"Haha…" Omar gave a slight chuckle once more. He seemed to be really enjoying the scene.
"Now that I think about it, it's not just your face. Your body also looks excellent." Omar said as he looked Astra up and down.
Astra's face immediately contorted in disgust, but she controlled herself. Her face hadn't changed in expression much.
Omar didn't care. He continued, "Wait, how about this. We can go out together, get some drinks and have some fun. After that, we can adopt that child together." Omar said with the grin on his face getting larger.
"…" Astra gave no reaction.
As if he didn't notice Astra's complete disinterest, the man said, "How about it? Then Anna can be our child. Finally, I wouldn't have to be so lonely raising her. But first, I'll have to punish her. I hope you don't mind my methods of discipline."
"Why are you disciplining her?" Astra probed with a strange question. She knew he wouldn't reject this invitation.
"Heh, I'm glad you asked. I don't know if she told you this, but…" Omar began speaking, but in a more arrogant tone.
"She had a plan to escape using that Dreamscape Artifact. Even if it's a low level one, she should've been smarter than that. She thought everything was going according to plan…"
"But I had intercepted that plan with a plan of my own. This is one of my methods of disciplining her…"
"But I'll discipline her some more later. She should know that I know her more than anyone else, and I taught her to be smarter than that. She should know that I would be able to see through her acting."
The one who said these things were not Omar, but they were Astra.
She said these things with her hands in her pockets, holding a relaxed stance.
She had also said these words in the same staccato.
Omar's smile immediately left his face upon hearing Astra say these words.
His mouth was agape, and his eyes widened.
Astra gave a smug grin as she said with a tone of a charlatan, "I'm quite a strange person. You should know that due to the fact that I live with 'her'. You should know that there's no such thing as a coincidence. And…"
Astra had a smug grin as she continued, "Hehe. You should know that you're smarter than that."
Suddenly, her expression turned serious. "Anna is a human, not an object that you can just do whatever you want with."
"She has a life that you took from her."
"But tonight will be the night where she will become somebody."
Omar stayed stunned, but only for a second.
…
"I just want to feel human…"
The moment I had said that, the entire world around me had faded to darkness.
Sob…sob…sob…
And in that instant, I heard the faint cries of what appeared to be a teenage girl.
I walked closer and closer to the source. The closer I got, the fainter the cries sounded.
When I approached her, I saw her figure outlined clearly. At this point, the cries had completely stopped. Her expression was downtrodden, and she was staring down at the ground, staring down at the darkness.
I still could've seen her face slightly. It was uncannily pretty. She had long, brown hair covering her face, making her eyes only slightly visible. Her eyes were blue, but they appeared lifeless. Strangely enough, the rest of her body wasn't visible.
It was as if the darkness had completely taken it away.
"Why did you stop crying?" I asked.
"I don't like people, or anyone for that matter, seeing me cry." She replied in a dead tone.
"Then, who are you?" I continued to ask. "Why is your body gone?"
"I can say the same about you. What happened to your body? Why are there cracks on it? Why is there grey mist coming out of it?"
"What?" I replied as my mouth opened in surprise. I then looked all over my body.
My body had shown large, light purple cracks all over. It appeared as if my skin was 'thirsty', as it looked parched like the desert.
Not only that, grey mist was coming out of the cracks!
This…is this the side effects of the orb? Why is this happening…? Damnit, I should've known something like this would've happened. I didn't expect Ethereon to affect my body so quickly…! The good thing is that I don't feel any pain…
I saw my body beginning to crumble as I heard the lifeless voice yet again.
"You just had to be selfish. You just had to want to escape. Now because of you, both of us will die. And it will be because of that artifact."
"How am I being selfish by wanting to feel like an actual human being? Do you hear yourself?" I couldn't contain my anger as my voice rose.
"How do you know what it feels like to be a human?" The girl responded bluntly.
"…" I was taken aback by this question.
I had never felt like I was human, so how do I know how it feels like…
I hesitated slightly before I came up with a response.
"…Through the books I've read. The videos I've watched. I've seen children play with their families, their friends."
"I have seen people eat and drink with a genuine smile on their faces."
"I have seen them be sad because they got rejected by someone they like, and I've seen the ecstasy they have when they go out with they get into a relationship."
"I've seen the happiness they show when they go out with their friends."
"Isn't that what it feels like to be a human?"
"…" The girl hesitated for a bit. She looked up towards me, in an extremely eerie manner. It was very creepy.
"Maybe if you'd have just stayed, then you could've experienced that at some point." The girl's mouth moved slowly as her voice reverberated throughout the darkness.
"But you didn't, so now we both will die."
What?
