Infinity in the Void – Freedom in the Abyss

After the stunt yesterday, nothing really happen since nobody was hurt. Only some minor property damage.

It was fun while it lasted.

"Ah, Charlotte.", Marina approached me.

"Hello.", I wave to her.

"It's night already, so you should sleep.", she sat right next to me.

I leaned back on the dragon feeling its warm body. I am in the communal hub and had gotten to know more about the White Dragon of Saxon, his name is Kortigern, and I like to call him Kert. So yeah, I befriended a dragon. Pretty cool.

Ah, I really should go to sleep, shouldn't I?

"I won't for tonight. I'm waiting for someone.", I stare up at the open hole in the dome dorm, "It's quite important."

"If so, I will leave you up to your own device.", she stood up and smile kindly at me, "Just don't be loud or disturb others' sleep. You can do that for me, right?"

I nodded, seeing her out. Marina went back on her patrol, going around the entire dorm... huh, I can see some girls trying to hide from her.

We made eye contact, and a girl with white eyes looked back at me. Marina just went by them, so I gave them a nod, saying they could go now. 

The trio makes a break for it, running towards the exit while making as little sound as possible. I turn back to Marina, she was watching them too but let them go.

Well, that was amusing. Now I'm bored.

"Charles."

The cat appears on my lap, so fluffy... so cute. I keeps stroking the cat, scratching them to make them feel good, then I folded myself, lightly crushing Charles between my thighs and chest.

"Meow~~", they groaned, trying to escape my arms but I just hug them tighter.

"You can't escape, Charles... you are coming with me...", I whispered, closing in on the creature, "I love you, Charles. You will stay with me forever..."

"Meow~", they moaned, pleading for me.

Yes... this feeling... it's good. Control something else's mortality... I can crush the cat right here... to prove that I can... it's giving a feeling of... dominating.

I let go, holding Charles with my hands only. Hugging them...

Bzzt~ Bzzt~

Oh, I got a text message. I take out the phone from my pocket, holding it further than I would normally do to let Charles look at the messages too. The sender is... Sinclair.

[Are you Charlotte Silvi?]

   [Yes]

[Cool, I'm the delivery gal. I got your weapon with me, let's meet tomorrow morning in the back alley]

  [Where are you now?]

[On a flight to Mu.]

 

The messenger sent a photo... short silver hair with streaks of red and yellow, sharp scarlet red eyes staring at me intensely. Her body is lean, modest at best... medium size chest... She wore a red decorated military uniform but no badges. And on her head is a pair of pink heart-shaped glasses. 

Sinclair... she's not in the plane, she's sitting on top of the plane on a deckchair with a vape in her left hand.

 

[That's all I had for now, let's meet up tomorru]

[*tomorrow]

[Love your streams, Charlotte <3]

  [Ok]

[Wait]

  [What?]

[...]

[Nvm]

[I just lost my vape, some birb hit it, nothing to worry about. I'll just buy a new one.]

[This is goodbye fr]

 

Okay... why does Sinclair look a lot like an adult version of me? Reverie?

Yeah... I got nothing on this one, she doesn't exist in the Akashic Library!

What about time travel? She could be me from the future.

Ah~ let's go to sleep, time travel is kinda hard to understand~! The Library will let you learn~ you unlocked another level!

I get up from the bend, making my way back to my room. Sinclair... I remember a username... Sinclair A, the 'A' must be either her surname or her label letter.

But Sinclair... that's not my name. I know myself best, I will never abandon my name... she isn't me.

I opened the door, Hoa isn't here... must be hunting in a forest somewhere.

Mitsuki on the other hand, was lying on her bed playing on her phone. She only spares a glance at me, still thinking whether or not should she ask me.

Without a word, I jumped to my bed on the top. Of course, I take off my shoes and socks. Wearing them to sleep is just weird.

I closed my eyes...

...and I enter the Akashic Library.

I saw some Akashic Insurgency agents, taking books from the shelves and leaving them there. The Library will shuffle the books if they are placed back, but the books on the ground will stay there...

So they found a loophole. This won't do it.

"Return."

The books all flew away, returning to the shelves. This effectively destroys all of their hard work, trapping them for even longer. They screamed and yelled at each other, going insane after they found a loophole... they don't know how much time have passed, they think they could've been here for hours or days, or even years.

The books here look different, they don't have the silver cover anymore. All books have names on their spine, and different book covers too.

"Let's try this..."

"Sinclair A."

I waited for the books to shuffle and give me what I need. But they didn't budge at all...

Sinclair... who are you? Why do you look so much like me?

I let out a sigh, admitting my defeat. Let's go back to what I originally came for.

"Time travel."

The library shifted, and billions of books remained.

"Earth."

Just a few fly away. Let's be more specific.

"The true principle of time travel."

Ten million remained. Hmm... still not enough.

"Branch."

"Meeting past self."

Eight thousand remained. Hm...

I picked a book titled "Time Travel.", it's pretty basic. I began reading...

=0=0=

Humanity

=0=0=

 

After reading it over and over again, I have come to an understanding.

There are two ways to travel across time. The first is through the Oort Cloud. The second is with spacial anomalies.

I learned a lot from the book, about the ice prison and protection of the Solar System. It not only keeps the influence of the Eldritch Beings at a certain level. But also holds everything together, including Space and Time.

