A bead of sweat trickled down Lars' forehead, the imposing glare of the sun beating down on him from the moment it appeared in the sky. The ordinary training hall had transformed into a vast dune in an instant, switching at the signal of a gunshot, the bullet poised to hit the very one holding the pistol. Sands stretched without an end and the blue sky was unforgiving without a single cloud to grant salvation.
Though this was a shocking sight to see, Lars' own visual acuity and observation skills from his experiences in the army, always keeping out a watchful eye, and the increased perception brought about by abyss walker's augments to his physicality allowed him to quickly see the truth of the situation. Faint traces of the training hall lingered behind and he could almost see Rhys' team watching from the benches.
They're here… faintly, but that's definitely their presence watching us… I don't think we've left the training hall. This meant that they didn't change location like Rhys' teleportation was capable of doing. Consequently, it led to questions about what actually occurred. Lars looked around carefully, pondering, Did she manipulate the space around us? To manipulate space—is that her abnormality?
He sighed. The information was useful to have, but it didn't change much. He was the first to recognise the sudden plunge his condition had undertaken. Eyes sinking and fatigue setting in, the world shook around him like a merry-go-round; it was unclear if these wavy lines were a product of the shaky vision from his dizziness or the air was simply that hot.
Meanwhile, Lars was sweating profusely and suffered from an intense thirst. His limbs were already aching, and with his fast breathing, he noticed the signs of a severe heatstroke coming on. It was very possible that this environment would cause him to collapse after a short time. On the other hand, he noticed that Natalya looked perfectly fine.
These effects clearly weren't normal. He had been to hot countries before, wearing full military-grade gear and sweating his arse off. Never once had he suffered so bad, and even then, it was impossible to suffer these effects so soon, immediately after exposure. It was simply too fast.
For now, however, Lars lacked options to handle this. He decided to play the fight defensively to begin with and called upon abyss walker, to weather out the effects and let his body adjust. There was the chance that it was completely in his head and none of this was real; but at the same time, if he recklessly made such a conclusion, then he would collapse as soon as he started to move around. Abnormalities tended to have drawbacks—so he wanted to find something and exploit it.
The physiology of his body shifted as he stood in place. He felt his muscles contract and expand, even the fat shifting around his body in response; and of course, sharp claws extended from his fingertips in the same way as Siegfried. This was only a spar in the end, so there was no need to treat it as a life or death battle as it was with the original owner of the abnormality.
Natalya's face was hard to make out but he could see her movements, which was sufficient. She slowly walked up to him and prepared to attack first. When she was within striking distance, she lunged forward and threw a punch aimed at his head.
Lars stepped back with a subtle shift of his heel, raising his hand and simply batting the flimsy attack away. He didn't take the initiative to strike back at this time. For now, he was simply testing the waters, responding to attacks but not starting any on his own. Natalya herself seemed to be doing something similar, but it was more akin to playing with her food, putting in little effort simply because she could.
Natalya pressed forward with a few half-hearted blows, quick but without power backing them up. A smile on her face seemed amused by how Lars was keeping his temper in check and remaining impassive. Kicking his leg with a sweep, but not achieving anything in the slightest, she taunted, "Hey Lars, aren't you going to hit back? I'm getting bored~."
"Hm…" Lars pretended to mull over something, while subtly activating seduction. "I'm not sure. It's not very fair, you know…? I'm an old man and the heat's really messing with my joints. It can't be very exciting, beating on a defenseless guy like me; how's it different from hitting a punching bag?"
Naturally, Lars was anything but an old man. He was eighteen years old, a young man in his prime, but using seduction, it was possible to make the other person bypass the gap in logic and consider his point. Besides, it was true that there was an age gap between the two.
There was nothing forbidding him from using his other abnormality and convincing the enemy to hold back on their assault!
In the beginning, it seemed as if Natalya was genuinely listening, and the field of shifting sands seemed to waver for a moment; but it remained in the last moment as she abruptly stepped forward and struck Lars in the solar plexus. This blow used considerably more force than previous attempts at hitting him, and although it lacked strength still, he couldn't take a direct hit to the solar plexus without feeling it. Especially when his sense of balance and breathing were already affected.
