Inside of an empty cathedral, a lone figure stood by themselves. Blond hair cascading down their shoulder, with white overalls not fitting of the darkness of the place.
Lighting soared loudly outside that barely lightened the place at random intervals.
It was Rachel, the Saintess of the current era, praying by her lonesome.
Nobody knows what she's praying for, nobody could know.
Sometimes, even she herself doesn't know what she's praying for.
It has been ingrained into her being to pray every moment that allows it.
Even with no burden or worries, she'd pray.
Seemingly done with her prayer, Rachel stood still.
With eyelids covering her pupils from the world's sins, she waited for the door to appear.
It doesn't take long.
Zing
From emptiness to existence, a door formed on seemingly nothing.
Unaffected by this unusual phenomenon, her footsteps echoed. Then, it disappeared.
—
Tap Tap Tap
The sound boots against stone played in a steady rhythm inside of an abandoned castle wall.
A white figure stood out amongst the darkness. Behind her, a grave. In front of her is a familiar face.
It's unsteady, the body's mana signature. Fluctuating with no set pattern as if fighting against a parasite.
Rachel was surprised. This was the second time she met an individual at this place since the final confrontation.
And each time, they were the same people.
'Aria' laid blankly with no sign of consciousness.
The prominent blue hair sprawled around her.
"You're here again." Soon, words began to fill in the silent air.
"Who are you?" She questions the source of her scrutiny.
"Why are you here?" She ponders upon her engraved stories.
"Could you be the child once foretold by the prophecy?" Questions after questions, yet not answers came.
The dark mana is a very prominent trait of this certain canine. She thought that perhaps if the world sent her on a journey to find this specific individual in place of the other billions, she'd easily accomplish it without difficulty.
Extremely unique, yet extremely concerning.
There are some moments in life where being unique in a certain category doesn't bring benefits.
This is no doubt one of those categories.
It was as if she wasn't originally a resident of this world.
Unlike their first meeting, the current Aria wasn't at risk of incurable injuries.
At most, she just needed some mana exchange.
Just like their first encounter, she appeared in the state of needs, failing to dodge misfortune.
Thump Thump
The sound of heartbeat.
Could the owner be the person currently unconscious? Or was it the person praying onto the Lord they've put trust into half their life?
Only the actors of the stage would know.
"I pray once more, to fulfill my duty. Grant me your pity, strip me of my greed, allow this lowly self a glance towards the path woven for the ones chosen by you."
A prayer it was supposed to be. Yet it sounds as if a cult was speaking to their eldritch gods.
But that wouldn't make a difference.
As long as the intent was properly conveyed, even a rat could become the king of the new world.
In this world filled with fictional beliefs, even the most prominent one could be made of lies caused by a predecessor's dark desire.
Even the most just of justice could be made purely for pride.
Even the most humble of the rich could be made purely by greed.
Even the most virtuous of knights could turn their back for glory.
Rachel's beliefs, they were the truest of them all.
Not because she beliefs so, but because it is true.
After all, had god not forsaken her yet? Even at the cost of her own well being, she'd repeat the same action over and over again.
Praying for a better future, a tomorrow that exists purely for the liveliness of the masses.
And this individual she is praying for, [Aria], is the catalyst to make all the flightless dreams come to fruition.
To allow lights to seep through the darkness. To give hope to the population.
Because this is her duty.
And she will never know of her own impact on the world.
Rachel just had a feeling all these meaningless thoughts are true.
After the final sentence of her prayer fell, the world came back to a silence as suffocating as it needed to be.
For a single moment, her eyelids seemed to struggle for freedom.
Constricted by a curse given to her by this world's antagonist.
Only stopped by an outsider, someone who doesn't belong to this world.
But they were brought to this world to bring an end to the tyranny.
Due to that, the [Voice of The World] has bestowed upon them the title, [Deus Ex Machina].
The hero of this era whose sole purpose was the death of the demon king.
A fleeting life with a single goal.
Rachel finds herself lamenting the past, as memories of her journey haunts her dreams.
Perhaps those memories were the cause of the feeling in her chest.
Putting that aside, Aria's condition had visibly become better.
Her mana should not go out of control anytime soon. Unless another scenario arrived in which she was in a situation of life and death, she'd be perfectly fine.
Another question arose, should she or should she not bring her back with her?
She had faced this exact same dilemma last time in which she had to bring her back to town.
But at the time, she had no choice.
Unless the patients had a place where they could comfortably rest, leaving a dying person on the place of the highest death count in humanity's history did not sit well with her.
Surely her party member had sealed off this place in the past, keeping even the dark miasma capable of disaster in check.
