"I caught you... Sinner." The pitch-black figure grabbed Tian An's throat, hoisting her high into the air. The sudden pressure suffocated Tian An; she wanted to use all her strength to break free, but weakness and dizziness quickly followed.
"Everything about you, in the end, is nothing more than an experiment in the eyes of others."
The hand gripping her throat began to tighten. The intense pain radiating from her neck made Tian An acutely aware of her suffering, yet she was helpless. The feeling was like being personally dragged into deep water and drowned.
A powerful survival instinct unexpectedly triggered a reaction from the energy within Tian An's body. A violent surge burst forth from her, blasting the black shadow several meters away.
Tian An crumpled weakly to her knees.
"Your existence is merely a mistake. Wherever you go, destruction follows," the black shadow continued, striding towards her, the black mist surrounding it growing thicker.
"My existence is a mistake... Then aren't you one too?" Tian An's gaze was somewhat unfocused, but she couldn't be fooled by what resided within the shadow.
The black shadow paused briefly, then lunged abruptly towards Tian An again. A blade, silently materialized, stabbed towards her, yet the moment it touched Tian An's body, it passed through as if striking empty air, meeting no resistance.
Tian An realized her body seemed to be becoming transparent, somewhat like that Demon King from her past life. But she knew clearly, this body was flesh and blood, not an empty shell.
The cracks on the ground trembled slightly. Several massive crystal pillars erupted from below, piercing the black shadow's limbs and pinning it firmly in place. Seeing her plan succeed, Tian An hurriedly tried to run towards the monitoring room. But before she could take more than a few steps, she found herself back where she started. She was still standing before the elevator, while the black shadow nonchalantly pulled the crystals from its body, without a single drop of blood spilling out.
Tian An couldn't believe it. Refusing to accept fate, she continued running in that direction, only to find herself, without realizing it, back at the elevator shaft once more.
It's that strange space.
Sure enough, when there are reference points, anyone can discover this bizarre, repeating loop space. And it seems the perception-dulling effect is gone.
But it sticks to you like a stubborn plaster, yanking you back just as you're about to leave... No... it's also possible that the instant you get out, you arrive back at the other side of the space...
Why was the Express still able to arrive at the space station on time after escaping that space?
Those outside can't see in, those inside can't get out.
Unless there's absolute power involved...
...
"It's time we settled things." The black shadow stood up as if nothing had happened. A mass of black energy detached from its body and shot towards Tian An.
Unexpectedly, a long spear pierced through the space between them, pinning the seemingly incorporeal black energy firmly to the space station wall.
It was Dan Heng's Cloud-Piercer!
The black shadow instantly became frenzied. It rushed forward impatiently, trying to grab Tian An. But, as a voice sounded, its figure vanished in an instant, leaving not even a wisp of its accompanying black mist behind.
The dilapidated space station reverted to its previous undamaged state, as if everything had been a dream. However, the broken Originium crystals nearby told her this was no dream, but stark reality.
"Theresia!" An anxious voice called out. Tian An turned her head to see March 7th and Dan Heng.
Tian An finally let out a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the ground as if completely drained of strength.
March 7th rushed over in a few large strides and began checking Tian An all over.
"How are you? Are you hurt anywhere?!"
"I..." Tian An didn't know if she was physically alright, but after experiencing all that, her mind was definitely not okay... Ah, my heart's pounding so fast...
"March, calm down. At the very least, Miss Theresia can still hear you speaking normally right now," Dan Heng appeared much calmer, but the tightly clenched fist at his side betrayed his composure.
"How... did you find out?" Tian An asked slowly. She didn't remember telling them... or perhaps they just guessed...
It's strange, though, why did I obey the voice inside my body earlier so readily?
Dan Heng didn't answer directly, instead producing a tiny, gleaming white dot, only about the size of a pinky fingernail.
"This is a locator. I stuck it in your hair earlier when you were distracted."
Dan Heng stated confidently.
"If you weren't where you were supposed to be when we returned, but the locator showed your position hadn't changed, then that indicated..."
"It indicated Theresia must have been pulled into that space again!" March 7th chimed in, having learned to jump in with the answer.
"Correct," Dan Heng nodded, continuing, "Furthermore, your locator signal was constantly bouncing back and forth between two points."
"We've all experienced that space. Since breaking out from the inside requires self-awareness, you should have realized it much sooner. After all, back then, you were the only one who remained conscious."
"So, breaking out from the inside wasn't working. I decided to try interfering from the outside," Dan Heng walked over and pulled his spear out. "Of course, I threw it carefully to avoid your location."
Hearing this, Tian An could only marvel.
As expected of Dan Heng, always so reliable...
"So, what happened?" Star, who had been silent off to the side, finally spoke. Arlan followed behind her.
She too had felt something was off about Tian An earlier.
Tian An calmed her emotions slightly and began to explain.
"A black shadow attacked me... It took me to another space station... one... that was destroyed."
Tian An even suspected it might have been a parallel universe.
"A destroyed space station?"
"Could it be... it came from another universe?!" March 7th's imagination ran wild.
"That's a possibility. Besides that, what else did it do to you?" Dan Heng helped Tian An to her feet.
"It wanted to kill me. But just now, after you threw your spear, it rushed over like crazy, and then suddenly vanished," Tian An recalled the scene. It was strange; the moment people from the outside arrived, it uncontrollably disappeared. Judging by its earlier actions, it hadn't wanted to give up so easily.
"Also, it called me a sinner. And the crucial thing is... I saw my own power kill Little March..."
"Ah? Me? No way! Would Theresia really have the heart to kill the adorable Little March?!" March 7th pretended to shrink back before quickly returning to normal.
"Of course not!" Tian An stated firmly.
"Everyone, I think we should head back to the main control section first and report this to the Station Director," Arlan suggested from the side. After all, speculating wildly here wouldn't lead to any conclusions.
Meanwhile, off to the side, Tian An diligently memorized the positions of several conspicuous stars visible outside the space station during the vision...