Darkness.

Pitch-black darkness was all I could see no matter where I directed my eyes.

Whether it’s my perception skills or my Spatial Awareness sphere, they were all utterly useless in the face of this abnormal darkness.

I would know because I was the one who chose to hide in here in the first place. I even ordered Sage to completely lock me away and take control of my body before coming here.

This was my last resort after ultimately failing at holding myself back from going full on berserker mode. Miserably at that.

And now this is what? The third time I’ve ever been in this state? A soul locked inside its own body, unable to control it.

First time was when I was still in my mother’s womb back in Japan, and the second was inside my tiny egg here after my rebirth.

The only difference between those two and this time is that I haven’t been here out of my free will before.

If I had to choose, I definitely wouldn’t wanna repeat this a fourth time. I don’t even feel this powerless during my rare dreams.

Nevertheless, the roads of life always lead to unpredictable places.

And right at present, letting myself go means hurting Neo, whom I now consider to be a little sister figure of sorts.

So obviously, that’s out of the question. I could never forgive myself if that happened.

But… there’s just about zero methods I could get myself out of the current situation without any issues occurring along the way.

My body has been left for Sage to manipulate for the time being, and she’ll have to put everything she has learned in the past few weeks to the test.

Whether she can successfully simulate emotions and deceive Neo will be the difference between me waking up in a tidy inn room in Gerya or an abandoned tent in some unknown forest.

I did leave a message for Alexia to hurry and help take care of both Neo and Sage though, so I’ll hopefully be waking up to the latter.

For now though, I should do my best to reign in Chaos Bringer’s hidden effect. Step by step, just like I did with Mischief before.

Come on, Violet! You can do it!

Everything will be fine soon. You just need to persevere for a small period of time.

Letting out a long sigh, I stopped thinking about anything else, and focused my entire attention on restoring myself to normal.

 

How much time had passed while I struggled in that dark, silent place was completely unknown.

Hours? Days? Weeks? Months? Maybe even Years?

There wasn’t a single indicator of time anywhere around me. Neither could I feel anything in the outside world.

I was completely sealed away from the outside world for what seemed like forever in my perception.

Inquiring about the answer from Sage was certainly an option, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so.

Now that she’s sparing no effort to simulate human emotions and controlling my body in the outside world, I feel kinda awkward asking her to act like a hand watch, y’know what I mean?

The only thing I could clearly sense in this place was my will, which I boasted to be made of steel, slowly withering away.

No matter how I tried to control, restrain, manipulate, or dispose of Chaos Bringer’s effects, it all resulted in complete and utter failure.

What makes it even more frustrating is that every time I make an attempt, I could clearly feel that I’m ridiculously close to succeeding, but I can never take that last step.

It felt as if I was missing something. Something that I already have, yet am not making use of.

And after my latest attempt resulted in – as you might expect– yet another disappointment, I just stopped trying and gave up.

For the first time in ages, I really wanted to do nothing but lay there and cry.

The fear of being locked up in this suffocating darkness forever was enough to make me despair like nothing ever before.

Even when I was nearly kidnapped and taken far away from my family back on Earth, I never felt this desperate.

After all, there was always the chance of me waiting until I acquired more abilities and escaping on my own back then.

This time however, there’s really nothing I can do. This feeling of powerlessness in itself is literally my worst nightmare.

I’m scared. Really scared.

Placing hundreds of barriers around my soul did absolutely nothing, and purifying it for what seemed like hours had the same result.

Even when I turned on my Spiritual Cognition, I only saw my soul core floating peacefully under me and nothing else.

In this case, only one option remains.

“Sage… can you hear me?” I mentally called for my most trusted partner.

“Affirmative.” And she promptly replied.

Her voice echoed from all directions, clearly reminding me of where my potential eternal prison is located– my very own soul space.

“Resume analyzing the sin and virtue skills, spare no effort in gaining human emotions and evolving into Queen of Wisdom, and…… analyze Soul Clone and Soul Projection after you’re done with all that.”

“...Affirmative, Master.”

“Notify me after all of that is done, or if something urgently requires my attention.”

Sage didn’t say anything after my last order, but I did get a mental signal roughly implying a nod in response.

I let out yet another long sigh of resignation.

This was truly it, the final option which I never wanted nor thought I’d have to use one day.

Unless my luck is good enough to help me out of this predicament, I’ll have to completely give up on my body and interact with the outside world through a Soul Projection.

I won’t be able to hug my loved ones or feel their touch, nor will I be able to enjoy the heavenly taste of food I always crave.

