Jump Down-You Might Die (Continued)

However, nothing happened.

There was no flame, no blazing light, and no excruciating pain on the eve of death. The Flame-haired maiden simply uttered those words, and the world responded with silence.

"As expected," the girl murmured to herself. "Laevateinn didn't come. This isn't Terra. This was an accident. Something unexpected happened after the experiment that I didn't know about, or couldn't possibly know about. So much so that when I awoke, I was even in the dream realm..."

She pressed her temples, a strange sense of fatigue and weakness settling over her mind, and she also realized that the memory she had just had, which seemed to be a conversation with the cells in her body, was gradually fading away.

"... Is my thinking damaged, due to the overuse of my intellect? So, a single glance comes at such a high price?"

She abruptly turned her head, her gaze serious and focused on Kal'tsit, who trembled in fright.

"Kal'tsit!"—Her voice was more serious than ever before, a seriousness that had almost never appeared in Miss Lynx's memory except when Theresia was assassinated.

"Yes!" the foolish lynx responded instinctively, then immediately realized what she meant. Just as she was about to put on a stern face and give a foolish response befitting her persona, she was interrupted again.

"What would happen if I lost control of my body in Chernobog and instinctively attacked any hostile or threatening creature that appeared around me?"

"Many people will die—wait! You haven't answered my question yet! Deliberately creating tension to avoid the topic won't change anything..."

"I see." The Flame-haired maiden nodded, the latter part of the sentence automatically ignoring her. "It seems I've caused quite a bit of trouble in Terra. Persephone has had a tough time; I must thank her properly when I get back... but why Kal'tsit?"

She muttered to herself, completely ignoring the somewhat anxious and frantic cat—no, it was still better than air. At least she would still look at it, even if her gaze was devoid of emotion.

Her gaze fell on Kal'tsit's hands, which she instinctively tried to hide behind her back.

"I see. So it was my actions in the hospital that strengthened the connection—it could be the same as Yelena's. But it's also possible that Persephone used that device, and that bed made the choice for me... But if it's the second possibility, it means that Persephone couldn't separate my hand from Kal'tsit."

"It seems I can't go back until I'm fully recovered... Do I have to recuperate here for a while?"

The Flame-haired maiden hair gently exhaled.

"Fire Keeper," she said softly.

"Miss, I'm here," the Fire Keeper responded gently. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Is Yhorm still there?

"Yhorm has left, Miss. Just three days after you left, that hero arrived on the surface. Now there are no living creatures in the City of Sin, it is very safe here." She seemed to understand Miss Surtr's unspoken meaning.

"What about food reserves?"

"There is a warehouse, Miss." The Fire Keeper raised her hand and pointed to a spot on the other side of the temple. A tightly closed door opened with her will. Inside, it was filled with various fruits and vegetables and chilled meat. "I filled this warehouse while building this place for you. And the current storage is enough to meet one person's food needs for six months."

"Very good." Miss Surtr's face showed satisfaction. "I may be staying in this world a little longer this time. I'll be troubling you with many things, please forgive me, Fire Keeper."

She saw the beautiful noblewoman smile slightly, bow to her, her smooth braids cascading down, revealing her fair and delicate nape to her.

"It is my honor and my duty to serve you, my lady."

"Thank you for your trouble." Surtr nodded, then turned her gaze to the Miss Lynx who seemed to want to interrupt the conversation but hesitated before doing so. She rarely saw Kal'tsit with such an expression—surprise, doubt, and a little bit of fear and resistance, as if she already knew what she was about to say and was terrified of what she was about to say.

—It's strange, although it turns out she didn't really dislike me. But she shouldn't have had much affection for me either.

Thoughts flashed by quickly, but words were spoken without hesitation.

"I'm sorry, Kal'tsit. I've dragged you into my dream exploration."

