A distortion of time and space?
To think I'd encounter something like this...
It was another sleepless night. Lin leaned against the entrance of the tent, listening to the sounds outside. He was considering something—something that might involve Bianka, or might not.
After all, such a phenomenon, allowing people separated by fifty thousand years to meet, was so coincidental it was almost unbelievable.
How to break this phenomenon? Could he go to the future fifty thousand years away? Or could Bianka go back to the world fifty thousand years in the past?
Any way he thought about it, there were major problems.
Furthermore, the rift in the sky always gave Lin an uncomfortable feeling—as if a pair of eyes was watching him from somewhere he couldn't see.
...
"Come to think of it, those two haven't returned since yesterday."
Einstein was tinkering with the wiring. She rolled up her sleeves to pull some severed wires out of the gaps, organizing them for reconnection later.
Her mechanical skills weren't as high as Vill-V's, but she was certainly an excellent mechanic. She believed the most basic skill for any scientist was practical ability—which was how she had been able to invent epoch-making technology like the ELF.
To her surprise, Rita also knew quite a bit about the relevant technology; she was more than capable as an assistant.
"Miss Bianka and Mr. Lin should have much to discuss. They seem to be of a kind," Rita said while searching for usable parts. Many components had been corroded and aged in the Sea of Quanta; they needed replacements.
She smiled slightly, placing the collected parts into a nearby box and clapping her hands together. "Perhaps they are engaged in a friendly exchange right now."
"Let me go, you Scumbag-Mushroom!"
In a single night, Lin had devolved from "Scumbag" and "Mushroom" into "Scumbag-Mushroom."
The golden-haired girl had likely regained her strength after eating her fill yesterday. She struggled violently; Lin noticed that the lance she was bound to had been shaken loose from the ground by several inches. Her determination was evident.
Lin stepped forward, pulled both the girl and the lance out of the ground, shouldered them, and found a firmer spot to hammer her back in like a nail.
"What is a 'Scumbag-Mushroom'? A mobile suit?" Lin struck up a conversation casually after finishing.
Bianka shook her golden hair in fury. She had never suffered such a humiliation in her life. Did this man have no bottom line?
To tie her to a lance and ignore her all night, even forcing her to use her own mouth to bite a tissue to wipe her... her chest... Was he secretly watching the whole time? How disgusting!
It reminded Bianka of when she was younger—even though she was more blunt back then, she had never been as angry as she had been these past two days.
"Let me out. Let's fight again."
Lin noticed the defiant look in the girl's eyes. He understood that she felt she had been restricted by a sneak attack despite having the strength advantage. Especially for a girl in her teens, she naturally possessed a high degree of pride. Being toyed with like this made her fly into a rage.
"...What benefit is there for me to fight again?" Lin unhurriedly hung a steel cup of water over the fire, preparing to make coffee.
"Are you afraid?"
"It's inappropriate for a person who is tied up to say such things."
Bianka gritted her teeth at Lin leisurely attitude. She had to close her eyes and regulate her emotions. The man was far more experienced than she imagined; he wouldn't be baited by provocations, and his emotions rarely showed.
"I... I won't retaliate. I simply want a fair rematch. How about it?"
Lin silently added coffee powder to the cup.
"I swear upon the name of Durandal, I wish to have a fair duel with you."
Bianka wasn't exactly a knight, but she followed the rites of chivalry most of the time. For her, it was a symbol of status and a source of invisible pride.
Click.
She watched the man solemnly. He extinguished the fire without a word and picked up his coffee.
Lin looked at the coffee in his hand. After a moment, a sentence drifted from his lips: "You win. I surrender."
"..."
He surrendered just like that.
"You have power from the Previous Era inside you, don't you?"
"...Yes. The Holy Sword Durandal within me is a crystalline achievement of Previous Era technology. Su gifted me a Seed of Sumeru to allow me to control its power."
Drip...
Lin stirred his coffee with a spoon, his eyes cast down.
"I don't want to fight the power inherited from them. It's meaningless."
"I hold the same view," Bianka nodded.
"..."
"...Then can you untie me?"
"No."
"Why?"
Lin took a relaxed sip of coffee.
"Because surrendering is not equal to letting you go."
"...Scumbag-Mushroom."
...
Whether he was a Scumbag or a Scumbag-Mushroom, Lin goal remained unchanged. Once he confirmed Bianka couldn't break free, he separated part of the chains and extended them toward the rift in the sky.
Control, extension, perception.
Lin wanted to know what was inside. A human body couldn't withstand the pressure of the rift, so he would use a Divine Key to test it. After extending the chains into the high-altitude rift, he continued to push deeper.
After ten minutes, Lin seemed to feel something. He frowned and tried to pull the chains back.
Clatter.
The severed end of the chain fell before him.
He knelt down silently to examine the break. The cut was smooth, not twisted or snapped. All the chains that had entered the rift were severed. He couldn't be sure if the rift itself had cut them, or if something unknown inside had sliced them.
In a World Bubble where time and space were distorted, nothing that arrived would be surprising.
"Do you intend to return to your era?" Bianka asked, watching his actions.
"Yes."
"How do you plan to do it?"
"Change, attempt, succeed." Lin retracted the chains into the Oath of Judah. The Soulium would recover automatically; he didn't need to find a way to reforge it.
Bianka murmured softly, "That's actually quite similar to my own way of thinking..."
An ordinary person might give up in despair upon hearing their era was destined for destruction, but if it were Bianka, even if the world were ending in the next second, she would never give up on her world.
"Can you tell me about your era?"
"...There's nothing to tell. You already know."
"Many records left from the Previous Era are incomplete. Only things related to the Houkai are relatively clear." Bianka shook her head, her long hair blowing in the wind, strands dancing before her eyes.
Su had once allowed Bianka to experience his life. She had seen many people there—his mentors, his best friend, his comrades—as well as the battles, the struggles, and the choices. This had piqued Bianka curiosity about the Previous Era. What kind of civilization and age was it, and what kind of people lived in it?
The man before her, carrying the Oath of Judah—he must have been someone similar to Su in the Previous Era. What would his perspective be?
"Before demanding someone else's name, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"
Bianka froze for a moment. Then she saw Lin holding the coffee out to her.
"Bianka Durandal Ataegina. You are the one Su entrusted. I want to know your story."