A world within a world within a world. Hikari was dizzy thinking about it. She wondered if it was also possible to visit Earth in this way or if this counted as exiting a simulation. Instead of thinking about those complexities for a second, she rounded spiral stairs with a certain dragon and vampire who were in the midst of bickering.
"If you are going to be the first, then it’s only natural I will be the second!"
"That decision will be up to Master, even though I am reluctant to share."
Hikari frowned at the two. "What are you two even talking about? You aren’t exactly being subtle."
Mizuko smiled at the elf. "I had no intention of being subtle, my mistress. If it pleases you, I would also like the chance to prove myself."
Hikari sighed. "You two are both so forward."
Kurayami shook her head. "We only have to be like this because you are so innocent, Master...Well, maybe not anymore."
Mizuko’s eyes widened. "How far have you two gone!"
Kurayami grinned smugly. "Hmph, we went all the way."
"Why are you telling her that!?"
"My mistress!" Mizuko grabbed onto Hikari’s arm. "I will prove myself to you. I would like a chance to show I am stronger than this dragon!"
"I don’t really want either of you to fight though."
Mizuko shook her head. "I am not talking about fighting. I am referring to the bedroom. I can push you down just as well as this dragon and do it even better!"
Redness spread across the elf’s face. "Nobody is pushing me down! If either of you say anything more on the subject, I will get mad!"
"Yes, Master!"
"Yes, Mistress!"
"Good," Hikari said as she finally reached a towering, heavy door. Her delicate hand pushed on the marble structure, and the double doors opened slowly and loudly. The absurdity of a tiny elf opening a door that towered as high as a giant wasn’t lost on Hikari.
Beyond those doors, the temple presented itself. A white marble throne sat at the top just a few feet away from Hikari. The room was ginormous with sconces adorning the walls. Inside there were at least 100 figures who Hikari recognized. Out of all of them, none seemed to be humans.
Two rows of warrior maids stood on the purple carpet, matching Hikari’s eyes. Out of the twenty maids most were angels with halos on their heads. However, a few of them were the exact opposite, demonic creatures or monsters.
The rest of the room were more professions: a blacksmith, a towering giant warrior, a divine elven archer, etc. There were so many, yet Hikari remembered all of them. They were all subordinates she gathered in the game. Even if some of them were less used or lower leveled than the others, she would never forget them.
However, now she was presented with many dilemmas. First of all, they were all staring at her and waiting for her to take the throne. Hikari didn’t know what she should do. On one hand, she was really happy to be here, but on the other hand, she had made several promises in another world.
Yet, it was then that something else caught her eye. In the crowd, there was someone who definitely shouldn’t be there. It was a girl with pink hair. The goddess—Amelia—stood inside of the crowd.
Hikari silenced all of them by raising her hand. No matter how pretentious it seemed in her head, she had to do what she felt. The elf walked over to the marble seat and sat down. The two that had followed her in took their places next to her throne as her protectors.
The elven goddess was surprised by the comfort the seat provided. She stared out at the sea of beings. How should a leader even address their people? How do I tell them I can’t stay here for too long, and what if they want to follow me? All of them remember me disappearing yesterday, right?
Nevertheless, Hikari spoke slowly over the eager crowd. "There is one thing I will say first of all. I do not want to lie to anyone here…"
"Whether it was by my own design or not, I seem to have lost my memory." Before they could interrupt, Hikari put her hand up. "I remember each and every one of you, but to me, this place is not as you all saw it. Moreover, since time here advanced slower when it was in the divine realm, I have gained more memories since I left that span longer than a month. I have made promises in another world as well."
"It also doesn’t end there," Hikari said, smiling wryly at Kurayami. "I have memories from a third world, and Kurayami has been...promoted in a sense."
The halos above the angel maids seemed to form question marks. Their faces displayed their confusion.
"What I mean is Kurayami and I have shared many times together…"
"What Master wants to say is we have transcended the relationship of Master and Subordinate, and we have become lovers!"
Even though Hikari felt like she didn’t know these beings before her in the same way they knew her, she felt a sense of embarrassment. However, on closer look none of them seemed to be really concerned about that.
And one of the angels in the front proved that with her words. "My goddess, we are all happy that you’ve come back to us. The biggest concern is your loss of memory. I caution to ask, but are you sure that’s truly happened?"
Hikari narrowed her eyes at the golden haired angel. "What do you mean?"
"Forgive me, but I just can’t see something like that ever happening. How could one such as yourself have that happen? Did you erase your own memory?"
Hikari’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. Why would she erase her own memory? It made no sense. She remembered most of the events that happened from the game on her own. So, it would have been a targeted deletion of memory.
"I did not erase my own memory. Everyone here is also different from how I remember them." Hikari stared at the angel—Akari. Even this game character had become real. Now, this game character was saying that it was Hikari who was mistaken.
This made absolutely zero sense. Imagine one day you are told that everything you remembered was a lie. Actually, reality was the game you were playing before, and all of the characters in it were correct. You were wrong for assuming that your memories were real in the first place. Anyone would not accept such an explanation. In fact, the only thing Hikari could think of was parallel worlds.
In her mind, the only thing that made sense was that her consciousness had somehow traversed into a universe where she was her game character. But what would that mean for the Hikari who was a normal girl? Did she die? These things weren’t very scientific in her mind. If this Hikari that had different memories traversed the multiverse back to her original version, what would happen then? Ah, I have a divine headache.
Hikari shook her head and addressed Akari again. "None of this really makes sense to me either, but I think it is better to treat me as an entirely different person. From my perspective, moving this body around before was no different from moving a chess piece."
This time it was the unexpected visitor—Amelia—who spoke. "Do you mean like an avatar?"
"Exactly! Also, why are you even here? Or should I ask, how did you even get here?"
The goddess chuckled. "What do you think this place is, Miss Hikari?"
"In my eyes, this place is nothing more than a game called [Gensuba]."
"Well, it’s true this place is a plane in its own right, but the people of my world have a whole different name for this world. They call it the [Divine Plane]."
Huh? Gensuba is the divine realm? Or is she talking about this divine area of gensuba? If I remember correctly there are still low-level places in this world. Even the people of Amalin could beat some of those monsters.
Amelia continued. "All of the people that claimed divinity in that world eventually arrived here with no understanding of why. The only reason I showed up here today is the barrier was lifted to this area, and I was somehow granted entry. This place was thought to be the origin, but I never expected this."
"I didn’t expect this either. Nothing really makes sense anymore. It’s as if everyone wants me to believe I created all of this, but I have no memory of any of that."
Before Hikari could continue another signal reached her brain. It was the signal of angels she had almost forgotten about. The angels that she saved from that demon were reaching out to her.
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