'Huh? Bubbles?' Luke thought.
In his vision, everything was gradually getting darker. At the sa ti as he felt lightness in his body at that mont, he also felt his body sinking deeper and deeper.
'Where am I?'
His mind was sleepy, and he could rember almost nothing. The last thing he could rember was being at a dinner party a few seconds before. At the table were redith, the Lord and his wife, however, after a certain part Luke couldn't rember anything else from the dinner, but all he had to do was try a little harder and he would rember.
'Was I poisoned? No, that's impossible... They looked as desperate and surprised as redith...'
The half-wolf was managing to recover so flashes of mory with great montum, and now he could clearly see the last monts of that unassuming dinner to which the Lord had invited him.
At that mont, Luke had planned to let redith rest for two days on the Flying Isles, and he would use that ti to learn all about the lki Empire from Wanney and the half-dragons, but that plan was interrupted on the first day.
'Hah... That feeling in my chest, I've felt it before.' He thought, placing his right hand over his heart. 'It's the sa as that ti...'
A pain so strong in his chest that it was capable of expelling every molecule of oxygen from his lungs, that was Luke's definition for the pain he was feeling. This terrible stimulus had been marked deep in Luke's mind ever since Manilyn revealed that the reasons he lost consciousness sotis was not because he was sick, but because he was cursed.
Now Luke felt as if he was sinking deeper and deeper into a deep lake. He could see in the form of bubbles in the water the oxygen escaping from his lungs. He could also feel the pressure of the water around him gradually getting stronger, heavier, and unbearable. The once clear glow was now distant, indicating that he had long since moved away from the surface.
'That's my... limit?' Luke looked down at his own outstretched hands, reaching for the light. 'You guys haven't given up yet, have you?' Looking at the palm of his right hand, which was struggling bravely, he smiled bitterly with squeezed eyes.
Suddenly, Luke felt soone touch his hand and pull it away. Surprised, he opened a slit in his eyes so that he could see who was touching him in such a hurry.
As he opened his eyes with difficulty, the first thing Luke saw was a blonde woman swimming towards him in that dark lake. Her hair shone like moonlight and her face was beautiful like a rmaid's.
She took him by the hand, and at that mont Luke felt the drowsy state of his consciousness return to normal. Suddenly an aura enveloped him, and they both reached the surface of the lake.
Stunned, Luke looked down, thus seeing that he was flying over an infinite water surface. The water in this place was calm and undisturbed, like still water in a puddle after a long storm. This water reflected the blue sky over Luke, like an endless mirror.
But while Luke noticed all this, he also stared at the woman in front of him. She was floating as well, holding his right hand as she did inside the lake.
"Who-who are you really?" Luke asked, breaking into a cold sweat. The ti inside the lake seed to have lasted an eternity.
She smiled, looking at him fondly. "I told you to look for , didn't I? You'd find out if you did."
Luke looked away. "I was going to do that...at so point, but now that you're already here in front of , things have made it easier."
"Um! I wish things were that simple." The woman looked at the horizon. "This place is beautiful, don't you think?"
,m "Certainly... Where are we? In the sky?"
"Bhuahaha! Do you really think things like heaven and hell exist? Bhuahaha!" The woman started laughing so hard that she put her hands on her stomach.
With clenched eyes, the half-wolf didn't see where the funny was, yet for so reason he unconsciously smiled a little at seeing her laugh so casually. 'Laughing like that, she reminds a little of Ayumi, but certainly with a mix of redith and Alexis' personality.' He thought.
The woman wiped away the tears on her face and slowly stopped laughing. "All right, all right, I understand that it's not like you humans to know that sort of thing."
Luke crossed his arms and kept a serious expression. "What are you talking about? Do you think you're so kind of goddess or sothing?"
The woman's gaze beca a little more serious, but she still displayed an amused smile. "What am I? That's a tricky question to answer, even more so than the others... Well, I have lived many lives, had many nas, seen this world born and also know how it will end. So may call a divine being and worship , others may see as a creature even more evil than the demons. However, in reality I am the balance that balances the order of this world, and I am also the one who will seal the fate of all mankind when the ti cos. If the world is peaceful, I should be the person responsible for causing chaos, and if you are evil, I would be the herald of peace."
With his eyebrows arched from such surprise, the half-wolf looked at her and just asked, "You didn't an that you WERE the scales of this world, did you?"
She smiled once again, put her right hand on her chin and rested her right arm on her chin. "Now I understand why fate led you to ." The woman said as she nodded. "At one point in history, the spirit world of our world suddenly collided with another, a world of pure chaos, a world where your scales abandoned their duty or just couldn't reverse the chaos they created. When this happened, I used everything I had to try to stop what you humans call an irruption. In the end, I was able to stop it, but I didn't have enough strength to kick out the doors that connect our world to that other world."
"The Dungeons."
"Exactly... The first thing I thought after I finally managed to stop the irruption was that I should try to look for clues in these structures and make sure to seal each of them, however, I was weak, very weak, and one day I thought I would stop and rest for a while. I just woke up when you touched ..." She suddenly looked at Luke with a downcast look and a slightly flushed face.
"DON'T TALK THAT WAY, YOU CRAZY WOMAN!" He punched her weakly in the head, crossed his arms, and turned his face away.
"Ouch, ouch... I was just kidding! Hahaha!"
"Humph! From what I've picked up, you're into then, sohow, aren't you?"
"Yes, I've been hitching a ride with you since the day you touched that sign on the second floor of Oukiwa Dungeon."
"So, it was at that door with countless skulls.... Damn the day I agreed to enter a Dungeon..."
The woman put both hands on her waist. "Hey! Are you saying you wish you hadn't t !?"
"No doubt about it." He answered without hesitation. "Now answer , why have you stayed with all this ti? Can't you get out?"
The serious expression returned to her face. "Unfortunately, I lost most of my powers when I paused the irruption. Even after resting for a few hundred years in that Dungeon, I still couldn't recover enough even to form a material body, I'm afraid that perhaps the solution this ti is not ti. Therefore, it is more advantageous for to help you stop the demons than to simply continue falling asleep..."
"I see... So, since I am seeing you and can touch you, is this a spirit world?"
"Luke, that is your soul, at least a part of it. Normally, my current strength would not be capable of greater things than putting subliminal ssages into your dream and watching your journey, but as the curse increased, your soul fragnted a bit and that allowed to travel through the cracks into your consciousness."
"In other words, the curse allowed to get to know you.... So, I suppose you know a way to stop the demons, don't you? In the beginning you clearly said, 'I am a Goddess who has experienced the past, the present, and the future, and you are inferior to !'"
"Hey! I didn't say that!"
"Are you sure? That's how I heard it..."
"Hmmm! Yes, I know several ways we can stop the demons." She tossed her blonde hair to the side and turned her face away. "However, the collision of two worlds hurts the natural order. What does that an? I will explain it to soone like a brass mind like yours. Each world has its paraters and it is as a basis on them that I, as a scales, can calculate all possible probabilities to keep the balance, thus knowing everything that will happen and anywhere in the world. When another world enters the field, paraters foreign to the scales are entered, and since I don't know what each parater can do exactly, things get confusing."
"In other words, are you as useful as an ordinary war strategist? You know everything about your side, but virtually nothing about the other side." Luke articulated.
A vein began to pop out of the woman's forehead. "I hate to admit it, but you're right. However, I'm not just a strategist, I'm the best there ever was. And I don't need to know everything about the enemy to say with certainty that the strategy the Broteforge Empire is following will not end with the defeat of the demons."
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