It Hurts.
It Hurts.
It Hurts.
My blood feels like boiling water. I can't breathe, I can't move, I can't even open my eyes.
Every time my heart beats, searing heat flares through my chest, forcing hot tears to keep spilling down my face and soaking into whatever I am lying on.
I thought trying to force my magic circuits to form that broken Reality Marble was the limit of human pain.
But this is so much worse. It doesn't just hurt-it feels like my body is being hollowed out.
My magic circuits are completely overloading and tearing my insides apart, but I have no idea why.
What did they do? Why is this happening to me?
It hurts so much. Please make it stop. It hurts.
I try to gasp for air, but my throat locks up tight.
I can only lay there, trembling helplessly as the agony crashes over me in endless waves.
Slowly through the loud ringing in my ears, I start to hear voices.
A commotion is happening right next to me.
Three different people are arguing, their words blurring together in the chaos.
Even with my head throbbing this badly, I recognize them.
Denial, Void, and Lady Ava arguing with each other.
Then suddenly Lady Ava's voice cuts clearly through the noise, sharper and more furious than I have ever heard her before.
"What the hell are you two doing?! What happened to Rikka? Why is she like this!"
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry, this is all my fault. I tried to overdo it by trying to project that..."
Denial's voice cracks, thick with heavy sobs and a crushing sense of regret.
It sounds like she is choking on her own breath, struggling just to force the words out of her throat.
The usual emotionlessness in her tone is completely gone, replaced entirely by raw, desperate guilt.
Through the blinding haze of my pain, I suddenly realized that a tight grip is on my left arm.
I didn't even realize someone was holding me until now, simply because the relentless screaming of my own nerves had drowned out every other sensation.
Another agonizing wave of heat crashes through my chest, forcing a choked, breathless gasp past my lips.
The pain hasn't faded even a little bit.
My overloaded magic circuits are still burning, scraping against my insides like hot, shattered glass.
The sheer torment of it makes my vision swim with dark spots, and my entire body trembles violently against the floor.
I can't speak and I can barely breathe, but instinctively, my fingers curl inward.
I grab onto the hand wrapped around my arm, clutching Denial's fingers as hard as I physically can.
I don't even know if I am unconsciously trying to comfort her, or if I am just desperately anchoring myself to her touch so I don't completely lose my mind to this pain.
Then amidst the overwhelming heat tearing my body apart, something cool and incredibly soothing presses gently against my burning forehead.
The frantic chaotic noise in the room seems to quiet down in an instant.
"Go to sleep, Rikka," Lady Ava whispers, her voice so tender and soft that it feels like a warm lullaby washing over my exhausted mind. "After you wake up, everything will be fine."
The moment those comforting words leave her lips, a heavy, peaceful weight settles over me.
The unbearable fire in my veins finally begins to dull, slipping away into the background as my consciousness rapidly darkens.
Welcoming the escape, I let go of the pain letting my mind sink down into a deep, quiet sleep.
---
---
---
Even though her consciousness had faded, Rikka's body still flinched on the floor with her brows knitting together as the pain still flowing through her body, though actually she's technically not asleep.
Because they were already inside Rikka's inner world, Lady Avalon had forcibly severed the girl's consciousness from this space and safely relocated her mind to the peaceful sanctuary of the Garden of Avalon so she could be safe from feeling the physical torture her body feeling now.
With Rikka safely tucked away, the tender aura surrounding Lady Avalon vanished as she stood up, her eyes narrowing into a sharp dangerous glare when she locked her gaze onto Void while completely ignoring Denial, who was still kneeling on the floor and weeping quietly with Rikka's limp hand in her grasp.
"Now, Miss Void—no, Miss Root," Lady Avalon said with a dangerously low voice before gesturing toward the trembling girl, "you had better explain to me what happened to my student, because the three of you are fundamentally one entity, meaning if the main body is hurting this much, the two of you should be experiencing the exact same agony, so why are you both fine?"
