“Don’t let go of my hand. I’m the only thing that’s keeping your existence stable, and I don’t know if I can rescue you again.”

  Those words were said by my savior. The world’s savior. He was the hero who arose during the Terrors, the Shooting Star that children would wish upon at night, the envy of Slayers and the bane of governments—he was the strongest Slayer on the planet, Kosmos. He looked exactly how TV showed him.

  He sported his iconic silver-and-black [Compound Myth Armor], appearing as a warrior with his feet in two different eras: the fantastical age of myth and legends like Achilles, and the futuristic era of advanced, almost magical technology. And through absurd circumstances, I was holding his cold, metallic hand, feeling the individual panels and strange textures.

  Kosmos, through the dark cowl of his helmet, gave me his regard and tilted his head lower. “Are you still whole?”

  “I… I think so.” A lot of emotions and sensations were going through me, but emptiness and dysphoria weren’t a part of the list.

  I didn’t want to, but I had to look around.

  We were… We were in that space: where disqualified futures were stored—the “data center” of our Worldline and maybe every Slayer World too. I didn’t know how our human brains could handle the sight before us, but maybe the architect provided accommodations for our inadequate perception.

  Above us was a beautiful “sea” of celestial colors and bodies. Everything was suspended—or seeming as if they were suspended—in sparkling, twinkling “water.” Nebulas were stretched across unfathomable distances like great whales, stars swam together in schools, clouds lazily drifted along the currents. They were… They were coming from a single direction.

  At the “center” of the imaginary space was a condensed pillar of golden light composed of trillions of motes. It seemed so far yet so large at the same time. It reached toward the “sea” and entered the medium with long, “branch”-like arms, spawning stars and gas and cosmos. Below, “roots” dug through the surface—a sheet resembling black ice that we stood on—and continued to travel downward seemingly into infinity. Those were the only things existing underneath our feet.

  I didn’t know where the simulations were stored, nor did I really want to know. I was fine with the vistas I had.

  Despite the horrors I’d faced, this space was peaceful. It was breathtaking.

  “Take everything in,” Kosmos told me, making sure I wouldn’t let go of his hand. “Sophos and Problem will interrogate us for everything we know.”

  For once, I was envious of someone else’s sense of humor. I tried laughing my nervousness off, but no such luck. “Did they stabilize your existence? Pretty sure my [Ward] broke.” I didn’t bother checking; I knew it did.

  Kosmos paused, staring at the pillar. “No. When they told me you had gone inside, I went after you without thinking. As it turned out, my [Skills] protect me against this sort of thing.”

  “...You did the same thing I did.”

  “Evidently.” I could feel Kosmos smile from behind his helmet. “It looks like we’ll both be scolded after we escape.”

  Ignoring how we shared the same single digit of IQ, I searched for Astraria in this vast, confusing landscape. Shadowy shapes formed in the distance, but in this place, my eyes or head could be playing tricks on me. “Where’s Astraria? She’s the reason why we’re here.”

  Kosmos looked around and whistled, just as clueless as me. “One of her cards led me to you, but otherwise, I haven’t seen her. Maybe this is her way of telling us to leave.”

  I gripped his hand harder. “But are we satisfied with that answer?”

  He seemingly raised an eyebrow underneath his helmet.

  “Astraria has been suffering for God-knows-how-long. This is our only chance to put her to rest, and…” Although the memories of my otherselves were fuzzy, I still remembered the significance of the Previous Worldline. “Who knows, we might get some answers. Isn’t that what you wanted when you first popped the experiment?”

  Chuckling, Kosmos said, “This isn’t what I imagined, but you’re right. On all fronts. I’m glad to see I’m not the only lunatic on the team.”

  “That a good thing or a bad thing?”

  “Ah, it’s catastrophic. Sera and Idris can barely handle one Nathan. Two? A funeral will be hosted by the end of the day—hold on, twelve o’clock.”

  Peering ahead at the pillar of light, something appeared amongst the shadowy figures which weren’t figments of my imagination. It was the distant figure of the woman we'd been searching for. Her back was turned, and mindlessly, she limped toward the pillar like a drunken moth to light.

