-----

  “Camil!”

  Vd hugged his sister after realizing she was back to normal.

  However, whatever she had bee before, he couldn’t quite tell what it was.

  It somehow felt like them.

  But he didn’t want to believe it.

  “What happened over there? What did you let take over your body?!”

  “Huh? Wait, you mean little Hollow? He’s a friend!”

  “L-Little Hollow?! That thing was most likely some kind of eldritch spirit or abyssal being, I don’t know! Take it out of your body, Camil!”

  “He’s inside of me?!”

  Camil actually didn’t knoart.

  “I felt it possessing you, so it must be there!”

  “Aaah! I… don’t feel anything though?”

  “Huh?”

  “I really don’t feel anything; he’s not there, brother… He just vanished.”

  “Okay…”

  Vd was fused as hell! Just what was his sister even doing at this point?!

  Camil showed so much talent and promise, but he hought she could be fooled into being the vessel for something abyssal.

  “Where did you… Ah, okay, let’s sit down.”

  Vd quickly used Geomancy to fix the ceiling that was destroyed; iingly enough, the Padins outside didn’t even e ihe church, perhaps too afraid to enter.

  The two siblings sat down over a wooden chair, the long chairs that every church has, and then Vd patted Camil’s head.

  “You’ve bee very strong now, and I’m quite proud, but I really want you to tell me what that was, Camil.”

  “I already told you it’s Little Hollow, brother! He’s just a little guy that I found in that Mindscape, he was invisible to most eyes, but I saw him! And he looked so lonely, so I talked to him.”

  “L-Lonely? Nobody could see him? Were there any gods there?”

  “Three colorful moons! Were they the moon goddess? They got in the way, so I pushed them away, and they got really scared when Little Hollow showed himself to me, and they ran away.”

  “The Goddesses of the Moon… ran away?”

  “Yes!”

  “…”

  Vd couldn’t even think anymore.

  Just what…

  Just what was happening?

  Why is this game so goddamn weird?!

  Now his sister has some sort of weird tract, e, or friendship with an eldrittity?!

  “Hah, give me a break.”

  He sighed, feeling pletely exhausted.

  “Are you tired, brother? I feel quite strong."

  “Ah, let me see your Status, Camil.”

  Vd looked at his sister’s status, something he hasn’t done sihe first days.

  -----

  [Name]: [Camil Von Sange III]

  [Titles]: [Iron Blood Empire’s Rejected Princess]

  [Blood Core]: [Blood Emp Realm (Tier 4: Rank 3)]

  [Bloodline]: [Lesser Esper Dhampir Bloodliier 3: Rank 1)]

  [Esper Mind]: [Mind Awakening Realm (Tier 2: Rank 3)]

  [Race]: [Dhampir (Weak Bloodline)]

  [Css]: [Hollowed Vampire Esper Princess: ★★★]

  [Subcss]: [Friend of The Hollowed: ★★]

  [Blood Power]: [15.000]

  [Psychic Power] [33.000]

  [Strength]: [7.500]

  [Ara]: [22.000]

  [Vitality]: [7.500]

  [Dexterity]: [12.500]

  [Character Background Traits]: [Psychiique Grade)]

  [Character Background Fws]: [Broken Mind (Unique Grade)]

  [Racial Skills (5/7)]

  [False Immortality (S): Lv3] [Blood Bending (A): Lv4] [Telekinesis (A): Lv9] [Telepathy (A): Lv3] [Bloodthirsty Aura (B): Lv2]

  [Css Skills (5/7)]

  [Etiquette (C): Lv5] [Princess’ Charm (C): Lv7] [Mind Realm Expansion (S): Lv3] [Psychiifestation (A): Lv4] [Hollow Void (SS): Lv1]

  [Subcss Skills (2/7)]

  [Mind of Madness (S): Lv1] [Eldritch Call (SS): Lv1]

  -----

  She didn’t have as many skills as he had for obvious reasons, as Vd could gain skills by dev things but not Camil.

  heless, she still had a bunazing Skills, all of them uo her.

  Her stats were fairly high, but she clearly didn’t have a strong body… Although it might be equal to his own body strength when his stat debuffs are sidered into the equation.

