Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

As winter approaches, the barren ice fields offer no food to feed tens of thousands of people.

And countless people choose to break the rules in order to get food.

He stole, and then he was expelled.

But he was only slightly stricter when he drove them away.

The person who stole the grain was not given any grain back.

It seems someone is saying, "They also have the right to not go hungry."

It's as if they're being accommodating—on the one hand, giving themselves the obligation to "liberate the infected," and on the other hand, granting non-member infected the privilege of "having the right to be selfish."

Those infected are vulnerable, and protecting the vulnerable is justice.

Oppression is evil, and the oppressed weak are the 'good' that can be forgiven.

Such naive, even arrogant, ideas seem to be dragging the Reunion Movement into a trough of disintegration.

The smell of blood returned to the air; this was the second time.

Tomath and Amiya saw the snow stained with large patches of blood, where Alina lay dying.

Talulah still didn't appear, but a sudden burst of flames engulfed Alina's body.

However, despite the raging flames, the two people present did not feel the scorching heat that should have been replicated.

The flames burned ceaselessly on the crimson snow, yet they remained utterly cold.

"That young lady has been with Talulah since that village."

Amiya could feel the coldness, which stemmed from an overwhelming sadness within her.

"The person who killed her was probably one of the members that Talulah let go. Although that might have been the catalyst for her transformation, it still doesn't explain why she's acting like a madwoman now."

As Thomas watched the surrounding scenery return to black and white light and shadow, he seemed to sense that this long explanation was nearing its end.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time became a little curious about what would happen to Talulah next.

"...Wait, Mr. Thomas, listen!"

However, in the final, fading flames, Amiya heard some strange words through the lingering sounds of wind, snow, and fire.

"What is that lady... Elafia, who has been with Talulah all this time, saying?"

Thomas listened carefully to the "voice" that Amiya was speaking of.

—Words from a corpse engulfed in flames.

It was still the young Elafia girl, but the voices emanating from her were not just one.

"Little Tower, you're the one who killed me."

"Talulah, why would you do something so naive? My death is your fault."

"Your ideas and concepts are absolutely wrong."

"You don't even understand what you're doing. You should just go back to being a noble lady."

The old man's voice, Alina's voice, and many other voices whose identities were unknown, repeatedly emanated cold words from the flames.

Time and again, he denied everything about Talulah.

In essence, within this space constructed from Talulah's memories, all the denials were simply her using someone else's identity to say to herself.

[Main Text] Chernobog, Amidst the Ruins: Chapter Twenty-Eight - Another Person

A cold fire that never ceases to burn in the chaos.

The body of a friend, mutilated and covered in blood.

A barrage of hateful words surrounded my ears.

Rather than a recollection of the past in the mind, it is more like a nightmare full of malice.

"What's going on now? Amiya, have you seen anything like this before?"

In reality, Tomat rarely had the opportunity to enter the spiritual world of others. After all, his own kind were not interested in this kind of thing, or rather, they looked down on any "spiritual" activities. In their eyes, training was the act of the weak, and their strength was always determined by the measuring machine at birth.

Therefore, the mental world that Tomat understood best was just that pure white training space.

The strange occurrences happening in Talulah's mental world now are more likely to be attributed to Amiya, the "pharmaceutical company executive," who is more experienced in this regard.

Faced with Tomat's question, this supposedly experienced master of mental magic looked even more confused.

"The entire spiritual world is teetering on the verge of collapse, something's not right!" The floating black lines around Amiya indicate that she is currently using magic to influence the surrounding environment. However, whenever she stabilizes a scene, that area will shake violently, gradually blur, and then be tinged with leaping flames before quickly dissipating.

“Talulah must have known we entered the mental world and was showing us her past experiences. I don’t rarely see this when treating people with psychological trauma.” A bead of sweat trickled down Amiya’s forehead, whether from the exhaustion of using magic or the pressure of the current abnormal situation, she said loudly, “Those receiving treatment do indeed experience memory distortion when recalling the traumatic parts, making their entire mental world extremely unstable—”

"Isn't this what it is now, the so-called PTSD?"

The current situation is basically consistent with Amiya's description, but Amiya initially said that something was not right.

“You know, even emotions like ‘fear,’ which can interfere with mental states, still originate from the individual’s own feelings,” Amiya continued to explain. “Intense mental fluctuations do not mean that the mental world will disappear. On the contrary, if this is Talulah’s psychological trauma, this mental world should form a space that is ‘stable in existence but chaotic internally,’ instead of constantly disappearing and being occupied by nothingness as it is now!”

"But now, her mental world is constantly collapsing, yet the feelings of fear and various symbols of her nightmares still exist, which can only prove..."