As Lars reeled back, Natalya smiled and shook her head, "Not yet—not that easy, Lars~!"
She retreated suddenly, making distance between the two. "Hmm… let's turn it up a notch, shall we? You see... there's actually something I'm interested in."
In the midst of speaking, she raised her finger and bit it again. Blood oozed out of the wound as she tucked her head into her arm, half-concentrating on writing while she spoke, "That abnormality of yours. It feels familiar, so I want to test something out."
When she was done, Natalya reached into her coat once more and reenacted a familiar motion; she took out a pistol and aimed it at her own head. This time, Lars wanted to interrupt it, but he was powerless to do so. In his condition, the small and nimble Natalya, who wasn't affected by the environment would never be caught by him. Therefore, he could only watch.
She's written something again. Will it be a different environment? Surely, there's no way it will overlap, right? Without the ability to stop her, he could only ask the question on his mind, "What are you going to do?"
As if answering his question, the sky turned black, the darkness reflected on the ground by a completely flat, shallow pool of water. At least, Lars guessed that the substance was water. Meanwhile, the space around him seemed to only get more isolated from the outside world, bringing them someplace strange and far away from the members of Rhys' team. It should have been Lars and Natalya left over—but even she had seemingly disappeared.
"What is going on…?" he muttered. A familiar chill ran down his spine, making him actually miss the intense heat of the desert from a moment ago. This sense of loneliness and the feeling of sinking into a treacherous abyss wasn't a new experience. The deafening silence was suffocating, almost as if he was back there again—in the abyss.
In his delirium after the fight against Siegfried, when abyss walker transferred over to him, he had come here briefly. His escape was only made possible by self-immolation. As Siegfried had done in the final moments of his life, his body set itself ablaze to combat the corrosion of the dark chasm. Somehow, it seemed that he had returned to this place once again.
"Hello!? Natalya—! Rhys—! Anyone—!" he shouted out, to no avail. What had Natalya done to deliver him to this place? Was it her intention, or had her abnormality interacted strangely with the stolen abyss walker and inadvertently sent him here? What he knew was that his bones and mortal flesh ached in this habitat. He felt the changes brought about by abyss walker magnify, causing a strong reaction that resonated with the unique surroundings.
A voice spoke to him from somewhere behind: "Hmm, was I right, after all?"
"Natalya?" Lars exclaimed, realising that this was her voice speaking to him.
She didn't confirm nor deny her identity, merely responding, "Do you know a man called Siegfried, Lars?"
"What?"
"He was an old friend of mine. It's fine if you don't know him, I just thought it was funny."
Lars was bewildered. He asked warily, "What's funny?"
"My previous partner and my current partner—both of them happen to have been corrupted by the abyss. That's what your abnormality is, isn't it, Lars?"
Although Lars was listening to what was being said, the effects of remaining in this environment were taking a toll on him. It wasn't clear at first, but this place actually wasn't the abyss, but rather a mimicry of it; having experienced the genuine abyss, he could sense that this place wasn't the same. However, merely crafting a realistic recreation of it was causing him immense distress. Remaining inside this space was slowly worsening the 'corruption' brought about by abyss walker's connection to the abyss.
When illusory hands grasped his neck, slowly tightening and threatening to strangle him, the space was pierced by a strange rift and someone appeared from it. The new entrant looked around briefly before locking eyes with Lars; then turning to the person somewhere behind him, she exclaimed, "What are you doing, Natalya?"
Now that Rhys herself had stepped in and intervened, Natalya stopped hiding in the darkness of the fake abyss and hurriedly responded, "I wasn't doing anything! When you say it like that, it's as if I was caught doing something bad!"
Rhys didn't listen to her excuse, simply demanding, "Disable your abnormality."
Natalya pouted, "Fine, fine, I was about to, anyway, okay? For your information, you actually made it stay up longer by intervening... poor Lars~."
"Natalya," Rhys didn't respond to her attempts at humour. In the next moment, the bickering stopped and the black screen fell. Lars found himself back in the training hall.
Standing frozen on the spot, he looked around and met the curious gazes of the team members. He spotted Jack and Julka, the furthest away, with the former shaking his head disapprovingly and the latter remaining impassive.