  She had a lot of psychic skills, which made sense as this was her biggest Trait, and this Trait’s Fw was also perhaps what made her…

  Have a Broken Mind, a mind that even didn’t falter to bee the friend of an eldritch monstrosity hiding behind the veils of reality, apparently.

  “Hollow Void…” Vd thought. “I don’t want to find out what that does, but it sounds strong… SS Rank too?! Damn.”

  But that wasn’t everything; her two only subcss skills were the craziest of the bunch.

  “Mind of Madness…” muttered Vd. “Camil, do you know what this Skill does?”

  “Huh? Nothing; it seems to be passive,” said Camil. “A-Am I mad?”

  “I… Of course not, it just means you’re just mad at being strong,” nodded Vd, patting her head. “But this Eldritch Call one? Is this how you’ll… call your friend?”

  “I use it if you want, ah find out!” Camil smiled ily.

  “Uh, please don’t; let’s leave it at that for now,” sighed Vd. “And… Hm?”

  Suddenly, the door of the church opened, and as Chris showed up, he had logged in to the game just a minute ago and followed Vd through the mini map to where he was.

  “Hey! You two look a bit scared… what happened?” He wondered, flying towards the two and kissing Vd’s forehead before sitting on his legs. "Do you feel a bit stronger? Your muscles be felt now, and you aren’t all fbby! Haha!”

  “Uh yeah, a lot happened,” said Vd. “I got a new skeleton and… Wait no, that’s not the right order of things…”

  He expio Chris what had happened so far, including the Trial he had to gh, which Chris found pletely unfair and nightmarish.

  “A-Am I going to gh the same thing?!” He cried. “No way! I prefer to just not fug get a Rank Up at that point.”

  “e on, you’ll have to get it,” said Vd. “And I bet it won’t be that bad; just try it.”

  “You do it, Chris,” Camil nodded. “It’s not hard!”

  "Camil, you haven’t even gohrough the trial yet…” Chris sighed. “Uuh, okay, fine… I hope it’s not too bad.”

  Chris touched the Css Stone, as his mind was sucked into a new space.

  And the area was… rather different than what Vd had told him it would be or what he saw.

  There weren’t floating stones and giant, lugubrious ruins or castles.

  Not at all!

  The only thing he saw was a beautiful rai, a bounty of life and greenery, gigantic trees, grass, flowers, everything.

  The sky was blue, and there was a sun too, which he kind of missed within the game!

  It felt warm and right at home.

  “What the hell? This pce’s nice… and there’s no void beh my feet where I could fall and die or something,” he said, looking around. “It’s kind of nice~”

  The incubus floated around; just being there made him feel right at home for some reason; perhaps it was his repressed Fairy Half.

  “It stinks that I even made a tract with a spirit, and even that wasn’t enough!” he pined, crossing his arms. “What do I have to do to awaken my damn fairy powers? Being just an incubus is me as hell!”

  As he pio himself, he notiew notifications.

  Ding!

  [You have ehe Sed Css and Subcss Rank Up Trial!]

  [You find yourself within a beautiful, ented rai, a representation of one of your ins. In this Trial, you have to explore, iigate, and help its inhabitants earn points.]

  [Every time you find an inhabitant, they might need your help in one way or another. And by doing things for them, they might bless you with points and something else perhaps.]

  [Once you’ve helped enough, you will be given choices for your Path based on your as and those you’ve helped.]

  [And don’t worry, your perception of time within this mindscape is much faster, so not much time will truly pass within this area of accelerated thought processing.]

  [However, you don’t have a whole day! Finish this within 5 hours.]

  “Wait, for real?! It’s really different than Paul’s!” Chris said, nodding. “This is weird though; do I really have to help little fairies and stuff? That’s so sweet though!”

  “Hmm, indeed, it is quite endearing, but I approve of this trial; it is ohat’ll iive yood heart.”

  “Uwaaack!”

  Chris panicked in horror. Jumping away from the voice that spoke behind him, she noticed a phantasmal figure made of light.

  His divine and handsome appearance, his delicate and slender body, and his big, white feathered wings…

  Without a doubt, this was the Heavenly Emperain!

  “Would you calm down a little, my reination? I have not e here to scare you,” he sighed, facepalming. “I simply realized I was able to ma my will like this, which is ve.”

