9 AQ (After Quimora), in a distant realm, a world that mirrored our Earth in many ways existed where magic was not a mere figment of imagination, but a living, breathing force. A subtle resonance set it apart with the presence of mana that imbued the world with a touch of magic. Here, the ordinary and the extraordinary lived together in unity. However, for a certain group, the lost advancements became their weapons.
On the deck of a modern cruise, an invention that shouldn't have existed yet in this world, hovering over the ocean, I gazed towards the visible prison land which gathered a 30-meter wall circling it. For starters, it was known as the Obsidian Asylum where convicts with dual-awakened power gathered, repenting of their sins.
A tap of wood caught my attention, putting my gaze back on the chessboard on the table. Rox made her move using her queen piece. She was a mere puppet in a maid outfit, almost four inches taller than I am, and her braided orange hair harmonized with my crimson hair weaving down my shoulder. What's enticing in her appearance is that her joints took the shape of a sphere alongside her synthetic skin.
"Your move, Nebula-sama." She grasped the enticing enjoyment of strategizing forces through the game of chess. Three years earlier, when video games hadn't been invented yet, Chess satisfied her amusement. What's motivating her to play this traditional game with me? She never won against me… not even once.
"Have you informed everyone to call me Saori and not Quimora throughout this mission?" I asked, and she nodded in response. As I moved a piece, I smirked with the winner's face and asked, "So Rox, do you believe in the existence of multiverses?"
Rox made a move and replied with the playful voice of a tiny girl, "I'm lagging far beyond human comprehension. With the available books this world has, I'm having a hard time defining the future. I may be a technological product, but I'm still a human flooded with emotions."
I made my chess move and said, gazing back at the prison, "Do you still remember the story of Schrodinger's cat? The real hypothetical experiment was inhumane as I used to be. Suppose a cat was put in a box with a radioactive material. When the material decays, it will trigger a poison that will kill the cat. Without opening the box, do you think that the cat will live or die?"
"Knowing you, you already have an answer. But honestly, if you asked that to everyone else, the same answer would be uncertainty."
"Suppose a seed that grows into countless roots and branches, and is destined to create another seed. These branches continue to exist as long as the causal of things uproots to one entanglement. In simple terms, the universe is a never-ending tree. A single branch would bear a different type of fruit."
"Do you mean there's a superposition that the cat both lives and dies?"
I turned back to the chessboard and murmured, "Two outcomes at a certain point in time is the reality concealed by an illusion called the third dimension. The world of probabilities is brutal, and there's a nearly zero chance that we exist and are playing chess right now. We may not witness the multiverse as is, but using measurements, we can predict the future far differently from what the Oracles of Finality do."
I even mentioned the cameos of the Finality, a belief in which a sole future is predetermined, completely the counterpart of our discussion about universes. As the sole person who witnessed the propagator of Entropy, I'm declared a demigod in this world, an Apostle.
"Being you as the only apostle of Entropy, they're only seeing a single branch. Is that correct?"
"Hatred on that word used wrongly. Even I would say it would be boring if you always win. But what's fun about it..." I giggled easily and moved a piece, leading Rox to a checkmate. "... is how you win it."
Rox sighed, even though no air came out of her mouth. "You'll get a Crossborn award for upsetting people. So, based on this cat box ideology, you're implying that two Quimora's could exist at the same time, you and the real one, is that correct?"
I took my cup of ice cream, stood up, and rested on the railings of the cruise. It's already been five years since I separated my body from the real Quimora. After all the things that she suffered, now should be the time to clear our name and end her misery.
"In this superposition, one of her souls lives; the other dies. The Project Schrodinger initiated five years ago was a flop. This is its continuation, the sole proof that two destinies exist in one. Quimora was the end of the road, and I, Nebula, was the new beginning. Death wasn't her destiny… Instead, it was her role. This is the real Project Schrodinger which is five years in the making.
"Six out of fourteen… Let the gem hunt begin."
