OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Chapter 286: The First Time She Felt Fear

Chapter 286: The First Time She Felt Fear

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'Where am I?'

Emir, who seemed to have remained asleep, met the darkness-the void he was so familiar with.

'Huh, I'm here again... but why?'

Thump.

He suddenly felt a tug, as if someone, something was calling him.

And slowly, when he accepted that 'call,' this void around him began to grow color.

As if it were being painted, shades of bloodied red and pure gray made their way onto the black canvas that was once called the void.

This place... It reminded him of the illusion he put himself in a year or so ago.

'Wait... It's real?'

He reached that conclusion quickly because he could easily feel the difference between what he was experiencing now and the illusion from before.

And it wasn't just that; he subconsciously knew that this place was his mindscape.

No, not his mind, but his spirit, his soul.

What he saw back then was what his subconscious mind thought of himself, and that thought was influenced directly by his soul.

However, he couldn't access that soul, so he only met his mindscape, a fake projection, not only due to the poisonous illusion he cast on himself but also due to his inability, but now, as a Seraphim, he could.

This hinted at how the spirit would become important in the future when he reached the Archon rank, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly how it would...

'Hm.'

Emir wondered if it related to that godhood hint he received.

But soon, he stopped thinking about it, as basing his decisions on guesses could only lead to disaster.

Then he began thinking about how the other systems hadn't shown up.

It seemed that they were corrupted along with the information and missions.

The reason why escaped him, and the only possibility that he came up with, besides them not

being real, was that it was the result of him swallowing both pills at the same time.

'...Nah, that's too stupid.'

Concluding with that thought, he moved on to the two new ways of ranking up.

The first thought that crossed his mind was Embodiment.

It solved many of the mysteries he had regarding the Elite and, more specifically, Morgiana.

Now knowing what he knew, Emir figured that Morgiana was extremely talented since her mind subconsciously began to follow this method. If not that then at least she subconsciously knew how a Celestial should embody the path of Glacial Weaver.

And judging by her reaction, it appeared that it was common within the talented Elite to hide such changes, even if it crippled the speed at which they ranked up the Hierarchy.

That very change was something they needed to embrace, to embody.

They weren't stupid so Emir could safely say that they didn't know any better.

'That's great.'

He smiled...

'I can do a lot with that.'

And finally, Aether Core Absorption came to mind.

Emir now understood why they sent Arthur an Aether core.

It was the reason why his strength gained such a massive boost.

Unfortunately for Arthur however, he wasn't about to experience that this time around.

Emir called dibs on it.

Just as his smile widened even further, blood began to fall from the canvas above him.

'Ah...'

He clicked his tongue.

"What brought this up?"

The world responded to his question by raining down even harder.

Emir let out a sigh and walked forward.

He knew where to go.

The sea of blood awaited him with open arms, in the literal sense of the phrase.

It didn't take him long to reach the edge and fall.

Soon, he was amidst their suffocating embrace as they pulled him deeper and deeper until he experienced familiar slumber.

When he woke up, he found himself standing in a room that was pure white, almost gray. It was quite different from the last time he visited, surprisingly, not the void.

Lyra was in the middle of that blank space.

"So... what now?"

The answer came directly from Lyra's mouth:

"You don't trust me."

Emir, slightly surprised, waited for her to continue, and she did a moment later:

"After all I did to you, you still treat me like garbage."

He chuckled.

"So is that what this is?"

"How is that-"

"Don't bother-"

Emir cut her off, and she did him:

"What?! Are you scared?"

"Just shut up and get me out of here! I ain't got time for this shit!"

His roar resounded, not caring one bit for this self-made nightmare.

And it seemed that it was enough of an answer, a confirmation, to satisfy his aching soul.

But he didn't care for that and forcibly cut his visit short.

Emir certainly wasn't about to waste his time with a fake.

...

[Good morning~.]

Even before his eyes could flutter open, he heard Lyra's love-filled greeting.

[Good morning.]

He didn't take long to give his reply while pushing himself off the bed.

After a moment of stretching, he looked beside him and asked:

[Was I too heavy?]

She giggled and rolled her body across the bed until her head bumped into him.

[What do you think?]

Emir joined her in soft laughter as he patted her head.

[...Come, read my memories.]