A ghost is all I will be until my ever expanding soul naturally becomes strong enough to hold its own against the effect of this title…

It’s really depressing to think about this whole situation.

I considered D to be the closest person to me, but I couldn’t really put a finger on what kind of feelings I had towards her.

It’s just that… her giving me that title and fucking up my life makes me doubt whether she ever actually thought of me as anything more than another one of her toys…

…Aaaargh, whatever! Who gives a fuck!

This isn’t the time for some antsy teenager post 12 am overthinking. I can’t let go of the last bit of sanity I have!

I’m not the kind of person to just sit there and wallow in their misfortunes. I believe I’ve already done more than enough of that in the last few minutes.

If there’s nothing I can do right now, then I better skip this portion of life until the part when I can act arrives.

I had already decided to enter a long slumber until Sage called for me, so I gradually let go of consciousness until I lost all contact with the world.

Right before that, one last thought came to my mind, or it can be called a regret if I’m accurately speaking.

It really is a shame this happened right before Aiko, Segawa, and Katia arrived in this world…

---

“Warn–! Intrusion… detect–… Zzz… Danger…. Master–!” A muffled voice resounded throughout the quiet soul space before coming to an abrupt stop.

Judging by the mechanical tone, the owner of the voice was none other than Sage, Violet’s most utilized skill and partner.

Her voice carried an unmistakable urgency, but it was unfortunately getting jammed by something else.

Make no mistake, Sage is and has always been nothing more than a rudimentary artificial intelligence in the form of a skill.

It does not have its own ego, not even close.

Whether it’s her seemingly growing human emotions, better performance, or increasingly quicker responses, they’re all nothing but a reaction to her holder’s subconscious wishes.

Just like a programmer edits and improves his code on a computer, Violet has been subconsciously improving Sage’s ‘code’ throughout her life.

And the more Violet’s strength increases, the faster Sage’s rate of improvement will be.

Due to such a close connection, Sage’s improvement direction has always been linked to Violet’s own wishes.

This can clearly be seen through Sage’s lifetime logs.

Its most prioritized pursuit has always been developing an ego instead of developing more of its combat or utility aspects.

But that doesn’t mean that Sage will always exist as nothing more than a skill… In fact, the day when it finally evolves and condenses itself a core doesn’t seem to be that far.

The main character for today isn’t Sage however, though they are inexplicably related to her improvements.

“Oh, my. We can’t have the house owner discovering me breaking in now, can we? It took me long enough to get in, and I would rather not get kicked out right away.” A rather playful voice suddenly broke the silence.

Along with it, the static left behind due to Sage malfunctioning came to a complete stop.

Shortly after, a familiar silhouette walked out of the darkness.

Abyss humanoid black body, sparkling inky black hair, and an iconic pair of obsidian black eyes with streaks of gold and red occasionally flashing through them.

The uninvited guest’s identity was easy to confirm– D, The Goddess of The End.

Her eyes first fell on Violet’s soul core where two books and a portal were conspicuously displayed.

Shaking her head, she let out a rather tense chuckle.

“Really, no matter how many times I see it, I’m still amazed by how a mortal’s soul can hold those without breaking into pieces.”

Then her eyes shifted to the ever-expanding boundary of the soul space.

“But then again. I guess this isn’t some ordinary mortal’s soul.” She commented, genuinely amazed.

Her eyes drifted once more, this time to the slumbering body floating right above the soul core– Violet herself.

“Huh? Here I came wondering why she’s let her skill take control of her body for so long, but she’s actually hibernating?” She murmured, her face scrunching up in confusion.

Taking a closer look, she was easily able to spot the problem with her keen senses.

“Ahhh, so that’s it.” She exclaimed monotonously. “Really, Tomoko? Or should I call you Violet now?”She paused for a moment.”Anyways, I would’ve thought you went through enough fantasy works to know that the least likely option is most likely the correct one.”

Different from the anxious Violet, D discovered the problem and deduced the solution to Violet’s current predicament right away.

Or rather, D was the one who planned for and caused Violet to land into this precarious state.

The thirst for destruction and chaos was always present inside Violet, just in a dormant state.

And the title granted to her by the universe did nothing but activate it.

So trying to reject that is to reject herself. Even attempting to control it is wrong.

Have you ever seen an animal capable of controlling its instinct right at the moment of its birth? It’s simply impossible.

All Violet has to do is to fully accept it, and then work on taming it.

Unfortunately, her misguided preconceptions prevented her from ever considering that option even though it was the easiest and most obvious one.

