Traveling to a parallel world was a little different than my other world-crossing adventures. The feeling of moving through space-time was similar: my vision failed me, but my mind was sharp and clear. Incongruously, however, I still retained a sense of my body. And it felt like I was submerged in mud. I could only move my limbs slowly, unable to control them the way I wanted to. It was even hard to breathe. According to Yuuhi’s explanation, this was the empty space between worlds... The void of the rift.
Feeling such resistance when there isn’t anything here is a little uncanny, I gotta admit...
One simply drifted in outer space because it was a vacuum that provided absolutely no resistance. This felt like the opposite—a thick, boggy nothingness. I mean, it wasn’t like I’d gone out in space without a suit before, but still...
All I could feel for certain right now was the oppressive sensation of not being able to move the way I wanted to, and Yuuhi’s hand holding mine.
“...”
While it was calloused here and there, her feminine hand was much smaller and softer than mine.
“We’ll be arriving soon. It’s a hard landing on the other side of the barrier, so be ready.”
“R-Right!”
Surprised by Yuuhi’s voice, I could only reply in a fluster. Despite her warning, however, I couldn’t see the barrier. Or anything else, for that matter. Just as I was wondering how this was all going to go down...
“?!”
My vision suddenly went (even though I hadn’t been able to see anything in the first place), and I felt like I’d been sucked into a violent whirlpool. It was like my body was being pulled every which way. My sense of direction was instantly gone, giving me serious vertigo. I felt like I was being pummeled all over with sandbags, the dull pain crescendoing until it was too much to bear. And then, just as quickly as it had set in, the chaos was gone. Gravity was restored, and I could see again.
“!”
And the first thing I saw was the ground. It was right in front of me—literally.
“Bwuh?!”
Of course, I smashed face-first into it.
“Oww...”
My poor nose... Tears welling in my eyes, I lifted my head to take a look around. A barren wilderness spread out around us. So this is what the parallel world looked like...
“You all right?” Yuuhi, who’d landed gracefully, asked.
“Y-Yeah. I’m fine. No nosebleed or anything.”
“You really aren’t very athletic, huh?”
“Leave me alone.”
“It’s a stark contrast to your future self.”
“Everyone’s said that.”
My future self must be pretty incredible. A vampire-demon cyborg or something... He was definitely superhuman.
“Wait, have you fought my future self before?”
“It was only a surprise attack.”
Yuuhi had the ability to negate all supernatural powers. She also had the know-how to operate the doctor’s time translocator perfectly.
“Though I have to admit my ambush only worked because he didn’t know about my breaker ability. I shoved him into the rift the first chance I had. I doubt things would go so smoothly a second time.”
“Hmm...”
It was almost like she wasn’t talking about me... I mean, she wasn’t. She was talking about my future self, but hearing her say all this made me feel the divide between us all the more.
“Well, what do we do now?”
“We head for the divine trial.”
“And where is that?”
“Hang on.”
Yuuhi pulled a compass-like object out from the inside of her jacket. But it wasn’t merely a device with a needle to point us north. It displayed a confusing string of numbers overtop a simple map.
“It’s about ten kilometers east of here. That’s our destination.”
“Huh... And how are we going to get there?”
“How else? We walk.”
“Seriously?”
“Get moving already. We can still make it to a nearby town before sunset.”
“Roger that.”
“Walking all that way sounds exhausting, Rekka.”
“I don’t want to hear that from the person who can float,” I half complained to R and stood up with a sigh.
It was then, however, that I noticed something.
“Huh?”
When I stood up and looked at the sky, I couldn’t help remarking at what appeared to be a black, gaping hole in the air. It was above the cloud line, so I couldn’t accurately say how big it really was. But just by eyeballing it, it looked like it was easily fifty meters across.
“Yuuhi, what’s that dark spot?”
“That’s a hole that opened in the world.”
“A hole in the world?”
“You remember how I told you that the unhappier world would be destroyed?”
“Yeah, that’s the price for losing the game.”
“Well, that hole is proof this world is on the verge of losing. Once that hole becomes big enough to consume the world, it’s game over.”
“...”
I looked up to the sky once more. Staring into the hole was like staring into the very maw of darkness.
Literally being able to see the end of the world coming... This is a lot like what happened to Kult.
Kult was a magical scientist from another world who I’d met while trying to save Hibiki. He wanted her powers to save his own world, which was on the verge of complete and total heat death because of a demon named Zolphiakd. This world was similarly on the brink of catastrophe; it just needed happiness instead of energy.
“...Hm?”
“What’s wrong, Yuuhi?”
“Nothing... It’s just that the black hole seems to be a little smaller than the last time I was here.”
“Huh?”
“I’ve been gone a while, so maybe I’m just imagining things,” Yuuhi said, sounding a bit puzzled.
As for me, I laughed a little.
“Hey, that’s great news! If it’s getting smaller, isn’t that what we want?”
“...I suppose.”
“This is a good start. Let’s keep the momentum going and get into town, shall we?”
“Yeah.”
And so we set off on the next leg of our journey.