Chapter 28 (2/2): Another Me?

The officer who had driven the car sat across from her and picked up a pen.

“The person who reported you said you jumped onto a… Hundred-Ton King that wasn’t exactly moving slowly.”

He paused.

“So… how exactly did you jump up there?”

Alisia tilted her head.

“Given the situation just now, I felt the only way to avoid it was to jump.”

“Then why did you climb the billboard? The witnesses all said you jumped onto the rooftop!”

“I panicked!”

Alisia answered confidently.

“It’s perfectly normal to panic after being startled, isn’t it?”

The officer was silent for two seconds.

“Panicked? Ridiculous! You’re only 13 years old, aren’t you?”

“How could a 13-year-old possibly have that kind of physical ability?”

Alisia looked at him in confusion.

“Because… I train a lot…”

The officer froze.

“All right then… what’s your parents’ phone number? I need to contact them.”

Alisia blinked.

“I didn’t bring my phone.”

The officer stared at her.

“Then what’s your name?”

He picked up his pen, ready to write.

“Alisia.”

“Judging from your hair, you don’t look like you’re from this country. What country are you from?”

“A foreign one.”

“Which country? America?”

Alisia shook her head.

“Then where? Italy?”

“I don’t know.”

The officer set his pen down.

“Are you making fun of me?”

Alisia looked at him innocently.

“I’m only a 13-year-old child.”

“Even if you pressure me, I still don’t know.”

After saying that, she lowered her gaze, her voice becoming softer.

“Besides… my parents never told me… and they’re gone now.”

Silence filled the room.

A moment later, Alisia asked quietly,

“Um… since I’m only 13… will I be sent to prison?”

The officers exchanged glances.

The expression on the officer across from her noticeably softened.

“So you’re saying you don’t have a home or any family?”

“I do have family.”

Alisia thought for a moment.

“Ah… no, I guess an older sister?”

“What’s your sister’s name?”

“Mo Lan.”

The officer wrote it down.

“Bring your sister here afterward so she can explain the situation.”

Alisia nodded.

“So… can I leave now?”

“You can. Just remember to come back to give your statement. And…”

The officer tapped the table.

“Stop doing dangerous things all the time. Value your life a little more.”

“…Okay.”

When Alisia left the police station, the sky had gradually become overcast again.

She walked down the street, looking up at the heavy clouds.

‘So… in this world, something like that is already considered dangerous?’

Back in her own world, those things had been completely normal.

Yet here, they were apparently terrifying.

Raindrops began to fall.

Alisia immediately quickened her pace.

‘Why is it raining again…! I’ll have to search for the entrance another time. The weather in this world is way too strange.’

She ran toward Mo Lan’s house.

***

Meanwhile…

Inside the Training Forest.

When Qiu Meng woke up again, the taste of blood filled her throat.

She coughed violently and realized she was leaning against a tree.

Although the wound on her abdomen had already been healed by Healing Magic, the injury on her arm still throbbed painfully.

Seraphina Cadera crouched beside her, her face even paler than usual.

“Hurry… let’s go.”

she whispered.

“We don’t know where Alisia went. We need to leave immediately.”

Supporting herself against the tree, Qiu Meng stood up.

Her right hand instinctively reached for the Noble Sword at her waist.

“Ugh…”

Even so, she forced herself to stand.

Because a roar echoed in the distance.

That distorted voice was still there.

The monster the Black-Winged Priest had transformed into was wandering through the forest searching for her.

Seraphina Cadera threw out several Mana Daggers.

The daggers embedded themselves into tree trunks and the muddy ground, emitting a crimson glow.

Like guiding beacons, they blinked continuously through the darkness.

Qiu Meng frowned as she watched the lights.

“What are those?”

“Temporary markers,” Seraphina Cadera answered.

“If my people arrive, they’ll be able to find us by following the lights.”

“Your people?”

“Now isn’t the time to explain.”

Seraphina Cadera grabbed her hand and continued running.

The trees rushed past on both sides.

Qiu Meng’s breathing grew heavier.

The wound on her arm hurt more and more.

She had no idea where Alisia had gone.

She didn’t even know whether she was still alive.

That black-winged monster clearly possessed some kind of Spatial or Mental Pollution Ability.

After Alisia had been swept away, it definitely wasn’t an ordinary disappearance.

Thinking about that made her chest tighten painfully.

“Alisia… please don’t let anything happen to you.”

