It was completely white.

  When she cpped, the whole world became white. There were no walls, no floor, no corners, nothing. Everything was white except for a perfect bck circle high in the distance. No matter how much I moved my head, there was no movement, no perspective.

  Am I inside the Pilr of Silver? I followed the girl I fought until we arrived in front of the pilr, then everything suddenly turned white. This is all inside my head, right? Or am I inside the sword? I stopped being able to tell what’s real and what’s not ever since I started trying to match with my new sword… It’s becoming really confusing…

  “Wh- where are we?”

  “You can think of this pce as the inside of the Pilr of Silver.” The omnipresent white was so strong that even the pale women stood out. She stood a few steps ahead of me, holding her sword with both hands and looking slightly up at the bck circle.

  She then turned around to face me. “Our current connection is only possible due to the single flower forged into your sword. The connection is weak, and it won’t st more than five minutes. We don’t have much time. What do you want to know the most?”

  “Wait… Are you serious? Only five minutes?” Oh no… I’m drawing a bnk now… What happens after the five minutes are up? “Uhmm… Uhhh… You said I’m from the original world, didn’t you? Does that mean you know the other world used to be a game in our world? And… what happening between our worlds? Why did you bring me here? Ughh… I have so many questions…”

  “What is happening between our worlds is the very reason why I brought you here. I’ll start from the beginning… You won’t understand unless you know how our world works.” No matter what she said, her face didn’t change in the slightest. There wasn’t a single hint of emotion as she stared at me with her bnk, white eyes. “Are you familiar with the three pilrs?”

  “No…” I shook my head. If they appeared in the game, they weren’t part of the main story. I can barely remember that as is, so I have no clue about this.

  “The three pilrs are the source of everything in our world. Each pilr controls a fundamental element present in everything that exists. These are the Pilr of Essence, the Pilr of Void, and the Pilr of Silver. The Pilr of Essence, in the Fractured Lands, is responsible for matter and magic. The Pilr of Void, deep in the Forest of Illusion, for life. And the Pilr of Silver for souls, intelligence, and aesthetics.”

  “Everything that exists is a combination of those elements. A grain of sand is nothing but matter. Monsters and people are more complicated. Monsters have matter, magic, and life, but their souls are weak and their intelligence scarce. In this regard, people are some of the most complete things, containing elements from the three pilrs. Do you understand?”

  Frankly, not much. Or better yet, I understand, it’s just hard to wrap my head around. There’s life, matter and magic, and souls… It’s easy to imagine what elements would compose a tree, for example, but I can see myself running into lots of edge cases. “Well, I’m following…” If I’m not mistaken, the idea of things being composed of those elements is more important to understand than what composes each thing. That much I can understand, even if I’m not completely used to the system.

  “The power of the three pilrs put together can create anything in this world. Normally, this power is out of reach of any mortal, but there are some who managed to find a way to use it for their own purposes.”

  “Wait! In the demon territory?”

  She nodded. “I believe that’s what humans call it. The mortals there created a way to connect our world with a different one and siphon energy from it. Your world is the one they connected to.” Siphoning energy from another world…? I feel like that one was in the game… “The biggest side effect is that, by siphoning energy from your world, both worlds are drawn together. Our worlds normally exist in different dimensions, but the closer they get, the more the barrier between dimensions starts tearing. At this point, holes are already appearing.”

  “Holes? The portals?”

  “That’s right. Those portals are holes in the barrier between worlds, and at this rate, they will only continue to grow. The barrier will eventually colpse, and both worlds will be merged. The overpping of space alone will cause massive destruction to both worlds, not to mention that chaos the would ensue.”

  “My knowledge about your world is limited, but if a conflict were to happen between the people of our worlds, I believe your world would be destroyed. The ones you know as demons would come out on top and become the rulers of this new world. Even if your side was strong enough to fight back, all that would happen is the destruction of both sides.”

  I- is this the tragedy that Miyuki predicted? She said she saw our world being destroyed if I didn’t get the VISS Driver… “Wh- why are you telling me all this? What am I supposed to do? You’re not just telling me that the situation is completely hopeless, are you?”

  “No… Our interests align. I am an avatar of the Pilr of Silver. A manifestation of its will. The three pilrs wish for the world to continue existing in its current state. If our worlds merge, the rules that govern it might shift. We can’t interfere with our world directly, but as someone from the original world, you can do something about it.”

  Right… If this is the thing Miyuki saw, it can be averted. The woman’s voice echoed in this white space, and I looked straight at her. What does she want me to do?

  “If you can stop the people using the pilrs’ power to siphon energy from your world, our worlds will stop merging. Both worlds will stay in their current state.”