  “That’s her,” I alerted and stepped forward—

  One of the golden motes drifted away from the pillar like a leaf on a tree. Gently falling, it landed in Astraria’s cupped hands. She closed them and embraced the light.

  The floor beneath us was turned on.

  A kaleidoscope of images and scenes replaced the abyss. It was a chaotic movie with no discernible chronology or logic—a movie about me. Me, me, me, all me. Living different lives, walking down different paths, becoming different people, experiencing different futures. Living and dying.

  As the movie played, Astraria held her hands close to her chest—then she looked over her shoulder and seemingly stared right at us.

  I heard Kosmos gulp. “We’ve been had. Let’s go!”

  Without waiting for my response, he threw me over his shoulder and took to the sky. In a single jump, we were at least a dozen feet off the ground, and unlike my previous airborne stints, it felt more thrilling than dangerous. With his other hand, he called his signature [Etherlance]: a flawless silversteel spear with stardust twinkling from shaft to head.

  “Hup!” At the apex of his jump, he hurled [Etherlance], traveling the absurd distance from here to Astraria.

  Underneath her pixelated face, she seemed to sigh. With a simple snap of her fingers, she formed a seven-layer shield made of blank cards. The first four shattered immediately, unable to handle the full brunt. The fifth and sixth held on for a moment longer, but it came down to the seventh.

  Astraria refused to be idle and pressed her palm against the back of the card. A shockwave rang throughout the imaginary space and [Etherlance] tumbled away.

  “Dammit!” Kosmos said as we landed, recalling [Etherlance] back to his hand. He spun it around but not out of showmanship. Some sort of energy—an imbuement—formed around the spearhead. “Let’s try this again!”

  [Skill Activation: Aetherpure]

  His [Lance] flew. The sound was exactly what you’d imagine a shooting star would make. It soared perfectly straight and parallel to the ground. I couldn’t see the [Lance] itself but rather the energy-trail it left in its wake: white and pearly. This attack would easily pierce through Astraria’s seven-layer defense, and despite her state, she knew that.

  But she didn’t have to defend herself.

  The shadowy figures from before coalesced together, rapidly, becoming a solid mass of silhouettes. Dark hands and bodies put themselves before [Etherlance], and I thought they’d dissipate from the energy alone. When the [Lance] arrived, however, I was proven wrong. They survived and bunched inwards, absorbing the momentum and creating a gargantuan dent in the blob. The [Lance] refused to surrender and pushed on, growing the dent larger and wider and deeper.

  Someone had to budge first.

  It was them, but in a way we didn’t expect. Color washed over the individual silhouettes. Skin grew on their bodies and nails formed on each finger. Hair sprouted on their heads, then all the little details came together. The silhouettes wore casual clothes and uniforms and the rest of their cosmic wardrobe. They had a flawless complexion and so many scars that even Mongrel would get jealous. They were old and young and everything in-between—an uncountable number of variations.

  But they all shared two key characteristics: their eyes were pure orbs of white, and they had the same face as me.

  Together, as a hive, they sacrificed themselves to stop [Etherlance].

  Light emerged between their bodies, and an explosion rang.

  High in the air, [Etherlance] sparkled like a star—a falling, failed star. Around us, body parts began dropping. Arms, legs, parts of a torso, and heads. There wasn’t any blood or guts; rather, the “inside” of my “otherselves” were pure white like stuffing in a teddy bear. They were puppets. Terrifying, uncanny puppets that looked like me.

  Once again, Kosmos recalled [Etherlance] his hand, cursing under his breath. I’d been put on the ground a while ago, but this wasn’t looking good. “This will be harder than I thought. Alexander—!”

  He couldn’t finish his thought.

  More otherselves—no, puppets—rose from the ground like skeletons in a graveyard and surrounded us. Again, they had the diversity of infinity. Every possibility of me, old and young, successful and broken, was visualized. There had to be thousands, perhaps more, ordered to perform a single mission: to corrupt us just like how this space had corrupted Astraria. Right now, they stood motionlessly like mannequins at a mall, yet their white eyes would dominate my nightmares for years to come.

