C119: You are not her ♦

Jack descended the stairs, his footsteps echoing as he moved deeper into the mansion’s underground. The air grew colder with each step.

Soon, Izzy found herself guiding him into a long hallway lined with stone pillars. The pillars stood in rows, aged and worn, their surfaces etched with cracks and timeworn textures.

Izzy’s gaze drifted upward toward the ceiling.

It was blank, just bare gray stone.

She furrowed her brows.

‘This is so strange.’

Every time she passed through this place, there was always that same lingering sensation. A subtle discomfort, a nagging sensation that it was missing something. As if something had been removed….

Her eyes lingered longer this time.

‘Shouldn’t there be something here?’

The black monument in her Mindscape provided no clarity on this. The records only began when her previous selves approached the forest, skipping everything before it entirely.

‘Was there truly nothing here?’

Isa had said the same thing. She hadn’t seen anything either.

And yet, that feeling wouldn’t go away.

She remembered hearing a strange sound the first time she had brought Benjamin’s corpse down here. It had been like a trumpet or sort.

This place… it bothered her. The more she thought about it, the more it gnawed at her mind, like an itch she couldn’t scratch.

Driven by suspicion, Izzy scrutinized the ceiling.

Time seemed to stretch unnaturally as her focus narrowed entirely on the empty ceiling above.

‘...’

‘...’

‘...’

There was something.

A silhouette.

Long black hair, flowed like liquid starlight.

A shape, elegant, glinting, like a diamond—

[“Haven’t I said it many times already? Stop prying. You will die ♦.”]

‘uh?’

Izzy snapped back to her senses.

The world around her shifted. There was no longer any hallway or pillars. The cold stone floor, the walls, the ceiling, all of it faded into black fog.

Before she could even process what was happening, the black fog receded.

“W-what?!”

Izzy realized she was no longer in the basement.

She was standing in an infinite, empty expansion of featureless black and red. There was nothing around her but a thick, swirling mist that felt neither hot nor cold.

‘Where am I?!’ Panic flickered through her mind.

She frantically looked around, then looked down at herself.

It wasn’t Jack’s arms.

Gray hair, Azure flower.

This… was her true form.

[“First betrayal, then my sacred body. Now, even this Majesty’s memories? How insolent ♦.”]

“!”

Izzy's heart pounded violently. She glanced around wildly in the dim crimson void.

‘Where is that voice coming from!’

The voice was unlike anything she had ever heard.

It was a female voice. That much was clear. But beyond that… It was heavy, with a crushing dominance. Each word carried a weight that pressed down on her existence itself.

Yet, a strange feeling coiled inside her chest. Beneath the oppressive feeling, it carried something tired, a strange, nostalgic lilt that made Izzy’s chest ache with an unidentifiable emotion.

“Who are you?” Izzy held her chest. She forced herself to stay calm, her voice trembling as she called out into the empty space.

[“Know what? Forget it. Such a greedy creature… This Majesty can't be bothered ♦.”]

“!”

A cold sensation slid down her spine like ice. Her entire body stiffened.

*Thump-thump, thump-thump.*

Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. Sweat began to gather along her forehead, trailing slowly down her temple. A frantic command screamed in her mind:

'—Don’t look!’

The thought came instinctively.

Izzy swallowed hard, her throat feeling as though it were filled with dry sand. She kept her gaze fixed firmly on the dark ground beneath her feet.

Her hands trembled so violently that she had to clench them into fists, clutching her dress tightly.

“M-Might I ask… who is… your Majesty?” she managed, her head lower, her voice dry, almost cracking.

*Thump-thump, thump-thump.*

Her heart hammered in her ears. Her throat was dry. She couldn't stop shaking. Her body wobbled, fingers twitching, limbs refusing to obey. The calm she usually prided herself on shattered into a thousand pieces.

[“Kneel ♦.”]

“...”

*Thud.*

Her knees slammed into the ground before she even realized it. Her body had dropped on its own, bypassing her will, without resistance.

“A…aghh… ahhh…”

She couldn’t speak. Her voice broke apart, reduced to incoherent fragments as her mind struggled to hold itself together.

*Thump-thump, thump-thump. Thump-thump, thump-thump.*

‘W-who…’

“Ahghh…”

Izzy couldn't form a single coherent thought.

Cold sweat drenched her body. Her heart beat with a frantic pace, suffocating.

*Thump-thump, thump-thump. Thump-thump, thump-thump.*

This was the first time since her transmigration into this world that she felt like this.

The feeling of a fragile, powerless being…

‘...’

A cold hand touched her head.

At first, the sensation was gentle. Fingers brushed lightly through her hair, patting her head with an oddly familiar rhythm, like someone soothing a frightened pet.

