L took a step back in the snow, trying to grip her weapon. Whatever this... thing was in front of her, it clearly was not Luna. Perhaps she had been possessed? At the moment, she... it... did not appear hostile, but such a huge change in someone made them unpredictable. Luna walked southward past L. "Ya I know what you’re thinking, but seriously we need to get out of here. They just keep coming once you have been spotted. The Champion of Vermin demonstrated that quite clearly. I’ll answer your questions as I walk. I don't remember your name." L hesitated, but she decided that it was also wise for her to leave, if any orcs did show up, it was clear she would be unable to control herself for long. She doubted her arms could survive another orc incineration. "You don't remember my name?" L followed behind "Luna" prepared for anything at all to happen. "I can only remember things in the way that the girl sees the world. You’re a woman who is angry and protects us from things, the male we travel with is a guy who makes sure we always have food. Which in her mind, makes him about a hundred times more important than you, and a small girl who... she thinks is her friend." L spoke, hopefully she could judge the risk this girl posed before they met back up with Eika, luckily it was quite a distance. "You call her "The girl." Are you not her then?" The fox girl shook her head. "No, I am not a girl, I am a monster. I...." She hesitated before continuing. "I am what Luna used to be. Before she learned to be happy. I was Luna before I was brought to this world."

L was sure it was possible for the Gods to arrange this sort of thing, and if true, her personality change from... this... into an innocent idiot makes enough sense given she is the Champion of Innocence. However, that did not mean the girl was telling the truth, it could be a very well thought out lie. "Why did they change you? You seem much more capable in this... uh... mindset." Emilia shook her head "The God of innocence claims that he does not care about winning. It's probably true. He simply wanted me to have another chance to... uh.... well. To be happy I guess." L scoffed, if the girl was telling the truth, then L figured that there was almost certainly some other reason she was sent here that way. Recent weeks had shown L that the Gods had plans within plans, and "sending a girl back to have a good life" seemed too simple, too... innocent of a reason to actually be the truth. "Are you always going to be like this now. Is the other girl, Luna, gone?" Emilia stopped walking and was silent for a few moments. "No. I don't think so. I... have discovered much while I have been awake. This body is part fairy and I'm certain that is against the rules. I don't know how the God of Innocence snuck this through." L listened intently, for all she knew, every word out of her mouth could be a lie, she could be some sort of Ice Orc spirit. If she was telling the truth however, she might have something interesting to report.

"I think the fairies are part of some sort of world hive-mind type of thing. They act sort of as its guardians, although as far as I can tell, most of them are on a similar or lower level of awareness than even Luna. I am able to somewhat access this "hive-mind." I think Luna is able to as well, but she is too stupid to understand. For her I think it is entirely emotional. My fairy side is also why I am able to exist comfortably in the absolute frigid temperatures of the... monster things. I think the natural elements of this world are incapable of causing harm to fairies. Of course, I am only part fairy, so I don't think I’ll be testing that theory by jumping into any lava pits or anything." L listened to the girl; she had no idea what she meant by the first part. As far as she could tell, her own language was incapable of expressing what the fairies were a part of. On the other hand, what the girl spoke of reminded her of stories of elemental spirits that soothsayers from her old world claimed would bring natural disasters. L continued to listen, for if this was true, the girl might know a great many helpful things now. "The biggest thing I learned however, is that the fairies and... the world itself are maintaining the status system, and the games infrastructure. As far as I can tell, the Gods are merely... curating it. I think if the Gods tried to drastically alter or remove the system, the world would fight back. I can't tell for sure but... I can feel a sort of immense instinct guiding me and the other fairies. It is hard to explain. You have to understand, I feel like I am connected to a world sized super computer. It's not something I... enjoy feeling again. It is also extremely overwhelming." Again, L was unable to understand her words. Assuming everything was true, this girl must have come from a world quite different than hers.

Regardless of L's understanding, she could sense the pain in the girl’s voice. As she spoke, it sounded like she carried a heavy burden. The girl had looked back at L a few times during their talk, and even through the snow L could see the pain in her eyes. She had seen it before in soldiers who followed their orders out of honor, but could not live with themselves. More than once she had witnessed someone take their own life after being given a dishonorable order. One of her own subordinates ordered his men to burn a village of children to the ground, under the guise that the village was a supply point for the south. Although she herself killed the commander, many troops that followed that order could not handle the guilt... L wondered if that look, that burden, was something you could fake. "Using what I have discovered, I think I can... alter my status in a way that will allow Luna to exist alongside me. On the other hand, this might kill me. Or the world might kill me, or the Gods, for meddling with something that I clearly am not supposed to be playing with. If that happens, my only regret is taking Luna's life. She is so happy... I...." The girl trailed off, L could not be sure, but it looked like streaks of ice had fallen from her face few a few moments. "However, the only other way to bring Luna back would almost certainly cause us enough mental damage Luna would no longer remember anything that happened at all. It would be like resetting her back to when she first came here. I cannot do that to her, she has learned so much, she has so many happy memories traveling with your group. She has seen so much of the sky..."

They walked in strained silence for a time. L took this time to continue her assessment of the girl. An outrageous story, but does it really eclipse her own story in its absurdity? Or even Eika's? It was just as unbelievable as everything else that had happened to them. It would also be a very strange lie to come up with, and what would the end goal for this girl even be if she was possessed. To kill them in their sleep? The girl’s best chance at killing her was when her arms were not working and the girl had knocked her down by jumping on her face. For now, L decided to tentatively trust her. "Do you have a name? If you remember your old life, was "E" the beginning of your name then? Or were you given a new name when you were brought here." L broke the silence. For a moment the girl stopped walking. "I... my name does not matter. Let it be forgotten. I'm simply Luna's guardian." After another few minutes of silence Emilia spoke up again. "I suppose you're curious about how I killed the Champion of Vermin?" L was curious, but honestly, the fact that she had killed the Champion sort of got lost in all the other information the girl had dumped on L. "Yes, of course. I doubt you have the strength in that body. Unless of course you used some sort of fairy powers."

Emilia shook her head "No, I don't want to risk messing around with a possible world consciousness unless I have to. Like to bring Luna back. In actuality, the monster things did most of the work. I wondered if we had to eat him to stop him from coming back. That uh, had various complications. However, as I chased the Champion of Vermin, I learned of the system we use, aided by the fairy side of me, I learned of our item storage. Luna of course had no idea of its existence. Obviously, we cannot place living beings in our storage, but Luna recalled you summoning meat out of thin air to cook. I assumed that dead flesh could be placed within. Every time the monster things killed the Champion of Vermin, I quickly grabbed a piece of him before he resurrected. A finger, a few toes, a piece of his face, an eye. I placed them in storage, and when he revived, he was lacking those parts. Probably because the vermin that consumed him were unable to consume those pieces. I figured that would be the case, as Luna also remembered that when the Champion was ate by his pets, there was nothing left. She was quite... upset that they ate so quickly, thinking that it was a waste. My blessing does not function correctly for me... so I had to rely on my other abilities to avoid the monsters after they would kill the champion. Eventually, I was able to scoop his brain out of his busted open head, I split it in half, and stored both halves. It would not let me store the whole thing for some reason. After that, I got the message saying I had leveled up and killed the Champion. His blessing was disgusting and I don't think Luna can survive using another class, so I took his letter. R."

L wanted to ask the girl more questions regarding her supposed revelations regarding the system, the world, and the fairy side of herself, but assumed that if she wanted to share, she would. As they neared the bottom of the walkway back up the canyon. Emilia spoke again. "Don't let Eika know what’s wrong with me. I don't want her to know anything is wrong with Luna. Just pretend I am passed out; I am damaged enough for that to be believable. L cocked her head a little. "Why? Do you think Eika will stop being Luna's friend because of your... existence?" Emilia shook her head. "No, Luna's memories make me believe Eika is another innocent being. I do not think this would have any effect on their friendship. However, I do not want to be remembered by her. I deserve nothing but to fade away into memory. You and the male must know of me by necessity, but she has no reason to be inflicted with the memory of me." L did not really understand the girl's reasoning, but it was her choice. L picked her up, throwing her over her shoulder, and began to carry her out of the canyon as she pretended to be unconscious.