Irina sat in stunned silence, the weight of the future pressing down on her. The glimpses of events that unfolded over ti had shaken her understanding of the world.
As she processed the cascade of information, doubts, and questions swirled in her mind like a tempest.
'Was that even a future?'
The events that had unfolded from the vision that she saw…..There were many things that didn't match what she knew and experienced.
Many of the things were different.
From what she had rembered, Julia wasn't injured in the joint dungeon exploration, and none of the students died, even though a real yeti had appeared.
'Things are a lot different from what I know.'
She rembered what happened at the Blackthorn Family banquet. Even though she didn't know everything in detail, she rembered the attack.
That scene where she had seen such a large-scale attack for the first ti was still engraved in her mind, even though it was not her first ti encountering a demonic human.
But that wasn't the end.
'Mid-terms.'
The events that happened in mid-terms weren't that different. Ethan ranked up once again. However, his rank didn't increase by three digits but remained at 1110, and that was another divergence.
'Astron hadn't ranked up either.'
Astron's na wasn't ntioned, as he still seed like he was the last ranked.
As she rembered his perspective of ti-fra, she rembered he was approached after the mid-terms.
'Academy curriculum.'
But, if she rembered one important thing, it would be the fact that the academy hadn't introduced a changed curriculum after the mid-terms.
'They did it in the second year.'
Nothing seed to add up.
Even right now, the trip to the Phantom's Land didn't seem to make any sense. According to what she had seen, they weren't supposed to be here but in the academy training.
'And the attack in the final exams and Astron's death.'
The person whose past she had witnessed died just like that.
"He can't be like that. Astron can't be a demonic human. I refuse to believe it," Irina declared inwardly, her denial a desperate attempt to shield herself from the harsh truth.
The Astron she knew had vulnerabilities and struggles, but the idea of him succumbing to the darkness seed impossible.
The trip to the Phantom's Land, the altered mid-term events, and the tragic outco of the final exams all painted a distorted picture of the future.
Irina grappled with the dissonance between what she knew and what she had seen, a battle between the reality she clung to and the unsettling truths that unfolded.
'It can't be, not again…..'
The fear of betrayal, a sentint she thought she had overco, resurfaced with a vengeance.
'Please not….'
It was a visceral reaction, an instinctual attempt to protect herself from the heart-wrenching realization that those she trusted might not be who they seed.
"I won't believe it. Astron, please, let this be so twisted vision, a nightmare," Irina pleaded silently, her thoughts a desperate plea for the reality she cherished to remain intact.
The suffocating fear of betrayal mingled with the anguish of uncertainty, creating a storm of conflicting emotions within her.
But at that mont, she stopped.
'What am I doing?'
As if sothing danged at her, Irina abruptly stopped herself, her internal tumult grinding to a halt. The realization hit her like a sudden wave, breaking through the tempest of conflicting emotions.
She took a deep breath psychologically, forcing herself to step back from the precipice of despair.
The visions, the diverging futures, the unsettling revelations – they threatened to drown her in a sea of uncertainty.
"No," she muttered, her voice steadying. "This is not helping. I can't lose my sense of reality to these visions. What's happened, what's real, is what I've lived, not these fractured glimpses."
Forcing herself to calm down, Irina straightened, her determination resurfacing. The visions might have shaken her, but she couldn't afford to lose sight of her purpose.
She was here to understand, to unravel the mystery of the Phantom's Land, not to succumb to the disorienting effects of glimpses into possible futures.
"Sigh…."
As she sighed, she looked around.
She needed to know what place she was in.
'These are definitely not the mories of Astron nor Ethan.'
It didn't make any sense for her to see the mories of two different people from a third-person perspective, which also didn't add the events that she knew.
'First, I need to check what is different.'
With a resolute focus, Irina retraced her steps, ntally organizing the events that happened in the world she knew. The joint dungeon exploration, the Blackthorn Family banquet attack, the mid-terms, and the recent trip to the Phantom's Land were the events she experienced.
She listed the differences in her mind, slowly and steadily.
Irina ticulously went through the ntal list of events, comparing the mories she knew with the visions she had witnessed. The differences began to crystallize in her mind as she focused on each key mont:
Joint Dungeon Exploration: In the visions, there were discrepancies in Julia's well-being, and so students faced fatal outcos. However, in her lived experiences, no such tragedies occurred. Julia remained unhard, and everyone survived the encounter with the real yeti.
Blackthorn Family Banquet Attack: The scale and details of the attack on the Blackthorn Family banquet seed exaggerated in the visions. While she did recall a demonic human attack, the events she saw in the future diverged significantly from her own mory.
Mid-Terms: The rankings of Ethan and Astron didn't align with her knowledge. Ethan's rank remained at 1110, and Astron's na wasn't ntioned, contrary to her own experience where Ethan consistently climbed in rankings, and Astron was the last ranked.
Academy Curriculum Change: The vision portrayed a changed curriculum after mid-terms, while in reality, the academy introduced a revamped curriculum in the second year, not after mid-terms.
Phantom's Land Trip: The current situation, being in the Phantom's Land instead of the academy training, was a stark deviation. The events unfolding around her didn't align with her expectations or experiences.
