MEANWHILE IN THE SAME DIMENSION
Zooming above the ground, twin tails flapping behind her, the blindfolded Hydra destroyer found herself in quite the rush. Why? Because she was trying to get to the five presences she'd picked up not too far away. And by the way there was a cone of air behind her form, it's safe to say she's at least going the speed of sound.
Well, that, and the constant BOOM anyone unlucky enough to be within 12 meters of her at that moment would be getting bombarded with.
"That guy better not be-" She started speaking, only to stop herself mid-sentence.
On a dime, her flight cut itself short. All that momentum behind her kept going, blowing a massive gust of wind and kicking up a wave of debris that blew past her harmlessly.
The dust settled slowly, swirling like dry snow around the boots of a woman standing perfectly still.
'From 5 to one in like 12 seconds? Damn, okay.' She mused, idly reorienting her body so she was lying down midair, folding her detached sleeved arms over her modestly-sized chest before flipping upright.
The movements, while unnecessary for the most part, did help her think.
She was close enough to see her target... Well, "see" him. Around 30 meters give or take. The absolute limit on her ability to make out proper details in this accursed dimension.
Proving that not even the blind is immune to the fog of war.
Bearing witness to the man turning around walking forward, directly at her, she puts a hand on her chin as she narrowedher eyes.
As if anyone can see that...
'To pull that off, bro must either be facing complete jobbers or built different... Maybe both?' She paused, raising an eyebrow of skepticism. 'As if it's both, let's be real here.'
She flips again.
"Alright well that answers that." She shrugs, refusing to elaborate on what 'that' even was.
Instead, she continued flying, taking off much the same way she'd stopped—releasing the brakes on her momentum rather than fighting it. Clearing the distance in an instant, she pierced the gray curtain like a bullet through silk.
Over with Gynesis, he was on guard, posture stiff, eyes scanning the empty white void. He wasn't looking for friends. He was bracing for another ambush. Not wanting to have another 1v4 out of nowhere.
'That's a lie.' He corrected internally, the thought sharp and cold. 'I know damn-well that's exactly what I'm hoping for.'
If anything, he was almost praying for another combat encounter. Another set of enemies to defeat. Another jump session. Anything to keep the noise in his head from becoming too loud.
While he knew not -or rather, he had forgotten why- he ended up in this dimension, what he did know was that there were potentially powerful foes to fall. On top of the fact that his significant other was also roaming the world, somewhere. Those dolls might not have been astounding examples of high threat levels, but he felt deep in his gut that the main course was coming.
'Those appetizers weren't half bad,' he monologued mentally, distracting himself as his legs autopiloted him in the direction he thought his girlfriend was at. 'Eden would rank 'em somewhere around maybe B... Most likely C. Maybe a low B if they had better lighting.'
He stepped forward. The ground didn't crunch; it hummed. A faint, resonant vibration that traveled up through his boots and settled in his molars.
He squinted, taking a good hard look directly ahead. Something clicked in his head.
Nothing.
Then he looked behind him.
The aftermath of his fight was clear as day: the shattered porcelain dolls, the blood stains, the frozen debris.
Then dead ahead again.
Still nothing. Or rather, a silver curtain that blocked everything beyond. The same wall he'd seen when glancing to his sides.
'13 meters of straight nothing... Odd, and annoying.' Footnote made, complaint cancelled before it could form fully.
Ahead, the fog swirled, thick and opaque. It wasn't just visual obstruction; it felt like pressure against the skin. A heavy, suffocating blanket of "Unknown."
And through it all, Gynesis's lips curled up ever so slightly.
But even in the fog of war, a tank is still visible.
That tank being Geneva's presence.
'Something's coming, fast,' he noted, feeling the shift in air pressure, the drop in temperature, the scent of ozone cutting through the stale void. 'That's what she said.'
"Kek" He said instead of actually laughing at his own joke.
As if the move summoned her, a massive gust of wind blew in. After a hot anime girl busted through the fog. Like the Kool-Aid man himself, she just burst right through it like a human drill through wet paper.
"Oh YEA- cough- I mean uh... Kroniichiwa~" Geneva made her first words an absolute fumble of a first impression. Giving herself a generational aura loss in Gynesis's opinion.
Trying to recover her lost aura, the woman spun around in a 360 to try hiding the fact that she was reaching for a pistol she always had holstered on her hip.
Yeah bruh uhm... that shit was NOT there.
Drawing a handful of air instead of her favorite non-magical tool, she played it off as simply pointing at the male before her as she winked. An immaculate aura recovery technique if you asked her.
"Ayo what the fu-" As for the man himself, he was in much the same boat. Jumping back a bit as she spun around, reaching his left hand to grab a katana that wasn't there.
