Somewhere in this sea, a white room with closed windows was hovering three inches over the foggy surface.
This sea and the white room were the projection of Kai's consciousness; a feat he only achieved by bringing his Correspondence to 20.
Today, the walls of this white room were bleeding, blood seeping from the cracks and corners and dripping into the sea in an unending stream.
Inside the white room, Kai was seated on the floor cross-legged.
This figure represented Kai's focus and comprehension while controlling the physical body.
In this state, Kai's mind was divided into three parts.
This was not as simple as doing three tasks at once, but it bordered on genuine separation.
In this state, Kai was at his best and also at his worst, his thoughts dangerous and deeper than ever.
The first his mind was controlling Darcie's physical body and its reactions and responses.
The second part was controlling and processing thoughts from Darcie's perspective.
The third part was entirely dedicated to the countless nudges.
It was these nudges that controlled Kai's advancement in Comprehending the True Essence of Facelessness, for they were the most… treacherous.
This third part not only bore the greatest pressure but also resonated with the other two minds, coordinating with them to Act like Darcie, even though from both body and mind the little girl was no one but Kai himself.
The destruction of this third part would also mean the annihilation of Kai's Comprehension, along with the thorough eradication of Kai's mind.
Now, this projection of Kai's comprehending state, this meditating figure, was full of cracks.
…
Kai's long white hair, brushing the floor underneath, was sodden with blood.
His ears were bleeding, his eyelids were pressed hard in a frown, and blood was also seeping out from the corner of his closed eyes.
From his clenched teeth, a heart-palpitating noise of grinding and shattering was reverberating.
And, with a cough, several mouthfuls of blood came pouring out, intermingling with the bleeding floor.
Even his body was cracking apart bit by bit.
Hairline cracks were running from his chest to abdomen, from shoulders to wrists, and from forehead to chin.
Kai was on the verge of losing everything.
Before today, he had never come so close to failing his Comprehension, even though there had been some shocking events that had jolted his meditating projection in this white room.
Today, everything had been toppled upside-down for him.
It had started in the morning, with the thing Kai had been waiting for a long time; the Nod.
He knew this was the day when things would truly start to pick up the pace, letting Darcie run amok instead of binding her true potential.
Yet, when he had reached the so-called Hall of Portkeys, which just seemed to have popped out of nowhere, he knew something had gone wrong.
Terribly wrong!
Even then, the second part of Kai's mind had not worried much.
It was then the first crack had surfaced on his forehead; a blow worthy enough to be dealt by the legend of Excalibur.
Even in his dreams, Kai had never imagined that things would take such a turn this morning, making him see this legendary weapon.
One must not forget that Darcie Malfoy's magical prowess was as grand as other major characters like Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione; or a touch even greater, perhaps.
For even her to feel stifled under the might of this supposed portkey signified how powerful this legendary sword was.
Not to mention, the sheer shock, controlling the reactions and responses, and giving out apt replies and expressions, had brought out the first taste of blood in Kai's mouth; sweet and sad; full of terrors.
It wasn't like this projection of Kai's Comprehension hadn't been injured before. It had.
However, in those times, Kai always got a breather to calm his state down, healing the cracks as soon as they surfaced.
Today, this bloody taste in his mouth was just a start, a cruel beginning to the most incomprehensible series of events.
The second, and one of the longest and the deepest, crack on his body hadn't surfaced because of him seeing the divine land for the first time.
Nor had it surfaced because of him seeing the uncountable magical creatures.
It had happened when the Veela approached Darcie.
The first and second parts of Kai's mind remained in a constant state of alert for Notifications, which even Kai's Reincarnation couldn't stop from popping up in front of Darcie's eyes.; even though she wasn't a Contestant.
The Glitch!
Blood Devour had never failed to let Kai know about the presence of a magical creature near Darcie, appearing and vanishing, and seemingly in a constant state of trying to break his Comprehension.
Like the house-elf, Dobby, when the Veela had approached Darcie, Kai was prepared to ignore the Glitch Notification, with all the parts of his mind focused on this task as one.
This was necessary, as this Glitch notification was the only thing that directly linked Kai to the Systems and differentiated his true self behind the curtains from his Reincarnation, Darcie Malfoy.
When such times came, Kai could not afford even the faintest hint of risk.
No notification appeared, though.
Not a hint of it.
Nothing.
Imagine the stairs in your home, which you have already used thousands of times to go up and down, imprinting it in your heart and making it a part of muscle memory.
What would happen if one day you were going down the stairs absentmindedly, and a few steps disappeared?
This was not a feeling anyone could resist, no matter how much heaven-defying one was to be.
The very heart surged to rest at the throat at these times, leaving behind an abysmal empty feeling in the stomach.
Something like this also happened to Kai, but on a much grander and heinous scale.
However, this was only the second crack of today.
Kai's instincts were sharp to an unparalleled degree, and it wasn't like he could shut them off while Acting the part of Darcie.
Knowing the true name of the place they had come to, seeing the Phoenix and feeling its inexhaustible powers and might with his instincts, and then standing near the divine existence of the white Qilin, all gifted a crack of their own to Kai.
Glitch had not responded even then.
