Reborn. That may have been the only way to describe it. Once the door had swung open, Ceres lost all sense of self as the light consumed her. Maybe she had died. If she hadn’t, it sure felt like it. Like her soul was lifted from her mortal coil, stretched across the cosmos. But she wasn’t really gone. She knew that. The world she found herself in suggested otherwise. Even so, it was as gorgeous and serene as one could imagine the afterlife. An endless monochromatic expanse. A world of white. A world of simplicity. As if the word ‘purity’ had manifested.

The floor, like a blank canvas, held the hybrid’s body. Her black and red uniform pilfered from the Academy was the only color of note; white permeated every inch of the space, save for faint shadows and petals falling from trees. The trees themselves were odd. A genus Ceres had never seen before grew out of the white space in the distance, and from their pale branches bloomed dazzling lilies painted a soft, peach hue. The same scent she had caught when pushing the door open graced her nostrils. Even though the Outlands never had any such flowers nor trees, the sheer scent of them gave her a bittersweet, nostalgic feeling.

On top of everything, an almost deafening silence enveloped the place. A fact that finally led Ceres to an obvious realization: that her friends and allies alike had all but vanished upon entering… whatever it was. For the first time in a long while, she was truly and utterly alone. A sting of dread pricked her mind, but she quickly snubbed it. There was no use dredging up the pain of the past. She was here to rectify it, after all. Once this was all over, and Asteria was safe, she could put everything behind her.

“...What a putrid sight. Only she could have dreamt up something so horribly sisyphean.” An overly-enunciating and threatening voice rang out from the edge of the desolate world. A common house cat covered in purplish black fur walked leisurely over to where Ceres was getting to her feet. Its eyes were gone, replaced by two black pits that almost seemed to absorb the light around them.

“Ah…” Ceres stuttered as if she was going to ask what the cat was doing here of all places, but she closed her mouth, looked away, and muttered instead. “Oh, it’s you.”

Archizend chuckled, though calling it a chuckle wouldn’t be entirely accurate. It was a raspy, croaking wheeze that resembled what humans did when they witnessed something mildly amusing. His lips curled back into his usual, fanged grin. “I am happy to see you as well, hybrid. It has been quite a while since our last meeting. You may find it hard to believe, but it was… difficult to find time to talk. These past few days have been chaotic indeed. You have made great strides since that day we met. Your goal is so very close now, no?”

Ceres shot a daggerful glare at the cat. “Why are you here? What is this place?”

Archizend wandered about the void, then sat and peered deeply into the distance. Across the insipid whiteness were great towers of light extending into the cloudless, pale sky. “Same reason you are, of course. Just how Nia took something dear to you, she also wronged me in the past. As for this place, well… calling it a place isn’t entirely accurate. It is beyond the borders of reality, much like my woods. Thus, my coming here was simply a short trek compared to coming to your world.”

“Answer the question, cat. How would a place like this be underground?”

Archizend snickered. “You Outlanders really aren’t very bright.”

Ceres raised her claw in response to the provocation.

“I merely jest, hybrid. Like I said, this is akin to another world, like the woods I call home. Only, this was not created by me. It was created by Nia, manifested from her mind.”

“Her… mind?”

“Yes. Though to do this much, even she would require much more magic at her disposal.”

Ceres put her claw to her chin in thought. After a while, her eyes widened. “The Academy students?”

Archizend nodded slowly. “I would hazard a guess that they are deeper within, suffering at her hand to create such a realm. To do so would require the same amount of magical energy generated when one suffers a mental breakdown, as I’m sure you have experienced thus far.”

Ceres walked over to where the black cat was sitting and glanced about the realm as he did. “It’s so… lonely.”

“A lonely person is bound to manifest a lonely place. But this bleakness, this emptiness… it is unique to her. Without Lily, I’m certain this is how she views your world.”

Ceres felt an odd sensation. Almost like standing at the edge of a cliff, but also like looking deeply into a mirror. If one were to stare into a reflection for too long, they might long to crawl inside it and discover how it would be to live in a mirrored version of their own life. It was almost like that for her, but the danger was much too great. The pangs of sadness and loneliness she felt, even when surrounded by her comrades, were enough. To gaze into another’s suffering was almost too much. And when that person’s suffering had the possibility to become her own, it terrified her. How would she view a world without Asteria? Her heart nearly gave out at the thought.

Archizend planted a paw on Ceres’s bare leg. Though it came from a cruel source, his fur was surprisingly soft and warm. “Calm yourself. I cannot promise you anything, but I can tell you that your sister is still alive. I can sense her. Though, she is in a great deal of pain.”

Ceres clasped her claw violently. Her fierce, verdant eyes narrowed. She couldn’t wait any longer. After so long, she would be able to hug Asteria again. To look after her. To play with her. To run along the coast with her again. Even if the village was gone forever, even if their parents had truly fallen to the dark wolves that massacred everyone she knew and loved, she would still have her sister. Her light. Her star.

“Hybrid…!”

