*BOOM!!*
All of a sudden, much to everyone's surprise, a thundering noise cracked through the forest, immediately followed by the land rumbling as if a powerful earthquake just passed by.
The soldiers, not expecting something of this level to happen and too clueless to figure out the possible causes of such a cataclysmic event, stopped their chase and immediately went into a panic trying to figure out what to do in response; Matthias, too, also couldn't help but slow down at the unexpected occurrence.
However, unlike said guards, he resumed his run within seconds after the explosive tremor happened.
Unexpected? Sure, Matthias didn't expect this to happen right now, but he definitely knew what was going on! He knew what this mysterious tremor was all about!
And it all had to do with—
'—Alice! Oh, you beautiful woman! You're really saving me with these coincidences!'
Yes, that was correct! The culprit of all this was once again Alice, the very same person that just recently saved him from his interrogation with Ilias. It was almost funny how she was helping him by just doing her role as the in-game character she was, although unintentionally.
But seeing that she just caused this explosion now…
'...I guess she already suffered the consequences of ambushing the Goddess and was sent flying all the way here—'
'—Wait a moment.' Hearing a strange silence in his surroundings, Matthias slowed down a bit and suspiciously glanced backward, just now noticing that he wasn't being followed anymore.
Did the soldiers give up on him due to the shock that just happened?
Just in case, the young man kept walking further at an easier pace, to relax in his given moment. The further away he got from them, the better it was for him.
However, even if the soldiers weren't giving chase to him anymore, that didn't mean he was still safe.
It was far from it, actually.
"The story is progressing really quickly." Matthias couldn't help but notice how fast things were going, way too fast for him to make any actual preparation. Then, he gazed in the direction where he assumed the thundering noise came from, deep in the forest.
According to the game's storyline, the event that should be happening right now involved Luka investigating the explosion just as he was about to return to Iliasville after fending off the hostile Slime Girl.
Those actions were going to end up being the precursor of the meeting that would change the boy's life for the better, as he would travel the world along with the woman who would give him her own viewpoints in certain moral matters brought up through his journey and train him until he was strong enough to face any problem coming his way.
But now… Luka wasn't exactly free to do that…
*Step…*
*Step…*
*…*
As one particular thought surged in Matthias' head, his footsteps gradually slowed down until he completely stopped moving; while he kept taking the deep breaths his body needed to recover from his most recent chase, his face began to show an ugly frown.
If Luka was out of commission, who was going to Alice this time?
"Goddammit…" Matthias grumbled with an annoyed tone as he began scratching his head in nervousness, once again lost in his thoughts in regard to his supposed next actions.
His original objective was to rescue Luka, both because doing so would make him look good in front of Ilias, and the alternative of leaving him at the mercy of the Slime Girl wasn't truly an option considering the consequences behind that kind of future if he were to get addicted to pleasure with monsters.
But if he still proceeded with that plan at this point… What would happen to Alice?
As far as Matthias remembered, even though Alice just had a very personal encounter with the Goddess' overwhelming hate and vengeance for the ambush she planned, she didn't end up fatally hurt or anything as severe.
In fact, she even managed to stand up with nothing more than a pained grunt and a few complaints before she started her fated conversation with Luka.
Taking that into consideration, without the presence of the aforementioned boy, she would most likely just take her time to recover from the terrible landing and leave for God-knows-where, doing her… Alice stuff.
But for the sake of the world and — potentially — his future, he could not let that happen. The consequences of that were just as severe as the ones behind Luka's defeat, maybe even more so.
Matthias had to somehow get Luka and Alice to meet, talk with each other, and make them travel together so that the familiar story could finally begin — no matter what.
But if he tried to stop Alice from just leaving instead of looking for Luka, not even counting how he could possibly manage to do such a thing without provoking the powerful woman or not make himself sound like he had a few screws loose, he would basically hand over Luka to the Slime Girl that he was supposed to fight now.
The Slime Girls in this area weren't deadly, fortunately, but they could easily just carry the boy further away from the village and into the unknown lands beyond, making the task of rescuing him a thousand times harder than it already was.
And as if that wasn't enough, there was the Goddess too, who not only hated monsters in general but also must be harboring some incredible hatred for Alice after their last "tussle" a few minutes ago…
If he appeared in her sight while being accompanied by Alice… Well, long story short, it was going to be tough to defend himself.
