At the same time
"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!!!"
Alarms exploded across Ratatoskr's bridge.
KotoriItsuka sprang to her feet, the splintered stick of her lollipop clattering to the deck.
On the main screen the ruined DEM complexdead seconds agoerupted with violent energy.
Countless ghostblue motes rose like fireflies, knitting eerie runes in the air.
"That's a precursor to spatial transfer!"
Reine's fingers hammered the keyboard, sweat sliding down her pale cheek.
"And the energy spike is stronger than any spacequake we've ever recorded!"
Kotori's pupils contracted. She snatched up the intercom:
"All hands to battle stations! Raise the defensive barri"
She never finished. The whole ship lurched.
Outside, the starry sky warped into a vortex; reality's fabric was being torn by an unknown force.
A rainbowcolored beam ripped the darknessand Rei Ao appeared in the center of the bridge.
Thousands of sparkling shards of light orbited him like falling stars.
Instinctively Kotori unleashed her flames, but the fire snuffed out the instant it touched the hem of his coat.
"No need to panic, Commander KotoriItsuka."
Rei Ao smiled, cosmosdeep hues swirling in his rainbow irises.
"I've come to show you a little gift."
He snapped his fingers. The bridge's holographic display flipped to a new scene:
A barren desert beneath a bizarre purple sky.
A man knelt in the sand; from his back sprouted black thorns woven from twisted human faces, each one silently screaming.
The view zoomed in
Kotori and Reine gasped.
It was Isaac Westcottdead long agoyet his features writhed and reformed like a crab's moulting shell.
"These are the afterimages of Westcott and DEM's core members," Rei Ao said lightly.
"Their consciousnesses are trapped in a quantum crevice, suffering a fate worse than death forever."
"A little present from me to DEM's archenemyRatatoskr."
Kotori's fists clenched, nails carving crescent wounds into her palms.
She forced her voice steady. "What do you want?"
"Something simple."
Rei Ao was suddenly behind her, warm breath brushing her ear.
"I'm interested in you. I imagine you're looking for Tohkaand for meright now, aren't you?"
His fingertip traced the nape of her neck, leaving a faint golden sigil.
Cold sweat broke on Kotori's brow.
This guy is even more dangerous than I thoughtReine, please save me!
"Commander, what happened here?"
Right on cue, the commandroom doors slid open and Analyst Reine Murasame stepped in.
Her eyes locked on Rei Ao, narrowing to slits. "Who are you?"
Rei Ao smiled placidly, releasing Kotori and turning to her.
"Which role are you questioning me as?"
"Reine Murasame, Ratatoskr analyst?"
"Or the Origin SpiritMio Takamiya?"
"!!"
Reine's pupils shrank. Her gaze on Rei Ao changed completely.
"Origin Spirit?"
Kotori whirled in shock.
She wasn't stupid. "Reine don't you think you owe me an explanation?"
Silence. Then Reine spoke softly:
"Perhaps our mysterious outsider, with his impossible powers, should introduce himself."
She had to knowwho was Rei Ao?
He was immeasurably strong, yet his power wasn't from a Spirit crystal, and he knew secrets no one else did.
Rei Ao gave a faint smile.
"Rei Ao. That's my namejust a traveler from another world."
~~~
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Chapter 781: ItsukaKotori felt Betrayed!
Inside the Ratatoskr command center, blue indicator lights crisscrossed in the darkness, their glow reflecting off the tense faces of everyone present.
"I am a person from another world."
Rei Ao's calm statement detonated in the oncequiet control room like a nuclear warhead.
In that instant
All sound vanished, leaving only a suffocating silence.
ItsukaKotori's eyes flew wide open, her whole face frozen in disbelief.
A strange tension flooded the air; even breathing felt dangerous.
With a sharp scrape of chair legs, Kotori sprang to her feet.
Shock and vigilance burned in her crimson eyes as she stared hard at Rei Ao, trying to see straight through him.
"?????"
Her lips moved, yet only a handful of baffled syllables escaped.
As Ratatoskr's commander, she had witnessed plenty of impossible things.
But a man who suddenly appeared claiming to hail from another world still shook her to the core.
Almost instinctively, she touched the ribbon hidden in her pocketthe item that let her shift into combat mode.
Yet, more than Rei Ao's identity, there was someone she cared about even more:MurasameReine, standing right beside him.
