Processing the complex reality with perception as precise as a scanner, Driti found many eerie notes, symbols, and other strange visuals.
Her eyes fluttered and widened as she focused on one symbol which is partially comprehensible to her, yet overwhelmingly complex for her being. "An incomplete… shard…?" she muttered.
"What's it, Driti?" Theodore asked.
She looked into his eyes; memories flowed between them by energy transfusion.
Theodore analyzed her memory: a symbol from another dimension, wrapped into this reality with significant clairvoyance.
His breath caught in his throat as he slipped into memories of chaotic events of pasta and its alterations of reality, as well as the consequences faced since becoming an elite hunter over eight years.
"Well done, Driti," he said, exhaling as he complimented her.
He looked down at the scroll.
Suddenly, a thin fabric of light emerged in his hands, and with it he began to draw what he had seen through her.
When he finished, she examined the sketch.
"But it isn't the same as the one I saw…" Driti pointed out.
Theodore's lips parted slightly. "This is the lower-dimensional construct of that shard— the lower-dimensional abstract, the original one, but a slightly different copy, which represents the original…"
Driti studied the scroll.
Standing, she said, "So it's just like abstract concepts, which are perspective-based only when the subject relies on a plane of dimension or existence with its constraints, that if, it is something comprehensible, but never fully able to capture the true abstractness of a plane or realm, or anything else?"
Theodore nodded. "Of course, you're right. Take space-time, for example; it's actually abstract, but measurable and perceived if it is within an ontological degree you exists, so you can measure the space-time based on your existence. But the true depth of space-time is never limited, hence, I call it 'The Great Container.'" He explained, brushing his own neck.
Suddenly, a strange sensation struck him, his eyes widening.
Driti noticed the shift in his composure.
Before she could ask, he snatched the scroll and burned it in the flames of elegant rebellion. At once, smoke rose up and shaped itself into the coordinates for the location of the stone they needed to find.
Theodore grabbed her hand and peeled reality away like a curtain, escaping into the mesosphere of Earth. Driti witnessed the complete erasure of the dungeon where they had found evidence from the timeline itself.
As they fell, Theodore's eyes scanned outside the higher constructs as if reading a paragraph. "You all… assemble at HQ with the subtle clues you've acquired, that is related to a shard of higher constructs…" Driti was also falling beside Theodore.
"You have flight ability, don't you…?" Theodore asked.
"No…" she replied.
"What? You don't? Then at least you can alter space-time coordinates, you can hence fly…" Theodore suggested.
"That is different, even if... Yes … I can…" she acknowledged. "If I hit the water, my spine will be shattered…" Theodore replied.
Driti began to panic. Theodore grinned. "You forget we can wrap realities?" he snickered.
Slightly annoyed, she said, "Y-yes, I know that, you don't need to remind me." As she spoke, she vanished mid-fall.
"After all, I need to remind her about her own abilities, since staying in that dungeon alters mind I to thinking you are a simple being, even if they're supernatural entities or whatsoever!" Theodore thinks, smiling.
Knowing he'd reach the ground in under a minute, he spread his arms to catch the air, slowing his fall.
"When was the last time I did a dive roll?" he pondered.
Preparing himself, he angled his arms, hit the ground with his palm, rolled, then slid to the building's edge.
Standing on the edge, confident from jumping a 22-storey apartment, he suddenly felt a spike of energy from a specific area.
"Reji…?" he murmured."You're not coming?" asked Driti, standing beside him on the edge. Without looking at her, Theodore replied, "The energy elevation is beyond conventional grade… Let's check this out!" He clapped his hands, causing them to phase through the interval and arrive at the precise place.
He investigated and found quantum particles at the target coordinates, particles that were not even from this metaverse branch. "Something is wrong," he muttered.
"Not a typical spirit?" Driti asked.
"Absolutely not," Theodore replied. "Quantum particles are exchanged, swapped existences… but for these particles to mix with this unknown reality takes some time.
The repulsion creates high energy levels." He gazed at the sky. "I only know someone clever enough to do this."
Dodging conceptual assassins and annihilation wasn't the only assignment Reji had been given.
He stood amid torn reality, circled by an extraterrestrial, lifeless planet belonging to a distant Metaverse branch, far from his home. In his palm, he held the non-conceptual (as it lacked every necessity to be a concept) corpse of the conceptual assassin.
"Huh… That took a lot of time, I guess… This shit was really a pain in the ass." He took a deep breath, taking in the glistening chaos of the cosmos.
A FEW MINUTES BEFORE
"She really gave me this assignment, to catch something alive, when that isn't even justice or envy or corruption in the first place…" Reji muttered as he dodged and counterattacked the conceptual assassin. The assassin kept turning Reji into particles, but he reconstituted himself every time.
"To think she named this thing…" Reji caught the conceptual assassin, a sudden swift movement from the assassin dismantled the gluon connection in his being, scattering him apart.
Out of the blue, Reji tore himself from the assassin, "Conceptual assassin… makes sense for our understanding." He choked the assassin and compressed it into a linear concept.
Reji flexed his shoulders. "Bruh… Now that I think about it…"
He stared upward in disappointment. "How many fucking infinite layers of Metaverses did I cross?" He asked scratching his head. The least guessing is that he covered transinfinite layers of infinite metaverse branches. I guess I'll be a bit late. Well, Theo will cook today if I'm running behind…" He walked on, holding the conceptual assassin he'd brutally reduced to something simple.
"Shit, Manager will really beat my ass if I don't reach on time." Reji was struck with realization. He remembered how Razael had caught his attack and made him bleed, forcing him to kneel during training. He gulped. "I can't be late…" He phased through the Metaverses.