Yet this same individual had bypassed it twice, in not even a week.
Perhaps the seal had weakened overtime?
Although it seemed unlikely, she couldn't just push the possibility aside.
Either that or Aria was a special case.
Perhaps her constitution had allowed her to adapt to even the most disastrous of places.
Especially since this place was filled to the brim with cursed energy.
The one last gift by the demon lord, a place in this world that would never be habitable by any other beings.
Of course her eyes were cursed by him too, but that's besides the point.
Knowing how many treasures were left behind inside of this place…
It was just such a shame.
Such a big loss on technological improvements. Perhaps a magical breakthrough could've been made in the past 15 years since his death.
This place is, after all, the Demon Lord's Castle.
The place where the final battle had taken place, out of the world's sight.
"..."
Once again, bad memories came to mind.
Shaking her head to break free of such thoughts, she decided it would be best to bring Aria back to town again.
Although this place had the qualification to be the safest place on this planet, seeing as how no creature could enter this place, it was also the most dangerous due to the same reason.
Just being able to survive the cursed air was a miracle in and of itself.
Thinking back, maybe it wasn't really the dilemma that made her hesitate to bring Aria back.
It could just be her own selfish desire.
'This person feels familiar', 'I know her', 'I want to get closer to her'.
All these stray thoughts that appeared out of nowhere clouded her mind, making her hesitate on making a decisive decision.
Though ultimately, she figured bringing her back would still be a better option.
All of Rachel's thought process happened in a split second.
With a set decision, she casted another magic, one that could lighten the weight of another, making it easier for her to carry Aria back.
—
Eyes fluttered.
I've seen that ceiling twice before.
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
"...Three."
"Correct. It appears your vision was not affected by the side effects of mana transfer."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
Hm, a familiar voice.
After getting used to the lethargic sensation, Aria sat up on her bed, blue hair following her every movement as they were still a mess.
But the owner herself doesn't seem to care about their current behavior.
Looking at the bedside, a familiar robe and face took over her attention.
"...Rachel?"
"Yes?"
"...Nothing."
She couldn't say that she missed her. I mean, didn't she leave just this morning?
Suddenly saying 'I missed you' to a stranger that probably took care of your health, moreover someone that you've barely known for a day, could only be taken weirdly by the other party.
Currently, she could vividly remember what happened before she lost consciousness.
A god damned dragon.
That bastard had toyed around with her.
But thanks to that, she now knows something.
There's a reason she was brought to this world.
If not, she wouldn't have survived the encounter. Could the reason be related to a certain nun?
Specifically the one named Rachel, the one currently nursing her back to health.
She's been saved twice by her now.
Could that be saying something?
"Aria… was it? Your condition was not really that serious, just a few sessions of mana transfer with another person could probably fix it."
"Ah? What does that mean?"
"Your mana has been depleted twice in the span of a few days. Usually, that would be a case that leads to early death. That is the reason why mages always take into account the amount of mana they could use in a day."
Um, too many words.
Did her attention span also become non-existent along with her family jewels?
Well, she did just go through another traumatizing experience, wouldn't be weird if her memories started acting weird.
"Could you please repeat that? Shorten it too please, if possible."
"To summarize my words, you should've died. But that didn't happen."
"...?!"
Wait, she's not serious is she?
"But you appear to be a special case, seeing as to how you're still alive and well at this moment."
Suddenly, the nun placed her palm on Aria's forehead.
"Another thing, our mana is extremely compatible. As I've said, it should've taken a few sessions. To be specific, at least 4 sessions. A person's mana could only be 25% similar to another."
The palm touching her forehead began to become warmer.
"But even then, it would be quite rare to find someone with 25% similarity in mana in this world."
In a moment's notice, Aria's body began feeling rejuvenated.
"But, you only required one session. A session by me."
She could now feel her own body becoming stronger by the second. Although, that was probably due to the fact that she was already weaker than normal when she woke up.
"Because our mana compatibility is 100%."
"...Is that so?"
"It is so."
"So that's supposed to be rare?"
"Not just rare, it's unprecedented. Even a child could only replicate around 30% of their parent's mana."
Then why is your face still blank? Shouldn't you at least show some emotion?
"Did you do the same thing during my first visit, too?"
"Yes, but since you did not appear to be curious about them, I've kept the knowledge to myself the whole time."
Then she took away her palm.
"Of course I did not tell anyone about them, you can be rest assured."
The canine doesn't know whether to feel relieved or weirded out by this revelation…
Since she did not understand a tad bit of the topic being told.
Because of that, she just smiled.
"In that case, thank you very much."
Of course, she was truly grateful to her. She did save her asses twice after all.