“—t?”

As he slowly settled down, Simon could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. The dark void that surrounded him gave him the sensation of having all his senses removed from him at once, almost as if he was floating in deep space.

“Hello?”

He could still speak, as he quickly confirmed for himself, but he could only hear his voice in his ears before it vanished into the darkness, without a single echo or even a tiny reverberation.

He appeared to be well and truly alone, trapped with his own thoughts and emotions, in particular the high tension that had been carried over from the fight he just had.

“Freaking hell…”

Once he had collected his thoughts, his confusion and anger began to slowly spike once again, as he tried desperately to figure out what had just happened to him.

He knew with certainty that Anten had done something to him, something that he did not anticipate, but regarding what she had done exactly, he had no clue. He could only deduce that somehow; it had been powerful enough to bypass the power of the Gift he possessed and banish him to this empty void.

But what was he even meant to do here? The distressing thought that she had trapped him in this space for eternity until all his conscious thoughts stopped as a form of punishment quickly crossed his mind, but he was not sure if she had the will to do that to him.

After all, as much as she had deceived everyone and tried to physically stop him earlier, he did not get the feeling that she was cruel enough to doom a person to limbo for the rest of their lives. For him, it just did not match up with what she had been doing during the entire fight.

Therefore, if this was not some kind of punishment, then she must have sent him here for another purpose, possibly as a way to neatly stop the fight. There had to be something that he needed to do here, or that she needed to show to him.

“Well, tough luck, impostor! I will not be easily swayed; do you hear me!?”

Right as he announced his stubbornness and resolve out into the empty void, his surroundings quickly began to shift. Before his very eyes, it was gaining different shapes and colors in a single flash.

As the dark space began to grow brighter, and the shapes began to coalesce with each other into a recognizable landscape, complete with objects and sky, he could finally get a solid grasp on the area he was in.

He could see the vivid colors of pink, blue, and white. He could hear the gentle rustling of grass and the soft exhale of the wind. He could feel the unmistakable sensation of dirt mounds beneath his feet, and last but not least, he could smell the breath of life flowing around him.

The black, cavernous void had been turned into an endless array of flower fields in an instant, with rows of them stretching all the way to the horizon with no clear sign of ending.

The stalks of flowers were tall, growing up to his waist, and as they swayed gently with the intermittent wind, they all appeared to bend unnaturally, almost as though they would snap at any moment. However, it was their colors and their exact same appearances that quickly allowed him to remember what they were.

“Gladiolus flowers… represents strength of character…”

The sight was completely unnatural, almost to the point that it unsettled him deeply. Although the landscape seemed to have been made for the sole purpose of creating a relaxing, calming area compared to the cold harshness of the dark void, he did not feel any of those feelings as he looked around.

It was obvious that a place such as this was impossible, for a number of reasons, but it was more than that. Even though he could see that he was still alone, he could not shake off the feeling that someone or something was with him, hiding below the tall flower stalks and fully prepared to come out once he had lowered his guard.

“Brother Simon.”

Sure enough, right as he began to suspect it, a sudden voice called out to him, coming from an area on his immediate left that he felt to be surprisingly close to his location.

Swiveling around as soon as he heard it, he saw two girls, the ones who had sent him to this freaky space in the first place, standing blank-faced and side by side with each other just a mere few feet away from him.

“You…”

He immediately ignored the one who was the exact spitting image of Renare, and instead focused on the Anten figure next to her, as his rage rapidly reached a boiling point.

“You!!!”

Throwing away any logic and reason, he let his emotions take the throttle of his body as he quickly turned and began charging towards the angel with as much speed as he could muster, though with some difficulty as the tall flower stalks around his legs hindered his movements by a significant amount.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“…”

However, the Anten figure did not move. Instead, her eyes remained fixed on the furious young man approaching her, and gradually, her initial stony face began to soften, and she took on a much kinder expression as she said nothing.

“Die!”

Once he finally reached her after quite a bit of effort, he wasted no time in going on the offensive and throwing a straight punch at her face, disregarding the possible chances of any sort of last-minute defense from her entirely.

“Whoosh…”

However, there was no impact. His tightly clenched fist simply passed through her head with a soft whoosh, like it did not exist at all.

As he stumbled forward from the momentum and the lack of any successful energy transference to her, he accidentally contacted her body, but much like her head, it did not seem to matter whether he had hit her or not as he simply passed through it before abruptly skidding to a halt behind her, crushing a few flowers in the process.

“… huh?”

As he paused and looked at his hand, slowly opening and closing it to confirm that he could still feel it and that it existed, his anger was quickly replaced by surprise, but more prominently a sense of panic and slight fear.

“Is this… an illusion? Am I hallucinating?”

“It is neither an illusion nor a hallucination, Brother Simon.”

“!!!”

He turned back around immediately as the Anten figure casually replied to him before also turning her head back at the same time, and the two of them promptly stared at each other.

“What? What is this?”

