"Here's my booth, I'll see you on the other side." Entering the tent first would be Lucia, with her veil fluttering seamlessly with no regard for gravity.
Closely monitoring from behind was Lycoris with hands crossed and an unchanging attitude that couldn't be read beneath her black mask. Following was her marionette, an individual whose strong defined features contrasted his lifeless jade eyes.
Standing still without moving a strand of muscle, his snow white hair stood among many fellow cosplayers. In spite of fitting in quite well, the large yellow stripe running along his most middle spiky bang garnered more attention than warranted.
Noticing an increasing amount of eyes shifting towards him, Lycoris looked back behind her, forming a sly smile around her soft cheeks.
"This might give us yet another clue as to the Moon's cornerstone.."
"Let's move." Shortly thereafter Lycoris lifted the tent's entrance and walked in, followed closely behind by the marionette.
'Wow!' Were her only thoughts as the pair entered.
The sight unfolding by their very eyes wasn't serene, beautiful, nor did it invoke a sense of comfort.
Desolation.
That would be the word that described the current landscape they were situated in. A vast space that had been decimated by an explosion. Trees stood uprooted, tilted and completely charred, alongside burnt grass by the blast zones outskirts.
On ground zero, a massive destroyed building laid bare, its smoke continuously rising wafting away alongside the night blue sky, which housed an aurora borealis. It was an abandoned experimental power plant.
'Hallucinations? No, that's not quite right.' She thought to herself.
Glanzing around, Lycoris felt a sense of deja vu before she recognized the familiar scenery. As she kept analyzing the surroundings, she soon noticed another figure slowly approaching.
The crescent moon illuminated her rugged dress alongside jet black streaks that were scattered all over her long green hair which reached all the way down the hips. Furthermore, the thin long veil that had been covering her face no longer stood in the way of Lucia's somber crimson eyes.
Lucia kept walking forward, eventually halting her advance besides what seemed to be several destroyed human sized incubators facing towards the still sky.
Lycoris didn't move an inch, instead she remained silent with a small but noticeable frown. Despite recognizing her surroundings, there was no certainty whether or not it was all a trap, or a fabricated reality.
Such was the risk of encountering an Entropy. Their given abbreviation compared to stabilizer.
Every reported individual bearing a Cosmo Nebalue were always anomalies in consideration to the traditional ecosystems centered around stabilizers. Their powers often didn't manifest in an elemental manner, but instead more unique traits and attributes.
The reason why? Unknown and undiscovered by scientists till this day.
'I can't sense hostility yet, I need to be wary, after all she brought us here.' Were Lyrcoris thoughts as Lucia began stretching out her arm towards the incubator.
Lucia's eyes peered deeply into the incubators for 10 seconds before locking on to Lycoris and speaking.
"Lycoris.. I wonder, whose memoirs I've just peered into.." Lucia's voice was soft but stern in tone, with subtle pressure emanating from her body. Additionally, her head tilted slightly to the side holding an arrogant smile.
Momentarily stunned by her words, Lycoris turned towards the incubators trying to decipher her ominous sentence. At first, faint outlines could be seen floating inside the chambers, soon thereafter, the moonlight illuminated their silhouettes.
One was of a short young female with short auburn hair. She had long black eyelashes and moles under her closed eyes. While another contained a tall male figure with skin so white it shone through the incubator alongside his blonde hair.
"Those are-"
"Johan, and Mei? Yeah." Upon hearing those names, Lycori's face stiffened for a moment. Those names were synonymous to the reapers previous sortie members.
Mei. A rising frontline battlemage who hailed from China was well known for imbuing her energy extremely efficiently with one weapon and long range artillery. Her main weapon was a polearm nicknamed "Bate" that doubled as a staff. In addition, her extremely high output alongside great control allowed her to smoothly transition between different phases of a sortie, similar to a budget Isora with fire as her main mana valve instead.
