42 – Liù is back

“It’s definitely her.” Ishrin said. “Melina, she’s alive… She’s alive! I can feel her, she’s close… so close.”

Melina’s golden eyes grew wide, and wet. “This is wonderful!” she said, and her words had the weight to them of someone who was about to break down in tears.

“I just need to reach her. I need to focus more.”

He was sitting cross legged on the floor in front of a fire blazing in the firepit they built in one of the rooms without traps, sometimes staring into the dancing flames, and sometimes with his eyes close. The boys in the other room were restless, demanding to continue going deeper in the ruins until they actually found the entrance to Tiamat Azur’s palace, claiming that this concrete trap-laden maze was of no interest to them. Lisette was being the deterrent, keeping them quiet and still but it was clear that they were a bomb ready to blow. Already Sir Westys was pacing around, fiddling with the torch stands, doodling with the tip of his sword on the smooth cement of the wall.

Melina came and went at times as the hours passed until finally she returned to Ishrin’s room one last time, crossing beyond the invisible noise-cancelling field that Ishrin had set up to help him meditate undisturbed. He had to do so after almost lashing out at Sir Westys for being too loud when he was on the verge of a breakthrough, that was now beyond his reach. She stopped dead on the threshold, barely moving as not to make a single sound. She did so because she saw him in a new position and wondered if he was about to make a move. Ishrin was sitting and had his back turned to her, so she couldn’t see his face, but his right arm was outstretched and was reaching deep inside the spatial rift that led to his personal inventory. He was moving ever so slightly, the micromovements of his arm telling her that he was feeling the objects inside his inventory with his fingers, sometimes pulling sometimes pushing them away. She stood and watched. Minutes passed. Hours.

Her mind began to wonder, as she stood motionless with her back against the cold and smooth concrete that made up the wall. She sometimes turned to study its texture and its subtle color differences, the little stones embedded in it, how similar it was to—

A sound. The inventory was now close, and all light seemed to have died in the room except for a deep all-encompassing blue that swallowed everything else. She recognized the hue of that light. Oh, how could she not? It was the exact same color as the giant cube inside the mountain, in the realm where they almost died.

Her heart raced, and her body felt hot and cold at the same time. She was sweating, like she had a fever, and her eyes were transfixed on the light moving left and right, projecting and dissipating shadows. Eventually she saw it, the source of the light, and it was a small cube no bigger than Ishrin’s hand. It was that cube. She remembered it now, that other cube, the smaller version of the one she tried to destroy and that they stole so they could study it later.

“Are you here…?” Ishrin mumbled, unaware of the fact that Melina was there.

“Liù?” he asked the cube.

Melina held her breath, not daring take a single step.

“Liù, little one. I can feel you, please…” Ishrin pleaded.

“I need to power you, don’t I?” he asked, and Melina could almost see the desperate smile on his face, and the tears.

“What can I use, Liù? What would you like me to use? How about some cores?”

The window to his inventory opened and collapsed in a matter of moments.

“No? What, then?”

Again he opened his inventory to pull something out.

“Not even this? But…”

He paused.

“You’re technological, but also magical, aren’t you?” he mumbled.

“Here,” he said, and Melina felt the fur on her tail begin to stand up. The sensation brushed at her in the depth of her very being, as if someone was touching her soul, her inner being.

Ishrin was moving his magic field around, and her own was resonating with it. She could resist the sensation, she felt, row against it, oppose resistance to the change. But she felt that she didn’t want to, she felt that she wanted to let this happen, and so she surrendered, she let it flow smoothly and soon she felt a tiny, minute yet steady flow of energy appear. Going from her towards the cube. She could also feel Ishrin’s own flow power the cube, and he was giving so much of himself to it, he was sacrificing so much of his power.

The glow deepened. The light grew stronger.

It lifted up into the air.

“That’s not enough.” Ishrin cried out.

“I am not my thoughts,” he began to say softly, as his breathing stilled. “The ego is an illusion. Thoughts are mere appearances in consciousness, and I am not identified with them. Magic aura. Feel the sensations arise, and watch them without judgement. Feel the emotions, and let them be. Control the energies. Focus. Where is the cube? I can see you, Liù. Here, take this.”

Nothing.

“Come on!”

Again, nothing. Melina was beginning to think that maybe, maybe—

Suddenly a rush of energy unlike anything she had ever witnessed shook the entire room, the shockwave collapsing on itself right before it hit the confined space of the concrete walls to return to its center. And there, at the center, was the cube, floating in the air and rotating around Ishrin like a moon, glowing. A voice that was sound and yet it was not, like words appearing in consciousness.

Hi Ishrin~

“Liù? You can… talk?” Ishrin said, and his voice was on the verge of breaking.

What do you meaaaan >.<

“You can talk! Oh, I have missed you soooo much.”

Awwww :3

“What’s with this strange way you’re talking though?”

I’m Liù! Liù! I’m Liù! What do you mean strange??????

“Nothing, nothing! So, little rascal, tell me: what are you doing inside a super advanced piece of technological AI?”

I hid here~ hehe!

“When you healed me?”

Death was searching for me! I said no! And flew into your pocket space :P that’s how I ended up being sucked in here! It’s so strange, this place. But I made it mine :D

“I can… see that.” Then his voice changed, and he turned around. “Oh, Melina! How long have you been here?”

