"...ke... ke up... Wake up!"

"Huh?" Hearing that voice, my eyes open wide and I quickly sat right up.

Looking around I feel a bit confused, as far as I remembered I was in the cave opening the damn pod but now I'm in some place where everything from the sky to the ground is nothing but a vast empty whiteness.

"You've finally woken up!" The voice came from beside, it came from a black light kind of thing in the shape of a little girl.

"Um.. who are you and where are we?"

"Wha.. how rude, didn't I just tell you a couple minutes ago." Sounded somewhat upset, it... She cross her arms and puffed her cheeks.

"Besides, if anything shouldn't you be the one telling me where this is?" She said as she point to something on my other side. There laid what I saw in my last memory, a young girl with long silver hair.

I would really like to pay attention to the details more but right now I'm more concerned about why is she here and more importantly where we are.

"You said you told me who you are before but I don't remember ever being here." Cupping her cheek she seem to ponder something.

"So you're not the one that turn on the lights?"

"The lights?"

"Yeah, some rude guy decide to just disappear after asking me to lend him a hand for finding the light switch."

"Alright slow down, what are we talking about again?"

"... Have you ever talk to someone in a dark place before?" She ask with a flat tone and her gaze kinda hurts.

"I could think of a few."

"Is any one of them talking and joking to a girl?"

"Hmm... I think I did dreamt about something like that before, why?"

"Congrats, you finally remembered." She said lazily along with a slow clap.

"... Is this a dream?"

"If this is a dream then you have problems." She said while pointing at the girl again.

I think I know what she implied but let's ignore that. so this place is the one from that time huh, I wonder what made the changes.

Turning my attention back to the unconscious girl I saw something quite interesting, just now she seems to glitch out a bit.

————————————————————

Name: Valerie

Race: Homunculus (mixed core)

Age: 5 months

Hp: 200/200

Sta: 100/100

Mp: 100/100

Str: 100 | Vit: 100 | Agi: 100 | Int: 100 | Res: 100 | Cha: 100

Condition: hibernating

————————————————————

'Homunculus? Well I guess it's not weird if there's one in that place.'

"So what are you planning to do now?" She ask as she starts poking the girl but I don't have time to answer because something else have my attention.

[Anomaly detected, initialize scan?]

She's an anomaly? Hmm... Meh what's the worst that can happen, system initialize scan!

[Scanning initialized! 2%... 9%... 15%... 31%... 58%... ERROR! Unexpected changes occurred, alternative scanning method ini@_$￥π|@&...]

[WARNING! MENTAL ATTACK DETECTED!]

"The fu-?!" Sudden pain assaulted my head, it felt as it it was burning then freezing then splitting.

[Deploying countermeasures! 3%... 27%... 56%... 85%... 100%! Countermeasures deployed, mental attack nullified!]

The relief is nothing but an illusion, the moment the pain from my head disappear another searing pain comes, this time it felt as if my very being is bitten and rip apart, it felt like something is consuming me.

[WARNING! UNAUTHORIZED SOUL CONNECTION OPENED! WARNING! SOUL ATTACK DETECTED!]

[Deploying countermeasures! 13%.. 27%.. ERROR! Countermeasures failed, activating alternative defenses! WARNING! All defenses breached!]

[WARNING! SOUL DAMAGE 7%! WARNING! SOUL DAMAGE 21%! WARNING! SOUL DAMAGE 35%! WARNING! CRACKS DETECTED ON CORE!]

Someone's screaming, it sounds distant yet close, it sounds pitiful and full of agony, it sounds like a dying beast begging for their dear life... No.. not someone, I'm the one screaming... Soon everything felt like it's slipping away, everything turn numb.

I don't know why but I suddenly noticed there seem to be some kind of glowing rip in space and it felt like something is beyond it, as I focus on it everything around me suddenly warped, the white vastness turn into a small 40x40 meters gray room and it felt like it keep getting smaller little by little. In the center of the room a glowing red light figure is hugging it's knees, sobbing.

I don't know how but I know it is scared and confused and it is only trying to survive, it seems to be drawing energy from somewhere and use it to slow down the encroachment of the walls. the energy felt familiar, why wouldn't it? It came from me.

This thing is the one attacking me, this thing is the one killing me. I don't care if it's just trying to survive, I'm trying to myself!

So I did what I do best, I start devouring it. The flux of energy suddenly stops then flow reverse, it is now flowing to me and not to it.

It started screaming in agony and the flux of energy start moving between us in equal value, our battle in a stalemate.

The room soon left with only 30 meters and it fell to the floor, convulsing in pain and the flux of energy began to rush only into me.

Once the room left with 10x10 I stopped my attack, now it was just laying there, flickering as if it could go out at anytime.

I approach it and it seems to grow wary but do nothing, I poke it's hand and it shivered but didn't move away as if it has given up and just wished for a quick end.

I decided to just left it and everything warp back into the white room and pain, numbing pain, triple the feeling when I left assaulted me along with notifications but soon a sensation akin to ice eats the pain away.

[WARNING! SOUL DAMAGE 42%! WARNING! SOUL DAMAGE 53%! WARNING! MINOR CORE FRACTURE DETECTED!]

[Invading soul connection! Invasion successful, Devouring anomaly!]

[Soul attack no longer detected, stabilizing core! Terminating devouring process! Terminating soul assault!]

[The dying anomaly has fully surrendered, all administration authority has been taken over. Showing available options]

————————————————————

1. Enslave

2. Absorb

3. Eliminate

4. Establish connection

————————————————————

The rip in space is still there, I stare at it for a while before deciding against absorbing it.

Enslave? No, from what I felt it is a core, same as me. If I myself don't want to be enslaved then how would it?

Eliminate? If I wanted that wouldn't I have done it already? So with the only option left, I decided to take option number 4.

"Oh you look better now, what's with the screaming just now? Why are you bluer than before? Why does the sky suddenly crack? Why did the girl disappear?" Bombarded the black girl, but that can be answered, right now I just want to rest but what does she mean the girl disappear?

[Modifying and establishing permanent soul connection, to avoid further mental damage host control will be shut down in 3...2...1...]

The notification was the last thing I saw before I fell unconscious but for I moment I thought I heard a female voice saying "thank you".