Amiya gritted her teeth, stopped stabilizing the surrounding space, and personally broke the rule she had set—not to cause damage in the mental world.

She condensed a jet-black beam of light from her fingertips and struck Alina's burning body directly at the flames.

And he said loudly:

"These things weren't created by Talulah's own emotions, which means there are other people in this world!!!"

Normally, messing around in the mental world will seriously affect its stability and may even cause it to shut down, "throwing out" the consciousness of the intruder or the original being.

Meditation training uses this principle to determine the winner in multi-person training sessions.

But now Amiya's fierce attack, after hitting the sea of ​​fire, shattered that scene, and the surrounding scenery, which had been disappearing, instantly returned to the village that she had entered when she first entered.

"Back to normal? Does that mean someone created these hallucinations in Talulah's mind to torment her?"

Tommat looked at the changed scenery around him, and at Amiya, whose brows were furrowed with worry because of her new discovery, and whose expression was not at all like that of a girl her age. This time, he took the initiative to enter the village, trying to share some of her burden.

"Although it's uncertain, it's very likely, and that's probably why we haven't been able to contact Talulah in the spiritual world."

Amiya followed behind Tomat, her guard down compared to when they explored before.

"Destroy the spirit, seize the body."

Thomas muttered about the actions of this fourth person who had appeared out of nowhere, then said in a mocking tone:

"This is really troublesome. This guy doesn't know any tricks like soul swapping, yet he's been keeping Talulah trapped in his nightmares for years and still hasn't completely destroyed her spirit?"

"There probably isn't such a convenient method... However, Mr. Thomas, it's best to be careful. Even this kind of mind-devouring magic is extremely dangerous, and aside from the danger, the mental trauma it causes is even greater."

Amiya reminded Tommat not to underestimate the fourth person, whose whereabouts have not yet been exposed, and followed him to the hut where the old couple had originally lived.

The door was ajar and not locked.

Thomas pushed the door open and walked into the room.

The room was not furnished like a normal dwelling. Even though it was clear from the outside that it belonged to a poor family, there was only one chair by the window inside.

And two girls.

Alina, the Elafia girl, sat in a chair, looking with affection at a young Drak girl who was half-lying on her lap.

Compared to Alina, her silvery-white, slightly wavy hair and the striking black dragon horns on her head already revealed her identity.

The former seemed unaware of the person who entered, while the latter had already closed her eyes and was sleeping peacefully on his lap with a smile on her face.

The soft sunlight reflected off the snow shone through the window into the room, falling on the two girls.

Tomat and Amiya approached, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, they both slowed their pace.

Alina finally noticed the two uninvited guests, but she didn't seem flustered at all.

She gently stroked the hair of Draco, who was sleeping peacefully on her lap, with her slender hand. She raised her mouth, put a finger to her lips, and made a shushing gesture.

"Shh, she's finally able to get a good night's sleep."

Alina pleaded with the two of them.

“But we’re here to wake her up, Miss Alina, or rather, the ‘Alina’s illusion’ in Talulah’s heart.”

As Amiya spoke, she also glanced at Tomat beside her.

“Actually, if you weren’t so eager to know more, I was planning to let her have a good night’s sleep,” Tomat said bluntly, “the kind where she won’t wake up.”

As they talked, he remained vigilant, constantly alert to any changes in their surroundings, as he had already confirmed the presence of another person in the space.

[Main Text] Chernobog, Above the Ruins: Chapter Twenty-Nine - This is a Mental Attack!

Although they had only been briefly observing the scenes, the two had already come to understand what kind of person the girl from Elafia—or rather, the prototype of this phantom, named Alina—was.

She was just the daughter of an ordinary farmer in Ursus.

She is an infected person, but not one of the lucky ones favored by the power of Originium.

Oripathy brought her only physical pain, not Originium Arts.

His first encounter with Talulah was also marked by merciless death and a bloody atmosphere.

Talulah simply didn't see those who weren't combat-capable as a burden.

Alina also chose to believe that Talulah could bring about change.

When they left the village and prepared to set off, Talulah was their protector and Alina was their companion.

During the process of establishing integration and gradual development, Talulah was the rallying cry, and Alina was the educator.

When the organization was in turmoil and falling apart, Talulah was an obsessive, and Alina was a victim.

During the famine, the infected she had spared went on a killing spree when Alina was gathering food near the camp, all for the sake of supplies.

But this victim chose to offer her final encouragement and support, and with her blood nearly drained from her body, when the young leader's wrong decision led to the death of her friend, so that she would not deny everything she had done all along.

Don't hate.

Do not fall into darkness.

"But I seem to have failed. The words I spoke on my deathbed are no longer in her mind. All she can hear are distorted denials and curses."