Abyssal Sovereignty

“Strange... no, it feels somewhat familiar.”

A young girl opened her eyes and saw a wooden ceiling above her.

Unlike the warm feeling of the little wooden house from before, this room exuded a sense of tranquility.

“You’re awake! The operation was a success,” said a cat-eared girl with chestnut hair, peering at her from the corner of the girl's vision.

“Meow!”

“What are you saying? It was just a simple bandage job, nothing like a real operation,” remarked another girl, this one with white hair and fox ears, who gently pressed down the cat-eared girl’s ears and placed her on a nearby chair.

“Are you alright?”

“...How long have I been asleep?”

“Hmm... Not too long, probably just a few days,” came the reply.

“...Is that so…”

The girl recalled wandering through the Abyss long ago. Without the clear cycle of day and night, she had little sense of time, and she was completely unaware of how much time had passed.

Now that she thought about it, her sense of time must have dulled and numbed over this period, with the years slipping away unnoticed until a staggering eighty thousand years had passed.

“Your longest stay was in that desert, wasn’t it?”

A soft, childlike voice, with a hint of disdain upon closer listening, came from the doorway.

“Lady Misako.”

“There’s no need for formalities, Shirone. I’m just here to see her,” Misako said, looking at the girl who had now sat up in bed.

“Understood. We’ll excuse ourselves for now. Haru, come with me,” Shirone said, picking up Haru, who was still in a state of weakness, perfectly embodying the saying that ‘cats are liquid’ with her exceptionally pliable form, and left the room.

“Now, let’s discuss what happened in that desert. You’ve probably heard most of it from your inner demon- heart devil.”

“Simply put, you were trapped in the desert due to the illusions of the Mother of Swarms, whom we call the ‘Dreamworm Mother’. You fought and grew stronger day after day, year after year. In the end, during your battle with the Dreamworm Mother, you lost consciousness due to her self-detonation and fell into a coma until we found you.”

This account matched the girl’s own deductions almost exactly.

“By the way, Farkonia mentioned that you encountered and destroyed several fragments of the Dark Gods.”

“Oh, just two, not many.”

“Two? No, it was at least three.”

Misako promptly contradicted the girl’s statement.

“Think carefully about the characteristics of the so-called ‘Dark God fragments’ you encountered.”

The girl began to recall the traits of those ‘plant-like Cthulhu’ and ‘big-eyed tentacle’ creatures—tentacles, strong regenerative abilities, mental corruption, and incomprehensible sounds...

“That’s right. The Dreamworm Mother was one such fragment. The reason you could somewhat understand their voices is because you absorbed the power of these Dark God fragments.”

“Well, I’ll leave the rest to her. I’ll take my leave now.”

Misako vanished from the room with a swiftness that suggested she was escaping. Behind the open door stood a beautiful woman.

“How are you feeling?”

“Hmm... I should be fine.”

The girl moved her arms, especially the newly regrown right hand. Although it still felt a bit unfamiliar, it was functional.

“That’s good to hear.”

Farkonia fully entered the room, revealing the bandages on her own body, though fewer than those on the girl.

“...What happened back then?”

“You’re referring to that time, aren’t you?”

The girl quickly understood what Farkonia was asking.

“It was all thanks to my inner demon, heart devil.”

“Heart Devil?”

Farkonia, being a powerful being herself, knew about the concept of ‘inner demons’ or 'heart devils', which were negative emotions that contended with the self, representing the dark side of every being.

“When I went berserk, it was she who brought me back. I couldn’t give up until I confirmed whether I could exact my revenge.”

“This…”

Even Farkonia, who had lived for an extended period, had never seen a situation where the inner demon pulled the self back from the brink of losing reason. The sheer intensity of the girl’s hatred and anger made Farkonia feel as though the roles of self and inner demon had reversed.

Perhaps the heart devil can't help but to save both itself and Yverantheia.

“In the Mezon, her inner demon has now become something similar but somewhat different.”

Suddenly, a pink-haired fox-eared loli peeked her head around the door, explaining the current state of the girl’s inner demon.

“Misako? What are you…”

“I came to bring this little one here,” Misako said, holding a bag in which Pupu’s half-visible body was revealed.

“Puff puff!”

“This little fellow has been worrying about you ever since you fell unconscious.”

Pupu immediately leapt from Misako’s hands, bouncing over to the girl’s side.

Meanwhile, a green-haired loli hid in the shadows, observing the scene silently, though no one acknowledged her presence.

“By the way, what happened after the battle?”

The girl patted Pupu and asked the question that had been on her mind.

“As you can see, I felt the dragons could no longer continue as they were. So I decided to lead them to the black demon territory, and the damage to Dragon Valley was also a factor.”

Most of the dragons now resided on the outskirts of the black demon territory, stabilising into their human forms near the shrine, such as Veridith and Farkonia outside the room.

“Speaking of which, the dragons were quite astonished by the development of the black demon territory. It wasn’t a waste to have stayed at home for so long.”

“And you weren’t either, were you?”

At that moment, time seemed to stand still.

“...I wasn’t staying at home; I did at least leave the room! But you, after staying in the subspace for so long…”

“Alright, we’re evenly matched.”

After this brief interlude, the conversation returned to its original focus.

“I’ll tell you the result of the battle now.”

“I lost, didn’t I?”

The girl vaguely remembered being struck by the aftermath and spatial turbulence of the final blow, combined with the massive consumption of magic, leading her into a coma. She recalled Farkonia being awake just before she lost consciousness.

“No, it wasn’t like that.”

From Farkonia’s perspective, although she had stayed awake until the end, it was merely because the girl had been merciful.

Farkonia had always viewed the battle as one of moderation, never intending to kill. Had she believed it was a fight to the death, even if she had been knocked unconscious, the outcome for Farkonia would have been death.

And Farkonia, she was not confident she could kill the girl.

“As the former Dragon King, I declare that the dragons will join your ranks.”