It’s not everyday that you travel back and forth between dimensions. It puts quite a toll on the body. Thankfully, I already have experience in that particular field. My body shuddered as I woke up for the second time since shifting between worlds.

“Fuck, that’s rough.” I mutter to myself as I sit up in a hospital-like bed. I look around and notice that no one is around, although I am plugged into a heart monitor and have an IV drip inserted into my left arm.

‘He wakes at last.’ I heard Three’s voice in my head, and a pulse of happiness from Cin. I smiled to myself and muttered, “Well, at least one of you is happy that I’m up.”

‘Please.’ Three continued. ‘If you went into a coma here, you’d screw over everyone that followed you here.’

‘She was so worried that she started making contingency plans.’ Cin transmitted. It was strange. Unlike Three, Cin wasn’t projecting a voice into my head, but more so conveying the meaning directly.

That shut up Three, who then refused to talk, making me smirk despite the situation. “Excuse me, you three can’t be here!” I heard a voice shout from the corridor. This again confirmed my suspicions of where we were: the voice was spoken in plain English. Having been disconnected from Judgment, the translating function of my Panel shouldn’t have been working.

I immediately heard a follow up in a language I didn’t recognize, but apparently Three did. “They’re here.” She spoke simply as a woman who towered over a petite nurse moved her aside and stepped into the room. Lucina’s face lit up as she saw me, and moved inside the small room, followed by Winter and Viina respectively.

“Sir!” A shrill voice came from closely behind the three women. “Are these acquaintances of yours? Please tell them to leave the premises immediately! They are unsanitary, and didn’t even use any sanitation before coming into the back rooms!”

I looked back from the woman to Winter who said something indecipherable in her home language. Three, can you translate without a connection to the Judgment network? I asked Three.

‘Of course.’ She replied. ‘When you began your stay in Ethia, X downloaded several Ethian dictionaries into her software. I nodded to myself before looking Lucina right in the eyes. “Sorry, can you please say that again?” I requested, and a small smile bloomed on Winter’s face.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

She repeated herself, and Three’s communication came through immediately after. “Tell this bitch to let us have some privacy before I throw her out the window.” The sudden use of such language was so jarring that I laughed despite the situation, drawing strange looks from the nurse, and wry smirks from Lucina and Viina.

“Why are you laughing? What did she say!?” The woman sounded almost incensed at the end there, but I simply shook my head.

“She asked for privacy, albeit in a rude way. I’ll apologize on her behalf, so can you please give us a moment?” The nurse looked like she wanted to say something and opened her mouth, but apparently thought better of it on account of the kinds of looks the three Ethians were giving her.

“Please tell them to send me in when you are done. And don’t take off any of that equipment by yourself! We don’t want you to damage yourself, or the equipment!”

I scoffed as she left the room. Good old American capitalism. More worried about spending more money on a new device than the person hooked up to said device.

Although, can one really expect more out of a stressed out medical student? “It’s good to see you all. How did you find me?”

It took a moment for the programs to process my words, and translate them to the women. “We connected to something very similar to Judgment called ‘the internet’.” Lucina said.

I immediately paled at the thought. “Did you make sure no one can track you, or infect you with a virus?” The question was asked to the three women, but was more directed at the AIs each of them possessed.

“Yes, but why are you so afraid?” Viina asked.

“Because the internet in this world is a lawless place.” I began. “There’s absolutely the bare minimum of regulations, and identity theft, and exploitation of personal information is commonplace.”

Three scoffed inside my head. ‘I just connected to it. There is no way in hell these absolutely ancient programs could affect us in any way, shape, or form.’

Be careful of hubris. I said. Then, switching to speaking out loud, I added, “We need to be careful because if what Starlord Alexstasia told me is true, then we’re not the only ones from Ethia in this dimension.”

There was silence for a few moments, before Lucina muttered, “Then this is simply the next stage of the trials put forth to us by the Starlords?”

I nodded, and saw exhaustion visibly overcome the girl. “I was worried we had accidentally slipped through into your dimension with no way of coming back. Miraculous though it may have been, having a clear goal helps us know what to do next. What did the Starlord tell you to do?”

“That’s…” I muttered. “She wants me to find and kill the other candidate for ascension. We’ll be eliminating the competition, so to speak.”

I knew I messed up as soon as I spoke the words into existence. Time stopped, and a familiar red mist engulfed the room I was in.