Melina didn’t immediately respond. The reason why Ishrin had suddenly turned to face her was because of the noise she made when she almost collapsed to her knees, overwhelmed as she was by all the swirling emotions coming to her through the empathic link she shared with Ishrin. She felt his gaze, inquisitive and curious, but more than anything she felt her gaze. It was powerful, solid, sharp. But at the same time familiar. It was like what used to be a little creature was now a tall giant, powerful and menacing but also playful and sweet. And so Melina stared at the small floating cube that once was a little denizen of the elemental realm and wondered about what had really happened to Liù that changed her so much, and yet so little.

Hi Melinaaa~

“H-hi.” She said, blushing. “Sorry Ishrin. I came in a while ago but I saw that you were having a moment, I don’t know, I- I didn’t want to distract you so I stood as still as possible and, and—”

“So you saw it!” He said quickly.

You are reading story Isekai of the Ultimate Ritualist at novel35.com

She nodded nervously. The emotions she was feeling from him were too strong, she had no idea what they were.

“You witnessed it! The miracle! That’s amazing!”

“It is!” she said, gathering the forces to speak. And now she was feeling overjoyed too, and she was about to burst into uncontrollable laughter and joy. “We need to show Lisette!”

“Yes! Yes! Call her!”

She returned a few moments later with Lisette in tow, and the three talked and chatted for what felt like hours to catch up. Lisette was uncomfortable at first, not talking and eyeing the floating cube with suspicion but before long she finally accepted that this was indeed Liù back from the dead, and the feeling of happiness couldn’t help but show even on her usually stoic face.

“You have made me worried, pixie Liù.” She also said. “I am slightly angry at you and demand that you and I have a long catching up session away from these two.”

Ishrin and Melina both turned to stare at her like she was an alien.

“What?” she asked, deadpan.

Yes! Yes! I will chat with you, girls talk! No grown-ups!! :P

“Good. Come.”

As Lisette turned to leave, the small glowing blue cube followed, leaving behind a dark room with Ishrin and Melina looking at each other dumbfounded. Outside, they found Sir Westys’ team, diligently sitting down on the floor with an empty gaze. They both wondered, almost in unison, what kind of savage tactics Lisette must have used to demand obedience from the four boys, especially from the Duke’s son, that left them in this state.

Melina was also curious about something.

“What was that book you used?” she asked.

“The one on meditation?”

Ishrin materialized it.

“Yeah, this one.” Melina said.

“Just a manual on a spiritual practice from my old world. Very enlightening. I used to practice a long time ago, but then dropped it when life became too hectic.”

“And now you got back into it? In one day?”

“Yeah,” Ishrin scratched the back of his head. “I mean, I only needed to jog my memory, it’s not like I had to learn from scratch.”

Melina nodded. “Can I try it?”

“Sure,” Ishrin said. “I’ll give you the book but… don’t get discouraged if it takes days, even weeks to do even the first exercise right. The good thing about it is that after you learn how to do it, it’s almost impossible to un-learn it.”

“Okay! Thank you!”

***

Lisette, Melina and Sir Westys’ team were all sleeping around the campfire. Ishrin was keeping watch, after having spent the whole day finding a path out of the dull concrete maze filled with useless traps that was more of a tedium than anything else. But finally, now he had some time alone with Liù, and could really catch up to her. In fact he ended up spending the whole night talking and talking nonstop, and crying and just enjoying the fact that she was back. For a moment he felt like he could take over the world, together with her, and even though he knew very well that he had an unhealthy coping attachment with Liù, this Liù, he didn’t care. He was happy, and she was happy too, and nothing else mattered.

However, as with all things, not all that transpired was good.

“What about the rest of the AI you inhabit? Is there anything left of its original programming?”

Programming, programming. It’s a hard word. Liù needs to look it up, one moment~

The lights on the cube shifted patterns.

Yes! Programming! I understand your difficult word now, Ishhi :v

Ishrin smiled. “What about it?”

I feel something. It’s… sleeping. I poke it, but it’s like it’s dead! It’s scary tho :c

“Don’t go near it, dummy!”

I was curious!!!!

“Okay, okay. What else can you tell me?”

It’s called SPAWN. Sapient Proprietary Autonomous World Neutralizer. Scaaaaary :V

Ishrin hummed. “World neutralizer? Shit, doesn’t sound good at all. I can see why Willow sealed it.” He paused, thinking about the words. “The acronym tells me that it’s definitely not a naturally occurring AI, either. Proprietary, it says… sounds like something coming from a world that has corporations.”

I can use the tools SPAWN has. But the memories are sealed. Liù thinks I can break the seal buuuuuuut…

“No. Too risky.”

Agree! :3

“I need to wake the girls up. We need to go see Mekano at his world as quickly as possible. Which means… It’s time to speedrun getting to Tier 15.”

Why his world? Why Tier 15? Who is mechano?

“It’s Mekano.” Ishrin said with a little laugh. “He’s a friend. He lives in a technological world, very advanced in the fields of AI and automation. If we get there, we can investigate this sealed information safely, and figure out what the hell is going on with you, SPAWN and the mountain. Maybe learn about Willow too. But to get there, we need to be Tier 15, or it will be risky. You remember what happens otherwise, don’t you?”

I do :c Never again.

“Never. I promise.”