“Worry about yourself first.”

Seraphina Cadera reminded her coldly.

“If you get hit again in your current state, I won’t be able to save you.”

The moment she finished speaking, the trees to their left exploded apart.

A twisted shadow smashed through the trunk and opened its mouth.

Or rather…

The enormous mouth on the crimson hand split open.

Qiu Meng instinctively activated the Wind Magic Stone.

The Noble Sword glowed green.

Using Wind Magic, she immediately dodged sideways.

In the next instant, the spot where she had been standing vanished completely.

Around it, collapsing crimson particles continued flickering.

Cold sweat blurred her vision.

Qiu Meng wiped it away with the back of her hand and tightened her grip on the sword.

The monster writhed, preparing to pounce again.

Seraphina Cadera’s expression darkened.

“It’s caught up to us.”

“I know!”

Qiu Meng glanced at the pouch on her waist.

Inside was the Red Inverted-Cross Ring she had picked up earlier from the Old Camp of the Demon Capital.

‘I can only… gamble on this once.’

The monster lunged again.

Qiu Meng charged straight toward it.

Using the Wind Magic Stone to accelerate, she drove her sword into the monster’s chest.

The sensation was exactly the same as before.

She felt nothing.

It was like stabbing the shell of an empty husk.

There was no blood.

No flesh.

No sensation of striking a Magic Core.

Following through with a spinning slash, she split the creature’s body open.

Its interior was still hollow.

Only bones, eyeballs, and teeth intertwined together, writhing beneath the black-and-crimson priest’s robe.

“…!!!”

Suppressing the nausea rising in her stomach, Qiu Meng retreated a step and took out the ring.

The inverted cross on it glowed dark red.

She raised it.

Flames erupted from the ring and condensed into a special Fireball that slammed directly into the monster.

BOOM!

The explosion tore through the night.

The monster let out a piercing scream.

The next second, the ring began absorbing its Mana.

Dark crimson.

Black-purple.

Deep blue.

Streams of Magus, corrupted by decay, were forcibly drawn out of the monster’s body and poured into the ring.

The creature struggled in agony but couldn’t escape.

Qiu Meng’s hand also began trembling.

As that Magus entered the ring, it constantly leaked out, eroding her skin, blood, and consciousness.

It no longer felt as though she were holding a ring.

It felt as though she were gripping the condensed mass of countless sins and death.

“Stop…”

She tried to let go.

But the ring seemed glued to her palm.

She couldn’t throw it away.

“Stop it!”

Seraphina Cadera rushed over to help.

But the torrent of Mana extracted from the monster blasted her away, sending her flying deep into the forest.

The monster suddenly opened its mouth.

A tiny blue sphere condensed before it.

An enormous amount of Mana gathered within.

A blue beam shot out.

Qiu Meng instinctively rolled aside.

The beam swept across the ground, ripping apart grass, soil, and rocks alike.

As the beam rapidly closed in, she could only drag her injured body backward.

Just when disaster was about to strike—

A golden spear descended from the sky and planted itself before her.

BOOM!

Silver-white radiance burst from the spear, forcibly intercepting the blue beam.

Qiu Meng froze.

“That’s…”

A silver-haired girl landed gracefully atop the end of the spear.

Mili.

She wore the robes of a Holy Council Priest and held Omnis in her hand.

Her face still carried the same expression of someone who simply wanted to get off work as soon as possible.

“Miss Qiu Meng.”

Mili looked down at her.

“How exactly did you run into a Fallen Angel?”

Qiu Meng panted, her thoughts in complete disarray.

“Maybe… because my luck is just terrible.”

The monster stared at Mili, its voice squeezing out from countless cracks.

“You… actually dare interfere with me devouring 37!”

In the next instant, it lunged at Mili with its mouth wide open.

Qiu Meng’s pupils shrank.

“Miss Mili, watch out!”

Mili raised a hand.

A silver-white barrier unfolded.

The monster slammed into it with a tremendous crash.

Mili didn’t move back even half a step.

“You’ve already weakened it this much.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

She turned and shouted behind her.

“Hey! Seraphiel! Luo Sha! Come clean up this trash!”

Following her gaze, Qiu Meng looked into the forest.

Two figures dressed in pure white stepped out.

One wore glasses and carried a Magic Shotgun.

The other…

Qiu Meng’s heart nearly stopped.

Luo Sha.

It was Luo Sha.

Liuna’s guardian.

