Chaos Year 3, Day 109, 9:37 pm.
"pi…ka!"
A voice?
"...pika!"
Someone is calling me…
"…pikaa..!"
Senpai…?
Eh, why is it so dark around? Where am I? Am I dead? Is this afterlife?
"Pinkpika!"
But Senpai is calling me. I have to go. I can't stay here. Grab my hand, senpai!
"Senpai!" I flung my eyes open.
Annette-san had been shaking me violently, with her eyes desperately searching for any kind of movement in me. And finally, confirming my return to the senses, she calmed down, sighing in relief.
Then she held my hand, stretched upward into the air, and smiled gently. "Welcome back, Pika."
"A-ann-san?!" My eyes widened. "But you…"
The memories before I lost my consciousness flashed before me.
The red blood spread everywhere, in my face, her golden hair. The cold stone floor under my feet turned warm, soaking in blood. And her lifeless body collapsed onto the ground, pierced and slashed countless times.
But she is here with me, completely fine?
"Hmm? Is something wrong?" She tilted her head to the right.
"You…h-how…what…"
"She must have thought you had died back then." The euphonious voice belonged to Hikari-san. "We will explain it later. Let's get on the move now. We can't hide here much longer."
I see. Hikari-san is also here. I don't fully understand what happened or what's going on, but they must have saved me.
Then they both helped me get up on my feet and we stepped forward through a narrow gap between a wall, which led us to a long winding tunnel staircase.
"Do you think those undead monsters will be able to follow us here?" Annette-san said, staring through the narrow crevice. "They can't fit in that gap, can they?"
"Who knows?" Hikari-san retorted. "We just keep moving downwards from here."
"Why is that?" I asked. "Shouldn't we be going upwards instead, towards the ground?"
"It's a basic rule when squadmates get split up. And going back is more dangerous and fruitless in most cases. So the best bet is to move deeper toward the end. The deeper we go, it's more likely we are to cross each others' paths. So if we want to meet them, we also have to keep going forward."
"I see."
The three of us stepped down the staircase. On both sides, there were rock walls padded with dust and dirt. And the lanterns hanging from the ceiling lit the tunnel.
Annette-san led us the way while Hikari-san walked behind us, staying clear of any unexpected danger.
"I can feel your stares behind my back, you know." Annette-san turned back at me with a crooked smile.
"Ah..umm... I was just curious about what happened back there." I said, closing in on her.
I mean, did she come back to life or something?
"Let's see… we were walking down this stairway and then found that narrow gap. So naturally, we wanted to check out the other side. After walking a bit farther there, we saw a lever switch on the wall."
I walked beside Annette-san as she spoke, moving around her arms. Her sweet voice echoed throughout the tunnel creating a mysteriously pleasant aura.
"At first, we were skeptical about turning the switch on, because it could easily be a trap. But right after, we heard you screaming on the other side of the wall."
Screaming? I don't remember screaming.
"We then turned the switch on, which opened to create a doorway, and rushed in to save you."
"What happened after that? I saw you…dying."
"Oh, that was not me. That was just a clone I created resembling myself. Soul Copy. it's one of my skills which can create a clone of any living being that has a soul for a limited amount of time."
"Any? Even enemies?!" I gaped at Annette-san.
"Yes." She smiled gently.
"She can even create copies of monsters," Hikari-san added from our behind.
Woah! Isn't that too overpowered? I knew some assassin-class players can create their own clones but never heard of creating others' clones, let alone monsters.
"Well, every soul has a value embedded into them depending on size and intelligence. I call it soul point. I can't copy them if their soul points exceed my limit."
"That's just a fraction of what she can do. You will see soon." Hikari-san let out a sigh.
"It's like you have your own system like those Korean manhwas. Kakkoii!" I could not help but exclaim, with my eyes twinkling. "How did you get this Class? Is this some kind of special legendary class?"
"Nah." She chuckled. "This game does not have a class rank system like novels or else it won't be fair, right?"
"She found the class-changing book inside a void in the past. Which void was it? The one with those pixies, right?"
"Yup, it was called Nirvana, the world of fairies." Annette-san replied to Hikari-san.
"Nirvana?!" My jaw dropped.
"You know about that place?"
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"I read about it in a book. With fairies, pixies, nymphs, elves, and more, Nirvana is truly a world of wonder. Even the elven race in Chaos actually originated from Nirvana. It's a dream of mine to visit that world." I babbled on holding my arms together close to my chest. "And you guys actually visited that place?"
"Yes, we did. But Rio wasn't there with us. He didn't join the squad yet back then. We met him later inside another void."
"Ohh…"
well, if he went there he would've told me all about it already hehe. He knows about my zeal for Nirvana.
"By the way, Did he also get a new class?" I asked. "He has been talking about this new beginning for the whole month."
