A Crack in the Door

She knelt on the ground, her gaze blank as it swept over the glass shards scattered before her. A stifling sensation filled her chest, and she instinctively clutched her heart.

“Ming Yu, is that you…?” Little Nightingale whispered, her faint voice echoing in the silent room.

As always, her inquiry met with no response. Yet, instead of despairing, she steadied her mind, intent on locating the source of the unsettling feeling that had gripped her.

Little Nightingale bit her lip, steadily expanding the reach of her spirit vision, all while silently enduring the mounting mental strain.

When her psychic domain finally enveloped the entire bedroom, its range refused to expand further, no matter how much power she exerted. It was as if an invisible door blocked her, preventing her from reaching beyond.

Little Nightingale attempted to use her psychic hand to knock on the portal, but despite her efforts, the door showed no signs of opening. From beyond it, a strange sound of surging waves and sharp hisses emanated, inexplicably.

Her heart immediately plummeted.

As Little Nightingale understood it, two-way telepathy could, to a certain extent, transcend the barriers of time and space, allowing for the communication of thoughts. Her intuition told her that Ming Yu was likely just beyond that portal.

“Ming Yu, is that you…?”

“If it is, could you let me see you…?”

“I have so much I want to tell you…”

“Ming Yu…”

“…”

Still, no response came from beyond the door.

Little Nightingale’s eyes began to redden, and the emotional turmoil within her intensified. Scenes from her past with Ming Yu flashed through her mind.

****

“Hello, Little Nightingale, I’m Ming Yu, a friend of your father—Viktor Lawrence.”

“Viktor has gone to a very distant place, so before he left, he entrusted me with your care…”

****

“Little Nightingale, the things in your hand are called chopsticks. I don’t know if you’ve used them before… It’s fine if you haven’t; I can teach you.”

“I’ll teach you how to use chopsticks to pick up food.”

****

“A kitten, for you.”

“Give her a name.”

****

“Some things, how will you know unless you try?”

“Luna, if one day I disappear, then Little Nightingale will be in your care.”

****

An unprecedented sense of frustration coiled in Little Nightingale’s heart.

She could feel it: her power was just a hair’s breadth away, almost enough to force open the tightly sealed portal.

The blood vessels in her eyes grew denser, her chest rose and fell more violently, and a faint flush spread across her pale skin.

Unbeknownst to her, a shadowy figure, cloaked in white robes with an indistinct, dark face, materialized behind her. It stood overlooking the girl who was nearing her limits.

The spectral white-robed figure subtly nodded, then slowly raised one sleeve. Its empty cuff pointed towards the non-existent portal within Little Nightingale’s psychic perception.

In Little Nightingale’s perception, it felt as if a tremendous force was aiding her, guiding her to push with all her might against the unyielding portal.

CRACK—

The portal opened with a resounding crack.

Filled with an inexpressible surge of excitement, Little Nightingale guided her consciousness-form to slowly step through the portal, eagerly anticipating her reunion with Ming Yu.

However, the moment she arrived, the world beyond the portal suddenly erupted into chaos. The boundless ocean churned with monstrous waves, and a terrifying serpent burst forth from the depths, aiming its fangs directly at Little Nightingale, who hung suspended in mid-air.

HISS—

In that instant, the threat of death swiftly closed in, leaving Little Nightingale, who had never witnessed such a sight, frozen. Her face abruptly drained of color.

Just as the fangs were about to pierce her consciousness-form, Little Nightingale barely snapped back to reality. She attempted to activate her psychic energy for protection, but suddenly realized her power had been nearly depleted and couldn’t be instantly replenished.

In a flash, just as she fearfully closed her eyes, a gust of wind swept past her ear. An impact from the side jolted her body, pulling her away from her spot.

The fangs missed their mark once more.

Little Nightingale slowly opened her eyes, her expression instantly frozen. Her gaze trembled slightly, and a torrent of emotions brewed within their depths.

Above the mental ocean, Ming Yu stood in the void, gazing in astonishment at the girl in her arms, utterly bewildered.

“Little Nightingale?” she asked, her voice tentative.

What exactly was happening? How could Little Nightingale be here? What the hell? Where was this place?

Though Ming Yu harbored a multitude of unanswered questions, there was no time to ponder them now. Dealing with Jörmungaṇḍr was the immediate priority.

After being impaled by the giant serpent’s phantom, Ming Yu had inexplicably found herself in this place, continuing her desperate struggle against Jörmungaṇḍr. In this realm, the effects of the gene serum seemed inert. Her power level, along with Jörmungaṇḍr’s, hadn’t been distanced by gene enhancement.

Unlike the real world, this place seemed to respond to her thoughts; even soaring through the air was merely a thought away. These strange circumstances filled Ming Yu with an inexplicable unease.

However, focused entirely on the present, she didn’t immediately notice the misty tears welling in Little Nightingale’s eyes. Her gaze instead fixed on the menacing serpent lurking in the distance.

Little Nightingale gazed raptly at the exquisite profile before her. Seeing this face again after twenty-one days, a flood of words caught in her throat, leaving her utterly speechless. Her hazy gaze never left those blood-red eyes.

These eyes, for her, brought not a hint of fear, but only a profound, flowing tenderness.

Moments of tenderness were always fleeting. She longed to stay longer in Ming Yu’s embrace, but now she had to help Ming Yu overcome this crisis first and break free as quickly as possible.

Although she didn’t know exactly what had happened, Little Nightingale could still surmise that Ming Yu was in danger. She suppressed the excitement in her heart, reluctantly shifting her gaze away to survey her surroundings.

If her assumptions were correct, this was Ming Yu’s consciousness space, and both the giant serpent and she were intruders. It seemed then that Ming Yu had likely encountered the giant serpent’s psychic attack, her consciousness trapped here and temporarily unable to control her physical body in the real world.

Although the flow of time in the mental world was far slower than in the real world, no one knew what changes might occur in the outside world once even this brief moment passed.

“Sister Ming Yu, I’ll help you…”

Little Nightingale suddenly reached up and hooked her arms around Ming Yu’s neck, leaning close to her ear, and whispered softly,

“This is a world of fantasy,” she murmured. “Everything here is a servant of will. You can imagine anything you desire…”

Ming Yu dodged Jörmungaṇḍr’s lunge and retaliated with a claw strike. Yet, for the colossal serpent, it was merely a superficial scratch, neither painful nor bothersome.

“Little Nightingale, do you know what’s happening here?”

After creating some distance, she looked at Little Nightingale in her arms, her face etched with confusion.

Hearing this, Little Nightingale gave a slight nod, then raised a hand. Before Ming Yu’s eyes, she conjured a white kitten from thin air.

“Sister Ming Yu, I can only manage this much,” she explained. “But you are different, because this is your mental world…”

As she spoke, the ‘Luna’ in Little Nightingale’s hand suddenly dissolved into shimmering motes of light.

Upon seeing this, Ming Yu subtly furrowed her brow and nodded thoughtfully, quickly grasping the essence of Little Nightingale’s message.

‘Fantasy…’

She experimented with Little Nightingale’s concept of ‘fantasy,’ picturing her desired object in her mind. With a calm and focused spirit, she raised her hand and made a grasping motion.

In the void, a crimson longblade materialized with a distinct presence.

Upon seeing this, Ming Yu arched a brow and lifted her gaze, a faint, knowing smile playing on her lips as she looked towards Jörmungaṇḍr.

The next moment, the two-meter-long thermal cutting blade abruptly transformed, becoming a colossal forty-meter-long ship-cleaving greatsword.