captured a distant valley that was somewhat concealed from the rain of hail and snow. Within that valley... She narrowed her eyes.
Before that, it seemed that someone wanted to welcome her here... Nova's gaze wandered to the tall, dark figures prowling on the snowy plains beneath her, seemingly unbothered by the snowy whirlwind. Menacing auras emanated from them. Their presence, scattered like chess pieces upon the plains, sent chills down her spine.
"I can't beat that... I need to find a shelter first," she said to herself, simultaneously accruing high gravitational energy beneath her feet. This propelled her body through the merciless cold like a fish in water, towards the distant valley.
***
Nova landed roughly in the valley, her feet dipping slightly into the snow. Above her towered two mountains that seemed to be in the middle of clashing but we're stopped by the contents of the valley.
Nothing grew there. Descending from the mountain before her was a frozen waterfall that now resembled the ice sculpture of a serpent. Oh, wait... There actually was a humongous serpent, frozen within the waterfall...
Nova's lips crinkled awkwardly as she assessed the terrifying beast sealed within the ice. "I hope that will never be me," she thought, and her gaze studied the valley further before settling calmly on what had truly captured her attention.
A cave. A structure carved into the foot of one of the mountains.
The cave's interior is dark, Nova thought as she stepped inside and her grey eyes roamed round the enclosed space. She cleared her throat noisily as a warm gust flooded from the depths of the cave. The girl resumed her steps, her ragged breaths calming as she roamed further away from the chill of snow.
There was something really warm. The heat was radiating from the depths of the cave. There was so much of it now, she realized, that all the snow at the edges of the cave's entrance had melted.
Nova stopped and closed her eyes. 'What should I do? Should I continue walking and find out what's inside here? Or should I stop here and not risk my life?' she thought solemnly, searching her mind for the most pleasing answer.
When she opened her eyes again a moment later, her gaze had hardened with certainty. She could only move forward.
Her steps were solid as she conquered the moist, dark earth beneath her feet. Her vision, even with [Spatial Perception], had been restricted by the looming darkness to only her feet.
Clearly, there was something else interfering with [Spatial Perception], besides the darkness.
Her face felt damp with sweat as the heat became unbearable. "Nova, there's some extremely dense mana up ahead. I think it would be dangerous to proceed further without knowing what we're up against," Nyx advised her, his slightly childish voice resounding in her mind, rendering a bit of repose to her pounding heart.
Nova mopped her sweaty forehead with her coat's sleeve. Deep down, she agreed with Nyx that it was too risky. However...
"Nyx, what if...it's a hot spring?" she asked inwardly. Her partner quietened at the query, but she could feel his excitement at the question. Hence, Nova continued to press forward even as the rushing heat waves almost made her faint.
She reduced the pull of gravity on various muscles in her body so as to temporarily enhance her agility. This was because the earth in the cave was steep and the path narrowed as she walked.
Then, there was light.
A glimmer of silvery light in the distance.
At this point, Nova had been walking for hours. Her black shirt stuck to her skin, adhering to her warm sweat. She would often feel something cool sliver down her thighs, making her shudder involuntarily.
The glimmer of light in the distance coerced a deep, earnest smile from her jaded face. She increased her pace until the path opened up to an enormous cavern, well-lit by the gentle glow of mysterious, sapphire-blue and grey crystals. The blue light shone on her tired face. She felt like she had arrived at Shangri-la as the fairytale-like scene turned her senses hazy.
And amid those enchantingly glowing crystals was the white mist rising gently from the hot waters of an immense pool. Nova was about to cry joyfully(at her answered prayers).
However, she paused when her eyes anchored on a desirable, masculine figure, perfect skin dotted with glinting water drops, rising from the glistening pool...stark-naked.