Yet, in a heartbeat, the gentleness vanished. Without warning, the fingers knotted into her hair and yanked her head upward with a violent force.

“!”

Izzy winced. Pain exploded across her scalp, forcing her head back. Her body trembled violently in response, but she did not cry out.

No, to be exact, she could not cry. Her throat locked, her voice trapped deep inside her chest.

No matter what, she refused to take her eyes off the ground. It was a primordial instinct, an instinct of a prey that dared not look upon a predator.

Her body trembled with an instinctual fear; it strangled every instinct she had. She was simply being paralyzed by the sheer dread of offending this majestic being.

[“Pathetic, pitiful, truly laughable ♦.”]

The voice vibrated in her mind. Something freezing reached through her ribs and squeezed her heart.

“U…ugfff—” Her breath hitched violently!

SUFFOCATING!

SHE COULDN'T BREATH!

Her lungs refused to expand. Air would not come. Her vision swam as the pressure within her chest became unbearable!

[“Did I really die because of you inferior ones? How did you manage it? ♦.”]

“U…ugfff—!”

Foam gathered at the corner of her mouth as her body convulsed weakly. Her fingers twitched, her limbs trembled, but there was no resistance in her strength. She could not fight it. She could not even move.

The hand around her heart tightened further.

“U…ugfff—!”

Her vision blurred, darkened at the edges, her consciousness flickering like a dying flame.

[“You will die he— Nn?♦”]

Through the hazy, blood-shot veil of her vision, she saw it. Only inches from her face, the entity leaned in.

Diamonds.

Two pupils shaped as diamonds stared back at her, glowing with a visceral crimson. They stared directly into her.

[“You are not her… who are you?♦”]

A bewildered expression. A tilt of the head. Many diamonds hovered like sparkling eyes, staring.

[“This is weird. Oops. Did this Majesty make a mistake—”]

<//TUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—!!//>

And a deafening trumpet blast tore through the space!

<//–-WARNING—WARNING—WARNING—//>

“!”

A cold, emotionless, mechanical voice overlapped with the trumpet, echoing in every direction at once!

It tore through her mind, reverberating across the endless void, shaking the very fabric of this place.

“Gasp!”

Izzy snapped back to her senses! Air flooded back into her lungs violently as her body jerked.

‘What?!’

*Rumble!*

The world of black and red mist trembled, twisted into chaotic waves.

However, Izzy still couldn’t move.

The entity’s grip changed; two cold hands now held her head up, cupping her cheeks with a touch that was strangely gentle compared to the violence of a moment ago.

She saw them clearly now.

Diamond-shaped pupils. Sharp, crystalline eyes.

[“A foreign soul?♦”]

*TUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—!!*

—INTRUSION DETECTED!—//>

—INTRUSION DETECTED!—//>

—ACCESS DENIED! ACCESS DENIED! ACCESS DENIED—//>

In an instant, cold and mechanical voices layered over one another rang in her head!

—INITIALIZE EXTRACTING CONSCIOUSNESS!—//>

— FAILURE!!—//>

—INITIALIZE EXTRACTING CONSCIOUSNESS!—//>

—FAILURE!!—//>

—INITIALIZE EXTRACTING CONSCIOUSNESS!—//>

—FAILURE!!—//>

—ATTEMPT WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS!—//>

—FAILURE!—//>

—ATTEMPT SEPARATING THE CARRIER FROM ####!—//>

—FAILURE!—//>

‘..u…uh?’

Izzy felt a phantom force tugging at her very existence, trying to wrench her out of the void!

—EXTRACT THE CARRIER FROM—-//>

[“Enough ♦.”]

A hand touched her shoulder, light as a feather.

“!”

*Crack.*

Something broke. The sound of breaking echoed through the expanse, like the shattering of a massive glass dome.

The hand held her firmly in place, and the violent, pulling force instantly evaporated into nothingness.

[“A piece of scrap dared to disrespect This Majesty!♦”]

The girl’s voice exploded across the void, a roar that shook the space. The entire dark world flared into a brilliant, angry red, the color of a dying star.

*—WARNING—WARNING—WARNING—*//>

The very fabric of the void trembled.

–INITI—//>

[“Shhhh.♦.”]

“...”

Silence resumed. It was the silence of a vacuum.

Izzy couldn’t hear anything anymore. The world was a mute, red-tinted nightmare.

The hands touched her cheeks again, lifting her face so their gazes met.

[“You are her, yet not her. A foreign soul. How interesting ♦.”]

“Ahh...” Izzy’s mind went blank. It was like a static-filled void. Words no longer formed. She couldn't think, couldn't process what she was seeing.

The entity’s voice rang directly inside her mind.

