"Splash—splash—"
Soft, soothing sounds of waves echoed again and again in Greg's ears as his senses gradually returned, slowly pulling his consciousness back.
Immediately after, a metallic, sickly sweet stench flooded his nostrils.
The smell was so vivid, so real, that it instantly dispelled the remaining cloudiness in the depths of his mind.
Greg slowly opened his eyes, and a somewhat familiar scene quickly met his vision.
A blood-red lake stretched out infinitely toward the hazy, misty horizon at the edge of his vision.
Overhead was a dark red sky, devoid of sun, moon, or stars. Only a halo resembling congealed blood draped over everything.
And, ahead.
Standing quietly in the middle of the lake, about a dozen meters away from him, was a figure.
Her long hair, like flowing lava or a frozen waterfall of blood, draped over her back, the ends nearly reaching the surface of the water.
She stood with her back to him, barefoot feet treading lightly on the dark red lake. Ripples spread out beneath her feet, yet she showed no sign of sinking.
Everything was remarkably similar to the brief vision he had glimpsed while absorbing the stone tablet's power in the dungeon.
Yet, there were differences.
Last time, the lake had been as still as a dead pool of blood, completely calm without a single ripple, but right now, the water was gently swirling, sloshing with waves.
Last time, he was standing on the shore, but right now...
Greg shifted his body, and a sticky sensation instantly enveloped him.
He looked down and discovered that more than half of his body was actually submerged in this blood-red lake.
The lake didn't seem very deep, reaching only up to his shoulders, but he felt a heavy restraining force pinning him firmly in place, making it difficult to even move, let alone walk or go ashore.
"Why am I here?"
Greg shook his head, trying to clear his groggy mind.
The final moment before being swallowed by the Thirsting Maw's split flesh petals resurfaced in his mind.
"I'm not dead? Or... is this actually the afterlife? Or is it another weird hallucination?"
He tried wiggling his fingers and could feel the stickiness and chill of the lake.
He tried channeling the mana within his body, but there was no response at all, as if it had completely vanished.
"Holy hell, that's ridiculous... Why did that guy even have a Phase 2? Talk about hiding a card up your sleeve!"
Greg cursed under his breath.
Anxiety immediately followed.
"I wonder how Vivian is doing now. After that monster swallowed me, did it turn around to attack her?"
At the thought of Vivian's final, desperate cry, Greg's heart sank violently.
"And Nightmare... If I die, she'll die with me... but I don't know if I'm actually dead right now. If I'm still alive, she's probably cursing my head off."
With a barrage of thoughts remaining unanswered, Greg had no choice but to shift his attention to the red-haired girl up ahead.
"Hey! My friend!"
Greg threw back his head and shouted:
"Mind telling me where this is? Is this still the dungeon? And how are you standing on the lake? Are you channeling Chakra to the soles of your feet?"
There was no response whatsoever.
The red-haired girl remained silent as before.
If not for an occasional stray breeze gently swaying a few strands of hair hanging down her back, Greg would have genuinely doubted whether she was an overly realistic painting.
"Playing that distant and cold, huh?"
Greg clicked his tongue and whispered under his breath:
"As expected, my Hajimi is still the best. No matter how pointless my words are, she'd always reply once or tw—ptui ptui, holy crap, what's going on?"
As he spoke, the blood-red waves that had only been gently lapping at his chest suddenly swelled without warning, choking back the rest of his complaints and filling his mouth with a gasp of sweet, metallic lake water.
If the red-haired girl hadn't been standing there so calmly, Greg would have suspected she was the one behind that sudden wave.
In order to glean some useful information, Greg continued trying to strike up a conversation:
"Oi! Red-haired beauty up ahead!"
"Are you really not going to chat a bit? Look, it's just the two of us here, how lonely! Not to brag, but I'm actually pretty popular back at the academy. Several Seniors and Juniors have praised my voice as a crisp and clean youthful tone! Chatting with you to pass the time is guaranteed free of charge—ptui ptui ptui!"
Yet another, even bigger wave slammed square into his face with even greater force than before, nearly dunking his entire head underwater.
"Cough, cough! Hey! That's a bit out of line, isn't it?!"
Greg was genuinely annoyed this time, and at the same time, he became certain that these waves were definitely related to the red-haired girl!
She could hear him!
And she seemed very dissatisfied with his frivolous tone?
Wiping the water off his face, he decided to switch tactics, adopting a slightly more serious tone:
"Alright, alright, joking aside. Um... Senior? Lady? Can you tell me where this place is? How can I leave? I still have friends waiting for me, so I can't just keep soaking in a bath here. Of course, I don't mean to insult your bathwater."
Silence remained, answered only by an even larger wave crashing over him.
Greg was undeterred—or rather, aside from probing by talking non-stop, he had nothing else to do.
Raking his brain, he covered everything from academy gossip to grand perspectives on the world, yet the red-haired girl kept her back turned to him like an ancient reef, silently listening to the tide of the blood-red lake, offering no response whatsoever to any of his words.
Greg felt a little discouraged.
Looking up at the unchanging dark red sky, a sense of absurdity and helplessness surged in his heart.
"Fine, fine. You're awesome, you're high and mighty."
Smirking self-deprecatingly, with a final thread of reluctance and a sense of giving up completely, he muttered in a voice barely audible even to himself:
"Refusing to say anything when asked, standing motionless like a statue... Don't tell me you're actually... the Mother of Fragmentation herself?"
He had said this casually with a bit of teasing and resignation, expecting no response at all.
However—
Under Greg's gaze, the red-haired girl, who had been standing still like an ancient sculpture, suddenly nodded with utmost clarity.
"..."
Time seemed to freeze in this moment.
Greg felt a little unhappy. The tiny remnant of defiance and probing on his face instantly froze, then shattered into pieces like broken porcelain.
He stared blankly at that dark red silhouette standing with her back turned and nodding in admission. A chill—no, a shudder far deeper than cold—instantly swept through his entire body!
His blood seemed to flow backward, and his heart felt as if gripped tightly by a freezing hand, bringing his very breathing to a halt.
At this moment, his mind went completely blank, leaving only a single thought frantically screaming through his head:
Holy shit, Hajimi!
Your target is right here! Come save me!!!
Rate on N.U.
