The moment Her Excellency touched my head, knowledge of souls, erosion, and yokai rituals to fight it flashed through my mind--nonstop, relentless.
"And now that his sixth attempt failed. Just as he called you here, using the gap you generated, he again attempted to summon himself outside."
I could already guess how it ended.
He's growing desperate, huh.
That is... concerning. The guy can still exert his energy and influence it outside, albeit to a small degree. However, considering the feats said by Her Excellency.
"As you can see, he is still trapped here. Still, he managed to send out something successfully. I have no concrete idea of what it was, but I know it was an enhanced item."
Dantalion, who is sitting to my left, quietly eating and listening to Her Excellency, stating his failures, finally chipped in.
"Mh, that's right, this place is fascinating. I was thinking of spending the rest of my time here till this planet blows up with you if my naming were to be successful."
Huh?
And Her Excellency continued as if hearing nothing, "And now, his eighth attempt, he opted for a more direct approach, it can even be considered his ultimate plan, with his previous attempts being stepping stones,"
"Truly disgusting."
Then the Electro Archon directed her gaze upon me again, "Kujou Sara, no natter what, do not leave nor let your self be kicked out of this place."
"Stay within my influence."
***
The butane stove hissed softly beneath the weight of the steel tray as I ate my Fire Noodles. It tastes good.
Just as I last ate it.
Ei's gaze remained steady, her expression unreadable. She held the teacup delicately, her fingers poised with elegance.
She totally wants me.
Kujou Sara, seated beside her, shifted uncomfortably. Her eyes flicked between the Archon and me, suspicion evident in her furrowed brow.
My smoke-like form swayed a little, "People call it vegan nukes." Since she seemingly wants me to confirm it, I did.
Sara's eyes narrowed, her posture rigid. "Elaborate," she demanded, her voice laced with caution.
"Because it's weak and non-toxic?" I brought my attention back to my noodles and continued eating.
"I just want to talk, properly this time."
"YOU...! You would threaten an entire nation for negotiation."
I didn't reply right away; I made her wait.
Why? No reason.
After serving myself more of my delicious fire noodles, I answered, sensing her impatience.
For some reason, her Archon is letting her do as she pleases...
"Fuck off, snitching bitch. Thought we were friends, Hmph!" For a second, my form changed to a certain red magus, then it reverted to my default black smoke form, "Fucking fed--"
Before I could continue, the Tengu pointed two fingers towards me and made a swiping motion.
What would that shit even do, you think you're some jujutsu sorcerer or something, pfft--My fork snapped in half and fell to my plate.
What was left on my hand was just the handle.
I sighed and dematerialized both pieces of the fork and created a new one.
"..."
Okay, the mere sight of her pisses me off.
I knew from the beginning that she would do this.
Way before I watched that duel--Fuck that, can it even be called that? No matter how much Kujou Sara denied it, it was one-sided; she could've won from the start.
From the moment I was made aware of her personality, and from the minimal knowledge I have about her from that game. I knew she would do this.
I tried to change it, but... Yeah, she still chooses that barney ass woman. The effects on her were visible though, the eggplant probably noticed it too--Might've been the reason why she wants to shatter my body earlier.
Well... Ei did do that, my body was falling apart while fighting her earlier, fortunately, this space loves me. I will just become a wind denier, and the space would also deny it ever happened.
Seeing Kujou Sara confirming it with me despite everything the Electro Archon has shown her, pfft--The look on Barney's face just fills me with glee.
It might've also been something from the Electro Archon's history, why she reacted that way to me despite doing nothing.
Not fully certain, I barely know anything about her besides what she shows me so far.
Suddenly, I thought of something.
"Sara, if your Archon were powerless, would you have worshiped her?"
And the reply that I got was--
"You are incapable of sincere conversation. What makes you think I would answer that?"
As expected.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Even her speech pattern--Yeah, I can somewhat see why Ei was so mad about it.
"Ew."
"..." Kujou Sara looked at Ei for a moment and then brought back her gaze to me. She's probably thinking about something petty, unrelated to the threat behind me.
She can't see it, though, without the help of Ei--It's impossible for her.
Because I wasn't letting her. That eggplant is her own person, she disregards my will of no peeking.
Not that Kujou Sara was weak.
She's strong as fuck. It wouldn't be fair to compare Kujou Sara with me, who has this inner world.
However, if I were outside this space? If I stood against her without this advantage? She'd tear me apart without breaking a sweat.