***
11 BN (Before Nebula)… 20 years in the past, before I set foot in this world…
The loud beeping sound of a rampaging tanker truck that lost control deafened me, a sound that I would never expect giving me goosebumps. I only had a second to jump into the middle of the road to push away the passing elementary student who was unaware of his tragic future.
With my leg power, I accomplished my goal. He flew away from the trajectory of the incident, replacing him with my figure. Spotting the lights of the high-speed truck blinded me. For once, I became the public's hero before my soul departed Earth.
I never knew the reason I was still alive for twenty years. I never had a family nor a motivation to continue living, yet it doesn't mean that I want to die earlier than an average smoker. However, the assassin's blood ran down my veins, forcing my body to avoid danger. But for once, my instincts felt relaxed.
THE END… Or so I thought. I've experienced various near-death situations far more vicious than the cliched Isekai truck. Behind the face of an innocent college girl, a menacing aura of the perfect assassin hid in disguise. I've had countless plans to escape a meter-length collision. But this death raised suspicions in my mind. It's unacceptable.
Before the truck rammed me, darkness already overtook my vision, rendering me unconscious. I never felt pain or misery. I once thought, Oh, this may be a dream, not until the real dream invaded my memories, a vision of a dying child in my hands and my death from a gun bullet burrowing through my skull… It's like I've held something dear in my life, but the puzzle pieces are missing.
I woke up and found myself overstepping the crimson-tinted clouds under the crimson moonlight, facing a fallen god... Before I knew it, tears already flooded my eyes as my heart hastened, nearly exploding like a detonated bomb. What's happening to me? I never cried once in my life as far as I remember, knowing that I had a sharp eidetic memory.
I hyperventilated never knowing the reason. The breeze came onto my skin, hardly telling me that I was in reality. Numbness took over my body, and I lost control. The woman approached me, giggling holding a wine glass of freezing water in her hands. However, her blurry figure made it difficult for me to remember what she looked like.
Once she halted before me, she pulled out a napkin and wept my tears off my face. I asked with my childish but menacing voice, "I did die, but why am I crying?"
She giggled. "Who knows? Maybe every end sparks a new beginning."
"Impossible. I have made my pranks go too far."
She pulled the napkin back in her pocket and smirked, "Oh? Pray to tell, dear Saori. I know every inch of you, even those you have forgotten."
I narrowed my eyes, thinking how crazy this woman was. "You're kidding, right? I'm not the type to forget easily." Nobody knows me more than myself… or so I thought.
That annoyingly blurred smirk appeared on her face again. "Do you believe we have two minds? A scale could weigh the pros and cons. Between the hammer and the anvil, where were you?"
I sighed, tired of hearing her nonsense and getting to the point. "Why am I here?"
She slightly pinched my chin, raised my head, and smiled. Even with our faces up close, I can't distinguish her appearance.
"...Legal benefits."
"You a manipulative capitalist," I whispered.
"Aren't you the same?"
I swung my head away and asked, "Who on the wanted list are you?"
She raised the glass of water. Every second, its cold fog turned too hot to handle. The breeze that shivered me became the thermal iron that nearly burnt my skin.
"People called me a propagator, equating to a god in your world, but currently, I'm an unwanted existence. Believers named me as a miraculous person. Skeptics called me a lunatic. You shall be the one who names those you saw. Your world, your rules."
"'I'm too lazy to let others name me,' is that what you're saying? You'll accept that if I call you a lunatic, right?."
She chuckled and walked back as I faced her back while she looked at me. "Even for a dead young girl, you're showering with humor. With your life skills, you should be able to determine who I am."
"Maybe you're familiar with the Internet."
"I'm aware, and I also wish to become a sensation that glimmer's every person's eyes, an idol." She turned back and walked away. When she stopped midway, she looked at the distance between us. "I'll save time for the introduction. I'm Roze, the one who granted your satisfactory wish. I've come to request the price."
"I never expected to die and end up in a pawnshop. What wish are you talking about? As far as I know, I never had a wish in my life."