In summary, the available options in front of Matthias were three:
He could resume his search for Luka, abandon Alice to herself, and forever change and maybe even ruin the future of the world, all while looking good in front of Ilias while doing so;
Or he could go assist Alice, letting the horny Slime Girl kidnap Luka and carry him to her nest, and later be in a disadvantageous position when trying to argue with the Goddess.
Alternatively, he could just return back and give up on both, waiting for Ilias' Soul Return Network to go into function and loop time back to when his future could still be turned for the better…
…But none of them were good decisions.
"At this point, I'm fucked either way." Matthias mused, upset by the paths laid in front of him.
It didn't matter if he chose to either rescue Luka or help Alice, they were both bad decisions to begin with. The only difference between them was whether he wanted to bet on Ilias's mood swings or his own luck.
And the worst part of all this was that he couldn't just avoid responsibility for this problem either, since the Soul Return Network may not necessarily work as intended and might just repeat this entire ordeal without anyone knowing any better, or it may just not work at all and send the world spiraling down to doom like it happened in one of the parallel worlds in the game's sequel.
In that case, he might as well choose the lesser evil and—
"—Fuck, I better not get struck down for this…!" After grumbling a bit, Matthias prayed in his heart that Ilias would remain a spectator for longer instead of killing him without listening to him first, and then he rushed over to Alice's landing site.
He properly paced his running speed this time, not having to escape from anyone's clutches now but still knowing that he couldn't waste all the time he had by relaxing on his way forward. Of course, it was nowhere close to being called fast, but it was definitely quicker than simply walking.
And all while dashing to his destination, he began to think over how he could pull Alice to his side through all the hurdles present in the way.
To begin with, he had to find a reliable way to communicate with her that didn't involve speech. Since she wasn't as dense as Luka, if everything went well, she should quickly notice the fact that they didn't speak the same language and — if she was collaborative too — find a way together to understand each other.
But if that wasn't the case… Well, he might try something like doodling on the dirt, perhaps? That should work for starters.
However, the real problem was the part after communications had been established…
Of course, there was the issue of telling her about what she had to do according to the game's script without misunderstandings, but the part Matthias was truly concerned about was how he could prevent her from just ignoring his pleas and leaving for elsewhere.
Needless to say, revealing his true source of knowledge was a no-go.
On one hand, he'd rather not say anything of that degree until he felt like he was completely isolated from the rest of the world, considering that he would be most likely heard by unsavory individuals who were better left off without this sort of information.
On the other hand, even if it would certainly attract Alice's attention, it would kickstart a long conversation that he wasn't remotely prepared or even equipped to deal with, which could be avoided for everyone's mental sake.
He could live his entire life without having to tell someone they were the figment of someone's horny imagination, and they surely could also live their entire life without knowing any of it.
But he still had to come up with something convincing, something that was both easy to understand and could be adapted depending on the course of the debate, and something that wasn't the aforementioned truth.
Matthias already had a few ideas that he could use, but in the end, it would all depend on how cognizant Alice truly was and how well she would respond to his words—No, drawings.
Surely, even with the absolute advantage he had thanks to his prior knowledge, the odds of success weren't exactly with him…
…But it wasn't like they ever were since he got here, to start with.
Matthias already recognized that he absolutely ruined this world's original story flow just by existing, and he wasn't even referring to something as obscure as the concept of the butterfly effect with that line.
From the very beginning, he was already drastically changing everything, starting with distracting Luka for long enough for him to forget about carrying his sword with him on his way to the Slime Girl.
What he was doing right now could barely be called "patching up things", it was the equivalent of gluing a broken ceramic vase together with the pieces he was finding around on the floor and hoping it could work out somehow.
But he still had to do it, regardless of how feeble his actions may seem.
Not only was he responsible for this horrible mess, even if it wasn't intentional, but he also didn't have any choice either.
After all, what if this world was indeed one of the parallel worlds present in Monster Girl Quest: Paradox?
Ilias was still here alive and well, there didn't seem to be any trace of friendly monsters in Iliasville, and besides himself, there was no other irregularity in sight… As far as he could see, this world seemed to be set in the original story of Monster Girl Quest, rather than its sequel.
But in the end, that was merely a possibility, not a certainty.
The premise of Monster Girl Quest: Paradox was that there were countless parallel worlds along with the singularity world where the story was set, and each of those worlds was either forced to follow the original world's history or perish into literal nothingness while trying to, all because of a marginal error that took place in God-knows-where, during God-knows-when.
