Edward flipped another coin—and once again, it landed heads up.
The result remained affirmative.
"So…Li Li really is connected to Lilith," he murmured. "But then—what's with this black cat?"
Could their "connection" be nothing more than the fact that this girl had been feeding and taking care of Lilith all along?
Either way, there was only one way to find out.
"We're going to the hospital."
"Huh?"
Before any of the three girls could react, Edward waved his hand—
—and in the next instant, the scenery around them warped and folded inward. A ripple spread across space like a mirror breaking in slow motion.
When their vision cleared, they were already standing inside a hospital corridor, directly in front of the ward belonging to the comatose girl named Li Li.
The three girls gaped in open shock.
If erasing mouths had been an unbelievable trick, then this—instantaneous teleportation—was beyond comprehension. It was power on a level that transcended reality.
"You can speak again."
Edward snapped his fingers, lifting the silence spell.
The two Chinese girls immediately gasped, hands flying to their mouths in delight and relief, as though confirming they were still there. Then, nervously, they both glanced at Edward from the corners of their eyes—neither daring to utter a single word.
"Go in."
The three exchanged uneasy looks, then slowly pushed open the door. Edward followed behind them, cradling the black cat in his arms.
Inside was a private room.
A young woman—around twenty years old—lay motionless on the hospital bed, her eyes closed, her face pale as paper. The steady rhythm of the monitor beeped beside her, fragile yet persistent.
Her features were soft, delicate—like those of a quiet, well-bred young lady. Beautiful, yes, but she was clearly not the grown version of the Lilith Edward knew.
Edward performed another divination.
The coin spun, flipped—and landed heads up again.
"She's Lilith too?"
He frowned.
"Two Liliths…?"
At the bedside, Amanises gently clasped the sleeping girl's hand.
"Lily, we came to see you," she whispered softly. "Can you hear me? Look, I even brought your favourite—Lil Blackie."
She turned back to Edward with pleading eyes.
Edward sighed, handing her the small black cat and lifting the charm suppressing it.
Immediately, the creature came back to life—wiggling, twisting, and wriggling free of her arms before leaping lightly onto the bed's headboard.
The cat hissed softly at Edward, back arched in defiance.
But as she turned her head toward Li Li, something in her changed.
Her nose twitched. She froze, hesitant—then cautiously padded closer.
Gently, she pressed her paw against the girl's cheek, rubbing twice. Then, with a soft, trembling "mrrrow," she lowered her head and began to nuzzle Li Li's face tenderly.
The room fell silent.
"Mister Magician…" one of the girls whispered timidly. "Can you…wake her up?"
Edward hesitated.
Though he had already ascended to Sequence 2, his abilities were primarily metaphysical—geared toward deconstruction, manipulation, and extraordinary phenomena. He had no real power for healing—certainly not for reviving a comatose human.
"Maybe…" he murmured. "If I try Deconstruction."
He focused his gaze on the unconscious girl.
His vision pierced through her flesh, through the outer layers of tissue and bone—until he reached the most fundamental layer of her being.
Not cells.
Not blood or soul.
But strands of energy—faint, elusive, and intertwined like threads of light.
Edward's breath caught.
"This is…memory."
It wasn't merely her mind—her entire existence seemed to be structured from memory.
Yet these memories were dark—blank, like a row of turned-off television screens.
They were present, but lifeless.
"So if I restore them," he thought, "if I reactivate her memories…will she awaken?"
As the thought formed, something responded.
The black screens—one by one—began to flicker, then light up.
They played like film reels spinning at rapid speed: images of her birth, childhood, growing up, school, friends…everything she had experienced over twenty-one years—until the moment before the car accident.
Then—darkness again.
Edward frowned.
"That's odd. She fell into a coma after the accident, so her memories should've stopped there. But…"
He could sense there were more memories beyond that point—long, tangled threads extending further—but they remained unlit, inert.
"Wait."
A realisation struck him like cold water.
"If this Li Li is truly Lilith, then maybe all those earlier 'memories'—everything before the crash—were artificial, implanted. And the real memories—the unlit ones—are still sealed away."
"If I awaken those…maybe she'll return to herself."
He reached inward, willing the darkness to stir.
Suddenly—
A light flared.
The first unlit memory after the car crash blinked open.
From within it, a pair of eyes opened—cold, sharp, and utterly devoid of emotion.
They glowed in the blackness, turning to meet Edward's gaze—as if aware of his presence.
Then—
BOOM!
Edward's consciousness exploded like shattered glass.
He was ripped violently out of Deconstruction.
Pain tore through him as the Worms of Star inside his body writhed uncontrollably, slamming against the confines of his flesh in blind panic—each one trying to escape.
His entire being trembled on the brink of collapse.
Fortunately, the sensation of collapse came as quickly as it went.
Edward gasped for breath, forcing himself to focus, sending wave after wave of calm through his mind until the rampaging Worms of Star within him quieted down.
Only then did he lift his eyes—alert, tense—toward the hospital bed.
The girl's eyes were open.
"Hiss!"
At the exact same moment, the black cat let out a sharp hiss and leapt backwards from the bed. Its fur stood completely on end as it crouched low, growling with a frightened, guttural "Wrrr—!"
"Li Li!"
"Lily!"
"You're awake!"
The three girls rushed toward the bedside, their faces shining with joy.
"You're okay?"
"Can you hear us?"
"How do you feel?"
