"..."
The scenery before the man's eyes spun. Everything merged and then was sliced apart, separated and joined again...
On the bright side, at least he could still feel dizzy?
Where was this?
Every time, this kind of memory fragmentation occurred. It was truly difficult to adapt. He spent dozens of seconds integrating his chaotic memories, then looked up at his surroundings...
Broken walls and ruins, a blood-colored sunset.
This was the parallel world he had seen last time, where the Fire-Moth headquarters had been destroyed.
The man looked down at his own attire. It was the same as when he was at the sanatorium. It seemed it wasn't a case of being transferred into a parallel version of himself or someone else, but rather that he came to the parallel world in a state between a physical body and a conscious entity.
However, this time, the man noticed that a significant amount of time seemed to have passed since his last visit.
Because it was a parallel world, he couldn't be sure if he was visiting the exact same one or two similar worlds.
He could only assume it was the same world many years later. Time flow in parallel worlds was different; perhaps only a few months had passed in his world, while many years had passed here.
Last time, at least an explosion had occurred. This time, the man stood there for a full five minutes, and still nothing happened.
There wasn't even the sound of birds chirping. Infinite emptiness and loneliness leaked from this endless silence.
It was as if... this world had already...
Kacha—
A strange noise erupted directly in his brain, making the man shudder.
It was happening again.
The feeling of "something" approaching from somewhere, full of malice—
Boom.
A tiny yet massive explosion erupted from the tremors beneath his feet. Sensing the crisis in advance, the man leaned his head back at the last half-second. Then the ground beneath his feet exploded. Rusted iron fragments scraped his flesh, and an unseen weapon sliced through the muscle of his chest and the tip of his chin, leaving him instantly drenched in blood.
At the edge of his vision, he saw the blade attacking him and the hand gripping the hilt.
Bang!
Before he could retreat, a heavy kick landed squarely on his chest. He tumbled five or six times across the ground before stopping.
Hearing the sound of wind being broken, the man immediately pushed off the ground to spring up, dodging a horizontal slash meant to cleave him in two.
With quick eyes, the man saw a handgun on the ground nearby. Not caring if it had bullets, he grabbed it, cocked it, and fired two consecutive shots at the attacker!
Clang!
The bullets were mercilessly sliced apart. A gust of wind brushed past the man's face, and his right eye instantly went pitch black.
"Ugh—" There was no pain, but the blindness in one eye affected his field of vision. Hearing the sound of another attack from the right, he subconsciously raised his arm to block. Then he was launched into the air again, slamming heavily into an alloy wall.
"Do not resist. You cannot defeat me."
An unfamiliar voice. The man was certain this wasn't anyone he knew... so, no matter what she said, the man wouldn't believe it.
He kicked off the wall, using the momentum to fly through the air, aiming the gun at the head of the cloaked figure—
Bang!
Sizzle.
The sharp bullet distorted and deformed in the air, losing its kinetic energy before finally falling to the ground.
This was... a Herrscher's shield.
This person was a Herrscher!
The man couldn't see her face under the cloak. She stood on the high ground, bathed in light. He questioned: "Who are you?"
"Who am I? Does it matter?" she said slowly in a voice that chilled his bones. "Some call me 'Abaddon Yama-Rakshasa'... but that was in an era so distant I can no longer remember. And you... need not concern yourself with that."
In the final second, what the man saw was that person calmly raising her right arm. Then, the arm beneath the cloak suddenly swelled into a giant, muscular limb of towering proportions. The familiar muscle structure of a Honkai Beast, devoid of skin... it even blotted out the entire sky.
Then, that "mountain of flesh" smashed down upon him!
BOOM!!!
After completely crushing the man into a pulp, the deformed giant arm slowly shrank back into her hand, returning to a slender arm with fair skin.
Retracting it beneath her cloak, she pulled back her hood, raking a mass of silver-white hair out from inside the cloak, and walked toward where the man had been crushed.
"..."
There wasn't a pool of water of unrecognizable meat.
Time was up. Did he return?
"Lin..."
She whispered that name with a low, hateful tone.
...
"..."
The man flipped up and landed on the ground. In this pitch-black place, he remained on guard against any incoming attacks.
One second.
Two seconds.
He only heard the sound of his own breathing.
"What are you doing?"
An annoyed voice rang out from the darkness. After a few seconds of silence, the man said, "Nothing. Just a nightmare."
"Tch, a grown man getting spooked by a nightmare." Kalpas went back to sleep, saying impatiently, "Either get to sleep or go out and run a few laps. After running, you'll forget what the nightmare was like."
The man listened to his words and, after a moment's thought, walked out the door.
It wasn't raining today. He walked to the mailbox, reached in, and pulled out a letter.
As expected...
However, the man wasn't in the mood to read the letter now. He walked under the eaves, looked up at the moon, and fell into deep thought.
The issues with his consciousness were getting more and more serious. He would go to that parallel world at any moment without warning, and he was completely passive in accepting this.
If this happened during a battle...
And then there was that woman calling herself "Abaddon Yama-Rakshasa."
If the man wasn't mistaken, that hand and eye that attacked him at the end of his first entry into that state were likely hers.
She wasn't a person from that parallel world; she could see him and even break through spatial limitations to hunt him.
This reminded the man of the black-haired woman from the second time. She likewise could interact with him. Was there a connection between the two?
It seemed he would have to watch out for that woman the next time the same situation occurred...
Having organized his thoughts, the man tore open the envelope. This time, there were many words written on the letter, likely because the nun was eager to ask after receiving the information that Honkai Sickness could be cured.
But surprisingly, upon reading it, the nun hadn't asked anything about curing Honkai Sickness.
"To Mr. Ultraman:
Today's barbecue was very delicious, but I noticed you were only eating potato chips. Do you have a special hobby for potato chips? Regardless, please maintain a balanced diet; being a picky eater is not a good habit..."
The rest was entirely small talk. The man continued reading with patience.