Chapter 120: Research and Parallel Dimensions
Iron Fortress, "Succubus Dreams."
The threshold of the shop was nearly worn smooth by the sheer volume of foot traffic. Scarlett stood behind the counter, her ears ringing with a constant cacophony. The queue outside stretched from one end of the Commercial District to the other, rounded a corner, and still showed no sign of ending.
They were all succubi.
They came from every shadowed corner of the continent—refugees from dingy back alleys and remote, fearful villages where they had barely survived through layers of deception and disguise. Now, word had spread of an Empire ruled by an Undead Monarch where their kind could walk openly in the sunlight, protected by law.
Scarlett shouted until her throat was raw. "Form a line! One at a time! If you're new, head to the Logistics Bureau first to register your residency!"
A timid-looking young succubus nervously handed over her identification. "Chairwoman... is it true? Can we really live here?"
"Of course." Scarlett took the tag, giving it a cursory glance. "But follow the rules. You are Residents now, not Citizens. Pay your residency fees on time, or the Punishment Legion will personally toss you out."
In the current Evernight Empire, the ratio was stark: roughly only one in ten residents managed to secure full Citizenship.
"And another thing!" Scarlett slammed a pamphlet onto the counter. "No private solicitations during work hours! No inserting personal agendas into a client's dream! Read the Employee Handbook. Memorize it!"
In the corner, Kula was hunched over a chest overflowing with copper and silver, whispering like a crazed cultist. "Roasted chicken... so much chicken... honey-glazed thighs... herb-crusted wings..."
Beneath the counter, Mona was curled around a pillow, snoring loudly, a puddle of drool forming on the floorboards.
Danica walked up to Scarlett, whispering, "There are too many. We don't need this many staff members in one shop. Besides, a Skeleton Guard from the Punishment Legion just stopped by. He said we're causing a massive traffic jam in the district. That's the second verbal warning this morning."
Scarlett massaged her temples, flipping through her ledger. She looked at the crowd of "hungry" kin outside, then slammed her palm on the desk.
"I've got it!"
"Got what? Lunch?" Kula's ears perked up instantly, her eyes gleaming as she looked up from the mountain of coins.
Scarlett ignored her, yanking a crude map of the Empire from the wall. Her finger traced the borders. "The Evernight Empire isn't just Iron Fortress!" Confidence surged in her voice. "Sisters, we cannot limit our vision to one city! Every new recruit who passes the evaluation will be dispatched! Jade Territory, Leaf City... you will go forth and establish branch offices of Succubus Dreams!"
The Valley Base, Arcane Legion Laboratory.
Skele-Avarice and Skele-Lust were currently locked in a heated debate, hovering over a brand-new, experimental teleportation array.
"Impossible! The theoretical foundation of Reverse-Spacetime is fundamentally flawed!" Avarice tapped his skull with a bony finger, his Soul Fire pulsing with irritation. "Every calculation results in an infinite variable! It's a dead end!"
Lust, currently maintaining her 'Human Girl' form, countered with her hands on her hips. "That's because you view Time as a straight line! Why can't it be a plane? A solid? We don't need to 'travel back'—we only need to fold! We identify the coordinate of the past and fold the current space until the points touch!"
To illustrate her point, she snapped her fingers. A translucent sheet of Mana appeared, representing the fabric of space. One end was labeled Now, the other Then. An invisible force bent the sheet until the two labels were pressed together.
"See? Simple!"
"General, you've lost your mind!!" Avarice roared, waving a hand to dispel the illusion. "That would shred the entire spatial structure of the continent! Forget the past—you'd compress the present into a non-existent singularity!"
Just then, the door creaked open. Kaito walked in.
Kaito was in a remarkably good mood. After a morning of unsuccessful fishing, he'd wandered over to the gacha stall in the plaza. He'd decided to do a single pull just to test the air.
And he'd hit the jackpot.
A [Limited Edition Skele-Pride Statue].
Kaito was currently cradling the rare trophy with both hands, admiring the craftsmanship from every angle as he walked.
"How's the research coming along?" Kaito asked, his voice light with expectation. He intended to leave the statue in the lab to see if its presence would grant his hardworking "children" a bit of his luck.
The argument between the two Liches died instantly. They turned in unison, seeing Kaito—and then seeing the massive, uncontrolled array behind him that was beginning to fluctuate with wild colors.
"NOT GOOD!"
"MASTER, GET BACK!"
Their voices merged in a frantic, panicked scream.
"Get back?" Kaito blinked.
A ripple of energy—silent and invisible—erupted from the center of the malfunctioning array. There was no wind. No sound.
Kaito felt the weight in his hands vanish.
He looked down. The Skele-Pride statue he had worked so hard to pull was... dissolving. From the edges inward, it was turning into microscopic particles of dust. The particles hovered for a heartbeat before vanishing into the void.
Kaito stared at his empty hands. The statue was gone.
The invisible pulse swept through the rest of the lab. Magical runes on the walls, ceiling, and floor—meant to stabilize space and provide power—flickered violently and then snuffed out one by one.
Silence returned to the room. Total, graveyard silence.
Avarice and Lust stood like frozen statues, daring not to vibrate a single rib. Kaito slowly lifted his head. He looked at his two paralyzed subordinates. Then, his gaze drifted back to his empty palms.
"My statue," Kaito said. His voice was flat. Terribly, horribly flat.
Avarice's jaw clicked and rattled; he wanted to offer an explanation, but his mind was a void. Seeing the Lich's pathetic state, the flicker of Kaito's anger vanished as quickly as it had come. He let out a long, weary sigh and waved a hand.
"Whatever. It was just a toy."
"Tell me about the progress."
Lust took a step forward, offering a deep, repentant bow. "Master... we failed. We have discovered that 'returning to the past' within our own timeline is a physical impossibility. Time possesses a... self-correcting defense. Any attempt to reverse it is erased by the universe itself. Just like your statue."
"So," Kaito summarized, "your conclusion is: it can't be done?"
"Not entirely," Avarice added, eager to redeem himself. "While we cannot go back in our past, we discovered a different possibility. The energy from the failure wasn't deleted; it was repelled. It was pushed into a dimension we cannot normally observe."
"Based on the Law of Conservation of Od," Lust continued, her voice rising with excitement, "we believe the backlash opened a corridor... a gateway to a Parallel World. A world very similar to ours, but with a completely different flow of causality."
The two Liches began to finish each other's sentences, their enthusiasm building. They felt as though they had just unlocked the ultimate secret of the multiverse.
Kaito watched his two "mad scientists" vibrate with excitement. He thought for a moment, his mind already drifting elsewhere.
I think I'll try the river again. Maybe the fish will bite now.
"Carry on then," Kaito murmured.
He turned and walked out of the lab, leaving the two eccentric Liches to their multidimensional madness. He had a river to stock.
☆☆☆
-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!
-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)
If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you