PART 3

Alicia white

Yggdrasil time [23:25]

Boundary

Alicia was roused from her slumber by muffled voices and the sensation of something warm caressing her skin. It felt so comforting, almost as if were seducing her back to sleep. As her body slowly awakened, she noticed a familiar sensation that made her feel like she was floating in a zero gravity-like chamber.

As her eyes opened, Alicia’s first thought was, ‘Where am I?’

Alicia’s senses jolted awake as her sights filled with pale-red haze, and it felt strangely soothing; her body had never experienced such comfort before. Within the hazy film, she noticed faint movements of the humanoid shadows.

Instinctively, Alicia reached out towards the shadowy figures, but an odd sensation forced her to halt. As she focused her attention, she noticed a thin, translucent white membrane wrapping around her hand. Upon further inspection, feeling along her back, face, and even opening her mouth, discovered that her entire body was wrapped in this mysterious membrane.

As Alicia recalled her memories leading up to this moment, she thought, ‘Oh, it is certain that Bella killed me. But it's strange. I remember having enough A-cells to regenerate from being headless. Or perhaps she did take my head while I was incapacitated.’

Alicia paused for a moment then shook her head as she glanced at her surroundings. ‘Is this what death feels like inside the simulation game of Yggdrasil?’

As she turned around, she was startled to see a thick, violet cord emerging from the red haze, and it was connected to her stomach.

‘I’m tethered?’

Without warning, the thick violet cord pulsated, as a bluish glow appeared, resembling a lengthy vine. Its slow, rhythmic pulsation mirrored a beating heart, and the glow intensified, unveiling an increasing number of vines as it slowly approached towards her stomach.

Startled by the unknown phenomenon, Alicia urgently commanded her augment to detach her body from the cord. However, her augment simply responded that her body was missing. All the while, a bluish glow from the cord seemed to enter her translucent membrane, before soon dissipating without warning. She noticed that her body was fully healed as if the injuries she had were an illusion.

‘Just what in god's name is happening to me?’

After a few continuous pulses from the cord, the red haze slowly began to dissipate, as if being purified. She averted her gaze to the shadowy figures, which slowly became clear, revealing their appearance.

Alicia recognized the familiar faces of Vanessa, Bella, and Erwin, all of them gazing towards her. She noticed the seriousness in their expression and, curious, she began to approach them. However, before she could reach them, she collided with an invisible barrier.

‘What?’

Alicia moved her hands forward, she felt something blocking her, preventing her from reaching out. Then, suddenly, Bella turned her body away before vanishing into thin air, leaving Alicia startled.

‘I should have known better. there is no way Bella would challenge me, fully aware that she was destined to lose,’ Alicia thought, feeling her grip.

Although quite muffled, she strained to listen to Vanessa’s voice in silence.

“No good.” Vanessa said.

Erwin hesitated before suggesting, “Since she’s not resurrecting under the moonlight, maybe we should place the egg in sunlight instead?”

‘What are they doing?’

As she listened intently, a Seeker with pure white wings landed behind Vanessa. Alicia felt a strange sense of familiarity seeing the stranger’s pale purple hair flutter but she couldn’t recall ever meeting her before.

However, Vanessa appeared to be well acquainted with this person and had an excited expression as she recognized the stranger.

“Ressavi!” Vanessa exclaimed.

The woman with pale purple hair, Ressavi, replied with a nonchalant tone, “Yo! Why is the resurrection taking so long?”

‘Resurrection?’ Alicia’s mind raced as the pieces started to come together. ‘That explains why I am in this state.’

“We’re having trouble finding her requirements to resurrect her.” Vanessa replied.

Ressavi tilted her head, “Requirements? You need requirements to resurrect? Why?”

“I am not so sure either.”

‘So there are Requirements for resurrection,’ Alicia pondered, ‘This means I cannot abuse my ability to resurrect indefinitely. It was an excellent decision not to test my resurrection ability during the Handgobblers’ assault.’

As she continued to listen, she heard something from Erwin that piqued Alicia’s interest.

“My chat said that the requirements could be related to your racial traits. For example, Vanessa’s ‘Last Hope Radiance’ ability might indicate the requirements for resurrection during the night, as her true form glows during that time. Similarly, the Divineness’ ability, ‘Synonymous Radiance’, which activates in the Boundary, might indicate the requirements for resurrection.”

Alicia lets out a muffled hum of wonder, ‘Boundary, huh?’

