Chapter Thirty-Five – Alicia
The Missing Pieces
A rich, salty scent that tickled at my nostrils as I awoke, followed by the gentle swoosh of waves breaking against the shore.
I was by an ocean.
What was I doing near the sea? Last time I checked, the Imperial Villas didn’t have a beach anywhere near them, so how had this happened? What was I doing here?
“Oww,” I moaned, pushing myself up onto my elbows. I immediately sank back down into the soft sand with an “oomph.”
Seriously.
What the heck was going on here?
The last thing I remembered was the kids—the injured little girl had been taken from my arms right before I’d seen the wraithhusk coming towards an injured Rina.
Then there was that weird burst of blue and gold light erupting from my hands like a shield and the intense sensation of every part of my body hurting in ways I’d never felt before.
Oh.
And a red mana sword.
Kalon.
I looked down at my hands. Was I dead? Had the monster gotten hold of me? Or was it the light that’d come from me that’d finished me off?
Oh, no.
If I was dead, did that mean the timeline was resetting again?
Wait.
Where did that thought come from?
“Ah.” I grabbed my head as a sharp pain shot through it. Images flashed through my mind in quick succession—a handsome ethereal man, Marilyn Monroe, a sign that said, ‘The Department of Reincarnation.’
What a strange bunch of memories that was.
But… they were mine. From before I became Alicia Vermillion.
Or were they? Something about that statement didn’t feel right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Ah. I was so confused.
Who was that person? And why did they turn into Marilyn Monroe?
Hmm.
It took me a few tries thanks to the soft, dry sand, but I made it to my feet and brushed the sand off from my dress.
I was still wearing the dress I’d worn to the hunting competition, and a thorough check of it showed no sign of bloodstains or tearing.
Unless that was a hinky afterlife trick, was it possible I was alive?
Afterlife.
Were those memories from a time between my lives?
Yes. That felt right.
I pulled off my shoes and socks and gathered my skirt so I could walk onto the wet sand. Would I be able to feel the ocean here? Was the water wet?
I stepped into the foam of a wave that was just creeping back out and smiled.
The water was, in fact, wet.
Small wins.
Hmm. None of this answered my questions though.
“Am I dead?” I asked the ocean.
Sadly, it didn’t answer.
“Yeah, that was a long shot.” I sighed and looked down at my feet, taking slow steps so that my toes would sink into the wet sand.
At least it wasn’t hot, despite the sun being high in the sky. In fact, everything was perfectly pleasant and comfortable, perhaps the very weather conditions I’d describe as my ideal.
Yeah.
I was totally dead, wasn’t I?
“Well, the weird man in my memories said the world resets with my death, so am I in some kind of holding pattern?”
“Weird man in your memories? I take offense to that!”
I screamed and stepped backwards. My heel sank into the soggy sand, and before I could right myself, I fell backwards and was washed over by a wave.
“Hey!” I coughed out the salty water, glaring up at the man in a bright orange Hawaiian shirt. “Wait. I know you. You’re the—ow!” My head screamed in pain once again, and the flashing of memories I’d experience a moment ago rolled like a movie reel in my mind.
“Oh, dear. That’s not supposed to hurt.” He bent at the waist and looked down at me with narrowed golden eyes. “Maybe I came too soon.”
“You!” I pointed at him. “God!”
He brightened, and a beaming smile crossed his face. “Yes! You remember me.”
“I have a bone to pick with you! Why’d you take my memories like that?” I scrambled to my feet. “Wait, before that, dry my dress.”
“Do I look like your personal launderette?” God sniffed, but my dress instantly dried, along with the rest of me. “You seem angry, Allie.”
“I wonder why. I have soooo many things to bring up that you wouldn’t believe it,” I warned him, wiggling my finger at him. “But first—where the heck are we? Am I dead?”
God shook his head. “Not this time. And we’re… well, I guess we’re in a private space between life and death.”
“That’s not reassuring at all.”
“Don’t worry. Your time isn’t up yet, and you can’t be hurt here. This place is made of nothing but divine power.”
“Divine power,” I mumbled, looking down at my hands. It felt familiar. “Did I… use that?”
“Ah, yes. To be exact, you used too much divine power and mana and collapsed from depletion.” He waved for me to follow him, and we approached two sun loungers that I swear weren’t there when I woke up. “That’s exactly what brought you here—or rather, I brought you here to recover.”
“So, my body is fine?”
“Yes. To everyone in the real world, you’re merely sleeping.” God paused. “Although I hope you recover soon before that lover of yours goes on a rampage. He’s rather distressed.”