  “A-Ah, okay… So you’re the guy, the guy inside of me…” Chris said.

  “I am not inside of you; I am the lingering will of your previous life,” said the Heavenly Emperor. “Please don’t treat me like some sort of stranger; we are one and the same!”

  “No way I’m the same as you, dude!” Chris said. “But you’re handsome.”

  “Why, thank you,” he Heavenly Emperor. “But that was weird; it is as if I called myself handsome; don’t do that again.”

  “Agh, whatever,” Chris groaned. “Let’s get going… This pce’s pretty, at least! Kinda refreshing from the usual lugubrious gothic hellscape that’s Obscuritas.”

  “Yes indeed, it is a nice-looking pce,” the Heavenly Emperor smiled. “It reminds me of the Verdant Rai in Murim.”

  “The what… Ah!”

  As Chris flew around the rai, moving pnts to pass through, he noticed something—a little creature walking around the ground, lurking and gng at him from afar.

  His eyes didn’t lie to him; it was some sort of gnome.

  “Holy shit, gnomes!” He flew towards him, but the gnome panicked, running away from him. “Wait a sed, bro! Don’t run awayyyyy! I want to help you!”

  “I don’t he help of a demo away from this forest!”

  The gnome, no bigger than forty timeters, jumped inside a hole and disappeared.

  “W-What the hell was that?! Are they really going to be scared of me?!” Chris pined. “Dammit! Now what do I do?!”

  “Hmm…”

  The Heavenly Emperor rubbed his , thinking about a solution.

  “Well, you use yic right now? Illusion and whatnot?”

  “Uuh, yeah!”

  Chris noticed that he could use skills and magic as usual.

  “Good, the me help you give you a new makeover, my dear.”

  “E-Eh?”

  Using a bination of Illusion Magid the giant leaves, flowers, and roots hanging around everywhere, the Heavenly Emperor helped Chris do a plete makeover!

  “Hmm! Much better now! How adorable!”

  Chris hair had bee pink-colored, long, and silky.

  His eyes turned golden-colored.

  His horns disappeared, covered with a of roots, flowers, and fruits.

  His clothes were also taken away, and he was now wearing a dress made of giant green leaves, roots, and many colorful flowers.

  His wings had also been hidden, ed around vines, roots, branches, and flowers.

  He now resembled a beautiful fairy or fae of some kind!

  “T-The hell is this?!”

  Of course, Chris didn’t like it o.

  “It’s wonderful; with this appearance you’ll be able to mix well with the forest folk,” he Heavenly Emperor, smiling pleased while g. “So cute! You truly pass as a girl now! Even your voice is sweet and feminine.”

  “W-What?! I am manly!” Chris cried. “Well… uh, a bit right?”

  “…”

  “RIGHT?!”

  “Anyways, let’s go find someone else then!”

  “You’re evading the question, you bastard!”

  Like that, as time went by, Chris wandered around the beautiful rai and its wonderful views.

  He passed right o a huge waterfall, a rge garden of giant flowers, a forest with big trees that had massive apples, and so on.

  Until eventually, he stumbled into someone.

  “Uugh… Sniff…”

  It resembled a small moth-like fairy boy, no bigger than the gnome from earlier, with fluffy white hair and big bck eyes, alongside transparent white wings.

  “H-Hi… Are you ok?”

  Chris approached slowly; the moth fairy boy noticed him but wasn’t scared.

  “A-Ah… Are you a big sis?”

  “Uuh… S-Sure!”

  “I have never seen you around…”

  “Anyways, what’s gotten into you that you’re g?”

  “Uhh… I… I’m lost…”

  “You’re lost?”

  "Yeah, I came from the vilge, but then I pyed hide and seek with friends and ended… I ended up getting lost! And my wing is damaged… I ’t fly bae, sniff…”

  “Oh, but that’s easy; let me hitch you a ride!”

  “A ride? What do you mean—UWAAAHHH!”

  The boy screamed in horror and surprise as Chris grabbed him and flew into the skies high above the entire rai.

  “So where’s your vilge?”

  “UUAAAAHHHHH!”

  The boy, however, was too scared to even talk!

  “Oh my, your anners is staggering, my reination…”

  The Heavenly Emperor couldn’t help but make snarky remarks.

  “Shut up!”

  -----

  Pach