Void stood calmly in front of the angry magus, and since Rikka wasn't there to see it, she dropped her warm, big-sister act.
She didn't become lifeless or robotic, but a quiet distance settled over her face, giving her a calm and gentle look that felt disconnected from normal human emotions and making her seem more like a silent observer than a regular person.
"You already know why," Void replied in a smooth and quiet voice that carried none of the lively emotion she usually wore for Rikka, adding, "Rikka's issue is not her magic circuits, because if it were only that, I would have fixed it earlier."
"The problem isn't her body, it's her soul. That projection put way too much strain on it," Void explained calmly as she watched Denial carefully pick Rikka up from the floor and carry her to a nearby sofa.
"Her soul was never completely stable even after she arrived in this world eight years ago, and forcing that weapon through it just cracked it further."
Seeing Rikka now resting safely on the cushions, Void slowly walked over there and took a seat right beside the girl's head, while Denial sat down on the floor so she could keep tightly holding Rikka's hand.
"Normally, if a soul gets damaged, I can just restore it to its original state," Void continued, reaching out to gently rub her thumb across the sleeping girl's cheek.
"Every existence in this world is already recorded within me. I have your data, Avalon, and I have Denial's. But Rikka is from another world. Her existence was never recorded, which means I don't have the original data to simply rewind the damage Denial caused."
"Then what?" Lady Avalon demanded, her voice shaking with fresh anger. "You are just going to let her stay in pain like this? How long is it going to take for her to heal?"
"A couple of years... at most," a quiet, shaky voice replied.
But instead of Void, it was Denial who answered while letting out a quiet sniffle, refusing to look away from Rikka's pale face.
Because Rikka's soul came from an entirely different reality, it was still fragile and immature, and fighting the Assassin by overdrawing that projection had pushed it past its limit.
Now without Void's ability to instantly fix her, Rikka had no other choice but to endure the long process of letting her soul naturally adjust and heal on its own.
"A couple of years!?" Lady Avalon snapped, her voice rising in panic.
"That's not possible. If that happens, you know exactly what the result will be. If that girl, Manaka, finds out Rikka is hurt like this, she will do everything she can to fix her. She would sacrifice this entire timeline just to heal one person!"
But Void didn't even blink at the outburst from her. "That is not going to happen," she said smoothly, her voice dropping into a tone that carried the heavy weight of an absolute fact. "Because time will never move until Rikka wakes up. I already made sure of it."
The moment those words left Void's mouth, Lady Avalon felt a sudden, crushing shift in the air around them.
It wasn't killing intent or anger, but a terrifying, unnatural pressure that made the magus realize she was standing in front of the very system that governed everything.
Lady Avalon's eyes widened in pure shock, her breath catching in her throat.
She stared at Void in total disbelief, never expecting the manifestation of the Root to so easily break the absolute rules of the world just to protect one single person.
Seeing the magus's stunned expression, the distant, god-like calmness on Void's face finally melted away.
A soft, genuine smile appeared on her lips—the exact same warm smile she always wore whenever Rikka was here and talking with her.
"You are wondering why I would go that far," Void said softly, her thumb still gently stroking Rikka's cheek.
"Maybe because as her mother... no, as her big sister, it is my responsibility to help her. I am the one who is responsible for her, after all."
---
---
---
---
---
Even though the outside world was completely frozen in place, time still flowed normally inside the mental space thanks to Void's authority.
What felt like weeks slowly turned into months inside the quiet house, but even with so much time passing, nobody ever left the living room where Rikka lay unconscious.
They weren't just sitting around waiting. Lady Avalon stayed near the sofa, constantly using her magecraft to keep Rikka's mind comfortable and relaxed so the natural healing process would move as fast as possible.
Meanwhile Void sat quietly in a nearby chair, endlessly analyzing the damage in Rikka soul.
She had been trying to understand Rikka's soul for eight years, but the structure of a soul from another world was completely different from anything she usually dealt with.
StillVoid refused to give up, quietly calculating every possible way to help fix the damage even if it only healed a tiny fraction at a time.