Ah.
Kalon did have a history of murderous rampages.
“Don’t worry. As long as I’m alive, he’ll be fine.” I paused. “Wait. I sounded way too certain just then.”
“Hmm.” God peered over at me with a hint of a smile on his face. “I wondered if you would begin to recover your memories when your powers awoke, and it seems as though I was right.”
“What does that mean?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Let me guess, it’s one of your stupid laws of the universe?”
“Yes.” He looked momentarily glum, a bit like a puppy being scolded. “You must figure this one out yourself, I’m afraid. Everything will make sense when you do, though.”
“Forgive me if I find trusting you a bit on the tough side. You did take my memories and make me believe I was living in a fictional world rather than another dimension. Do you have any idea how much knowing that would have helped me? Do you know the angst I’ve suffered because of you?”
He paused. “Never mind all that. So… now that you remember our first meeting, does anything you’ve learnt make sense?”
Never mind all that, he said.
This was the being people revered as almighty.
He was almighty, all right.
Almighty irritating.
I hugged my knees to my chest and looked out at the water, frowning. “I don’t know. I think… Maybe…” I pressed my lips together. “Can I recap what I remember from our conversation?”
“Go ahead.”
“The world I now live in is stuck in a time loop, correct?” I paused, and he nodded.
“It resets every time the being named Alicia Vermillion dies, but it’s not supposed to be like that.
You tried bringing another soul to fix things, but it went to the wrong place, and that made it all worse.
The cycle was going to reset again when I died, and you brought me to Alicia’s body. ”
“That about sums it up.”
“So, the other soul you said you brought to that world was Lillia’s soul, right? In the book I read back in my past life, she’d transmigrated.”
“Ah-ha, very good. Yes. Lillia’s soul is also not of that world. It’s caused too many problems. The more cycles Lillia repeats, the more corrupt her soul is becoming.”
“Corrupt? What do you mean?”
He stared at me for a moment. “I suppose I can tell you this much now—she can remember the last few cycles.”
My jaw dropped. “What? How is that possible?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
Yeah. Of course he couldn’t.
Him and his stupid laws of the universe.
“So, what happens when Alicia dies? Does Lillia just wake up one day with a full memory of the world restarting?”
“That’s a somewhat simplified version, but yes. Whenever the world regresses, she can remember both her original life on Earth and some of the lives she’s lived in the Sada Empire, but she’s recently begun remembering the entirety of Lillia’s life.”
“No wonder it feels like she hates me.” I stretched my legs back out and lay back on the lounger. “She has lifetimes of resentment built up against Alicia.”
“Mm.” God held out a colourful drink with an orange slice and a little umbrella. “Want one?”
I blinked. “Where did that come from?”
“Divine power. I’m a divine being. I made it.”
Right.
Of course he did.
This was why I thought he was a weirdo.
“Sure, thanks.” I sipped and was pleasantly surprised at the sweetness of it. “It’s good.”
“It’s divine power. It’s always good.”
“Lies. Your divine power knocked me out.”
“Correction: the combination of uncontrolled divine power and mana expelling at once knocked you out.” He pulled the orange slice off the rim of the glass and bit into the orange’s flesh. “Honestly, I didn’t know it would explode out of you like that. It was quite shocking.”
He didn’t need to tell me that. I was probably the most shocked of anyone. It wasn’t like I’d had any idea I could use either of those powers before that moment.
I sighed and leant back. “God, why did you take my memories of our first meeting?”
“You asked to keep all your memories, remember? Both the ones accessible to your soul and your body, and I agreed in exchange for the one of our meeting.”
“Right.” How was it possible it was that simple? “Has anyone ever told you that you’re not very helpful?”
“Millions of people. Every single day.” He shook his head forlornly. “At least this one is justified.”
I laughed quietly. “So… how long do I have to stay here?”
“I suppose until you’re ready to go back. I’m hardly forcing you to be here, although I will complain if you start taking advantage. And just to let you know, I can’t stay forever. I do have things to do, you know.”
“Duly noted.” I wriggled my toes and looked out at the water again. “It’s nice here. I can think. I feel like there’s something I need to remember.”
God’s lips quirked up into a small smile. “Then perhaps you should stay until your mind is clear.”
“Is that all right?”
“Of course. I am quite fond of you and your soul, after all.”
“Hmm. Okay. Thank you.”
***
I jolted into a sitting position, rubbing one of my eyes.
Oh. I was still on the beach.
“Good morning, dear.”