So she ran, and Archizend followed. No one else clouded her mind; not Grovalt, not the others, not even Nakir. Asteria needed to be saved and could be saved, at last. The glossy, monochrome stairways seemed to appear as she moved, like stepping stones being revealed by the water’s push and pull. Only the sound of her own pounding footsteps echoed throughout the emptiness. She passed through featureless structures, pale rooms, and winding paths of nothingness. Only that same scent of lilies and the flowers themselves graced her mad sprint.

At last, something of note entered her vision. A person, at last, laid back in a marble chair. They were wearing the same uniform Ceres had donned.

Only, they did not react to her. The black uniform with red accents featured naught but red; crimson liquid had dyed nearly their entire body. They were small and frail. A child from the Academy. Beside their throne was odd technological equipment, similar to what Ceres had spotted flying past across the Technicist railway. Syringes and metal rods were injected into the person. A sight most terrible caused her to lose her balance when she gazed upward at the child’s face.

Rather, it no longer resembled a face. The skin and the skull beneath were bisected surgically, exposed to the quiet air. The skin peeled backward onto their shoulders, and two halves of their skull lay on top of it with perfect symmetry. The only thing untouched was the student’s mind. Their brain, pristine yet vile all the same, was left hanging above them, still connected to the brainstem and the spinal cord. Long, ropey coils were stabbed into it, and the cords that connected them hung from somewhere unseen far above.

Ceres was sick. She tore her eyes from the horrible sight before her and fell to her knees. Once again, the urge to vomit rose in her throat. With a strained swallow, she subdued it. Even then, she could not stomach another glance at whatever she had witnessed.

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“I warned you, hybrid.” The apocryphal cat appeared at her side with the same, empty eyes. They gave her no comfort. “No matter what that dragon has told you, or anyone else, Nia has changed. Or, perhaps it is better to say that she hasn’t changed at all since those times…” He snickered cruelly, as if he truly did not care for Ceres’s well-being in the slightest.

Ceres was on the verge of tears. A raging, itching, burning feeling crawled its way into her heart. “Why…? Why…”

Archizend jumped onto the apparatus and examined the poor student’s fate. A sight that was unbearable to her was nothing to the enigmatic being. “These machines are simultaneously torturing them and draining them of their magic. They replay their worst memories, making them relive the same trauma over and over again unto eternity. However, they are kept at the very border of a mental breakdown. Such is to garner as much energy as possible without altering the body’s physical nature. Fascinating.”

The body twitched ever so slightly in the same way ad nauseum. Every time it did, a faint chime rang out across the expanse.

“How can you say that? Don’t you feel anything for them…? What they’re going through… it’s a living hell.”

Archizend shook his head. “What you may feel for them is nothing compared to their suffering. As for me… I am beyond despair, hybrid. To give into emotion is just what Ymiris wants from us, and I will not play her game.”

Ceres looked up at the cat and blocked her sight from catching the mutilation before her. “Ymiris? You mean the Goddess? What does she have to do with any of this?”

Archizend wheezed dryly. It sounded as if a corpse had chuckled. His unhinged, unnatural grin showed on his face. “Everything, dear hybrid. Everything.”

Ceres revealed her dagger from its safe-keeping within her clothes, and stared down at it for a long while. As if she had come to some kind of decision, she firmly gripped its hilt and stepped forward. With a quick slash, her eyes closed, every electric coil connecting to the child’s mind was severed. As a result, the machines rumbled to a deathly whimper, then stopped functioning entirely. The disheveled student followed suit. After lifetimes of torment, they were finally allowed to rest.

The cat, who had made his way further into the distorted world, called out to her. “Hurry along. Realize that they were supporting this section. Not even I am sure of what would happen if you were caught in its erasure.”

With a sorrowful visage, Ceres reluctantly answered Archizend’s call.

As he had insinuated, the paths they had tread moments before faded away right before their eyes. The space warped and fizzled out of existence, as if it was water evaporating before the harsh sunlight.

“Before you ran off, I was going to elaborate. Nia has created such a world for two purposes. One is to entrap you all and force you to bear witness to its second purpose. If you are to escape such a trap, we must cut apart the net.”

Ceres wiped the remnants of tears from her eyes. “You mean, if we free the rest of the students, we’ll return to the real world?”

Archizend nodded.

Wandering farther and farther away from the decaying portion of the realm, they came upon patches of color. Vibrant, green grass grew out from the pale floor. Eventually, it began to merge into a scene out of a storybook. A patch of grassland that reminded Ceres a bit of the Outlands, though it was much nicer than any Outlands plain. A closer resemblance were the grasslands in the outskirts of Aza, where Imeldra’s mansion once stood before its collapse. A single tree, unlike the ones they had come across before, stood in the middle of the plot. Its trunk was sturdy and strong, and leaves gracefully adorned its branches, just as verdant as the land beneath.

“This is…”

Archizend trailed off when a figure came prancing out from behind the tree. A young girl with angelic, white hair and scarlet eyes. Her face and kind smile reflected the fabricated sunshine.

“...a mirage.”

“Mirage?” The girl said with a posed look. She tilted her head to one side, her eyes upturned to ponder the word. “Funny as always, Pluto.”

