Once I was done with Larry and the others, I knew I needed a breather, so I teleported to an isolated area in the far north—away from any sense of familiarity, and devoid of life.
I just wanted some time to think.
Floating as I stared at the star-filed sky, brimming in the vastness of darkness all around, I smiled to myself.
This world was truly beautiful.
"So this is where you were…" A voice broke me out of my thoughts, though I could already sense the presence of the owner before she spoke.
Hearing her words made my smile broaden even more.
"Stop saying that as if you didn't know that already." Glancing behind me, I saw Karlia floating there.
She had her arms folded, and a smile on her face. Her violet eyes locked onto mine, and as she drew closer, I could feel my heart racing.
"Fair enough." She retorted, still drawing closer.
Karlia's and I had used Soul Brands on ourselves, just like I did with Jane all those years ago. In essence, she could tell where I was and vice versa.
Even without the Brand, however, I doubted someone like her would have any problem locating me.
Not as long as I was within the same universe she was in.
"What's on your mind? You seem troubled." She asked, her arms wrapped around my shoulder.
I gave a light chuckle once I felt the warmth of her skin on mine.
"What gave it away? The Soul Brand?"
"Pfft! What? I don't need a Soul Brand to know when my man is upset. What's the matter, Lewis?" She asked once more.
It wasn't like I wanted to hide anything from Karlia, but it was sometimes to voice out my thoughts.
What I just neded was a bit of time to sort them out… and I would finally be able to express them.
"The problem with this world… the loss of so many souls, and its inevitable crumbling, it's bcause we stopped the Nether from invading our world."
Without the Nether, the dead souls couldn't be recycled to form new souls. And so, only existing souls would be transferred to form more existent ones.
That wasn't sustainable.
"The more people die, the less the total mass of souls become. Without any way to recycle them, the souls will thin out, diminishing over time."
In essence… this world would soon run out of souls to operate on.
"The Nether Realm is dying. And it's because of us." I locked gazes with Karlia and offered a tired smile.
"And the worst part is that I don't know how to correct it."
I couldn't even restore the Souls that belonged to the loved ones of my friends. How much more the souls of not just a branch, but the entire Nether Tree.
I was stuck.
"Is that all?" Karlia's voice suddenly made my worries dissipate into a void of bright embers.
"H-huh?"
She gave me a smile that made it seem like everything I was saying… was no problem.
Just what in the world was she thinking?
"Don't tell me… you can solve the problem?" My eyes bulged as I stared at Karlia's confident smile.
How could I have forgotten? Karlia was an excellent Magic Researcher. Not only had she found a way to make herself virtually immortal, but she kept researching various aspects of Magic in order to bring me back.
Plus, she had so many abilities that she had collected over the years.
Finally… she was currently stronger than ever.
'If there's anyone that can solve this, it could most probably be her!'
"You're overestimating my abilities, Lewis. Of course I can't do that much." Karlia stopped me dead in my tracks as she laughed, patting my shoulder with her surprisingly soft hands.
"W-what?"
"I mean, yes, I have delved into Magic a lot, and I know my considerable share of it… but I still couldn't revive you without the conventional means, talkless of solving a problem as huge as this."
'Ah, that's true.' In terms of difficulty, the current situation was far more difficult.
"Plus, this is the Nether Realm. The established laws in the Aether Realm don't apply here. I'll have to learn a lot from scratch and build from the ground up."
That was also true. It seemd Karlia had already considered the possibilities.
"Even if we pool our thoughts together to come up with a solution, it's going to take a considerably long period before we can do anything. And at that point, it'll probably be too late."
The more Karlia spoke, the more hopeless the situation seemed.
Why in the world was she so confident earlier? If the situation was as bad as I thought, then why was she brimming with so much confidence?
"Relax, Lewis. We don't need to solve the problem. We should just delegate to those who were designed to do so." As soon as she said those words and placed her hands on my shoulders, I suddenly realized what she meant.
The Constellations!
"If it's them, they should be able to pull it off!"
Not only were they limitless in the Nether Root, but they were designed to govern various aspects of existence within the Nether Realm.
Creating a sustainable system in the absence of the Nether was something they could do!
"You're a genius, Karlia! Ah… but the problem is how to convince them to cooperate."
Libra's words still remained in my mind.
'This world operates on chaos and despondency. If that is the natural order of things here… it's more likely they will allow their world to die.'
That was probably the reason the Constellations hadn't done anything yet despite being aware of the problem.
"Lewis, don't worry about that." Once again, Karlia's confident tone danced in my ears, and she took all of my attention.
Her eyes brimmed with such confidence that it gave me an irrational sense of assurance.
"Just leave it to me."
*
*
*
[A/N]
Thanks for reading!
