2. A Meeting Of A Grandmaster And A New Hope (Part 1)

"So.. what do you want from me?" I asked the guy that is supposedly the Grandmaster of whatever that is..

"Hahahaha! No need to get so rushed, little one. Come with me first.. let's go to somewhere more private.." He eyed the surroundings and I mimicked him and saw multiple people spying on us. I could feel malicious intent from each of them but I didn't actually feel any danger from them.. unlike this guy..

My senses are flaring even when I am just near him.. He clearly outclasses me in every category. I could see he is also very observant and smart in his own way. But I kinda hated the way he calls me by..

"Alright.. but stop calling me 'little one'.. I have a name.. I'll tell you later" I said as I sighed deeply. I do not know what I am getting into as I just arrived in this world.. I don't know how strong I am compared to the people in this world and heck I don't even know..

"Well, alright! Come with me. Nagoyaka, please set 'that' up" He said which earned a curious raised eyebrow from me. As I looked at this place, it was made to defend something that was inside it. But I haven't seen anything that actually needed any protection.. until they brought me into this room..

'That material is hard..' I could tell somehow but the material that made the door of this room was actually very strong. I probably couldn't even destroy it with my full power..

"Well let's go!" Motoaki-san said to me as he touches the door. Somehow the fully locked door suddenly opened right after his touch. We walked inside and I saw something I can't believe with my eyes..

"Welcome to the Branch of Transportation Unit, Motus!" Motoaki-san said with vigour. The room was honestly quite big, out of my expectation truly..

There are no people in here other than us. Around I could see different devices such as a what I presumed as a control system. Another thing that looked like an emergency thing.. and a giant switch.. but the most the important thing is what's in the middle of the room..

"What the hell..?" I said in disbelief as I saw a singular stand with an almost invisible cube surrounding it. On the stand was something that I never thought I could see in real life..

'Woah.. A portal?' It was quite how you imagined it. The portal has a darkly color that only looked like the black of the abyss. It looked as if I could see myself in the abyss of darkness.

"Well.. Let's go!" Motoaki-san pushed me towards the portal and as soon as I touched the portal my consciousness suddenly went black

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<At ???>

Black.. Black.. Black.. That is what I can only see other than..

"Who are you..?" I saw a girl with an unique appearance. Her eyes were heterochromatic and so she has a beautifully shining red ruby eyes and a contrasting beautifully shining blue aquamarine.

Her hair is also quite unique with two sides of colour clashing with each other. On her right side is black coloured hair and on the left side is white coloured hair that she let flowing freely. She wore a single piece black dress that covers her body enough but still showing her legs until thighs. Weirdly enough on her waist right on her dress was attached a flower, it looked particularly familiar and had a familiar feeling.. The flower some kind of white lily, I think..

"Me..? I am you.." She said which greatly confuses me. I never recalled of me having two people inside of me..

"Are you dumb..? Well I guess that is like calling myself dumb.." She muttered then sighed in annoyance.

"Well because you won't believe me.. see it for yourself" She said before she raised her hand and muttered something..

"[Ice Mirror].." Suddenly a straight block of ice magically was made in front of me out of no where. The block of ice was unnaturally reflective and on it I finally saw what she meant...

I looked exactly like her.. the blue and red eyes, the white and black hairs, and the dress.. all the same.. The only difference is that on my waist is a red flower instead of a blue one. The flower itself I could identify as looking like a Red Spider Lily.

"This.." I was in quite the disbelief.. I know my body was different since I first came here. But I would have never thought, I would look like this.

"But.. it's impossible!" I said with pure disbelief. It's not that I don't accept my new body.. it is more like I couldn't find a logical way that this could happen.

"Good grief.. It's useless trying to deny it.. you also know that" She said as she walked closer and closer to me..

"But then another question arises.." She no.. my other me said. I knew what the question is, a question that has been bugging me since I am in this black void.. no.. a question that had been there since I am born..

"I am you.." My other me intertwined her hands to mine.

"And you are me.." And so I accepted her hands also.

"'Who are we?"' We both said at the same time and at that moment I suddenly felt my body being sucked away which I could conclude as my consciousness returning, but before I was gone I heard something..

"Kuro.. call me that.. I await for our next meeting.." And after that my meeting with my other me.. 'Kuro' came to an end.

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"Hello? Hello, little one!" Once again I felt like someone is calling out to me in a distance. I opened my eyes without trouble this time and saw that my meeting with 'Kuro' didn't even take a minute..