If we were to disregard this space, without the supply of Ei's energy flowing through me--I am weak, especially back then, when I relied on her almost endless pool of energy like a crutch just to keep the system running.
Not that I can't run it without Ei now. I've found a new source of energy. It's practically calling for me with how massive it is.
It's like 'Hey! I'm here! You can leave Ei and have me instead!'
In spite of me having this overpowered coffin[1], where I can do whatever I want. A sandbox where I can do whatever I want--
In an instance where you can do absolutely everything, you just end up not being able to do anything at all.
After all, why would you want to do anything anymore when everything is already within your palms?
"..." I halted my movement for a moment as I found Kujou Sara in front of me become visibly alarmed. Of what exactly? Well, It might be because of the continuously accelerating poles behind me--Sara can't really afford to have that lax attitude she had when we're just messing around.
In other words, we're now at a "negotiation" level.
'Haha... This would definitely get me killed someday.'
Sometimes I wonder if this place was made to be a gift, a reward for everything good I have done while alive. [2]
But that's wrong too, I wasn't exactly a--might this be my limbo?
I couldn't help but wonder--were these two really in front of me, or just fragments of my mind?
Was the world I see 'outside' this one actually a different world, or was it also inside this space made to believe to be the outside? If so, what the fuck?
For all the power of my Perfect Memory, it offered no help in this area. Every piece of the puzzle was just out of reach, as if my mind itself was playing tricks on me.
I guess I am just paranoid.
I am trapped in my own medium.
A world made of yes-men and mirrors. Everything I shape, everything I destroy... it all loops back to me. My own thoughts, my own echoes, my own hands building cages out of possibility.
Choice is an illusion. Every path is open. Which means none of them matter.
That's what someone who has everything would say.
I guess...
I might've asked for this.
I might've always wanted to feel like that.
"..." Fuuucckkk...
Why am I thinking like this?
Does becoming purposeless really make one cringe and emo?
"Do you think Kujou Sara still has her own Realm of Consciousness?" I directed a question towards Ei.
I have an idea of what this place is--I explained this before to Kujou Sara, after all. But learning of information I might've missed would never be a bad thing.
She stared at where supposed to be my face at for a moment before replying,
"Yes. However, because of your presence, they become distinct and difficult to access. As you have already known, one cannot enter or leave this place without an existing gap to expand upon."
Pretty much what I had in mind.
Ei continued, "As long as you exist here, Kujou Sara's role would be limited to the role of 'gap'"
Since we are practically in the same body, it would be natural for one of us to dominate in one aspect.
Kujou Sara's physical autonomy.
And mine in this space.
A thought even passed by me before that this might've been a foreign space altogether that Kujou Sara just happened to come across.
Considering his blurry memory of Tengu from Earth.
Those myths mentioned something about Tengu being able to travel through dimensions.
Assuming said dimensions are limited spaces and do not include time.
That's a stretch though, and I don't have anything that proves it.
So at that time, I just told Kujou Sara about what I thought to be the most likely had happened.
Be that as it may--
"So that means I can name this, huh?" This is more important.
"Did you just ignore what Her Excellency said? Had your brain melted from her excellency's lightning? Her Excellency said it was because of Kujou Sara's! MINE! I should be the one to bestow it a–"
While that sounds reasonable, and worth mentioning that this is literally her body, did she forget who she was talking to?
"Hmm... This is difficult."
I. AM. HIM!
"I volunteer to unclog both your ears with this sword, wouldn't that be romantic--"
"I can't choose!" I said to Ei, completely ignoring whatever Kujou Sara was saying, "Which one is better?"
"Realm of Involuntary CO-Cultivation Between Distantly Traumatized Souls or--"
"There is no way, you're naming it that..."
"Platonic Dual-Nascent Soul Cross-Penetration Thunder-Bound Courtyard--"
"YOU--" As Kujou was just about to stand up and jump into my embrace.
Barney stopped her.
She put her hand on Kujou Sara's shoulder, making her remain seated, and said, "He wants you to leave my side, where his influence is stronger."
There's something weird about this Electro Archon.
Based on everything I knew about her, she shouldn't be like this... She is more lenient. To me--who threatened her Inazuma.
This is not the reaction I expected from her.
I wonder...
"Oh..." The moment she felt the Archon's hand on her shoulder, it happened again, her eyes flashed for a moment as if her mind is recalling something.
That must be that Anti-Dumbass spell.
Kujou Sara, noticing something wasn't quite right, asked her god hesitantly, thinking for a moment if asking whatever is on her mind is palatable--
Ei, in her usual composed tone,
"The one outside is a puppet, It seems that he prevented me from communicating with my puppet for this reason."
