For the first time in her long life, Nex had actually blacked out. It was a wholly new sensation to her. She had never truly slept or had even had a dream before. Her closest encounter was the times she had been injured during a fierce attack, and had had to take a pause to allow her biomass to recover.

She opened her eyes and found herself in a strange space. It was an infinitely vast room that made no sense. A slowly moving swirl of murky blackness and white material danced along the floor. There was no ceiling or walls as far as she could see.

The only thing that she could make out was a lone girl sitting at a small white table with a set of red chairs. As Nex walked towards her, she observed the girl and was surprised.

She wore a purely white and ornate dress that greatly contrasted her long but plain brown hair.

As Nex grew nearer and nearer, she finally recognized the mysterious girl. She was the previous owner of the body she now inhabited.

“Come have tea and chat with me for a bit won’t you Nex?” She said while flashing Nex a charming smile.

“It seems interesting, and I guess I do owe you one for the vessel.” Nex said with a wry smile.

She took a seat and began to sip on the tea in front of her. The girl’s brown eyes, filled with madness, never left Nex as she sampled the drink.

“I hope you like it. I think I was one of my favorites. But where are my manners? It’s nice to actually meet you face to face. My name is, or I guess was, Mina.” The girl named Mina rambled.

“I’ve had better, but it’s acceptable. So precisely where are we right now? I have some guesses, but I was looking at those mutts, and now I’m here.” Nex said nonchalantly.

“Muu! So cold! But I guess you wouldn’t know considering you're not from Iretas. I guess if I described it in words you would understand, it is a magically constructed metaphysical space that is tied to the mana core in our body.” said a pouting Mina.

A terrifying pressure began to rise around Nex as she shot an icy look towards her new twin.

“Now that’s really fascinating. How pray tell, did you figure that one out?”

“Waah! I’m sorry, okay! When I first woke up here I was so bored I started to play around and found out that I could watch your memories. But I stopped after a few years!”

“Show me how.” Commanded Nex.

Mina slowly raised her open palm and closed her eyes. For a brief moment, she appeared completely absorbed, until finally, a jet-black and sinister looking book dropped into her hands. She flipped to one of the pages.

“A-All I have to do is touch one of the pages and close my eyes. Then I get a kind of vision where I see everything you saw on that day.” She hurriedly explained with the utmost honesty.

A sigh escaped Nex’s lips as the pressure surrounding her dissolved like it was never even there.

“Well, I can’t be too mad if that’s all you did. And it’s not like you’re alive anymore to tell anyone the truth of what I am. So, how are you here in the first place? As far as I know, humans can’t come back to life.” Remarked Nex as she idly stirred her tea.

Mina, with a relieved expression, let out a breath and continued her explanation.

“Now keep in mind that I’m not as knowledgeable as an accomplished mage or priest, but we were always taught here on Iretas, when you die your soul slowly leaves your body and goes somewhere to be judged by the gods. After I was killed in the forest, I think most of my soul was able to leave my body. But I think that when you fused your biomass into my body trapped a part of my soul inside this space.”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Very curious. I’ll have to do some experiments and figure out how these so-called ‘souls’ function some other time. But what is your goal here? To have me force you out of this body or to try and take control from me? If you have looked at my memories I’m sure you know I watched your last moments without lifting a finger. You humans do love holding a grudge after all.” Nex said impassively, while staring at Mina.

“No, no! Nothing scary like you said. I don’t blame you for what happened to me one bit. Asking someone like you to help me in that circumstance would be like asking nature itself to come to my aid. And if you remove me I don’t think you’ll be able to use the mana core.” Said Mina as she shook her head in denial.

“Then why call me here?” Questioned Nex, tilting her head in confusion.

“Hehe, so you could figure out that much. There are two reasons!” Holding up two fingers Mina said cheerfully.

“Firstly, I want to ask you a favor. Could you let me take care of the garbage that killed me? I promise I’ll give you back control when I’m done. Not that I could stop you from taking it back in the first place. I just want to pay them back a hundredfold for the suffering they put me through. And in exchange I’ll teach you everything I know about this area!”

“Sure, that seems to be a fair enough trade. As long as I can somehow watch and make sure none of them are able to escape, I have no problems with your suggestion. But what’s the second one?”

At the mention of her second request, Mina’s face blushed, she turned her gaze away from Nex, and mumbled something inaudible in response.

“f..r…n..d”

“Hmm? I can’t hear you. What was that?”

“I want to be your friend!” Shouted an embarrassed and reddened Mina.

“Pfft! You really are something else. Why do you want to be friends with me? You know what and how I am. I just don’t feel emotions like you humans do, and I just do what I think is interesting. I’ve probably devoured hundreds of thousands of girls that are similar to you. And even knowing this you still ask this of me? You really must be insane. I don’t even really understand what human friends do.” Nex said in an amused tone.

“Just come have tea and chat with me occasionally! It gets lonely being in this place by myself after all.” replied Mina with a sad smile.

“I suppose that’s not a problem. It would be nice to have someone I don’t have to skin alive to get answers out of.” Nex responded with a toothy grin.

“Phew, alright. Now I guess I’ll get going. Don’t want those bugs to find you passed out behind a tree after all.”

“How is this going to work? I don’t see any way out of this space.”

“Don’t worry. This place is basically under our total control. Watch and be amazed!”

Just like she had done earlier with the book, Mina held out her hand and closed her eyes. A moment later, a large red door and a dull black mirror appeared before the pair.

“Pretty cool right?” Mina said, making a smug face.

“Definitely makes no logical sense. Seems I’ll have to play around while you blow off some steam.”

“Aw come on. Would it kill you to give me a little praise? Well make sure you watch me wipe the floor with them through the mirror.” She remarked before opening the door.

“Don’t forget to try and use Identify on one of them at least if you can. It would be preferable to have a baseline of strength on Iretas. Hopefully none of them have a high fate value.”

“Okay! I’ll give it a shot!” She waved as she stepped through the door.

Nex sat down in one of the red chairs with a huff. She had a lot to think about after how bizarre that interaction was. The whole time speaking with ‘Mina’ or whatever she was, Nex felt a strange feeling of resonance with her. It was like her original body had instinctually recognized Mina as very similar to her. Her conclusion was just as startling as finding someone else living inside your head.

It appeared like Mina’s soul had been severely tainted by Nex’s biomass or something more metaphysical like her ‘soul’. But that was just part of the problem.

Nex had made relentless efforts on every planet she explored, experimenting with various methods to ascertain whether she possessed a spirit or soul, just as the humans professed. The only issue is that she failed every single time.

It also seemed, unbeknownst to Mina, that her personality and manner of speech had become closer to how Nex was when she first became a conscious being. A multitude of questions went through Nex’s mind as she watched the carnage on the black mirror.

Why did her biomass have this kind of unprecedented impact on a dead body?

What really was magic or this strange mana organ?

And most importantly, just what was she going to do with this new twin living in her head?

She had never had a friend before, only pets and someone she couldn't categorize into either group. From what she knew of human psychology, it did not make any sense that Mina would want to be friendly with a walking and talking genocide.

After thinking about it for a while, she decided that, as someone with no comprehension of human emotions, it would be easier to just go along with the suggestion. It would be far easier for Nex to conduct experiments and gain intel from a friendly voice in her head than an uncooperative one. The true feelings of her little stowaway would of course become more clear over the length of her vacation. There was no reason to rush after all.

Just as she decided this she noticed Mina had finished her bloody reunion.

“Damn, that cheeky girl made such a mess. Well I guess it would have been boring to start my incognito life in a place like this anyway. Seems I’ll have to get rid of it after all.”