  This was a shitshow.

  Kosmos had to keep physical contact with me so I wouldn’t fall into corruption, but I couldn’t perform at my best due to my injuries. I was a burden—

  He thrusted [Etherlance] at me. “Take this and catch Astraria.”

  Before I could ask why, he forced me to take his signature. He let go, and I didn’t feel any different. “Kosmos—”

  “My spear is a part of me; it’ll ground your existence like I had. I’ll take care of your otherselves, so that means you have to dispatch Astraria yourself. Can you manage that?”

  Looks like he made my choice for me. No use trying to argue against him, right?

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  [Memento Recollection - Chain Gauntlets]

  I wrapped [Chains] around [Etherlance] so I would never let go of it. “Good hunting, Kosmos.”

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  “You too, Conqueror. Go and get 'em,” Kosmos said as the puppets awakened behind him. A dozen jumped at the same time, hands reaching out to take him—but in a split second, without him seemingly moving, they were all destroyed.

  I wasn’t as strong as him. I wasn’t as healthy as him, but I had one thing he didn’t: my [Mementos].

  [Conviction]

  Let my [Wings] give me strength and carry us home.

  I didn’t know how to fly, but this was the best time to practice.

  I ran toward my side of the puppets, toward the golden pillar, where Astraria stood and waited. Hundreds of me’s came alive and matched my pace; although their expressions were wooden, their bodies moved like hungry maniacs. My [Wings] flapped once, and I was lighter on my feet. Flapped twice and I had flight for a split-second—ah, not enough time or room.

  As my legs buckled and the bones within whined wanting to break, I jumped as hard as I could.

  [Conviction] carried me barely above the puppets’ heads, a few of their hands scratching my boots. I flew higher, then lower, higher again and back down, dangerously low, before I maintained a steady height. The puppets couldn’t reach me, and from the looks of it, there was a straight shot between me and Astraria.

  She was on the other side of the large mob, watching everything transpire.

  “ASTRARIA!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.

  She didn’t respond.

  Within moments, the puppets climbed on each other, forming a wall of themselves, and blocked her from view. Given the time and room, I wasn’t proficient enough with [Conviction] to swoop around, so that meant I could only do one thing: go straight ahead.

  I held [Etherlance] outward, my body an arrow, and soared.

  I pierced through. Puppets crumpled from the wall in pieces, but due to the obstruction and my lack of experience, I didn’t carry enough speed to freely pop out on the other side. They slowed me down just enough to grab onto my [Suit] and [Wings], and that’s how they chose my next destination: back to the earth.

  If I couldn’t fly around a wall, then I sure as hell couldn’t recover from a downward trajectory.

  Using it to my advantage, then, I let go [Etherlance]—thankful that having it wrapped in [Chains] still counted as “contact”—and laid it slack over my head. Right before I hit the ground, I swung the [Lance] down like a sledgehammer.

  As expected, it was going to do all the work for me.

  When the steel smacked against the floor, it generated a shockwave and blew the fuckers back—the closest ones having their legs snapped and broken. Everyone uselessly fell down. I joined them and crashed onto my shoulder. Familiar pain radiated throughout my nerves, but this pain was nothing to what I’d felt before—to what Astraria had felt.

  Even when my legs were weak, I stood on them. I ran on them, fearlessly into the mob of Alexander Shens.

  Fallen puppets grabbed at my ankles but I kicked them away. I tried flying once more, but these damned things were too persistent. My [Wings] were a climbing wall to them. I didn’t have the space for another take-off, so I made the executive division: I dispelled them, determined to make the rest of the trip on foot.

  To you, Astraria.

  Kosmos’s [Lance] cleaved through my possibilities.

  I dashed over their corpses.

  Through the standing puppets, I could barely see her. There was an impossible distance between us—no, it wasn’t impossible. No matter how long it takes, I’ll be there.

  The muscles in my body ached, reminding me of the many times I’d pushed myself too far.

  Just a little further, and the job will be done.

