SSS Awakening: Starting With Infinite Soul Copy

"You made it sound like you’ve got a safer choice?"

White asked.

"I do. Infiltrate the enemy ranks. You’ll get the answers you need and eventually a way out."

"You call that safe?"

"It’s a smarter choice. I don’t know about your obsession with safety."

"Oh, I’m so sorry I became so obsessed about my own safety."

White mocked.

"It was just every one of my fucking bones crushed to pieces, losing both my arms, a cut to my heart, and with a sword stabbed inches away from crushing it to bloody paste, along with a certain voice in my head telling me I would die for certain."

"I’m not supposed to worry at all about my own safety after that little episode, am I?"

He asked, looking at the blank air as if it were an idiot covered in poop.

"Well...everything sounds like a concern when you word it like that."

It said, and White rolled his eyes, ignoring it to focus.

’There is indeed a gap in my waiting plan.’

’I don’t know what destroyed the Aether Beyonder Academy.’

’According to what I’ve learned from Vice Mimura, Aether Beyonder isn’t exactly a favored academy amongst the human population either.’

"Humanity itself would have chosen to destroy them, only leaving them alone because they weren’t worth the headache of doing so, especially since they were also against the Supernaturals."

"Did that change?"

"Did Aether Beyonder Academy betray humanity, and the Academy Ascension choose to destroy them?"

White thought quietly, but then he shook his head.

"No, that doesn’t make sense."

"Those two that attacked me were humans whose souls have been fully taken over by Otherworlders."

"Maybe they’ve been like that for a while, but the way they appeared to me with dark runes and wings growing from their back..."

"That was like they didn’t need to hide their form anymore."

"If the Academy Ascension destroyed Aether Beyonder, there was no way in hell it would spare Otherworlders looking like that."

"So, if the Otherworlders feel safe enough to reveal themselves, that meant one thing."

"It’s the Supernaturals."

The Otherworlder said in his head, with a duh tone.

"What makes you so sure?"

White asked, and it replied.

"Look at yourself."

It said, and White turned an eye to himself.

"Can you see that loser aura lingering on you?"

It added, and his expression plummeted.

"Don’t take this as a personal jab."

"Just...based on what you’ve been murmuring, your race, humanity, sounds like it’s on a losing foot."

"I know Violent Otherworlders. They don’t necessarily want to fight a hopeless battle, which seems like what your race is doing."

"On the other hand, they want chaos, to be above and cast fear."

"A war is ongoing between your race, humanity, and the Supernaturals."

"The Otherworlders, as a third force, would have to pick a side."

"Which do you think they’ll join based on their nature?"

It asked White, though the answer was obvious enough.

"It’s only in the midst of the Supernaturals that they can fully reveal that they have succeeded in taking the bodies of humans."

"They won’t do that if they were sided with humans, so there’s your answer."

"The Supernaturals destroyed the Aether Beyonder Academy, and Otherworlders, seeing a chance, chose to appear, saving themselves from the destruction and allying with the Supernaturals."

White mused.

"I just have one question for you."

It said.

"What is that?"

"Otherworld Dream."

It replied.

"Is Aether Beyonder the only academy that cultivates Otherworld Dream on this planet?"

It asked.

"Well, the only three academies worth mentioning all cultivate essence energy. Aether Beyonder should be the only one."

He replied.

"Then your race is further doomed."

The Otherworlder said.

"It thinks it’s fighting only the Supernaturals, but now their sole enemy has just allied with another powerful enemy, and apart from you, they have no idea."

"I wouldn’t exactly call Otherworlders strong."

White said.

"You think we’re weak as a race?"

The Otherworlder asked, and White shrugged.

"I don’t know."

"But considering the fact that my essence core is locked, leaving me with about 30% of my true power, and yet I still managed to take down two of the Otherworlders I’ve ever faced, and the third one ran away like a coward."

"Besides, most of the students who cultivate Otherworld Dream are dead. I saw their corpses. Just how many of them could have had their bodies taken over? A dozen or a couple dozen."

"And with Aether Beyonders dead, the Otherworlders’ numbers won’t increase, well, unless they get their hands on the manual and try to cultivate more of themselves."

"Still, I wouldn’t try to place them on equal footing with the Supernaturals. They’re not nearly enough to be a threat."

White said, but all he got in reply was a couple of seconds of silence before the words rang in his head.

"Well, just hope there isn’t a Fractured Otherworlder amongst those dozens of Otherworlders that may be alive. And hopefully no Otherworlder that is at a 1/100 fraction too close to my scale."

"Then they shouldn’t be a threat."

It said, but it wasn’t in any way comforting to White.

Still, something made him pause, and he asked.

"What side are you on?"

He has an Otherworlder in his head, and Otherworlders were starting to kill humans, allying with the Supernaturals.

Before turning his attention to them, perhaps it was better to start with the one whispering in his head.

"I am an Otherworlder. There’s no questioning that."

The voice said, as White’s heart consciously sank.

"But if the Otherworlders have sided with Supernaturals, then I will destroy every last one of them that stands..."

It paused after that, before continuing.

"Actually, let me rephrase that."

"I have one, and only one goal of fusing with you, to eliminate every trace of Supernatural that exists in this world and beyond."

"And I will destroy every living thing, Otherworlder or human, anything that stands in the way of that."

"...everything."