[“A Carrier ♦.”]

In front of her stood a young girl in a black dress.

Her skin was pale under the red-tinted void. Long black hair flowed down her back like ink, strands drifting unnaturally. Her eyes, those diamond-shaped pupils, glowed bloody red.

She stood on her bare feet, looked down at Izzy. From her back, two blackened wings erupted, their feathers like obsidian scales.

[“A chess piece from the Inner World ♦.”]

The girl's gaze shifted upward, toward the sky of the void, her expression one of profound boredom.

[“You are here… is it a mere coincidence? Does that mean those fools want to use This Majesty as a pawn in their games? ♦”]

A smirk curled at her lips.

[“How amusing ♦.”]

The hands returned to Izzy’s face, stroking her cheek slowly. The skin was as cold as a tombstone in winter.

The girl’s lips lifted further, the expression sharpening into delight.

Her fingers moved. The sharp fingernails, black and polished like jewels, slowly slid upward along Izzy’s face, tracing her skin until they reached her eyes.

[“You will be useful ♦.”]

The moment her nails made contact, pain detonated.

“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—!!”

Izzy felt as if her entire skull was about to split apart from the inside, the pressure mounting until her very consciousness threatened to shatter into a thousand jagged shards.

‘It hurts!’

Something was being injected into her mind! Her brain was boiling within the bone, the void around her turning into a kaleidoscope of screaming red.

The girl leaned closer, her face descending until their foreheads touched.

[“I will accept this bargain ♦.”]

Up close, the girl’s eyes were the only things Izzy could see. They were vast, echoing chasms of bloody light, the diamond pupils glowing, reflecting her very eyes.

Izzy gazed directly into those rubies, her vision swimming in a sea of agony.

[“Let me give you a gift ♦.”]

*Pop.*

“A… AGGHHHHHHHHH—!”

The girl’s fingers drove forward. The sharp nail pierced Izzy’s eyes, sinking deep into the socket with a sickening, wet sound. There was no resistance. It slid in as if her body was nothing more than soft clay.

‘IT HURT! IT HURT!’

Liquid flowed from her eyes, as if it were on fire. It trickled down her face in hot streaks, dripping.

‘GET OFF ME, GET OFF ME!’

Izzy’s hands flew up in a desperate scramble to stop the violation.

She grabbed the girl’s slender arms, trying to wrench the hand away from her face, but it was like trying to shift the weight of a mountain.

She punched the girl in the chest, scratched her face, trying to push her away, to stop her, to break free. but it was useless.

She had no strength here. None at all.

[“KILL ALL THE BETRAYERS, MY DIAMOND IN ROUGH ♦.”]

The girl whispered. The voice was like a sweet poison dripping into her brain.

*TUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—!!*//>

–-WARNING—WARNING—WARNING—//>

A high-pitched, mechanical screaming rang in her head, drowning out the girl’s voice and the sounds of her own agony.

—#### HAS EXCEEDED A CERTAIN THRESHOLD!— //>

—INITIATING FORCEFUL EXTRACTION!— //>

—EXPLODING DIMENSIONAL ISLAND!— //>

*Crack, crack, thud.*

*BANGGG—!!*

Just as the voice finished, the red world shattered like a glass sphere struck by a hammer!

The void, the girl with the blackened wings, and the crushing weight of the presence all dissolved into a blinding flash of white light.

[“It’s nice to meet you, my diamond in rough. Let us meet again ♦.”]

Izzy’s consciousness flickered and faded, falling into a bottomless dark.

—

“Gasp!”

Izzy’s eyes snapped open, her lungs drawing in a ragged, desperate breath of air. Her vision snapped back into place, clarity returning all at once, her senses rushing back like a flood breaking through a dam.

She looked around wildly, her breath uneven, her body stiff.

‘This—’

This was her Mindscape.

And through her connection to the real world, this was still the basement hallway of the mansion.

“Izzy?”

“...”

She was still controlling Jack.

His body stood exactly where it had been before.

Izzy tilted his head upward.

The ceiling was empty. Featureless. Nothing had ever been there.

“...”

She saw Isa flying over through the mindscape, her green form hovering nearby. Her expression filled with confusion and concern.

“Izzy? What’s wrong?”

Izzy looked down at her hands.

In the Mindscape, they were the trembling hands of a young girl with silver hair.

In the real world, they were the rough, callous hands of Jack.

She lifted her gaze, staring at Isa, at those bright green eyes. Her vision blurred and flickered.

Relief washed over her mind.

‘A…ahaha.’

“Izzy? Your eyes…? Huh?”

A wave of exhaustion pulled at her mind.

The world suddenly tilted.

Her vision faded into darkness.

“Izzy?!”

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