Something's Not Right

Rosabel was the one who caught on first. She started sniggering, which caused Yuki to understand as well.

Yuki tried to hide his smile as he did everything to avoid looking at Dominique, while Hayden smiled faintly in amusement.

Dominique's glare would have killed them a hundred times over had it been able to, but that did nothing to deter Rosabel.

Alec's lips quirked.

When the rest of the Spectres split up with brief confusion to take different directions, Yuki, Rosabel, Hayden and Dominique stayed with Alec.

Rosabel poked fun at the expressionless Sin. "Mini, huh?"

Dominique glared at her. He couldn't help but retort. "Only boss can call me that."

It was said with the intent to instil how serious he was being, but unfortunately, he forgot that the voice filter was still on, causing him to sound like a pure, fresh and innocent boy, which only made him sound like he was pouting.

Rosabel dissolved into laughter, and even Yuki and Hayden could no longer hide their smiles.

Dominique scowled harder but didn't say anything else. It would only elicit more teasing from the woman, which was the opposite of what he wanted.

What was wrong with the nickname his boss gave him?!

…He was living in denial.

Alec wanted to further explore the Obsidian Aqua since he felt like there should be more to the giant pool of it.

Vi passed across that it had been the one that created the Obsidian Aqua lake over the years, and that it could produce more so long as it had eaten recently.

This astounded Alec. He never heard of a Vampiric Willow tree being able to do something like this. Or was it because Vi had evolved into a creature instead of remaining a Vampiric Willow?

Was this why there were only ever faint traces of Obsidian Aqua being found?

Things weren't adding up…

Regardless, Vi was now his familiar, so he should hide its abilities lest someone from the grandmeister rank got any ideas to try and steal Vi over for themselves, as was commonly seen from whatever common cliché plot point.

He would rather not be on the run from whatever super sect got into their heads that they were able to handle the Heavenly Ascension Sect, or if some hidden sect that 'resurfaced' because of his King Vampiric Willow tree.

Some grandmeister would probably resurface and try and snatch Vi from him using Alec's death as a catalyst.

Alec firmly rejected the possibility of that scenario happening, so he took steps to avoid it. He didn't even let Tatiana or Dietrich know about it.

The area that contained the Obsidian Aqua was just as dark as ever. The ghostly blue lights didn't help matters any.

The rest of his group split up to examine around the lake. The area was a large one, yet there was no grass growing around, nor was it inhabited by any creatures.

In fact, the entire underground was devoid of any creatures or monsters. The silence must have been unsettling to some.

Alec's instincts told him there should be something more to the Obsidian Aqua lake – or rather, knowledge that relied on common tropes, that was.

He didn't believe that it was just Obsidian Aqua, rare as it may be.

There was likely another dimension to this that they weren't seeing yet, so Alec had brought Dominique here.

As a Main Character, his luck should be pretty good, so why not give it a try?

Sure enough, before long, when the rest of them were examining the area around, Dominique actually tripped directly into the pool on his own.

How did he trip, you may ask?

Well, you see, there was a small rock he didn't notice, causing the poor Sin to lose his balance and fall into the lake of Obsidian Aqua.

He disappeared under the inky black liquid with only the slight sound of water being displaced.

Alec's lips twitched.

How in the world did a perfectly good Sin trip into the liquid without any warning? How could he trip over a rock?! As a combat oriented Societype, it was pure nonsense that a Sin tripped of all things.

If this wasn't the smell of a plot, he didn't know what was.

It wasn't just Alec staring in disbelief.

The rest of his group were staring at the spot where Dominique disappeared as well.

Rosabel, in particular, felt an extremely strong sense of disbelief.

Dominique, who was, to Rosabel, the epitome of grace in reality, had tripped. The Sin couldn't balance himself and splash into the pond? On his own?

It was one part absurd and one part hilariously funny. She definitely wouldn't let him live this down.

Rosabel snorted, but she still jumped in after him.

There had to be something if he wasn't coming up yet, but since there wasn't any disturbances in the liquid besides the faint ripples from where he had fell in, that meant that he wasn't fighting anything.

Likewise, the rest quickly followed suit, jumping into the Obsidian Aqua.

Alec's vision was filled with complete darkness, yet the liquid didn't sting his eyes. The liquid felt strangely buoyant, making it hard to swim in.

As he hovered there, he realized that he didn't seem to be sinking at all after the initial force of jumping into the water.

He felt like a warmth was rushing into his body, gently nourishing it on a stronger level than when drinking it had happened.

Strangely, he was able to breathe in the liquid, and he didn't choke at all like he expected.

He couldn't see in front of him, but he could feel his bunch of subordinate's magical signatures, and Dominique's, which was further down.

Alec dived down, kicking strongly.

He continued swimming downwards towards his subordinates' magical signatures.

In fact, he continued diving down so deep that he eventually dived up instead.

Alec was baffled when instead of more liquid, he broke into the surface instead.

…As expected of a Main Character. Even the things he found by accident could lead to fortune? Or perhaps misfortune?

Alec didn't let his guard down as he looked around.

Dominique pulled his boss out of the water, using his magic to dry him off.

Looking around, Alec found that the thing that was the most different was that he was able to feel the warmth of the sun on his skin. Compared to the cavern's chilly temperature, here seemed more like the normal world instead.

With lush, green trees that populated the area around them, the trees looked relatively normal, and the water that was in the lake appeared clear and transparent, like normal water.

Strange.

Unlike the blood red sky that had been in the crack between realms, the sky here appeared like a normal blue.

Yet, there was a sense of surrealism in the area that couldn't quite be explained with mere words alone.

There was something different about the atmosphere and the quality of magic that was tipping him off.

"I don't think this is our realm," Yuki said, looking around. "It's probably another crack between realms that was connected to the other one."

Alec nodded in agreement, which was echoed by the rest of their group.

There wasn't a reason why they knew it to be so, they just did. It was more like their instincts were telling them that this wasn't their home.

Alec didn't sense any danger, but he didn't let down his guard. Who knew what Dominique's luck had brought them?

There was a rustle from the bushes behind them, causing the already tensed Sins to instantly whirl around.