Lyra brought herself up by pulling on his neck, and then she closed the distance between their

foreheads until they touched.

Her cold skin met his warmth.

[Why this?]

They shared a quiet laugh at his question.

It was because they both knew that while Lyra could extract memories from a distance she

used this situation as an excuse to be close to Emir.

Sure, it would've taken longer than usual since the memories were incredibly dense, but that

still wouldn't be a lot of time.

"You..."

This cute moment suddenly took a one-eighty when she processed all that she received.

Lyra was incredibly concerned by what she saw.

She didn't care for anything else except what he experienced during the visit to his soul.

Not the fact that he shut her up, no, nor was it what the fake her said, but rather how he went

through such a thing in the first place.

She never heard of anyone going through that.

But it reminded her of something she experienced herself.

Emir's darkness...

His corruption.

It was the first time she felt fear.

And it was the very thing that had overwhelmed her code...

The very thing that allowed her to fall in love.

Something that Emir found very stupid at the time had now turned out to be more than

reasonable.

This... dream he experienced was just that-his own blood attempting to corrupt him.

[So I shouldn't sleep anymore, I guess...]

Emir tried to pass it off with that joke, but Lyra wasn't about to let that happen.

[We have to talk about it.]

He scoffed and pulled himself away from her.

[About what? We went through this a million times... Again, this changes nothing.]

But she didn't relent; her body remained stuck to his as if they were glued together.

[But I—we know that it's only going to get worse.]

Emir didn't resist her attack, and to fight back, he began to play with her face, pulling on her

cheeks that were as soft as a baby's bottom.

[Right, I'm not saying it won't; I'm saying that we can't do anything but wait... Holy relics

don't fall from the sky, you know.]

Lyra, who attempted to puff her stretched cheeks, understood that Emir had come to the same

conclusion as her.

[Obviously! But I'm not talking about that!]

To combat the corruption they would need some type of Holy Relic that could anchor his

mind, something that Emir couldn't see them getting any time soon.

The reason for that was because he realized it was a Holy Relic similar to the ones Celestials

used in higher ranks to combat 'Godhood.'

'Whatever that meant...'

Or maybe they would discover a technique, skill, or ability for that purpose.

[Yeah yeah... Anyways, keep the core and needle locked up for later, we'll need me to be at full

strength for what's coming up. Now why don't we go to the archive? Maybe they've got

something we can use.]

Just as Emir said that she threatened to bite his hand like a rebelling cat, and he complied,

finally letting go of her cheeks.

[That's what I was talking about! Low chance we get anything useful, but we might as well

check it out.]

He rolled his body until he dropped off the bed and pressed down on the ground, his feet

straight.

[Agreed.]

Lyra, unlike him, was elegant in nature, so her exit was many times more beautiful.

She followed after him as they exited the office and met a hallway bathed by the sun's bright

streams of light filtering through the windows.

[By the way, what do you think your embodiment would be like?]

Emir shrugged his shoulders while nearing the elevator.

Would his Aspect, Weaver's Grasp, and specialization, Ethereal Threader, relate to his

constant want for control?

For answers?

The never-ending questions?

Probably.

[Something related to control, curiosity, and a burning hatred for fate.]

At least that was what he could come up with. He knew that there was something more to it,

something that he couldn't see yet, but what it could be escaped him.

[Sounds about right... I guess we should've expected something like this to come up because

of your untrod path.]

[Yeah, you guys got it easier, but still, the question remains...]

He paused for a moment, making sure of the words he was about to utter.

[...How does one light a spark using a flint and steel while not knowing which one is the flint

amidst a million other rocks?]

This was a question that neither of the two knew the answer to.

The knowledge they gained revealed the Embodiment method, which assumed that

information about a Celestial's own Specialization, their own 'flint,' was already at hand.

Emir had no idea what his 'flint' looked like.

He could go and grab whatever looked closest to what he assumed to be the real thing, but it

would only end up being wasted time.

Ting!

Certainty was needed for the method to work in the first place, so guessing like this was a

definite no-go.

'Gah... Whatever.'

He gave up on finding an answer.

After all, if Lyra, an automata with systems that could even compete against Brain couldn't

find any, he had no hopes to stumble upon an answer.

Ting!

Instead, he focused on what just opened up before him.

The fifth floor.

The Archive In Between.