She collected her thoughts, commanding her augment to transfer the Boundary, but to her surprise, it failed. She tried once more but encountered the same result.

‘I can’t use my racial abilities?’ Alicia came to a conclusion.

She decided to use her ability to create fire, attempting to command her augment to summon the flames. Much to her surprise, she found herself incapable. As she redirected her attention to the crowd, their distant murmurs reached her ears.

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“But how are you going to send the egg to the Boundary?” Ressavi asked, tilting her head.

‘The egg?’ the word sprang to her mind as she suddenly realized her current situation. Almost everything became clear as it clicked in her mind. ‘Am I inside of an egg?’

Alicia’s unanswered questions lingered in her mind while Erwin addressed Ressavi’s. “For that, I contacted my friend. I believe she has the ability to drag things to the Boundary,” he said.

Out of nowhere, a distortion materialized next to Erwin, shaping into a shadowy figure of the familiar Lesny. Inside the murky shadowy form beneath her triangular hat, numerous red balls floated, appearing to move nervously.

“Yo! could you do me a favor and send the Divineness to the Boundary?” Erwin greeted, carefreely pointing his fingers at Alicia.

The red balls glowed and swirled, seemingly following Erwin’s pointing finger before turning back to him as if silently transmitting a telepathic message.

Erwin replied, “I’ll explain it to you once we get there.”

Upon hearing those words, Lesny began to approach Alicia, simultaneously undoing her robe as her cone-triangular hat fell. As she came closer, Lesny’s shadowy figure loomed larger, reaching nearly three times her usual size.

Alicia’s eyebrows shot up in shock at the unexpected sight of Lesny’s form.

Alicia watched in confusion as several red balls protruded from its shadowy edges, slowly forming limbs that closed in on her invisible walls, completely enveloping her in an instant. Although Lesny was there to assist in her resurrection, Alicia couldn’t shake the feeling of being threatened by the shadowy presence.

Everywhere Alicia looked, she could only see Lesny’s thick shadow, veiling the surrounding horizons.

Moments later, within the thick shadows, the scenery began to change, and a soft tremor could be felt beneath her. Lesny’s form slowly grew darker, revealing finer details of its contours, defining her shadowy figure.

In addition, she noticed the reddish film gradually fading from her vision, replaced by a soft pale blue with a hint of green. Lesny’s shadowy figure shifted, returning to its normal size. And in that moment, Alicia caught sight of Erwin and Ressavi on the other side, standing amidst the endless waters of the Boundary.

“Oh, I didn't think it was possible to pull someone from the Medium to the Boundary,” exclaimed Ressavi, her surprise evident in her tone.

“Only Fiends are capable of pulling people to the boundary, but their ability is contingent on the weight and size of the stationary targets.”

Without warning, Alicia’s heart began to race as confusion clouded her mind. She watched in horror as the membrane wrapped around her disintegrated, her skin tearing open and the reddish blood spilling out, mixing with the pale bluish colors. Panic set in as Alicia desperately commanded her augment to stop the bleeding.

However, the augment only replied with the information that her body did not exist. Realizing that she was under the effects of the Boundary’s environment, Alicia panicked and pressed on her wounds, trying to stop the bleeding. She felt a searing pain in her eyes and face, as if they were cleanly cut open by something mysterious.

Meanwhile, Erwin’s muffled voice reached Alicia’s ears, “It’s reacting! It’s…glowing too! And…” his words gradually became more and more incomprehensible and distant. A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over Alicia, clouding her thoughts.

She saw Erwin standing just in front of the invisible walls. Besides him stood Ressavi with an amused look, while Lesny was focusing on something else in thin air. Alicia couldn’t fight her desire to sleep and succumbed to its embrace.

The egg enveloping Alice glowed a bright red, while fiery sparks transformed into a pale greenish-blue hue. Strangely, the surrounding environment was growing colder, while the Boundary’s water close to the egg was bubbling, emitting wisps of red and bluish smoke that appeared to be drawn into the pulsating egg.

"So, one of the requirements is the Boundary’s environment, huh," Erwin muttered. He shifted his gaze to one of the floating windows and noticed the chat window filled with viewers spamming their feedback before closing it.

“Do we need to do the thing that Vanessa said?” Ressavi inquired, stepping closer to the glowing egg.

Erwin observed Ressavi’s movement and replied promptly, “Let’s hold off for now. It appears the egg is reacting to the water of the Boundary, or perhaps to the environment of the Boundary itself.”

