[Before we start, I want to ask. Where are the others?]
Kisuke took out blankets and laid them on top of both Tanis and Claire, "They didn't know I would be completing this communication device today, so they are all out to do their own things."
[Thanks.] Cleria further fixed the blankets' position before asking, [And how much longer could we talk?]
As he sat back down, Kisuke took a look at his console, "I can supply the power on the equipment on my side but I can't do anything on the other side aside from letting it recover on its own. But we still have an hour before the power reaches critical levels and automatically shuts down. After that, three days would be needed to fully charge it back."
[We're sorry for taking such a precious time.], Masaomi immediately apologized, feeling a bit guilty.
"Don't say that, Uncle. Even if you've taken all the time and the next few sessions, we wouldn't mind. After all, I made this, especially for Claire." Kisuke replied in a reprimanding tone, "Anyway, where's Mom and Uncle Diehauser?"
[Sarah fetched someone and should be arriving any moment now, but Diehauser-niisama is...] Cleria became hesitant with her words.
Although they tried hiding it, Kisuke immediately noticed that both of them were extremely tired but didn't ask about it. However, her hesitation made him crease his brows, 'Looks like a few months of us gone was already too long.'
Cleria wanted to continue but Sakura arrived at that moment, [I'm here!]
Before Kisuke could greet her, however, Sakura instantly understood the situation after seeing Claire and an unknown blue-skinned little girl lying on her lap. Sakura didn't wait for Kisuke to respond and like a child, she leaped towards him with all her might and arms wide open while yelling in excitement, "Kisuke~!!!"
But the moment she crashed into him, the sophisticatedly created hologram was crushed into tiny bits, resulting in her making a devastated expression.
On the other hand, on Kisuke's side, Sakura's figure was crushed into tiny bits, but a few seconds later, it was reformed behind him where she was standing, "Mom, calm down. I'm not going anywhere for the time being."
[No can do~!] Sakura figured out that she can't use too much force and turned back to the reformed hologram of Kisuke with a big smile. This time, instead of leaping forward, Sakura calmly approached Kisuke and hugged him tightly, [I missed you...]
Kisuke returned the hug, "I missed you too, mom."
But while they were having their moment, the person that Sakura apparently fetched also appeared within the communication device's detection range, and everyone in the different world was shocked to varying degrees.
Everyone then looked towards Ophis, who already stopped eating and stood up.
The one who arrived was 'Ophis'. But there couldn't be two Ophis so Kisuke instantly guessed that this is the Dragon God's stolen part, Lilith, 'Although this Lilith was only a small part of Ophis, her existence also means Ophis' incompleteness.'
Kisuke already thought of several methods of fusing the separated part back to Ophis but as she watched the two silently approach each other, a bad premonition came to him and immediately reached out to the console.
"Kisuke?" Sakura became confused when Kisuke started panicking but the latter didn't have time to answer her as he immediately initiated an emergency shutdown.
The moment the power was cut off was also the moment Ophis and Lilith locked hands. The microscopic holes in the space didn't close and the channels that should have been keeping the connection on didn't disappear even though there was nothing powering them anymore.
On the contrary, these holes started getting bigger, making way for 'infinity' to complete itself.
"Tsk!" Kisuke couldn't help but click his tongue at the situation and started releasing his own energy, waking up even the sleeping children, who were in close proximity. However, he doesn't have the luxury to worry about them and expended his own energy to forcefully close the holes.
But even after doing that, the communication device wasn't disconnected and Kisuke became worried, 'Is this similar to quantum entanglement?'
If this is a normal situation, Kisuke would have happily observed them. Nevertheless, they aren't in their own world and Kisuke was still unclear if the one watching over them right now and possessing enormous power is hostile.
Thankfully, he already ascertained some time ago that 'Chaos' wasn't directly watching this world but in a state similar to sleeping and waiting for an alarm to go off.
But then again, Kisuke doesn't exactly know when those alarms would go off and he's afraid that he'll take notice of this, 'If he notices this, then some of my important cards would be rendered useless.'
Fortunately, he was able to think of a solution that would reduce the risk of being discovered and sent a telepathic message that was aimed at the lava pool on the 48th floor. [Uhmm. Excuse me, but I may need a helping hand over here.]
Kisuke doesn't know if his request would be heeded so it's a gamble. Still, it's the easiest of his choices right now. Thankfully enough, he got an answer before he could go through his other options that weren't just hard, but also risky.
With his keen senses, Kisuke noticed the sudden change in the Dungeon's Magic Power flow, albeit, only slightly. This change was also noticed by Yoruichi, Serafall, and Sona thanks to their mastery over Magic and immediately ended what they were doing to return. No matter how small the change is, it still happened for the first time and we were worried about what it signified.
Meanwhile, Kisuke formed invisible strings of his own energy and started probing outwards. The moment he touched the Dungeon's wall, his string went through but there was no information that was coming through, 'So the Dungeon became a protective shell.'
And while all of this was happening, Ophis and Lilith ignored everything and silently stared at each other. Initially, Ophis thought of retrieving the rest of his powers at some point, but the moment she saw and felt Lilith's existence, she already lost interest in that and became interested in the existence of the other 'half' of herself.
Similarly, Lilith thought of returning to her original form in the future but also lost her interest in that and became extremely interested in Ophis herself.
The two's meeting changed the Infinite Dragon forever and no one knew if this was for the best.
Editors:
28th00: Well, if Gdocs doesn’t decide to disconnect me and reset all my edits for the 4th time, I can finally make them? Ophis and Lilith would complete an ‘Infinity Circuit’, wouldn’t they? Scary stuff. I’m curious to how they got Lilith following them around, but they’ve been exposed to Ophis so much that Lilith would just naturally appear beside them from the remnant aura/scent, then the snacks would keep her there. Unlike Ophis, Lilith truly is a child, not just childish or childlike. She can be absolutely and totally incapcitated with a bar of chocolate though. Like, seriously.
Redemperor D