It is possible to perform time travel from beyond the Oort Cloud. But there is a problem, going out is easy but going back in is practically impossible unless the ice prison gets destroyed.

So it's only the second method, spacial anomalies. Rifts in space and time, connect one place to another. Imagine a branch growing, then it suddenly looped back for fun.

But if that person is some sort of variation of me... then creating a Rift casually is possible.

But there are creatures that hunt in the Rifts, which this book dubbed Tindalos - monsters living in Quantum Space...

This is too complicated, I don't like it. I have more than enough information and nothing tells me if Sinclair is the future version of me - which I highly doubted.

The "How" is partially solved... 

Argh... for the first time, I felt this frustrated. A mysterious person with absolutely no background information looks like the adult version of me, is very cool, and has a connection to Seria...

Mystery... even though I am frustrated, I cannot stop smiling. Something that I can't comprehend...

It is fun.

"Reset."

The books flew away, resetting for me to continue my search.

"Information about not appearing in the Akashic Records."

The whole library rumbles, all the shelves and books sink into the pitch-black floor... and only a piece of paper rises out from the depth of the library.

A simple piece of paper, clean white stained with red ink. There was only one word on the paper.

[The End]

And I exited the Akashic Library. No, I got kicked out... damn.

I guess I can ask Sinclair tomorrow...

=0=0=

I woke up at 6 in the morning, sharp. And a message was sent instantly to my phone.

[Yooo, are you awake?]

  [Yes]

[Nice]

  [How did you know when I would wake up?]

[ :) ]

  [Don't send a cryptic smiley face]

[Oh, sorry]

[I just know it]

[That's just how I operate]

  [Are you me?]

[Nope]

  [You are lying]

[You cannot prove it ;) ]

  [So you are lying]

[Nope☆]

[Anyway, I'll send you my location]

She sent me her location... just a few buildings away from the Academy.

I got up from my bed silently, making sure to not wake Mitsuki up. She deserves her sleep, having to deal with me early in the morning yesterday and all.

Changing clothes, I went with my signature outfit, a blue shirt with the Compass Rose, the RGB trench coat, and tight leggings. I feel complete with this.

Now... Sinclair...

Going outside quietly, I give a final look at Mitsuki... she was wide awake, staring at me with her icy gaze in silence. And I closed the door.

Not dealing with that today.

I slowly walk away, going to get breakfast first. The cafeteria is, as you guessed it, underground! Mu has a fetish for building basements.

Where Kert sleeps all the time is the entrance, he's the reason why nobody tries to sneak into the cafeteria, on the girl's dorm at least. Not sure about the other side.

Since he woke up, I get to enter the cafeteria. Going down the entrance in the middle, I use Survive to check out below... very few people.

The cafeteria itself is similar to American school cafeteria, but it's huge. I think this can fit over two thousand people.

As I was taking my tray, a message came from Sinclair took my attention.

 

[Hey~ maybe we can have breakfast together]

[Sound good?]

  [I'm already in the cafeteria]

[Come on]

[It'll be quick]

[My treat <3]

  [Hmm]

 

Should I go? I don't need to pay money. So I should go.

 

  [Okay]

[Nice]

 

I walked back up, not going to the cafeteria today. Sinclair... 

=0=0=

The woman in red smiles, leaning on the wall of the dark alleyway. Though under the darkness of civilization, her scarlet eyes glow like an ever-burning fire, and the streaks of red and yellow on her silver hair burn bright like the sun itself.

"So here you are, Sinclair."

The woman did not respond back with words, just a glance at the girl in silver. She smiles, touching the case on her left.

"Who are you?", she asked the woman.

"You already know who I am, Charlotte. My name is Sinclair.", she bowed in a courtly manner, with her left hand on her chest and right hand on the side, her eyes closed shut to show she is not a danger.

Charlotte could not detect any lies from Sinclair. It ticked her off, never before had she felt this frustrated with someone, especially with that knowing smile.

'"Ah, alright, alright~ no more jokes. Here, this is for you~", she handed her the long case.

Without a word, Charlotte opened the case. And her eyes widen in surprise, inside it was a silver jousting lance with a pointed tip. Symbols in red, blue, magenta, lavender, gold, and black blinks in a spiral pattern all the way down to the body. It reminded her of a drill head more than a lance.

But as she held onto the lance... and learned its name.

"Rhongomyniad...", she muttered, staring at Sinclair with a curious expression. Not caring about the spiraling roots growing to cover her hand.

"It's actually Rhongomyniad Deluxe Edition, I don't like that name so I just call it Quirinus.", Sinclair commented, amused by the curiosity of Charlotte.

"That's a Roman name.", she frowned, looking down at the lance. Charlotte hates anything remotely Roman.

Quirinus was... the name the Roman people gave to Romulus after his 'death'. That fact made her feel like she was holding a piece of his being, weird and uncomfortable.

"Yup! For some dramatic irony~ you know what you have to do, right?"

Charlotte takes a step back, cautious of the smiling woman, wide-open eyes showing the burning hatred she carries.

"Kill Romulus with the spear bearing his own name! Hahahaha!!", she raised her hands, as if presenting the world, with a spin she laugh and laugh as if all of this was just one big joke.

"Now, let's go have breakfast~ I'm famished!", Sinclair began to walk away out to the light.

"Wait.", Charlotte grabbed her hand...

Then she saw it.