Why would she be here? Fei'er Li tried to open her eyes wider to see the person clearly, but everything became more chaotic instead. Her appearance seemed to be changing.
Black hair? White Tier colored? Were her pupils dark brown, or maybe gold?
What was it exactly? It was no longer just the Alba she knew, but also included Nefit and Luna, or even more people, as if countless nearly identical faces with tiny differences were stuffed together.
They were pressed and kneaded into Shard, blending into one mass where faces became twisted and blurred, impossible to distinguish, turning into something incomprehensible. The confusion spread into herself, until even her own form became hard to recognize.
What clothes was she wearing? What did she look like again? What was the environment around her? Rough concrete road? Cold steel? No, maybe icy snowfields… or smooth marble floors?
It even felt sticky at times, with a texture too slick to believe, like something resembling… flesh and organs? No, maybe there was nothing at all, just endless Void emptiness. What was it, what was it, what was it?
Suddenly, a tearing, Rend-like pain surged through her, growing more intense by the second. It became so severe that Fei'er Li no longer knew if it could still be called pain at all, and as if to confirm it, blockbuster glaring bloodlight almost burst from her eyes. Worse still, the pain was clear to a terrifying degree, with every second stretched into something endless, making the suffering nearly infinite.
At the same time, more sounds poured in like filthy tides, mixed with countless wails, roars, screams, laughter, and other noises she could not identify. Amid all this chaos, only death felt clear and close at hand. Had she really been hit by a car and was now suffering internal Shard Rend, about to die?
Yet it did not quite feel like that either. It was more as if her entire body was being split in two, crushed by countless heavy weights, while even more noise flooded in. What on earth was happening?
She broke apart into fragments of Shard, many of them vanishing altogether. She could only try to recreate herself based on old impressions, but it was not easy, and with one careless move, everything scattered again. blockbuster light fragments flew everywhere as she used her already exhausted, battered hands to gather the Shard pieces that had fallen from her body and slowly press them back onto her face.
After barely reassembling a still-blurry face, she listened closely to every sound that reached her ears, trying to catch complete sentences to understand what was happening. Then she heard a voice resounding by her ear like a great bell.
"Cosmic hero…" Huh?
"No, Fei'er Li. Li, open your eyes…" No, something was very wrong. Even if the voice sounded a bit different, this had to be a dream.
Where exactly did you drag me to?! She struggled up at once and opened her eyes. Good, what she saw was not patches of red from children's shoe insoles, but blinding White Tier light.
Through the glare, she could vaguely see something incredibly vast descending from the sky. When the light dimmed into a faint glow tinged with Dusk and Gold Rank, she could finally see what it was: a Dragon.
Its entire body shone with White Tier golden brilliance. Its eyes blazed like twin suns, and behind it was an ancient wheel-like outline woven from countless lines. This Great Dragon was so immense that even a single scale made Fei'er Li seem unbelievably small. It was as if she could see only its head and not its tail, yet wherever she looked was the majestic shadow of the Dragon.
The incomparable colossus lowered its head to look at this tiny mortal, and the first thought that crossed Fei'er Li's mind was actually, "…At least it is not that My Lord."
"Wait, is this a dream or reality?" She suddenly noticed this point. With her level of Mental Power, judging dreams from reality should have been effortless, yet now she could not tell at all, as if countless dreams were layered together into something nearly indistinguishable from reality.
So was this reality? Obviously not, because something like this could not exist in reality. Then there was only one answer. Was this a dream? "It is indeed a dream, but sometimes the boundary between dreams and reality is not so clear."
"What do you think? Do you think you are awake, or still asleep?" A clear female voice sounded by her ear. Fei'er Li turned her head instinctively but could not see her face. A horned Dragon-girl with a halo behind her sat calmly in the empty Void, her tail swaying lazily.
She rubbed her eyes and looked again, but soon Fei'er Li did not dare to keep looking. If she continued, her brain could not even understand whether the other party was standing, lying down, sitting, or in some other posture entirely. "Um…"
Fei'er Li swallowed, still confused about the situation. Looking at the relaxed Great Dragon shadows around her and the faint outline of the girl, she formed a vague guess. "May I ask… are you Fate? Bahamut?"
"I am not. Bahamut died thousands of years ago." She said this with certainty, but Fei'er Li felt no one would believe such words. If Bahamut was truly dead, then who was she?
She had just been discussing and guessing identities with Alba that morning, and by afternoon and night, she was the one being laid bare. The situation was painfully awkward. To pull her into a dream and exist in such an unobservable state, the only one capable of that was probably the Dragon God of Fate.
"I really am not Bahamut, and I can responsibly say that the Dragon God has long been dead. I am not lying. But should it not be your turn to answer my question?" "Do you think you are asleep or awake? Is this a dream or reality?"
"Uh… am I awake, or asleep?" Fei'er Li did not understand the intent. She instinctively tried to summon her Pure White Book, but there was no response, and she swallowed again.
"I am in a dream… so I guess I am still asleep?" "Then in that case, you are asleep."
"Huh?" "The answer to this question was never decided by me. It is decided by you. Whether you are asleep or awake depends on what you think."
"If you think you are asleep, then you are asleep. If you think you are awake, it is the same logic. Since you chose sleep, then you are definitely asleep." This long explanation only made Fei'er Li more at a loss. Did powerful beings just enjoy speaking in riddles people could not understand?
After going in circles, it all came back to whether she was asleep or not, which she really could not comprehend. Still, once she calmed herself, Fei'er Li began planning her own questions. This was a rare chance, and maybe she could get some answers.
"I know you have many questions, and they are urgent, but do not rush." "I am here to notify you of something. Do you understand, Chosen Heros?"
"Huh?" "Will something happen to Nefit and the others?"
Thinking of this, Fei'er Li panicked immediately. The selection day was close, and being specifically notified meant it was definitely not a small matter, especially with the words Chosen Hero. Especially since she and Alba had exchanged information about that System-like Book which specifically marked a task to locate the Abyss Elder God True Body.
Fei'er Li knew this probably referred to the unknown Abyss Evil God from the original story, the one connected to Pope and Elfido. What, fight a Abyss Evil God? They could deal with ordinary members of the Church of Holy Light, but if it was a stronger projection or an actual Elder God True Body, running would be the only option.
And most of the combat power would rely on Icelis, while bringing along two teammates who had not fully developed yet. How was that supposed to work? "No need to panic, and you do not need to worry about yourself either. You are included as well."
What did that mean, included? That only made her more worried. Why drag her into this? "The plan is very simple. You just need to wait until the Evil God descends and Elfido ascends, then rush over with Alba and throw your Book at them."
"After that, Nefit, Alba, and the other Hero Party members will drag out the Evil God and beat it up, then kill that bastard Elfido, and it will all be over." "See? Very easy."
"…Huh?" Easy? Where was it easy? After hearing this plan, Fei'er Li could not find a single part that matched the word easy. It felt like the kind of plan where you put an elephant into a refrigerator.