"Abyss walker?" Rhys repeated.
Lars nodded, awaiting a more thorough response.
Rhys cocked her head to the side, "Hm…? Did you name it yourself?"
"Is it strange?"
"No, no, it's fine. Not a bad name to come up with on your own, actually. You just don't usually see people giving a name to their abnormalities off the rip like that. It's a convention to name them, you see, but you don't get told about that immediately—so most people haven't named it after crossing back over." Rhys seemed to contemplate something, and then asked, "Do you read or watch a lot of fantasy fiction?"
"No, not really…" Lars had grown up extremely impoverished and spent most of his time struggling for basic daily necessities. He didn't have the availability or the time to engage in entertainment activities, but he had a shallow knowledge on it because of the varied backgrounds that different soldiers he came into contact with had. "I used to know a few guys who were really into it, I suppose."
"Well we do have someone who's really into those stories here. She's the only person other than you who named their abnormality straight away, actually."
"We…?" Lars asked. He wasn't too concerned about the small talk, or what it implied for him to be likened with the fanciful type Rhys mentioned. However, it was hard to ignore the implication in her sentence.
"Right, 'we'. Oh… you don't know. I told you nothing," she chuckled as if it wasn't her responsibility. Rhys waved her hand dismissively, "You'll learn in time. Actually, I think the one I just mentioned is here—."
"Has the newbie finally come back~~?!" A puerile voice suddenly shouted, slamming open the sliding door and opening the room in a fit of fervent excitement. Her eyes gleamed with curiosity and interest as if she was greeting presents under a tree on Christmas day.
The Tirynn people already were shorter than what Lars was used to, but this abrupt entrant was even shorter, who appeared to be less than 150cm. This would have been strange in conjunction with her high-pitched voice had he not immediately realised that it was a literal teenage girl. She wasn't even eighteen years of age—her apparent age was closer to sixteen.
Lars looked at Rhys, using his eyes to briefly communicate the question on his mind: 'This is who you're referring to?' In response, the lady who had her arms crossed and wore a slight grin on her face didn't express any kind of denial. This really was that person.
Rhys turned and looked at the girl, "Morning, Natalya. You're here to greet Lars?"
"Oh… He doesn't look like he's from around here!" Natalya exclaimed, noticing the blond hair and seemingly European lineage. "Did you kidnap him too?"
"Something like that. And what do you mean, 'too'? You came with me of your own volition."
"The law won't see it that way."
Rhys sighed, "What do you know about the law? You've been watching something strange again, haven't you?"
Lars watched the two in confusion. They were speaking in Tirynn's native language, so he was clueless as to what they were talking about. In the meanwhile, he discerned Natalya's features, realising that she wasn't of Tirynn descent; she had strong blond hair, greyish-green eyes, and a round face with a bulbous nose.
She wore a white blouse with a red ribbon around its collar. It was tucked into a pair of dark-brown trousers that were held up by a belt, strangely practical and lacking in femininity. The laced boots she wore were reminiscent of what Lars expected military units to wear—not to mention how they appeared slightly too big for her.
"Does he speak Tirynn?" Natalya asked.
Rhys shook her head.
"No."
"Welsh? Russian? I might be able to speak Polish but I don't know about any other European languages…" Natalya went on, and of course, Lars still didn't understand her words.
Rhys looked at Lars, asking, "Do you speak English, Lars?"
"I can…" Lars nodded.
Switching to English, Rhys said, "Let's speak in English then."
Natalya grinned impishly, greeting Lars, "I'm Natalya, pleased to make your acquaintance. Where are you from?"
Lars adjusted his language, switching to English as he introduced himself. "Uhm, I'm from Denmark. It's good to meet you." He was surprised to find that the young girl's English sounded better than his own.
Natalya exclaimed excitedly, "Ah, Denmark—Mads Mikkelsen! Did you watch Jagten? I really liked that movie. I wonder if I should learn Danish next…"
Lars didn't know what to say. He wasn't a big fan of movies, so his mind didn't linger on that topic for long. Besides, something else concerned him at the moment—Natalya was remarkably young for the implications. He furrowed his brows, asking, "You've gone through the singularity?"
"More than once," Natalya gloated. She pointed at herself and smiled confidently, "If you need an expert, I'm available to ask!"
Rhys understood the true purpose behind his question and responded, "Her background isn't too different from yours. In a lot of ways, perhaps it's worse. Anyway… one thing led to another and she was over here."
"That doesn't really explain anything…" Lars frowned.
"You'll learn eventually."
"You keep saying that."
"Alright, enough, enough, let's go meet the rest," Rhys called, gesturing to leave the room and follow behind her. "There's more than this runt who wants to meet the new recruit."