Immediately, my eyebrows creased in anger. I didn't want to hear this person any longer. I was beginning to hate this person. I didn't even care why I was here or how I got here.
"Why are you like this? Who even are you?" I had to ask again.
"I am you." The girl's mouth didn't move at all this time. It was as if her lips were glued shut.
"Me…?" I froze. I couldn't believe her words.
"Yes. I am your subconscious. I gave you those powers. And due to your desire to become someone who you're not, we will lose sense of ourselves and die."
Gave me those powers…? What…
"…What do you mean?"
"I don't know what I mean either. After all, I am you."
"But, this is the truth."
"The good thing is that at least we will die wanting to become a human."
The instant the girl said that, another female voice rang from the darkness.
It sounded almost ethereal.
"Anna is a human…"
"Huh?" For the first time, the girl had took on a shocked expression. Her mouth had finally moved.
"Is that Miss Astra…?" I proceeded to ask myself as I began to look around. I was wondering where this voice came from.
"She has a life that you took from her…" The voice sounded again!
Cracks began forming inside of the darkness. As it did, the girl in front of me—who had a shocked expression—couldn't help but stare at the cracks.
"Your body is turning back to normal…" The girl suddenly said.
Is that so…?
To verify this, I immediately began to look all around my body. I saw that the cracks were beginning to fill themselves up. As a result of this, the grey mist stopped coming from my body.
I sighed as I felt a sense of relief rush through me!
Then, I heard that lifeless voice speak again.
"But it seems like my body is still like this." The girl said as she looked down at herself, similar to how she looked down as I first came in this space.
I didn't know what to respond with, so I stayed silent.
But, seeing this girl who claimed to be me look at her nonexistent body with those eyes…
It made me have a strange, indescribable feeling.
Then, another voice rang out. However, instead of it being from the girl in front of me, it was from the darkness.
"But tonight will be the night she will become somebody." Miss Astra's voice reverberated through the darkness again. But this time, it was even louder.
The cracks in the darkness began to become larger and larger, and it seemed as if I was slowly beginning to come back to reality.
"I guess we will continue to live on, the girl who has no name."
"…" I didn't have anything to respond with. I saw the darkness and the girl…
No. I saw the darkness and Anna beginning to dissipate as it seemed as if I was fading back into reality.
Sigh…
…
"Perfect…that really was exactly what he was thinking." Astra stared at Omar's stunned expression with a seemingly arrogant smile.
After she had composed herself and thought things through, she had came up with a way to get out of this situation.
And in Astra's mind, the safest way to do so is to find a way to contact Kayla without him noticing!
She knew that if she trying anything obviously sneaky, like putting her hands into her pockets, she would easily be found out. And since this man likely knows about Kayla, it was obvious what such a gesture meant.
So, she had to find a way to divert his attention. And to do this, she decided the easiest way to do this was to read his thoughts—to show him that shes fully aware of her situation!
This would be especially effective since this man doesn't consider her someone special!
As for how she read his thoughts, it was quite easy for her to do so. She only needed a situation where he would explain his plan to trap Anna to her, as a way to make both of her and Anna go into more despair.
However, his plan was quite simple to see through, knowing the information that Astra knew.
First, she had knew that everything was a little too convenient for Anna. Even if she had prepared for a year, stealing an artifact from a well organized gang like this seemed too good to be true. It's very likely that the series of events that allowed Anna to escape was orchestrated by this man, or at the very least they were allowed by him. As for why, it's likely to destroy her desire to escape for good.
Second, she knew that it was a little weird how her 'guardian' of all people would personally come at a time like this. Especially when Anna had done measures to got the lackeys off of her tail. Even though there was obvious risk involved with trusting her, this man specifically finding her and Anna was too much of a coincidence.
Third, she knew that this man was talking too much. If he simply wanted Anna, he would've attempted to take care of the situation immediately. It was obvious he wanted to make Anna fall deeper in despair after arriving, and it was to show her that her actions were controlled.
As for why he wanted Anna to fall into despair, Astra guessed that it had something to do with being able to controlling his powers of Ethereon.
Thus, once Astra had figured this out, it wasn't hard for her to read his thoughts exactly and predict what he would do next. Of course, for certain words like 'Dreamscape Artifact', she had to guess the name of such things. Along with this, judging by the fact that Anna wasn't powerful at all even after using the object, Astra knew that it was low level. Even if it wasn't, it only implicates her 'status' as someone who knows Kayla.
With that being said, Astra had come to one conclusion:
This man was quite predictable. So predictable that he fell exactly into her trap! One that she thought had a more than 90% success rate! Once it did succeed, they were almost guaranteed to leave. This man might leave out of fear, or once they start fighting, she'd just have to wait for Kayla inevitably came.