Denial however couldn't do any of those complicated things.
Unlike the other two, she operated purely on raw emotion, focusing only on what was right in front of her—the things she loved and the things she hated.
She loved Rikka more than anything, treating her like a true sister, and right now, the only thing she truly hated was herself for being the cause of all this pain.
In the past her very existence was built entirely on defiance, making her constantly angry and eager to lash out at everything around her.
But after spending time living with Rikka and quietly reading all those stories together, that harsh anger had slowly started to melt away.
Her blind defiance was shifting into fierce devotion.
She no longer wanted to fight the world she just wanted to protect her family.
Sitting on the floor with Rikka's limp hand pressed tightly against her own forehead, Denial squeezed her eyes shut as heavy tears soaked into Rikka's sleeve.
The guilt was completely eating her alive, but her stubborn nature was still there—only now, she was using it to refuse to leave Rikka's side, silently promising that she would never let her precious sister get hurt ever again.
"I think it is time..." Denial suddenly muttered in a low voice, though it was still loud enough for the others to hear.
"Did you say something?" Lady Avalon asked, pausing to look over.
Instead of answering her, Denial slowly stood up from the floor.
She turned to look directly at Void, and the heavy guilt that had been crushing her was suddenly replaced by a fierce, unshakable determination.
"I think it is better to do it now, Void," Denial said firmly. "If it can heal Rikka, I will do it right now."
Hearing those words, Void stood up from her chair as well, her serene expression shifting into something much more serious.
"Are you absolutely sure? You always told me you wanted to wait until Rikka was fully mature and completely used to this world."
"It can't be helped," Denial replied, her voice softening just a little. "I am the one at fault for all of this, so I am going to fix it myself."
Lady Avalon clearly didn't understand what the two of them were talking about. Feeling completely left out, the magus stood up and frowned in confusion. "Hey, hey, what are you two planning?"
Ignoring the magus entirely, Void and Denial simply shared a quiet, knowing nod.
Denial crouched back down beside the sofa and gently placed her hand flat against Rikka's chest.
Void moved smoothly to her previous spot right beside Rikka's head, looking down at Denial with a gentle, somewhat sad smile. "I really do not know what Rikka is going to do when she finds out about this. But if this is truly what you want, then I will grant it, Denial."
A weak bittersweet chuckle escaped Denial's lips. "Hehe... she is probably going to be really sad. But as the older sister, I have to do everything I can to protect my youngest."
Void tilted her head slightly, her smile growing just a bit more amused. "Didn't Rikka say that you were supposed to be the youngest?"
"Shut up," Denial shot back with a watery pout, refusing to look away from Rikka. "I never accepted that."
Void slowly raised her hand, her fingertips glowing with a gentle, warm white light that quickly spread over to Denial.
As the light surrounded her, Denial's body began to softly glow slowly breaking apart into tiny white particles that floated up like warm glowing snow.
Watching the scene unfold Lady Avalon gasped, her eyes widening in absolute shock as she finally realized exactly what they were trying to do.
Denial wasn't just sharing energy—she was giving up her own existence, breaking down her very being to sacrifice herself and fill in the missing pieces of Rikka's broken soul.
As her legs slowly started to become transparent, Denial didn't look scared at all.
She just kept her hand gently resting on Rikka's chest, her mind filled with warm memories of the two of them sitting right here on this sofa, reading books and simply enjoying being alive together.
'It was only a short time,' Denial thought to herself, a soft and peaceful smile finally resting on her face. *But it was really fun.*
But just before her body could completely fade away, a massive, deafening BANG echoed through the quiet house.
The front door had been violently slammed open.
Lady Avalon jumped in surprised, and even Void paused the glowing light in pure surprise as the rapid, frantic sound of tiny footsteps echoed loudly down the hallway, rushing straight toward the living room.
"FOUU!"
A familiar, fluffy white creature suddenly burst into the room, crying out loudly as if telling them to stop immediately.