Fatima was really before us, fighting against the Void Beast.
I tried pinching my cheeks, but it still hurt. This view is definitely within reality and not some sort of beautiful dream that was specifically crafted for me. I tried to take a step forward, but my face bumped against something soft and elastic.
"... What is this?"
I placed my hands forward and pushed, and as if I were going against a rubber strip, the further it went, the harder it got. In the end, my body got sent back as the "film" rebounded, returning to its previous shape.
I quickly stood up, checking my body for any injuries, but I was mostly fine other than my stinging back. Ugh... My back hurts like hell. It felt like I got smashed against a metal pole, even though there was supposed to be a similar elastic film on the other side.
"Ember, any idea?"
As the only one here who was partly of the Space element and trained by the literal Goddess governing the Space element, Ember should at least have something to say. As I called to her, she quickly did the same as me and touched the film.
She didn't push too deep like I tried to, but instead stopped at the appropriate timing before retracting her hand. After staring at her hands and looking at the film one last time, she turned to me and announced.
"Master, this is like the boundary between our space and the Void Space. I think I can make a tool to break it, but it would take some time."
"I see… Then start working on it. We don't have much time."
Looking at the battle, it was soon reaching the stage where Fatima would switch her gun's form. As I was watching her nostalgic figure, Ember's panicked voice echoed loudly.
"M-Master?! Y-Your hands...!"
"Ha? What's with my..."
I turned to look at Ember but noticed that she was half faded, like a beautiful ghost that haunts you. Looking at my own hand, it was similar to hers in that it was almost semi-transparent. It was as if my very existence was thinning out into nothingness.
"...!"
This is definitely due to mistakenly tampering with the past, creating a chain reaction, and "erasing" our future!
"But we've done nothing since we arrived!"
Ember noticed her own figure too, finally, and started to panic. I, on the other hand, received a clue from her casual words.
"Right... We've done nothing!"
I quickly scanned the battlefield, the entire Sealed Space, the Void Beast, and even Fatima. I don't know what it was, but there should be something here that's related to our future, which "we" need to accomplish!
"... It's that!"
I turned to Fatima's double pistols. The one where the core of the gun was... There, the thing that should have been inside wasn't there!
"It's the core fragment!"
I quickly turned to Ember, and she instantly recalled what I was referring to. The two of us turned in the direction of the cave and tried to move down. But the film stopped us.
"D*mn it! Come on, move!"
I pushed as hard as I could, but we couldn't move an inch from our current position. At that moment, as if reminding us of her presence, Minerva raised her voice in a shy tone.
"Uhm, Sir Will, I think I can do something about it when it comes to movement."
"Really?! Also, drop the sir; just Will is fine!"
I corrected her before gesturing as if to let her take the stage. With determined steps, she moved before Ember and me and closed her eyes. The air around her stirred as if an invisible tornado were rotating rapidly around her.
Without any sound, our position rapidly changed, moving down as if we were free-falling. Minerva really did it!
Without waiting for her to ask, I quickly pointed her in the direction where the "cave" was. For the parts that I can't remember, Ember quickly supplemented with further directions. Just like that, we maneuvered rapidly around the cave system and reached the inner part, the lone cave behind the waterfall, where the Void Space's core was.
As soon as we arrived, a flood of memories flashed past my eyes. However, it wasn't the right time to go into a flashback.
"We need to get a small fragment from it. Can you do it, Minerva?"
As the only one who could use Psychic abilities, she was literally the only one who could do what I was asking for. Since the skill was something I possessed a copy of after contracting with her, I could probably use it too, but I'd need to practice it at least before it would reach the "usable" stage. I'd rather not risk it.
"How small do we need it to be?"
Minerva asked while tilting her head. When I told her that it should be identical to the crystal that I passed to Vendetta, she quickly nodded her head before stretching both arms forward. The core shifted slightly, then floated into the air.
Slowly, a faint crack appeared on its surface before a small fragment snapped off of it. With a wave of her hand, the fragment flew from the pedestal to our side. I quickly extended my hands to catch it, but I forgot that we were unable to interfere with the world of the past directly.
"Keep hold of it for now; we'll need it."
"Alright. But what about the rest of the core?"
As far as the core was concerned, just the little fragment that we took should be more than enough. However, the voice inside me was telling me to bring it along.
However, we can't put it inside the [Spatial Storage] or even the storage rings since we can't touch them in the first place. Ember might have had some solution, but she was still busy creating the device to break the thin film that was blocking us from entering the past world.
"... Let's bring it together with us."
In the end, I decided so. Although it was a little hard to carry it around, Minerva should be able to handle it. Now, the problem would be...
"How to slip this fragment into the gun's core area..."
I stared at my arms. The color was thinner than before. It looks like we don't have much time left.
"Let's go! Thinking about how to do it will come later!"
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