The situation was so bad that — from the supposedly countless numbers of parallel realities present at the beginning — there were only eight worlds left by the time the game started, with one of them meeting its demise during the game's progression.
So, until he found a way to return home or was sure that he wasn't in the timeline covered by the sequel, he would rather avoid taking any action that would make this world disappear from below his feet.
This was why Matthias completely disregarded his hatred over Luka as soon as he realized that the boy went outside without his sword, his life was literally on the line.
As much as he hated it, he would literally die if he let Luka get caught by the Slime Girl. Fortunately, though, he still had some leeway on when to rescue the kid since the local Slime Girls didn't eat people, at the very least.
So, even if he may look bad in Ilias' eyes by delaying Luka's rescue, it was still easier to reason with her than deal with the consequences of not following the original story, no matter how low the chances of it happening were.
At least, Ilias knew the concept of mercy, the material physics-breaking nothingness that would consume the world if the current series of events went just a bit off from the original world's true progression didn't.
'Let's hope Alice will actually be understanding enough, however…' The young man's thoughts ran along those lines as he got closer to the landing site, all while praying that everything would go well with her.
The forest around Matthias began getting denser as he moved further into the woods, with the trees becoming thicker and taller, and their verdant canopy casting a dark atmosphere on the path he was taking.
The chirping of birds got silent, and so did the wind.
It felt as if the world itself was telling him that it was a bad idea to proceed further, that he should ignore everything and return to the village. He wasn't supposed to be here, and it would be better for his sake if things remained that way.
And, of course, Matthias promptly ignored the unspoken warning, if he even noticed it at all.
After a dozen seconds, the scenery got twisted even further, even more drastically, even more… perverse.
This time, Matthias went to a halt, feeling an unnatural chill coursing through his body as he stepped into "somewhere else".
The ground that was once filled with grass, dirt, and roots was now covered with dead leaves, leaves that supposedly came from the natural roof Mother Nature herself once built in this forest.
However, for some reason, the sunlight that should have been spread through the cloudless sky seemed to be just as dim as it was a second ago, if not duller.
And that was not even the worst thing Matthias noticed here…
The trees themselves had changed too. Looking behind him, Matthias could see trees filled with vigor and covered with moss, but upon facing forward once again, all there was to welcome him was… death.
The color green completely vanished from sight, replaced by the dead-like brown of the falling leaves. The trees themselves didn't just look lifeless but even took twisted shapes resembling the wildlife surrounding haunted houses in the movies.
It was as if he just stepped into a nightmare, a nightmare shaped by the hands of an evil god.
Matthias didn't remember such a place being ever described in Monster Girl Quest, neither in the visual novel nor in the RPG sequel.
But he didn't deviate at all from his path toward Alice, so this should still be the right way…
Intimidated but not discouraged, Matthias proceeded forth, unconsciously tightening his grip on his umbrella and Luka's sword as he went forward. Alice should be waiting for him further into the woods.
*Crunch!* *Crunch!* *Crunch!* The leaves beneath his feet crumbled into pieces as he took one step after another through this cursed forest, walking past the twisted trees and over emerging roots.
And it was only after an entire minute of slow walking that the scenery changed once again, this time featuring trees that had actually fallen to the ground, eradicated by a mysterious force. Some were straight-up broken, laying at the side of their snapped trunks.
It looked like Matthias reached the place, seeing that ahead of him, there was an empty spot in the middle of these backwoods.
But now that he had reached the place, it was at this point that the young man was unable to take any step further.
Although, it was interesting to mention that the reason for his sudden stop wasn't because his legs were tired and hurting, nor was it because of the intimidating atmosphere surrounding him, or even for the anxiety brought upon by the eventual conversation he would have with the woman beyond this point.
It was due to a more hilarious, yet relatable reason: Eagerness.
Matthias couldn't help it after all, even with all the negative aspects following the implications behind his mysterious warping in this world.
He appeared in this world for barely a quarter of an hour or so, and here he was now about to meet a high-profile character from a game he used to play with passion and fervor.
The deuteragonist of Monster Girl Quest that accompanied the player through their adventures as Luka; one of the most popular characters in the game; frequent sexual partner in the 18+ scenes presented in the visual novel; unknowingly becoming his benefactor at the time when he was being interrogated by Ilias…
…He had all the reasons to be excited about this encounter!