"It was an accident, and I guess you haven't woken up yet so you know nothing about it—but it really was an accident. I made a mistake while participating in the dream exploration and research experiment led by Persephone. I can't even imagine what terrible consequences my mistake would have caused, but I suppose Persephone has nipped all the tragedy in the bud."

She exhaled softly, her imposing aura even making Kal'tsit forget to retort.

"But there is still one problem that remains unresolved—that is my problem. I need to recuperate in the Dream Realm for a sufficient period of time until my intellect is restored. So, although I am sorry to have involved you in my journey to explore the Dream Realm, this time, I cannot take you back to Terra earlier than I did with Yelena. Between two evils, I must choose the lesser one, and I am sorry, I have to do this."

"But don't worry, I won't get in your way—this place is very safe, and apart from the darker color scheme, there's plenty of food, air, and water. Please wait here for a while, consider it a vacation, you can do some research or relax... I will return to Terra as soon as I'm healed, it won't take you too long."

She finished speaking in one breath.

She watched as Kal'tsit's eyes widened suddenly, but then her pupils contracted rapidly.

"Wait! I don't..." Miss Lynx, finally realizing the situation was extremely bad, almost blurted out in a panic.

"I'm going to follow you!" Kal'tsit gritted her teeth. "I need to know what you've done! I need to know if you've been behind my back—"

"Kal'tsit." But Surtr interrupted her directly. "Normally, I'll accommodate you in everything, and I really can. But not this time. This time, I have to take responsibility for the entire Rhodes Island and Chernobog."

"I apologize. I will make amends for my rudeness today when we return to Terra. But—" Miss Surtr turned her head to look at the other side. "Fire Keeper, take me to the area where Lord Aldrich of Cinder has awakened. He is the second Lord of Cinder I must defeat, and I will use him to verify my hypothesis—to see if the Profaned Flame I took from Yhorm can be fueled by the Deep."

"As you wish, my lady." The Fire Keeper smiled at her, and the next moment, a radiant miracle array was constructed beneath their feet.

But Kal'tsit's hand remained firmly gripping her arm.

"Surtr, no—" The voice initially sounded pleading, but then shifted to the strength Miss Surtr knew well in the second half. "—Don't even think about leaving me behind!"

"I don't want to hurt you, Kal'tsit." However, Miss Surtr lowered her eyes, her mind made up.

"Fire Keeper, help me," she whispered.

The next moment, a solid beam of light separated Kal'tsit's hand from Miss Surtr's arm—the light formed a wall, pushing the pitiful lynx away—she instinctively tried to resist, but the pressure of the light sealed half of her body behind her back.

It was just a fleeting moment.

She was only blocked for a moment.

But in that instant, she saw Surtr give her an apologetic smile. And then—

Nebula M78 756365104

The light particles dissipated, and the two figures vanished into the wind. Within this dark and silent underground ruin, she was the only one left to enjoy solitude.

She instinctively reached out her hand in the direction where Surtr had disappeared.

This time, however, she knew she couldn't grasp anything—and indeed, she grasped nothing at all.

Her throat bobbed.

"A hallucination... I'm still in the illusion. Surtr wouldn't do this to me." She tried to convince herself, even as more and more evidence grew in her mind that this wasn't a hallucination.

"It's a hallucination, it must be..." she murmured to herself, instinctively reaching to clutch her head because it was throbbing with pain. Her hands trembled uncontrollably, and a chilling coldness welled up from the depths of her soul.

Hallucination... or is it really a hallucination?

"This is not an illusion." A voice sounded from behind her, and she turned her head sharply. The phantom of Persephone appeared on her retina.

"Persephone!" she growled. "It's you—"

"It's me," the Maiden Doctor replied. "I left a safety net, thinking you wouldn't be this useless, but it triggered so quickly—I have to say, as expected of you? My worst-case scenario actually came true? Don't ask me how I know, I just found the keywords and discovered that you are the only one within a one-kilometer radius."

"But what proof do you have..." the lynx still tried to argue.