During the past month, survival had become the priority. Doing whatever it took to stay alive—no matter how morally questionable—was necessary. Killing, looting, stealing: if it was needed, it had to be done without hesitation. But had facing death up close three times changed the way he thought?
When Nova was young, Adelaide taught him that stealing was wrong, because people—the rightful owners of their belongings—had likely worked hard to obtain them. Taking something that wasn't yours wasn't right, let alone taking someone's life to do so. Even if shady dealings existed in his world, that didn't justify such actions.
Nova had never stolen from anyone; he always stayed within the bounds of the law—or at least, that was how it was supposed to be…
'I guess it started after I got trapped on the other side.'
He sighed, exhausted. Adjusting his hood to better cover his face, he lifted his gaze.
'I don't know why I'm overthinking this. I'm not in my world. Besides, I'm no pure hero or anything like that.'
After all, Empaths were killers no matter how "good" they seemed in the public eye. Killing was worse than stealing, and as someone who had already crossed that line since childhood, he shouldn't be worrying about trivialities.
He moved forward with a determined expression. He thought:
'I've already taken part in the killing of many Aberrations. What could be worse than that?'
He smiled calmly—not out of pleasure toward those dark thoughts, but because of the irony: killing and stealing—two acts separated by a vast moral gap.
After about ten hours—or so Nova estimated—he sat down on a metal crate in a wide alley to rest. There were many trash containers in the area, along with large metal boxes stacked on top of one another.
He had been walking since he arrived in this place, perhaps for an entire day. Although he wasn't tired, he couldn't afford to push his body to its limits. His injuries from the battle against the serpent were still healing, so it wasn't wise to strain himself.
From where he sat in the alley, he could see one of the large advertising screens and two blue holograms hanging high on a building. Displayed there were the faces of four different individuals.
'I've been seeing the same faces ever since I arrived. Who are these people?' Nova thought, memorizing their appearances. 'If they're being shown one by one on the screen, they must be very famous criminals.'
It was a shame he couldn't understand the language. The only thing he could grasp were the faces of those Aberrations. There were three men and one woman with humanoid appearances—in short, they looked masculine and feminine.
They all wore black clothing with chrome details that concealed most of their faces. Two of the men, at first glance on the hologram and the screen, were large and heavily built. Because of their size, their cloaks didn't cling to their bodies, though they still hid their faces well.
The last man was more average: slender, not very tall, but not short either. Among them all, his face was the most visible beneath the darkness of the hood. Half of his face was cybernetic, silver in color, with a glowing blue eye—resembling an ancient theatrical mask overloaded with details. The skin on the other side of his face was pale blue, marked by two straight lines that looked like metal welds. His messy white hair made him stand out sharply among the others, and his silver eye stared into nothingness with a hypnotizing coldness.
Beyond that, there wasn't much else to distinguish.
As for the woman, she was taller than the white-haired man. Her skin was red beneath the shadow of her hood, with long, straight black hair that was unkempt. Her eyes couldn't be seen, as her hair covered much of her face. Through the opening of her cloak, her exposed abdomen was visible. Below that, she wore black shorts that revealed her strange cybernetic legs. If not for that last detail, what would have drawn the most attention were her small red horns—sharp as daggers—jutting out from her forehead.
'But if they aren't criminals, then what are they? This would be so much easier if I had some kind of translator.'
After finishing his food, he stood up from the crate and looked toward the alley's exit.
The lights were still shining brightly, and the entire place was as impressive as it was enigmatic. Nova moved through the crowd, a bit more confident and relaxed than before.
When it came to routines, Nova was an expert. He had lived the routine of an Empath since he turned seventeen: waking up, showering, having breakfast, and heading out on patrol with his team. Sometimes he ate lunch at a restaurant—though during that first year on the job, Adelaide always prepared his lunch for him.
At night, Nova would walk back home. Every time he opened the door, his mother was waiting for him with a warm smile and dinner ready. Seeing that woman—who used to be so sad in the past—smiling calmly made Nova feel at peace with himself.
He believed he was finally repaying his debt to her…
After two more days of travel, Nova noticed that this planet's schedule was completely different from Terra's. While it was night here, it was most likely daytime on the continent of Calem, because whenever day broke in this city, Nova felt extremely sleepy.
He took advantage of that to sleep in alleyways, in the darkest corners where no one would see him.
At times, he witnessed murders among the Aberrations. For example, a group of mobsters shot a cockroach-like man in the head.
Nova didn't sympathize with them; from his perspective, they were the enemy. Even if they killed each other, that would be great—fewer problems for both him and his world. Even so, he always had to flee from those situations, as he didn't want to get involved in the affairs of creatures he didn't know—and who were his natural enemies.
Before sleeping, Nova spent some time thinking.
'Ever since I arrived here, no portal has opened…'
That wasn't normal. If there was an energy source powering the planet, Dimensional Portals should open frequently—but that didn't happen in this world. In fact, Nova had already speculated that the portal he arrived through had probably taken years to form.
'I thought a portal would open on the street at any moment. That was supposed to be my chance to get out of here, but no…'
He sensed that something was off about this world.
Nova pushed those thoughts out of his mind and slept until nightfall. However, a noise near the alley woke him up. He opened his single eye and hid behind nearby containers, as he usually did to avoid being detected.
Peeking out, he saw two Aberrations—one on the ground and one standing. The one standing was the horned, red-skinned woman who had appeared on the screen and the hologram—aiming a gun at a crustacean-looking man.
'I haven't been in this world for long, and I'm already running into trouble. Seriously, I need to get out of here…'