~VWUUUUUSSSSHHHH!~
The torrents of energy lashing around me the moment I poured my Aether into the N Arcana sent distortions spreading all around me—no, all of us.
Blueish purple sparks began to dance everywhere, like a mixture of electricity and flames, and the surroundings slowly began to take on the form of blurs.
"I guess it's working." A smile crept on my face as I stared at all four of my remaining colleagues.
Kuzon and Ciara seemed to have overexcited features, though the former tried very hard to hide his expression. Aloe appeared as composed as ever, and Edward just seemed happy to see the Arcana work.
I was personally thrilled, awaiting what we would see beyond this world.
~WHUUUUUUSSSSSHHHH!~
An immense blue vortex suddenly appeared underneath everyone and warped us away from where we stood. It all happened in an instant, and before we realized it, the environment around us had changed completely.
"A-ah…" A small sound escaped my lips as I blinked, now looking around me to absorb the details of our new envionment.
The luminiscent glows of energy stones, and the blank white tiles that decorated the walls, floors, and cielings… they all felt familiar to me.
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, then opened them to exhale.
'It feels the same.'
There was no longer any doubt in my mind as I observed the vast, yet empty room I was in.
"This is the Safehouse." I muttere, glancing in the direction of my dazed allies.
They were also looking around, most likely trying to get a proper grasp of their surroundings. None of them had ever been to the Safehouse before, so I could understand their confusion.
'The N Arcana is meant to bring us here, huh?' Did that mean we were now in the world Neron transported everyone to?'
I tried using my senses to confirm if this was the case, but as expected, I couldn't. The Safehouse was made with special properties, and had a special barrier that prevented foreign interference with it, but it in turn also prevented the extension of energy beyond its confines.
In essence, my sensory abilities were limited to this room.
"Well, I suppose we just have to get ou—"
~BZZZZTTTTZZZZ!!!~
Before I could complete my sentence, a sudden sound buzzing sound caight my attention, as well as the attention of everyone else in the room.
We all looked in the direction of the sound's origin, and we found a holographic image forming from the ground up. It seemed to be projected through a Magic Item that was hanging on the ceiling.
'This is…' My smile deepened as my eyes widened in response to the figure that was forming in the hologram.
"... Neron."
That's right! Standing before us, within the vast expanse of the plain white room, in the form of a slightly buzzing hologram, was Neron.
"Hello, everyone! Nice to see you made it this far. I knew you could do it!" The features of the hologram were identical to Neron's, except for the blue and white hues reminiscent of the light particles it was made out of.
The voice coming from the hologram matched Neron's too, and it felt like we were speaking to him in real tme.
"Now, now, I know you have a lot of things to say, but this is a recording, so it can only be a one-way communication channel. So please, pay attention because I can only say this once."
I folded my arms and decided to use Magic to record all of Neron's words. Perhaps there could be some additional hints given to us that we wouldn't be able to decipher right away.
This was Neron, after all.
"Don't worry, Jared. There is no hidden message or anything. I know you'll be overthinking this stuff way more than neccessary."
I felt a little embarassed that he called me out like that, but that didn't stop me from continuing the recording. Besides, it wasn't like I was being obvious to everyone else.
"Kuzon, I know you're upset, but just hear me out, okay? I apologize for being so secretive about a lot of things, but there are reasons for being confidential with information… and that is also confidential."
I glanced to see Neron's expression, and sure enough, his brows were twitching in annoyance.
"When you arrived in the world supposedly your home, you were surprised to find it empty, right? You searched for your friends and families and found none of them. Yes, that was all me. I had to intervene at the last minute, when we were being teleported, in order to protect everyone else."
It was just as I thought. Neron transported everyone to his dimension to protect them.
"However, do not be mistaken here. I didn't transport everyone to a special dimension to protect them."
… Eh?
'I was wrong?' My face twisted in confusion.
"In more technical terms, I swapped our universe with another one. Ever heard of grafting in agriculture? Yeah, it's something like that. I pulled out our branch and put it in the place of another branch, then I put the other beanch in the place of ours."
'You can do that?!' My ears twitched the moment I heard his explanation.
"The universe I swapped with ours is almost entirely identical to ours, having almost the same buildings and materials and people living within. All except one thing… it's a dead world."
Neron went on to explain how the universe we arrived at was a world where all of us had ceased to exist due to some kind of Magic Explosion gone wrong, killing everyone and everything in that world.
He used a universe that had no living entity and replaced our universe with it.
"But why couldn't you just transport everyone to a special dimension?" I asked, forgetting for a moment that I was addressing a recorded Neron.
However, to my surprise, it seemed it heard my query. Neron's hologram sighed and went on to explain further.
"This was the best method to use. I'll now explain why."
*
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[A/N]
We all await Neron's excuse.
Will he manage to convince us, or not?