Now she wore the white uniform of the Inquisition, a black eyepatch covering her right eye, silently standing behind Seraphiel Mort.

“Miss Luo Sha…?”

Qiu Meng’s voice was so soft it was almost inaudible.

Luo Sha’s left eye shifted slightly.

But she gave no reply.

Seraphiel Mort raised her shotgun and smiled.

“Adepts, prepare for live combat.”

Luo Sha drew her sword.

The monster lunged again.

Luo Sha and Seraphiel Mort intercepted it from both sides.

Meanwhile, Mili pulled her spear from the ground and looked back at Qiu Meng.

“Miss Qiu Meng, leave first.”

“But—”

“This creature…”

“…should be judged by the Oracle.”

Mili’s voice wasn’t loud.

But it allowed no argument.

Qiu Meng clenched her teeth.

She still wanted to ask why Luo Sha was there.

But asking now would only get more people killed.

“Thank you… I’m counting on you.”

She turned and ran deeper into the forest, chasing after the direction where Seraphina Cadera had been thrown.

However, she hadn’t gone very far before the colors around her suddenly began to distort.

The deep green of the forest faded into gray.

Then it transformed into the familiar Hunting Forest.

The ground vanished beneath her feet.

The scenery before her changed abruptly.

Border Town.

A Border Town untouched by flames.

Qiu Meng came to an abrupt stop.

“What’s going on…”

She looked down at herself.

A wing had grown from her back.

A pure white wing…

A wing belonging to the Celestial Wing Tribe.

Not far away, the Black-Winged Priest’s face emerged from the mist.

“You…!!!”

Qiu Meng picked up a stone, loaded it into her Sleeve Crossbow, and fired.

The stone passed straight through him.

The phantom faded, then slowly reformed.

“An illusion? Or…”

The priest smiled.

“Enjoy it, 37.”

“What are you planning this time?”

“This pain you inflicted on me…”

“I’ll make you experience it too…”

“Even if I have to become nothing but a pile of corpses!”

“I don’t even know you!”

Qiu Meng bit her lip as she thought.

37

She remembered that number.

It had been written in the Forbidden Book.

‘But what exactly does 37 mean…?’

The next instant, the priest disappeared.

Qiu Meng saw her “past self” walking along the streets of Border Town.

No.

It wasn’t her.

The girl looked similar to her, but had crimson eyes and the wings of the Celestial Wing Tribe.

She wore a hooded cloak.

The scene twisted.

Wherever she touched the leaves, they crumbled into dust.

The town suddenly transformed into ruins.

After the dust settled, Border Count Tate Cape appeared.

He wore armor forged by the Demon Race.

In his hand was a crimson sword piercing straight through Liuna.

Qiu Meng’s pupils contracted.

“What is all this…?”

The red-eyed “Qiu Meng” walked over to Tate.

“Tate.”

“Is it finished?”

The Border Count turned around and respectfully lowered his head.

“Yes, Angel.”

“I’ve completed it.”

The Red-Eyed Angel extended her hand.

A powerful Magic Array unfolded.

A Natural Crystal was summoned into existence and handed over to Tate.

He immediately absorbed it.

The Demon Race markings across his armor became even more vivid.

The Red-Eyed Angel nodded slightly.

“Very good.”

“Next time, advance toward Central City.”

Her voice was sweet.

Yet icy cold.

“You must find the child called Qiu Meng.”

“And kill her.”

Keeping his head lowered, Tate spoke.

“But after she completed her studies at the Magic Academy five years ago, she disappeared.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

The Red-Eyed Angel smiled.

“I’ll provide you with an army.”

“You must capture her.”

Qiu Meng took a step backward.

Suddenly, the ground beneath her feet disappeared, and she fell into darkness.

When she regained her senses, she found herself lying on the ground, cold sweat soaking through her clothes.

She was still inside the Training Forest.

The sounds of battle still echoed in the distance.

Pressing a hand against her throbbing forehead, she looked up while gasping for breath.

‘Just now… was that an illusion?’

‘Who was that girl… and why did she look exactly like me?’

‘Why did she have the Border Count kill his own daughter… and then order him to hunt me down?’

And the most terrifying part—

Was that truly nothing more than an illusion?

She didn’t know.

She only knew she couldn’t remain here.

Qiu Meng gritted her teeth, forced herself back to her feet, and staggered forward in search of Seraphina Cadera…

And to find her so she could investigate that book.