Ultimately, however, Astra Sera had wanted to wipe that smug smile off his face the most. One could say that it was one of her primary motivations going ahead with such a strategy.
And by doing so, not only would it have helped her, it could've also helped Anna's psyche.
After all, helping Anna was her primary motivation!
"…You were stalling?" Omar asked, his eyebrows creasing in what appeared to be anger.
"…" Astra didn't respond, but continued to smile at him arrogantly.
"You…ha." Omar began to laugh as he facepalmed.
"I thought you were just some normal b*tch! But it seems like I actually fell into your trap!" Omar stopped laughing as he finally began to catch on.
"Huh…?" Anna finally came back to reality as she heard Omar's words. However, she was instinctually shaking due to anxiety and fatigue. Her body felt as if she had just finished running from someone chasing her.
"She made him fall into a trap? What's the trap?"
Anna couldn't help but move to the side slightly to look up at Astra's face.
She saw that she had a strange, almost arrogant smile. It was unlike what she saw from her before.
"What happened…?"
"She clearly has no Ethereon. Is she a mutant? A puppet perhaps, maybe a puppet that can read my mind? No…there shouldn't be any Sentience users here. From what I see, and what I know, shes just some random woman that happens to live with that…thing. How did she know my plan exactly? There's no way that girl over there told her. That thing that she lives with couldn't have told her either," Omar's mind raced as he tried to make sense of what was going on.
Outwardly, he still held a smile. But it was faint and unlike what he was showing before.
"Besides, my instincts don't tell me that she's anything special. Who exactly is she…?"
Anna stopped looking at Astra and slowly began looking at the man called Omar.
It didn't appear as if he was smiling anymore. It seemed like he was trying his best to conceal his anger and frustration.
Anna wanted to tell Astra that they must leave now, but she realized that it was impossible. The invisible wall preventing them from coming out of the corridor was still there.
In that instant, she saw Omar beginning to move.
Omar took his hand from his face and placed held his hand out towards Astra and Anna. His palm was facing them, as if he was going to shoot something from it.
"Is he-?" Instinctively, both Astra and Anna thought at the same time as their eyes widened.
Omar sighed as he began to say in his head.
"…It doesn't matter who she is."
"She definitely contacted that thing. I can't have any regrets now."
"Running away isn't an option, not when I'm facing two women. Plus, there's a chance they might follow me. Which is even worse. Men can't be chased by women."
"I have to kill this lady and get Anna back now."
"It's a shame that I have to kill the most beautiful girl I've seen the moment I met her." Omar said with an apathetic tone and expression.
"A shame indeed…."
A light, transparent yellow circle began to appear on his palm, and it soon expanded.
It had many strange symbols on it that seemed to contain an immense amount of knowledge.
It illuminated its surroundings faintly as it rotated itself clockwise.
"So he went with that option…I don't need to be from this planet to know what that means!" Astra hurriedly thought as she prepared to grab Anna to move out of the way.
Anna naturally began to have the thought to move out of the way also, but her thoughts were too slow.
Vwoom…
The beam of light crossed the corridor at great speeds as it headed towards the way of the two ladies. This produced a slight ringing sound in Astra's ears.
Luckily for her, she had already grabbed Anna and moved to a side of the corridor.
Boom!
It had crashed and exploded, into the invisible wall that Omar himself had set up. It had left behind faint, illusory cracks on the wall.
It had also left behind an illusory white 'smoke' of light, leaving Anna blinded for a moment!
Astra wasn't affected as badly, since her eyes were enhanced in more ways than one.
Immediately, Omar emerged from the white smoke as he cocked his fist back, preparing to throw a punch. Circling his fists were the same light yellow symbols from earlier that seemed to contain an immense amount of knowledge.
Crash!
Astra immediately moved her head to the side as Omar's fist struck where her head once was, leaving behind a small crater.
Pow!
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Astra immediately exerted her strength to kick him in the side, causing him to fly back a couple meters.
Astra didn't waste this opportunity. She immediately let go of Anna who looked dumbfounded. Anna had looked like she hadn't processed what had just transpired.
"Anna, stay here. I'll try to find an opportunity to destroy that wall using his powers. Try and use illusions from your powers of Dreams to hide yourself if you can." Astra said hurriedly and in a normal tone while facing Omar.
"…Okay. I'll try." Anna didn't object. She didn't want to be a burden for this lady who was protecting her from this dangerous man. She quickly closed her eyes as she tried to focus her subconscious.
But by this time, Omar had already gotten up. This was because Omar had already intercepted Astra's attack and protected his side with an invisible shield of energy. Because of this, he was barely even hurt.
He was now preparing to send another beam of energy.
"As expected, she's strong. And she's not using any Ethereon also. She's definitely a mutant…"