Swooosh-!!
“U, Uwaaaah-!!!”
A scream erupted from Parang’s gut.
Was this the feeling of entering the memories contained within the ‘Evidence’?
Something was yanked from her heart, slithering up her spine and flowing out through her forehead.
‘No way, did Han Siwoo make this to give it to his girlfriend?!’
Parang’s consciousness felt like it was traversing through a shimmering tunnel.
‘Not as comfy as a dive, though…’
With a dive, it was just a splash!! and you immediately connected it with memories.
Swooosh-
Parang’s consciousness crossed through the corridor for quite a long time.
‘Took longer than I thought.’
As she contemplated tidying up some information, Parang recalled the memories related to the ‘Evidence’.
‘Evidence.’ An artifact shaped like a necklace embedded with green emeralds.
In the original work, Hunter Han Siwoo gave this to Alexandra, one of the Slayers, after defeating an enemy in exchange for his memories, to keep himself from going crazy.
Its function was to preserve someone’s memories and then bring them back out for someone else to see.
‘I found it on Alexandra’s corpse.’
After defeating the ‘Pit’ right after ascension, she was sent to the East Sea Train Hive instead of the surface hideout due to some circumstance, after being overwhelmed by a swarm of monster fish during the second trial.
At first, Alexandra was extremely flustered, but then she acted as if she were conversing with something invisible, and calmly contained her memories in the ‘Evidence’ before accepting her death.
However, the divine-grade artifact ‘Evidence’ that Hunter Han Siwoo personally created suffered severe damage merely from storing that memory, and after Parang recovered it, it had to be immediately repaired by the Silo.
During that process, there was evidence suggesting that someone had deliberately sealed the memories contained in the evidence, but ultimately, they managed to succeed in the repairs and restored it to a usable state.
Then Vertea checked the memories contained in the evidence first and hurriedly approached Parang, urging him to take a look, saying, “You should see this.”
‘What on earth could it be…’
Well, Vertea wouldn’t do anything frivolous. Parang just waited calmly.
And then, after a moment.
The end of the long tunnel came into view, and Parang emerged from it.
Plop!!
‘This feels… odd.’
It was like riding a water slide.
Parang tilted her head slightly and checked her own status first.
‘Oh…’
It certainly felt different from when diving. With diving, it felt like videos were playing right in front of her, but this felt like holograms were unfolding all around her.
When Parang looked down at her body, it was hazy yet undulating, resembling a ghost’s form.
‘So this is the feeling…’
Parang poked her belly and pulled her hand out, amazed.
‘What’s the situation around me… Ah.’
As she looked around, Parang quickly recognized where she was.
Dark blue rocks piled haphazardly, with a gloomy atmosphere permeating the space.
Crucially, in the distance, white, ghostly arms stood stiffly.
‘Brachium…’
That damned thing had caused Parang a lot of trouble.
‘And if this is the East Sea Hive right now…’
As Parang scanned her surroundings, she easily spotted Alexandra nearby.
‘Just after being transferred, huh.’
She was still trembling in fear and confusion, showing no signs of conversing with anyone.
The strange part was that her limbs were bound by tentacles glowing a light purple.
That definitely hadn’t been there during the ‘Dive’.
‘So that’s why she couldn’t move her arms.’
The image of Alexandra, completely unable to move despite there being nothing around her, flashed in her mind.
But there was one strange thing.
‘Why isn’t it showing up on the status window?’
There had been no sign of any abnormalities on Alexandra’s status window. Normally, in such cases, status abnormalities like ‘binding’ or ‘restraining’ would usually apply.
“Status window!!”
Even when Alexandra desperately called out for the status window, nothing particularly changed.
‘Calling up the status window means that soon…’
It meant that the unknown entity would appear.
The entity that had entered Alexandra’s consciousness and was holding an unrecognizable conversation with her.
Parang carefully scrutinized Alexandra to utilize the remaining time.
‘Let’s see, her eyes seem fine…’
Using the knowledge she had, she performed a rough examination, but there were no notable abnormalities.
‘So she’s sane right now.’
