Dimensional Descent

Aina's body continued to walk forward completely out of her control. Before she could even grasp what was happening, she was sitting to the right of the man, her body trembling uncontrollably. No matter how hard she fought back, she couldn't seem to break free.

Aina clenched her jaw, her head raising to look the man in the eye.

The situation was far outside of her expectations. She sat no more than a meter and a half from a man she was certain could take her life with a thought. But, what was even more astonishing was the fact this… wasn't a man at all.

When Aina met the man's gaze, she finally noticed the familiar white irises, flickering with indifference.

There was no doubt, this was an Invalid, a true Invalid, a Variant Invalid.

Aina's heart lost control of any sense of rhythm, accelerating to the point it seemed it might fly from her chest at any moment.

The man's wrists never stopped, slowly cutting the head before it in half. Grotesque white and red liquids spilled outward, pooling around the severed neck and almost overflowing the plate.

Aina's stomach rolled as the Invalid brought the fork to its mouth. Somehow, the immaculate table manners it displayed made the scene several times more difficult to watch. The dichotomy of stateliness and stomach churning sights made one's head spin.

"No comment?" The Invalid finished chewing and spoke these words.

It wiped its lips with a pristine white cloth despite the fact there wasn't a speck of impurity on its face. It seemed completely at ease.

would be powerful. But, I didn't think that you would be such a fledgling. I guess as the saying goes, the ignorant fear nothing,

The Invalid smiled lightly.

better, it was quite the dazzling smile. All the practice Leonel put in couldn't match to even half the charm the male Invalid was currently projecting.

spare them much of a thought. She wasn't aware of how dangerous this

been centuries since the last time anyone had come to this mountain range willingly, let alone to the point of

paused, its strong bridged nose tilting up in the air. It took a deep sniff,

"This smell…"

Invalid

in her seat, trying to maintain distance, but her movements were completely out of her control. Her body

nose of the male Invalid brushed by

the scent of roses, completely

that the sensation was akin to being near a rotting corpse, but in Aina's opinion, it

upon that pile of shit, one had poured the strongest and most invasive perfumes all over the top of it. It was far worse than just a rotting corpse, far worse than someone trying to replace a shower with deodorant, far worse than any olfactory assault Aina had ever

What a nice

time. It was as

scent of a delicacy, the kind of scent that shouldn't appear on

sides, they were pulled up until they were pressed palm side down on either side of

moment that Aina saw what

started to