“I’m sorry, dear. But no matter how much you try to run away from it, there will always be a day when you have to acknowledge the reality.”

D’s voice was still monotone, yet anyone familiar with her could feel just how serious she was at the moment.

As if there was an invisible set of stairs in front of her, D stepped up towards Violet’s unconscious soul body.

Each time her feet touched the ground, a soft vibration went through Violet’s soul space and something materialized inside.

And with her final step, all went back to normal… except for the new addition of a large platform right above Violet’s soul core.

On it stood D, her eyes fixedly gazing on Violet’s sleeping face with borderline terrifying obsession.

“The last few weeks should be enough of a punishment for neglecting me in favor of that broken toy.” She reached out to caress Violet’s cheek softly. “Let’s get down to business then.”

With those words, her hand trailed down to the position of Violet’s heart.

D’s slender fingers then suddenly pierced through Violet’s chest, directly penetrating her heart in one swift stab.

The response was instant.

Despite Violet being in a soul state, her body started spasming and the loud sounds of heartbeat began echoing loudly throughout her soul space.

Not much later, her heart started generating and pumping out unscientific amounts of pitch black ‘blood’.

Astonishingly, D’s finger was violently bounced away the moment it came into contact with this blood.

However, her face didn’t show any surprise to this unbelievable situation. Instead, her lips curled into a wide, eerie smile.

“Yes! That’s it!” She exclaimed. “Enough of that disgusting disguise you’re always wearing. Show me your true self, my little fishie!”

As if in response to her command, the pitch black liquid suddenly engulfed the entirety of Violet’s body in the form of a cocoon and solidified around her.

But instead of getting muffled, the volume of the heartbeats actually increased by a whole magnitude.

A few seconds later, cracks started appearing in the black cocoon, rapidly spreading throughout its entire surface.

And when they were all connected, the cocoon collapsed, turned into powder that spread throughout Violet’s soul space.

All that remained in its place was the peacefully slumbering Violet, motionlessly floating mid air without any support.

However, a few incredible changes had taken place in her appearance.

First off, her overall purplish body color scheme had become much paler– almost silver.

Numerous grotesque eyes had grown on her tail, almost covering the entirety of its surface. But none went above her waist.

The most noticeable of them all was a pair of huge glowing eyes that grew on both ends of her tail in a manner similar to that of a peacock.

Unlike a peacock’s tail feather though, those were actual eyes and not a fake used to scare off predators.

The Phantom Runes which were usually hidden in an inactive state were completely fused with those eyes, giving them a bizarre illusory feeling.

What was also fused with them was Violet’s most recently acquired skill– Maddening Evil Eye.

If anyone lays their eyes on Violet’s current body, they’d go completely insane unless they have enough mental defenses in place.

Of course, D was totally unaffected by them, only giving them a cursory glance out of curiosity before looking away.

While Violet’s lower body turned into what could only be called an incomprehensible monstrosity, her upper body changes weren’t that striking in comparison.

The most prominent of them all was the fact that loli Violet was gone, replaced by a slender, mature beauty.

And despite the utter lack of any… features on her torso, her face had reached the peak of mortal beauty.

Coupled with the two tiny horns growing from in between her hair, any man would gladly give his life away just to be rewarded with some insignificant attention from her.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for the owner of this outrageous beauty to care about men in any way except as a tool for furthering her goals.

Two opposite aspects of divine charm and terrifying grotesqueness were somehow able to meet and coexist in one body without any conflicts.

And the first to ever witness it was D, who stood there, mesmerized for hours on end.

“Condition Satisfied. Title [Outer] has been acquired.”

It wasn’t until Sage’s voice resounded in the soul space once again that she was able to regain her senses and looked away reluctantly.

“Sigh… I wish I could stay here for longer, but I have to get going now. The awakening of a new Outer will cause a great commotion… I’ve gotta pull a few strings to hide this from O.” She mumbled. “Before that though– Obscurus.”

As the last word escaped her mouth, all the eyes on Violet’s lower body closed and changed back to regular scales, followed by her upper body returning to normal and her newly grown horns disappearing.

“It might feel uncomfortable, but it’ll be good for developing her divinity field in the long run.”

Seemingly satisfied with the excuse she randomly came up with, D clapped her hands and nodded to herself.

“Well, then. This’ll be goodbye for now, my dear little fishie.” D suddenly announced, her body vanishing back into the pitch black darkness.

Silence finally returned to Violet’s soul space, but it won’t be for long.