Beneath Darkhollow

"Chirp, chirp... chirrr!"

"All right, little guy, thanks for leading the way." Dania set the Giant Lumiscale Construct she had been carrying on the ground and bent down to stroke his head.

Lu Guan reached over and gave him a squeeze too. "How did this little thing eat enough to get so fat?" he asked in surprise.

"Chirrr! Chirrr! Chirrr!"

The Giant Lumiscale Construct named Shaye seemed very angry and tried to gesture with his pair of chubby little arms.

"Shaye says he's very angry!" Dania translated with a smile.

"This Sun Sprite has a name?"

"Mhm~ There was a Void Matter magnetic storm here before, so I helped them clean it up when I passed by." Dania rubbed Shaye's head. "I had time on my hands, so I gave these little guys names."

Dania turned to the Giant Lumiscale Construct and asked, "Shaye, where are Amaro and Kanyu?"

"Oh, they said they had to protect that 'furnace core'? So they're not here right now? That's fine too~ I'll meet them next time I get the chance."

"You're asking who he is?" Dania followed the direction of the Giant Lumiscale Construct's finger and looked at Lu Guan. Holding back a laugh, she introduced him. "He's an idiot, don't mind him. He's just bad with words, but he doesn't mean any harm."

Dania felt no nostalgia as she returned to this old place. After all, it held nothing but painful memories for her.

"'Experiment report'?" Lu Guan casually picked up a scattered document from the floor. "This is recent... only two months ago..."

Back when the president chose Dania as the "vessel" to receive Aleph-1's power, the most important factor, apart from her physical condition and frequency compatibility, was that she had managed to have nothing at all, unlike those other Resonators with their rich lives and emotions.

For someone who had nothing, the strongest feeling about themselves and the world was often one of "meaninglessness," which aligned with Aleph-1's logic of existence.

But Lu Guan's appearance had brought about a tremendous change in Dania's heart. When the Fractsidus observed that the strength of the resonance between Dania and the Tacet Discord of Nihility was rapidly declining, the president could no longer sit still and chose to intervene ahead of schedule.

What followed was the president's attempt to use the Academy Dark Side to set a trap for Lu Guan and kill him, driving Dania to utter despair. Instead, Lu Guan had turned the tables and killed the president with his "bottomless" resonance ability.

"Stop reading... there's nothing worth looking at in those."

Dania snatched the documents from Lu Guan's hands, crumpled them up, and threw them into a wastebasket nearby. She then led Lu Guan deeper inside, all the way to the room where she had once lived.

"Back then... I stayed in this room alone, just like this, and every so often I'd be dragged away for all kinds of experiments... If anything went even slightly wrong, the president would scold me... and sometimes she'd even... beat me..."

"Back then, my only form of entertainment was the game that came with the TV, 'Lahai-Roi Blocks'..."

Dania's expression darkened. As unpleasant memories surfaced, the hand she had resting on the television began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Don't be afraid..." A warm, solid body pressed against her, drawing Dania into an embrace. "I'm here. I'll never let that sort of thing happen again."

"It's okay..." Dania forced a smile. "I can feel the connection between the Tacet Discord of Nihility and me getting weaker and weaker. I'm sure it won't be long before Their gaze leaves me..."

"..." Lu Guan fell silent.

He could tell that Dania must be quietly hiding something from him. He had tried probing before, but that had only made her wary, and since then she had been unwilling to talk much about Aleph-1.

It was rare for Dania to bring it up herself, so Lu Guan decided to speak plainly.

His tone was grave and earnest. "What happens... if the resonance between you and Aleph-1 breaks?"

"That would be wonderful!" Dania clapped her hands happily. "If They stop watching me, I'll be free to live however I want, without worrying about Void Matter affecting other people."

Clearly, her explanation didn't hold up.

"...Dania."

Lu Guan was silent for a while before he spoke. "I remember telling you before that you're really bad at lying about this sort of thing."

"I thought you'd pretend to believe me." Dania seemed to have expected this and sighed. "But you saw through me after all..."

"I'll ask you again. If your connection to Aleph-1 is completely severed... what exactly will happen to you?"

Three days earlier.

Dania came to the library and, unusually, didn't catch up on sleep. Instead, she went straight to Nastassja.

"Want to chat?"

"Oh, Dania?" Nastassja smiled and showed Dania the somewhat aged books in her hands. "But you might have to wait a little. I'm sorting through these old volumes that have been piling up for ages."

"Let me help." Dania bent down and picked up a book waiting to be sorted. "Let's see... this book belongs on that shelf, right?"

