When she opened her eyes again, Tian An found herself in a completely different environment.
The lighting here was dim, carrying a faint scent of blood.
Tian An looked around. The layout resembled a ship's cabin, adorned with quite a few vibrant flowers. Although the indoor lights were on, they couldn't fully illuminate the space. She carefully examined everything before her, realizing it looked somewhat like that place...
This was a landship.
Tian An reached this conclusion. No matter how bad her memory was, she knew this was the Babel landship from back then – the place that carried hope but was ultimately drowned in despair.
Had she really been brought into Theresia's memories?
Just as Tian An turned around, she noticed the distant lights extinguishing one by one towards her, until only a few flickering fluorescent lamps remained.
The landship's broadcast system also began blaring alarm sounds. Tian An's own heart inexplicably started to race with panic.
She stared blankly at the shadows gradually materializing in the distance, a trace of worry rising in her heart. Her feet began to instinctively retreat.
But there was no path behind her anymore.
The clusters of shadows finally began to take shape. Humanoid figures, wrapped tightly in concealing garb, appeared. Even without seeing their eyes, Tian An could still feel their thick killing intent, and... sorrow?
They were the Death Squad... those members of the Death Squad who had cut off their own horns, the symbols of their race. That group of frenzied assassins.
Tian An had never thought she would experience something like this herself. Though it was a virtual world, the scene before her felt incredibly real. She seemed to faintly perceive the emotions of each individual, sensing the threads hanging above everyone's head.
Tian An's peripheral vision swept the surroundings. She saw no one else besides them... The little bunny... she should have been protected, right?
If this is just a reenactment...
"Your Highness Theresia... We were originally under your protection, rightfully granted a place of sanctuary."
"We will prove with our lives the future the General sought."
Tian An didn't know how to respond. Faced with completely unfamiliar people, her language system completely crashed.
"Your Highness... forgive us. We shall become the sinners in Sarkaz history who killed their liege."
The lead assassin's figure blurred slightly. The next second, the Death Squad members behind him attacked as one, revealing their respective weapons.
"Wait—" Before Tian An could finish speaking, a cold glint descended like death itself, stabbing straight towards her. Tian An subconsciously raised her hand to block, but the sword passed right through as if hitting a soap bubble.
The entire body overlapped with Tian An's, then quickly separated again.
It's like this again...
Her own body seemed isolated from this world. Except for objective or non-sentient things, everything else passed through her like touching a hologram.
Yet, the Death Squad members acted as if they didn't see her. Sharp longswords followed one after another, then swiftly vanished back into the darkness, blades crossing, phantoms overlapping.
Tian An froze on the spot, while the Death Squad continued to swing their weapons, charging towards her body as if she weren't there.
Surely... these are also phantoms...?
But inadvertently, Tian An seemed to spot a strange shadow among the Death Squad members. It stood motionless, yet she could feel this strange person staring at her.
Unlike the "phantoms," she couldn't perceive any emotions from it.
The shadow moved like a ghost, melting into the Death Squad phantoms, flickering rapidly along with the constantly shifting apparitions.
The phantoms followed a specific pattern. Their target was no longer just Tian An herself. Some began to disperse towards the surroundings, while others started to merge back into the darkness.
It was like a frequently replaying video loop, repeating back and forth, yet intangible.
Finally, as if finding some coordinated point, the phantoms charged simultaneously from all directions.
A flash of imagery crossed Tian An's mind; she seemed to see herself being pierced by something...
No!
Tian An instinctively reached out, intending to use her Arts, but that flash of white light, accompanied by violently fluctuating space, instantly pierced straight through her right hand.
Tian An only registered a warm flow before realizing... her palm had been run through by a sharp longsword. And wielding this blade was the shadow from just moments ago...
Heart-wrenching pain suddenly erupted. Though it was a virtual world, the piercing agony made Tian An's lips tremble, emitting low moans.
This feeling was too real.
Even though it's just a virtual world...
Tian An's body began to involuntarily weaken. In a daze, she saw another longsword slashing towards her. The shadow, like a soul-reaping specter, was wreathed in black mist.
It made Tian An forget where she even was.
Her final consciousness began to blur, but the body that should have been pierced suddenly froze. The still-impaled right hand instantly emitted countless threads, enveloping the longsword. The shadow was sent flying by an invisible force.
The threads wrapped around the injured palm. At this moment, the pink-haired girl's exquisite eyes shone with dazzling light. Threads gathered and dispersed around her body, striking down the flickering phantoms one by one, until only the unsettling shadow remained.
Pure white threads floated in the air, blossoming into a vibrant flower shape, surrounding their master.
"You... are not her," the shadow spoke, but its voice was clearly processed, deliberately altered. Its true voice, like its concealing battle attire and the emanating black mist, remained hidden.
The person pointed at by the longsword didn't respond. Her solemn yet graceful figure stood quietly, lips moving as if chanting something.
The shadow grew restless. It summoned a brand-new longsword and tried to charge again, only to be blocked by an invisible force.
The pink-haired girl's cherry lips closed tightly. A burst of garbled code flashed, and a point of light suddenly appeared in the air, then rapidly expanded, rushing towards the black shadow.
"Ultimate Cosmic Baseball Bat Strike!" That black-and-gold baseball bat swung down, wielded by none other than Star, who had been separated from Tian An at the start.
Dong...
Star's figure collided violently with the black shadow, sending up clouds of dust. Seconds later, the grey-haired girl was thrown back.
Just as the black shadow was about to move again, it was suddenly restrained by a cluster of graphics that appeared out of thin air.
Daring to cause trouble in my Simulated Universe? Truly audacious.
Floating segments of operational code locked the black shadow in place. Under the code's corrosion, its figure began to continuously dissipate.
"Hey, little pink-hair, how are you feeling?" Herta reset the scene data back to the space station and asked.
But the addressed little pink-hair merely glanced at Star, who was looking at her with concern, before her figure slowly faded away from the space...