She answered Kujou Sara's concerns even before she could put them into words.
How is that even possible?
After all, with the control that the electric crow wields over her body, it should be impossible for anyone to do that.
I mean, I had done it to her countless times--but that's different.
I'm him, after all.
Anyways, this isn't about my glorious self, this was Raiden Ei--the Raiden Shogun, the Electro Archon, the God of Eternity, Beelzebul, Shogun of Inazuma, Her Eternal Excellency, Eternal Narukami, Great and Excellent Ogosho, the Almighty Shogun, Master of the Euthymic Plane, Omnipresent God, Lord of Thunder, Her Excellency, the Almighty Narukami Ogosho, God of Thunder. [3]
Of course, she would be able to tell what Kujou Sara was thinking.
If I can do it, then how come she'd be unable to?
She is a being of immense power, her existence transcended mere mortals' understanding.
Funny thing is, though. Even beings like her can be affected by dementia.
I couldn't help but--ahem.
"You."
"What?" I turned to her casually and responded.
"You truly are suicidal."
She said it, not as a threat, not even as a warning. Just... straight up fact.
...
Well... Okay, sure. I guess, maybe, that was an arrogant statement from me.
But here's the real question:
How the fuck did she know I was thinking that?
D-does my face just scream "arrogant dumbass" now?
That's terrifying!
I don't even have a face!
My body looks like exhaust fumes, and you're telling me she can pick apart that to read what I'm thinking?!
What does she do, analyze the wisp patterns in my smoke--
Is this payback for Kujou Sara?
Sorry, Aibo! I've been ignoring what you felt during these moments, I should've been more empathetic!
Sorry, because I just don't give a fuck at that time.
... I'd do it again, though--
Ei Blinked once.
Then, in a tone so flat it could pass for a loading screen:
"You trembled."
...
Bitch, I did not do that...
Trembled?
Trembled?!
Ei continued, without a shred of hesitation:
"And your particles distorted for exactly 0.3 seconds. It seems to be Irritation."
She paused. Then added--
"Also, you made a noise. You squeaked, like Kya!"
...
What the fuck...
I... sincerely apologize, my best friend, Kujou Sara.
This must've been how you felt.
AND I DID NOT FUCKING SQUEAK!
Squeaking implies pitch. My body is a smoke. You can't squeak if you don't have a throat!
Hell, I don't even have any organs!
I exhaled deeply, a sigh that felt like it echoed through the very fabric of my being.
"Do you mind if I play some music?"
Ei didn't respond to it, there was no need to. I was already juggling my memories of songs I had heard before that we could listen to.
Self-aware hypocrite is the mantle I cloak myself in when I do unto others what I would detest if it were done to me.
Such behavior, were to be adopted by anyone else other than me, I'd utterly condemn it.
But in spite of that, someone like Ei--"an individual of great value"-- escapes my judgment. If Ei did the same thing, I wouldn't hold it against her.
Some will definitely view it as cowardice, because it is. If someone you don't know, someone whose mind you have just met for the first time, it is natural to think so.
You swag around those weaker, uneducated, and underdeveloped than you--but the moment anyone better steps into the room, your spine forgets how to hold you.
But that's them, and there's me.
I am a Self-aware hypocrite.
I know EVERYTHING about myself. Overestimation of one's abilities is just something impossible with me.
I cherish those with talent but can't be nurtured because they are focused on survival.
And because of all those that I loathe, someone with less skill, less value, less anything, pretending to be the sun in a room full of candles.
Not because I think I'm better.
But because I know I am-- yet I lack the audacity to do what they do to those who truly have value.
Inside me resides a low tolerance for fools who pretend to be more than they are.
So no--I don't really have any qualms with Ei doing what I did to Kujou Sara before to me.
Yes, I'd complain about it, but that's it. Not because I'm powerless to act, but because being understood is just right.
Ah... But how can I compare this lowly self to the great god of thunder?
***
It was tinged with stillness, the kind that weighed heavily on the lungs.
A perfect stalemate had formed--each side holding a blade to the other's throat, yet neither daring to press.
The other side had gained leverage.
Then, a soft click.
Dantalion's speakers hummed to life, the voice of an old, romantic ballad spilling out across the table like spilt wine. It didn't belong--not in this space, not at this moment.
"Would you ladies not join me?" Dantalion asked, once again offering them what he had been eating since earlier with his tone suddenly smooth, theatrical even. It wasn't mocking, not quite--but it wasn't sincere either.