  Alexander Shens, from young to old, laid dead around me. I didn’t give them a second glance. None of them were me. None of them lived my life.

  No matter how many otherselves Astraria will show, there’s only me.

  [Etherlance] went through several puppets in a single swing.

  A single thrust skewered four at once.

  I screamed.

  They lunged.

  We fought.

  After cleaning away a swath of them, an opening appeared in the mob.

  On the other side was the sacrificed star, finally, after what felt like a lifetime of fighting.

  “Astraria!” I shouted after her, bumbling through the gap as fast as I could. The puppets closed in faster than I estimated, wasting no time to restrain me from touching their master. [Etherlance] swung around like a club, whacking away the puppets shackling me. Little-by-little, their holds loosened.

  Soon, I broke free.

  There was only empty space between me and her.

  Astraria seemingly gasped and stepped backwards out of panic, but she was too slow and didn’t move far enough.

  Incoherently yelling, I drove [Etherlance] toward her heart—

  And at the last moment, a card appeared in front of the spearhead.

  It shattered like glass, then soon the imaginary space did the same. Our environment was changing. The cosmic ocean above us was replaced by a clear blue sky, and the kaleidoscope below transformed into a brown earth. We stood in the middle of an ordinary forest, feeling the heat of a singular sun on the back of our necks.

  New sleeves rolled over my arms, and a different heart was thumping inside my chest. I didn’t feel so exhausted and sore anymore. Out of everything, only my [Mementos] and [Etherlance] remained the same. At the back of my head, someone was knocking at the door of my memories: my otherself of this Worldline.

  I didn’t care.

  Astraria, seeing the Angel inside the otherself, turned tail and fled. Like a rebellious princess, she sprinted through the trees and bushes, trying to evade her captor: me.

  With my temporary body, I kicked off the ground, feeling twigs and branches snap against my legs. In seconds, I caught up to her.

  Leaping off a fallen log, Astraria elegantly turned around and whisked a card at me.

  [Etherlance] destroyed it, and glass shattered.

  The forest was replaced by a bustling city just like Ordo. Unfortunately, she decided to drop us in the worst part of urban living: rush-hour. The trees transformed into angry cars with angrier drivers inside, honking their horns and swearing as two maniacs played tag in the middle of fucking oncoming traffic.

  Astraria effortlessly hopped on top of a truck, leapt onto a traffic-light then a poor taxi. I decided to take the low-road, weaving between vehicles and making them stop on my behalf. At the intersection, several cars had to swerve to avoid me and ended up crashing into each other. Astraria watched the destruction from her perch, and as an SUV entered the fray, she snapped her fingers.

  A card appeared underneath the exhaust.

  The SUV got launched in the air, hit the road, and started bouncing toward me—metal flying everywhere.

  Cursing, I slid underneath at the perfect moment, allowing the damned thing to bounce over my head. At the same time, I’d primed my arm.

  [Etherlance] was thrown, the [Chain] unraveling. I was no Kosmos, but I’d calculated the distance. I was barely in-range, and my aim was true.

  Glass shattered.

  An explosion burned my back and nearly knocked me over. Dirt showered my head and shoulders, and through my blurred vision, we were placed in Hell. Soldiers huddled together and behind the wheels of their transport, rifle-barrels burning amber and casings seeding the dirt, and explosions rang, rang, ringing. On the other side was the enemy, both participants separated by a long, clear, and most importantly, empty field home to only buried brass and craters.

  Astraria entered No Man’s Land, and I chased after.

  She braved a snowy blizzard marked by a whited-out sun, and I trekked through the cold.

  I reached out as we were submerged in the unfathomably deep ocean where only mysteries and horrors lived.

  Continuously, she escaped me, hiding amongst a crowd celebrating the recent presidential election.

  I found her inside a church, escaping through a crowd of devouts.

  I readied the [Lance], a few feet separating us, while fires and breachers devastated the city, and distantly, two children cried for their mother and father.

  For the last time, the [Etherlance] came.

  It shattered thousands of Worldlines and finally touched her heart. The silversteel sunk into her flesh, and the simulations came to an end. Reality itself became fragmented into glass shards, breaking and fracturing into millions of imperceptibly small pieces, before the imaginary space returned.