That made it even more peculiar. How could someone who wasn’t mesmerized activate the emergency warp device to transfer to the East Sea Hive?
Parang stroked her chin, lost in thought.
But that didn’t last long.
“Ugh, Aaaaah!! Wh, what’s this!!! Who are you!!”
Alexandra, maintaining her confused demeanor and mumbling something, suddenly began to radiate a purple light from her eyes.
And remarkably, a figure appeared before her.
Swish- Shwaaa-
It sounded like silks were being flipped, or snow was softly piling, or perhaps a brush was gliding over smooth paper.
“Who… are you…?”
A girl enveloped in a glow of purple light appeared.
Her aura was completely opposite to that of this dim ocean.
Her long, flowing purple hair swayed gracefully underwater, while dainty white hands peeked out from the wide sleeves, as pure and clean as perfect jade.
Her lace-trimmed skirt fluttered, and her slender legs gracefully stirred the water back and forth.
Her whole body glowed beautifully in purple light, resembling an angel descended from the sky.
Though her face was hidden by a mask, Parang could easily predict that the face behind it would be breathtakingly beautiful.
‘She’s pretty…’
Not just empty words; even in this critical, gloomy situation, the girl exuded a mysterious and beautiful aura that made such thoughts arise unconsciously.
Of course, Parang could only fully feel that aura for about 10 seconds.
Because the voice that came from the girl’s mouth—smooth, clean, and refreshing, like jade rolling on a silver plate—
“Please don’t be too surprised. It’s nice to meet you.”
That voice belonged to someone Parang knew all too well.
Someone she’d searched for over a long time.
Someone she thought she’d never see again—a treasured, cherished, long-lost friend.
“Alice…?”
Parang unconsciously murmured that name into the air, her vacant eyes fixed on nothing.
#
‘What the heck is going on, damn…’
Her head spun.
The friend she thought was dead had returned in this form, this way.
Thousands of questions flooded her mind.
Confusion, dismay, fear, joy, and sorrow all intertwined within her.
It felt like she was going crazy. Her heart beat so fast that it felt like it was about to burst.
She struggled to breathe. Her throat tightened. Her eyes quivered.
In an instant, Parang tried to leap towards the memory of Alice, wanting to hug her tightly.
She missed her and wanted to meet her. It seems that no question or emotion could be stronger than that longing.
Yet, hopelessly, Parang’s body passed through Alice and fell back.
Parang sat down, staring blankly at her own hazy and quivering hands.
Alice stood there quietly before Alexandra.
As if she wanted to give Parang some time.
‘Why, why…?’
There were so many things she wanted to ask, so many things she wanted to say, but no words came out.
Why did she show up here, at that very moment?
Why did she reveal herself now when everyone had given up?
Where had she been all this time?
She wanted to see her.
No words could exit her tightly closed throat, only swirling up and around.
Parang forgot what she needed to do and fell to the ground, tears streaming down her face.
She just cried endlessly.
Whether it was sadness, joy, or something indescribable—Parang couldn’t tell.
At that moment, something touched her back.
“…!!”
It was strange. Parang knew very well that nothing could touch her, yet she felt oddly convinced that the sensation was not an illusion.
Warm, comforting, and gentle touch.
Could it be that hand she couldn’t hold on to the day she first met the Titan?
Was it the very hand of the friend she so longed to see?
By the time Parang noticed, her tears had stopped.
The touch was so kind and warm that it felt like it was telling her not to cry.
“…”
Parang didn’t dare turn around to verify if the touch was real.
She just felt like she shouldn’t.
Instead, she quietly tried to gather herself and stood up.
Then she faced Alice, looking intently into her mask.
Ding-
“…Ah…!”
In that moment, Parang strangely felt like she had locked eyes with Alice.
Though her eyes wouldn’t be visible behind the mask, curiously enough.
‘Right. What I’m doing isn’t what you would want at all.’
The light returned to her eyes.
Perhaps this was the last thing Parang could hear from Alice.
Such a precious sound, she didn’t want to miss it by crying.
Gathering her resolve, Parang held back her tears.
Only then did Alice begin to move again.
‘Just now…’
It seemed like she nodded her head.
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