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The feeling of that blade slicing through her flesh felt so real…but it happened so fast, she didn't realize until the faces turned to her that it had even happened. One second this girl was like every other patron in that tavern who stood there watching all this fighting unfold, and in the next second, she became a casualty of it. It seems so incredible, and oh so unpredictable, it could have happened to anybody. Funny how the rules of this world and reality works. One could call something like this an act of pure unpredictable natural chaos…or maybe even a loose idea of controlled chaos.

???: “Oh…what's this? Why did this happen? Where am…Ah, I see now. You died…already? Well that happened much sooner than I think anybody could have expected, so please educate me stranger. You come here to this place, walk around for a few and you already managed to get yourself killed? You must have done something to anger the gods, no doubt. Maybe you're the type of girl who attracts unwanted bad omens to the world.”

Maria, who had begun to slowly regain consciousness, suddenly jolted awake upon hearing the strange voice. She tried her best to look around…but she couldn't. Everything around her was pitch black darkness. It was as if her entire body had been paralyzed, she couldn't feel her arms, legs, head, fingers, or anything else for that matter. She was awake no doubt, she heard a voice and she was thinking, wondering where it could have possibly come from.

Maria: “What…is this? Am I dead? Hello! Is anybody here with me? I heard you talking! Are you the one that sent me here!”

After she yelled out, she felt a strong presence grow in front of her field of vision, the pitch black void that she had been staring at was soon enveloped in an otherworldly purple glow, with a light humming soon following along with it, emitting some sort of heat.

???: “Well girl…It looks to me like you're probably dead. I mean, you can still talk and see it seems, but from my point of view you don't have a body to speak of…or an essence for that matter…how strange. So, I ask again, how did you die so easily? Are you prone to get yourself into that kind of trouble all the time?”

Maria: “W-what do you mean? You think I go around asking people to stab or cut me? I could do all of that myself so why would I get somebody else to do it! I'm just so sick and tired of all of this, nothing that has happened here makes any sense, I just got my throat cut open so why am i still alive? Why doesn't it hurt anymore? Honestly with all that…horrible pain gone…it's hard to believe that it even happened. And who are you anyways?”

???: “Look girl, you know about as much as I do, I was simply given a task and then sent off, little did I know that I would end up in your useless dying mind…but I keep hearing voices telling me to do certain tasks so…anyways, you ask too many questions. Alright, now listen to me, I don't know why the hell I was sent into your mind and to be honest I don't really care. Unlike you I am what you could call a ‘critical thinker’, all I need to do is to do a task. I assume that that task is helping you, after all why else would I be in your mind.”

Maria, becoming increasingly annoyed by the invisible voice, meekly interjected.

Maria: “What, so you're some kind of…guardian angel? Well you seem to be a pretty bad one considering I died in that horrible world on the first day. W-what kind of place was that anyways? It…looked so strange, it wasn't earth, it just couldn't be. With all the strange food and the weird animals and the weird writing I saw on those signs…I really did get transported to another world, didn't I?”

Whether it was obvious or not, Maria was clearly still shaken up, if not straight up traumatized by what had just occurred a few moments ago. Being dragged into a bar, getting served free food, and all of that only to meet an embarrassing death by accidental stabbing, and to the throat no less.

???: “Ha! Guardian angel? As if I would waste my time dedicating my entire existence to protecting somebody who so clearly can't read a room, you should have left that place at the start, but I suppose there isn't any use in complaining about it now. Alright girl listen, just stop panicking and hear what I have to say. Now as I said earlier I don't know why I ended up in your head, one second I was somewhere else and now i'm here, to be frank I don't have much memory of anything before this, all I know is that there is something im supposed to be doing here…I think, so I'm going to give you a run down of what Im able to gather from your memories.

Maria, having finally calmed down a bit, realized that the only way any progress was going to be made here is if she heard what this disembodied voice had to say, after all, it seemed a lot more calm and collected than herself, that's for sure. He talked in a gravely yet confident tone, but that didn't take away from the fact that the voice sounded a bit…insensitive to Maria’s overall situation, it more or less seemed only keen on completing its own goal and objective, whatever that may be.

Maria: “Fine…*sigh* Please, tell me anything you need to tell me, at this point any explanation would work for me…if I even deserve anything like that.”

