Elysia in Another World

Chapter 14 - The Problem

"Alethea?" Atalante rushed over to the blue cat. "You're Alethea?"

The girl smiled, and the voice she spoke with was different, "Yes."

The previously grieving, now relieved mother pulled the catgirl into a warm embrace. "My daughter. You're back. EEE!" Atalante pulled back when she felt the girl's furry ears on her skin. "My goodness. I was not prepared for that."

Astraia and Kye exchanged glances and giggled. Astarte and Evelyn smiled. Surprised, the blue catgirl apologized, "I'm sorry, Mother!"

Atalante took the girl's hands and held them between her own. "It's quite alright. I'm just so happy you're okay."

"About that..." Kye said.

"You have bad news?" Atalante asked, her face quickly changing from happy to suspicious.

"Well, the-"

"I will handle this," Evelyn said. She was still dressed as Eve and was glowing with rainbow mana. She snapped her fingers and transported everyone to her white stone platform, floating amidst the stars. "Everyone present already knows about me, so we'll talk here." Eve snapped her fingers and created a table and several chairs in front of her throne. "Sit. Let's discuss this."

"There is an extra chair," Kye said. "You created six. Who is joining us?"

Eve held her hand up and pointed high into the starry sky. One star brightened and sped toward them. When it arrived, it appeared as a mass of light blue mana and slowly formed into a humanlike state until it perfectly matched the body Alethea was inhabiting.

"Oh, my," Alethea said.

"Huh?" the soul said. "Where am I? What is this?"

"Greetings, Miss Mila," Eve said. She held her hand toward the girl and rotated it slightly, as if turning something. The expression on the blue catgirl soul's face changed quickly a few times from confused to surprised to scared to understanding.

"I see, greetings, Lady Eve," she replied. "Thank you for summoning me. It is my pleasure."

"Sit, please."

She nodded and sat down next to Alethea. The Atlantis sisters were seated on one side of the table, in order from Eve of oldest to youngest. And Kye, Alethea, and Mila were seated on the other side in that order.

"So, we're doing this right away?" Kye asked.

Eve nodded. "First, an explanation of what happened." And she explained in detail what transpired from the moment Lana entered the Blue Cat territory to the present. "Maya's soul latched onto your body, unwilling to leave the Ten Realms. The only reason this was possible is because your soul had already left it."

"I see," Mila said. "So, I really am dead."

"But you shouldn't be. You are aware that the world you live... lived in is governed by a system. There have been an increasing number of bugs in the past few months. Your cause of death is mental trauma. However, the cause of that trauma is not natural. You, like billions more, suffer from anxiety."

"Yes."

"You experienced a severe anxiety attack... and died." Eve looked at Kye. "One bug in the system is affecting anxiety among other mental illnesses. It's multiplying the effect. A light attack would feel worse, a medium attack would feel closer to a severe attack, and a severe attack causes so much trauma that the soul's tolerance threshold is reached and death is triggered. Since the body did not die, however, it would merely appear they've fallen into a coma to any not able to sense a soul. In short, I will be intervening. I will examine every death caused by this bug and reverse all that were not meant to happen, or reincarnate them immediately if revival is not an option."