Legend of Niyonika

The Seyr Empire (Ch.9)

~All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible~

-George Santayana

Niyonika forced open her heavy lids, groaning at the brightness of the light that invaded her eyes. Niyonika squinted, letting her eyes adjust to the brightness and just when her vision cleared, five shocked faces appeared in her view.

One of them opened their mouth and Niyonika winced apprehensively.

"Oh... God." Niyonika muttered to herself, knowing he was going to scream.

"She's awake!!" The young male screamed just like Niyonika had expected, his tone was especially loud in the quietness of a new dawn and since he was leaned down, his scream was all the more piercing.

Niyonika winced painfully, swallowing down the urge to hit the unfortunate young man.

"Quiet! Do you not see she is in pain?" Another of the young males who seemed to be the leader of the group reprimanded the one who had screamed, the young man quickly shut his mouth, looking away in guilt.

Niyonika lifted her head off the sand, shaking her head from side to side to get rid of the sand stuck to her face.

"Excuse me young miss, may I know where you are from?" The young male asked politely, Niyonika ignored the young male's question, instead letting her gaze sweep around her surroundings.

Behind Niyonika was a vast ocean of the deepest blue and before her was a sea of golden sand that made up the sea shores.

Niyonika had to admit, her environment didn't look half as bad as she was expecting. Now that she had ascertained that she was in no immediate danger, Niyonika couldn't help but admire the view.

Such pure and untainted natural features were a rare sight in 2099, the view could only be described with one word... breathtaking.

"Young miss?" The young male called again, Niyonika resisted the urge to release an exasperated groan as she knew she would have to entertain their questions.

She had hoped perhaps since this timeline had began so favourably that she had not awoken to any precarious or unsettling situation, then if only things could continue in a favorable manner and this group of five could just continue on their merry way and leave her be.

Niyonika lifted her gaze to the group, raising a brow at the stunned looks on the faces of the five as they took in her visage.

"Hello...?" Niyonika attempted to call their attention back to earth, when Niyonika received no response, she heaved a sigh and wondered if she had perchance landed in some part of Kran where the natives had never seen a female before.

If that was the case, Niyonika would not be surprised, the fact that she had time jumped into a normal, harmless situation was too good to be true, so much so that it was extremely suspicious.

"I would truly appreciate it if you stopped staring at me like that." Niyonika bit out after the group of five still had not shaken off their shock even when she had waited a while.

"Ah... forgive our disrespect, miss. It's just... well..." The leader of the group trailed off, Niyonika frowned slightly.

"Young miss is breathtakingly beautiful." The young male who screamed deadpanned, Niyonika raised an amused brow at the male's straightforwardness.

"Oh..." Niyonika replied easily, she had not personally seen the looks of this body she occupied and so had nothing to say in response. She could only hope the body was not some extreme, once in a lifetime beauty, that would be too bothersome.

Niyonika would know, she herself was also deemed a once in a lifetime beauty even in 2099. Her original visage was astonishingly beautiful and with her unique hair color which was a natural glossy silver, she had been tagged an unrivalled beauty of 2099.

Niyonika personally was not too concerned with her physical looks, she had inhabited the body of numerous female's in her lifetime and had numerous looks over 999 lifetimes, at a point, one realized physical features were hardly important.

"I would like to ask a few questions, I hope the young masters will by kind enough to answer me." Niyonika said, the five young men exchanged looks before turning back to her.

"Young miss, please feel free to ask, as long as they are questions we brother disciples can answer, we will certainly answer to the best of our ability." The leader of the group responded encouragingly.

'Brother disciples?....a sect?" Niyonika thought to herself.

"Where are we?" Niyonika asked, wondering what part of the Kran empire she had time jumped into.

"The astral mountain range of the cold moon city." The leader of the group replied. Niyonika frowned slightly.

'Astral mountain range?' Niyonika wondered, quickly sorting through her mental recording on the lecture the time travelers had received on the various territories within the Kran empire.

It didn't matter how much Niyonika thought, this name 'astral mountain range' did not strike her as familiar, it was a place she had never heard of before.

Niyonika had a perfect memory, it was extremely important for a time traveler to possess such natural gifts. There was absolutely no way she would have missed this name had it been mentioned during the briefing.

The only reason it could be so unfamiliar was simply that it had not been mentioned at all.

Niyonika pondered the possibility of this, the I.T.H.A information network was the most reliable, and their research was extremely thorough, it could not be possible that they would have left out any part of the Kran empire's territory during the briefing.