???: “Good then. Now, I'm not sure where you come from or what you are, but this planet is called orbus…the current country you are in is known as the valerican empire…and you appeared out of nowhere in a town called status, a small trading town, yes that seems to be correct. Well mystery girl, it seems that whatever brought you here liked you well enough to drop you into the most secure country in the whole world, and yet despite that you still didn't last a day, but looking through your memories i now see that it wasn't exactly your fault, but that annoying girl that was dragging you around…she must have been annoying.”

Maria: “W-well i mean…yeah she was annoying, but she didn't even know me and still went out of her way to feed me and talked to me…so if you ask me she is a pretty good person, so please don't insult her, none of that was her fault either, it was that one crazy guy and his…wait a minute, when you said ‘whatever brought me here’ are you meaning to say that you know I'm from another world? As in not from this planet?”

The invisible force, staying silent for a few seconds, grunted.

???: “That's exactly what I'm confused about, you seem to be some kind of anomaly to this world. I was able to see into your memories pretty clearly but I can only go back as far as when you woke up next to a riverside…anything before that is almost non-existent and pretty hazy, and with what fragmented memories i can pull from before are all blurry and doesn't make sense to me…i see things i have never seen on orbus, my only conclusion is that either you have a very creative mind or that you have no history with this world at all.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

As Maria kept listening to the voice, it became more and more apparent how truly alone in this place she was. Not only being too scared to come off as a freak towards Ursa in that bar with weird questions, but not even this invisible presence could make sense of anything it saw in Maria’s head. A sinking feeling started to arise within her as she thought.

{If this thing talking to me can't explain how i got here or how I could go home…then who else would. Just the thought of actually having to walk around that place to find the right person to try to talk to makes me sick…I don't want to go back there, I don't even know if I CAN go back there…}

???: “So…I guess I have no choice but to ask…are you from this place girl? And before you say anything, know that whatever you tell me better be the truth, otherwise I won't be able to help you…”

Maria: “No…i'm not from here, i'm from a place called earth. I was laying down on my sofa and when I almost fell asleep I saw some kind of…shadow in the corner of my living room and after I woke up I ended up here. I know some of those things or names might not make sense to you but I told you the truth. So…there.”

The presence, after hearing what maria had to say was completely silent, whatever maria said in those few sentences must have surprised it. From what maria could gather from the way the presence spoke, it seemed that its only experiences are from this world, meaning that some things she said didn't make sense to it in the first place.

???: “I see now, you came from earth…and I assume that this planet you speak of is surrounded by moons and stars like orbus. Well I suppose that the thousand years are up…aren't they…then i guess this situation we find ourselves in can't be helped.”

Maria: “What do you mean by that? Why can't it be helped? You're making no sense! Can you take me back to my home or am I dead?”

As the conversation went on, the presence took more and more time to respond. It felt almost like the voice was thinking of what to say before it continued, it was a night and day contrast to how it was acting earlier, it talked in an annoyed and snarky attitude a few minutes ago but now? Now it seemed hesitant to say anything.

???: “It can't be helped because it just can't, I'm bound to you until you leave this place…your presence here was completely unexpected by myself, that's why I was sent into your mind then. Therefore…you can't die yet. Ok, well listen to me…Maria, you're extremely lucky that I'm here now, usually people who have voices in their head are out of their goddamn minds, but in this situation, you have me, and I am very capable of thinking and skilled in using what I have at my disposal. I am going to get you out of here one way or another, after all you really shouldn't be here.”

Maria: “O-oh! That's…surprising, this is great, ok i'm ready! What do I have to do to go home? Do we have to like…make a deal or something? Or is it some kind of puzzle I have to solve? I will do anything as long as it gets me back in my room as soon as possible.”

???: “*scoffs* Well, I wouldn't exactly call what we CAN do a ‘deal’, it's more like a forced curse that you're gonna burden whether you like it or not, not that I have a choice in the matter either. We both are stuck here, you're stuck in this universe and I'm stuck in your mind, meaning if you don't wise up to your situation you're dragging me down with you, much like another one i had to deal with. Anyways, i'm not in control so there is no use asking me to send you back, but somewhere in this world can, and by my best guess, i have to help you get there. Basically, I will be the shining light at the end of whatever random shit you have to do to get out of here, and then I can go back to doing nothing like I am supposed to do. You understand anything I'm telling you?”

Maria: “Yeah I get it…you're gonna help me get to wherever I need to go to get back home, but how do we know where it is? Can't you just…i dunno, use some sort of teleportation to get us there? I know there is magic in this world so wouldn't that make sense?