"Reine is my analysthow could she possibly be"
Kotori's voice rose on its own, tinged with panic and denial.
In Kotori's mind, MurasameReine was the person she trusted most:
For years Reine had stayed by her side, offering the most professional advice and the warmest support;
Whenever Kotori was swamped with Spiritrelated disasters, Reine always pressed a cup of hot black tea into her hands;
Whenever she doubted her decisions, it was Reine's calm voice that restored her confidence.
"The First SpiritMioTakamiya."
Rei Ao met Reine's gaze without a flicker of fear.
Reine's body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
The brief, lightningfast motion did not escape Kotori's watchful eyes.
Kotori's heart tightened; a sense of dread swept over her.
"Reine he's joking, right?"
Her voice began to tremble uncontrollably; the resolve in her eyes melted into confusion and fear.
Time seemed to freeze; every second dragged on unbearably.
At length, MurasameReine removed her glasses and delicately rubbed the bridge of her nose.
When she looked up again, the fatigue in her eyes had vanished without a trace.
In its place radiated an aura beyond humanshe seemed to command the very space around her.
"How did you find out?"
She did not deny it; instead, she asked Rei Ao straight out.
Her voice was still calm, yet carried an unmistakable authority.
"!!!"
Kotori's mind went stark white, as if struck by lightning.
Her red eyes stretched to their limits, brimming with shock and disbelief.
"Reine you?"
Cold seeped into her words.Her most trusted analyst had another identity?!
Her fingers dug into the console's edge until her knuckles turned white.
"Sorry, Commander Kotori."
MurasameReineor rather, a clone of MioTakamiyaspoke in a frighteningly even tone.
"I am indeed not an ordinary human."
A trace of complicated emotion flickered in her eyes, but serenity quickly returned.
The sentence stabbed Kotori like a knife.
She staggered back a step, lost her balance, and only just caught herself on the console.
Her most trusted partner of many years a fragment of the First Spirit?
The truth was absurdyet it instantly explained so much:
Reine's uncanny knowledge of Spirits;
her ageless face; those mysterious dark rings under her eyes
Kotori suddenly recalled that no matter how late they worked, Reine never seemed to need sleep.
"Why?"
Her voice was hoarse and full of anger.
"Why did you infiltrate Ratatoskr?"
Her chest heaved, as though something inside were ablaze.
Reine's expression did not waver, as though none of it concerned her.
"To monitor the Spirits' movements and make sure the plan proceeds smoothly," she answered.
Her gaze slid to Rei Ao, a glint of caution flashing within.
"Until this man's arrival upset everything."
As she said it, her fingers trembled ever so slightlyan emotion she almost never showed.
Rei Ao chuckled softly, a hint of amusement in his smile.
"An honor, truly."
He turned to the stillstunned Kotori and spoke gently.
"Don't be too upset, commander-chan.
"Even if she's only a clone, the care she's shown you all these years wasn't real."
His eyes drifted between the two women, clearly finding the scene entertaining.
Kotori jerked her head up, fury blazing in her eyes.
"What do you know?!"
Tears and grievance filled her voice.
"You barge in, expose something this ridiculous, and act like it's perfectly normal Who on earth are you?"
Her shout echoed through the command room.
"Ah, almost forgot introductions."
Rei Ao snapped his fingers, confidence all over his face.
"I'm Rei Ao, owner of the Trade Chat Group."
He flicked a challenging glance at Reine.
"As for how I uncovered her identity I just happened to know."
He shrugged, as if it were nothing at all.
A flash of wariness crossed Reine's eyes; her body tensed.
"Incredible.My disguise was flawlessno instrument, no matter how advanced, could pick it up."
Her voice remained tranquil, but spoke faster than usual, betraying inner unrest.
"That may be true for this world," Rei Ao said lightly, blinking.
"But to me, your spiritual fluctuations stand out like a lighthouse in the night."
As he spoke, strange light danced in his iridescent eyescountless stars glittering within.
[Ding! You have chosen to grant subgroup chat privileges to:ItsukaKotori, MurasameReine!]
~~~
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Chapter 782: Absurdity of Multiverse! Kotori's Choice...
"Whatisthis?"
A tidal wave of information surged into Kotori's mind.
Her head throbbed so violently it felt as if it might burst.
