Opening her eyes, Mira found herself in a long corridor without her weapons. The walls of the corridor glowed a celestial white. Embedded into the walls were wooden doors with a silver metal door knob. Looking over her shoulder, Mira saw screens float from one door to another. The screens showed various scenes with a first person perspective. From someone celebrating their birthday on Earth, to someone running around in a field with their elven friends.
"Am I dead again?" Mira muttered.
Walking down the corridor, Mira witnessed the walls slowly fade into a darker colour. Eventually, the walls became pitch black. The previously happy screens became dark, replaced with death and grief. Stopping to look at one, Mira saw a person held captive. Held in a jail cell, Mira saw the rusted iron bars and chains as the woman looked down.
#'Why... Why me?'#
Suddenly, Mira heard a voice, or rather a thought. Looking around the corridor, Mira didn't find anyone.
#'Why was I the one accused of witchery?'#
"The screen?" Mira questioned as she focused her attention on it.
#"Execute her! Witch!"# A man in the corner of the screen said.
#*BANG*#
Suddenly, a gun shot rang before the screen flickered and turned pitch black.
'Guess the person died then.' Mira thought before moving down the corridor again.
Seeing another screen near her, Mira walked over to peak at it. On the screen, Mira saw a man carrying a rifle. Besides him were many soldiers that carried the same rifle as him. In front of him however, were many fallen soldiers, being prepped to be cremated and sent back somewhere, according to what someone in the video said.
'Guess the soldier lost a few of his friends then.' Mira thought as she watched the screen become blurry, like what happens when you cry.
Walking deeper into the corridor, the walls changed from black to red. Here, the screens showed anger. Stopping to look at one of the screens again, Mira witnessed someone arguing with who she thought was their wife. In the corner of the room was a scared child, hiding from the two adults.
Continuing down the corridor, Mira witnessed the colours shift from red to blue, green, yellow, pink. Finally, Mira saw the corridor end, with a final door facing her. Speeding up her pace, Mira watched the walls turn rainbow. Arriving in front of the door, Mira opened it, hoping to find answers to where she was.
In front of her were floating words and a screen.
The words said, 'One loved by us, we, along with another person, have saved you.'
The screen showed a male figure wearing a black tuxedo and a black fedora running through a train. On their face was a mask that was half black and half white. The black side had a white half smile and an eye hole with a tear seemingly falling upwards. The white side had a black frown and an eye hole with a tear painted on, falling down the mask. In their arms was a familiar girl, wearing a grey shirt, scarf and cargo pants.
"Wait, that's me!" Mira exclaimed in surprise.
#Hmmm. She's seen me. This is bad. I better not have fucked up again this time. But how did she see me? She's unconscious... The ma-?#
Whatever language the figure on the screen was saying was being directly inputted and translated into Mira's brain.
"This time?" Mira asked quizzically, "What does he mean 'this time'? Where am I anyway?"
As if to answer her question, the floating words reappeared in front of Mira. However, the words had changed, as if it had a will of its own.
"The memory hall of mana?" Mira read out. As she read that out, Mira felt her body being dragged away. Suddenly, the room disappeared as Mira was met with the chest of the man and a sign that read 'Carriage 153'.
"~#@.!£%" The man said.
"What?" Mira asked as she heard a jumble of sounds.
"Right, you don't speak that language y-. I should stop talking about that. Anyway, head towards carriage 150. I can't afford to fuck this up again. Go." The man said as he stopped princess-carrying Mira.
"Who are you." Mira asked as she put her guard up and got ready to draw Crescent Blade and Sin in a moment's notice.
"Hmmmm. It wouldn't hurt to give you my name." The man mumbled, "I'm Justus. Goodbye."
Justus vanished without a trace after telling Mira his name.
"Justus? What sort of name is that?" Mira mumbled to herself, "Guess I need to head towards Carriage 150."
'You guys okay?' Mira tried to ask her other personalities, but felt like something was blocking her.
After an hour of running, Mira rested inside a room situated in carriage 151. Having told the survivors she found to hide and wait in the canteen of carriage 152, Mira could rest for a while without worrying about having to protect someone.
"Who the fuck has a 10 kilometer canteen!" Mira complained as she rested. "Let's go see what's in carriage 150 and why I need to be there then."
Opening the door to the room, Mira peered out of the bedroom to look for any remains of Lunar Matches.
"Couldn't Justus have told me how much time had passed?" Mira complained again.
Seeing that there were no signs of surviving Lunar Matches, Mira moved to open the door to carriage 150 when she heard gunshots inside.
Drawing Sin and Sweet Poison, Mira got ready to shoot or strike whatever was behind the door.
Blowing up the door, Mira saw her friends knocked unconscious and a man with a jester mask.
10 minutes before...
"Ready Maria?" Anna asked.
"Yup. Get the survivors to somewhere safe."
"Okay, are you going to enter already?" Mary asked.
"No. I'm waiting for the others. Mira is probably inside since she wasn't where the bomb blew up."
I assumed she used [Time Strand Manipulation] since we were sent back to an area we were before. Where were the others anyway? Telepathy wasn't working, so I couldn't check on them either. IT WAS SO DAMN FRUSTRATING. Wait. Since when did we rely on telepathy so much?
"We're here!" Brian called out.
"Great. We're entering carriage 150 after you rest a bit. Mary, Anna, join and become Mariana. We don't know what will be in there, and I don't want to risk one of you getting shot and causing the other to disappear as well. I have a hunch that something strong is in carriage 150."
I walked around, looking at the state of the survivors. Battered, bruised, cut, shot. Name a wound and you could find it on one of the survivors. Walking back to the group, I signaled towards the door.