After hearing this and that, Lars already had an idea as to what the goings-on were; like himself, who was recruited rather abruptly and thrown into the singularity, Rhys probably had collected a few people, which included Natalya. Therefore, he followed the two into another room with trepidation. This girl was already an interesting character, so he wasn't sure what to expect next.
Walking down a corridor, he glanced sideways at the window stretching across his right. A large training hall was there, and though no one was occupying it at the time, the sound of chattering and an overall racket echoed from somewhere nearby through that empty space. They passed the hall and headed into a spacious cafeteria with long tables stretched across it.
Lars was treated to a lively scene upon entering with Rhys and Natalya. There was already a group of interesting individuals gathered here, engaged in some strange commotion. There was a woman with half her body on a table, one knee propped on its surface, reaching over and grabbing a man's collar. The recipient of this was looking at her with a calm but dangerous look on his face, a hand gently placed on her wrist and the other tucked into a pocket.
The woman scowled, "You wanna die that badly, damn bastard…!"
Slightly behind the two, a plain looking guy, who would appear timid in any other occasion, was leaning over the table and cheering them on, his expression filled with fervour and excitement. His hand waved about as he shouted words of encouragement. "You gonna let Nia talk to you like that?! Where's your balls, Ossian!?"
Ossian hardly paid attention to him, gazing intently at Nia, "I recommend you take your hand away from me."
Nia wore a less than pleasant expression, filled with indignance, "Oh, yeah? And what, pussy-shit…? Will you shut yer trap and do something, eh??"
Although Lars attention was drawn towards those three primarily, he noticed in the corner of his eye that a woman was watching them with a piercing stare; she was standing ready in a stance to unsheathe a sword. It seemed as if she really intended to kill someone in a single strike—his new instincts from abyss walker told him that. Meanwhile, a smaller girl with a timid expression was desperately convincing her to stop, stressing the lack of a need to go so far.
There were two bystanders to this, a girl even younger than Natalya, watching on with a blank expression despite sitting on the same table as where the commotion was. And then there was a young lad, with a cold energy, who was sitting on the side and idly reading a book. Lastly, there was someone who had spotted the three new entrants, mostly focusing on Rhys, and had run over in an instant with a panicked expression.
The panicked person, a serious-looking girl in her twenties, with newfound hope in her eyes, called out, "Lady Rhys, you're here! U-Uhm, it's Nia and Ossian again, they're arguing as usual, but Ma'am Teresa keeps encouraging them and Hou Yi might attack at any moment! Xi Yun is trying to calm her but I can't do anything about the other three!"
"Hm… Normally it wouldn't be an issue to let it continue, but I want to get greetings underway…" Rhys contemplated in a relaxed fashion that contrasted the chaos of the situation, then turned towards the boy at the back of the room, who was engrossed in his reading. "Jack, deal with it."
Jack didn't return the look, simply sighing and lowering his book slightly. After a short interval, Lars noticed the room suddenly grew cold and eerie, as if the cafeteria had descended into the depths of tartarus and become unsafe. Patches of ice manifested around the room, particularly heavy around the three in the middle of the room. An unsettling chill touched the back of everyone's necks.
From the ice, a terrifying figure emerged, followed by another as they slowly formed and came to life as strange corpse-like creatures. The figures of frost appeared behind Ossian and Nia respectively. Their mere presence brought their movements to a still, freezing the fiery heat between the two as the beating of their hearts gradually slowed—the valves constricting and blood flow reducing until their hearts came close to a complete stop.
As cold sweat ran down their pale faces, with death becoming so imminent and having little to resist it with, the humanoid masses of ice suddenly fell and shattered before seeping back into the icy patches. The layer of frost permeating the room dissipated until the old atmosphere returned. By that point, the conflict had long stagnated. Hou Yi, who looked overwhelmed and ready to strike was calmed shortly after, with the help of Xi Yun, who never left her side and remained calm the whole time.
The panicked lady who had consulted Rhys for help appeared spooked but was reassured now that the conflict was resolved. The young girl in the back never reacted to the advent of frozen terror, never showing a glimpse of emotion on her face. The instigating man merely looked disappointed without paying excessive attention to Jack's actions; meanwhile, Jack returned to his book.
"Was that an abnormality…?" Lars muttered in disbelief.
Rhys responded, "Could it be anything else?"
"You have a point."
Lars furrowed his brows, taking in the people in the room, with everyone having their own unique sensibilities and appearances. The most striking realisation was that each person in the room probably had an abnormality; this was a team that hardly seemed to work together, but was made of dangerous individuals with unique powers like Rhys or himself.
The instant shift from a typical mid-level tension brawl to the ambush of inexplicable creatures, which incapacitated Ossian and Nia without trouble, was hard to fathom in the real world. Was this the standard of norm he would be forced to accept?