Johan on the other hand was commonly referred to as the "Glue" of their fleet. Not much is known of him except the fact that an autopsy later revealed that his second mana valve had mutated, transforming into a nature-esque valve. A one of a kind supportive attribute that supposedly allowed their fleets meteoric rise.
Astonished by witnessing their bodies seemingly floating peacefully with a tranquil sense contrary to the double disaster, Lycoris calmly asked
"..Entropy's are truly something else, hah. Did you revive them?" Crouching down slightly preparing her stance, she awaited Lucia's answer. It could be life or death depending on whoever moved first.
It only took a moment for Lucia to quickly grasp Lycoris' intentions.. But she didn't budge. Instead, Lucia finally let her hand slip from the cracked glass and reached out towards Lycoris.
One brief second later, the incubators glass who had been on the verge of shattering crackled. Thereafter breaking and scattering its shard everywhere while spewing out both Mei and Johan's bodies on the dried mud.
"!" Seizing the brief chaos caused by the glass shattering, blood red metal chains rushed out from Lycorises back, expanding towards the sky and sides.
Her chains were large with spider lilies protruding from each chain and their length extended to that of an oak tree. Furthermore, her chains resembled a peacock's iridescent "tail" used for display.
Lyrocisi's pressure was immense, it kept bearing down on Lucia, she could feel her body getting ever closer to kneeling down. A truly mesmerising display of power.
"I-I'll read your future here, doesn't that sound like a good deal? At least before he gets here, no?" Lucia uttered, with her voice struggling to find air.
Upon hearing Lucia's proposition, a satisfied smile formed and Lycoris eased off her pressure while retracting her chains fully.
"Sounds lucrative.. But before he gets here?" Turning her head and subsequently body around, she couldn't spot the marionette around at all.
'Odd?' She thought to herself.
Feeling her slight confusion, Lucia immediately pounced at the opportunity.
"He got lost when he went through the tent, sorry about that. I can't control where he ends up." Interlocking her hands together and forming a circle, the glass around both Mei's and Johan's lifeless bodies suddenly began rising. Their shards rose slowly, in a beautiful manner, fusing together forming a bloodied glass table with two pairs of chairs opposite one another.
Locking eyes, they both silently waltzed towards the chairs one step at a time.
Lucia's footsteps tapped to the beat faster, she sat down on the chair first, followed by Lycoris soon after.
'Wow..! That was scary, goodness gracious..' Although Lucia's sharp face and soft eyes appeared calm and calculated on the outside. On the inside, her mind was constantly racing, her hands were trembling underneath the table.
She couldn't help but wonder what kind of monstrosity she had just encountered.
'This is going good so far.. Lycoris is probably fooled into thinking that I'd somehow brought back a set of dead corpses. Right now, I need to send one of them off and escape. But the question is how?' She thought to herself.
First, she'd have to figure out Lycoris blood red chains. Although a mana valve ascertaining metal attributes was certainly more than possible, the amount of control and precision required to form not one, but dozens of chains she displayed..
"Almost inconceivable.." She murmured under her breath.
Lucia began thinking that maybe, the mysterious red haired figure sitting opposite her, possessed a similar phenomenon.
'That can't be quite right though..' Lucia kept pondering.
Despite common knowledge around Entropy's uniquely coloured streaks, most individuals possessing a Cosmo Nebulae caused discourse around them. Hence Lucia made a conscious effort to hide her matte black streaks behind the veil unless she was reading somebody's fortune or inside her domain.
Lycoris' short red hair that was split into two bangs down the middle with overhanging braids on each side showed no streaks at all. Perhaps she also hid her unique attribute behind either dye or a wig.
Still, Lucia felt normal energy reserves one would have for a mana valve..
It didn't make enough sense. There wouldn't be more time to think as Lycoris sat menacingly opposite her. Her patience was running thin.
"You said you'd read me a future." Her tone was snappy and commanding.
"Go ahead, start."
Without wasting any more chances , Lucia took a deep breath before concentrating. Her focus was immense, as several large red knots appeared wrapping around both..