“Let me ask you, did you not see what you had on yourself before you came running at me?” she pointed at him and continued to speak, causing him to look down at his own body in response.

“Oh.”

He had not realized it, but he had nothing on him. He had no weapons, he had no wings or halo, and he had no Gift anymore. All he had on his body was the outfit he had last worn; comprising only of the sleeveless top and the shorts that he had during his participation in the Church’s second trial.

When he had gone in for the attack, he had completely disregarded all of the important things he needed for it to work properly and assuredly. As the absurdity of his impulsive decision slowly caught up with him, he could not help but feel ashamed of it.

However, regardless of the silly action he took, that did not change the fact that he still had many questions that he needed answers for, and the person who most likely knew all of them was standing right in front of him.

Since it was pretty much undoable now, there was no room for violence left at this point, so he forced himself to calm down and talk to the Anten figure using a much calmer and more open approach.

“Impo—I mean, Sister Anten.”

“Yes?”

“What… is this place exactly? What have you brought me to?”

“Ah, right.”

The Anten figure turned her head and looked around the vast, luscious landscape they were in, seemingly checking and confirming something before she spoke again.

“Brother Simon… I know this may be hard for you to process…” she began to explain, but Simon cut her off with mild annoyance.

“I’m not stupid. I know you used some kind of supernatural technique on me. Based on the fact that I have nothing on me, I figured you must have stripped me of the Gift’s powers. If I’m right so far, I’d say that you must have transported my mind into this place, since my physical body likely still has the Gift. My real question is, what is this?”

“I guess I shouldn’t beat around the bush then,” the Anten figure slowly raised her hands up to her sides before she revealed the answer to him in a mildly dramatic tone, “you… are in The Unbroken Truth.”

“And what the freak is that?”

“As you have correctly guessed, this is one of my techniques, in fact one of my ultimate ones, that I used on you during our fight in the Church of Enlightenment. Essentially, it is a powerful and peaceful alternative to stop any conflict, should it fully work on the target.”

“You mean… this isn’t working so far? You’ve taken my powers away and I can’t touch you at all, much less fight you.”

“Well,” her explanation continued, “this field of flowers is only the first part of my technique, and it’s the smallest part as well. What it is really supposed to do will be revealed to you soon, if all goes according to plan.”

“So then…”

Simon shifted his eyes over to the Renare figure, who had also silently turned around and looked towards him without him even noticing it. Her eyes seemed dull and soulless, as though it belonged to a puppet or a mannequin.

“… what’s the purpose of having Sister Renare here? Is this part of the technique too?”

“This Sister Renare isn’t real, although you probably knew that as well,” the Anten figure replied as she also took a long glance at the purple-haired girl next to her, “to add on to that, I am also not real. I am just a mere guide to help you.”

“A guide, huh?” Simon lifted his eyebrow in response.

“That is correct. Right now, I am just a mental manifestation of the real Anten, who is currently concentrating on using her technique right now in the real world.”

“I guess that explains why you sound so formal…”

“In this place, only you are fully yourself, and no one else. A 100% pure, unfiltered Simon Bailey. My technique is able to salvage anyone’s minds, even the ones that seem too far gone, and bring them here for a purpose.”

“And what is that?”

Anten paused for a short moment, her eyes tilting and looking up towards the sky before she gave him a simple yet still extremely vague response.

“Understanding.”

Right as she finished her answer, she suddenly shifted her head back down before quickly turning it and pointing to her right, or to Simon’s left. With a lot of questions still on his mind, his eyes followed her finger, where he noticed something in the distance, something that he could swear was not present before.

It was a normal brown door with a simple doorknob, reminiscent of the one from his dorm room, but it did not appear to be connected to any adjoining building or structure.

It lacked any defining details or features, remaining plain and unappealing in appearance, but as he stared at it longer, he could feel a wave of nostalgia wash over him for an unknown reason, as though he had not only missed it, but that he had also wanted to see it for the longest time.

After a few moments of silent staring, he snapped out of his unexpected thoughts, and it was not hard for him to subsequently figure out what the purpose behind the door was.

“So… am I supposed to go through it?”

This time, there was no immediate answer to his question. Instead, as he turned back, he could see both Renare slowly begin to walk towards the door without any elaboration.

Her eyes were completely fixated on it, and her movements seemed wooden, which added to his perception of her being a lifeless mannequin.

“… I guess I am, then.”

With no other explanation given to him, he shrugged and began slowly walking behind her to the door, and as he did so, he could feel the Anten figure’s presence closely trailing behind him as well, giving off the idea that she was making sure he was doing what he was supposed to do.

“… fantastic. I’m trapped in some kind of angelic ultimate technique, and no one wants to tell me a straight answer. I hope this isn’t some kind of freaking trap…”

After they finally reached it, the Renare figure promptly opened the unremarkable door, revealing a blank, white hallway behind it in stark contrast to the flower field it should have logically led to.

Still not saying a single word, she went in. After a moment of hesitation, Simon did as well, then the Anten figure shortly after.

“I hope this is worth it.”