Taking a few breaths to relax, Matthias' body gradually lost its previously acquired tension, and when he was ready, he stepped forward.
The eradicated trees disappeared from his vision, leaving behind only an empty clearing filled with dug-up dirt. It was as if a meteor crashed here, instead of a person.
The wall of dirt and rocks in front of Matthias was about as tall as him while also occupying a great deal of space below the feet of the pile. Just by looking at it, he could see that it was going to be a bit hard for someone in his physical condition to climb it.
But he did it anyway. Just because it was a tough task, it didn't mean that he wouldn't do it.
So, after putting down his umbrella, Matthias began to walk up to the little mountain range surrounding the crater and quickly reached for its short peak while stabbing his sword into the dirt and pulling himself up, before lifting his head beyond the edge.
And then, he peeked into the crater, seeing the figure of the person he was both excited and dismayed to meet.
But…
…Instead of Alice, a charred corpse lied in the middle of the crater.
"...What the fuck?" Matthias was left speechless at the sight in front of him.
Lying in the spot Alice was supposed to be was a cadaver of inhumanly long sizes, reminiscent of the aforementioned snake woman. It lost any color from its tail and skin, all burned into black charcoal that took vaguely familiar shapes of the person she once was when she was still alive.
The man's face twisted into pure horror at what was laying in front of his very eyes, unable to believe what he was witnessing.
This… This wasn't true, it couldn't be… This wasn't what Luka saw when he came here within the game.
The boy saw a sleeping beauty in a field of grass, exotic but charming, dangerous but sensual. She had a pale purple skin, unusual even among her fellow monsters, with white silky hair and a long red snake tail that began its manifestation from her waist and entirely replaced her legs with a tail that was several meters long, like a Lamia.
He didn't see…
…This…
…
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS?!
Matthias mustered his remaining strength to push himself over the dirt pile and dragged his body on the descent at the other side, entering the crater's area.
As soon as he got a stable footing beneath him, he walked closer to the charred carcass while muttering "no" like a broken record. His expression further shifted toward disgust and despair as his sight got clearer.
The only reason why he knew this body belonged to Alice was because he knew that she was the one who was supposed to be here, but otherwise, there were barely any features on what was left of her corpse that could help anybody recognize its identity.
What was once a long and gigantic red snake tail was now shriveled up, ash-gray, and much smaller than what it theoretically should be.
The upper body of the monster girl somehow was in an even worse state, taking the consistency of rotten dark flesh and carrying a horrible burnt smell.
Her face, meanwhile, looked straight-up nightmarish.
To begin with, the white hair that she should have on her head was almost all gone, leaving a bald skull with a few scorched hairs standing out. Her visage was withered, darkened, and lacked all the features a human face should have: a pair of eyes, nose, lips… As if they all melted off.
But within this disgusting and bone-chilling view, there was something unnatural about it, esoteric even.
Light, there was a bit of white light emanating from the liquefied flesh, resembling cinders from an exhausted fireplace.
"Hurk…" Matthias hunched over as the sight and smell were getting to him, and did his best to hold his bile inside before taking a few steps back.
"Ugh… You've got to be kidding me…"
Even though reality was finally dawning upon him, he still couldn't help but refute what he was seeing.
This couldn't be happening, this SHOULDN'T be happening…
It must be a joke, someone's prank…
It just couldn't be real!
Alice shouldn't be dead!
But then… What was he seeing right now?
His thoughts blanked out as Matthias tried to touch the rotting pile of flesh taking a humanoid shape, and felt repulsed by the contact he just felt when his hand caressed the scorched tail.
The contact was real, the corpse was real…
…But it couldn't be…
…But it was…
…Why was this real?
Despite the shock this unexpected situation brought upon him, he was quick to make head and tail out of it. Although, it wasn't hard if one put their mind to the matter.
"Ilias…" Matthias muttered as he came to full realization.
Reminiscing on their last meeting, she didn't seem in a good mood by the time they talked. She even tried to relax when she was about to kill him just because he wasn't respectful enough to her, which sounded quite weird in itself considering her character.
But Alice's ambush must have pulled her last straw.
It didn't help that there still was an insurmountable difference in strength between the Monster Lord and the Light Goddess, so this was really the only outcome he should have expected under the aforementioned circumstances.
It was already good enough that there still was a body left behind…
…But what the FUCK was he supposed to do with this?!
