Akari quickly sat up, going towards her cell door and feeling it, trying to sense if anyone was outside the room.
There was nobody.
She then walked towards the flower, reaching out to it.
Her arm warped, stretched unnaturally.
She was being pulled into the flower.
As she was getting pulled in, she wondered if this was some type of teleportation.
Her limbs warped, her breathing stopped, and gravity vanished. She closed her eyes, nauseated. When she opened them, she saw that the flower was gone and her mana sealing bracelet was gone.
Looking around for a moment, she decided to bust her way out.
Her heart began to beat harder, mana enveloped her.
Tiny honeycombs formed, filling her muscles, and strengthening her body.
This time, she didn't stop at this. Trying something new, she allowed for mana to travel with her blood cells as well.
"One…. Two… Three..!"
*Boom!*
The wall began to glow before it crumbled.
Akari had braced herself to get hurt just in case, but the wall went down without any retaliation this time.
It was likely because of Liebe and how this wasn't the real world.
Akari took a step out, looking up to see a familiar darkness.
The murky night was dimly illuminated by the blood moon at the peak of the sky, unmoving and unchanging.
Akari sighed as she walked around for a while, lost.
She had no idea where to find Liebe—until she remembered her mana sense.
Akari spread out her mana, feeling everything that it touched.
Her mana flooded everywhere in the prison, extending 35 meters out from her in all directions.
"Just look up bruh."
Akari looked up, listening to the voice, as she saw a floating building.
Akari strengthened her body and leaped towards the building, using more mana than she needed and crashing into the door.
"No way…"
As she heard his voice, she could hear a subtle choking sound.
He was holding back a laugh.
Akari sighed as she opened the door. She would remember this.
Once the doors flew open, she saw the library she met Liebe in before, him sitting in his thrown, a bright smile on his dark face.
Akari flinched at this sight.
"Like what I've done with the place?"
He asked, his grin getting a bit wider.
Akari looked around, trying to figure out what changed.
"Heh…"
Akari looked back at Liebe as he said,
"I moved my chair an inch and a half to the right!"
"..."
'He's got to be broken in the head…'
Liebe had a wide grin as he continued, saying,
"And I swept!"
Akari stared at him, waiting for him to continue.
"That's it!"
Akari sarcastically gave two claps as she walked closer, the fear from her original visit being left in the past.
Liebe's smile slowly faded as his voice stiffened, clearing his throat as he said,
"Ehem, You've gotten stronger since I last saw you. You even awakened your soul weapon."
Akari nodded as she said,
"I'll assume that you mean my eyes."
By this point, Akari realized that she was able to see things she shouldn't have. This led her to the conclusion that her eyes must've been her soul weapon.
"Yeah, but you still didn't awaken the second."
"I have another? Is that even possible?"
"Well, a soul weapon is the manifestation of the soul. Normally, a body can only contain one soul, hence, one soul weapon."
Akari nodded as he continued.
"However, there are some special cases, like you. You, Akari, have two souls dwelling in your body."
As he finished, his grin returned.
'I wonder if it's the original owner of this body… Liebe probably wouldn't know… or shouldn't know. But if it is… what does that make me?.
"How do you even awaken a soul weapon?"
As Akari asked this, Liebe paused for a moment before saying,
"It depends on the person. Someone who's meant to do ambitious things would need to feel extreme emotion, conviction~, anger~, whatever ties into their goals."
"I don't think that applies to me…"
"Oh, but it does."
Liebe grinned, a crescent moon being the only white thing on his entire pitch black body.
Akari shook her head as she asked what she came here for,
"How to escape this prison?"
"Are you just here to ask questions? I'm pretty bored here all by myself…"
Akari stared at him.
She didn't really want to stay here. It creeped her out.
Liebe sighed as he said,
"Whatever, just spend half a year here, an opportunity to escape with your friends will present itself."
"Half a year!? You can't be serious…"
Akari then curiously asked,
"And how do you know anyways? And how do you know I'll even make friends here??"
"I'm done answering questions."
Liebe said mischievously as he grinned.
"Fine then, stay here all by yourself."
As Akari said this, she turned around and dropped from the building back to the jail.
She heard Liebe shouting something after her—half a joke, half a warning—but didn't look back.
She gained all the knowledge she needed from him, so now it's time for her to leave.
She returned to her cell and just as she expected, a normal flower was in the place of the blue flower.
Touching it, she returned back to the prison, the blue flower still being in the corner of the room.
'Hah, he really is lonely.'
He'd given her a way to return whenever she wanted.
Smiling, Akari lied down on the cell room's bed and went to sleep, calmer than ever.
***
For a week, Akari adjusted to prison life.
It wasn't that bad in her eyes.
Since they were kids, they were put in a seperate section from adults. Their food wasn't that bad, like slightly upgraded school food. They had lots of freetime to do what they wanted, having access to a library, gym, playground, and more.
Akari spent most of her time in the library, reading basic magic books.
On the eighth day, as she was walking to the library again, someone tapped her shoulder.
"Hey, are you going to the library again?"
Akari turned around to see a girl with long black hair with yellow eyes. She had a slight smile as she said,
"You've been holing yourself in there for a week now, why don't you get some sun with us?"
"Uhh, alright.."
Akari honestly didn't want to go with her, but didn't know how to refuse.
She followed the girl as they walked down the hall, her saying,
"My name's Ranni, what's yours?"
"...Akari."
Ranni looked slightly older than Akari. Activating her soul weapon and analyzing her, she'd guess that Ranni was around 10. She was the closest person other than Ren to Akari's age that she'd met.
They stepped outside, the sun beaming straight into Akari's eyes, causing her to yelp in pain.
"Haha, you really are like a lil bat!"
Ranni's teasing caused Akari to want to glare at her, but she couldn't. She was stuck rubbing her eyes.
"Be.. quiet. It's been a while."
As she said this, Ranni smiled, saying,
"Looks like I'll have to get you outside more often then."
Akari stayed quiet as she stopped rubbing her eyes, looking around.
There were a bunch of kids playing outside, some playing games she'd never seen, and some playing games she remembered from her old world, like Connect four.
This puzzled her.
'Why is this game here?'
She walked towards the kids playing the game, Ranni following right behind her.
'This shouldn't exist here. Did someone bring it from another world? If so… who?'
Calm blue eyes followed them, watching from a slight distance.
They narrowed before making a move.