How then was it that Niyonika had not heard of this 'astral mountain range' at all? The cold moon city was equally as strange.

'Could it be perhaps I time jumped into a neighboring empire?' Niyonika wondered suspiciously, but no matter how she thought about it, that was also highly unlikely.

Niyonika's system was many things, but he had never for once been inaccurate in navigating their destination.

"What part of the Kran empire is this?" Niyonika asked after a while, having come to the conclusion that she must have indeed let this little bit of information slip her.

'Even forgetting things...it seems it really is time for me to retire.' Niyonika thought to herself.

The five young males exchanged looks at the female's strange words.

"I am not sure I understand young miss' questions, we brother disciples do not know of any Kran empire." The leader of the group responded in puzzlement. Niyonika's frown deepened.

"Indeed young miss. We brother disciples can be said to have sufficient knowledge of the major empires within the Elemental god continent, yet we have never heard of this Kran empire young miss speaks of." Another of the young males supported.

Niyonika was quiet for a while, a seed of suspicion growing quickly within her heart but Niyonika quickly tampered down any assumptions.

"Elemental god continent?" Niyonika asked again, just to be sure she had not heard wrong. All five heads nodded in response.

"So, you mean to say this is not the metal king continent?" Niyonika asked once again, her heart rate taking on an unsteady beat.

"No, young miss. This is indeed the Elemental god continent, the continent blessed by the Elemental god with elemental cultivators. This in fact is the Seyr Empire of the Elemental god continent." The young male affirmed.

Niyonika released a quiet chuckle of disbelief.

'Elemental god continent?! Elemental cultivators?! Seyr Empire?!...What in the Creator's name was going on here?!' Niyonika thought in disbelief.

"Did young miss perhaps hurt your head?" The young male who had screamed asked suspiciously, whilst exchanging glances with his brother disciples as they regarded the strange behavior of the female.

'Ah...it better not be that, such a thing was too unfortunate for such a devastating beauty.' The young male who had screamed fervently hoped in his heart, it would be too unfortunate if such a beauty that could topple nations was mentally disadvantaged.

'It is your father that hurt his head!' Niyonika thought furiously but did not bother to reply the annoyed group, instead she focused on the urgent issue at hand.

'System!... System! What the f*ck is going on here?! Answer me this instant you dipshit! Don't you even dare play games like this with me! System!!' Niyonika called and called but the result remained the same...no response, utter silence.

"Senior brother! Look! It's our sect's disciple robe!" One of the young male's exclaimed having caught sight of their sect's seal on the female's stained white robes when she had moved slightly.

"It really is! Young miss was our sect's disciple?" The leader of the group asked in astonishment, but there was a hidden trace of excitement in his tone that was reflected in the gazes of the other four disciples as well.

If such a devastating beauty was a member of their sect, didn't that mean they would be able to meet her often? And being her senior brother disciples, certainly she would not mind having them around her.

Niyonika glanced up at the disciples, before glancing down at her robes, confirming that her robes indeed had an insignia that was similar to the insignia on the robes of the five males, save for the difference in color, everything else was the same.

It was at this very moment that Niyonika's eyes caught a strand of her hair...the colour of that strand filled Niyonika with apprehension.

Niyonika grabbed her long hair and brought it to her view, once again shaking her head in disbelief at what she saw.

'Silver hair...f*cking silver hair... how possible was it for the host she possessed to have a unique hair color, and what were the odds that this unique hair color just happened to be this exact shade of silver?!'

Niyonika looked up at the young male who had screamed.

"You... how did you say I looked?" Niyonika asked slowly, forcing down the panic that bubbled up within her as her suspicions were slowly confirmed, even knowing her suspicions were most likely right, Niyonika still fervently hoped within her heart.

'Please let this not be what I think it is.' Niyonika chanted in her head repeatedly.

"Errrm... junior sister...junior sister disciple is indeed a devastating beauty, a beauty that could cause the downfall of nations." The young male replied shyly, turning his gaze away from her.

Niyonika felt her heart stop at the young male's words.

'A devastating beauty, a beauty that could cause the fall of nations, a beauty with silver hair...who else was there that fit this description other than Niyonika of 2099?!... Just how did I time travel in my own body?! And where exactly is this Seyr Empire?! What exactly is going on here?!'

And the most important question on Niyonika's mind, the very question that filled Niyonika with dread.

'Why do I no longer feel my system's presence?'