Clutching her skull in agony, she watched countless unfamiliar scenes whirl pastbizarre creatures, majestic cities, technologies she had never seen. The images flickered through her consciousness like a revolving lantern.
"A slot in the chat group's subgroup,"
Rei Ao explained, his voice drifting in from a great distance.
"From now on, you can learn about the multiversejust like Tohka and the others."
There was a strange cadence to his words that made one want to believe him.
MurasameReineTakamiyaMio's avatarshowed a clear ripple of emotion for the first time.
Disbelief flashed in her eyes.
"So many worlds How can that be?"
Her voice quavereda rare loss of composure.
As a split body of the Origin Spirit, she had always thought she understood this world's system of power, yet everything before her exceeded her knowledge.
Through the data pushed by the chat group they saw an endless chain of worldscivilizations beyond imagination, creatures of impossible shapes, powers that defied belief.
They even saw Rei Ao himself, the group master, traveling freely among those realms.
In that moment Kotori's entire worldview was overturned.
What she had taken for reality was but a speck of dust in a boundless cosmos.
Her legs went weak; she had to brace herself on the console to stay upright.
"So" Kotori struggled to digest the flood of facts, her voice trembling.
"DEM's destruction was your doing too?"
The image of DEM's headquarters reduced to rubble flashed across her mind, the sheer force of it sending a chill down her spine.
Rei Ao nodded, a trace of coldness on his face.
"Just a small punishmentand part of Tohka's deal, of course."
His gaze roamed over the two women, carrying a hint of temptation.
"If you have any wish at all, you can contact me through the chat group at any time to make a trade."
He gave MurasameReine a meaningful look.
"Even the wish of the Origin SpiritI can grant it."
His deep, magnetic voice felt like a devil's whisper, luring its listeners toward the abyss.
No sooner had he finished speaking than his figure began to fade, turning translucent, as though being erased from the air.
His outline blurred like pencil lines rubbed away by an eraser.
"Wait!" Kotori cried, desperation in her tone.
"You haven't explained everything"
She reached out, but her fingers passed straight through his halftransparent form.
"You already know what you need to know," Rei Ao's voice echoed, tinged with mystery.
"The rest discover for yourselves."
His words grew fainter until they vanished entirely.
With the final syllable, his body dissolved from the bridge as if he had never been there, leaving only a trace of strange energy in the air to prove it was no illusion.
Silence fell over the command center.
After a stunned moment, Kotori slowly turned to MurasameReine; the shock in her eyes had frozen into icy fury.
"Explainnow."
Her voice was low, edged with menace. One finger hovered over the emergency button: one press and all of Ratatoskr would go to maximum alert.
Reine met her stare calmly, not a flicker of panic.
"As he said, I'm TakamiyaMio's avatar, embedded in human society."
The words were flat, as though she were recounting someone else's story.
"If you want me gone, I can leave right now."
A fleeting loneliness flickered in her eyes before her usual serenity returned.
Kotori's fists clenched so hard her nails pierced her palms; blood dripped between her fingers.
She had too many questions
What is the Origin Spirit's goal?
Has Ratatoskr been a pawn all along?
Where has all the Spirit data they collected gone?
But in the end she drew a long breath, forcing herself calm.
"Stay."
The word came out hoarse; the decision clearly pained her.
Reine's brows lifted in mild surprise; an unreadable emotion flashed in her eyes.
"It's not that I forgive your deception," Kotori said through gritted teeth, her gaze firm.
"I have to uncover the Origin Spirit's true purpose."
Turning toward the commander's seat, she strode forward with iron resolve.
"All hands back to your stations! Today's events are top secretanyone who leaks a word will face courtmartial!"
Her voice held the authority of a commander, though those who knew her could hear the tremor beneath.
The crew, as if granted amnesty, hurried to their tasks.
The nightmare would be treated as if it had never happened.
Keyboards clacked again; status reports flowed across comms. Outwardly, everything was back to normalyet everyone knew something fundamental had changed.
Kotori sat down, forcing her pulse to steady.
Her eyes fixed on the chat group interface now floating in midair.
Perhaps this mysterious group held some of the answers she needed.
After a brief hesitation she reached out and tapped the phantom screen.
MurasameReine remained where she was, fingertip lightly touching her own forehead.
