[That guy? Who do you mean, Delphina?]
[(ʘᗩʘ')]
"Ugh, look. I can't remember every specific character's name if I wasn't interested in them. It was Hail, Gail, or something similar. The bear beast man from the Burgess Knights, who usually ended up crossing swords with Pietro."
[Hayle Burgess! However, he is not a bear beast man, he is in fact an Alpha!]
"Excuse you?"
Scrunching her nose up at this news, Delphina was thoroughly confused. In the Game, Hayle was just a Knight of the Burgesses, didn't have a surname, and was most certainly a bear beast man- though in-game, it was a characteristic that remained hidden until you reached a certain affinity threshold.
Whilst her luck might be terrible, her memory was unfortunately exceptional.
Resting her chin on her hands, she quickly ran through what the likely reasons for this change was, before coming to a tentative conclusion.
Hayle was hiding that he was a Burgess in the Game- perhaps he was an illegitimate son, and you'd find that fact out at 100% affinity. Or the; I'm the firstborn, but I want to be a free-loving Knight- don't treat me like a Noble trope… Wasn't that similar to what Pietro was doing at the moment?
And being a beast man in-game could have been a visual representation of his Alpha traits, as the Omegaverse was never mentioned in Lovers of Mareveil, or was it present within Hayle's romance lines? So if you missed that, you wouldn't know.
"Though they certainly missed a trick there. The fans would have loved the inclusion."
Letting out a deep sigh, she felt it was best to move on before it was too late.
"Regardless, No.69, is he here today?"
[Yes! He is leading the Knights and has noticed the interlopers, though he hasn't done anything about it…]
[◔̯◔]
Scoffing at what No.69 just said, Delphina decided to elaborate on why she never really paid attention to Hayle when playing the Game.
"His character had a terrible personality. In his opinion, any Knight who dies to an assassin like that was probably not worth the time grieving. Probably happy to string them along and see what trouble they cause."
"As it sounds like he's not too much different from in the Game- I'd say he most likely found out 'I' was coming to meet the Knights today and came to spite 'me' as soon as he heard. He and Delphina were like oil and water."
"Prick."
[I can see why you said you weren't interested in him, Delphina!]
[(>人<)]
"Gross, isn't it? But anyway, please release the last 5% of memories. I need to be fully prepared for the tournament."
Turning off the tap, Delphina moved over to one of the heavy wooden cubicles that made up part of the Ladies' bathroom.
Stepping through and locking the door behind her, she almost bumped into a side table that contained cotton ladies' hygiene products and a pleasant lavender-scented potpourri bowl. Side-stepping this (whilst marvelling at the consideration), she sat down on the traditional porcelain and wood toilet seat.
The ceramic flush handle was within easy reach above her head. Prepped and ready, she moved her hand to hold on to it, nodding to No.69's screen.
"Do it."
[No problems, Delphina! I shall start right away! Hopefully it's just as smooth for you as earlier!]
Ignoring the system, she closed her eyes and tried to enter a meditative state. This was something she should have done earlier, but she had neither the time nor the reason to do so.
Feeling the flow of energy around the body she now inhabited, she concentrated on following the dense life circuits Delphina's body had- from the toes, all the way up to the most important point she needed to activate right now: the Upper Dantain, the Niwan, the sea of consciousness, or soul palace.
Regardless of what it was called, wherever she had gone, the entrance to it was always in the same place.
Reaching the point just between her eyebrows, she felt the Upper Dantain begin to react. Whilst no match for her own soul's direct energy, Delphinas was well developed for someone of her age, but it still resulted in a slight headache as it began to swell.
"Ah, part of the bad reaction yesterday must have been the Dantains accepting 'my' soul's energy instead of Delphinas as 'I' begin to integrate into the body. So long as I can enter, it'll be fine. I'll work on the tolerance levels slowly."
The original Delphina had most certainly never entered into one of her own Dantains before, causing the issue to hand- she would have to be extra gentle with herself in the future.
Gently slipping her energy in, she felt her awareness begin to blur and fade as she merged into her sea of consciousness.
********
She felt heavy.
"𝓐𝓱."
Sharply opening her eyes and glancing around like a wary cat before relaxing, she knew she had successfully entered.
"𝓘𝓽 𝓼𝓮𝓮𝓶𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓱𝓪𝓼 𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓭…"
Whilst her own soul form was merely a ghostly silhouette, where her feet would have been, streaks of colour ran out like ribbons flexing and twisting. Staining the pebbled floor in a veritable explosion of vibrant shades.
However, the colours petered out within a few meters, leaving behind only a grey-scale world.
In front of her lay a few meadows where streams ran, their gurgling and spluttering filling the still air with pleasant background noise; she didn't need to turn around to know where they would flow.
Her sea of consciousness, her soul palace, was an entire lone island. One that had grown larger with each life she had lived- it had started as a cliff-bound mountain sticking out of a sea. Then, over time, the mountain became less barren.
Many lives later, a smattering of lush woods formed near its base, which expanded into a forest, and eventually, a network of glades emerged. Finally, a series of meadows appeared on one side. Pushing the sea back further each time it grew.
"𝓜𝓪𝔂𝓫𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓸𝔀𝓼 𝓮𝓵𝓼𝓮𝔀𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮? 𝓞𝓻, 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓯𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝔀?"
With a particular destination in mind, she slowly followed a meandering stream, watching the colours spring to life and fade as she moved.
It did seem like there were more flowers than before; a network of forget-me-nots had appeared near some of the stream's grass banks.
Continuing on her way, she gently passed through the young woods at the forest front, where no birdsong nor animal life could be heard. No sunlight stretched out to caress the tree tops; no shadow could be cast. Just grey, upon grey, cascading till deeper shades were formed.
Having worked her way up to almost the heart of the forest, the beginnings of a twisted maze could be seen- the dense hedges standing out strangely against the trees. In the centre of which, a golden light could be seen to be glowing, even from this distance.
Quickly slipping her way through the labyrinthine work took hardly any time. After all, navigating a maze of her own creation was simple.
"𝓦𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓾𝓹, 𝓪𝓼𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓵𝓮."
Hovering in the very centre of her work, there lay a pitch black metal cube, golden lines and glyphs emitting light in an undulating manner. Upon her speech, it lifted off the plain white plinth and began to spin.
A grey, broken screen gradationally formed at its front, prompting her to move closer to read its details.
Name: *****
Level: E̳r̳r̳o̳r̳
Job: E̴r̴r̴o̴r̴
Titles:
Deaths Blessing, ₣₳Ⱡ₴Ɇ ₴₳ł₦₮/Ɇ₴₴, Heroes Fall, Immortal Soul, ØⱤ₳₵ⱠɆ, Suns Cursed, True ₭₦ł₲Ⱨ₮…
HP: E̶r̶r̶o̶r̶
MP: E̳r̳r̳o̳r̳
Skills:
Active- Butterfly scales, ₵₳₮₴ ₱Ⱡ₳Ɏ, Chill blade, Clockwork dance…ĐɆ₳₮Ⱨ ₴Ø₦₲, Elf eyes, ₲ⱧØ₴₮ⱠɎ ₩₳łⱠ, Go go girl… ₭₦ł₲Ⱨ₮₴ regard, Lovers ba… Lyrical genius, ₥ł₦Đ'₴ ɆɎɆ, Path of horr… Pirates life… Roll th… ₴₳ł₦₮'₴ ₮ØɄ₵Ⱨ, Valour's call…
Passive- U̶p̶g̶r̶a̶d̶e̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶t̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶
"𝓗𝓶𝓶, 𝓘 𝔀𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓾𝓹𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮."