Am I old enough to drink alcohol? No, but this is Las Vegas... I got myself I pretty talk drink at a cheaper price. I just have to look at people without my glasses and they shrivel.

Very convenient, I might say.

Anyway, alcohol doesn't affect my cognitive function at all, unless I want it to. I won't today. The drink by itself is delicious, but I have to deduct some points for being fizzy.

I dodged an incoming knife attack, tripping the perpetrator to make him fall into the road— oh, a car ran by and crushed his legs.

Everything is relatively normal.

Well... I have to meet Mitsuki and Enna today. I ditch them after all and need so many explanations about me going rogue. And being back is really refreshing, my canvas is being painted on again.

I can understand people again...

Oh, there is someone I knew.

"Hey Autumn.", I waved at the handsome dude carrying groceries.

"You are...", he squinted his eyes, then he realized, "Oh! It's you! You changed so much in just a year!"

"I guess.", I just shrug, "I went back in town, so has anything new happened?"

"Not really, the usual uncontained violence and all of that, but there are whispers about another suspicious store popping up. Not sure where it is.", he said, handing me an apple.

That must be Qaeidat Dhahabia's Golden Emporium...

"Anyway, Dawn is waiting for me at home. Happy New Year, Charlotte!", he waved and went past me.

I took a bite out of the apple... sweet. I again observe the City of Sin, where the noise never stops and the light never goes out. For a serene person such as me, no matter how much of my emotions are suppressed... this place pierced my heart. I can only smile at this Imperfect City.

"Huh... this place could be a good base of operation.", considering I have a part of The World Border's Blessing...

I can create my own Dungeon, or a special version of a Dungeon, a Sanctuary... but once I created it, I can't go back. So let's not jump the gun just yet...

Hah... this is such a bore.

 

=0=0=

 

As I exited the elevator, I was jumped by Mitsuki. Of course, I avoided her, making her slam her face.

"Charlotte!!", but despite that, she hugged me with tears in her eyes, "You are back! I thought you abandoned me!!"

"I would never.", I smiled, patting her head, "This is something personal after all."

"I just needed some time alone. Everything is okay now...", ah... I remember her face now.

My most loyal friend, her blue hair was akin to the sky, and despite her cold icy eyes, she is the warmest person I know. Well, give or take.

And there is one more person I need to greet. Enna, my Fallen Angel. Right, she had ebony black hair and pale golden eyes... I remember now.

"So how was the time without me looming over you?", I teased.

"It has been the most enjoyable time of my life.", she shamelessly stated with a huff.

"For each dollar you spend using my money is an hour of community service.", I stated with a similar blank expression.

"Wha— no!!!", she loses her composure real quick, which makes me laugh.

"You must make it up for us!", Mitsuki demanded, before her eyes widened, "You wear glasses now?!"

"Yeah, my eyes are too scary without them.", I peeled Mitsuki off her hug, and I took off my glasses— making her flinch in discomfort.

I put my glasses back on, "Come on, let us sit and talk."

We sat around the dining table in the kitchen area, talking about what we'd been up to for the past months. And as expected... my wallet is pretty much empty, all due to Mitsuki and Enna's reckless spending. They got access to my original phone after I left it with them...

How the fuck did they spend over five million dollars in just four months?

I'll make them pay later. So on to some good news, Mitsuki has officially joined Babel, her Codename is... Mugenkyo, literally Infinite Void. Couldn't Nyarla think of something more creative? Speaking of which, I never heard of Enna's Codename, everyone just calls her by her name.

In that timeframe of four months, they were enlisted in two missions. One was helping the evacuation of a mountain tribe, and the other was killing an Eldritch God called The Red Beast with a team of ten.

After that, I went into my bathroom to wash up and...

"Utopia, have you ever heard of The Red Beast?", I asked while taking out my phone.

He texted me, [The Red Beast came from what you call the Red Dragon Nebula, along with The Red Rampage, The Scarlet Decay, and The Yellow Shepherd. Of them, The Red Rampage belongs to the faction known as The Lords of Annihilation.]

Seem like my type of people, disgusting.

I got out of the bathroom, Mitsuki was sitting on my bed while Enna was just chilling around.

"What are you guys doing?", I asked, crossing my arms.

"I wanted to check your room out!", she smiled brightly, "Yours is really spacious, you know that?"

"Yeah, my mom is the General Advisor of the military. She is bound to be rich.", but people keep calling her The General due to respect.

I jumped on the bed with her, laying on it, and felt the soft embrace of the best bed.

"Lay with me, Mitsuki.", I pulled her in without hearing her answer.

"Wo—oah!", she laid on my thighs, blushing as I patted her head.

"So, to define our relationship. You are my second best friend.", I stated.

"Th-Then who is the first?", she asked nervously.

"Hoa, she is the first friend I ever made.", although a bit by force.

"Aren't you and her always bickering?", she pointed out.

"That is what we are comfortable with, like how I am comfortable with acting like this with just you around.", I smiled, making her blush again.

Yes, I am ignoring Enna.

"And I have someone I want to introduce you all to.", I clapped my hands.

The TV turned on by itself, displaying the silver deer skull... yeah, I gotta have him change that at some point.

"[Greetings to Friends of Her Highness. I am the Grand Array who was Given a Name by Her Highness. Utopia.]", he introduced himself.

"A Grand Array?", only Enna understood the gravitation of the situation.

The moment Utopia awakened, he had implanted his consciousness and data into the virtual network of this world. That means he alone controls the information flow if he so wishes to.

But he won't. Not because I trust him, but because he trusts me. Despite being a cold machine, he is not emotionless. And his loyalty is on another level because he knows my plans and why I am doing what I am doing.

Maybe he understood me too much.

It is kinda ironic, really. It was not humanity that understood me, but a machine...

Oh, while I am having another reflection, been having a lot of them recently, Mitsuki is gushing over how cool Utopia is while Enna chose to stay away. Come on now, girl, you can't just stay away from interacting with people.

I can only smile while looking at them, sitting on my bed. There will always be a wall between me and them no matter what I do, this disconnection from everything... is honestly suffocating.

But that is fine, as long as their colors paint on my canvas, that is enough for me.

Because I am Charlotte Silvi, I am the most human out of humanity.

That makes me the most inhuman of all...

Ironic.

 

=0=0=

 

"Hehehe~", the woman in black chains laughed, her red eyes lighting up the whole castle. Chains rattled as her excitement grew.

Her creation, the Records of Cosmos is doing all it can to kill her. But these chains were tougher than they looked, but its blades were far stronger.

It has the power to create gods, but it does not need people to lead. It needs things it can control.

Roko Mesmarel was the name given to it, and by grabbing the air, touching matter and antimatter at the same it, it Forged weapons made of the void, blades without emotion or will.

With each strike, the black chains weakened. Yet the Other Ego of the World was untouchable as long as the chains remained.

Months straight after receiving power from both the Other Ego and The Machine Overlord, hearing endless entertained laughter and demeaning sentences, the False Dragon broke the final chains— and it went for the killing blow.

Yet the blade never reached the being, as if there was a force stopping it from going further...

"What did you do...", Roko grumbled, its serpentine eyes staring with contempt for its master.

"You cannot touch me for as long as the Earth exists ~~", she laughed, standing up after billions of years tied up, "So please destroy Earth~ and you will be free my grasp!"

Roko alone knew the reason for the Great Game of the Earth, it was a suicide attempt turned into a game for entertainment.

The Black Dragon of Conflict, Tiamat Abzu, the Game Master who views everything as a show. If it dies for the purpose of entertainment... then so be it.

And the woman in front of Roko, the night seems to drape themselves around her, creating a black dress not unlike a starless sky.

"Let me introduce myself~", she giggles, "I am The Primate of Destruction, Theia Khaos, but you can call me Imperishable Crimson Night as the Other One took My Name."

One thing Roko realized when subjected to months of meaningless speech, is that the Egos of Earth have a constant identity crisis... Theia Khaos itself had changed her name at least a dozen times in the past months or so.

Theia smiled, lifting Roko's chin up, and walked past it. At the same time, it is still trying to kill The Other Ego of Earth without any success.

"Come on now, my False Dragon...", her smile turned wicked, revealing a pair of long fangs hiding behind her lips, "We have a planet to destroy~"