"Where am I?" I couldn't ask myself.
I remember Nyx arriving, allowed by Evernight, then her mother, and then Fuli.
And the last thing I remember is a moment of pain, and...
Now I'm here, I don't know where...
I don't know why, but this place gives me goosebumps...
I couldn't just stay in one place, so I started walking straight down the hallway...
This strange place, as if made up of different cultures...
I don't know how long I walked, but there was no door leading anywhere.
It was as if I was trapped in a vicious circle, and knowing that...
I turned around abruptly, and sure enough, there was a door right next to me, even though it shouldn't have been there.
I opened it slightly, and walked into a dimly lit room, and...
I saw her... That familiar figure, the one I would recognize anywhere.
"Stelle!" I screamed, immediately rushing to hug her, but as soon as I touched her, I felt her skin cold... no, more accurately, icy, as if she herself were made of ice.
I looked up, and instead of the expected sweet, silly smile I'd always liked, I was met with a creepy smile that made me feel uneasy.
I instinctively jumped back.
No, it wasn't Stelle, that's for sure.
"Well, well, are you really scared of your beloved?" rang out a disembodied voice, making me want to hide.
"Who are you... No, what are you?!" I managed to squeeze out the words, though a primal fear was creeping into my heart.
Now I'm alone, neither Fuli nor Evernight are with me, and that makes me even more afraid.
This creature was clearly not kind. I wanted to run, but I was afraid to turn my back on it.
"Don't you recognize us?" asked a distorted voice, and before my eyes, what I thought was Stelle changed and became Dan Heng, then Himeko, then Welt Yang, until finally the creature took the form of Pom-Pom.
"Come on, passenger March 7, do you recognize us now?" It was Pom-Pom's voice, but it was distorted.
"Shut up! You're not them!" I screamed.
Pom-Pom? She merely smiled, changing her appearance again, and now became... me?
"You're so lucky... To have found help from a truly powerful being... I tried so hard to make you suffer." It was clearly my voice.
"Hm, since it didn't work with you, hm... maybe we should try with your new sister?" the creature asked me in my own voice.
As soon as he spoke of Evernight, I didn't notice how a bow appeared in my hands, and without thinking, I fired arrows at him. But my attack had no effect. Every arrow I fired at the creature passed right through.
But I wasn't going to give up!
How dare he threaten my Evernight!
"Your attempts are pointless!" the creature said, laughing horribly.
"You're incapable of protecting her. Just as you couldn't protect them! And of course, you also couldn't protect the one you gave your heart to." the creature said with a smirk.
No...
I must...
Not again...
"And why should she protect me?" a familiar voice rang out next to me.
"It is I who must protect her!" the voice repeated again.
I turned around and couldn't help but widen my eyes in surprise...
Stelle stood next to me, with that sweet yet silly smile, holding a bat.
"Stelle..." I said quietly.
She looked at me and winked, at me...
And most importantly... I remember their faces, I remember practically everything! But how... I burned all my memories...
"You shouldn't be here!" the creature growled.
"But I'm here!" Stelle said defiantly.
"You ants think you can defeat me?! You couldn't do it then, and you won't do it now!"
"That's quite funny, coming from a bug." a female voice rang out, echoing through space itself, and a few seconds later, cracks appeared in space, and it shattered like glass.
Finally, we found ourselves in a completely white dimension.
"You!!!" the creature growled.
"Me!" the woman's voice rang out again, and a second later, I heard the flapping of wings, after which I saw hovering feathers laced with lightning.
And then I saw a tall, red-haired woman, behind her back a multitude of black wings, veined with raging lightning bolts.
"Why did you come here? It's none of your business!" the creature screamed.
Damn, why is he still in my form? It looks creepy...
"Well, well, how could I leave a girl in need?" the winged woman said smugly.
I saw the creature clearly frightened by this woman, and then it began to disintegrate in the air, and as it disappeared, it continued to stare at me...
"Why didn't you stop it?" Stelle asked the winged woman.
"That didn't make sense. This parasite's body isn't here." the woman said.
Then Stelle looked at me again, and in turn, I rushed over and began to hug her, and immediately felt relief when I felt two hands on my back...
"Stelle..." I said quietly, holding back tears.
"I'm here." she replied just as quietly.
"But how... I burned all my memories, I shouldn't remember anything at all, and..." I didn't have time to finish, as the winged woman flew up to us.
"I can answer that question. Essentially, to save everyone, you burned all your memories, but in doing so, your soul was subjected to corrosion, to this parasite. But before all that, you unknowingly isolated part of your soul, as a backup." the woman said.
And the only thing that came to mind was...
"Evernight..." the woman simply nodded.