"Yes, that's right! Between those two books." Although Nastassja was somewhat surprised that Dania knew exactly how the books were categorized, she was clearly more curious about the change in Dania.

Could being in love really change a person?

With Dania's help, the books that would have taken the whole morning to sort were finished in less than two hours.

"Thank you so much for today, Dania." Nastassja wiped the sweat from her brow. "I thought it would take me all morning, but I didn't expect to finish so quickly."

"Mhm~" Dania hummed softly. "I'm glad I could help~ Actually, there's something I've been meaning to ask your advice about lately..."

"What... break up?" Nastassja exclaimed. "Isn't your boyfriend good to you? Why are you thinking about breaking up?"

"Have you two had a falling-out recently?"

"It's not exactly a breakup..." Dania shook her head. "We're very happy together, and we've never had any disagreements."

"It's just that I've been wondering lately, if I were to suddenly leave him, what would become of him after losing me..."

"Would he be sad? Or would he..."

"Dania." Nastassja suddenly addressed her by name, staring intently at her. "Tell me, has something happened to you?"

Dania said guiltily, "What could have happened...?"

"But if nothing happened, why would you be thinking about this?" Nastassja said earnestly. "I've seen how you've changed lately. If it weren't for him, you might still be drifting through your youth in a daze..."

"..."

"Besides, if something really is wrong, you ought to tell him, whatever way you look at it." Nastassja took Dania's hand. "I've never been in love, but I know that both people in a relationship need to understand each other."

"If it's something really important... then you should be even less willing to hide it from your partner."

"...Forget it." Dania shook her head. "Let's... talk another time."

After turning to leave, she silently added in her heart:

If... we still have another chance to meet.

Back in the present.

Faced with Lu Guan's persistent questioning, Dania still refused to explain.

"Please don't ask so much... even people in a relationship should respect each other's right to keep their own secrets."

With Dania having gone so far as to say that, Lu Guan himself was out of options. He sighed.

"Dania, if you leave me one day for some reason, believe me, I'll do whatever it takes to find you and bring you back."

At those words, Dania's body trembled. Her expression briefly showed that she was touched, but the look soon faded and disappeared.

"Ahaha... let's not say such unlucky things." Dania pretended to be angry and pinched Lu Guan's arm. "Keep talking like that, and I might really disappear without a sound one day!"

After putting the "gift" in place and leaving the underground facility, Dania seemed to be in a much better mood. Even her steps had grown much lighter.

But Lu Guan understood that all of this was merely a facade put up by a girl who looked fragile and was fragile at heart as well.

Lu Guan already had a guess as to what would happen to Dania once she was free of the Tacet Discord of Nihility's influence.

Just now, while Dania was preparing a Void Matter bomb to put in the "cake," he had found a record about her nearby.

The record showed that, while in the Fractsidus, Dania had received Aleph-1's power and briefly met Their gaze within the Void Matter space.

From then on, Void Matter began flowing through the blood vessels and organs in Dania's body. With this "gift," she also gained the ability to connect to the Void Matter space and control Void Matter particles.

Having preliminarily achieved her goal, the president devised the plan for Lahai-Roi in the game to make Dania a true Resonator of the Tacet Discord of Nihility, all to obtain a perfect example of an artificial Threnodian Resonator.

As for Dania's ultimate fate...

Perhaps someone had developed a trace of affection for Dania during the process of cultivating her, but the cold, ruthless Fractsidus didn't care what became of a test subject to be discarded after use.

So, supposing Aleph-1 no longer had a connection to Dania, never mind the president-what would happen to Dania, who had already made Void Matter part of her body's frequency?

The Fractsidus overseer who had signed that experiment log as "Hydra" had made the following entry:

After the loss of the power granted by the Tacet Discord of Nihility, the Void Matter inside the test subject's body will begin to corrode it from the inside out the instant the connection is severed. This process is irreversible.

Ultimately, all of the test subject's frequency will be devoured by the Tacet Discord of Nihility and turned into something meaningless, just like that of those lost in Void Matter magnetic storms.

At present... only the test subject named "Dania" retains extremely high potential for development. Her frequency and constitution are highly compatible with the Tacet Discord of Nihility.

The president pointed out that the better measure of her value was her heart, which had "nothing at all." Reliance on idealism is inadvisable in scientific experiments, but after receiving the Threnodian's power, this individual did indeed possess a high degree of stability that the other test subjects did not.

There was another note below, apparently written by the president.

"How could a person whose very self is a forgery deserve a heart of her own? After the experiment is over, returning to the embrace of nihility is already the best ending she could hope for."