Chapter 59: Explanations from the Past

"I really need to kill that woman..." Nio murmurs as she bathes, looking at her body. The situation is more complicated than she expected.

"Maybe that’s it, right? The other Nio isn’t trying to take this body. Maybe it’s not even because she can’t, but simply because she doesn’t want any contact with Typhon..." Nio murmurs, sinking into the water as she bathes after waking up so sweaty because of the situation.

"Typhon is terrifying. If I were the other Nio, I wouldn’t want to be conscious or in the same space either... Hey... Nio... can you hear me? I’m not going to ask to switch places or fight over it. If you’re conscious, could you talk to me?"

"We need to kill that woman, and I don’t know if I can do it alone. She’s right about me knowing nothing about her. She has spells I’ve probably never seen in my life, so any help is welcome..." Nio tries to speak to the other Nio without even knowing for sure if she exists.

"..."

"...Haaa... so there really is no one there?" She spins in the bathtub water, spreading her wings as she touches the surface of the tub, bracing herself against it.

"If you really are ’me,’ you should know that one wrong strategy and we’ll fall into the clutches of our greatest enemy and lose everything!! If you’re truly me, then you should at least talk to me to help me plan for the future."

"After all, ruling the world is worthless if we lose against Typhon, and since you’re me, you obviously know I don’t have any experience. The last fight against Typhon made that clear. I used everything I knew and still lacked the experience to dodge and control my powers properly." She insists as if expecting an answer.

’What I myself would hate most and wouldn’t ignore...’ Nio looks at her body.

"...Okay then, is that it? Fine, so I’ll just give up, say where I am, let Typhon find me, and then I’ll let her fertilize my eggs. I bet we’ll have beautiful children—"

"[Don’t even think about it.]" Someone actually answers, and Nio feels she’s heard this voice before.

’That voice... it’s the same one I heard when I was alone and that spoke to me out of nowhere before when I was near the river...!!’ Nio smiles, satisfied.

"You stayed silent for a long time. Could you always talk?"

"[...Yes.]"

"Why did you ignore me all this time?"

"[...You’re good at what you do. You don’t need my help... we’re the same person. You won’t gain anything from me interfering.]"

"Seriously? No fighting? No attempt to take the body back? No complaints?"

"[Why would I complain? You’ve always been with me since I was born. I waited a long time for you to wake up one day. Unfortunately, I see you don’t know how to deal with Typhon...]"

"Can’t you help me? There must be some spell for me to give you a body, even if temporary. The [Faceless] magic already creates a clone of me. Isn’t there something that could help?" When Nio says this, she’s met with a long silence.

"[It’s not a good idea. Do you want to make Typhon even worse? That woman is sick, extremely sick in the head. Don’t even think about bringing me back. I don’t want to. I’d rather die than have another body she can abuse. I won’t give her the satisfaction of having us both.]"

’Oh, so she thinks differently from me...’ Nio grows curious about how much the other Nio knows about her.

"Do you know who I am? Or what I am?"

"[Of course I know. You’re a player. You were with me from the beginning.]"

"...Hahaha..."

"[I know you were a man in your previous physical body, and I know about the game. I also know about your world. Typhon knows too. She always knew. She almost invaded your world before to come get you personally.]"

"...Y-You’re joking... right?"

"[...]"

"Impossible!! You were just a game?! How could she go to my real world and get me!" Nio stands up from the water, frightened by this, but more frightened than by the description of physical torture Typhon inflicted before, because now this affects even her life before the game.

"I created you and—"

"[You didn’t create us. Please don’t get that carried away. You’re nowhere near being our creator. Do you know why a game was considered military technology?]"

"O-Of course it was to develop a virtual scenario creation system for research, studies, training, and other things, with improved AI models... right?"

"[Wrong. The humans of your world weren’t trying to create something to help humanity. They were trying to create something that could touch the ’heavens’ — a breach between worlds to find something superior. Elevated four-dimensional quantum study, as they named it. A foolish attempt to touch higher beings.]"

"[They played at being gods, but not by creating life, rather by tampering with the fabric that separates different worlds. I always existed. Everyone in that ’game’ always existed. Your customizations were balanced against what already truly existed in a world that existed long before your game did.]"

"..." Nio didn’t understand even half of what Nio said, especially the mention of quantum study, which she has no clue about.

’What the hell is supposed to be four-dimensional? Does that word even exist?’

"[Yes, it exists, and it serves as the study of four dimensions. The context changes depending on what it is. The humans of your world were trying to see the fourth dimension with their own eyes and alter it. In this context, the fourth dimension studied was time, with the three previous ones being space and the interaction of space with the dimensions.]"

"...I think I’m a bit stupid when it comes to this, but I really have no idea what that’s supposed to be."

"[...Imagine the world is a cube, the universe is another cube, and next to that cube there’s another cube. The humans of your world wanted to tamper with the cube next to them while being inside the cube they were in. Do you understand now?]"

"Ahhh, okay. So the game was the cube where you existed?"

"[More or less. Anyway, I always existed, but as I said, what was being studied was time. That means, when I was born, from my perspective, you already existed, and your actions shaped part of my actions. So even though I lived thousands of years, for you it was only a few years.]"

"[When you decided to do something in the ’game,’ that something affected my life, whether it was you learning a spell and I was also forced to learn it, among other things, although you didn’t control everything in my life...]"

"W-Wait, you’re not angry because of Typhon, right?" Nio asks nervously.

"[No. Even if you had done nothing, Typhon still pursued me. She’s been doing that since I was born, long before you placed her into a game ’Lore.’]"

"[Just as you influenced my life, I influenced yours. Your aesthetic choices, your choice of certain paths, and some of your Lore choices were my fault, but some really were your fault. Like the emergence of Moros. That thing shouldn’t exist. You created him. Yomo, on the other hand — no, he already existed. You didn’t create him.]"

"Oh... that... is complicated..." Nio realizes that part of what she did wasn’t her choice, just as part of the real Nio’s life wasn’t her choice either. It all started because of the humans and their tests using billions of people as guinea pigs.

"...So... an entire universe was really destroyed?" Nio shrinks back when she asks this.

"[...Yes. The shutdown of the game in your world only happened because my world collapsed first, and the humans of your universe noticed and decided to sever the connection. It was the end of my universe, caused by a singularity that occurred through the fault of the humans of your world. The connection between the worlds was stable, but stable doesn’t mean without risks. Your world condemned mine by tampering with what they shouldn’t have.]"