“Pluto…? Who is this? Cat?” Ceres leered at Archizend, but the cat did not care for her words.

“Nia is truly ill,” he eked out and coughed. His lungs sounded as if they had lost to time long ago. “Mysticism for mysticism’s sake.”

“Who’s this, Pluto? Brought a friend?” The girl grabbed and clasped Ceres’s hands in her own. She gave her a beaming smile. It was both friendly and curious.

“Ignore her, hybrid. It is no more than some cobbled illusion. She seeks to delay us even more. We must find the-”

“Oh, Pluto! I missed you dearly my kitty-witty! Come here, now. It’s your favorite sister! Hehe.” The white-haired girl ruffled Archizend’s facial fur in little circles and stroked his head. It seemed his abyssal eyes didn’t put her off one bit. The black cat raised his paw in retaliation, extending his claws, but the girl picked him up before he had the chance and cradled him like a baby. “Don’t be difficult. It’s me, Lily.”

“Lily!?” Ceres stumbled backwards in disbelief.

The girl’s eyes widened to an unnatural degree. They glowed beneath the light filtered through the tree. Leaves gently fell around them as a strange wind brushed past. Some time passed. The quietness of it all. The tranquility. It calmed Ceres when she thought she could never be calm. Confusion still racked her, but she knew it would be resolved. Lily finally released Archizend from her arms.

“Is it…? No, it cannot be. You are not the real one. Not even a piece of her.” For the first time, Ceres sensed an emotion building in the cat. His words were drenched in hopeless sorrow.

They all sat beneath the great tree. Under any other circumstance, it might’ve been a delightful meeting. Again, memories surfaced in Ceres’s mind. Picnics. Asteria. The Outlands, what they thought was the extent of the world, seemed so large back then. If only she could tell her now; about all the wonderful places she’d seen. And the sad ones. And the ones with no name. Emptiness known to all yet unknown, without a title.

Lily’s twin ruby-like eyes dug a hole in Ceres’s heart. It was almost as if she wasn’t looking at her, and was instead peering directly into her soul. Nothing seemed to escape her gaze. “You’ve been to our house, huh? It wasn’t always so dark and dreary. On sunny days it was a beautiful thing. To a child as I was, that house was very much the same as your land. Full of wonder, yet so empty. Though, I guess when you’re young, that emptiness doesn’t really bother you.”

Ceres hated herself for the question burning within her, but she asked it anyway. “What are you, exactly?”

Lily looked down at Archizend, who was laying in a loaf, and petted him. “Perhaps… a version of Lily. One from the recesses of Nia’s mind. Time and time again, she would call my name. On sleepless nights. On dark days, through sobs. But I could never answer her. And now that I can, she doesn’t dare listen. I’m not real enough for her, I suppose.”

Ceres, too, looked down at Archizend.

“Ah,” Lily chimed in again. “Pluto was his name before. That’s why I called him that. But you aren’t that same stray cat anymore.” She gave him a smile, slightly tinged by sadness.

“No, Lily, I am not. However…” The cat fell silent for a time. “Your dear pet still remembers you. He is still here, within me. Deep below the surface. His feelings are mine, and mine his.”

Lily teared up, and promptly began wiping her wet cheeks with her dress. “Sorry,” she sniffled. “I’m just so very happy to hear that.”

Silence permeated the three once again. Only the brustling of the branches above caught their ears. That, and the sound of Lily trying to regain her composure.

“Listen,” Ceres spoke. “There’s someone we’re looking for. Multiple people, actually. Do you think-”

Lily raised a palm to quell the rest of her sentence. “Say no more, Ceres. I may be a part of Nia, but that doesn’t mean I’m here to stall you. In fact, since I know this place all too well, I can help you find them. It may look rather large, but they shouldn’t be far at all. We’ll find them in no time.”

“Really? You’d help us?”

“Of course. Nia, she… she’s nothing more than a lost, confused child. Always has been, especially since my death. When I was taken from her, she had no one. She was all alone in that shadowed manor. Every quiet corner, every creaking floorboard, every part of that place reminded her of me. Maybe… maybe that’s why she’s so afraid of speaking with me. She’s terrified of coming to terms with it all. All the loneliness and the hatred and the fear she felt on that day are locked up inside of me. Accepting me would be like accepting Lily’s death. For her, it would be unthinkable.”

Ceres deftly clasped Lily’s hand and brought her to her feet. “Okay. Then, I trust you. And… we’ll try to convince Nia to come to her senses one way or another. For now, lead the way.”

Peering beyond the tree and the plain they were stood upon, Lily pointed into the distance. Along the faded horizon were colossal columns of light that nearly pierced the sky. “Your friends should be in those. I will warn you, though. They’re meant to turn their greatest fears against them. What you see may change your views on them completely, for better or worse.”

Ceres ran ahead and turned around, a confident and determined expression on her face. “The past’s the past. Doesn’t change the fact that we’re a team. No matter what we face over there, we’ll charge right through it. And then we’ll kick Nia’s ass and save my sister.”