Chapter 29: The Problem P1
~29.1~
*****
"Alethea?" Atalante rushed over to the blue cat. "You're Alethea?"
The girl smiled, and the voice she spoke with was different, "Yes."
The previously grieving, now relieved mother pulled the catgirl into a warm embrace. "My daughter. You're back. EEE!" Atalante pulled back when she felt the girl's furry ears on her skin. "My goodness. I was not prepared for that."
Astraia and Kye exchanged glances and giggled. Astarte and Evelyn smiled. Surprised, the blue catgirl apologized, "I'm sorry, Mother!"
Atalante took the girl's hands and held them between her own. "It's quite alright. I'm just so happy you're okay."
"About that..." Kye said.
"You have bad news?" Atalante asked, her face quickly changing from happy to suspicious.
"Well, the-"
"I will handle this," Evelyn said. She was still dressed as Eve and was glowing with rainbow mana. She snapped her fingers and transported everyone to her white stone platform, floating amidst the stars. "Everyone present already knows about me, so we'll talk here." Eve snapped her fingers and created a table and several chairs in front of her throne. "Sit. Let's discuss this."
"There is an extra chair," Kye said. "You created six. Who is joining us?"
Eve held her hand up and pointed high into the starry sky. One star brightened and sped toward them. When it arrived, it appeared as a mass of light blue mana and slowly formed into a humanlike state until it perfectly matched the body Alethea was inhabiting.
"Oh, my," Alethea said.
"Huh?" the soul said. "Where am I? What is this?"
"Greetings, Miss Mila," Eve said. She held her hand toward the girl and rotated it slightly, as if turning something. The expression on the blue catgirl soul's face changed quickly a few times from confused to surprised to scared to understanding.
"I see, greetings, Lady Eve," she replied. "Thank you for summoning me. It is my pleasure."
"Sit, please."
She nodded and sat down next to Alethea. The Atlantis sisters were seated on one side of the table, in order from Eve of oldest to youngest. And Kye, Alethea, and Mila were seated on the other side in that order.
"So, we're doing this right away?" Kye asked.
Eve nodded. "First, an explanation of what happened." And she explained in detail what transpired from the moment Lana entered the Blue Cat territory to the present. "Maya's soul latched onto your body, unwilling to leave the Ten Realms. The only reason this was possible is because your soul had already left it."
"I see," Mila said. "So, I really am dead."
"But you shouldn't be. You are aware that the world you live... lived in is governed by a system. There have been an increasing number of bugs in the past few months. Your cause of death is mental trauma. However, the cause of that trauma is not natural. You, like billions more, suffer from anxiety."
"Yes."
"You experienced a severe anxiety attack... and died." Eve looked at Kye. "One bug in the system is affecting anxiety among other mental illnesses. It's multiplying the effect. A light attack would feel worse, a medium attack would feel closer to a severe attack, and a severe attack causes so much trauma that the soul's tolerance threshold is reached and death is triggered. Since the body did not die, however, it would merely appear they've fallen into a coma to any not able to sense a soul. In short, I will be intervening. I will examine every death caused by this bug and reverse all that were not meant to happen, or reincarnate them immediately if revival is not an option."
"Such as if the body has died since the soul left it?" Kye said.
Eve nodded. "Precisely. However..."
"You have permission."
"Good. With permission from the King of Elysium, I can rewrite causality within Elysium and restore all affected souls without exception."
Those words shocked Alethea and the Atlantis sisters, but Kye shrugged. "Technically, you could do that anyway. It's your own rules that get in the way. You could throw them out."
Eve shook her head. "I placed those rules upon myself for a reason. Anyway, I will start with Miss Mila here. Maya, please stand up."
She nodded and stood a few feet from the table.
Eve flared her rainbow mana and engulfed both Alethea and Mila. Alethea looked nervous and braced herself. "You will not feel pain with this, Maya. I do not permit it."
A strange sensation washed over Alethea when Eve spoke. One she had never felt before. "W-what?"
"Now, I will restore Miss Mila to her body." In an instant, Maya's soul was pulled from the blue catgirl and Mila's soul turned back into a mana state and entered it. When she opened her eyes, she blinked and moved around to test her motor control.
"Holy mother, it worked!"
Kye and Atalante shook their heads in unison, exchanged glances, then shrugged. Mila's words came out as a prayer, and the two heard it in their minds as well as out loud.
"Miss Mila, I will return you to your place in the Blue Cat territory. You will have no recollection of this and will simply wake up normally."
Mila smiled and bowed. "Thank you, Lady Eve. I owe my life to you."
"You do not. Your life is yours alone. Your death should not have happened. I am only correcting that."
Mila nodded, and Eve waved her hand, sending the girl home.
"And now, this problem..." Eve eyed Maya's soul, which had already taken the appearance of her original body. "You are a soul without a body. The body of Alethea Atlantis is dead, and while this was the effect of an action performed by a resident of Elysium..." she paused and furrowed her brows. "...it was ultimately caused by a foreign agent that should have no way to interact with residents of Elysium without permission from the king." She eyed Kye.
Kye shook her head. "Which they do not have." She looked at her pink-haired lover and sighed. "If only it was as simple as healing your body and putting you back in it, like with Miss Mila. Although... Eve has my permission to rewrite causality, so..."
Both eyed Eve, but Eve only sighed. "What a mess."
Kye also sighed. "I've been thinking about this issue. I need to meet with Adaal to disc-"
"Why did you bring me here?" Atalante asked coldly. "It appears to me that my daughter will not be returned to me. Why am I here to witness this? Have you no decency? Why cause me more grief? It's like I'm losing her twice."
*****
Revision: 2024-9-17