"Hello!" But even after he saw my eyes open he is still shouting calling out to me.

"What do you want..?" I asked him with some annoyance in my tone. He took notice of something on me which I noticed because of his expression.

"You.. You've weirdly changed.. Your power gauge suddenly went stable.." He said with a quite surprised face. But what's weird is..

"I don't feel any changes though" My thoughts slips out.

"Hmm... well ignoring that.. here we are in the capital city of The Kingdom of Evimaria, The City of Fortress, Arce!" He said and I looked around me.

I saw the blue skies, I saw a city that expands a huge area, I saw tall buildings, I saw many advanced technologies, magic and birds on the ground and in the skies..

But well beyond that I see something incredible even more a normal fantasy kind of a kingdom.. A wall that stretched out far beyond your expectation.. It circles the whole city making it almost virtually unbreachable.. We were on top of a high place yet I couldn't seem to see the end of the fortress.

"That is the Great Fortress of Arce you're seeing hence the name of the city. It was made by the Bringer of Hope 3000 years ago and it is still standing strong" Motoaki-san told me. It is a very solid fortress, I felt like compared to the biggest of fortresses back on earth in history nothing came close to this one.. but another thing catches my attention..

"Bringer of Hope..?" It was quite the catchy title.

"Hahaha, you are full of curiousity aren't you?" He said while chuckling a bit. I did not felt offended even a single bit as what he said was true. I never had the chance to fully explore the world in my past life and now I will see everything this world has to offer, I will explore even the darkest of secrets.

'Of course that is if I could get the power to do it..' I thought while sighing mentally.

"Well let us talk more inside my office" He said while turning back.

"Nagoyaka, show her the way" Motoaki-san said then immediately disappeared without even any sound.

"Follow me.." Then suddenly Nagoyaka-san jumped off the place without any hesitation and told me to follow her.. so I did. I jumped off the exact same place she did. I was in the air and the force of the wind was quite strong, I looked down and see that the ground that I measly could not see up there was slowly approaching me.

"Huh.. what should I do..?" Even then I am fully perfectly calm.. well of course I am a little scared but mostly I am fine. But I still am worried about what I should do to stop myself...

"You are awfully calm even in the face of death huh?" I looked to my side and saw Nagoyaka-san beside me.

"You are awfully calm yourself, Nagoyaka-san" I said to her back. She frowned a little hearing my words but immediately when back to her usual bored expression..

"Well, I am experienced.. But you should try to really stop your fall, you know?" She reminded me, I once again looked down and I presume in around 5 second I will hit the ground in this speed..

"Try to focus on yourself and imagined as if you're lightweight, with your instinct I am sure you can do it perfectly.." She suggested to me. I didn't have much time so I just did as what she said to me.

I closed my eyes and focused on myself. Being perfectly calm and focused, I take a look of myself deeper and deeper.. There I found myself.. standing perfectly still.

Taking a closer look, I could see threads all around me, they are very thin making it almost impossible to see from afar. Looking closer to the thread I could see that they are very jumbled up and it is making me quite restricted.

I closely approached myself and touched one of the threads.. The thread was silky smooth, it felt like it was weaved by the most skilled craftsman. Yet it was all tangled upon each other and so I slowly and carefully untangled each and one of them. In the end now the tangled threads were perfectly straight as it should be.

Then.. I felt it.. a surge of something inside of me. It felt like bathing in a holy light, a calming and warm feeling.. but then I felt another.. this time it felt like I was trapped in the middle of an all powerful blizzard in a winter night, it was dreadful and cold yet I am perfectly fine with it as if I have faced all of them..

Then it came to my realisation.. this feelings are my nature.. and that 'me' is.. my soul. I had fixed the root of the tangled threads yet when I observed the threads, they still are stretched far and beyond the darkness I couldn't see yet. And so I slowly approached my soul and stood at it's spot.. right after my eyes immediately shot open and I was back to reality.

"That was certainly a weird feeling.." I muttered. I looked around once more and realised that I wasn't falling down anymore, instead I am floating in the air perfectly still..

"Oh..? You actually done it.. not many people actually got through this part.." I heard Nagoyaka-san said while she approached me also floating.

"Well, anyways.. let's go meet Motoaki-san.." She said while she floated down to the ground. I just decided to follow suit silently and I just thought to myself..

'This felt pretty nice..'