1 Another World

"Heh."

A woman lay on the cold marble floor with a tired smile on her face. Her face was pale and she was drenched in a puddle of her own blood. She clutched something in her right hand tightly, squeezing it so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Huuu..."

She weakly sighed as she felt a sword pierce through her back once more.

"Don't worry, things won't end like this."

As she said this, a distant look appeared in her eyes.

"Hou~? Then you tell me, how will this end? You're almost dead. Hmph."

A woman pulled out the sword and spun it in her hand, a taunting smirk on her face.

"I would tell you, but where's the fun in that?"

The woman said as she smiled, trying to remain conscious.

"Oh? Tch, I've had enough of keeping you company. Tell me, where are the Elysian Essences?

"You wanna know? Over my dead body."

The woman said as she closed her silver eyes that seemed to hold a galaxy of stars within them.

"Huh, fine. I'll just see where you hid the manual when you die. It's in your spatial realm, isn't it? Oh and worry not, I've made sure you can't shatter your soul."

The other woman said as she looked at the blood-covered woman on the floor in disdain. Seeing the woman's almost lifeless body, a sadistic glint could be seen in her eyes as she smiled.

"Heh, is that so?"

The woman replied with a soft smile on her face. She knew she was dying, but she still remained calm and collected.

"Well, I suppose my time's up."

As she said that, she clutched her right hand even tighter. Her body began to glow as she slowly lost consciousness, loosening her right hand unconsciously.

Seeing the woman's dead body start to glow brighter and brighter, a strange ominous feeling crept up the other woman's mind. Grasping the bloodied sword in her hand, she plunged it into the dead woman's body, only to feel the sword pierce through the air. Much to her despair, the woman's body crumbled to dust before scattering from the sword strike.

Unable to do anything, she could only watch as the blood on the floor and her sword turned into dust and disappeared into the air. In a single moment, it was as if the woman was never here.

"F*ck! What the hell happened?! No, this doesn't make sense! I've never seen anything like this! No, this can't be. Maybe it's a new teleportation skill she developed? Yes, that must be it. It must be!"

Screaming and muttering to herself like a madman, the woman rushed out of the building. Her eyes were ruthless and full of hatred.

'Hmph. It doesn't matter if you can teleport away. I don't know how you bypassed my enchantments, but I'll force it out of you when I catch you again.'

***

"Uuuuuuuh."

The woman sighed deeply before opening her silver eyes slowly.

Looking up at the night sky, she was surprised to see how dark it was, with only faint lights seen scattered within the sky.

'Kuuu, how long has it been since I last saw such a plain and dark night sky huh?'

Enjoying the darkness for a little longer, the woman propped her head on her arms as she stared up at the night sky.

After a couple of minutes, she finally got up. Stretching her body as she stood up, she finally realized that she was in a teenager's body and not in a baby's body.

'Oh... that's unfortunate...'

The woman understood what had happened with a single glance at her surroundings.

The item she had been holding in her right hand as she was dying was a glass orb, also known as the Ten Thousand Rebirth Orb. The orb was not widely known to the public due to the long period it takes to form. Each orb requires ten thousand years to form, and because of the rarity of the item, most people who find it wouldn't let others know in case someone stronger takes interest in the item.

She had found the item one day by chance when she was watching a meteor shower. She had been sitting alone, dazedly staring up at the falling lights when she sensed the powerful energy emitted by the orb. Finding it, she decided to keep it for future use. Now, she was thankful that she did. Otherwise, she might have died earlier.

The special quality of the Ten Thousand Rebirth Orb was that it transported you to another world. Some research had been done by small teams, and it showed that during the formation of the orb, it would absorb celestial energy from other stars and planets, thus sending the person who crushed it to a random world it had absorbed some celestial energy from.

One person who found the orb was a research fanatic who decided to use it on himself to research how it worked. He had found a way to return to his world afterward and wrote about it in a journal. In it, he stated that he had transported to another world after crushing the orb and that he had been a baby when he woke up. Strangely enough, he had all his memories even though he was reborn into another world. Unfortunately, that man died not long after returning. It might have been a natural death, or an after-effect of using the orb and returning to his own world. His journal was taken and hidden away by the Celestial Government, but a small team had managed to secretly look through the information in the journal before it was taken away. Using that as a base, they found out that there was an abnormality of the orb, and that was if someone in the transported world died simultaneously when the orb is crushed, the person who crushed the orb can take over the dead body.

***

Looking around at her surroundings, the woman saw that everything was in ruins. The buildings were collapsed, glass covered the floor, and a huge crater was near where she had woken up. The entire place was a mess, and one could only guess what had happened.

The woman could guess what happened though, and she was probably correct.