She came back before me and pressed my forehead with her thumb. I screamed, echoing my cries across the heinous atmosphere, not because of pain… It's the mixed feelings of loneliness, rage, and fear, that I never felt ever since I became conscious of the world. I'm like an active volcano that suppressed my eruption of self-destructive emotions.
My uncontrollable tears crawled down my cheeks. It reminded me that there should be something that I shouldn't do… I'm doing this for the sake of someone whose name and face can't be forged within my memorial fragments. In a simple touch, I felt desperate.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I growled not because she touched me, but because of these uncertain feelings scrambling my heart.
"I told you. I know everything about you. You're curious about it, aren't you?"
I controlled my voice lower not to be bought by her antics. "What a creepy stalker. What do you want me to do for that price of yours?"
She pulled off a laugh like what I always do for each successful plan I made. She raised her two fingers and said, "I can give you two options. You can collect the stones for me, and I will give you all the answers you need… or you can play deaf and you'll forever experience this grief without a clue on why."
What is the vision I've seen? What's the reason my heart felt heavier for something I didn't have a memory of? What is my wish? Those are the questions that once answered would provide me with the bigger picture of my existence in her realm. Hearing this, she may not answer any questions that I will raise. But these emotions made me desperate, forcing me to know the truth.
"You're not planning to get high, aren't you? What are these stones for?"
"The Resurgence Gems, the set of perfectly symmetrical stones, that will grant you the power equating to a god once you complete it. Fourteen of them currently exist. I want you to use this power to eliminate other gods."
"A god asking a human to kill other gods?" I chuckled, "You crazily have a problem in the head. It's rare to see a fully developed drippy faucet with Down syndrome. I suggest you keep your jokes aside. I didn't prepare any tissues at this moment."
Roze's laugh dominated mine, and I hated it. "Only if I could… Once you venture into the world you're destined to exist, you'll know the situation."
"Shut your mouth, blurred mosaic. Either way, a wish is the first on my bucket list that I don't deserve. Are there any reasons why you want me to kill other gods? Are you somewhat fidgeting over your stolen ice cream cup?"
"You didn't have permission to ask me such personal matters. My existence far surpasses your 'Internet' that everyone wished me death. If you lose track of your goal, you'll experience a more fatal wound that will tamper your heart. I have eyes on everything. "
"Ooh, scary…" I mocked, partially covering my mouth with my hands. "Really, I can handle those series of emotional overloads. My pranks have more sense than your words. I–"
My face puffed as my eyes appeared wet and red. I screamed, not able to hold back, and hyperventilated, shortening my breaths. While loathing, despondency wrapped around my heart, clinging to the unknown pain too alien for me. Why am I feeling this!? Who were the people that were dear to me!? I couldn't ask due to my mouth being overtaken by screams.
"Those words wouldn't make sense by now. You're the only one who can dominate this world. Soon, you'll find answers. This may be the only time that we'll meet. But don't worry, I gave you a spectacular ability for the job."
From the hazy mist, her lips that spread a sinister grin came into focus. A taunting laugh escaped her throat like wisps of smoke. She put her head over my shoulders and whispered, "I told you, I knew everything about you… Everything important, even those you forget."
Her venomous words bound me to a destiny she had no choice but to embrace. As she leaned back, she declared, sending shivers down my spine. "You are tethered to this place, Saori. The price for your escape is more than you can bear. Those you hold dear shall suffer the consequences of your actions."
Beneath my feet, the ground silently shuddered and crumbled, like a thick rock burying itself into a balloon called the abyss. I fell from the horizon of the visible world of clouds into the never-ending darkness. Roze's gaze pierced through me, her enigmatic smile never faltering. As consciousness slipped away, my senses were consumed by the void. In the final moments before the darkness claimed me, Roze's voice echoed through the void.
"The choice you have made shall forever haunt your soul, Saori. Soon, you will learn the true meaning of regret."
I vanished into the abyss, my fate uncertain. Countless questions cycled through my nerves as I never satisfied my contentment. I lately realized the tone of her voice was far from what she intended to say, or what it really meant. As soon as I nearly lost her view, a teardrop from her face followed me falling.
Why was she crying?