Veil Of Vanity

"What do you feel about going back to the world that you're once accustomed to?"

Owen pointed her wand to the space in front of the xmas tree, conjuring the apparition of void and stars to bend the time and space onto the appointed destination. The familiar whirring revved up the surrounding as prismic energies collided, forming a four-side star portal.

"Nothing much." Nagan chuckled. "It would be better if I don't go back there.

"Mmm~ why so?"

"I'm definitely going to meet some old friends there when I get back." Nagan's smile then raised a wry edge of a curve. "I don't want them to get jealous knowing that I found myself some fine partner when I was away."

"That makes want to see you meeting your old friend more~"

It was already discussed that at the duration of time when Nagan and Owen was away, Hoppington and Charles would be holding the highest authority of their respective team. While it had been stated that this would only be a short visit, it was still an indeterminate amount of time.

"Oh right," Nagan stopped in his tracks, just before traversing the prismic vortex of portal apparaton. "Is there anything you have to hide my face?"

"Hmm, I certainly remembered that I have a fine mask somewhere within my space inventory." Owen then conjured the miniature version of her portal in front of her, before shoving her hand inside as she rummaged for the content that she was searching for. "Right, found it!"

What she pulled out from her inventory was none other than a mask, unsurprisingly. It was a rather sleek high-tech gray metal mask with two small horizontal slits on the eyes section, and a zig-zagging pattern on the bottom to signify sharp teeth.

Nagan equipped the mask right away. Just as the inside of the mask was facing his face, numerous formations of holographic computation could be seen. And when placed, the mask immediately anchors itself to the wearer's face without any rope nor hooks. A few seconds later, the holographic formations disappeared, revealing a translucent view as if the mask didn't exist at all.

[Booting up the Usalian Facial Interactive System]

[Choosing System Model_

[Earth]

[Unpacking new Language Model_

[Process completed]

[A trace of integration have been detected within the User]

[Commence with the reconnection?]

[Yes | No]

It was similar to the quotient analyzer, except that there wasn't any laser tracing every part of his body.

[The system have been connected] 

Numerous holographic miniscreens appeared within the corners of Nagan's view like heads-up display interface. Things like elevation, the temperature, and even the information status about the user's body like the body temperature, heartbeat pace, and blood pressure.

Nagan could also just control and resize those screens with his mind.

"Huh, this thing is quite neat."

There was the most important feature of them all.

A voice changer.

"How's my voice now?" Nagan asked as he faced the crowd of usalians.

"Husky."

"Like an old man."

"Muddy."

"What kind of voice is muddy?"

"Can definitely be used to scare Bluebell."

Seeing the reaction of the usalians, Nagan decided to play around for once. "How about this~"

"The Queen!"

"THERE IS TWO QUEEN!??"

"It's mature and motherly, just like the Queen."

"It's literally the Queen's voice…"

"Can definitely be used to scare Bluebell."

Meanwhile, Owen who was watching from the background blushed a little bit.

The mask could only mimic the voice of another being or person if the wearer had a clear image, feel, and memory of said voice. It was certainly not an easy task to use the voice changer feature and then immediately make out the right voice. There was also a recording feature used solely for the tweaking process of the voice changer.

Yet Nagan managed to duplicate the real deal in just the first try.

"Mmm~?" Nagan noticed something was up with his wife in the background. "What's the matter, darling~?"

"You're certainly having a lot of fun using that voice of mine."

After quite the intermezzo, Nagan and Owen finally departed.

It was just like using the wayward portal. One would just simply arrive on the other end instantaneously as if opening a door to go to another room.

And just like that, both of them arrived on the edge of a mountainous crystal cliff, welcomed by the sight of every cataclysmic horrors to behold.

"... I'm home."

A gargantuan hurricane of blood could be seen perpetually advancing toward somewhere, bringing total destruction to anything it trodden within its path. On the farfetch right, a hundred meters tall gargantuan could be seen bringing down lightning onto anything within its surroundings. And then there were also the large flames and smokes amongst the rubble of civilization that could only be described as ruins.

'Hell' wasn't a fitting enough word to encompass everything within this scenery. There was no suffering and and perpetual torture. Only bleakness and cold reality from the fact that not everything could be saved from a disaster.

"Do know that this kind of scenery is also happening within every conceivable civilization within the Grand Filament, and it will eventually happen." Owen glanced at Nagan with a melancholic smile. The harsh wind caressed her hair and coat as they waved. "No disaster is inevitable until it breaks out. Yet, it is inevitable that some calamities will enter even the most prosperous world."

"And I'll ensure that it won't ever happen to our world."

"You don't include Earth within that list?"

"Someone already does it." Nagan snickered behind the mask "If I did the same, that would be an overkill."

"The disaster on this world already happens regardless~"

"And they'll make sure to restore it after they clean the dirt off the canvas."