  We stood before the golden pillar of light, and I could individually count the trillions of lights making up the cosmic structure.

  But despite its splendor, a stunning beauty was standing before me.

  Astraria’s face was no longer hidden by pixels. Although this was the first time “we” had truly met, I could tell she was something of a diva. She prided herself on being mystical and intriguing, less like a snake and more like a diamond, but now… She laid everything bare, peering into me with her enchanting cosmic-blue eyes.

  Despite the steel buried in her chest, she smiled brightly. “Your fortune has come true once again, Alexander Shen!”

  I held onto [Etherlance], trying my best to smile back. “Astraria... This isn’t the first time ‘we’ve’ met."

  Astraria shook her head. “No, but only a dunce would chase a damsel into a treacherous place like this! That…” Intimately, she took hold of the [Lance] and made sure it stayed inside her. “That is what I admire most about you—the best versions of you, Alexander.”

  I gritted my teeth. So many questions ran through my head, but I couldn’t verbalize them. “Astraria—”

  Cracks formed on her arms, soon reaching up her neck and infecting her cheeks. Her skin was already flaking off. There was only white underneath. Yet Astraria didn’t look perturbed at all. She looked at peace. “Don’t cry, now. You’re just beginning on your journey, aren’t you?”

  More of her skin peeled off.

  “If this is the version I see, then surely, you will become the first SSS-Rank Slayer in your Worldline once more—”

  “Huh?” I started shaking my head. “What do you mean? Kosmos is the first one.”

  “What—?” Astraria’s eyes widened and her hold on the [Lance] tightened. “Who… Who is Kosmos?”

  I… I didn’t understand. Of all the Worldlines she’d seen, she never saw Kosmos?

  I told her, “Nathan Hyun.”

  “Nathan Hyun, someone as insignificant as him...?" As soon as she said his name, the gears clicked inside her head as more of her body crumbled. “I see… Miracles truly do beget miracles.”

  She let go of the [Lance] and cupped my cheeks. “Take your miracle and soar farther than we have. Stand with your friends and become the master of [Mementos]. Alexander, our hope for a perfect world hasn’t died yet. If it’s you—if it’s Nathan—then you both can accomplish what we, the Almagest, have been dreaming for many years.”

  I lowered my forehead and she placed her lips there.

  “This is my gift to you, o’ newly birthed Conqueror. Go and return home, and…” She couldn’t finish her last words.

  She was nearly spent, now.

  The last to disappear was her proud, hopeful smile.

  As the white light from her body overwhelmed me, I managed to squeak out one last sentence…

  “Goodbye, Astraria.”

  *

  [Commission “The Alternate Investigation” has been completed]

  [You have been paid 1,250,000ssp]

  [Metrics satisfied]

  [Achievement recognized]

  [Qualifications met]

  [Rank Ascension Commission “D-Rank Slayer” has been issued]

  [Due to the results of “The Alternate Investigation,” “D-Rank Slayer” has automatically been completed]

  [Congratulations, Conqueror! You are now a D-Rank Slayer!]

  [Available Skill Slots: 3 → 4]

  Commission: The Alternate Investigation

  Pay: 1,250,000ssp

  Description: I know this message won’t reach you, Alexander, because not everything from the Slayer System can be perceived by your eyes. But this is proof I existed, that someone is reading this. “Astraria” is merely a beautiful codename I’d picked out for myself. My real name is Seren Faye. For most of my life, I’ve foresaw countless fortunes. Of beauty, of destruction, of love, of terror. For you, Alexander of Angels Guild? I see a beautiful, long life as long as you protect it. Once you look around and see the wonders you have, only then you’re allowed to say, “You’ve been right all along, Astraria! My fortune has come true!”

  *

  [The sacrificed star imparted her gift unto you]

  The Fool’s Many Faces

  Rank ???

  Type: ???

  Description: Its effects have not yet been revealed…

  Acquisition Requirement: Unknown, though as you continue on your journey, the [Skill] may open itself to you.