"...You stink." Lina sniffled as she pushed Glenn away with a smirk.

Glenn stepped back with a pained expression, only to grin widely and pull her back, "Ah~ too bad, I think I need to check if you are real a little more..."

"Ah, fuck off!"

Lina smiled and turned away while wiping the tears off her face. Glenn sighed deeply and collapsed into one of the sofas. Lina sat before him and hugged her knees, her right hand covered under thick bandages.

"...So we both ended up in another world, then?" Glenn scoffed and rubbed the back of his head.

Lina nodded slowly, "This is so...so insane. I can't help but believe that this is a very, very long nightmare."

Glenn laughed dejectedly, "Hah, trust me, nightmares are better than this place if you're unlucky..." He shook his head and grimaced, thinking back to when he was tortured in the Thorn's Church prison.

'I'm not sure telling your sister that you went through months of literal torture is an exactly good idea,' Diamanes commented from within his host's mind. Glenn moistened his lips and leaned back.

"So, how did you end in this world then?" He asked with his arms crossed.

"...I..." She hugged her knees tighter, "...I woke up in the middle of a desert of black sand. Wherever my eyes reached, there was only sand, sand, and more sand. I only understood I was in another world when I took the time to look up and found—"

Glenn flicked his fingers, interrupting her, "—The twin moons, right?"

Lina nodded with a frown, "Yeah...but they're not twins though? The larger one was red, and the smaller white."

Glenn froze, "So you also arrived in this world during the Moon Rift. That's...shit, I need to ask Onnea at some point. Do I need to almost kill myself to have a meeting with her...?"

Lina shook her head in confusion, "What the hell are you talking about? Moon Rift?" She paused, and her eyes widened, "Wait, don't tell me. The big moon isn't always red, right?"

Glenn nodded, "Yeah, they also call it a—"

"Blood Moon!" She exclaimed in realization, cutting him off, "Like...like in that game, uh, the one with Link."

Glenn laughed, "Yeah, only there are things that fall from a big-ass dimensional hole opening up during said Blood Moon."

Lina moistened her lips, "Yeah, I know. There was that huge crystal with—" She suddenly closed her eyes and tightened her lips, her jaws clenched. Glenn raised an eyebrow, amused.

'Hey, do you think I could make a surprise appearance or something? I don't know she did not notice your purple arm yet,' Diamanes asked with slight disbelief.

'Let's...let's give her some time first,' Glenn replied with a smirk. Oh, how he wanted to see her face when she was going to realize that her brother was also cursed with that annoying, sarcastic parasite living rent-free in one of his hands.

"...Sorry," She finally blurted out with a tinge of annoyance, "I...I still have a hard time believing this is real. I...when I fell into the darkness and the hole, and somehow didn't die even though I fell for ages, I thought I was damned. I..." She rubbed her forehead with a wince, "...I think I might have gone crazy from the time I spent alone there. I keep..." She hesitated before shaking her head, "...Never mind."

Glenn sighed, wondering how he would have fared had he been forced to live for more than a year, alone in the darkness, with only sand and Diamanes' voice to help him survive. No wonder she believed she was going insane, even more so with Diamanes as her sole companion.

Lina touched the bandage on her right hand and grimaced. "Also, ever since I touched that...that crystal back then, my...my right hand, it..." She bit on her lips, struggling. Glenn leaned forward and simply pointed at his left arm with a wry expression. Lina blinked at the purple skin, her mouth and eyes opening widely. She pointed at Glenn's arm with a trembling hand, speechless.

Glenn grimaced, "Yeah, uh, I also know about this situation, so, uh, the voice you spoke of..." He clasped his hands together, "...it might be, uh, real, you know?"

"As real as me, haha!" Diamanes suddenly exclaimed aloud, appearing within Glenn's palm with a wide grin. Lina jumped back, startled, before looking at her left hand in shock.

"So..." She muttered, "...I wasn't hallucinating it?"

She shook her head in awe as she gently unwrapped the bandages hiding the purple of her right hand, her eyes widening as a mouth appeared within the palm. It wasn't grinning, nor did it have this "wicked" feeling that Glenn was used to. It seemed more...refined and polite, somehow.