"Nope," Annette-san replied. "Honestly, I don't know what it is. He is super secretive about it."
"Yeah, he says he wants to surprise everyone in the action or whatnot."
"Yes. But I asked if it's a new class like mine. He said that it's not."
"But I saw him practicing swordsmanship with a Psion blade the whole week. He also bought that light armor when I went to the shopping district with him the other day." I added, touching my chin, trying to remember what else he bought that day. "Before I was like what on earth is he doing? But now that I know class-changing is possible, I thought he surely changed his class to magic swordsman or something."
"Yes, I saw him practicing too. Also, it is not much surprising that he wants to be a magic swordsman." Anette-san continued. "But getting a class-changing book just for winning the SvS tournament? That doesn't feel right."
Wait, what? These guys won the SvS tournament? Oh my God!
"Yes, even if it is him becoming the best player of the tournament, it is still too much." Hikari-san added, furrowing her brows. "It'd break the game if every tournament's best player wins a special class."
"So, he became the best player…"
Even though he doesn't enjoy the game that much, playing as a mage, even though it wasn't his full potential, he already became the best player of the SvS tournament, the largest tournament of the game.
"He is so great." My eyes formed a slit and my lips curved into a smile unbeknownst to me.
"You are quite close to him, Pinkpika, aren't you?" Hikari-san asked.
"Senpai? Yeah." I replied. "He is a very important person to me, you see."
I am sure I'm smiling and swinging my tail like an idiot while saying that. Why does it feel so good talking about him? It feels so warm inside me right now, as if every cell of my body is dancing and whirling around.
"Oh…" Hikari-san paused briefly before speaking again. "I see."
"When did you two meet?" Annette-san asked this time.
"In 6th grade, I moved to Japan from America when my Grandpa took me in after my Dad's death. He used to run a Ramen shop, where I helped him with serving and stuff. There I met Senpai, he was kind of a regular there."
For the first time in my life, I opened up to someone else other than Senpai. And for some reason, at that moment I knew I could trust them with my past.
"We even lived together for a month or two after my Grandpa also died, before I moved back to America again."
"L-live together..?!" Hikari-san stuttered, trying to cover her red face with the long collar of her jacket.
Ah, she is so pure, hehe.
"I am so sorry Pika." Annette-san took my hands in hers, gazing at my eyes, as the inner corner of her brows curved upwards. "I really don't know what to say."
"It's alright, I'm fine now, Annette-san." I smiled, reassuring her. "Senpai helped me to get myself back together. When I was like the broken pieces of glass, scattered all over the room, he collected all those pieces one by one. He then put them back together with great care and taught me how to glue myself back to a new one."
A series of emotions flowed through me as I mumbled about my past. The quiet surroundings helped my soft voice reach the others. As we walked down the stairs step by step, our shadows on the ground swayed along with the dancing lantern lights
"You see, he is like my guardian angel. He still helps me, however he can." I continued. "Even though I couldn't do a thing when he needed help the most."
My ears drooped down as my gaze shifted toward my feet, tearing up in a second.
I couldn't bear to see him suffering like that. I wished I could be there for him at that time. But they wouldn't let me go, no matter how much I struggled.
He sacrificed so much for me, yet I couldn't even give him a hug, and say that everything is going to be alright, Senpai.
Clank! Clank! Thump!
Some distant sounds woke me up to reality, breaking my sad reminiscence mood. Wiping my eyes, I raised my voice, "Guys, we need to pick up the pace. The monsters are catching up."
"Eh? But I see or hear nothing." Annette-san turned back, staring at the dark background "Oh, right. your cat ears…"
"Are they the same 12 zodiac ones?" Hikari-san asked, hurrying behind us.
"I don't exactly know, but there are a lot more than just 12."
"Tch!"
Soon we reached the end of the staircase, which opened up to a large open space. It was like a huge ancient battle arena rounded by an enormous steep wall, and rocks and boulders scattered across the ground.
"Look! There's another doorway on the other side." Annette-san said. "Let's go."
"Wait, let me finish this," Hikari called out while scribbling something on the wall. "I'm leaving a message for the others."
Then we dashed towards the other side. A similar kind of stairway tunnel went up through the doorway.
"No, wait!" I screamed. "Something doesn't feel right."
Holding my breath, I listened carefully, pricking up my ears. Then I heard a discord of various noises coming from that tunnel.
Soon the ground beneath us trembled, as hundreds of undead monsters swarmed out of the stairway.
Another army of undead monsters appeared behind us, under the lead of 12 Zodiacs. They chased us all the way here.
Both the pathways squirmed with monsters trapping us in the middle of the arena.
"Bloody hell!" Annette-san cursed. "This day just keeps getting better."
It didn't take us much longer to understand the gravity of the situation, as we stared at the hellish scene surrounding us with utter despair.