Even if, by some miracle, she still was alive… one couldn't possibly recover from this, there simply was no way for that to happen.
Alipheese Fateburn the 16th, also known as Alice, was dead.
It was hard to believe it, but he couldn't say otherwise when he had her corpse laid in front of him. It didn't matter how much he denied it, the body wouldn't revive itself out of his will.
Matthias started to feel nauseated again as he kept gazing at the rotting corpse, but he never looked elsewhere for the entire time. He couldn't afford to.
His mind was filled with the image of the monster's skull by now, and the gloomy atmosphere coupled with the burnt smell of decay merely imprinted the picture on his brain even further.
It was only a dozen seconds later that he snapped out of his macabre trance, and the reason for that was…
「ふふふっ.」
…a creepy giggle.
The young man perked up at the ghostly laugh echoing in the area, resembling that of a haunted doll. But he didn't care if the voice sounded nice or not, what mattered was that someone else was there.
And it was someone who shouldn't be here, to begin with. An outsider just like him, who shouldn't have any role in this part of the story…
Matthias' eyes gradually rose from the carcass, reaching the source of the ominous voice that was sitting on the top of the dirt wall surrounding the crater.
There, he found…
…unfiltered and unadulterated terror.
"..." Whatever sound his mouth was about to make ceased immediately, any thought that might pass through his mind died before they were even born.
Even the image of Alice's decayed head became a mere afterthought at that time.
And it was all because of a woman with long blonde hair and a blue and white frilly outfit reminiscent of a certain popular book written by Lewis Carroll, smiling in amusement as her blood-red eyes set onto him in a way resembling a child having found a new toy, while ironically wrapping her arms around a teddy bear sitting on her lap.
It sounded weird for the not-knowing, but Matthias had all the reasons to act this way, especially because he knew… He knew who this person was.
She was a human-eating predator, blood-curdling wickedness taking the shape of beautiful innocence.
She was "Black Alice", her full name being Alipheese Fateburn the 8th.
Needless to say, she's the sole other living member of the Fateburn family, along with the Alice that Matthias was previously seeking… No, at this point, it was more appropriate to say that she was the only living one.
She was the 8th Monster Lord and reputed to be the most tyrannical one in history. But due to certain matters, she had to play dead and hand over the throne to another member of her family to continue the line all the way down to the last one, the 16th that was actually laying dead in front of Matthias.
Within the game's lore, she was described as a person who lived by her own whims, someone who did whatever she wanted: if someone gave her bad vibes, she would just swallow them whole; if someone amused her, she would throw them a bone and play around until she was bored…
…And of course, she would end up killing them too.
In summary, she was on the top rank in the list of people he wished to have a restriction order issued on them, even exceeding Ilias; because — unlike her — Black Alice was as manageable as a natural disaster.
At the very least, Ilias was still predictable in her actions due to her being the main villain, but Black Alice? No way!
Whether he went along or against her, his chances of survival were as slim as a singular strand of hair. Matthias would practically be dead meat if he ever caught her attention, and there was almost nobody capable of stopping her, not to mention willing.
…Unfortunately for him, however, that just happened.
While holding on to her teddy bear, Black Alice began her descent into the crater, although she was much more graceful about it than he was: simply skipping downward step by step until she reached a stable footing.
And then, there she stood, about 5 or 6 meters away from him and staring ahead with a smile on her lips and in her eyes.
「あらあら, 若き殿方はこんな所で何をしていますかしら?」 She spoke, using a soft and charming tone that didn't truly fit her identity.
Needless to say, however, her words went unregistered in Matthias' mind. But even if he actually understood what she just said, his next actions wouldn't have changed in the least.
It had been about a quarter of an hour since all of this began, and between being pushed down the stairs, realizing he was stranded in a different world, almost dying at the hands of an actual Goddess, being physically exhausted from the soldiers' chase, discovering Alice's untimely death, and this "creature's" unexpected appearance…
…Enough.
He had enough of it all.
Before he knew it, Matthias was already turning around and walking off in a random direction.
There was no reason for him to stay in the crater any longer, after all. He would only risk his life if he remained here with Black Alice being so close to him, and Alice was already dead. At this point, he should be going to Luka to rescue him from the Slime Girl…
…But that was possibly the worst thing he could have done.
That was because such a course of action may come across as extremely rude to certain individuals and trigger them negatively, individuals such as "her".