What came next was a period of unmatched struggle that Kai would not forget for ages to come.
Six existences to shake the world; Six reasons to break the Comprehension.
How could things turn out to be like that?! Where did this Order come from?! These existences, these monsters, how could they be in the world of Harry Potter?!!
Any of those Six could search Darcie's mind on the spot, finding the truth about Kai's reincarnation.
This thought itself had made him cough out several mouthfuls of blood.
Till now, Kai had been relying on the name Malfoy, Darcie's age and status, and the minister of magic to not let anyone try something that stupid.
What reason could Darcie give them against doing so?!!!
Kai had not forgotten that this world was unique among the most unique timelines, to begin with.
In this world, there was a major character on par with the main characters, but not a part of the original storyline — Darcie Malfoy.
Meg had already told him that her very existence signified tremendous changes to the original timeline.
Still, Kai had never imagined the existence of an Order of this scale, with these figures, even with his brilliant mind.
This all was just mind-boggling. Not to mention, it all happened just too suddenly, like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky.
There was an even more terrifying question that lingered at the back of Kai's mind, making his blood surge and his skin crack.
Was this Order of the Immortal Lotus a part of the infinite magical Random Worlds of Harry Potter?
Because, as those figures kept speaking and explaining to Darcie, every single thing spoken by them and every single justification given by them had just fit too perfectly in the original storyline.
It was as if this Order had always been here, in these infinite Random Worlds, unknown to all but a few, controlling the world from shadows.
The only thing that paused the ultimate destruction of Kai's Comprehension by learning such shocking truths was this Order's motto — Not to meddle with the Present.
The Order's belief in Inaction meant it was as giant an opportunity for Kai as horrendous a risk it was.
What he needed after that meeting was time to process everything with a free mind, putting all things in order.
Alas! Abdul Alhazred's suggestion had struck Kai's mind like a whip on the bare back.
Darcie was but a child. Even though she was magnificent in studying and in her ambitions, how could she have known the terror behind that suggestion?
In light of this, Kai had not nudged her to think of the underlying meaning of the following words.
Let Darcie take a magical creature with her, they had suggested, with the most casual tone.
Only someone like Kai, who had played this cunning and underhanded game before, could figure out the hidden meaning behind these words.
At that moment, Kai had come to realize that this was the most significant part of today's meeting, otherwise why brought it up like that, in such a carefree manner?
Then there was the fact that his Glitch didn't work on these magical creatures, making them inherently special.
Not to mention, Merlin had even taken special care to mention that a Phoenix had taken an instant liking to Dumbledore.
So, Kai had indeed realized, with the help of his experiences and his instincts, that a failure in getting chosen by a magical creature today meant the failure of Darcie's candidacy to Indigo Seat as well, regardless of the meeting and the Six's praises.
These were monsters; ancient wizards and witches with horrifying powers.
If they were to accept just any brilliant individual so casually, then this Order wouldn't have survived and remained hidden for so long.
There was something more to this ritual of choosing a magical creature, a meaningful secret hidden behind the veil of pretenses, calling it a matter of fate.
This realization in itself had made Kai's brain explode, his ears bleed, and his teeth shatter.
So, for the first time, Kai nudged Darcie with all his monstrous concentration to not return without a result, hiding this nudge under the veil of stubbornness.
The consequences of this nudge were quite threatening, to say the least.
It meant that Darcie would have to show her buried humane feelings and emotions to someone else for the first time, losing her ever-calm and composed appearance.
And Kai had not prepared himself to let this little girl come to that so early.
However, after leaving the tower, Kai had not thought that things would worsen, either.
Even when his instincts had perceived the danger coming, the young Thunderbird turned out to be just too fast for Darcie to react on that broom.
When the vicious bird's talons had made the physical body cough out blood, it was also the time when the walls of the white room over the yellow sea had cracked, almost making Kai come out of his meditative state.
Still, with sheer Will, Kai survived the fatal event, and then another one by subduing the young Nundu.
It couldn't have happened without bringing certain changes to Darcie's personality.
But changes in personalities had always remained a part of a child's growth.
Extreme lifestyles begot extreme experiences, and extreme experiences begot momentous changes in personalities.
These changes, though unplanned, were also a part of his Comprehension.
Yet, it was then when it all seemed to be over to Kai that the last blow arrived at his head.
When Darcie had found the black cloak and brought it out of the stream, guessing its probable human origin, Kai too had thought the same.
With the physical body shivering from the bone-chilling cold, feeling hopelessness and helplessness, and his Comprehension on the verge of shattering, Kai had no time to think much about it.
In the end, he too had relied on Darcie's senses, for the Glitch had already failed to work on this mythical island.
It was just a black cloak, probably infused with Water-repelling Charm.
What else? Was there even a need to think more? Could Kai think more, in his broken state, risking his already scattering Comprehension?
Fear!
The sight of stupendous dread on Madam Villanelle's face had exploded like a bomb in Kai's mind.
And when the reincarnated biblical witch had called out the name, Lethifold, Kai's head split open and blood spattered everywhere, dying the walls in the most frightening colors.
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AN: Combined two chapters in one.
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