  “Their current state…” But if we leave things as is, the portals won’t just disappear, will they? There will still be monsters pouring over to our world. That’s not good, is it? Maybe it will be fine… There are people constantly working on finding the best ways to deal with the portals and the monsters. If the situation stabilizes, maybe we can find some sort of equilibrium.

  “Alright… I’ll do what I can to stop them…” This lines up with what Miyuki told me before. The people responsible for the portals are in the demon territory. If I wanna do anything about it, I gotta go there.

  “Be careful.” The woman’s tone suddenly changed. It still had its soft mysticism, but it no longer felt imposing. “There’s someone who seeks the opposite of what we want… We think saving both worlds is the best approach, but they’re willing to sacrifice our world to save yours.”

  “Your world is the origin of our world. The three pilrs are well aware of that. The connection between our worlds is important for our existence. Which is why this force wants to sever it. By reversing the flow of energy, our world will drift apart until our world eventually returns to being just a fictional story. That’s what will happen if the connection is severed, and all life here will be lost.”

  “There’s no way…” She knows! She knows about the game! Why is it real now? Why isn’t it just a game anymore? What changed? I definitely gotta ask about that, but we’re only halfway through our time. I still have time. For now… “Who’s trying to separate our worlds? Who could even do something like that?” Someone from the PSF? Are they scared of an invasion from the other world? It makes sense… Cut off the threat before it can cause any damage.

  “We don’t know. It’s someone whose powers are equal to or higher than ours. They use an avatar simir to ours, but they exist outside of our perception. The pilrs can perceive anything in our world, so this must mean this avatar represents a force from your-”

  Then everything turned bck. Like a screen suddenly going dark.

  “Iroha? Can you hear me? Are you done?”

  “Ka- Katja…? Why?” When I opened my eyes, Katja was in front of me, gently shaking my shoulder.

  “Why?” The question troubled Katja. “Did I interrupt you? I saw you jolting and thought you were done. Don’t tell me I’m the one who woke you up…”

  “No… I don’t think so… I’m just still a little confused.” About why. Why did our conversation get cut short? Was it because we ran out of time? That’s impossible… I’m pretty sure we still had around two minutes left. Did she misjudge how long our connection would st? I don’t know…

  “I didn’t interrupt then… I’m gd…” Katja let out a sigh of relief. “Were you able to match with your sword? Given how distressed you looked… Well, don’t worry about it, Iroha. We’ll get your sword a core made with a better material.” Katja said with a comforting smile.

  “Wait… You’re wrong, Katja. You’re jumping to conclusions. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to match with the silver flower… It’s just that… I’m a little tired after all that, I guess.”

  “Oh? Was it actually a success?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. At least I think so.”

  “That’s amazing… I was sure Reia and Professor R were pushing this strange experiment on you just to gather data. From the numbers we saw, I didn’t think it’d even be possible to successfully match with that flower!” Katja’s voice had some real enthusiasm behind it.

  “Was it really that unlikely? I must have gotten pretty lucky then.”

  “No, Iroha. It wasn’t luck. This is the result of your hard work. In a certain sense, you made history today! You should be proud of yourself!”

  “Ahahahaha… Is that so? Thanks, I guess… It hasn’t caught up to me just yet. Matching with my sword took a lot out of me.” As soon as I said that, Katja grabbed my hand and helped me up.

  “I’d imagine. After all that, it’s only natural you’d get tired. Take a seat.” She supported my weight and helped me sit on a nearby bench. “It’s a well-deserved rest. Stay here, and I’ll bring you something to drink.” She seemed excited as she turned to leave. “How about you spend the day with us so you can rest up properly?”

  “Another night at the House? Sure… Why not?” Katja nodded with a smile as she left the room, barely seeing me wave her goodbye.

  Whew… As soon as I close my eyes, my head starts spinning. I can still hear her voice… Some kind of echo. “Come to the Pilr of Silver.” Our conversation got cut short… If I want to know more, I’ll have to meet her in person, huh? Is that my only way?

  Either way, I learned a lot today. The portals are tears in the boundaries between our worlds… Everything she told me complements what Miyuki said. She really is amazing… The sword didn’t kill me, but it wasn’t that far. If not for Violence Impulse, I would have lost. I don’t think Katja would have gotten me out of that one.

  But Miyuki never told me about the one trying to separate both worlds… She doesn’t choose what dreams she sees, so she might just not know. I guess I should try to find out who they are. They’re an avatar of some force, just like that girl from the Pilr of Silver, right? Should I ask Miyuki who they are? Why would they want to separate both worlds? Especially when it would effectively destroy the other world. Who would do that? I don’t know… There’s just too much to think about…

  Bam100