But unlike Geneva, he kept his hand there as if concealing a weapon.
The two stared each other down for a good minute. Their gazes more analytical than malicious or angry. And of course, they both held their respective poses.
"Blindfold and Miko sleeves..." Captain Obvious opened his mouth first, dropping his left hand with a chuckle as he spoke on the woman's appearance. "Are those... circuit board thigh highs?"
She tilted her head, a cocky grin playing at her lips upon hearing such words from Gynesis.
"Is the failed Devil May Cry Adaptation really tryna drip check me right now?" She bit back, leaning closer to the man, purposely floating the extra 8 inches she needed to reach eye level with the 6'5" tall ALU before her.
"Says what happens the Idea Factory runs out of Ideas." Gynesis bit back, his lips slowly curling into a ghost of a smile. "Anyway, how'd you get here?"
"I flew." Instant answer, smug delivery.
"Not what I asked." Ghost busted.
Seeing the male's annoyance starting to show, she let out a chipper "I know." with her hands on her hips before giving a straight answer.
"But it sounds miles better than 'some whore choked me and sent me to what she called the sex dimension' don't ya think?"
Gynesis listened with a straight face. For exactly four seconds. The exact period of time it took for Geneva to say the words "sex dimension".
That's when he cracked, closing his eyes to try and mask a bit of air almost escaping his nose. At the same time he put a hand over his mouth to make it sound like he was stifling a cough. A process he had to repeat so many times he was sounding like an asthmatic in a sandstorm.
That shit did not work on Geneva. Who was folding her arms at the audacity of this guy to laugh at her. Especially at her latest and biggest L of the series so far.
"Didn't you get your chain snatched and then turned into one?" The shorter of the two impatiently snapped. Simultaneously snapping the man out of his fake coughing fit.
Getting a metaphorical mouthful of his own medicine shoved down his throat made the man actually cough. Half out of surprise, half out of annoyance.
"Cough cough what the fuck..." Was the first thing to escape his lips after that bombshell dropped on his forehead. "That was over 20 chapters ago!"
He tried defending himself, but it just sounded more like deflection than anything else.
"Yeah, yeah, save it for the readers..." She actually deflected, waving her hand like she was talking to some random beggar on the street. "What're you even doing anyway?"
"Looking for my wife." His turn to not hesitate, a happy smile hitting his features the instant he thought about the woman he was looking for.
Geneva nodded in acceptance. A sinister grin etching into her features as she opened her mouth in response.
"Wrong colored trench coat for that, bruh. But don't worry, I gotchu home boy~"
Reaching into... somewhere off page, Geneva pulled her hand back holding some items. A pair of blue jeans, a green polo tee shirt, and an army jacket.
With a wink she tossed the clothes at him, chuckling a "here ya go" while she was at it.
Gynesis reached out to catch the clothing. But instead of landing in his hands, the fabrics suddenly snapped around his frame, fitting perfectly.
"Thanks, and now," The ALU turned his gaze to the blindfolded one, pointing an exaggerated finger at her. "What are you here for?"
An earnest question. One where the one asking didn't expect a matching answer.
Geneva pauses to think. 'There's that hologram lady from when I first woke up here...' She internally mused, 'Then again... Oh who am I kidding, that's most likely a trap let's be real.'
"Defeating the demon lord." It took a few seconds for her to spew out that answer.
An answer not even she believed if she were to be honest.
"I'm sorry what?" Gynesis, expecting something generic like 'Getting out of here' or 'Returning to my husband' was left tilting his head in mild confusion.
Over with the woman herself, she just shrugged looking off into the distance.
"I don't know man, you said looking for your wife, and if I'ma be real that sounds wayyyy better than 'I'm just fucking about' or some shit." She rationalized. "Plus, there has to be a big bad evil guy or something in here keeping the place going."
I mean... is she wrong tho? Surely there must be somebody right?
"Yeah, her name's Vinaya." Gynesis answered, his voice colder as he spat the name out like a slur.
And there goes all that happiness from a minute ago.
"Alright!" Geneva chirped, putting her hands on her hips with a smug grin. "Let's go find you your wife!"
With a chipper attitude, the woman spun on her heel and floated off. Heading in the direction she'd seen Gynesis walking to with a bold stride.
As for the blood user, he simply shrugged and continued walking. 'This woman ain't going nowhere, and something tells me she's gonna stick around whether I want to or not.' He internally monologued.
'This lost puppy finding his way out of a wet paper bag would be a miracle, luckily I found him~' Were Geneva's internal thoughts, her lips curled ever so slightly into a smug grin as she led him through the fog of war.