Galaxy Fall: All My Skills Are Maxed-Chapter 124: Come To Me: The Echo Of Truth

​Cupcake stood up rapidly, her fur bristling as crackling white lightning bolts appeared across her small form. Beside her, Elizabeth instinctively summoned her enchanted broadsword, the heavy blade gleaming under the parlor lights. Both their gazes were fixed intently on the massive, glowing eyes hovering in the smoke.

​"Don’t attack, both of you," Mirabella snapped at them, her command sharp and absolute, not shifting her gaze from the swirling anomaly.

​"But?! What sort of scroll is that?!" Elizabeth yelled, her knuckles white around her sword hilt, staring at the eyes that felt distinctly predatory. This went against every magical law she knew.

​"Lord Hayatobi said something... Legendary scrolls dig deep into the user’s soul and find the exact right skill for them... Maybe this skill is what I have been hoping for," Mirabella said, getting to her feet, her voice dropping into a tense whisper. Relying on her immense stats to survive whatever happened next, she slowly stretched forth her hand towards the floating eyes.

​The smoke eyes shifted their gaze, coldly sweeping over everyone in the room as if assessing their worth. Then, they locked onto Mirabella, it shot forward with terrifying speed, and smashed directly into her forehead, merging seamlessly into her skin.

​Instantly, Mirabella’s eyes rolled back. She fell backward, completely unresponsive, and plunged into a deep, unnatural sleep before she even hit the couch.

​"Miss!!"

​"Master!!"

​Cupcake and Elizabeth exclaimed in horror, rushing to her side.

_____

​[Mirabella’s Soul Sea]

​Mirabella gasped and sat upright. She blinked rapidly, moving her gaze across the impossible space before her. It was a boundless realm filled with vibrant life—from sprawling, emerald green fields to crystal-clear flowing rivers that hummed with pure energy. She pushed herself off the soft grass and stood up.

​"Where am I?" she muttered, the wind ruffling her hair.

​{Host is currently within her own Soul Sea.}

​The familiar blue system screen materialized in the air before her, answering her question with its usual sterile prompt.

​"Soul Sea? When did I even develop a Soul Sea?" she asked, genuinely surprised. In her past life, accessing a Soul Sea required ascending past Lv200 and undergoing a specific spiritual tribulation. She looked ahead, seeing familiar objects lying scattered peacefully on the ground.

​"Is that... Sunder?"

​She walked towards the blade of her first spirit sword, staring at the familiar nicks on the weapon. She moved her gaze to the side, seeing her agility-based twin swords lying crossed on the field some distance away. Further along rested her fortified armor, the ethereal Wind Bow and Arrow, the heavy Rhino Shield, and even her specialized Lightning and Metal Daggers. Her entire arsenal, the physical manifestation of her strength, was laid bare right before her.

​"Hmm... Ok, what exactly am I doing here?" she asked, crossing her arms and staring at the system screen.

{I wasn’t the entity who brought you here, Host. Although I possess the administrative powers to do so, I did not initiate this dive.}

​Mirabella was stunned. If the System hadn’t brought her here, what had?

​BOOOOM!!!

​A deafening shockwave rattled the peaceful landscape. Mirabella spun around. Way beyond the flowing river, on the very edge of her spiritual horizon, was a small, corrupted island entirely filled with darkness. From the jagged black sands on its shores to the roiling, storm-filled clouds above it, everything within that perimeter was enclosed in suffocating, dense darkness.

​"What is that island?" she asked in surprise, feeling a deep, instinctual wrongness radiating from it.

{Host, that Island is the physical manifestation of the new skill you just acquired... All your current skills do not possess distinct physical forms within your soul, but this one does.}

​"Physical form? So everything I am doing out there, what is it called then?" she argued. She stretched forth her finger and easily activated her Light Bullet skill, forming a condensed, physical bullet made of solid light hovering over her palm.

​"Isn’t this a physical form?" she asked, challenging the System’s logic.

{....}

​"Answer me!!" she snapped at the silent blue screen.

​{Master, this light is merely the manifestation of your will... It blindly follows your wish and targets what you command. But that specific skill on the island is different. It possesses a rudimentary sentience. It has to independently recognize you, and it operates on completely different laws.}

​The system paused before delivering the ultimate bad news.

​{None of your passive System buffs will work on it if it doesn’t acknowledge you as its master. Meaning this skill won’t be maxed out by my authority, and if you fail its test, you will never be able to use it in the physical world.}

​Mirabella’s eye twitched violently, a deep, angry frown appearing on her face. She was expecting to open the scroll and receive a powerful, god-tier skill like the first time she used a Legendary item, but this anomaly was something else entirely.

​’A skill that has its own life?! I have never heard of this mechanic before, not even in all the novelkisss I’ve read. This must be the craziest, most dangerous skill ever coded into this world,’ she thought.

​Refusing to be intimidated within her own mind, she ascended into the air and flew directly towards the dark island. Below her, Sunder vibrated violently on the ground, tore itself free from the grass, and flew up towards her. She caught its familiar hilt mid-air.

​"This is my Soul Sea, but with this anomaly present, I must be cautious," she muttered to herself, flying over the boundary of the crystal river.

_

​Mirabella landed heavily on the desolate shore, her boots crunching on the black sand. The air here was freezing and smelled of ozone.

​"Come to me."

​She froze. That voice wasn’t hers, and it certainly wasn’t the System’s. It sounded deep, ancient, and distinctly demonic.

​"I don’t understand the rules here! You are a scroll; you should simply read into my soul and give me a compatible skill!! Do I look like a demon to you?!" she yelled out into the dead woods, demanding answers from whoever the voice belonged to.

​"You might not be a demon by race, but you harbor a profound darkness in your heart..." The voice sounded again, echoing from all directions at once, impossible to pinpoint.

​"Come inside."

​Mirabella sighed, her patience wearing thin. She gripped Sunder tightly, the blade humming in response to her rising energy, and started walking, heading towards the island’s dense, black forest.

​"What exactly are you talking about?!" Mirabella yelled, slicing through a dead, thorny branch blocking her path.

​"You are someone who never does anything without demanding something in return!! You helped Yakima today, but what was your true, selfish goal behind it?"

​Mirabella frowned, walking steadily towards a clearing in front of her.

​"You helped her only so you can easily benefit from this upcoming mission, and also to forcefully gain a high-level favor from her to use later, right?"

​Mirabella stopped walking. She didn’t shout back to refute it, because the voice was exactly right. That was her exact, calculated plan. She wanted the Guild Leader of the Dragon Tooth to owe her a life debt, nothing more, nothing less.

​She exhaled a slow breath and continued walking deeper into the dark.

​"When you helped Carl, your goal was simply to mold him into your personal escort, right? Someone strong you can manipulate, use, and benefit from, am I wrong?"

​Mirabella continued walking, her face an unreadable mask, not slowing down her pace.

​"You also chose to join the Dragon Empire because you know from your past knowledge that in the future, their military powers will increase greatly. Not only that, you know the Emperor harbors a deep guilt, which you actively plan to exploit for your own ascension in the future, am I wrong?"

​Mirabella finally walked out of the dense tree line and into a dead clearing. She froze, her grip on Sunder tightening until her knuckles popped. She was staring at a dark, humanoid figure standing completely still in the center of the clearing.

​She watched in absolute silence as the swirling darkness on its face slowly peeled away like dead skin, revealing the very familiar face behind it.

​"....?!"

​Mirabella was stunned, the wind knocked out of her. She was staring directly at her own face, distorted by a cruel, knowing smile.

​"You? You are me?" she whispered, completely dumbfounded by the reflection of her own absolute pragmatism standing before her.