"It is my pleasure to meet another part of myself, as well as Milady's brother. We are infinitely grateful for saving our lives from that unending sleep," The mouth spoke gratefully. Glenn's eyes widened and he glanced at his left hand, then back at Lina's.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you fuck. Now, why won't you join us in a somewhat competent host, instead of that mundane girl—no offense Lina, but you're weak as shit," Diamanes jeered, earning a gasp from his other self. Lina blinked, before turning away from Glenn and to her right hand.

"You...you were real since the start, then..." She realized, her throat strained, "...Tiamanes, right?"

Tiamanes smiled gently, "Indeed, Milady. It warms my heart to finally be recognized after all this time."

Glenn's eyebrows creased and he looked closer at his annoying piece of shit entity, "Why aren't you as likable, Diamanes?"

Diamanes snorted, "Not my fault this bozo is so ~boring. He doesn't know how to take things, that might be why."

Tiamanes sighed dejectedly, "You never were the brightest of the bunch, Diamanes, but we all knew that, didn't we? And how could you understand the skill behind processing, when you can only take things like a barbare?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Lina raised her non-purple hand, overwhelmed, "Wait, wait, are there more of your, uh, kind, then?"

Diamanes laughed, "Yeah, even though you weren't supposed to learn of it until you reached a satisfactory level of strength. But whatever, Glenn's your brother, that's mighty strong enough for you to learn a secret or two."

Glenn rolled his eyes and suddenly closed his hand, muffling the damned entity, "Pay no mind to him. First..." He tipped his head slightly in her right-hand's direction, "I'm similarly honored to be meeting you, Tiamanes. You are much more pleasant than that fool I'm cursed to live with."

Tiamanes scoffed in disdain, "Of course. I can't possibly imagine your mental resilience for you to endure his unending idiocy. All my wishes go to you and your future, Young Master."

Glenn smiled, pleasantly surprised, "Young Master, huh? I like it. Lina, looks like you lucked out with Tiamanes."

Lina slowly closed her hand with a soft smile, "...I'm starting to think that too. But—" She suddenly stood up with a frown, her arms crossed, "What's that about you being a hero? The "Devil's Hand"?" She scoffed as she said those last words, "Couldn't you pick up a cooler nickname? This is sooo lame!"

Glenn reeled back in indignation, "What? Shut up! First, I didn't choose it, and secondly, it's a really cool nickname, alright? Much better than the other ones I almost ended up with..."

Lina dismissed her faked anger and collapsed back on her sofa with a deep sigh, "...What a hell of a mess. You're a war hero, now, that means you..." She rubbed her forehead with a dark expression, "...You're a murderer now, aren't you?"

Glenn's glee faded away as he leaned back and crossed his arms. He clenched his teeth for a moment before admitting, "I am. I...my hands are covered in gallons of blood, to be honest. But..." He clenched his fists tightly, his face hardening, "...I can't turn back time, and most of the stuff I slayed deserved worse than death anyway."

He laughed dejectedly as he realized what he was saying, "...You must think I'm some sort of monster, but...this world, the Limbo, is not a safe place to live in. Anyone and I insist on anyone, can die if they aren't careful. If it's not monsters, it's cultists. If it's not cultists, it's fucking nobles. And if that still isn't enough, just wait a bit for some ancient god to interfere and send some monstrous envoy and ruin your damned life." He drew a deep breath and added with a wry grin, "At least, that's what mostly happened ever since I landed in this world."

Lina buried her face in her hands, sighing deeply once more, "...Why us?" She blurted out with faint anger, "...Why did it have to be us specifically? As if life hadn't been hard enough already!"

Glenn silently joined her on the sofa and hugged her, patting her back warmly. She sniffled once more until she suddenly paused with her mouth wide open. Glenn leaned back, strangely worried.

"Glenn..." His sister muttered in a slow realization as she wiped the tears off her face, "...I think they've said you were one of the youngest Magi in history, right? What's that about?"

Glenn smiled widely and extended his right hand forward. The Milky Way making up his Mana Heart suddenly appeared above his palm, gleaming mystically inside the relaxation room with countless stars. Lina gasped in awe, reaching for the magical construction with disbelief.

"Yeah, I'm a hell of a fighter and Magi now. Pretty much a one-man army, you know?"

Lina laughed and shook her head, "Magic, huh? Dude, that almost makes me want to not go back to Earth!"

Glenn chuckled and took her hand, leading her to the balcony, "And you haven't seen the best of it yet. I created a cool spell that lets me manipulate gravity to some extent..."

Lina snorted, "Gravity, eh? Is that all?"