"Survivors! Hide in the rooms just in case!"
Seeing that they all complied without a problem, I created a breach charge from the debris, like what you did, and placed it onto the door.
"Ready?"
"Yes." Everyone nodded simulatneously.
3.
2.
1.
I detonated the charge and cautiously walked through. In front of me was a man with a jester hat and black trench coat sat atop a throne made of skulls and bones.
"Welcome, frauds. Enjoy your stay here, since you won't be leaving anytime soon." The man said as the door sealed behind us.
Suddenly, the bastard sent a punch towards my stomach and sent me flying. Disappearing again, he threw a throwing knife towards me and broke the body of the clone. As the clone dissipated, you arrived.
"So. Could. You. Be. Fucking. Useful. AND HELP ME?" Mira said through gritted teeth as she blocked the man's strike.
<I don't understand what you want me to do.> Maria said.
<<Exactly.>> Mercy suddenly agreed.
"You died as well?" Mira said as she returned her attention to the man in front of her.
<<Yup. Fucker sent a knife through my skull.>> Mercy said with clear annoyance.
'Where's Mariana then?' Mira asked.
<<Pretending to be unconscious.>> Mercy said. <<She looks weird and 'mashed together' enough to not be connected to us. So she wasn't killed.>>
'Good to know.' Mira said as she spotted Mariana lying on the floor.
*CLANG*
Sending a slash towards the masked man, Mira created some distance between them.
"What's your name anyway." Mira asked as she continued the standoff between them. Circling towards him, Mira slowly inched towards the masked man.
"You can call me Eclipse." The man said as he dashed towards her.
Using Red Mist, Mira imbued the mist with a paralyzing chemical, which was enhanced by Sweet Poison. Pulling up her scarf, Mira hoped that it would block the chemicals as she ran through the red smoke screen. Flickering in and out of view, Mira attacked Eclipse from all angles, trying to overwhelm him. Slashing him, Mira's sword was ricocheted off Eclipse's coat.
"How cute. Shame it won't work on me." Eclipse said, "Your puny diamonds won't hurt me."
Countering by throwing knives at the afterimages of Mira, Eclipse suddenly dashed towards where Mira was about to land.
*CRASH*
Sending forth a burst of air from his hand, Eclipse sent Mira flying towards the wall of the train.
*CRASH*
Slamming into the wall, Mira took a bit of time to recover.
*COUGH*
Coughing up blood from the force she was sent into the wall, Mira stood up and balanced herself on Crescent Moon.
"Clearly. Diamond isn't strong enough for this. Whatever his coat is made off, it's somehow stronger than diamond." Mira mumbled.
<It's another world. Remember? Diamond is probably not the strongest thing anymore.> Maria said.
<<Try the nekros stuff.>> Mercy suggested.
'You think I'm gonna know the composition of a metal from another world?' Mira said in frustration as she defended against Eclipses attacks.
<<Find a piece and we'll analyze it or something.>> Mercy said.
Finding a piece near the throne of skulls, Mira subtly directed the battle towards the throne. Rolling to dodge one of Eclipse's throwing knives, Mira used her momentum to slide towards the small piece of nekros.
<Now hold onto it until we finish analyzing with the computer in our mind space.> Maria said as she began looking into the electron structure of the nekros.
*CRASH*
Sending forth another gust of wind, Eclipse sent a volley of throwing knives at Mira. Dodging and weaving through the volley, Mira tried to make use of her [Time Strand Manipulation]. Suddenly, the knives around her started beeping.
"Hope you like my gift, Reincarnator." Eclipse said.
*BOOM*
*COUGH*
"How. How do you see my status screen?" Mira asked as she coughed up blood.
"The rules of this world don't apply to me after all." Eclipse said after contemplating whether he should tell Mira.
"Why would you tell me this?" Mira asked.
"Hmmm. Dead men tell no tales after all." Eclipse answered.
Drawing Sin, Mira tried to aim it towards Eclipse.
*BANG*
"My my, your aim was well off." Eclipse taunted as he slowly walked towards Mira.
"Kinda hard aiming with blood in your dominant eye after all." Mira lightly joked as she tried to think of a solution.
'You guys done yet? I'm running out of options.' Mira asked.
<<Almost, maybe 2 minutes max.>> Mercy answered.
'Plan B it is then.' Mira thought as she used Crescent Moon to support her weight.
Standing up, Mira made an eye patch to go over her eye so that she wouldn't have to concentrate on closing it anymore. Manipulating the ambient mana, Mira used [Zephyr's Barricade] as Eclipse tried to dash towards her. Being lifted off his feet, Eclipse threw throwing knives at Mira.
*CLANG CLANG*
The knives were instantly redirected towards the walls of the train as the wind barrier slammed Eclipse into a wall. Standing up, Eclipse tried to circle around Mira. Mira sent petals towards Eclipse to try and paralyze him with Withered Rose. Seeing that they hit the target, Mira dashed towards him and prepared a Thorn's Retribution for him.
*PSHUII*
Cutting through the coat, Mira managed to draw blood.
"How impressive. To think you can even cut to my bone." Eclipse said without concern, "Why didn't you do it earlier?"
"Because you didn't land any attacks on me." Mira said before having a smirk, "Why am I telling you? Dead men tell no tales after all."
"Hou. Arrogant are you?" Eclipse said as he started being able to feel his body again.
'YOU FUCKING DONE YET?' Mira asked in frustration, 'THAT WAS ONE OF MY LAST IDEAS'
<<Yes, we're done. Sending it over now.>> Mercy said.
Feeling the information coming, Mira released the mana sticking the diamonds to the blade and replaced it with reinforced nekros.
"Ready for round 2 fucker?" Mira said with a grin.
