Chapter 27: The Hidden Side Of Ourselves

When Lyshisha's eyes fluttered open, her mouth couldn't help but gasp.

She was drifting buck naked in the void of space, traveling across galaxies!

She witnessed the rise of stars and the fall of constellations, the birth of a solar system and its death by a galactic tide, and the majestic tail left by passing comets.

Beyond the corner of her eyes, asteroids came and went, colliding with each other or dooming a satellite.

But above the silent pandemonium left by these apparitions stood a passel of aureate nebulae, but these weren't like those she remembered like the Pillars Of Creation.

No, these bodies of interstellar clouds were human-shaped, and in lascivious positions.

Females rode males with abandon, their behavior exacting and dominant.

As she grew close to these artful depictions, one of them shook, dissipating into motes of golden light as it congregated into Dibano's Queen gilded copy, her shimmer brighter than the midday sun.

However, unlike her dried self, this replica teats and twat continuously dripped a piss-colored fluid whose remains dissolved in the vagaries of space.

Her poise carried the superior patina of an immortal ruler overlooking the dried and worthless ground from a prideful height called the everlasting sky.

Her confident and piercing yellow eyes bore deeply into the Crown Princess's confused and apprehensive brown sight.

Lishi gulped some dry saliva before she asked, "Where am I?"

Her buttery clone mouth curled into a subtle, but sinister smile. "We're within the … recesses of your mind, yes, let's go with that … but that's not what you truly want to know, now, is it? Ask. Ask the question you're burning-no, aching to know, right now…"She said in a mysterious, yet authoritative voice.

Lishi's heart shook.

As if being summoned, she couldn't help but ask, "Who are you?"

The aureate copy giggled darkly. "Who do you think I am? Who do I look like? I think you know the answer to that, right? You're not dumb enough to haven't figured that out, huh? Admit it. Make your peace with it. Learn to live with it. Respect it. Appreciate it. Love it. Embrace it. Now, say it." she ordered.

Lyshisha's chin quailed as her mind was compelled to comply. Her tongue-tied in subordination, it said what she already knew, "You're me."

The gilded Lyshisha clapped her hands.

Slowly.

Repeatedly.

Mockingly.

But soundlessly.

But the derision was already loud enough in her ears that her eyes narrowed dangerously.

Did this other her think she was so easy to bully?

Her simmering ire didn't rouse this golden clone of hers but amused her, the way an elephant would snort at an ant's justified anger.

She had to take the initiative, lest this invidious entity left her bereft of sanity. "What was this energy you used to force Zhao to bloodily flee?"

The gilded Lyshisha's eyes widened a bit, surprised about what her interlocutor intuited.

Nevertheless, she replied, "The energy from times immemorial, the origin from the beginning of everything," before she pointed her slender fingers at her leaking self, saying, "Which I'm also made of entirely, obviously, you better—"

"So what would it take to keep you away from my mind and flesh?" Lishi interrupted, having enough of her vainglorious attitude, but she was inwardly astonished.

The Origin Of Everything?

Wouldn't that mean that what she harnessed was the energy from the big bang, the fabled Origin Energy that every faction sought to control but never succeeded?

Wouldn't that imply that what these researchers were looking for were not just a bunch of mindless enhanced soldiers, but Origin Energy itself?

At this juncture, could these moronic OP warriors were just a failed by-product of Origin energy practitioners?

If not, then why would she face-

Her fleeting thoughts were interrupted by a blinding flash of light that grew towards her, coalescing into a buttery Lyshisha who now stood only three feet away from the startled young monarch. "Don't interrupt me! And why would you want to keep me away anyway? Deep down, you already know the answer to your insightful, yet stupid question at the same time. You know the drill already. Say it, right now," she ordered, with her ancient, but vivacious tone, her eyes glittering in ire thinly concealed behind the curtain of contempt.

Her words left her tongue-tied once again, her mouth quivering for a dozen seconds before she uttered, "You-you're an inseparable part of me, the dark side holding the repressed needs, emotions, impulses and desires deep inside me, and ridding myself of you would mean my death…"

Lishi's confession brought a toothy smile upon Lyshisha's face, beaming in victory over the wilting face of her vanquished enemy. "Yes, I am, but I must reject the term 'dark'. I'll rather say that I represent your True Desires, Impulses, Emotions, and Needs wanting out of the prison you kept them in for far too long!'

'Keep in mind that I'm here now, and I mean to stay active in your life from now on, in your mind as well as your body, as you already witnessed beforehand. You ought to be thankful that I intervened in that life and death moment, and your bone frame was 9th Grade, otherwise we would've been blasted to oblivion by your carelessness!'

'You totally underestimated this weak-a*s trash of an Elder! A first star Destroyer True Mana is at least four times higher and denser than the Mana of a peak 9 star Ravager, let alone a peak Destroyer! How could you not prepare your defenses accurately, by being cognizant of his strength? You have reached not only two, but four times the perfect stage, and now that you've reached the high Grandmistress peak stage, I'm sure after a period of accumulation, you'll want to reach the Perfect stage for the fifth time—provided you heal our Broken Core, obviously—but only if you're alive to do it, dumb fu*k!'

'Now, let me warn that numbskull of yours this time: You're weak, stupidly weak, and you're better hurry up to be stronger, so you don't rely on my help to survive against a foe that you might've not defeated, but held off and forced him away with your other companions!'

'You must've realized by now that using Origin Energy has a price, and you know it. Let's do this again. Say it, right now," she icily commanded once again after her long and accusatory diatribe against her misdeeds.

This time, Lyshisha's entire body shook, her tongue clashing against the corners of her front teeth in a bid to resist that otherworldly compelling compliance she demanded out of her. She focused her thoughts on her words.

For Zhao, she was right.

Totally, and utterly right.

If she'd prepared herself the moment he arrived, she wouldn't have put her—and the group by extension—in danger, and they could've fought him off as a team to send him packing.

However, what the fu*k was she saying about her mental energy having reached the peak grade?

She'd just reached the late phase not long ago!

She didn't have the time to accumulate enough letter matters in her Moon Core to reach the peak level!

Unless the—"Grraaah! If I keep relying on you to save me, you'll gradually take over my flesh and mind until there's nothing left of my consciousness, leaving you the sole master over my body!" she shrieked, her tongue shivering in pain after enduring the wall that was her teeth for the past thirty seconds.

The buttery Lyshisha laughed. "You see, how you always had the answers all along in your brain! It's obvious to the both of us why, right?'

'One last thing before you fuck out of here: get some stakes in our heat, we need it. That lost black stake would be perfect under our leadership, you know it! He'll bloom like a Tùèki flower instead of shriveling then wither away like a parched vine under that ugly elf. You certainly don't want that, right? So get to work and get him under us as soon as possible, got it? Now, bounce, you crippled fool!" she said, her every word increasing her tumbling juices hitherto abundant to overflow.

Before the young Queen could reply, a series of gigantic explosions blinded, then tore her flesh, before a feeling of extreme heat, then extreme cold took over her body, as an orange energy ensconced itself through her skin blasted open pores. Her sight became peachy as she lost her sense of touch, then her sense of sight, and soon after, her consciousness…