*Squeeze!*
"...?" Suddenly, something latched around his waist and arms tightly, promptly stopping him from moving any further.
And that something… It wasn't anything that resembled or felt remotely human.
It was tougher than stone, yet it wrapped around him as smoothly as a soft rope. It was cold like a corpse, but the way it moved around him felt as lively as his body was.
Such a thing was… a tentacle?
Matthias glanced behind his back and saw the tentacle coming from one of Black Alice's former human arms, which shapeshifted and extended itself across the six meters that were between them for the sole purpose of restraining him.
The smile on her face never left, but her crimson eyes opened widely as her stare burned into Matthias' back. She hadn't taken Matthias' decision to leave very well…
「どこへ行きますか? 私は,ただ少々貴方とお話したかったんですわ.」 Again she spoke, and again Matthias understood none of it. He simply ignored her words while trying to pry open her tentacle's grasp.
One should take note of the keyword "trying", though, as seeing how biologically different he and Black Alice were, his actions weren't any different from a butterfly trying to struggle out of a tarantula's spiderweb.
It just wasn't possible for someone of his cut to go against a man-eating predator like her.
'Shit, shit, shit!' As Matthias' thoughts began catching up with the gravity of his current situation, his mind started getting overcome in panic and his heart racing in terror.
He acted out of line in front of Black Alice, just like he did to Ilias early on, and now she was about to kill him just like the Goddess almost did.
He was going to die!
He had to get out! He had to get out! HE HAD TO GET OUT!!
'Fuck, let go!' Matthias did his best to get out of Black Alice's tentacle grip, but even by not mentioning how little strength he could muster at the moment, even if he was in absolutely peak conditions, it probably wouldn't make any difference.
HE HAD TO GET OUT!
Even if he channeled his despair and fear into it, even if he tried to force it until it hurt his arms…
HE HAD TO GET OUT!!
…He simply couldn't do it, he couldn't escape.
He was at the complete mercy of this monster girl.
HE HAD TO GET OUT—
「こら,止めなさい.」
"..." Matthias' mind and body went completely still in that moment as he now faced Black Alice, eye by eye, nose by nose, mouth by mouth, face by face.
Before he realized it, between his futile struggles, the monster girl pulled him closer and turned him around, so that she could observe him from a better point of view.
And then, she licked her lips.
A chill went through Matthias' spine, every single strand of hair from his body stood up, and his entire muscular system tensed up at the sight.
This was it, he was going to get eaten.
Devoured, chewed up, swallowed, digested, melted down until not even bones were left from his body…
He was going to end up in a worse state than Alice standing right beside them…
…
…?
Wait, "standing"?
Noticing something amiss, Matthias turned his head, an action that also prompted Black Alice to shift her attention to the direction Matthias was looking.
Surprisingly, Alice's carcass was actually standing on itself, being supported by its own brittle snake tail. However, she clearly didn't look "alive" by any means.
Her face was practically falling apart, slowly revealing a skull behind her charcoal-like visage; crunching noise echoed from her body at each movement she made as her skin and snake scales cracked apart, letting ash fly off like smoke.
The bright glow that once covered her body like burning cinders vanished at once, but, again, there was still no sign of life within her entire form.
It was as if she awakened as an… undead?
But… No, that term didn't feel right…
"Class Three… Cross-World Contact confirmed… Proceeding with its… Immediate termination."
"..." Matthias blinked a couple of times as he elaborated the words he just heard from within the walking corpse.
What the corpse said, Matthias could surprisingly understand it well. It was as if the words didn't just enter his ears, but reverberated within his very essence of being as well.
But the meaning of the words she just said…
Class Three Cross-World Contact.
That was another term that reverberated with his memory regarding Monster Girl Quest: Paradox.
That game, as mentioned before, involved concepts such as parallel worlds and dimensions, and the term "Cross-World Contact" was used to refer to activities involving two objects or subjects from different worlds interacting with each other in some way, akin to Matthias' bizarre situation.
There were different classifications of Cross-World Contacts depending on the degree of influence said beings were displaying, as one may reckon from the corpse's words, but that wasn't important now.
What was important, however, was the fact that there was only one group of people that used such a phrase, and said group's sole objective was to take care of such issues by "physically removing" the origin of the problem, namely the aforementioned otherworldly entities.
And they were…
"...Apoptosis?" Matthias whispered with a trembling voice.