Deep Sea Embers

Quickly stepped forward to inquire about the situation: “Mr. Dante?”

Dante did not respond to the maid’s inquiry; instead, he sat in his seat in a daze, acting like his soul had been sucked out. But the admin suddenly blinked, and his consciousness seemed to abruptly return to reality with the paleness of someone on the brink of drowning.

“Mr. Dante, are you okay?” The maid’s voice came again, thundering in the ears of the city admin.

Dante Wayne stared blankly at the fork on his plate, seeing not only the tableware, but also flashes of images from the past. It came so strongly that the prosthetic ruby eye had started to burn and sting with pain.

Out of the blue, the man swung his head towards the maid and broke the silence with a deep, heavy voice: “Did Vanna send any news over?”

The maid was stunned momentarily before responding to this respected city admin: “… Who is Vanna?”

In the next second, the maid was startled by Dante’s livid face and gloomy aura.

The man’s face had changed so suddenly that even the air around him was cold and ominous. But after several seconds of this, the city admin finally clawed back his rage and maintained a calm air before waving the maid away. “You can leave me. I won’t need any service for the time being.”

As the slightly nervous and confused maid left the dining hall, only Dante Wayne remained seated at the table. He didn’t move or budge as if he’s been here for the past eleven years using only this posture.

Layers of intricate memories were floating through his mind, and “reality” from a different dimension seemed to overwrite his perception through this, but Dante didn’t flinch or fret. Instead, he only softly muttered the following words as if he were praying: “Vanna is still alive… Vanna is still alive…”

But the man jerked his head in the next after catching the sight of another figure sitting across from himself.

It was another him – at least it looked like another version of himself.

The thing was a grayish-white entity, wearing the same clothes as Dante Wayne, with the same appearance and hairstyle, and even the wrinkles on the back of his hand were the same. However, the facial features of the figure were slightly blurred, and its eyes were nothing more than two sunken sockets that were filled with endless emptiness.

Dante quietly stared at the gray version of “himself”, and the other party also stared directly back at him with a taunting smirk.

“Ah, a hole finally appears in your heart, my other me’.” The thing spoke with squirming lips.

Dante Wayne froze to a halt, his eyes now glaring at the reflection opposite himself: “What did you do?”

“Frankly, I don’t know. It just happened so suddenly that even I was caught off guard. A loophole took the initiative to eliminate itself,” the thing across the table shook his head. “But don’t you want to see how it plays out? You no longer have to bear the pressure of the truth, and you no longer have to worry about the responsibilities of the future… Everything is back on track, and eternal liberation and tranquility await us all. Just as the wish you were granted, everyone’s wishes will be granted too…”

The thing spoke weirdly but clearly as it slowly stood up with a broken grin: “I know your heart better than anyone…”

Dante Wayne also slowly stood up. There were no weapons in the dining room, but he always carried a short dagger with him just for these occasions. He gripped the handle and glared ferociously at the grayish figure: “You’re just a hollow shadow of nothingness… What right do you have to judge the heart of humanity?”

“I am the reflection in your soul brought to life by subspace…” The gray figure spread his hands out despite the hostility shown: “Subspace knows everything, including the shallow and ridiculous human heart… Come on, kill me, see what happens. We’ve done this many times already in the past. It doesn’t hurt to try again when things are coming to a close soon…”

But then, the gray shadow’s words ended abruptly at a sudden cluster of dark green flames wrapped around its body. This not only caught the shadow off guard, it also dismayed and shocked Dante across the table.

A harsh howl and a strange whistling sound came simultaneously, and the sharp shockwave instantly shattered the glasses within the dining hall. However, this noise never got transmitted to the outside as the space here had become confined to another dimension. The more the phantom resisted, the more the echo reverberated within these walls. Until…. Until everything started to glow green.

“The Vanished!” These were the last words from the phantom’s mouth before it was extinguished.

Dante Wayne watched it all in awe until a burning pain pierced his own flesh. It’s the inverse effect of having his reflection killed.

He dropped the dagger to the floor and curled up, feeling the intense heat devour his own existence. The pain was soul-wrenching, but he didn’t lose consciousness as his vision caught sight of the spreading flames roaming around his body instead of eating him.

He was confused, rightfully so. However, he’s more confused than ever at the animalistic behavior of a flame. It’s behaving like a predator that had caught something revolting, the revolting thing being him.

Then a wave of intense shock smothered his senses, pulling him into dimming darkness as the consciousness faded away. But before then, he could vaguely hear the exclaiming cry of a maid and many chaotic footsteps running inside the hall.

……

After realizing she’s been caught in something, Vanna calmly searched the empty archive for traces of the priest.

For the first two minutes, she didn’t move anywhere, didn’t rush or try to flee, and didn’t touch anything in her field of vision.

This was to prevent herself from accidentally being polluted by the source of this illusion.

It wasn’t until she confirmed the items in her sight were normal entities and finished shielding her mind that she came to the back of the curved table. There, she decisively reached down and pressed a button under the desk.

That’s the bell to sound the alarm, and it rang with a sharp and deafening harsh ring.

Done, Vanna lowered her head again and stared at the lantern in hand.

The middle-aged priest had disappeared, but the lantern he lent her was still here – radiating a warm glow with that haloing light. Although it was not dark in the archive, the flame that was created with grease still carried the divine properties of repelling evil.

This gave Vanna the confidence to circle around the area again, finding nothing but herself within this building. Finally, her sight fell upon the scattered parts and blood marks left on the table. No one came inside still despite the alarms going off.

Now, the young inquisitor understood why – it’s not the priest who disappeared, it’s herself!

The moment this thought emerged, Vanna felt a veiling curtain finally lifting from her chest. Reality and lies, both versions have now collapsed into one, revealing the truth of what this world truly was – a flaming inferno as far as the eye could see!

And in the raging sea of fire, a thin, scrawny figure holding a black umbrella was standing in the near distance from the lady.

“You…” The umbrella man raised an arm to point at Vanna and spoke hoarsely.

Vanna only listened to one syllable before she took off with her giant broadsword at the foe. The inquisitor did not hesitate in the slightest and swung down with one hand while carrying the lantern in the other. By the time her attack was about to come down, she’s already closed the gap to three meters.

“HERETIC!”