Chapter 2295: Oda Nobunaga’s Endless Castle [13]
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"...Was that Helena?!"
Amidst the chaotic castle, Lucia looked into the distance, only to find more wooden walls and paper doors. Her eyes squinted as she sensed the psionic energy of an old friend being used. However, this power felt corrupted and strange, all-encompassing and sinister, as if something was devouring it, using her against her will.
"Lucia, what’s wrong?"
A tall, muscular man asked her, glancing at her with glowing eyes. He tried to remain calm in this situation, knowing that panicking would only make things worse for everyone in the end.
"It’s her! Helena! It’s Helena, Chris! Jake!"
"It’s her?"
A young blonde man with red eyes, Jake, quickly glanced back at Lucia. He was curious about what she was talking about, something about a certain missing friend of theirs.
"Helena?! Really?" Chris asked, surprised. "I thought we lost her! But she’s here?! How is that possible?"
"Did she get lost in these vortexes? But... she was never someone to go out on her own to do things like these..." Jake sighed.
"No, this is different... she’s not here of her own will," Lucia said. "I think something is forcing her to be here, a monster of sorts... a Mutated Esper, perhaps."
"No, that’s not it..." Jake sniffed the air and looked away. "That’s not a mere Mutated Esper...! T-That’s... But that’s impossible. Didn’t he die? You killed him, didn’t you, Chris?"
"Jake? What are you even talking about?" Chris was confused.
"My creator... father... Ivan! You killed him, right?" Jake asked.
"I did... I saw him crumble to pieces with my own hands... using the serum..." Chris said. "Why?"
"But that presence..." Jake felt his hands trembling as his white skin turned red for a moment, his eyes darting everywhere with fear and concern.
And then, he heard something from the one entity that lived within him...
"Afraid... I am afraid... Fear... so much fear... something bigger..."
"Uroboros? What’s wrong?"
Jake felt the entity within him trembling, afraid of a much more intimidating and powerful presence.
Indeed, this presence was...
"It can’t be, but he died alongside father. How is that thing here?" Chris asked, realizing what Jake was talking about.
"I can feel her presence... Helena is nearby," Lucia said. "She’s here in this place as well! But why... Just what’s going on?! Jake, do you know?"
"Uroboros 0-1 is here..." Jake’s eyes had lost their light, overwhelmed by fear. "That monster is here! I don’t know how or why, but he’s here!"
"What?!" Lucia and Chris asked at the same time.
"The entity controlling the Mutant Espers... he... he was him! Uroboros 0-1, the first strand, the first mutation..." Jake said. "The one my father had, it somehow survived his death and is now here, evolved, bigger than ever before, with its own body..."
"Aw, fuck... Then that was the bastard commanding all the other Mutant Espers!" Chris sighed. "This cannot be... we have to do something about it!"
"Yes, we have to slay that thing and rescue Helena. Somehow, she’s been captured by it... I don’t want to think about the worst-case scenario, but..." Lucia sighed. "If it’s really necessary, we must... take her down."
"..."
"..."
Jake and Chris remained silent, afraid of what they might have to do.
Helena was their friend, a Esper Lucia found and helped develop her powers. They quickly bonded, becoming great friends.
While surviving the zombie apocalypse on Earth, Helena also bonded with Chris, always telling him he reminded her of her uncle.
At the same time, Jake bonded with her, becoming her great friend. She was a gentle girl with a very kind heart, someone who easily captivated most because of this.
Even someone as closed off and afraid as Jake slowly opened his heart to her.
When the cracks in the sky appeared, Helena went missing, and they had not seen her since...
To think that they would finally meet her once more, but in such a horrible way.
The trio, who had landed alone in this area after Chris grabbed both Lucia and Jake while being sucked into the shadows, now wondered what they should do.
"This place seems infinite, like some sort of fucking Backrooms Dimension," Chris sighed, looking around. "I was only involved in one when I had to rescue a member, when I was still working for the VPI."
"VPI?" Jake wondered.
"Veil Protocol Initiative. VPI is a multinational black-ops organization formed under the United Nations and backed by covert branches of global governments," Chris explained. "It wasn’t just made to deal with bioweapons like what Ivan was creating. A Cold War-era dimensional breach led to the discovery of an unstable reality known as the Hintergrid, a parallel structure connected to the Backrooms, a place where space and time just doesn’t work the way we imagine anymore. It’s dangerous, and perhaps it has something to do with what’s happening right now. However, the existence of Espers predates this... I’ve heard rumors that the Hintergrid was discovered because the Nazis experimented on Espers and used their psychic powers to attempt to reach heaven. It turned out the wrong way, though."
"Fucking hell, Chris, I had no idea!" Lucia exclaimed. She had only worked as a mercenary for the VPI and was mostly involved as a bodyguard for the direct government of the United States of America. "Are you kidding me! Now everything makes sense... the girl in the sailor uniform... was she probably connected with the Hintergrid? Maybe she was... could she have been one of those Espers? Wait, could she have been the one the nazis experimented on?!"
"I... don’t know, but experiments were done in Russia and Japan too. We do know that the girl in sailor uniform is much older than her appearance might show. And above all, she has no physical form. She’s an entity solely made out of her own Psychic Power. Some call such a fabled state as an "Ascended Esper" but others call her a monster," Chris explained. "Nonetheless, this entire endless space that repeats itself might be a variation of the Backrooms, perhaps one structured differently and directly controlled by that otherworldly bastard, Oda Nobunaga."
"Wasn’t he someone from our world?" Lucia wondered. "I could swear I’ve heard that name from Japan’s Warring States Era..."
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