Li Li blinked in confusion, her gaze sweeping across the familiar faces in front of her.
"I…What's going on?"
Her voice was hoarse, her tone uncertain.
The three girls began speaking all at once—each explaining what had happened, how she'd been in a coma after the accident, and how a "Magician" had miraculously saved her.
"A…Magician?"
Li Li's confusion only deepened.
"What kind of nonsense is this? I fall asleep and wake up to find magicians and miracles in hospitals now? That's not even remotely scientific!"
She tilted her head slightly to the side, peering past her roommates—and saw Edward standing quietly near the wall, the black cat cradled in his arms.
Even though part of her thought this had to be some sort of prank, she hesitated a few seconds before whispering,
"Thank you…Mister Magician."
"Hm?"
Just then, her head jerked slightly, and she gasped.
A sharp pain lanced through her skull, and her vision warped—the edges of the world doubled and blurred, as if two realities were overlapping.
Fragments of someone else's memories burst into her mind.
"Ed…Edward?"
The name slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.
Edward's eyes widened. He stepped forward immediately.
"Lilith! You remember me?"
"No…"
Li Li shook her head, bewildered.
"Who's Lilith? My name's Li Li. But—why do I know your name? Edward? I've never met you before, yet I know you…"
Her brows furrowed as pain struck again. She clutched her head, her voice breaking.
"Why are my memories so mixed up…? It hurts—it hurts so much! What's happening to me?!"
And then—
The warmth drained from the room.
One of the girls—who had just moments ago been smiling—spoke suddenly, her tone flat and cold:
"There has never been a Lilith. There is only Li Li. Everything about Lilith is false."
Another girl turned toward them, her eyes empty.
"Accept it. Admit it. You are me, and I am you. Lilith is nothing but a fantasy you created."
"Lilith, you are false."
The door creaked open.
A nurse stepped in, expression blank, eyes devoid of light.
"There was never a Lilith. Only Li Li. You are not real."
Then came a doctor, his voice mechanical, "Fake. All of it is fake."
More people followed—faces Edward didn't recognise—patients, staff, strangers. Each one repeating the same words, overlapping in a nightmarish chorus:
"Your memories are illusions."
"You can't escape reality."
"False. Everything you are is false."
"Give up. Stop resisting."
"False! False! False!"
Their monotone voices grew louder and louder, filling the room like a maddening echo chamber.
Edward immediately grabbed Li Li with one arm, scooped up the trembling black cat with the other, and motioned for the terrified Amaneesis to move.
"We're leaving!"
He tried to teleport—but nothing happened.
Not just teleportation—he realised with a sinking feeling that all of his Beyonder powers had vanished.
His spirituality was gone, empty. Like someone had erased it from existence.
"No…damn it!"
"That's right," came Li Li's voice—but it was no longer her gentle, human tone. It was cold, unfeeling, and soaked in malice.
"Lilith is false. Only Li Li is real."
A terrifying aura erupted from within her body, spilling outward like a shockwave. The walls groaned, twisting and warping as if reality itself were bending under the weight of her presence.
"Mrrrow!"
The black cat shrieked and scrambled up Edward's shoulder, clinging to him, trembling violently.
"Get out!"
Li Li's face distorted into something monstrous, her voice rising to an inhuman pitch.
"Get out of my memory!"
From her body surged a blackness so deep it devoured light.
The darkness spread in all directions, swallowing everything it touched—the walls, the floor, the people, the hospital itself.
Edward turned, shielding the cat, and charged through the crowd. His body—superhuman even without powers—shoved aside the warped, howling figures, but the darkness was faster.
Within seconds, the corridor behind him collapsed into pure void.
"No!"
He sprinted down the hall, trying to use every spell, every trick—but nothing worked.
All his powers were gone.
"Mrrrow!! (*.>Д<)o゜"
The black cat's desperate cry echoed in his ears just before the darkness swallowed them whole.
Thick.
Cold.
Silent.
Hopeless.
His five senses disintegrated. His mind dissolved into stillness.
It was the same suffocating void he'd felt the moment before his last "death."
"So…I died again?"
The thought barely formed before something seized his right hand—hard.
A sudden pull.
Then his entire body was yanked violently upward—out of the darkness, out of the suffocating stillness.
The world shifted.
The black faded. Light returned, faint but growing.
Edward gasped as colour bled back into the world around him—an alleyway, dimly lit, narrow, reeking faintly of smoke and rain.
He was running—no, being dragged—by someone clutching his hand tightly.
Where am I?
What just happened?
Who's pulling me?
Footsteps echoed, breath ragged.
The girl ahead of him turned her head slightly—golden hair whipping behind her.
Her lips moved rapidly, shouting something, but the words came distorted, muffled, as though echoing from underwater.
"What? I can't hear you—where are we? What's going on?"
The sound warped, then sharpened.
"Stop asking questions!" she shouted. "If the Dark Lord's followers catch us, we're both dead!"
Edward froze mid-step.
"Dark Lord?"
He blinked, disoriented.
"Wait—you mean Voldemort?"
The blonde girl shot him a look of pure disbelief.
"Voldemort? He's been dead for years! The one ruling Europe's magical world now is—"
She took a sharp turn into another alley, voice echoing back to him—
"—the Dark Lord Li Li!"
"???"
Edward nearly tripped over his own feet.
"The Dark Lord…Li Li?!"
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.