Glenn grinned wickedly, "Hang on tightly."

"What—ARH!" She screamed as they suddenly soared in the sky, Glenn's careful Gravity Manipulation bringing them high in the sky, floating above the Silverhomes District and its bustling population. The sun was high in the sky, barely hidden behind light gray clouds. The wind was cold, but not freezing, and was barely making their clothes flutter.

Lina hugged Glenn tightly, trembling, "H-holy crap, we're fucking flying!"

Glenn laughed, "We are, aren't we? Oh, careful~" He chuckled as he faked letting go of her, earning a yelp and slapping out his sister.

She calmed down and enjoyed the sight a little more, her disarray fading away gradually, "...It's beautiful."

Glenn smiled silently. They stood this way in the sky for a long moment, until Lina grimaced and leaned in his ear, "...This is very nice and all that, but I'm not exactly comfortable hanging so high up in the sky. It's a little too easy to imagine myself crashing down, you know?"

Glenn rolled his eyes, "What, you don't trust me?"

Lina frowned, "I never said thaaAAAAATTTT!" She screamed as she dove freely toward the ground, Glenn watching with his arms crossed.

"...I think she's going to hate you for that," Diamanes remarked.

Glenn scoffed, "Meh, don't worry, she'll forgive me. I didn't have the opportunity to tease for so long, might as well go back into the game with something strong and memorable, you know?"

"...Sadistic bastard. Don't even think I forgot about what you said to that boring loser earlier," Diamanes hissed. Glenn shrugged and let himself fall, making sure to cancel his sister's fall too, and drop her gently on the ground. The more he was using Gravity Manipulation and the more proficiency he accumulated, the more Glenn was starting to believe that this was the ultimate spell. It could just do too many things for so little Mana. The perfect control spell.

"...You could probably fight only by using Gravity Manipulation and still win most of your fight," Nelg remarked silently.

Glenn raised an eyebrow at his comment, "...You were strangely silent, Nelg. Are you okay—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Nelg interrupted him with a dismissive tone, "...I'm just trying to deal with my time in that void prison the best I can, and I might be failing. But whatever."

Glenn grimaced. Yeah, Nelg was all but fine. He glanced at his sister jumping helplessly in his direction as he floated above her, her fist raised in a wrathful manner.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! I'M GOING TO BREAK EVERY BONE IN YOUR DAMNED BODY!" She roared as she picked a stone and threw it at him. Glenn let it bounce off him before shrugging and landing right beside her.

"This was a close call, Young Master," Tiamanes suddenly said with a worried voice, "Could you abstain from almost killing Milady? She needs rest, not life-threatening situations."

Glenn clicked his tongue, "Yeah, don't worry about it, I was just giving her a taste of what I'm going to teach her."

Lina suddenly stopped punching him in the arm, her eyes filling up with excitement, "Wait, you're going to teach me magic?"

Glenn grinned, "I don't see why not? Unless you prefer using Aura, but that's up to you."

She frowned, "...What's the difference?"

Glenn grimaced and opened his mouth to explain, but Diamanes interrupted him, 'Glenn, I think you need to shorten that discussion. One of your two guests from earlier was a Seventh-Circle, and it doesn't seem like he's willing to wait anymore,' he warned. Glenn's expression hardened before he snapped his head to the side and found Janica and Liam spying on them from afar.

"Lina, why don't you go ask them? I need to take care of our guest, it seems..." He said through his teeth as he patted his sister's shoulder. She opened her mouth to protest but abstained upon seeing his expression. She quietly ran away to Liam and Janica, sparing one last glance in Glenn's direction. The latter crossed his arms and waited defiantly, his back drenched in cold sweat.

A man hidden under a hooded robe suddenly appeared out of nowhere, his steps measured. He walked up to Glenn and stopped in front of him. Glenn felt his throat dry out as he recognized some sort of special feeling the robed figure was giving off. It was the same thing that he felt from the one who took Milena away after the Ossiva injured her.

The man slowly pulled back his hood, revealing his identity. He appeared to be in his mid-forties. His right eye was gone, replaced by a myriad of small silver gears that were constantly working silently, while his left eye was of a deep marine blue. He had raven-black hair in a loose haircut. He had a deep, black, and serious beard, but most of all had some sort of noble feeling around him.

"It isn't the first time we met, Glenn," The man said with a smile as he extended his hand out.

"I'm Exan. A fellow Earthling."