Nia slowly got down from the table, sending a mean glance towards Ossian, expressing her defiance and intent to continue again at a later date before looking over towards Rhys' party. Her eyes only discreetly skimmed over the familiar faces of Rhys and Natalya but lit up at Lars, who was a new face. In a sultry voice, which sounded tired but held a distinct charm, she smiled and went, "Oh…? And who's this?"
Ossian clicked his tongue and sat down while adjusting his collar. Meanwhile, Nia walked over and introduced herself, "Hello there! I'm Nia, and you are…?" She had auburn hair with the silver-grey highlights of a Tirynn woman, with the former of those colours likely originating from a hair dye. She wore smoky makeup that accentuated her blue, fox-like eyes, and her hair flowed down towards her lower back in wavy curls.
"I'm Lars," he said simply as he extended a hand politely. Nia took his hand with both hands, giving a simple shake before walking back.
"Ah, uhm," the panicked girl from before timidly raised her voice, drawing attention to herself before introducing, "I'm Rika. I… uh, stand in as a manager while Lady Rhys isn't here."
"Nice to meet you, Rika," said Lars.
Natalya then proposed excitedly, "I'll take you around to see the rest, Lars!" Naturally, there were no objections and they proceeded to move together around the cafeteria, introducing the members to Lars individually. They started with the pair, Huo Yi and Xi Yun, who were respectively about to attack and trying to prevent that.
Natalya introduced, "This is Huo Yi and Xi Yun, they're friends from childhood and usually work together."
They were both evidently Chinese, with Huo Yi being tall with dark hair and pronounced features. She had a serious look on her face, as if scrutinising the newbie, and her handshake was firm and rigid as if to match that. Xi Yun was shorter, with a rounder face and a gentle look, but appeared close to Huo Yi despite the differences between the two. The tall woman was one of the few people in the room openly carrying a weapon.
"Nice to meet you," Xi Yun started with a friendly smile. Meanwhile, Huo Yi nodded, satisfied with the results of the handshake as she announced, "I hope to rely on your prowess on the battlefield."
"Likewise," he said to both.
Moving on, Natalya circled around the next person, the expressionless young girl, and placed her hands on her shoulders with a smile. "This is Julka; she's a bit hard to read, but a sweetheart nonetheless!"
Lars nodded. He wasn't sure what to do, since Julka wasn't responding or saying anything, merely staring back at him. In the end, he gave a cursory, 'It's good to meet you, Julka', before moving on.
"Alright," Natalya exclaimed, looking between Ossian and the person who was previously instigating. The latter of the two had calmed down considerably and appeared normal now. She introduced, "This is Ossian, then Thomas, and finally Ma'am Teresa."
"Oh… Nice to meet—." Lars cut himself off, then looked back at Natalya in doubt. There were two people here so why did she mention three names?
Realising his confusion, Thomas politely spoke up, clearing the misunderstanding, "Uhm… I'm actually possessed by an old spirit from the other side, so there's three people including her and myself. She insists you call her 'Ma'am Teresa'."
"Huh?" Lars paused. Possession? There was someone from the other side here, possessing this man? He didn't even know that was possible so it was a shocking thing to be told.
"Right… I know it's confusing, but that's the gist of it." Thomas scratched his head awkwardly, before explaining, "That was Ma'am Teresa you saw a second ago, by the way. It wasn't me instigating the two."
Natalya nodded, "Ma'am Teresa used to be a big-time warmonger. She's hugely passionate about battles and war, so she loves to incite fights between people."
Thomas then interjected, "You're a soldier aren't you, Lars…"
"Hm? Yes, I am… How did you know?"
"I can smell it—blood and rust, decay and death, the passion of the battlefield. You've reaped life, fought many battles and triumphed again and again. A fervent warrior," he laughed excitedly, "Exactly what I've been waiting for!"
Suddenly speaking with prominence and emphasis, Thomas' voice and tone shifted in an instant, exhibiting the same passion Lars had seen moments ago. His body language and the accent he spoke with took on a great shift as well—most likely meaning that the one speaking right now wasn't actually Thomas but that infamous Ma'am Teresa, the old warmonger.
Ignoring this strange occurrence, Natalya turned towards Ossian, "And this guy, Ossian, is pretty normal. He fights a lot with Nia but isn't a problem as long as you are civil." Not saying anything in response, Ossian leaned over slightly and shook hands briefly with Lars. He wore black and didn't show too much expression on his face. Similar to Nia, he seemed to be of Tirynn descent.
Natalya then hummed, looking into the corner of the room for the last person, "Now all that's left is Jack…! You got to see his abnormality a second ago, but he's an easy-going person, so there's no need to worry."