Attack in the Final Exams and Astron's Death: The vision showed Astron eting a tragic end, succumbing to becoming a demonic human. This contradicted the Astron she knew, leaving her in disbelief and denial.
With the differences laid out before her, Irina took a mont to absorb the information. The space she found herself in, the visions she witnessed, didn't conform to any logical understanding of ti or reality. It was as if she had stepped into a realm that transcended the boundaries of her known world.
"Sigh… What is this place?" Irina murmured, her eyes scanning the unfamiliar surroundings. The landscape seed ethereal, shifting in subtle ways that defied conventional logic. The space felt both tangible and epheral, a paradox that added to the enigma surrounding her.
"Wait…."
At that mont, she saw herself in one of the visions. She was looking at the sky without knowing what to do.
Sothing danged into her head.
As Irina pondered the discrepancies and observed the surreal surroundings, a realization dawned on her. The visions, the ability to witness different tilines, the disconnected space – it all pointed to a place beyond the confines of her physical reality. It was as if she had transcended the limits of the world she knew.
"Wait… A place where I can watch myself… Others… Different tilines… Different people… Different locations…," Irina mumbled to herself, connecting the dots between the visions and the space she found herself in.
Curiosity guiding her, she looked around, taking in the ethereal landscape that seed to exist outside the rules of the physical world. It was then that she tried to sense her own body.
To her surprise, she realized she felt no physical constraints. It was as if she had beco a re observer, detached from the tangible realities that governed her everyday existence.
'Wait…'
Then, a mory surfaced – a recent magical conference where a high-ranking mage and a scholar presented a theoretical frawork on dinsions.
The scholars spoke of realms beyond the known, places where the laws of physics and the rules of the world diverged.
'Diverging Dinsions Theory.'
"A high-ranking dinsion," Irina whispered, her invisible eyes widening. "This….."
The landscape around her seed to shimr with the possibilities of countless realities, each unfolding in its unique way.
In that mont of realization, Irina ca to terms with the truth. She wasn't in the physical world anymore.
She had traversed into a higher-ranking dinsion, a realm where ti and space never even existed before.
'Don't tell ….'
That explained why she was able to see everything. If she was inside a dinsion that was way above what any other person normally stayed in…
Then it would make sense.
"If so, then…..This is a parallel world."
The realization danged in. The concept of a parallel world, a different tiline where everything unfolded in an alternate fashion, explained the disjointed visions and the discrepancies between her mories and the glimpses she had seen.
In this higher-ranking dinsion, Irina found herself not rely witnessing events but existing in a space where ti and reality took unexpected turns.
The landscapes she saw were reflections of a reality that deviated from the one she knew. The realization opened a gateway to understanding the intricacies of the parallel world she now inhabited.
"But, how? Why am I here? What brought here?"
The mont she asked this question to herself, she rembered what happened before she ca here.
"The Magic Spell. Dreams....No, not dreams."
She thought it was a dream, but it wasn't.
"My spell didn't even work as intended from the start."
If it did, she would be inside a dream.
"It was distorted. Because of sothing….Sothing outside of my control."
It was because of that distortion that she ended up crossing dinsions.
"The entity."
The entity whose existence she had discovered. The being that she thought was so formidable that she sought help.
"Because of its magic, I ended up here."
At that exact mont, Irina started to question what those phantoms were.
"Crossing dinsions….Phantoms….Lost souls…."
Then she realized.
"They are not lost souls…..They are the souls of the people of parallel worlds...The reason why phantoms exist…..is because their original place is taken by their parallel selves…."
As if a revelation dawned upon her, she started mumbling like a maniac.
"The entity…..is the main cause why Phantoms exist. It makes the souls of the people cross dinsions and take the place of their parallel selves by force. And the ones that end up returning to the real world couldn't find their places at all and beco phantoms…."
"And the reason why I ended up here….is because Sylvie and my spell intercepted the path, leaving in the alternate higher dinsion that bridges the two parallel worlds."
Her analytical mind, which was going to make her the best and strongest mage in the world, started spinning at a rapid speed.
She interpreted everything as she realized what was happening here.
"But why? Why is it doing this?" Irina questioned aloud, her thoughts racing as she grappled with the revelation of the entity's involvent in the creation of phantoms and the distortion of dinsions.
As she pondered the motive behind the entity's actions, a subtle shift in the fabric of the higher-ranking dinsion caught her attention. A slit began to form in the otherwise seamless space, a tiny rupture that seed to connect her world to sothing beyond.
Her invisible eyes widened as she stared at the developing slit. It was a portal, a disturbance in the delicate balance of space and ti. The entity's goal beca clearer – it sought to create a specific portal, a conduit for sothing far more dangerous.
At that mont, Irina sensed an ominous presence emanating from the opening slit. A palpable feeling of danger and malevolence washed over her. Whatever lay beyond that portal was not only threatening but also held an air of humiliation to the point where she could feel the world would get destroyed.
The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. The entity's actions, the creation of phantoms, the disturbance in dinsions – they all pointed toward a grander sche.
The slit in the space was a gateway, and what lurked beyond was a force that could bring about unimaginable consequences.
"We need to stop it."
She mumbled to herself as she looked around frantically.
"But how?"
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