Ludwig went inside the room with a first aid kit, an ice pack, and a can of soup. Liara no longer had the magical aura and had returned to her usual form of his sister.
He knelt down beside her and gently pressed the ice pack against her swollen ankle. The sudden cold made her face scrunch up, and she let out a sharp yelp of pain.
"Ow, that hurt, big bro!"
"Don't worry, I'm here for you, Lia." Ludwig reassured his sister and handed her the can of soup while he wrapped the bandage around her sprained ankle with steady hands.
A heavy silence permeated the room for a long time as he finished the bandaging while she finished the food he brought. Finally, the question hanging in the air was spoken.
"How did we survive?" Liara asked. She knew there was no way they could survive that encounter after she was knocked out. But here they are, alive.
"A miracle happened," Ludwig solemnly answered.
"What do you mean?"
"Right after you were knocked out, a girl that was much like you appeared and saved us. She led me to this place after she finished them off." Ludwig felt a pang of guilt. He was never good at lying, and he feared she would see right through him if he kept talking.
"Where are we then?"
"An apartment, about 40 minutes walk away from our previous safe house. The girl cleared out the monsters before letting us in. This place should be safe for a while, but we should stay here until your ankle is healed."
"Alright," Liara whispered. Her voice began to crack, and she let out a jagged cry. "Our parents. They are no longer with us, are they?"
"Yeah," Ludwig whispered.
Liara leaned in and threw her arms around him. Ludwig accepted the hug and pulled her close. He knew exactly what she was thinking. The images of their parents staying behind to face the horde.
Humanity are adaptive creatures, and the apocalypse had rewritten their minds. Only when they are safe would they have the luxury to truly cry for the dead.
Ludwig closed his eyes and let his sister sob. He wondered how many more lies he would have to tell to keep her safe in this new world.
The night passed, and the light of the sun shone through the windows. Ludwig found himself being hugged tightly by his sister.
Slowly and with practiced care, he managed to slither his way out of her grasp. He replaced his presence with a body pillow he found in the apartment closet so she would not wake up in a panic.
It was time for him to move. Tap water no longer works, but he managed to take several water bottles from the previous convenience store. It seemed like no one was brave enough to loot it in the presence of those imps.
He walked over to the apartment way down the hall and locked the door. The light of transformation once again enveloped his figure.
Equinox Spider Lily began to ponder over the power that she gained. She quickly found out that despite being called Magical Girl, there were a lot of differences from the magical girls she knew growing up.
'No transformation device or anything of the sort. I can transform with just a thought. There seem to be a lot of hidden mechanics in these magical girl transformations, like that memory distortion. I wonder if I can find any more of those.'
'The most important point is that real power could only be cast through the magic wand.' She willed the four spider lilies into existence, and they began to levitate over her body. 'I can just move them with my will alone, and there seems to be a connection between me and the spider lilies that I can channel my mana through to change their form.'
With another thought, the spider lilies began morphing into different kinds of cold weapons. She then remembered about the words of Lord Hades, something about his power being Apocalypse. She remembered some of those novels talking about the inner mindscape, so she tried to meditate to see what was inside.
Opening his eyes, Ludwig found himself returned to his male form. Looking around, he realized he was at the top of a ruined building.
The land is separated into four different sections. From what he could see and conclude, the building he stood on was part of a city worn and torn by extended military warfare.
The whole place was comprised of 4 squares of land merged into one another, but the other 3 are greyed out. The two areas connecting to this warzone were a dead forest and a cemetery. The one diagonal to this warzone was a large tomb.
"Where the hell am I?" Ludwig asked to himself, but a feminine voice from behind him spoke.
"The inner realm of Apocalypse."
"What?" Ludwig turned around and saw the form of Equinox Spider Lily with a sinister smile on her face, and he asked. "Who are you?"
"I'm not quite sure myself. Just call me Equinox Spider Lily for now," Equinox Spider Lily replied.
"I see. What's the purpose of this place?"
"I'm as clueless as you are, I only came to be when you first transformed. I am sure of one thing though."
"What's that?"
"I'm definitely not you. I'm a separate existence from you. Our natures are different."
"How do you know that?"
"While you were outside, I watched your memories from the past, and our reactions to the things that happened were a lot more different from each other."
"What do you mean?"
"Asking an awful lot of questions, huh?" the girl teased. "You don't need to know much more, and it is not like I know more than you anyway. I only know what you know and see and hear what you have perceived. You're smart, you should know what this implies."
A minute passed as Ludwig stood in place and thought about the situation.
"You might be the anomaly that Lord Hades spoke about," Ludwig said. "Let's see if I can ask him about it."
"Sure, go ahead, find out more for me, Ludwig." She spoke with a smile on her face.
Opening her eyes once again, Equinox Spider Lily found herself back in the abandoned apartment at the end of the hall.