"Yes, thanks to her emergence as a separate entity, even though you lost all your memories to the corrosion, they weren't erased forever. After the corrosion was removed, your lost memories returned." the woman said.
"But... What was that anyway? What kind of creature was that?" I asked.
After all, it was precisely because of his appearance, and the inability to save my family, that I burned all my memories to save everyone...
"Basically, it's a space bug, or 'swarm,' that has gained divine powers. These parasites have already destroyed many universes." the woman said.
"But aren't you stronger than 'them'? Why don't you go and destroy 'them'?" I asked.
"Yes, I'm stronger than him, but I'm not omnipotent. And this creature knows how to hide and flee when it realizes it can't win. I've been trying to track 'them' for three hundred years, but every time, they manage to escape. The last time I met him was after that incident in space, when you burned your memories to protect everyone." the woman said.
"Anyway, I have to go now. I only came to stop him from corrupting your soul again." the winged woman said, and disappeared.
But I didn't even ask his name...
I just looked at Stelle...
"Don't look at me like that! I don't know her name either! She never told me!" Stelle said, causing me to sigh.
"Anyway, how did you meet her?" I asked.
"Well, after that incident when you decided to sacrifice yourself, which was really stupid! Hmm... Basically, your power was enough to open portals to other dimensions, essentially sending everyone to other worlds." Stelle said.
"So no one died?" I asked hopefully.
"Well, that depends on how you look at it..." Stelle said, looking away.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"Well, if reincarnation counts as death?" Stelle asked.
"Well, essentially, when we entered these portals, we were reincarnated, without changing our appearance... well, almost..." Stelle said, not looking at me.
"Stelle, what do those last words mean?" I asked.
"Well... Someone was born of the wrong gender..." she said.
"WHAT?!" I screamed.
"Well, it's not your fault! It's all that woman's influence! She told me so herself!" Stelle countered.
"Well, anyway..." she pulled out her phone and showed me two photos.
The first photo showed a sullen-looking girl with a long dragon tail and two large horns on her head. From the color scheme, I realized it was Dan Heng, transformed into a beautiful woman...
The next photo showed a girl dressed in a suit, and she could only be described as a "gentleman." Her long hair was tied back, but the most striking feature was her large breasts, clearly visible under the suit, and she was wearing glasses. There was no doubt about it: Welt Yang, transformed into a woman...
"Is she a genderbender goddess?!" I exclaimed.
"Uh... Goddess, what?" Stelle asked me, tilting her head sweetly.
"Don't mind me, you're too young for that." I said, to which she puffed out her cheeks.
Damn, I'd forgotten how cute she looks when she's angry...
"Ahem... Anyway, what about Himeko and Pom-Pom?" I asked.
"Scroll on." Stelle said.
I did as she said, and sure enough, there was a photo of Himeko... drinking coffee? Well, Himeko never changes, but... Next to her was a white-haired girl, also drinking coffee... Could it be that Himeko found a friend with the same tastes?
"Stelle, who is that girl?" I asked, to which she shrugged.
"I don't know, I didn't take those photos. I never left the world I was in, until that winged woman visited me, and she showed me those photos." Stelle said.
I still can't tell if she's good or bad... I mean, she kind of helped us, but... she changed her gender... can that even be considered evil? It didn't hurt anyone, judging by the faces of Dan Heng and Welt Yang. Although, until I meet them, I won't know.
Scrolling further, I...
"What the hell?!" I screamed.
Pom-Pom... She was sitting on a throne, around which people were kneeling, not people... not people anymore, though they looked a bit human.
"Yeah, I had the same reaction! She went from being a conductor to a queen," Stelle said.
Well, at least they're okay, but...
Handing the phone over to Stelle, I noticed she'd become a little transparent.
Seeing my worried face, she just smiled.
"Don't worry, it's just time to wake up." she said, coming up to me.
I wanted to ask her a couple more questions, but she stopped me with a kiss, which surprised me a little, but I accepted it, and it was perhaps a little too passionate...
As I pulled away from me, I noticed her almost disappear, but before she could say...
"I'll wait for you..." she said and disappeared.
I could only smile sadly. I still had so much to talk about, including talking about Evernight... Although knowing Stelle... She probably would have been happy, and suggested a threesome, even though I'd never had one with her before... And would that be considered incest or self-gratification, since we're supposedly the same person...
What the hell am I thinking!
Soon, that white space disappeared, and the next moment, I opened my eyes to see Evernight's worried gaze, and apparently she'd made a pillow out of her lap...
In the end, she told me what had happened, and that to regain what I'd lost, I needed to find Stelle. Of course, I told her everything I could about Stelle, but I still didn't tell her about this "dream." There's no point in burdening her mind now with things we can't understand yet, and that goddess who likes to change genders...
Anyway, I called her here to help her with a date, so that's what I have to do.