"As I told you before, we are stuck outside our destination reality. For lack of a better term, we are in limbo, stuck in a place outside of time, space, and existence itself," Rias said. "The reason that we haven't become part of this non-existence is this spell…this cocoon."
"Then why try to destroy it?" Orion asked.
"What's dangerous is the transition point," she said. "Now that we are already here, our states are stable, slowly drifting toward our destination. Being in the cocoon matters little now. Being outside will at least give us some freedom of movement."
"Fine, use a blade or something," Orion said, forming a sword between Rias' fingers. "It'll make things quicker."
She paused, looking at her hand and the pitch-black sword that Orion had created. "I'm not naked for once… It's good to have you around, Orion."
"I'm flattered," he said. "Would it comfort you to know that you are still completely naked to me?"
"I was trying to have a moment," she growled. "You damn pervert."
"Pray tell, who was it that introduced herself to me and immediately divested herself of all clothing?" He asked. "Not to mention you stayed naked for an hour and kept swaying those perfect tits of yours in my face before I forced some clothes on you."
"Thanks for the compliment," she smirked. "Brace yourself, this is going to be loud."
Without further ado, Rias stabbed the sword through the cocoon, resuming the deafeningly loud, high-pitched whirring sound. The armor covering Rias immediately disappeared inside her and left her naked. Even the sword's form wavered momentarily before Orion forced himself to stabilize it. Seeing the situation, Rias didn't let hesitation cloud her actions and lowered the sword, cutting through the cocoon's physical manifestation. The whirring immediately magnified to ten times the loudness, making even Rias clasp her ears and grunt in pain.
As for Orion, the sword dissolved completely, falling down in a puddle that separated into multiple different particulates, vibrating violently with the sound. Rias quickly put her hands through the cut she had made and split apart the cocoon's wall, pulling herself out of it.
The whirring abruptly ceased the moment Rias emerged from the cocoon, as Orion instinctively tried to pull the liquified parts of his body back, only to fail.
Great, I'm a discount Symbiote without all of the abilities and all of the weaknesses amplified… I'm already nerfed as is. Couldn't I be afforded some politeness by getting rid of the racial trauma? In the first place, I wasn't even a born symbiote, not to mention this is a completely different reality. Why is Knull's influence fucking me over?
With a frustrated sigh, Orion gave up on trying to pull back the few kilograms of his body mass that had essentially died, leaving things to his natural regeneration. Akeno's disappearance had caused him to lose a lot more mass, and that barely took him a few hours to completely regenerate.
"You okay?" Rias asked, glancing back at the black goop that was covering the floor of the ripped-open cocoon.
[I can't hear you. But, yeah. I'm fine. Loud sounds aren't really my thing.]
"Are you okay with reading my lips? I don't want to exhaust my Demonic Energy by using Telepathy. It's impossible to recover magic in limbo…"
[Don't worry about it.] After the traumatizing experience, Orion forgot about the fact that he had a permanent two-way telepathic connection with Rias. Clearly, so had Rias.
Still, without the painful sound to bother him any longer, Orion chose to emerge from Rias and take up his physical form to examine his surroundings. Only, he realized that he was unable to sense anything and was floating in the middle of nothing.
[Well, this is certainly unsettling… Makes sense, though. A sort of limbo state with no light and no matter. How were we able to see things inside that cocoon? I thought the light was coming in from the outside.]
"Beats me. Maybe the cocoon still maintained certain rules within," Rias said with a shrug as Orion merged back into her. "How are you reading my lips if you can't see either?"
[I can still sense everything about your body. What about air? Don't you need to breathe?]
"Again, beats me. The fact that we are even able to exist while in this place of non-existence is in itself a miracle," she shrugged. "I'm not interested in racking my brain over something I can't hope to understand without decades of tutoring from my reality's Ajuka. And there's no way in hell I'm sharing this spell or my knowledge with any of his variants to dissect."
[You said you've been here before…]
"Once," she said. "This is indicative of the reality I'm about to enter being very stable. Most of them are unstable and already affected by the incursions when I get there, but a few are exceptions. The last time, almost three years ago, I ended up spending a whole year in the same reality. That also allowed me to get stronger without being forced to run around all the time."
[What's the average time you've spent in each reality? Discounting the one you spent a year inside.]
"I don't know, around the same amount of time as the one we just left, two, maybe three weeks if I'm generous," she shrugged. "They all break apart in around a month generally. I leave before that can affect me."
[So what do we do to get into that reality? Do I need to help you regenerate your magic?]
"Last time, I kinda just floated around for a few hours before I was allowed in," she said with a nervous expression. "I don't know how long this time might take."
[Great, so we're completely blind, both physically and metaphorically.]
"At least we're alive, that has to count for something. And you're with me," she said with a smile. "That definitely counts for something."
[Of course, I'm with you. You can die, but you can't get rid of me.]
"Somehow, that's comforting."
[How about I help you recover some of your energy now?]
"Go fuck yourself," she growled. "Just because I'm glad you were able to follow me through the multiverse doesn't mean that I'm suddenly going to let you get into my pants."
[I am your pants, Rias. And you're naked right now.]
"I can't tell the difference anyway," she said. "Plus, as far as I know, your methods only accelerate my natural recovery. At the moment, that's also zero. Plus, I wasn't exactly prepared for this and barely ate enough. If we're stuck here for days, I won't have the calories to continue sustaining myself if you start regenerating me."
[Now, who in the world told you that? Did you see Akeno consuming any of your nutrient solutions when I toyed with her body and enhanced her regeneration?]
"I kinda just assumed she did… Is that not the case? Did you figure out how your ability works?"
[Beats me.]
"Touché," Rias smiled, not seeming frustrated by his lack of answer. "Nothing really requires my energy right now, so we might as well wait here."
Neither of the two said anything as two hours passed with Rias aimlessly floating in the void of nothingness, waiting to enter her destination. Though while she was patient, Orion had little of that to spare.
[Do you have nerves of steel or something? You've been in the equivalent of a sensory deprivation chamber for two hours and haven't so much as said a word.]
"What do you want me to say? I'm built differently. Plus, I know how to calm my mind and meditate."
[I'm seriously doubting that we will just randomly enter the next reality. You sure we don't need to do something?]
"I get that you're getting antsy because there's nothing to do, but try to feel the void around you. I know it sounds contrarian, but the peace and calm it provides is something that you can't get anywhere else," she said.
[Sounds like you just enjoy sensory deprivation.]
"Maybe, I do," she shrugged. "But it doesn't arouse me. Just calms me…"
[I'll let you experience this exact thing, down to the part about floating in zero-gravity, whenever you want. But right now, I'm bored out of my mind.]
"What? Do you want to play a game or something?" She chuckled.
[Since we have the time, you might as well teach me about magic. Even the theoretical stuff would be fine. We're in a void of nothingness for who knows how long. This is the best opportunity we'll get.]
"You're right, I've delayed this enough," she said. "Just know that I'm far from a reliable teacher for you. My knowledge only covers the basics, and I can barely cast any strong spells that don't stem from my innate Power of Destruction using that system."
***
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