Ossian and Nia were sitting at a slight distance from each other. Remembering the warning Ossian gave him before, his smug face that now said 'I told you so' made sense. Meanwhile, Nia was sitting back in a relaxed posture but had a look of awe on her face; it was as if she was watching a movie and met an unexpected, but entertaining twist. Neither seemed particularly worried.
Hou Yi was standing somewhere in the distance and was no longer paying much attention. She was unexpectedly with Thomas, who had a fervent look on his face—or perhaps that meant it was Ma'am Teresa… Other than them, Rika and Xi Yun had actually ran over to him to see if he was okay. They seemed surprised at the lack of injuries but worried for other reasons.
Mostly, it looked like Rhys' abrupt intervention caused a slight commotion. Among the group, there were varied reactions, but widespread intrigue nonetheless—except for Julka, that is. Lars really wanted to know what it took to move that girl.
"Did you get any injuries, Lars?" asked Xi Yun.
"No, I'm fine…" Lars said, only to realise the dizziness was still more than present. "Scratch that… I might be suffering from mild heatstroke."
Xi Yun nodded, "Right… Would you come by my office later then, for a quick examination?"
"That's not a problem," he muttered, soon finding himself looking over to his right. The involved people, Rhys and Natalya were there, and Natalya was currently being reprimanded by Rhys. Not for anything around the desert or what she did during that sequence, but rather for the dangerous usage of her abnormality in replicating the abyss.
Rhys stated, "If you knew that his corruption came from the abyss, then you should know how reckless it is to replicate it with your abnormality."
"I'm sorry, Rhys, I just wanted to see for myself…" Natalya retaliated in a defeated voice. For some reason, she sounded as if she was anticipating something bad.
"If you want to know private details, including information about abnormalities and their sources of corruption, you have to ask the person for permission. You knew that when you joined."
Lars listened, interested by what he was hearing. What she said confused him at first, because the team members, with Jack's obvious display of his abnormality, seemed to not care about showing off their abnormalities. There didn't seem to be a sense of secrecy between them; at least, he couldn't see that.
At the same time, knowing each other's abnormalities was a given. If they were working together, and presumably meeting dangerous, unanticipated threats, an understanding of what the others were capable of was necessary. The point of this spar was to exhibit their abnormalities so they could work together as partners. Therefore, it likely had more to do with the nature of his abnormality. Lars himself had dirty secrets he didn't want getting exposed. To begin with, abyss walker wasn't even his abnormality; it was a product of his abnormality. It was reasonable to assume that he wasn't the only one with matters to be kept private. An unspoken rule must exist then, to not pry beyond what is already conceded, which Natalya broke by summoning the abyss.
"I'm sorry…" Natalya repeated, trying her best to sound apologetic.
"Sorry' isn't cutting it," Rhys crossed her arms. "Run around the facility for six laps, and don't come back for food until you're done."
"Eh?? No, please—reduce it somewhat! That's too long without eating…"
"And no use of your abnormality, you're running it normally."
"That's unfair…!" she muttered, sounding as if she was about to cry. Choking back her tears, she slowly walked out of the training hall to presumably start her run right away. It was the definition of a walk of shame.
While Lars was watching in astonishment, he noticed Ossian approaching him.
Ossian smiled as he gestured to the defeated back of Natalya, "The perimeter of this facility is six kilometres total… so, she's gotta run thirty-six kilometres before she can eat. Reasonable punishment, don't you think?"
"That's… a bit excessive, no?" Lars rebutted absentmindedly. Since he was a soldier, he was used to that kind of disciplinary punishment. But he had never seen someone sentenced to running thirty-six kilometres. Before eating, too…
"What she did wasn't allowed, and she knew it," Ossian shook his shoulders. "She got too excited and paid the price for it. Don't hold it against her, okay?"
"I wasn't going to," Lars responded.
"Good! Then, let's eat; and give our regards to Natalya in the meanwhile," Ossian chuckled as he joined the crowd, who were gathering towards the cafeteria again. Lars was eager to join them, too; he hadn't eaten since his return from the otherside, after all. He hoped that the food wasn't bad.