???: “Look, I might be pretty impressive on my own but things like that cant just happen, I cant teleport people wherever they want, there are rules and stipulations to what isn't and is permitted in this world and boundaries even I can't break, as much as I wish I could. Perhaps if I had my memories from long ago I could but not now, you're gonna have to go there on your own two legs with me trying to guide. And as for the first question, no…I don't know where it is exactly, I have a very cloudy interpretation of what the location might be. We will have to figure that out later, but in your current state you won't be doing any walking…I wonder.”

Maria: “Going off what your saying im being forced to spend more time in this world…just wonderful, if 20 minutes in a bar was enough to end me how am i going to go 20 feet without something horrible happening to me again…i feel just as hated by the world in this place as i did on earth, and to top it all off…how am i even going to go back to that world? Didn't I die? Or am I just injured?”

Maria for all intents and purposes wasn't actually sure if she had died or not, she could have just trusted the voice after he said that she had died but after passing out, there was really no telling. Maybe whoever took her was able to get to a healer in time? Maybe this entire conversation she was having at this moment is a dream and she is going to wake up from it any second.

???: “Oh believe me, you're very dead, in fact you officially died right there on the spot when you passed out. If I hadn't been placed inside your head at that very moment you wouldn't even be having this conversation, and that annoying Ursa girl surely wouldn't have found a healer in time. And before you even ask, no...I don't know why I'm here or who sent me, and frankly that doesn't matter, your focus has to be going home, not asking meaningless questions with no answer.”

{This guy is getting more and more annoying every second i talk to him…}

Maria: “Alright I get it…you have nothing to say about that. So, as i said before, if i'm dead then how am i gonna get back there?”

???: “Hmmm, yeah…you being dead is a bit problematic isn't it? Well the powers that sent me here seemed to have that figured out for us, I'm not sure what it is but what I do know is that I am able to activate it…it's only a matter of when you're ready to go back.”

Maria, already ready to figure out how to get back home, is more than prepared to go back in, as long as she knows that she has a way to go back home.

Maria: “I don't really feel comfortable with the fact that you don't know what's about to bring me back to life…but at this point I don't even care anymore, just tell me what to do and I'll do it, I'm ready…wait, if i'm going to be followed around by you then i should know your name right? What am I supposed to call you?”

The presence, seemingly perplexed by the question, groans before he is able to give a proper response.

???: “it appears that when i lost my memory, i also forgot something as simple as a name, to be honest i'm not even sure if i ever had a name, i'm sure that out of everything to forget that that wouldn't be one of them. I tell you what…you give me a name and i'll go by that, good for you?”

Maria: “Oh…well then, I never had to give a name to anything before, and I'm not really good at boys' names, I guess I can call you…Gregory? James? I guess if I really wanted to be mean then I could call you Lucifer, after all your bodiless voice is kind of gravely and scary, like a demon.

???: “*groans* yeah you're really bad at names…the first 2 were really stupid sounding, i don't like them, but lucifer…interesting choice there. Fine then, you shall call me Lucifer, sounds distinguished enough to my liking.

Maria: “Oh…ok then, didn't expect you to take that one seriously but if you like it then fine by me…so then…lucifer, can i go back now?”

Maria, who never really spent a lot of time around people who she wasn't close and comfortable with in the first place, was rather unable to get social cues or make jokes up at the right time so the joke she made prior didn't exactly resonate with the voice but in the grand scheme of things that didn't really matter, all that mattered in the moment was being sent back to figure all of this out.

Lucifer: “Alright then, I guess it's time for me to send you back in, let's do this…now i'm not really sure how this works, once your awake it's a gamble on whether i'll be able to communicate with you or not so be prepared for the worst, i'll see you on the other side.”

And with that being said, maria hears a noticeable snapping of unseen fingers, then the purple glow in front of maria starts to pulsate, becoming more and more blurry with each passing second. Little by little she feels the dark world that currently surrounds her begin to shrink and writh as a high pitched ringing resonates within this world.

Lucifer: “Oh and by the way maria…not only can i see your memories, I can hear your thoughts as well…thinking me as annoying? That's just like you…you never change, don't you?”

With those final words being said, Maria, starting to feel nauseous from the spinning and turning of the world, starts to feel sleepy as she finally dozes off into another sleep, wondering with a pained feeling how her resurrecting is going to go.