As Ressavi reached out to place her palm on the egg, her hand was adruptly engulfed in eerie bluish flames. Panic swept over her as she hastily withdrew, but then she acted swiftly and water materialized from above, trying to subdue the flames on her burning hand.

“Oh fuck!” Ressavi cursed.

Relief flooded her mind as she watched the water pour into her hand, only to be shattered when the summoned water caught into flames. The uncomfortable sizzling noises emanating from her hand and the water, along with the aching pain, made her feel like her body was being eaten alive. Meanwhile, black smoke formed from the burning flames, slowly creeping towards the egg.

She clicked her tongue as she unsheathed the long sword hanging from her back and cleanly sliced off her own burning hand.

“Hmm…” Erwin hummed, his eyes fixed on Ressavi’s fallen arm, his face devoid of any emotion.

“Dude, are you just gonna stand there and watch me die?” Ressavi retorted, returning the sword to its sheath.

“Eh? You look fine though?”

Ressavi shot a hateful glare at Erwin, while he focused on the blue flames engulfing the arm. The flames persisted even as they sank into the water of the Boundary, and even Ressavi’s summoned water appeared to be burning as well.

Uninterested in the damsel in distress, Erwin muttered, “This is intriguing. We’ve already confirmed that the water of the Boundary differs from the water in the Medium reality, but seeing differences like this is fascinating.”

Ressavi clicked her tongue in frustration, then spun on her heels, shouting, “I’m heading back to Medium to heal my wounds!”

Erwin tried to call out, “Wait!” but Ressavi had already vanished. “There’s a healer on the Boundary too,” he muttered to himself.

Erwin swept his gaze around, noticing some people busily checking Alicia’s egg while others looked at him. They responded with a shrug when he met their gazes.

“Brother, you can’t treat a woman like that, you know.” A deep voice echoed behind Erwin, drawing his attention to the speaker.

Erwin was taken aback by the Seeker’s peculiar appearance, resembling a large skinless bear dressed in a standard imperial uniform. As it spoke in a deep, resonating voice, its large maw opened, revealing hundreds of sharp teeth. “Continue down that path, and you’ll be forever alone without a family.‘

“Matingship are old school, just create a child on your own.” Erwin retorted.

The more Erwin looked at the strange seeker, the more the stranger became familiar. The seeker’s large torso emitted a pale green glow, marked with constantly shifting black spots. Its face appeared like a flattened bear’s face, with several fish-like gills lined beneath its maw. Its flat face contained eight circular glowing blue eyes.

“Wait, General Hadan? Since when did you return? I thought only the Bastion and Spearhead were scheduled to come back. The Hidemanes army you command is scheduled for later,” Erwin baffled, his eyes widening in surprise.

“Just 17 minutes ago, we had to return because the Moonfollowers issued a command,” Hadan explained. “Or rather, the Hidemanes split into battalions to secure the escort waypoints for the transporting of the Divine. Is that the Divine?”

Hadan beckoned toward the egg, which glowed with a bright bluish-pale color. The Boundary’s water continued to bubble, emitting a black smoke that swirled around the egg.

“Yes,” reported Erwin. “She died shortly after the mock battle with Commander Bella. Fortunately, it seems both the Phoenix sisters have the ability to revive.”

“Wow, that’s just fantastic,” Hadan said mockingly. “It would be a real shame if the Divineness got killed, and we had to search for her again, just like we did with Princess Fujii,” he added, letting out a dry laugh.

All of a sudden, hundreds of holographic windows appeared before Hadan, each one requesting duels and calls. As he realized the consequences of his actions, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He frantically tried to catch a glimpse of Erwin’s figure through the ever-growing windows, but his view was completely blocked despite the window’s supposed opacity.

“Um,” He weakly asked, “Are you streaming by any chance?”

Erwin forced a stiff smile; he could imagine the overwhelming visual onslaught Hadan was experiencing, despite not seeing the holographic windows himself. “Yep,” he replied.

“Okay, okay. Let me explain. I didn’t word that correctly,” Hadan cleared his throat. “I don’t blame the Royalties for dying, and I don’t find it troublesome to search for them again. What I mean is, it would have been better if their deaths could have been prevented by the members taking more proactive measures.”

Erwin let out a dry laugh and said, “Well, there you have it, everyone. Stop harassing him. And Hadan, I suggest you should make your request channels private in your profile.”