Kujou Sara recoiled immediately. "Disgusting," she spat. "Why are you suddenly talking like that?"
Dantalion turned to her, his expression on his smoke-like face unreadable, his eyes still. He held her gaze with an intensity that felt like it was peeling something back--not from her body, but from her soul.
Then, without warning, he rose to his feet.
Chairs scraped back.
Ei's fingers flexed around her teacup but remained seated. Kujou Sara, already on edge, mirrored his movement, one hand twitching toward her blade. The air shifted--charged, volatile.
But Dantalion merely stood there for a beat too long... then let out a low, amused sound.
"Heh."
And just as abruptly, he sat back down.
The tension didn't fade, but it paused--like the breath before a lightning strike.
"Since I'm not in a situation I would need it, I slowed down the time here, making it a second outside while seven hours here." Dantalion continued, as he again made himself comfortable on his seat.
It would seem that he lost his appetite, opting to lean back in his chair.
"I haven't decided yet on what I want, though you can tell me what you want right now."
"With our extended time here, you can do whatever you want, I won't impede you on anything you do."
"After all, conflict... does not please me."
Kujou Sara, still standing, said nothing.
Behind her eyes, her thoughts were flashing in inhuman speed and so, after a not so long contemplation--nothing but a brief pause.
She lowered herself into her seat again, her gaze shifted to the Electro Archon.
"Your Excellency," She said quietly, "I wish to perform this Naming."
Naming. [4]
Among humans in Inazuma, there was an old belief; if a child were named by someone great, they would become someone great. A cultural superstition, born from a deeper, older truth.
This was derived from the way of the supernatural of etching names into their souls.
Based on her memories granted by her lord, a deliberate ritual to solidify the mind's architecture, fortifying it against intrusion, collapse--just a way to enhance cognitive ability. It can strengthen your soul, making it possible to gain some immunity against mental attacks--be it possession, or any force that sought to rewrite who they were.
Their energy capacity could be enhanced, occasionally accompanied by an increase in physical prowess.
But that was only the surface.
What those who truly understood desired most... was something deeper.
A stronger sense of self.
That was the true gift of Naming--not power, but clarity. The soul is made sharper. More defined. More real.
It also made something possible; transferring one's soul into another body regardless of circumstances, without losing their essence--Kujou Sara suspected that this must've been one of Dantalion's earlier abandoned goals.
All in all, beings who successfully perform Naming typically possess much stronger wills, along with more diverse and complex emotions, compared to a Nameless of the same age.
Sara didn't glance at Dantalion. Perhaps she couldn't. Or perhaps she simply refused to.
Her gaze was only on Her Excellency.
After all, when everything began to blur--when even identity became negotiable--only her Archon would remain as an unmoving truth.
Her clearest reflection.
That is what she believes.
***
I have always yearned for the mines...
As a child born in Mingyun Village, I have some fond memories of the mines.
"Group Chat Qualification Quest?"
Various things led to another, and due to my talent in Cartography, I became a member of the Adventurers' Guild, which was selected for the Chasm Exploration Team.
===
**System Panel: Quest--**
**It has been detected that the Individual Zhiqiong has already satisfied all criteria for the Quest; Group Chat Qualification.**
**Qualification Met: Group Chat Access--Granted.**
===
I knew this place was unlike any other.
What I saw was a map that hadn't been drawn yet. Anticipation was what I felt after I stepped onto the surface level of the chasm.
At that time, just drawing the map made my hands tremble, not from exhaustion but from excitement. I charted them. Plotted every curve, every deviation in the rock strata. I even marked--etched some of the rocks that might become some kind of line someone else could follow.
===
**System Panel: Chat Announcement--**
**A system user has fulfilled the chat requirement.**
**The participant now bears the epithet: [Lost in the Glory of Holes]**
===
I am... threading a respectable life.
So how come I get an epithet like this?!
"..."
What were the requirements?!
How did I even manage--I haven't even read what the quest was about!
-=-
[Loudly Screaming Twig] : I'm surrounded by perverts...
[I hump on Metals] : ...
-=-
...
I... You hump what?
No--wait, System! I don't think I want to be a part of this.
***
-Chapter END-
[1] : calling it a coffin wouldn't be far off lol, he died and woke up inside. There's also a chance he'd just die here with the shit he does.
[2] : My bad bro, you were just flung there randomly...
[3] : The fuck is this TT
[4] : This is a bit different from the one from Tensura, but ALMOST the same effect.