In the darkness, Raiden Mei moved forward cautiously and alert.
Suddenly, a gentle voice rang beside her ear. It was exactly the same voice that had sounded in her mind the moment she touched the pendant.
["Come to me, stranger traveler. The answer you seek lies here."]
"Who..."
Raiden Mei's questioning abruptly cut off.
Because she suddenly discovered that her steps were unconsciously quickening, as if being drawn forward by someone's pull.
["There's no need to hurry… here, no one will urge you forward."] The gentle voice rang again.
["You may slowly walk through… this section of the path you ought to take."]
She did not know how long she had walked when a faint human figure appeared ahead.
It was a woman seated upright in the darkness, silver-white long hair glimmering faintly in the void.
What drew the eye even more were the shackles bound around her wrists and waist, with thick chains stretching into the depths of the darkness.
["Come here, stranger traveler, come closer to me…"]
["I have been waiting for your arrival all this time…"]
———
[Even though I didn't see my wife's face straight on, I know my wife must be a great beauty!]
[That dress is huge!]
[Are you even looking at the dress? You lowly dog!]
[Judging by the earlier plot, this should be the one called Aponia in Elysian's words, right?]
[Aponia mama, please love me once more!]
[Typing with both feet to show sincerity]
[You're not right in the head!]
———
[Back to the Video]
Hearing this, Raiden Mei stopped at a spot not far from her, her eyes full of caution.
"Stranger traveler, can you tell me your name?" the woman asked softly.
"Raiden Mei."
The moment the words fell, Raiden Mei froze.
Because she had answered a stranger's question without even thinking, which was clearly not a normal phenomenon for her.
"Mei, such a warm name…" The woman's voice carried sincere comfort. "I'm very glad to meet you."
"You… who are you?" Raiden Mei asked warily.
"Forgive me, Mei." The woman's voice carried a faint but hard-to-notice trace of apology. "Right now, I cannot give you an answer to your question.
"That would only deepen your confusion, even cause misunderstanding… none of which I wish. So please believe me, whether it is I, or this prison… neither harbors any malice toward you."
"Yes, just think of this place as a temporary resting stop, or… an empty space that exists only so you and I may meet."
Yet, rather than easing her doubts, the woman's explanation only deepened that sense of being drawn by an invisible force.
"Ah… see, between your brows there is yet more doubt. But above all… is the weariness this journey has brought you."
Her voice was soft as silk, like an angel whispering by her ear. "You need a corner where you can rest a little, you need a friend who can share your burdens with you…"
As her consciousness wavered, Raiden Mei's vigilance reached its peak.
'This feeling… it's strange…'
'Instinct tells me, this woman before my eyes, she's dangerous.'
'Yet I cannot help but want to believe her words… just what is this…'
As if seeing through her thoughts, that gentle voice rang once more, "It's all right, Mei. I can understand… between you and I, there still stands a wall."
Raiden Mei, '!!!'
The sudden reading of her mind sent a chill through her heart.
If the other really had the ability to read minds, then the secret she hid deep inside herself would very likely…
'No!'
'This can't go on any longer!'
With that thought, Raiden Mei roused all her strength to resist.
But the woman seemed to have anticipated it long ago.
Her voice remained steady, carrying a strange power of comfort.
"As I said, there is no need to hurry. Here, no one will press you forward. The sands of time will by themselves bring down the walls; after that, there will be gentle sunlight, dispersing the shadows between you and me."
Even as Raiden Mei tried hard to focus, resisting that drowsiness that wanted to relax, that wanted to trust the other.
"Ah, sure enough… for you, the burden is still too heavy…"
Her voice carried a trace of understanding, and then grew softer still, imbued with irresistible guidance.
"It's fine, Mei, relax… please listen to my…"
With those final words, a powerful drowsiness surged up like a tide, instantly submerging Raiden Mei's consciousness.
Just as she was about to sink into sleep, a never-before-seen golden sigil appeared upon her body.
At the same moment it swept away the drowsiness, it also let Raiden Mei see some completely unfamiliar fragments of memory.
And these memories belonged to none other than Van.
———
Her consciousness rose up like a sunken ship floating from the deep sea.
Raiden Mei snapped open her eyes, gasping rapidly for breath.
She felt the soft sofa beneath her, and the familiar ceiling above her head.
'Mm… this was the lounge of the Elysium Hall.'
"I… came back? What just happened… was it a dream?"
Supporting herself up, Raiden Mei's mind was in complete chaos.
"No, no… I really did enter the Elysian Realm. I met Pardofelis, found Raven, and from her I even..."
A cold touch came from her fingertips. Looking down, she saw that her right hand was tightly gripping that sapphire pendant.
"Ya~ Mei, you finally woke up~"
A crisp, cheerful voice like an oriole sounded. Elysia was standing by the sofa at some point, smiling brightly at her.
"Elysia?"
Raiden Mei instinctively checked her own condition and clothing. Seeing nothing unusual, she looked at the other. "You were the one who brought me here?"
Elysia playfully blinked, a mischievous smile on her face.
"Of course I wanted to carry you back myself~ but unfortunately, your guardian knight was someone else~"
———
Raiden Mei fell into silence at those words.
A name was almost about to slip from her lips, yet the long search made her dare not confirm it.
Since stepping into the Elysian Realm, that person's shadow was everywhere, yet they had never truly appeared.
As if seeing through Mei's complicated thoughts, Elysia changed the subject, her tone light, "Hey, Mei~ I heard you found Natasha, and even made friends with Phyllis?"
"Things are going quite smoothly, aren't they? And… let me guess, you've already met Aponia, haven't you?"
"So…" Raiden Mei raised her eyes to look at Elysia, her tone carrying a hint of probing, "In this place called the Elysian Realm, is there anything at all that you don't know?"
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